Fox 17

It had been a few days since we were supposed to speak and it seemed to be impossible to find any time alone. It was if everything in this world was against us having a few minutes of alone time. Even when we were supposed to have time alone in our own room we managed to be too busy with school work to start this much needed conversation.

Finally we were going to have some free time tonight. After we finished eating our dinner we were heading up to our room and locking ourselves in for the weekend until we had everything figured out.

"Tae are you done yet?" Levi whined impatiently. His head was leaning on the table, his bright red hair messily covering a small portion of his face and his entrancing gold eyes staring back us.

"Just because you scarf down your food like an animal doesn't mean everyone else has to too." Alistair laughed.

"It's fine." I laughed as I pushed my tray away from me just a bit. "I'm done now. We can go."

"Finally!" Levi shouted, earning a few stares our way. He bounced out of his seat grabbing all of our trays and tossing out all the trash as Alistair and I slowly got out of our seats just to torture our friend.

He always had an immense amount of energy and I wasn't sure where he got it from. The tall red head stood at the doors waiting for us, tapping his foot impatiently. His hands were crossed in front of his chest as he narrowed his eyes at us as we picked up our bags from off the floor.

"Seriously? You're doing this on purpose!" He growled, teeth bared and eyes narrowed.

"Of course we are. Levi you need to slow down sometimes." I laughed trying to disguise the soft squeak that escaped my lips seconds before thanks to that man's actions..

"No. You two need to speed up." He whined now back to his childish self.

"Calm down Levi, you're making a scene." Alistair chided him as we finally walked up to him at a normal pace. Although it was true that he was making a scene most of the students were used to it by now. Hardly anyone ever paid attention when they saw Levi doing something ridiculous anymore.

"Where are you three headed in such a hurry?" A voice questioned from behind us.

Spinning around we came face to face with Mr. Corin, Tommy and Jason. As usual Tommy had a cigarette hanging between his lips and had one arm draped around Jason who seemed to be trying to get away from him. Mr. Corin ignored both of them as he focused his attention on us.

"We're just headed back to our room Sir. It's been a busy day for us and we're going to turn in early." Levi replied for us.

"What's wrong little fox? Can't hang with the big dogs?" Tommy taunted him as he pulled the cigarette out of his mouth.

The two of them have gotten so much closer since they first met that it was insane. At this point I'm sure they're best friends, even if neither of them wanted to admit it. Whenever they see each other they banter and then they joke and somehow end up shifted and play fighting.

"Listen old man I can run circles around the big the dogs and still have enough left in me to whoop you in a fight." Levi chuckled not at all intimated by him.

"Big talk from such a small fox. Want to prove it?" Tommy snorted before lifting his hand and taking a long drag from his cigarette.

"Can you not do this right now?" Jason sighed waving his hand in front of his face, trying to clear the spoke that Tommy just blew out.

"He started it." Tommy shouted pointing at Levi.

"No I didn't, he star-" Levi shouted back.

"Now, now children. Settle down." Mr. Corin interrupted, snapping his finger causing Tommy's cigarette to disappear.

"Children? That pup over there is a child but I'm a grown man Oliver." Tommy grunted as he  shoved his hands into his pockets. Mr. Corin turned to the side just enough so that he was able to see Tommy and Tommy was able to see his face.

"Trust me, I know." Mr. Corin smirked and winked causing Tommy, for the first time since I met him, to blush. "You three can head back to your room if you please. Just remember that tomorrow morning you have a training session with Jason and Tommy again. This one I will be sitting in on to see how far you three have come."

With that we all said our good nights and headed in our own separate ways. As we walked the halls silently back to our room my heart was in my stomach, worried about what it was that Alistair had to tell us. What could have been so bad that he would hide the secret from us for this long?

It felt like forever before we were back to our room. Levi opened the door for us and we walked in, one after the other. Once inside it was almost as if we had no idea what was to happen next. We stopped right in the living room and simply stood there just waiting for something to happen.

"So..." Levi began.

"Where do we begin?" I questioned.

"We start with Alistair telling us whatever he needs to tell us. Merula said that you knew something about whether or not Helion was still alive. What do you know about that?" Levi questioned.

"Well if we're going to get into this we should probably move to somewhere more comfortable. Should we go to my room?" I questioned.

"Yeah, let's head to our room." Levi corrected me and walked off before I could say anything to correct his correction. Allistair simply giggled before following behind him leaving me to trail them both.

Once in the room we stripped of our school clothes and changed into more comfortable attire before climbing onto the bed. Levi and I sat at the top of the bed with our legs crossed as we stared at Alistair who sat at the bottom of the bed looking back at us.

"Hmm...Let me start from the beginning. When I was young, maybe five years old or so I would have terrible nightmares. Every night it was practically the same dream. Every night the same man that I didn't know would die a horrific death and there was nothing that I could do to stop them.

