Since this would have been too long for a single chapter, I decided to split it in three. A rather short prologue, the long "action" and a very short epilogue. Technically speaking you can skip the prologue without missing the action, though that way Vel'Koz's presence would seem completely at random.

In-depth Study of the Raven's Responses to Stimuli - of the Fox's too - Prologue

It was a rather warm day, at least in comparison to the average temperatures of autumn, Which means it was cold but not that much cold. Outside a somewhat large house in the middle of the forest was sitting a fox at least two and a half times the size of an ordinary one, if not even bigger, with a disproportionately large tail, looking at the leaves falling from the trees. Its fur was mostly white, though it was closer to grey near the base of the tail, with a few weak shades of dark blue on the ears and on the head. Close by was a certain marai, sitting on a small wave while eating a raw fish. After a while, another fox came by. A much smaller, two-tailed red fox. It got closer to the larger one and seemed to bow down a bit. What followed was most likely a short conversation between the two, after which the smaller fox took a few steps back, looked at the fish woman for a few moments then went back to wherever it had came from. The white fox turned and walked to the door of the house, pushing it open and walking in, her tail now split into nine. The marai followed her, though she seemed a bit bored. Maybe annoyed.

During autumn and winter Ahri usually remained in her animal form when she had to be outdoor, unless she had something to do which she couldn't with the body of a fox. She found fur to be much more comfortable than clothes to keep herself warm during those seasons. Which is also why she actually had a very small amout of heavy clothes. She wondered how many of her acquaintances knew she could shapeshift like that. Probably only Thresh and Nami. Maybe Annie as well. And that young fox too, of course. That said, there was something she wanted to do which required her other form. And so she went to one of her wardrobes to pick something to wear as she turned back to her human form.

"So, why did you call me?" Nami asked as she finished to eat the fish.

"Oh, nothing special. Nagi just wanted to see you" she replied. It was actually a lie, the truth was that Thresh had something to ask her. Ahri just felt like fooling around a bit with her.

"The red fox?"

"Yes, him"

Apparently Nami lost interest in the conversation, since she walked -swam?- away. She has been rather... distant ever since she came back from the ocean, and Ahri still had to hear why, though she did have a vague idea of what the reason might be.

"Is Hastur Annie here?"

She nearly jumped, taken completely aback as she turned around. In the middle of the room was a floating, purple circle, and on the other side of it was a certain researcher. Or scientist. Or... whatever he was, Ahri wasn't sure. The room was too small for him, which is why he didn't come out of the portal but simply spoke from the other side.

"Vel'?"

"I've been told that Hastur Gregori and Hastur Amoline's offspring is here"

"Nice to see you too. Why are you looking for Annie anyway?"

"Her parents and I are in need of her presence"

"What do you have to do with her parents?"

"We partake in the same researches fairly often, as some of our fields of study overlap. Further explanations are likely to be pointless, as I doubt you have the knowledge or inteligence necessary to understand the nature of our experimentations" he said.

"... alright..." Ahri replied as her eyebrow twitched.

That was... actually sort of reassuring. She had no idea what Annie's parents did, but the fact that Vel'Koz was involved meant it probably wasn't something so incredibly absurd. ... maybe. She still wanted nothing to do with those two though, not directly at least. As for what he had said...

"Annie should be in the backyard"

"Thank you for the information" he replied as the gate closed immediatly.

Ahri grabbed something to wear, got dressed and walked out. The backyard was enclosed by trees, mostly bare ones, and... nothing else, actually. It was quite empty. Aside from the ones standing in the middle of it. Thresh. Annie. Orianna. Tibbers in his unstuffed form. Thulhu, Annie's personal voidling. And a corpse, both burned and currently ablaze, hanging from a chain attached to the Ball. How exactly, it was pretty much impossible to tell since the Ball was mostly closed and the chain, which clearly belonged to Thresh, came out from inside it. Maybe it had simply been attached to something inside of it, maybe the Ball itself was somehow holding it. As for what they were doing, Thresh did say something along the lines of teaching Annie how to burn people without killing them right off the bat. The Ball wasn't really happy to be used that way, but Orianna was interested in the lesson as well so it complied. When the poor guy Thresh had picked for the lesson died, however, he saw no reason to not let Annie set it completely on fire.

And then there was Vel'Koz, floating in front of them.

"Mom and dad want to see me?" the child asked.

"Accurate enough"

"Sure!" she replied as she got on top of Thulhu and grabbed Tibbers as the bear turned back into a stuffed toy. The voidling had grown even larger, a bit more and it would have been big enough to carry even an adult on its back.

The child waved her hands at everyone before ordering her rather peculiar mount to walk inside the gate Vel'Koz had came from. It had to jump a good meter and a half to do so though. Ahri, who had just walked up to them, spoke to Thresh as he took his chain back from the Ball.

"How did it go?"

"The child sure has talent. Though we both knew that already"

"Our young pyromaniac is growing up nicely I guess"

Vel'Koz's eyes had been staring at Orianna for the last minute, and while the robotic girl was too busy looking at the burning corpse to notice, Thresh and the Ball weren't.

"Fascinating, an artificial reproduction of a carbon based life form. No organic fibers seem to be present in the whole structure. I wonder what mechanism acts as a substitute for the brain"

Only then Orianna turned to the voidborn. She had no idea how an human was supposed to react to his presence probably, and ended up remaining motionless, with nothing but a ticking sound coming from her. Vel'Koz moved one of his appendages towards her, but both Thresh and the Ball moved between the two of them.

"Do not lay an hand of her, Vel'Koz"

"I assume the floating ball is a sort of automated defense system. Its perception of danger appear to be in need of improvements however. Though I find your concern odd, undead"

"Do not dare to touch her. Simple as that"

"I wonder if the use of a female pronoun is dictated merely by the external appearance"

"I aM OrIAnNa" she said "ANd thAT Is tHE BaLl" By the way she looked at her own hand, Thresh could tell she was wondering wethever she was supposed to offer an handshake to Vel'Koz or not.

"Most intriguing"

Then Annie's voice came from the other side of the still open gate.

"Vel! Dad says he wants to talk with you!"

"It appears that my presence is requested elsewhere" he spoke as he turned around.

"Wait a second, Vel'Koz!" Ahri said, and the voidborn moved his gaze on her "There is a favor I'd like to ask you"

Nagi, the young red fox, had found out where Xayah was after all, no way she'd let that information go to waste.

"I am listening" he replied.

Meanwhile, Thresh walked inside, while Orianna and the Ball remained there looking at Vel'Koz. As he listened to the fox, one of the voidborn's smaller eyes turned to the house. Why, I'm not sure.

Prologue over, on to the main part.