#foxventures

[asheewrites]

Foxwrites 23

In the afternoon, the raccoon came back. He moved... unexpectedly fast. And held it'S body perfectly still. It ran through the door and over the whole floor and ended up behind Mr. Ruthven, clinging to his leg. Matia followed about ten seconds later. The raccoon was already scrabbling at his 'saviours' upper arms, trying to hide. "Playing a little hard today, mh?," he held the shivering, scrambling raccoon securely out of Matia's grasp.

"But he ate ALL the cookies!," she said. And Mister Ruthven and I both looked her up and down... and... had to come to the conclusion that 'all' might be an overstatement, judging by the amount of crumbs all over her dress. She seemed rather agitated, though. And our guest looked over to me. I shrugged with a little eye-roll, I would let the lie slide. She had it hard enough, and dinner was some time ago, still. "And then didn't want to play anymore, mh?," he petted the raccoon anyway, tuged him away from his shoulder and placed him securely in his arms. The petting motion seemed to help,somewhat. the animal relaxed. Matia still looked unsure-unhappy-angry, which was an interesting mix, since her acting abilities - this time about the rightfulness of her anger - still needed to develop. "...yeah, but... the cookies and-," she really seemed to fight with herself, there. "Ah. Well. How about I play with you for a while, then?," he still petted  the raccoon. Matia stared, "... if your mom is okay with it, of course" And now they both looked at me. ... make that three, the raccoon looked as well. And I laughed and shook my head: "Sure. Sure you can. We're almost done, after all. A break can't be too bad" He smiled and held the raccoon up: "Will you take care of the culprit, then?" He looked terribly overeaten. And I could have sworn it looked like he tried to make big eyes at me. It threw me off a little, but... fine. Fine, I could deal with it. "He'll be in coon custody," I nodded at him, and said to Matia: "Be careful when playing outside" She nodded emphatically and ran off, saying she'll get things.

Our guest looked a bit worried, looking after her: "... oh boy" I laughed. He got that much right. "So... you will watch our glorious... I suppose... match?," some insecurity went well with the worry. I chuckled again: "No, I've got things to d-" "Oh, please. Do me the favour. I would feel bad if I was out there playing if the lady of the house is working..." I frowned, slightly, he just cut off the lady of the house. "... besides, I'm sure usually you would be playing with her. So you wouldn't get much things done anyway. That... was not true. Matia had learned to play on her own and there was enough paperwork to be done at all times. The raccoon made little pained noises. I sighed: "Well, fine, if you would feel bad," a break wouldn't be the end of the world. And so he carried the animal down, waited until I sat and then... placed a very round, noticably heavier animal in my lap. It actually burped. And curled into a ball of fluff. So I apparently had to resign to petting it. The next three hours, though... felt a bit like amateur theatre. Three hours, mind you! Matia came running, 'swords' in hands. The willow-branches made nice snapping-sounds, at least. She wanted to hand one to Mr. Ruthven when he grabbed her hand, yelling: "My lady! We must flee!" in the most theatrical fashion. Matia's eyes got big and she grabbed his hand, running to the next tree. And placing her on the first branch. "You got your weapon, your majesty?!," she showed him the branch and held it in her small little hand, tightly, "I will be back soon!" From some corner or pocket of his coat, he got a cape... with a hood. And he sneaked in the most obvious fashion to the lady in question. "I SEE YOU! EVILDOER!," the apparently fearless noblewoman screamed. And wriggled with her feet. The next thing that happened was a surprisingly suspenseful branch-fight, from which our guest retreated, apparently deeply wounded on his shoulder. Matia made her way down and bravely stalked after him. A capeless Mazin re-appeared from the bushes, covered in leaves, talking about a kidnapper trying to steal her away. They challenged him, much to the 'enemies' surprise (two roles at once were rather difficult, I guessed), and then went on to save people from evil, treetrunk-shaped tigers, treasures - apparently shiny bugs count as such - were discovered, new lands - a tiny 'island' in the middle of our pond, Mazin carried her on his shoulders there - visited. Everything was done with much bravado and Matia even 'got injured' as well, from time to time. Miraculous healings and recipes for bandages included. After the three hours, though, Matia actually was tired, when she brought the treasures home to the 'land of promised beasts', and I hugged her. She fell asleep in my arms. Mr. Ruthven took off his hood, huffing: "Our brave adventurer finally got conquered, I see," he looked a little worse for wear himself. "She certainly conquered the promised beast," since the raccoon made slightly uncomfortable, squished noises. And of course I petted my daughters hair now, not his. "She was a worthy adversary," he chuckled. And leaned against the wall. A truly, truly strange man.

