A Fox's Love - 1. The Void

Daniel Thethar stood in his flat, his grimoire open on his bed. It had taken him years to figure this spell out, and he still wasn’t sure he had it right. But the dragon would not wait any longer.

Ryan was out there somewhere, and he was going to find the fox if it killed him.

Time had foiled his attempts at finding his love, though he had met others along the way. The dragon’s hand dipped into his pocket, feeling the seed of a willow tree from 13th century Kyoto.

His lips smiled briefly at the thought of the one who gave it to him.

Then he focused again. Time may have stopped him. But space would not. He would scour the globe until he found the one he searched for. His heart felt hollow, and his gramyre pulled him, though to where he had no idea. It didn’t matter. This spell would take him to wherever he needed to go.

Clearing his throat and his mind, the dragon began chanting.

“Tieln ek reinel, eto ek reina. Tedar eim du mei areula.”

He waited, expecting something, anything, to happen. But he remained in his room.

With an angry sigh, the dragon tried again. Closing his eyes, he repeated his chant, pouring more energy into it.

A shadow appeared before his eyes, as though the light was stolen from the air around him. His eyes flew open, and he stared at a pitch black portal swirling in front of him.

Daniel gasped, unnerved by the dark energy around him. He felt his own energy draining rapidly, and knew he didn’t have long before the spell would consume him. He had no choice here. If he didn’t go, his fox would be lost forever.”

Taking a deep breath, the dragon stepped forward, allowing the void to swallow him.

He was falling through blackness. The dragon’s wings spread, but there was no air to catch them. And so his descent continued, the dragon praying to reach ground soon. If this was the end, he wanted it to end now.

Suddenly, he was standing on something solid. There was no collision, no sense of landing. Daniel was just… there.

But there was nowhere. Just silence, the kind of silence that made him question his own existence. Was this hell? Had he died? If only there was someone here for him to ask.

And suddenly, there was.

He felt the presence of another being, an ancient being. Looking around himself, he saw a cat, black as the night.

Daniel opened his mouth, but no sound escaped him. He should have found Ryan following that spell. Where was he?

Then he felt it. The fox’s presence in the distance.

The dragon ran. He ran faster than he had ever run before, chasing his love. He was close, Daniel could feel it. But as he neared the presence, it faded away.

He fell, sliding on the ground that wasn’t a ground. He was so close. The fox had been right here.

Maybe he would return. Maybe not. But this was the closest the dragon had been to finding him.

A kitsune’s voice echoed in his mind as he removed the seed from his pocket.

‘Take this seed. Plant it where you find your love, and never lose hope.’

Daniel had found his love, even if he hadn’t caught him. Kneeling, the dragon placed the seed on the ground, watching in amazement as it was swallowed by the darkness.

And then there was a sprout, tiny, delicate. And the dragon felt a change in the universe around him, as though everything had taken its first breath. A light appeared, blinding him after the dark, and the sprout grew before his very eyes as time seemed to speed by him. It became a sapling, then a young tree, and matured. Grass grew around it, and the ground shifted, rising into the air around him. Daniel looked upon the tree, and thought, maybe when he found Ryan, the two would have a child together. A life together.

And for the first time in ages, the dragon felt hope.