My parents were human and assumed that they were normal nightmares until they began to happen more and more. Being so little I told them every time they happened in hopes that they could stop it. They simply took me to see a shrink. Dr. Everly was a child psychiatrist who was supposed to be the best in her field.

We would meet once every week and after two months of meeting with her she told my parents that my nightmares must have stemmed from something I head seen. My parents were adamant that that wasn't the case but nonetheless they monitored me carefully and made sure that I wasn't being exposed to anything harmful.

Til this day they believed that it was some terrible movie that I had seen on accident somewhere. However, after those four months the nightmares seemed to happen less frequently so everyone assumed that the prognosis was correct and that the nightmares would eventually just stop.

And they did.

Seven months after I started seeing Dr. Everly and right before my birthday the nightmares had stopped happening completely. I was a happy boy again and my parents couldn't have been happier to have their sweet little boy back."

Alistair paused his story and quickly whispered a few words before a glass with cold water appeared in his hand. He took a sip before making it disappear again. It was obvious that he was nervous about telling us this story. We were probably the first people to ever hear it.

"The day of my sixth birthday I was super happy. All my friends would be coming over and my parents had planned a huge party in our backyard. We were going to have a bouncy castle and pony rides and a clown that did magic tricks. I remember waking up early that morning and rushing to find my parents, who were both still asleep.

I climbed onto their bed and bounced until they woke up. They weren't too happy about it but let it pass because it was my birthday. My mom smiled and simply climbed out of the bed, lifted me up off the bed and set me on the floor before leading me from the room. She made my favorite breakfast and to me it was the best day already.

All my friends came over with their parents and the day was going amazingly. I was having so much fun. That was until I was hit with the headaches to end all headaches. It was as if my head was splitting in two. Faintly, I can remember that pain and I would never want to experience something like that again."

"What happened?" Levi questioned impatiently causing us both to look up at him. His elbows were resting on the bed in front of him and his face in the palms of his hands as he laid out on the bed.

"Don't interrupt him." I chided the grown man-child.

"They rushed me to the emergency room when they realized that it wasn't a normal headache. The doctors said that they hadn't seen anything like it ever before. They gave me some medicine that was supposed to lessen the pain, or something like that and they kept me overnight for observations.

It lessened it just a bit but it was enough for me to gain some time of consciousness about what was happening around me. There was a faint still voice that would whisper ever so often in the darkness of my room but I could never really hear it. It was as if it was just out of reach no matter how hard I struggled to listen.

By time morning had come I was tired and scared. My parents came back and the doctors explained everything including me hearing the voice. Needless to say that for the next couple of years I was seeing Dr. Everly more than once a week. The voice never went away instead it became more and more clear until I could hear every single word without fail.

It was a deep, almost calming voice. At the age of eight I told my parents and Dr. Everly that I had stopped hearing the voice. They didn't completely believe me but there was no way to know if I was lying or not."

"What did the voice say? Was it Helion?" Levi questioned excitedly.

"He certainly introduced himself as Helion." Alistair admitted.

"Wait...What?" I questioned, a little shocked. "Helion was the voice in your head?"

"He is."

"Is?" I questioned again.

"Yes, is. I still hear him every so often, although it's not as much as when I was younger. He would speak to me a lot back then. Apparently he was able to do it because there is a spell that only dark magic users can use. It requires them to sacrifice their magic to the spell in order for it to work and also the lives of three other magess.

Originally I believed him without doubt because to me the thought of a magical being speaking inside my mind was incredible. Here I was, a human child, with a wizard as my secret friend. Once I got older I became more skeptical. I wanted him to prove to me that it was all real. That magic existed and that I wasn't just crazy.

He did all that and then some. He told me that the spell didn't just allow his soul to be present with me but I was given his power as well. He walked me through my very first incantation. I was outside, in my backyard and he told me words to repeat. He told me to focus on nothing else but those words and I did. The barren grass beneath my feet began to sprout hundreds of flowers almost instantly.

I was stunned to say the least. Here I was a ten year old boy born normal and to normal parents doing absolutely abnormal things. He trained me almost every day after that and I didn't doubt anything else he told me. He recounted stories of his life and everything up until the moment he rejected the Council of Mage's offer for him to become a Royal Mage.

After that he tried to sparing me the details of his detainment. Only after incessant questioning did he relent and tell me what pushed him over the edge. He never used dark magic to merge his familiars, that was all the Council of Mages.

He said that he could feel their connection changing but there was nothing he could do about it. Every single thing that they did to them he could feel. The beatings, the starvation, every single thing until he finally agreed to help them out.