[asheewrites]

Foxwrites 22

When I came into the library, there was a raccoon, sniffling through the books... and my daughter looking at some pictures. I walked over to make sure it was not some kind of anatomy-book. And was relieved to see that it was... 'only' an illustrated fairy tale book. Of course it was German and therefore no one should look too closely at it, but... well... it was better than correct guts. "Hey mommy! Coony brought me a book!," she pointed at it, "I like it!" Which was... one of the weirder things to hear from your daughter, but hey... at least the raccoon did not bring... horrifying things. 

I looked to the raccoon and how it... actually seemed to sort the books. Grabs them with his tiny raccoon-hands... drags them to the side... runs back (faster than I've ever seen the raccoon run before), looks at the next book and drags it off again. "You okay?," I raised my voice a little, to get his attention. He stopped dead in his tracks. His ears twitched. He started to clean his whiskers and face. And then rolled up on Matia's back. Apparently sleeping. I was... a little speechless. And stared. Then I asked Matia: "Does he... does he do that often?," my tone was almost as disbelieving as I guessed it should be. Matia turned and petted the rolled up fluff: "Sometimes, sure!" I frowned: "Uh... no I mean... does it... carry books around?" And my daughter looked up with those doe-eyes of hers and says: “Sometimes, sure," in an exasperated, kid-tone of voice that just wants to read her book that her raccoon picked especially for her. Apparently. That... was probably all I could do about that, wasn't it? With a frown... I settled down and looked at the book-stacks that had formed in the short two minutes that it had taken for me to come up. At least they didn't make much sense.

There was poetry and languages mixed up... and a biology book laid atop Nietzsche (again, that guy...) So... maybe the books smelled different. When I sniffed at them, they didn't smell different at all. But one book full of recipes laid there, all alone, so maybe there was something to the theory. I wouldn't know. I might have to keep more of an eye on the little bear. It's... just weird. Weird is alright. Right? ... what could I do about it, after all. I reached over and petted it's fur. It purred. And stretched a bit. Normal raccoon, flopping on it's side and down from Matia's back, wriggling it's legs in the air before it got back in a horizontal position (it took several tries). It earned some more pets with that action. Then it curled up against Matia and got auto-petted by her. That... that seemed to work just fine. It continued doing the raccoon-purr it did. Very well.

The books still needed sorting, so I applied myself to the task. Sooner or later, the dishes would be done and I would get company. And some help with this. Because there were enough doubles now already... and Mister Ruthven seems to have opened only two barrels in the early hours of the morning. He opened the third when he joined me, and really did get a slightly cold shoulder from Matia. Apparently, insulting bugs was a harder offence than expected. It's not like much happened, anyway. We sorted by genre and author, sometimes commenting on either of them in an annoyed or delighted fashion - there were more fairy tales than last time, I was glad for that, at the very least. At one point, Matia and a reluctant raccoon left to play outside and - by the sound of it - raid the cookie jar. It was all fine and well until Mr. Ruthven opened the fourth barrel and I stood up to get a generous helping and he... caught me when I stood up too fast. "Easy, lady Jibril, easy," he snuck behind me and held me around the waist, leaned back against him. The faint feeling went away. As it does. Almost immediately. I had just stumbled for a moment. When he didn't make any movement to release me again... I cleared my throat. When he still didn't move then, I sighed: "You... are aware it would be more effective to actually bring me back to the floor, yes?" "You want me to hold you on the floor?," and his tone was... was... not exactly innocent. "... you," there was no actually polite way to answer to that. Especially since I actually could have moved out of his arms by now, so I said: "No. No, I do not, but the fainting spell has worn off anyway. You can let go of me" "... can.... or should?," there was a nose in my hair. "Will," I frowned and removed the hands from my waist. And with a pout, he did let go. "As you wish," he said and went to go sort more books. The rest of sorting went without any kind of incident. It worried me a little that I wasn't that much against it. What a weird man.

