Chapter 3
They poked out from behind a big rock—nine fluffy, oversized tails, their silver-white fur sparkling in the sunlight like banners waving in the breeze.
Even though they were tucked behind the stone, there was no way to hide them. All nine tails bunched together were easily twice as big as the rock itself.
I stopped in my tracks, and the nine tails froze too, stiff as statues.
I took a deep breath and turned around, heading back toward the rock.
With every step I took, those nine tails pulled in a bit tighter. Soon, I got to the rock.
Behind it, a massive silver-white fox had its head buried deep in its nine tails, curled up into a giant fluffy ball, trying to play the old "if I hide, maybe you won't see me" game.
It was Luciano in his true form.
He was hiding out in his tails like a kid caught red-handed.
I stood right in front of him, arms crossed. "So, you're stalking me?"
Luciano's body gave a visible shudder. Then, his golden-brown eye peeked out from between his tails, full of panic.
"I-I wasn't stalking you." His voice popped straight into my head. Celestor Orcs could use telepathy, but right now he sounded exactly like a kid caught sneaking cookies, stammering, "I-I was just... out patrolling my territory."
"Patrolling your territory?" I arched a brow. "Your territory's up north, Tharburg's up north. You're a hundred miles south of Tharburg right now."
"Uh... my territory's pretty big," Luciano said.
"Big enough that you had to shift into your true form and trail a human for five days?" I retorted.
His fluffy, pointed ears perked up, then drooped right back down, and all nine tails twisted together in pure nervousness.
"I wasn't stalking you," he insisted, but he sounded anything but convincing. "I just... happened to be heading south too, that's all."
"What are you doing down south?" I asked.
"Uh... just inspecting," Luciano mumbled.
"Inspecting what?" I pressed.
"Uh... the southern... border," he stammered.
"You're a Celestor Orc. You've got generals handling the borders. In three years, you've never bothered to come south for any inspection," I shot back.
He went silent. His nine tails twisted up even tighter, almost knotting themselves into a bow.
Looking at him like this, I felt both angry and bitter. He was angry because he'd lost his memory, treated me like a stranger, and even personally wrote me a divorce letter.
Yet now he was acting like a total stalker, following me for a hundred miles. He was bitter because, somehow, his body still remembered me.
His mind might have wiped me out, but his instincts, his gut, and that damn fox nature of his—they were all still chasing after me.
"Luciano," I crouched down, looking him right in the eye. "What are you really here for?"
He pulled his face out from his tails, his giant fox head easily bigger than me.
"I don't know," he said. "My legs just acted on their own."
Luciano said, his ears flopping down like he'd just lost a game, "When I woke up, my head was totally empty.
"Everyone kept telling me I was a Celestor Orc, the King of the Nine-Tailed Fox Tribe, and that I should get back to Tharburg and take care of business.
"So I went back, sat on the throne, and spent the whole day buried in paperwork. But when night hit..."
He paused for a second and then continued, "At night, I just couldn't sleep. I lay there in the bedroom, and the bed felt way too big.
"I mean, I used to sleep alone all the time, but now it just felt... like there was this empty spot. Like something important was gone."
My eyes started to burn.
"Then I caught a scent," Luciano continued, his nose twitching unconsciously. "It was the smell you left on the pillow. It was faint, but it made me feel safe and comforted.
"I lay there, nestled in that scent, and before I knew it, I drifted off to sleep. And then I had a dream."
"What was the dream?" I asked.
"I dreamed of a human laughing. I couldn't see her face, but her laugh sounded really nice. In the dream, I was in my true form, and she buried her face in my tails, saying it was so warm," he said.
He looked at me, his golden-brown eyes glistening with tears.
"When I woke up, my tails just kept telling me to go after you," Luciano said.
As soon as he finished, all nine tails stretched out toward me, almost instinctively.
I stared at him for a long time.
Then I stood up, turned around, and kept walking south.
Behind me, Luciano let out a sad, whiny fox cry.
I didn't look back.
But somehow, I found myself slowing down without even noticing.
Those nine tails followed me in silence. This time, they weren't hiding at all—just swaying openly behind me, each tip curling as if barely holding back the urge to rush over.
I walked fifty miles, and those nine tails trailed right behind me the whole way.