Free Kitsune Tales: Two Short Stories by Emily Kay Singer Page B

made
their way around the wide bike path. Normally, Yuri would be intrigued by their
summer antics, but she forced herself to focus.
    She could feel another magical presence nearby, tugging at
the power inside her, but she couldn’t pinpoint it yet. Piccolo had a knack for
finding the exact location of whatever they were looking for. Another reason
she wished he was there with her now.
      Moving farther
away from the fountain, she took another deep breath. This time, she caught a
whiff of something that smelled distinctly magical—-that musty, ancient
smell that only came from power that didn’t belong on this side of the wall.
    Yuri zeroed in on that aroma and followed it to a bench
shaded from the late afternoon sun by a tall elm tree. A ragged homeless man
lay sprawled on the bench, one arm bent beneath his head and the other stroking
a large cat resting on his chest. The cat lay stretched out, its head at the
man’s collarbone and the tip of its tail near the man’s knees.  
    It was the cat that smelled like the Flipside. The creature
lifted its head and blinked at Yuri with intelligent eyes. It rippled with a
spell of illusion, no doubt to hide its human face, but the magic felt hasty.
    “You forgot whiskers,” Yuri said. Her voice wavered with the
remains of her panic, but she forced herself to act brave.
    The homeless man turned his head to frown at her. “If you’re
here because I said I had a talkin ’ cat, she don’t
talk to just anyone.”
    “Oh, she’ll talk to me.” Yuri flashed her sharp teeth and
both the man and sphinx drew back in surprise. She loved watching people when
she caught them off guard. She could get a glimpse of their true nature, and
could use it to manipulate them if she wanted. Piccolo often told her it wasn’t
subtle enough for him, but he wasn’t here to frown this time. “How much do you
want for her? Name a price. Anything and you got it.”
    “She ain’t for sale.” He stroked
the sphinx’s tawny fur. It clung to his fingers, standing straight up from the
animal’s back. “She found me and I ain’t givin ’ her up.”
    Yuri fought the urge to roll her eyes. Humans always thought
they could own everything. Oh, sure, she would pay him—-in the same way
she had paid the cabbie-—but she knew well enough that the sphinx was its
own creature, not hers. “I’ve got two thousand bucks I can give you. Cash.”
    He hesitated, but shook his head. His eyes flashed with greed
and terror, a combination that confused Yuri as much as worried her. One of his
hands twitched as if he moved to draw an invisible weapon.
    Before she could say anything else, the sphinx stretched and
sat up, balancing on the man’s stomach. After a moment of studying Yuri with
its wide, golden eyes, it spoke. Its high voice and haughty tone grated on
Yuri’s nerves. “He won’t accept, Small Ears. I’m not going back, and you’re
better off wasting someone else’s time. Don’t you have rabbits to chase or
something?”
    “Nope. I have a snotty little sphinx to take home.” Yuri’s
mind raced. If she couldn’t pay the guy to let her take the sphinx, she could
easily put a spell on him. But her unique, Earthside power was at a severe disadvantage against pure Flipside magic. If she tried
anything as small as a simple charm, the sphinx might be able to turn the spell
back onto her. Using magic was out of the question. Which left persuasion,
trickery, or pure speed.
    “I told you: I’m not going.” The sphinx lifted one paw and
licked it, though its nose wrinkled like it wasn’t used to the motion. “I’m
sick of the desert, and this place has fish. I love fish.”
    Yuri considered asking if it also enjoyed driving mortals
mad, but she swallowed the question and darted forward instead. Screw talking.
Grab it and run. She closed the distance between them in the span of two rapid
heartbeats. One hand closed around the scruff of the sphinx’s neck and the
other grabbed it around the