[asheewrites]

Foxventures 21

There was a very distinct lack of vegetables in this pan. And there was some jerky being chewed on, already. I gave it a little disapproving frown: "... that's not how healthy food looks, mister Ruthven" Two big eyes moved from the frying eggs to me. He blinked once. And then bit off another piece of jerky, fox-like grin in place. After he swallowed, he said: "Good morning, miss Jibril" "Good morning to you, too," right. The meat-smell had been strong enough to let me forget my manners. For a moment.

I... really would like to have it more often. It's just so expensive. Maybe I could understand his gleeful meat-munching... at least a little bit. And hey, it looked like he made three batches of breakfast. And, whenever our resident raccoon was done - just done - and stopped running from Matia, he got a piece of broccoli. Or a proper pet. All friendly and considerate. It was nice, seeing it. Looked almost like it was normal. Matia really had taken a liking to both of these newcomers. I felt just the tiniest bit of compassion with the critter. My lovely daughter had a tendency to squeeze. And he looked rather distressed. Again, the food helped. Breakfast was a round of giggles and Matia talking us about the HUGE BUG she found this morning. It was SO HUGE, really, the whole room was dark! "Huuuuuge wings, had it?," Mazin put in. "Mhmmmmmh! All huge and grey and flappy!!!," she really was all excited. "Mhmmmmh, moths are pretty sweet!," he had a glint in his eyes. It was ridiculous. But I had to butt in: "Not *too* sweet, mind you... we don't want them in the house... they nom away on your clothes" "But they are so niiiice!," she looked put out. Please, moths are... something else really... I had already taken a breath to undo, when he said: "Yeah, they are nice to hunt! Big targets... very easy to learn," he nodded confidently. And with a horrified look, Matia went behind me, whining: "You can't do thaaaaaat!" "If they are inside... I can maybe contain myself, but our 'coon here? I don't think he'll behave." He shook his head sadly. The raccoon seemed to look offended, and made a tiny screech-y noise. Matia took it for agreement: "Mommy, mommy, we have to protect the moths!," she pulled on my dress. And I petted her head: "Ssssh, don't worry, we'll keep the moths safe and sound outside. You can watch them through the window!" She nodded as earnest as only a child could. It was adorable. But we were done. So I called the breakfast off: "Maybe one tries to get into the library, they do like paper! And we do have to look through the books" ... I had never seen this raccoon run so fast. There was a scuffling sound and then it basically shot up the stairs. I blinked after it. And Matia ran, yelling: "Waaait, you can't even open the doooooor!" And I giggled. "Alright, I'll clean up, you make sure no one eats the books? Matia will not like to see me in the next half hour," he snickered. He did... kind of sacrifice himself there, din't he? "Thank you", he nodded and waved, taking care of the dishes while I walked upstairs. It was strange how easily he fit in.

[asheewrites]

Foxventures  20

He seemed to be quite confident in holding my hand. Or at least he didn't exactly let go and said: "... then I should almost hope for one, mh?" There was a wink. An actual, honest to goodness wink. He really was flirting with me.

