Ivan made his way out the bathroom window in a less than graceful manner. He pulled himself through the broken window head first, with one hand buried deeply in his pocket. Even though there was no one around to see him, the boy was petrified of the thought that fur was showing on his hand. Once his stomach passed the threshold the rest of his body came tumbling through the window. He head the impact inside his head, followed by a ring in his ears and a biting sensation on his face. The street was certainly not the softest thing he'd ever landed on. Ivan only had a few moments to roll around in pain before he remembered why exactly he was putting himself though this. Hands to the ground, the young boy pushed himself up. As he brought his feet in to his chest so he could finally stand, Ivan quickly realized that his disguise was completely falling apart. His knees were inverted now and were his boots to come off they surely would have revealed the fur and paws underneath. Both hands were covered in red fur, black claw tips and paw pad exposed to the world. Carrying himself over to a puddle, Ivan saw what he feared the most. His face no longer looked human. Instead the long muzzle, red and white fur and black triangular ears of a fox stared petrified back at him. Only his green eyes wouldn't change and that just served to frighten him more. he swatted the dirty water, as if breaking the surface of it would somehow fix him again. Tears forming in his eyes, Ivan wasted no time in dashing for the shadows. Though he had grown up in a small farming town, necessity had spurred his adaptation to a city like RhyDin. He traveled along back alleys and dark roads that upstanding citizens blocked from their minds. He lived among trash, things and people discarded to a place where no one had to look at them. At first he was going to head for the warehouse district. Unseen channels to it were plentiful, be they freight routes or storm drains, it was easy to get there without being noticed. Unfortunately he wouldn't have a place to go beyond that. Gang bangers had already taken his shelter along everything of value in it and after recent activity guards were crawling all over the place. So he wandered in a different direction, choosing at random and silently asking the universe to guide him to safety. Though he prayed for darkness to conceal him, Ivan knew that night meant cold. He'd spent the last few evenings indoors without having to worry about it, but the loss of his disguise had changed that. it came about so suddenly he didn't even have time to snag a blanket. As the sun settled, he debated spending the night in a dumpster. It wasn't the least bit pleasant, but the refuse actually provided enough insulation to keep him from freezing. It would be cold, infested with rats and putrid...but he wouldn't die. He stood in front of one that had a broken chunk of mirror in front of it. Again, he saw the hideous fox creature staring back at him, it might as well have been wearing a sign that said 'burn me'. In his homeland this was the guaranteed fate for him and anyone who dared protect him. Some had said that this place was different, but none of them knew what he truly was. For all he knew Kitsune existed on a plane related to RhyDin and they would have the same reputation. Ivan tried to bend the light around him. He tried to make it reflect the image of the human child in his mind's eye, but it wouldn't take. It just looked like a haze was forming around him....he was out of energy. He'd need a lot of rest, the last time this had happened he slept through a day and a half of the next. The land around him was blighted when he opened his eyes. His moment of thought was shattered when a door to the alley slammed shut. A cook was making his way to the dumpster as Ivan was making his way over a fence. He found himself in a back yard, with laundry hanging out to dry. The Fox grabbed a ratty blanket off the line and vaulted another fence. With a bit of skill he wrapped the semi-damp thing around his body and over his head. Shadows crept over his face, so long as he kept his head down. No one bothered him as he made his way across the street and into an open field. The respectable people in the park were already making their ways home and soon it would be overrun with the scum of the city. Ivan knew that this was not a place to be alone at night but with the current state of affairs he had little choice. He was going to have to bed down somewhere and this was the last place someone official was going to find him. wandering city streets in his current state might even be more dangerous to his health. He wandered along a trail, following a force that was more likely a figment of his imagination than the will of the universe. A few twists and turns led to what he hoped was a somewhat untraveled outcropping. A large rock formation that smelled of neglect. Ivan's exhaustion was starting to overcome him. Even if he'd wanted to inspect the place his senses weren't up for it. His ears had stopped hearing the changes in the wind and his nose had not picked up the smells of another person nearby. Had be been up to par, the scents of melted wax, burnt wood and perspiration would have registered. For a moment Ivan thought he recognized a person's scent, but he guessed it was just his mind playing tricks. For a half an hour, he'd felt less alone it was normal to long for that. Shrugging it off, Ivan spread the blanket out on the ground. He took a few loose rocks and set them down long the edges of the blanket. A few handfuls of dirt made it so they appeared to be embedded in the ground. he tossed broken branches, leaves, dirt, pebbles and anything else he could find on top of the blanket so that it blended into the pseudo-forest floor. When his drooping eyes could no longer distinguish it he crawled underneath and pulled the blanket over his head. He layed on his back, arms folded across his chest like a body in a casket head turned to the side so his muzzle didn't tent the blanket. This was the way he told his brain not to roll around in his sleep. Buried under a layer of filth just outside of turtle rock's secret entrance Ivan closed his eyes and hoped his powers returned in the light of day.

