Kitsune and Cat
Long ago, before the banquet of the animal years even started, a fox pup was left on its own to fend against the wilderness surrounding it. The pup never wanted to be left abandoned, it was all because of the color of its' coat that its mother left it when it was a few months old: its' coat was a silvery gray, rare in the red-coated foxes or the uncommon brown-coated foxes. And all the gray-colored foxes were a sign of bad luck so the mother nurtured it with no love until it was old enough and left it where it was bared.
A month later, a cat walked through the forest to find a meal before finding the pup all alone. The pup noticed the cat and looked at it in hope which turned to sorrow as the cat turned around and left only to return moments later with two voles in its' mouth before dropping one in front of the pup. The two ate in silence before the cat went into the nest where the pup laid and promptly fell asleep with its new friend.
Over the year, the pup grew until it became an adolescent fox which caused the cat to become more and more worried that it would turn on its former caretaker everyday. That day never came even though there were lots of times it could, the cat never spoke one word to the fox about its' fear. But then one day, a wolf appeared and cornered the cat against a tree stump.
The wolf looked at its' prey, which was frozen in fear, and lunged…. Only to hit an invisible field that blocked it from reaching the cat. Nearby, blue eyes glowed and slinking out of the shadows to stand between the animals was the fox with now nine tails instead of the single tail the cat was used to seeing it with. The fox growled at the wolf to leave immediately, but the wolf stood its ground and asked why the fox doesn't eat the cat, and the answer it received made it angrier.
The fox said that it would never eat its friend.
The wolf lunged again but this time the fox headbutted it and the wolf flew a mile away. The cat, still tensed, looked at the fox, no kitsune, in fear but the kitsune dropped a mouse at its paws before eating the other one which made the cat's fear go awat instantly as it realized what the kitsune said was true. It would never eat its friend.
The two remained close and never left each other's side until the day it came. The day of the banquet's announcement came. Both cat and kitsune were in a field when a messenger god arrived and told the duo of the banquet of twelve animals. The kitsune was curious about this 'banquet', but the cat reassured it that nothing bad would happen. They met with the other animals that were told about the banquet and knew that no matter what happened, as long as they were together they were okay.
Or so they thought.
Unknown to them, a rat was planning of how it would be one of the twelve animals before it noticed the cat and kitsune, that's when an idea struck. The rat tailed the two, and waited unitl one was alone to continue its' plan and nearly missed the cat leaving to get food while the kitsune sat next to a tree stump. The rat climbed the stump and woke up the kitsune before telling it that the banquet was the day after tomorrow.
The kitsune just stared at it before flicking it off the stump with one of its tails. The rat then walked away in shame since its' plan didn't work. It has to work! The rat thought as it walked through the forest. There can only be twelve animals, not fourteen. Then it got a new idea. If the suggestion didn't work on the kitsune, then maybe it would work on the cat!
It ran through the forest as far as its legs could take it to search for the cat. It was nearing mid-afternoon as the rat continued running to find the cat, but there was no cat in sight inside or outside the forest. It decided to give up and rest before a flash of orange caught its eye and it moved closer to see what the flash was.
It was the cat!
The rat saw that it was in the middle of hunting a mouse and waited until it was done hunting to redo its' plan. The cat started to leave with its' prey but was stopped suddenly by the rat standing in its path. The rat repeated what it said to the kitsune earlier to the cat and came up with lies for every question the cat had and said enough to convince the cat of the banquet being the day after tomorrow.
On the day of the banquet, the kitsune asked the cat if it was coming to the banquet and the answer it received shocked it to the bone: the cat said that the banquet was on the next day. The kitsune looked at its feline friend in worry until it remembered what happened the day earlier and growled before leaving the cat to find the liar.
That rat!
By the time it found the rat, the banquet was over. The kitsune placed its paw on the rat's tail to keep it from leaving and demanded that it apologized to the cat, but the rat did something the kitsune never imagined: it tugged its' tail free and fled. The kitsune jumped before running after the rat while still yelling at it to apologize. Then the next day came and the cat woke up to find out that it missed the banquet, and that the kitsune was nowhere to be found.
The cat vowed that it would make the rat's life miserable while it was unaware of its vulpine friend doing the same thing. From then on whenever the cat sees the rat, it will try to kill it and whenever the kitsune sees the rat, it will chase it and demands that it apologizes for tricking its friend.