And, worse: I somewhat liked it. "If it helps to defeat your greatest fears, it might be a good thing. To bridge the waiting time until the storm starts, how about you tell me some about your home country?" Here I pulled back my hand, in favour of leaning my chin on it - still a little closer than before, space-wise. I hoped I followed the proper flirting-rules, there. It's been quite some time. "Oooh my home," he chuckled, "Like I said, it's been some time, and I was pretty small. So... not everything might be accurate anymore, do you still want to hear?" I shrugged: "I didn't ever travel this far. And it's part of your history, no? One day I might see for myself, until then... paint me a picture," let the other know you are interested, actually do react to the fishing, it's in the rules. "Ah. Well then," he scratched the back of his neck ad leaned a bit back, "Where do I start?" Apparently, he wanted to take this question serious. "The biggest difference is probably... the food. No one here eats rotten beans for breakfast," he looked like he was haunted. "... rotten... beans...?," this sounded... strange? "It's about as bad as you currently imagine," he shook he head, "Smells like it, too. It's Japan's cooked boar" "... what's wrong with cooked boar?," I said, very decidedly curious and innocent. He narrowed his eyes, slightly: "... ... ... you know... I almost believed that" "At least it's not *rotten*," we got cheese for that. But... I avoided that as well, "But that's not appealing at all, you don't recommend a visit?" "Not for good Christians I don't, no," he shook his head with a chuckle. "Oh? Why's that?," I was not going to subscribe to a 'God is Dead'-philosophy and I did go to church every Sunday, but... well... I might have had some thoughts. "Because they were mostly hunted when I was visiting last," he laughed. "...oh," that... was different. "I mean, you don't have to wear your religion on your sleeve, either. But it's difficult around here, so... it might not be an option," a slightly apologetic grin accompanied this. "... so... what do you- did you believe in?," because that was some time ago, right? "Spirits!" "What... like fae?," we had those. In the old times. "Aaaah, almost, yes, but more... nature spirits? Animal spirits. Mostly. Foxes get very old and powerful, raccoons - different from the ones living here - are up to mischief and are shapeshifters, crows watch over the afterlife, dragons are everywhere, tigers watch over the living... ad take sacrifices. And of course there are the ghosts of dead people. Just about everywhere. And the forest-spirits... oh, all the forest spirits," he chuckled again. "... it... seems crowded?," I frowned, we had enough to do with only one god. "They are easier to deal with than yours. They actually answer when asked. For better or worse, the funny thing is, that you can find some here, as well," here he looked worried. "... do you actually believe that?," because it was a little strange. Another smile-y shrug: "It's just something you don't get rid of. Like the pictures of swamped rice fields... or the many, many cherry trees that let their blossoms fall. Of course, once again attached to some spirits. They were very good stories, when I was small" "I suppose it's like the stories of Titania and Oberon?," that I could somehow, somewhat relate to. "Shakespeare did make those popular again, didn't he?," another laugh. We both looked over to the door at the same time. "Oh boy! My foreign spirit has arrived!," he said with theatrical flourish and stood up to walk over to the raccoon, picking it up. I smirked at him: "Didn't you say Japan had different raccoons?" "Ah, we ex-japanese can't be picky. Now I have to deal with those little rascals," he petted his fur, holding him secure and comfortable, "Can I borrow another cookie?" "Is that one of those 'offerings'?," I smiled, it wasn't serious enough to not joke about it. "Something along the lines. I mean... have you ever seen a raccoon actually eat cookies?" "Not often, no..." "See? It must be a spirit," he had found the cookie jar, "So, can I?" "Might also be we were always fast enough to take them away. But sure. Grab one," I shook my head.

“But he i well-behaved, isn’t he? You did apparently keep him for the whole month,” he slanted his head.

“Yeah, Matia likes him, it’s a good critter,” I said.

“Well, even better, then. I suppose he wanted to tell us it’s time to go to bed, though. Tomorrow is another day and all... work for you... travel for me,” he did not look happy. 

But... it was none of my business: “Well, then I bid you good night. It... has been a nice evening”

“Likewise, lady Jibril. We’ll see each other tomorrow,” and he disappeared with the raccoon in tow.

What a strange man. 

[asheewrites]

Foxventures  19

“He did bring another load of barrels. He doesn’t always do, though. I hope you know that?”, it was a fair warning. I was pretty sure he wasn’t aware of it, “So chances are you won’t find what you are looking for if you came next month as well”

He chuckled again, smirked and said: “But I definitely will find something I am looking for if I came back”

I leaned forward on the table: “And what, pray tell, might that be, mister Ruthven?”

“Ah, admittedly, it’s more a who than a what, so maybe I cheated there…”, at least he backpedalled a little bit.

“I see. I hope they are good company then”

“Oh, the best, I assure you”, he nodded happily.

“Just as smooth a talker as you are, then?”, I smiled sweetly.

“At least as much”, his eyes crinkled again, something between pleased and excited. Suited him. He also came closer, leaning on the other side of the table.

“Well, enlighten me, are they from the same place you are from?”, I said, still trying to figure out one thing or another about him.

“Oh, I wouldn’t think so, they don’t exactly look Japanese”, he scritched his nose.