Ivan's eyes shot wide open the moment he heard liquid striking the ground. Before he even realized it, the fox-boy was wide awake heart pounding in his chest and the edge of every nerve in his body tingling. He didn't know how long he'd been asleep but he knew it couldn't have been long. Survival instincts were catapulting him to full alertness but the nagging sensation of fatigue still lingered in the back of his mind. The acrid scent hit his nose, alcoholic urine striking the dirt and making mud. Again there was a faintly familiar trace about it. There was a person's smell embedded there and he could have sworn it was the boy he'd met earlier at the inn. His nose just couldn't ignore it but there was no reason to take a chance. Save that he hated being alone, and he slightly preferred being alone to being dead. Ivan remained absolutely still as the stream died off. He was about to take his first breath of relief when the footsteps started coming toward him. Could he have been any stiller his heart may have stopped with the steps, his mind imagining a confused (and incidentally very large) person staring right at him, somehow knowing that this thing on the ground just should not be. "That's real new." Fuck! I should have dug the hole. Ivan knew he'd been made now. He was a sitting duck, the person above him could have been planning all manner of horrible things now and Ivan was all but powerless to resist. His mind raced over escape plans when it suddenly dawned on him that he was the beast in this exchange. All he had to do was make a big scene of 'emerging from the ground' and hope for the best. If luck held then whoever had found him wouldn't be used to the sight and might find themselves stunned long enough for him to make a break for it. The plan was far from perfect, but it was all Ivan had. A Sharp pain in his side was the cue. The jerk had poked him with something and it set him off before he was really committed to the idea. He Shot his arms out to both sides and rolled hard onto his left. The sweeping motion dislodged the blanket from the rocks and swept it up in the direction the poke had come from. Leaves, dirt and twigs flew in Jesse's direction. Ivan hoped enough would hit to add to the effect; as he emerged he noticed that the blanket had fallen short. Whoever had found him, they were short....a gnome maybe, too slender for a dwarf. His feet clenched the ground under him and Ivan slowly rose, hunched just slightly with fur fluffed fully in an instinctual display. For a moment, Ivan even thought of snarling to give the impression of a werewolf; a creature capable of inducing far more fear than him. When his eyes focused in the darkness however all of that fell to the wayside. Ivan's fur almost immediately settled back into place and his head shot straight up. Even the low growl that he hadn't realized he was making stopped. "Jesse?"

Ivan put his pawns on his legs and let out a deep, relieved breath at the unimaginable break he'd just caught. Instead of having a large boulder dropped on his head he was talking to the friend he'd just made. Though he still held a stick somewhat menacingly, Jesse seemed to have recognized him. An incredible thing on its own, given his appearance. Though Ivan barely knew the boy, he believed Jesse to be a kind soul. In five minutes of knowing him they were splitting a meat pie and tankards of beer, things Jesse was hardly obligated to give away. He had also kept his head when Ivan's disguise began to fail. At first Ivan wouldn't accept the explanations Jesse gave but now he hoped they were true. He took the fact that they were exchanging words instead of blows as a good sign and stifled his instinct to flee. "Crap, you scared the livin' hell outta me! What the hell are you doin' out here? This place sucks!" Despite his tone Ivan kept the pitch of his voice low. He wasn't keen on attracting anyone at all, let alone some park dweller. He also did all he could to keep the topic off his appearance. Part of him desperately wanted to say something to try and explain but the habit of keeping concealed was a hard one to break. It suddenly occurred to Ivan that Jesse was probably here for the same reason he was. He had mentioned a warehouse in the west end and with the murders, guards were crawling all over that area. Otherwise both of them might be under a run down roof someplace at this moment. "You're out alone too, huh' S-sorry if I scared ya....I was gonna make a break for it. I was worried, I thought-." Ivan just sighed and picked up his crumpled blanket. Parts of it had dried off but a thin layer of frost had formed at its base. Dirt had already throughly permeated it and despite where he found it, the blanket's fibers looked so worn that it might fall apart any second. Still, it was better than nothing at all. "It's fuckin' freezin' out here." Ivan put one part of the blanket over his shoulders, not realizing that his tail was holding up the base of it. The triangular ears on top of his head folded back some and his eyes looked down just away from Jesse. "Uh...if you're not scared, or nothin' you can- I'll share it. I promise I won't hurt you, I don't....I don't. You gave me food, and yer not runnin' away or screamin' for whoever. So I guess you meant it that I don't scare you. That's worth bein' warm at least. Plus, y'know if there's two of us we're better off. Least I hear that's how it goes..."

