Tales of the Pearly City (Pearly Tales Vol.1) [Completed]

8. The Fox and the Prisoner

Elven prisons weren't nearly all that bad: three meals a day, a comfy bed to sleep in, reading material when requested, a small window for fresh air, and a date for her death. Naomi couldn't blame them. After all the trouble she'd caused them over the last seventy years, they have finally decided that her heresy is beyond redemption.

"Well it serves them right, they treat him like he's a God, but at the end of the day he abandoned us just like everyone else. I'll never respect him!" She pounded her fist into the wall.

"Maybe I missed the thought bubble, who won't you respect?"

"Wah!" Naomi spun around and saw that weird elf from before sipping tea on the other side of the bars to her cell. "It's you again! What do you want? Haven't you cause me enough trouble..." she looked him up and down. "I see you aren't dead enough to leave me alone, unless you're a ghost."

"Nope, I just have the worst luck as it stands. But you haven't answered any of my questions since the moment we met. Are you really that unsociable?" Calloway noisily sipped his tea, the echo was loud enough to make Naomi cringe. "With parents like Pete and Wendy I thought they would have raised you and your sister better."

"H-how do you know my parents?"

Calloway sighed.

"You know if you're not going to answer any of my questions I'm going to get bored really fast."

She made an indignant noise, "where do you get off?"

Something caught Calloway's eye.

"Oh, it's you!" he offered his cup of tea to something down the hall, out of sight. "Do you want some, Its victa berry." He sang song and set it on the ground.

A purplish silver fox came as if out of thin air and sniffed at the cup.

"That's- that's-" Naomi stammered as she counted the tails on the fox, four no five tails. Tailed foxes were incredibly power beasts found in the city. The ones with one tail were common enough, two tails were rare, and three tails were almost never seen. The rumored Nine tailed fox lived in the castle governing them as they watched over the city. She kept all the more powerful ones to herself but after seeing this five tailed one appear out of thin air, maybe the higher ranked foxes were just that much more powerful so they could walk through a city of magic unseen.

"Calico, is that you!" Calloway picked up the holy fox like it was some kind of stray and stared it in the eye.

The impertinence!

"Calico, it is you! You finally got your fifth tail! Oh I'm so proud of you!" The fox bark in an affirmative manner and then Brother Calloway cuddled it like it was his lost cat.

"This guy-"

"Oh Calico you're so soft!" He giggled like a school boy, "and your tails are tickling my nose."

What in the world was Naomi even watching right now?

He stopped suddenly and held the foxes gaze at arms length again. "Does she know I'm here?"

The fox barked.

He tilted his head as if he was in pain. "of course she does. Does she know who I am?"

The foxes left ear tilted to the side.

"ooo I see, this could get interesting. What does she know about me?"

Calico's ears tilted downward.

Calloway nodded his head as if he were listening very carefully to a child's fairytale.

"You don't say? So what has she been up to lately?"

Calico's ears tilted backwards against its head and turned away from Calloway slightly.

Calloway burst out laughing, "those two never change do they! Why don't we pay her a visit?"

Turning back to Calloway the fox's eyes shifted forward than back then straight up.

"Ya let's do it, I have a few things to discuss with her myself."

The fox barked.

"No, don't worry I know the way." Calloway finished the last of the tea. He held the fox in his arms and stood up to leave.

"Wait, what about me?" Naomi came to her senses as she realized that the mysterious stranger was about to leave.

"What about you? Calicao at least has the manners and talent to hold an interesting conversation."

"But it didn't even say anything!" She pressed herself against the bars desperately.

"Shows what you know. And for your information Calico is a she, don't call her an it."

"So you're just going to leave me here?"

"Well ya, duh. You got caught didn't you?"

"That was you're fault!"

"I'm pretty sure, you also stabbed me, what obligation do I have to you after something like that?"

She looked sheepish and was too ashamed to comment.

"Besides, if I leave you here it will be easier to find you later."

"Wait, WAIT!!!"