He… didn’t look Japanese either. North African, maybe? I frowned a little and asked: ”So that’s where you are from? It’s a little hard to believe”

It earned me another embarrassed chuckle: “Well. Actually, I don’t know where my parents were from, originally. But I did grow up in Japan. Not that much of that upbringing stuck, either. One day we just… kind of shipped our way towards Britain, I was still pretty young then”

“Must have been quite a journey”, I nudged.

“Aaah… well… it was. A journey. A long one. Weather isn’t always stable on long journeys”, he ooked a little away, there.

“… so that’s where your fear of thunderstorms comes from?”

He winced a little: “I would say so. Almost drowned. Tickled in my toes, too… It’s not great, really”, but then turned fully towards me, showed a smile that only started to be genuine and grasped my hand: “I bet the company of a lovely lady would make everything a lot easier”

He looked uneasy, still. Bad memories, apparently. So, I shrugged, deciding to humour him: “Then we should be grateful thunderstorms are rare. But, I promise, if there is one while you are here, I’ll keep you company”, and, to top it off, clasped his upper hand in mine, looking at him intently.

That did seem to give him his confidence back, at least the spark in is eye was back.

[asheewrites]

Foxventures 18

Or trying to flirt. I mean… he did stumble over words and didn’t always make sense with his answers, the mountain dweller.

So I said: “Well, let’s stay with words for a while, though, shall we?”

“Oh! Well, you are the most beautiful woman I saw on the whole market, and radiate pride and happiness whenever you are around your daughter, which is all the more right and admirable for the awful way the townspeople treat you, and I’ve only seen it a little. You’re a very strong lady, which enjoy. It’s merely a shame the radiance disappears when your little gift of a daughter isn’t there”, and he nodded, having looked at me this whole time.

Apparently, living in the mountains reduced your ability to feel shame.

I was the slightest bit speechless.

“A blush also suits you very well, it compliments your eyes”, he tilted his head slightly, “At least I think so, it makes the grey shine”

Before he continued with this, I said: “Alright, I… heard you. I… should get to know you a little bit better, now that we have time and you’re actually sleeping in my house”

“Well, I do pay rent”, he pointed at me, “And it’s such a lovely place. With such lovely people inside”, he said, looking at me again.

Huh.

“Mhmh, well, still, for now I just know that you own dogs, like to read and live on a mountain”, I pointed back, because… he was getting ridiculous.

And then he laughed. Now I also knew that he looks like he was laughing a lot. And that his eyes were laughing with him. Since I paid attention. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

“Well, that is already a little more than most. I… also appreciate beauty and good company, if you must know. But I think I already confirmed that much”, he shrugged.

And I raised a brow, huffing: “That’s not what I-“

“Oh! I also don’t care much for thunderstorms, it’s a bit unsettling, so far away from people”, he piped up.

I looked at him until he was silent when I said: “What I did want to know is where all this money you throw around comes from. It’s unusual and for all I know you could be a highway robber”

“Oh?”, he grinned, “Do I look rogue-ishly handsome?”, he wriggled his brows, which…

“… maybe a little”, I admitted.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, beautiful”, and managed to look smug. At being called a highwayman.

A laugh bubbled up from my chest and I gave in, shaking my head: “Ahaha. I… you really have no shame, do you?”

He chuckled as well and lazily opened his eyes to look at me, attention all on me, and said: “Honesty is more important. And so… I might have to answer, don’t I? I inherited the house from the people that pretty much raised me the British way. They did mostly forgive me for turning out the way I did”, he winked again. And… yes, maybe he needed a bit of forgiveness, there.

He continued: “The money? Well, of course there was some attached to the house. And then some more came with my skills. It never hurt to barter and have friends, either. So, there’s that. The only robbery I ever did was theft of food. I would have been tempted by your cooking, certainly”

Mh. If you were rich already, you didn’t worry too much about money. Admittedly, I was the same, in some ways. I certainly worried less than most people: “So you just throw a month’s pay around because you got it?”

He shrugged: “I don’t get much opportunity for spending it. And I got a discount from Alexander this time around. Plus the information that a few bachelorettes are looking in the city. It’s information, not that I was interested in any news on that front”, and he looked at me again.

One could say he made his intentions clear…

[asheewrites]

Foxventures 17

Mister Ruthven was… something, alright.

After I had washed the dishes, he said: “Will you do me a favour?”