He was used on missions of extreme importance. He was a powerful mage with familiars capable of amazing feats and they were hard to stop. Usually, in order to keep him in line and make sure that he wouldn't do anything to stop or destroy them they would keep one familiar behind.

The fox.

He never told me anything about that familiar except that he was extremely gifted and Helion wished that he was never dragged into this at such a young age. Apparently the familiar was only ten when this had all begun.

The familiar was abandoned when he was younger and had managed to survive all on his own up until Helion had found him. He treated him almost as if he was his son and was taken in by his own wife as well. She adored the little boy and without even realizing it they had bonded in a very unique way as mage and familiar."

"This is insane..." I muttered.

"So he did have a secret family?" Levi questioned.

"Not so secret. The Council of Mages knew about his wife and the little familiar. It was a part of the reason that he had continued to follow their orders without fail."

"Wait! Better question. If he used that reincarnation spell does that mean he killed three other mages?" I questioned.

"Yes and he doesn't regret it. He told me that there was one mission in which he didn't perform as the Council of Mages had wanted him to. They required him to go into a small magical town and destroy everyone in it for some reason that they had not explained to him other than to say that there were dangerous people there.

Once he got there he was shocked with the amount of innocent people that lived there. He sent word to the Council letting them know his findings and they told him to complete the mission as requested and return. He just couldn't bring himself to kill innocent men, women and children no matter who else resided in the town.

So he took matters into his own hands and destroyed those who he knew to be criminals and cloaked the town in hopes that the Council would never find out what he had done. Unfortunately for him they had anticipated his actions and had sent someone to watch over him. Word traveled fast and by time he arrived back to the Council they had already decided his punishment.

The Council summoned him and once he arrived immediately, he said, he knew something was wrong. His wife was standing in the middle of a summoning circle, her arms bound behind her back and she was gagged. The etchings on the floor were ancient, beyond his knowledge of magic and he didn't know what was about to happen.

Before he could utter a single word the air around him dropped, candles littered around the room were lit in an instant and the symbols carved into the ground began to glow a slow red. He was held back magically leaving him with no other option but to watch. As the Council of Mages began to chant the circle of symbols began to pulse in rhythm with their words.

The memory played back in my mind like a horror film. I watched in suspense as the tears welled in her eyes and flowed down her face. She didn't even try to struggle, resigned to her own fate. Even with the gag in her mouth and tears streaming down her cheeks she tried to smile at her husband. Trying in vain to tell him that she didn't blame him.

His stood there, never blinking as if trying to remember every bit of her before she would be taken away from him. Her natural form slowly began to deteriorate before him causing her great pain. Her wails called out to him and his heart broke, unable to do anything for the woman that he loved.

It was the moment that truly broke him.

He stood there and watched to the very last minute and then he was told it was his punishment for disobeying the Council. They threatened to use the fox the next time he disobeyed him and it would be more painful and drawn out.

After that he followed every order but not because he feared them but because he was biding his time until he was able to come up with a plan to free those he loved, his familiars. He was allowed to further his studies and eventually drifted over to dark magic. He began practicing whenever he wasn't around the Council until he formed a plan.

One night when he was called in to discuss an upcoming assignment he had finally concocted the perfect plan. He had to incantations ready and everything he needed would be in that room with him. All three of his familiars were summoned to attend the meeting as well and it would be his last time seeing all three of them.

He slipped a charm to the three of them, a simple coin that was only used in their realm but with the benefit of protecting them from what was about to happen. His voice was unheard as he lowly chanted the words needed for the first incantation that would erase his familiars' identity from the memory of the Council members.

Just as that one ended he began the second, more dangerous one. The Reincarnation Incantation. A bright light encased the room that was previously shrouded in completely darkness, save the few candles lit sparingly around the room.

The ancient language appeared on the floor beneath his feet before any of them could do anything to stop him. The intricate etchings providing him with a barrier to complete the incantation. The magic dragging to him three of the Council Mages, their bodies instantly disappearing as soon as they were hoisted above him and the magical circle. Before finishing he turned back to his familiars and simply smiled.

Merula and Cano knew what to do. They took the fox and escaped that night just before Helion finished the spell. The spell transferred his soul and memories into me when I was just a baby. According to him he was only able to make an appearance once I was truly able to handle his power.

Ever since then he has been advising me every so often on what to do. He doesn't tell me everything and he's not always there. Usually I can hear him when a certain memory is triggered. The other day when we met the Magical Council he appeared to tell me that they weren't who they seemed to be once he heard the head of the Magical Council speaking. That is pretty much all of it." He finished as if he hadn't just told us the most amazing and incredible story ever.

"Well that...um...wow." Levi stammered and I had to agree.

"What are we supposed to say after that?" I questioned him.

"I don't know. Do you guys believe me though?" He asked nervously.