"Badger" Shit....I outta be 'fended. Poke me in the damn side an' call me a badger to boot." Ivan was smiling. The edges of his lips were curled along the sides of his face and his ears had perked up. The mere fact that Jesse wasn't running from him or trying to singe his fur was an enormous burnden te have relieved. He tried to keep his laughter inside too. As drained as he was making it sound like human laughter instead of a canine yip might have been too diffucult. They were still in the middle of a park at night and sounds like that might have drawn too much attention. Ivan wouldn't say much as he watched the other boy open the secret entrance to turtle rock. There was some aspect of it that made him feel drawn to it. The pure secrecy, a hiding place disguised to look like and ordinary rock formation. Things like this made him feel comfortable and not just for the security they offered. He passed a paw though the illusionary rock face. The mechanics of such a thing were vaugely familiar to him but only in the most basic sense. A self- sustained illusion like this was far too complex for him to even think of creating. Ivan couldn't help wondering who put it here, why and most of all how. "This is awesome." Ivan whispered as he passed into the secret room. Many people may have been put off by the damp earthy room but Ivan felt more at home in a place like this. Unsure of the dimensions of the room or where Jesse was in it Ivan stopped just inside the entrance. Paw turned upwards he produced a small orb of white flame. It hissed like a giant matchead that had just been struck, drawing on the residual energy of a place like this. Many had left thier marks behind here and the fear hope or comfort that was with them. The orb gave off enough light that Ivan felt safe moving around. His tail swayed with each step to one of the cozier edges. The light ascended from his paw to the rock ceiling, giving off light in only one direction. The illusionary entrance was still covered by the night's pitch black. Ivan wasn't about to let light out that way. "I figured you were gonna be scared cause everyone always is. I mean, I know this place is a...nexus" Right' I'm a- Kitsune. Guess it's foxling where you come from, like you said." Ivan Sighed, drwing his ratty blanket over his shoulders again. "It's wierd. They gotta lotta real bad names for me back where I come from. The sorta stuff people do if they find out....I'd be real lucky if all they did was just kill me on the spot. I don't know a whole lot really, 'cept that Kitsune are supposedta live in thier own realm. It's this place that's there but it's not and it touches a whole lotta other worlds too. Kinda like this Nexus stuff. They say we can do real terrible stuff like eat people's souls..." Ivan let his thought trail off. He wanted to tell Jesse all about it, but that might have been a very bad idea. He'd been invited to this place and befirended by someone who wasn't afraid of what he was. "Sorry....it's just. I'm used ta hiding. Even sayin' I'm- K-kitsune, it's like breathin' underwater."

Ivan found himself a cozy place where rock met packed earth. He leaned on it, and matched the gentle curve with his back, enjoying the snug security. A lack of breeze inside made his fur more effective and while it wasn't exactly warm he knew that he wouldn't freeze to death in his sleep. He admired the door again, wondering what kind of magic faery was and how it did such amazing things. "Sure was nice of 'em ta set that up, huh' Wonder what this place was for, at first..." Ivan's eyes wandered over some of the names that had been left behind. Their paths briefly crossing in this place, perhaps they found themselves in the same sort of desperate situation that brought him here. "It's kind of a weird thing. This place is like an illusion, sorta. See, Kitsune are 'suppose ta live a really long time. They...er we, I guess, are like our own species. I'm not really human at all, least not anymore. I just look like it and I gotta try real hard ta do that. Changelings change for real, they're people who can change. Anyway, I guess when they, we, get real old they're real powerful and even though it's fake the stuff they make with their magic is just like what?s real. There's almost no way ta tell. Like, say a real old Kitsune makes an imaginary glass a wine. It tastes like wine, feels like it even gets ya wasted. You even piss it out when you're done. So a few of these really strong ones got together and they created this whole world for Kitsune ta live in. Away from everything else. It's gotta touch the 'real' world though, some places. I don't know why." Ivan curled the blanket tighter around himself, digging in for the night. His eyes started to droop heavily again as the rush finally wore itself out. There was a slight swallow at the mention of the soul. "Y-yeah....dunno how they know but they seem pretty convinced it's true. Guess that's cause God created man and man alone in his divine image and they got all sorts a 'splinations about where that puts me." The foxfire went out as Ivan closed his eyes. Jesse was already drifting off and there was no reason to go on about stories of home. He knew he was making it sound bad and it actually upset him to speak so ill of his own world. There were many more good things about it that even people's fear of his kind couldn't overshadow. As Ivan fell into the bottomless sleep dreams of home and family he'd never again see played out in his mind. Mixed with the homesickness was a warm tinge of hope, the possibility that God had sent him here to live a life free from the fear of discovery. While he dreamed of tearful goodbyes to his mother the warm promises of a new world spread like warm pins inside him. The hard packed earth of turtle rock was changing color, from a healthy dark brown to a sickly gray shade. The outside was changing as well, ferns and underbrush yellowing and drying as the land below them cracked and split. It was like a spider's web, spreading from underneath turtle rock. Each and every line in the sick earth converging on the one spot where Ivan lie sleeping. By morning he would be fully charged and ready for a new day's adventure.