I've Turned Into A Fox Girl?

[Operation retrieve Himeko]

Alright girls and wolf boy, I should have transported you to the deep end of a cave that is close to where Himeko is located. Once you make it out of the cave, you will be met with the hellish landscape of the demon lands, but don't worry the beasts are just experience-bags so make sure to kill them.

Now once you are out, you will follow the rough path through a weathered valley. If there is no path just stick to the right and follow the side of the mountain. You will reach this valley between the mountains and that will lead you to Ado's door.

You will find a medallion in the tube which is the key to unlock the door. You will know when you see it, it's a massive gate with a hole in the middle for the key. Now make sure your presence is known and shout my name since she may have suffered some memory loss.

After that is done, you can ask her to tag along or not, but once that is all sorted you will head towards the capital.

Buuut wait until after you get Himeko to read any further, so now move your asses.

From your dear Freja

Shaman read out loud the first part of the mission details and packed it back in the tube once she was done. She then threw it in her inventory for safekeeping since losing it would ruin the whole mission.

"This feels very unofficial, but it is Freja." Shaman felt like things should have been more proper than just a personalised letter.

"Let's get this over with." Clara had been silent about the fact they will be meeting Himeko, but deep down she wasn't looking forward to it. She had somewhat made peace with it, but she was far from forgiving Himeko for sealing her memories. If anything she would rather not go at all, but seeing as Himeko is the only one with answers she couldn't let go of this chance.

They were also in her homeland, so she may be able to find some more information from the current queen. However, there was no guarantee that the queen would be cooperative.

"Wait, who is this person?" Elanor had no idea who they were going to meet and would have liked to get some context.

"Oh right, Elanor has no clue." Elysia felt bad since everyone knew what was going on except Elanor so it must have been very confusing.

The group then explained the situation to Elanor and told her about their time in Ebonscale.

*

"So are we sure that Himeko purposefully sealed your memories? It sounded like she didn't have much control over it." Elanor with her outsider's point of view came to the conclusion that Himeko didn't try to seal Clara's past. Especially with Shaman and Elysia's accounts, it was more likely the artifact was passively suppressing all negative thoughts and memories regarding its owner.

"Even then, the fact she never tried to undo the seal hurt more than the fact they were sealed. I can forgive it being accidental, but I still feel betrayed." Clara understood the possibility of it not being intentional which was part of the reason why she was okay with seeing her again. But the real issue was why didn't Himeko do anything about it and that's what made Clara resent Himeko so much.

"I guess that's fair, but isn't it a bit petty? She looked after you for quite a while. Without knowing what your parents said back then, I feel like you are refusing to face the reality of the situation. You will be losing your second mother who only wanted the best for you. Although I can't say much about mine, I know my dad tried his best and I bet Himeko did as well." Elanor knew how much family meant, especially after just having reconnected with them. Himeko was basically a second mother to Clara, so Elanor didn't want her to lose what's left of her family.

"..." What Elanor said stumped Clara as she made a really good point. At any rate, Himeko is still the same person who looked after her all these years, so why is she being so wishy-washy about it now?

"I think you hit it spot on Elanor." Silver whispered in her ear as for the first time Clara seemed to listen. Shaman and Elysia tried getting Clara to understand, but never really got through to her.

"Well with that said, let's go face Himeko, I'm sure she is waiting for someone to come." Shaman had enough of the subject and, seeing Clara stumped, figured she just needed time to think.

Elysia took the lead since she was the human torch and they made their way to the exit. Clara stayed in the back behind everyone since she wanted some time for herself. With all the changes in her life, especially since joining Shaman and Elysia, she had enough distractions to avoid this subject. However, now when she thought about the situation from Elanor's point of view, it really did seem like Himeko didn't mean any harm.

'Ah whatever, I'll have to see what Himeko has to say.' At this point, Clara needed to hear what Himeko will say before she makes a decision. She already planned to let Himeko talk, but now Clara was ready to actually listen.

*

Reaching the exit to the cave, they were met with a completely dry landscape. Most things were dead, but there were some trees with red leaves present at the foot of the mountain.

"We are in the dry season so expect things to look boring." While they were walking along the mountain side Clara recognised the season the demon lands were in.

"How do the seasons even work here?" Elysia was rather curious as from what she heard the sun never broke through the ash clouds which so far stood true.

"They are quicker than your normal seasons and only last 2 months. We go through Bloom, Dead, Dry and Ash and they go in a cycle. Bloom is when the trees grow back, Dead is just another way of saying summer, but 10 times worse, Dry is like fall and that's where we are at, then comes Ash which is when the clouds get so thick we are in pure darkness for 2 months. The borders don't suffer as much, but when you live more towards the center, you get the worst of every season." Clara explained how the demon lands work which sounded like a whole different planet.

"I'm guessing we are here at a good time?" Shaman hoped that dry was an ideal season since Dead and Ash didn't sound too appealing.

"Yes, it is probably the best since Bloom is when the beasts emerge out of their nests. However, we will be entering ash soon, but it isn't as bad as you probably think."

"So other than the place being dried up is there anything we should be aware of?" Elanor felt like there were more than just dead trees all over the place.

"Well the monsters that didn't hide during the Dead season should have turned into skeleton monsters by now, but they are not hard to kill since the core that keeps them alive is easy to hit. Since we are in an uninhabited zone we will probably see a few wandering around." Clara wasn't worried at all as the skeletons were the weakest of beings in the demon lands.

"That's reassuring." Shaman remembered that Freja wanted them to be tier 7 before coming here, so she wondered if it was even safe.

As they made their way around the cliffside, suddenly the ground began to tremble. At first they thought it was an earthquake, but then rocks shot out from the cliff below them.

What emerged was a gigantic skeletal serpent that launched itself out of the cliff wall and charged down the slope. As soon as its full body came into full view everyone saw the glowing red core which they assumed was its weak spot.

Elysia took the initiative, taking out her bow while running towards the cliff's edge. Aiming down the cliff she saw the snake burrowing back into the ground so she fired at the spot it was entering trying to hit the core as it rushed towards the hole.

However, her fire arrow wasn't able to pierce the bone and so the flames brushed past the snake without even leaving a mark.

"Damn it, I should also mention the bones are tough so you need to hit in between them. But more importantly, run!" Clara didn't expect them to run into a skeleton beast so soon but seeing as they got the attention of one and Elysia missed her shot. They needed to move before the serpent burrowed back up destroying their path.

The group ran along the mountainside while the sound of the serpent burrowing was slowly getting louder. Eventually, it made its move and jumped out from the ground going for Silver who was in the back. However before the serpent could eat him, he disappeared into the shadows leaving the serpent to crash into the ground.

Because it was expecting to eat something, it was not ready to borrow, ending up scraping its head along the ground.

Elanor slammed one of the fans down on the ground, calling grey tree roots to rise and restrain the serpent. Although they looked dead to the untrained eye, Elanor's element could only interact with living plants, meaning that this was simply how the roots normally looked.

Clara then wrapped her whips around the part of the snake's body that was exposed and pulled on it to reveal the core that prior to this was still under the ground.

The serpent tried to wriggle out of it, but Shaman jumped into the air and landed on the serpent's back while stabbing in between the bones right into the core.

The core shattered and the bone serpent's body went limp signifying it was dead.

"Alright, that wasn't too bad." Shaman didn't find the fight all too taxing and with such a predictable target it made killing easy. Everyone felt the same way, but the size of the bone beast was quite abnormal.

With their first beast defeated, they continued walking towards where Himeko was hiding, hoping to run into more.