"Of course we do. You took a chance telling us and I've been reading your aura this entire time and at no point did I get the sense that you were lying to me. Not to mention you finally let down all of your barriers inside your mind so I was able to see glimpses of the memories that Helion showed you and shared them with Tae. There's no way you're lying to us."

"So do you know who the fox familiar is?" I questioned.

"No. No matter what I do he won't tell me who it is and in all of the memories where he would be there his face is always just out of focus. I know he's trying to protect the kid but there's no way I would be able to recognize him almost two decades later." He huffed.

"True but I'm sure he has his reasons for doing so." Levi replied.

"What do we do with this information?" I questioned.

"I'm not sure." Alistair admitted. "There's not much we can do with this information besides try to not repeat the mistakes of the past."

"There has to be a reason that Helion used a Reincarnation spell to pass along all this info. We can't just do nothing about it." Levi replied.

"And it's not like we can do anything else either. What do we do? Huh? Take on the Council of Mages? Redeem Helion's name? We're kids and no matter how powerful we think we are there's no way we can go against a group of mages that couldn't even be fully destroyed by one of the greatest mages in almost a century!" He practically shouted, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Okay calm down." Levi shushed him as he beckoned Alistair to him as he sat up on the bed with open arms. Alistair moved quickly into his arms and buried his face into his chest as he tried to slow his breathing down. Levi simply patted his head and whispered words of comfort to him.

As much as I wanted to be there for Alistair and also finish this conversation it seemed like the two of them needed some time to relax on their own. I moved aside to the edge of the bed and got up, heading to the door. Before I could get too far I was stopped.

"Where are you going?" Levi questioned me.

"Well I was going to give you two a little alone time." I replied without turning back to look at them.

"Why? Why have you been doing that recently? You're distancing yourself from us and you're not even subtle about it. And no more running away. Since we already talked about what Alistair was hiding now it's time to talk about what you're hiding."

Of course they would notice it. I had quite literally run away from him the other night and before that I had left to sleep in my own bed even though that didn't end well at all either. It was obvious that I was the third wheel in our bond but no matter how hard they tried to hide it from me it was obvious that I was taking away all their together time.

"I didn't want to...um...intrude on your moment." I practically whispered.

"Our moment?" Levi questioned.

"Yeah. I know that since we've met you guys haven't had a lot of alone time because of me and I was trying to give you a little space so that you could spend some time together without me there simply hovering over you."

"Alone time?" Alistair squeaked.

"Yeah, you know because you're a couple." I answered.

"Maybe it's time we told you how we really feel." Alistair began.

"Come sit back down Tae. There's something the two of us have been keeping from you." Levi spoke up patting the bed beside him and Alistair. "After we tell you this you have to promise not to run off again, okay?"

"Depends on what you tell me." I shrugged my shoulders.

"What? That's not how that works!" Levi shouted. "Alistair tell him he has to just agree..."

"Levi, please stop shouting. I'm sure everyone in the building can hear you right now." Alistair sighed. "He's allowed to make his decision after we've told him what we need to tell him. Then if you decide that you need space we will gladly give it to you."

"Fine. I guess we can do it that way too." Levi pouted.

"Okay...You guys are making me a bit nervous."

"It's nothing incredibly serious but if we're going to get out everything then we might as well tell you the truth about how we met. That day at the school that you came to pick me up from the office wasn't the first day we met." Alistair began to explain.

"What do you mean? I'm pretty sure I would have remembered either of you had we met earlier." I chuckled nervously.

"Well it was technically the first time you saw us but it wasn't the first time we saw you." Levi explained.

"I'm sorry...What?" I questioned, shocked.

Levi and Alistair looked at each other for a minute or two before turning back to me. Alistair sighed and pushed his hair out of his face, revealing those gorgeous baby blues. He ran his thumb over the back of my hand with a reassuring smile on his face.

"We first saw you almost a year before we actually met you. We've been subtly following you around since then. Pretty much every day Levi would watch you from afar and let me know what he found out about you. We were drawn to you from the moment either of us laid eyes on you. It's true that Levi and I are together but the truth of the matter is that we both have some sort of feelings for you too."

"So what do you think?" Levi questioned me.

What did I think?

What did I think?

What was I supposed to think? Tonight was a crazy night filled with even crazier admissions. Alistair's story about Helion was too insane to believe and yet I believed it but this was somehow even more unbelievable. How could they both like me? Why would they both like me?

Too many questions and not enough answers so I did what I did best. I took a deep breath, climbed off the bed, shifted and sprinted from the room. Alistair and Levi called for me but I went to my new favorite hiding place, the corner in the closet, curled up tight and allowed the dark to shield me.

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Don't know how to feel about this chapter. Definitely need some feedback on this chapter! But otherwise enjoy, vote and comment! Thanks!