And, as he still paid five pounds for staying the night, I replied, whle draining the water from the sink: “I suppose?”

“Good, then sit down and rest, you deserve the rest”, and smiled at me, a little lop-sided.

There was not much else I could do except… following his request, with a token protest: “This is… highly unusual”

“As is a raccoon that brings your daughter to bed. Now put your legs up, please, it’s been a long day”, he shook his head and gestured at the chair.

Naturally, he put away everything that was taken out of the shelves before back where it belonged. He got the dishes in the right places, folded the table cloth properly, cleaned up on the table…

And all the while talked about the ornaments on the plates or where he had seen this style of shelf, cutlery or anything.

“Do you… ever shut up”, I had to say, at one point, grinning at him.

“Aaah, I do apologise. I don’t get to talk much, usually”, he looked a little bashful, if not by much.

“So, you really do live all alone on top of a mountain? Only the dogs to talk to?”, interrogating him was the goal, after all.

He dusted the shelfs now and said: “It’s quite scenic, really. Not a soul for miles upon miles, but yes, it does contribute to constant blabbering”

“And an endless amount of themes to blabber on about?”

He turned towards me, leaning against the counter: “Ah… well… I do have an extensive library, but most books are designed to wax poetry over one such as yourself”, he bowed a little bit, then shrugged, “I sometimes like to enjoy without words, though”, and looked directly at me.

…

Was… was this man seriously flirting with me?

[asheewrites]

Foxventures 16

 It was ridiculous.

No matter how I told him how little I thought of his choice in books, his smile simply continued growing – slowly – and he nodded.

“Valid points, lady Jibril”, he would say.

“Really? Because you said this philosopher had good points, that he was worth reading and you like reading him!”, I frowned

“Told you to keep an open mind, too, didn’t I?”, he looked almost apologetic.

“You did”, I frowned, “And I got confronted with ‘sickness is a weakness that only befalls the weak. This weakness needs to be overcome’, and good lord, a superhuman? Just… what did you make me read?!”

He did not seem phased much by this, relaxed as he was when he said: “It really is notfor everyone, then”

“Especially not for women. ‘Husbands always need a concubine, a woman can’t handle work and sex, they aren’t built for this!’, what was this person even thinking?!”

He made a bit of a face: “Really? He got this obvious this time around?”, he made a hurt noise, “May I invite you properly to lunch, then? To make up for it?”, he tilted his head.

And I let a puff of air out: “I already came, didn’t I?”

“Truuue, but you did not actually agree to me paying for your meal and… it’s the least I can do, isn’t it?”, he looked properly apologetic.

“It is”, I had wasted time on this!

“A done deal, it is”, he nodded, “And I vow to recommend better books in the future”

“Mh”, I raised a brow.

His slow smile was back: “You will look out for asshole writers a little more now, won’t you?”

“I found one first try, did I not?”, seriously.

“Touché”, he chuckled again.

And then continued to eat his goulash.

He was such a strange man. And had bought the complete set of barrels of books again. I thought about how Matia actually had talked with him. And seemed quite happy.

“… I suppose you could still come and sort out the books at my place again”, I huffed, blowing over my own portion.

He lit up, his grin turning into a lot less sleazy, actually sitting up properly: “That is a very generous offer, thank you very much!”

For the rest of the day, he was my Carrier of Groceries.

And bought absolutely everything that he was remotely interested in.

Even honey.

And cinnamon.

Asked questions the whole time.

When he got his hands on rice he bought ten kilograms.

I didn’t even really know what to do with all these grains!

But fine, fine.

In the end, we were done and drove home.

Matia had a raccoon on her lap and read for him. She had really improved in the last four weeks.

This time, I could show Mr. Ruthven around myself. He was impressed by the pigeons, petted a chicken – and got pecked for his efforts.

He just laughed it off, scratching the back of his head.

Dinner was spend with a begging raccoon – who brought Matia to bed on his own and curled up next to her.

Mazin just shook his head: “I didn’t expect the critter to actually stay”

“Well, you did wash it”, I said while washing some dishes myself.

He grabbed a towel and started drying them: “That I did…”

And now, Matia and critter were gone. And we weren’t too tired (even if the carriage ride was still used for a nap). I supposed some questioning of my guest was in order.