Chapter 8:Possibly not romance…

(From the perspective of the Mightyena?????)

Everything is going according to plan. It was easy to outsmart that ninetales and soon I'll be able to return to my pack. The human was giggling a bit, for what reason I cannot be sure, as my kind never laugh. It is hard to figure out any meaning of what she does at all, but maybe it's wrong to take away her only friend… no, I have to keep my mind on my task.

"So now you must decide which is more important," I growled, as I put more of my weight on the paw holding the female human to the ground causing her to go quiet, "your life or your human's. Submit yourself to death by me and I'll let her go unharmed as I have no quarrel with her."

"Why don't we settle this peacefully?" her voice was much softer than it was earlier, merely sitting on the spot, all nine of her tails wagging furiously, "just lift your paw off her and everything will be fine."

Something about her seemed different; she seemed quite… likable, for a lack of a better word. The whole world seemed to fade away, there was nothing but her, and I could just sit stare at her all day…

…No, I could let myself be manipulated with whatever trick she was using, I was not weak enough to fall for such temptation, no mightyena is that weak. I managed to push my paw back down on the human before she got free. I could feel the force of whatever it was she was using trying to tear away my strength of will but I was strong enough to resist.

"Incredible, you have a very strong will to resist my attract technique," her tails only pausing for a moment; she must have already thought of another way to deal with me. No, it's not possible that she could think that fast, it must be some sort of bluff, "even if I was holding back it's full power as it wouldn't be worth it, because acting like I'm really interested in you in anyway is something I couldn't live with. Still the enhanced pheromones should have been much harder to resist. Too bad, even with such a strong mind, you'll eventually fall in love with me anyway as your loyalty to your pack slowly fades…"

"Hey! There is no way I could ever love you," I barked, maybe killing the human would teach the insolent ninetales not to insult me. But then what would stop her getting away? "even with your… um… silky fur? Wondrous tails? Appealing scent? Beautiful eyes? Really I'm having trouble see what could possibly make me love you. You're nothing compared to most female mightyenas. Oh."

By then it was to late, she had a short run up before her leap and knocked me off the human, and at the same time pinned me to the ground. Her attracting technique may not have been able to break my will, but she had gotten me distracted too easily by drawing my attention to her every detail. I was just lucky none of my pack were here to see how I was an embarrassment, not only to my pack, but also to my whole species.

I tried my best to struggle free, but it was hopeless and I could feel her hot breath on my fur. The smell of steam was in the air but it seemed to be fading, being replaced by a faint smell of fire.

The human made some vocal sounds, she sounded both glad and annoyed at or about the ninetales. I could hear the rustling as she pulled herself across the ground. Yes, the ninetales certainly must have landed over her stopping her from getting up easily, thus she must be saying that the ninetales should try to avoid getting so close to landing on her next time.

The hot breath was now on my shoulder. Suddenly there was a sharp pain as teeth tore into my flesh and pulled at my shoulder, probably trying to rip my front entire leg off. I had to escape, but struggling was getting me nowhere.

The human's made some more meaningless sounds, the sounds were loud and seemed displeased with the ninetale's actions.

"Look, Lilac, he accused me of being less attractive than the worthless mutts of his kind!" the ninetales growled at the human, letting go of my shoulder, "the only way I can't make his life any worse is to rip a leg off. He's already got an impossible task that he's convinced he must do, and if he does succeed he'll end up returning to a pack that bullies him so much that he's probably already forgotten his name because he's always called by insults. I could rip all his legs off if you want me to be merciful as he'd die quicker that way without his pack annoying him, except the possiblility of eating the remains."

"Of course I remember my name, it's…" I started, but couldn't manage to finish. How could I have forgeten my own name? Could she be right about me never being anything more than the lowest member of my pack? "Okay, so I don't remember it, maybe returning to my pack isn't such a good idea, but there's no where else for me to go. If I try to join another pack it'd just be the same…"

The human… spoke; it is possible that humans actually had a language so it is a correct word to use. It sounded like I had gotten her sympathy but it wasn't like it'd change anything. A temporary distraction was probably the best that could be arranged.

"Well I guess we can let him live…" the ninetales sighed; her tails drooped a tiny bit. How could she just submit so easily when she was clearly dominant over the human? "I guess we'll have to name him since he'll hang around till we can get rid of him, which we'll do as soon as possible. I'm sure we'll run into some trainer who'll want him soon enough."

More speech from the human, but a sudden jolt of pain as I rolled to my feet stopped me from picking up the emotion behind it. Luckily the pain quickly faded, but it still left me with a limp.

"What do you mean being last is sometimes a good thing?" the nineta… no, I had to start thinking of her as Kitsune if I wanted to be able to gain her trust enough to get a chance to kill her, "well I guess Omega can come with us if you do make sure I get what you promised me, I want to watch him go through a thorough medical examination and you make sure to arrange that method to make sure he isn't a threat while we sleep."

The human approached me, reaching one of her odd front paws towards my head… It was hard not to bite it, but I had to resist the urge, as I needed to make a good impression. She rubbed my head as she spoke, sounding happy, questioning and… surprised?

She turned and started heading off, gesturing with one of her front paws. I couldn't quite place the meaning but I limped after her anyway.

"I hope we don't get into another fight, it'll take days for me to be able to walk properly again, but thanks for accepting me."

The human, Lilac I think her name was, started to move further ahead of us, I could smell that she was a little uncomfortable. I could smell little fear coming from her, in fact she seemed quite comfortable with me and Kitsune behind her even though it'd be easy for us to attack and kill her. She trusted me like I was now a member of her pack though she seemed to act nicer as well.

A small grove of trees caught my eyes, mainly because they also caught Lilac's eyes as well while she approached them. Was it possible that she was sensing something about that grove with a sense I didn't possess? She glanced into them as she pasted, and she fell backwards as she screamed in shock.

The Kitsune ran quickly to aid her, such caring that I even had little of when with my pack, turning to what ever had startled her.

"Well, looks like that evil lady was serious… I wonder if it's dead."

The human made more sounds as she rushed towards whatever had frightened her, the meaning of her words was mysterious to… no, it sounded like she was trying to entice the Kitsune to be merciful or helpful. I was getting used to picking up what she meant but letting the Kitsune know might be giving away an advantage. The human would make a better prize from killing the Kitsune than returning to my pack, if I could understand her enough to dominate over her.

I caught up and looked. I couldn't stop myself from speaking even though I knew it was the wrong thing to do. "This sort of thing never happens in a pack, everyone in a pack is too valuable for this to happen. Good thing it's dead and isn't suffering… it is dead, right?"