Lexicon/FairFoxes
Fair Foxes
Excerpt from the last field report of the explorer, Winglord Tepet Lasari, to the Library of the Golden Fane in Eagle's Launch, quoted by Paradise Cloud, humble scribe of the Immaculate Order,
[Ed: In this passage we learn of the danger which await us in the lands at the edge of Creation where reality frays and the bestial Anathema and their progeny prowl.]
"I fear I shall not last the night, and so I write my final words in the hope that Javizoba is able to return them to my sponsors at the Golden Fane. I have armed him for the journey with sword and jade, but I fear the Foxes will catch him before either can be of use.
"I could not understand how our troops fell so fast. When Javi and I returned to the base camp, not a soul remained. Weapons and armour were scattered about, as if discarded in haste. In the canteen half-eaten bowls of soup stood cold and untended on tables. In the stores I found the ledger lying open, abandoned midway through a line.
"And then I heard their songs. Even as I write the melody still fills my mind and lustful urges spill across my thoughts. Songs of passion and of ancient times and of finding in lust an end to all pain.
"I only glimpsed the singers' forms as we fled from the encampment, our ears stuffed with the quartermaster's writing chalk.
"The singers were creatures of such perfection that they could only be Fae: foxes' heads topped the bodies of godlings, and russet hair skimmed their naked, golden skin. Such was their grace that for one eternal moment I found my self stopping, felt it was worth exchanging my life for but a moment of gazing upon their exquisite beauty.
"And as I paused, one called to me in a voice of warmth and birdsong, 'Do not flee us stranger. Feel our song and come with us. Our mistress is Chopakta Of Rabishu and she welcomes strangers to her manse.' And as the first beckoned me, another laughed and called, 'And some even last if their seed is strong,' and in that moment I knew to run.
"I had read of Chopakta Of Rabishu in the Xiao Lin Scrolls. She was first among the bestial Anathema and was despised even by her demonic kind, for she bred with beasts and mothered a thousand Erandyne.
"Now the dark closes in as we huddle in fear beneath a lightning-hollowed tree.
"And the barbs of the song they sang were not the only barbs these creatures of the Wyld bore. In the moment when I paused to gaze upon the Fair Foxes, one of them hurled at me a venomed dart and even now its lovely poison works its way towards my heart."
[Ed: It took Javizoba eleven months to reach the Blessed Isle. Unfortunately, he still bore his mistress's sword on his return, and was put to death for bearing arms as a slave. The report was recovered from his lifeless corpse but I am sure he will be rewarded in his next life for aiding so loyally his Dragon-Blooded mistress. As for the relationship between Chopakta Of Rabishu, the Erandyne and the Fair Foxes Lasari describes, we can only assume that this is another example of the the Anathema stooping to ever worse depths of iniquity - in this case, siring young with those enemies of Creation, the Fae.]
See Also:
