Io grabbed the edge of the table as yet another coughing fit paralyzed her body. Her lungs felt as if they were on fire, but that wasn't the thing that hurt the most. Her mother wasn't there to cast her soothing magic to make her feel better. Her father wasn't there to place his comforting hand on her shoulder, telling her that everything will be alright. In all senses, the poor thing was hopelessly alone. And, as she stared at the shards of a broken cup with spilled mint tea around it, she saw that it wasn't the only broken mess in her home.
"A cursed child... A bad omen, huh?" The kitsune recalled all the insults whispered around her or said directly to her face by her supposed brethren back when they were all still alive. Those words still hurt, coating her faintly beating heart with corrosive venom. Partly because she thought it was true. Maybe she really was the harbinger of the bloodstained calamity that befell her people. Maybe she deserved all the pain, suffering and solitude. Maybe this was her punishment.
Io bent over in order to pick up the cup's shards from the floor, but froze upon hearing the sounds thought to be long forgotten. Another set of footsteps. Before she could react, she saw a person come into her kitchen, looking around and pausing as soon as their eyes landed on her. For a second there Io felt as if she'd seen that face before, but quickly brushed it all aside. A sad chuckle washed away the feeling of surprise. "Gods sure have a peculiar way of answering prayers..." She knew exactly where this was going. This stranger before her came to finish the job. To finally put an end to the kitsune kind.
Despair-filled words of her parents, uttered all those ears ago, flashed in her memory. Begging her to stay safe. To live. Well... Looks like she wouldn't be able to keep her promise after all. And yet, she was oddly... Relieved. "...Do what you must. If anything, you'll be doing me a favor, stranger." With that, Io cast a pitiful and possibly last look at her fox tails, the fur almost deathly white, tangled and matted. "Just don't expect that my tails will fetch a high price. If you'll even manage to sell them at all."
