<div class="floatleft">(https://tokyobling.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/fox_shrine_foxcloseup.jpg)</div><strong>Character Name/Alias</strong>: Kitaka Tori (Kit)<br/><strong>Location</strong>: Eastern continent, Pan-Asia, unclaimed jungles approaching the Southwestern desert<br/><strong>Current Action(s)</strong>: Traveling, grumbling, looking for points of interest<br/><strong>Tagging</strong>: None in particular<br/><div class="floatright">(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rMjEML5yj4w/TMY9t4IPiJI/AAAAAAAAACU/D1JS6X-E5C0/s1600/japanese%20woman.jpg)</div><br/><br/><hr/><br/>A thorn. In her paw. A literal thorn in her paw. Well, sonofab-...<br/><br/>The creature that made its way through the undergrowth at the desert's edge wasn't exactly a rare sight, though in these stretches of humid wilderness, was not exactly common fare. She'd had plenty of time to reconsider her traveling arrangements, of course, given that there was more than one human already who, but for the quick thinking of the fox, had nearly crossed her path. Even now, she shuddered to think of having to outrun hunters with this terrible shooting pain. Sitting quietly at the edge of the desert, she leaned her head down and began to gnaw at the pads, trying to dislodge the thing.<br/><br/>It was a curious sight, the horizon devoid of buildings, free of the scent and sound of pressing bodies, clinging to the edge of the jungle and relenting only to the golden sands. The spires that pierced the sky had evidently sunk, leaving behind only the stench of death and the feeling of being only too little, too late. Though time had passed - much too much for her liking, given her limited means of transportation - the signs of great numbers retreating towards the sea were still visible in the furrows that lined the natural valleyway between the dunes, speaking of whatever forces had caused the sands to swallow the city whole.<br/><br/>She wasn't exactly attached to the festering mess the city had been. She wasn't invested in its economy, had no interest in its culture, no desire to see it thrive as might someone native to the unnatural walls. The city was as old as she, however, and physically a greater resistance by far. Whatever had done this thing was a source both of great power and of great threat. All three of her tails tucked in underneath her when her ears laid back, concerned over what all this might mean for her. The scent that came on the winds was strange, enchanting but foreboding, even in the wake of hundreds of human feet. It seemed to stir at the edge of her whiskers and make her fur stand up along her ruff. And yet whatever was making her bristle was also frustratingly elusive.<br/><br/><em>Perhaps I shall follow it to the sea,</em>she thought restlessly, standing in a fluid motion that nevertheless made her wince, the thorn digging into the sand and retaliating in her paw with the resistance. It was not much further, particularly compared to how far she'd already come. With a sigh, she looked back over her shoulder into the jungles. It might not have been her native forests, but at least the foliage could still provide cover. In the desert, she'd be easy pickings for anything that felt the need to come after her. She could easily be spotted. She ought to turn back now. Even if she continued with the appearance of a human, she'd be easier to spot. Possibly even easier to identify, given the trail that led here. And they simply weren't suited for long travel.<br/><br/>But Kitaka had never been one to prize safety over curiosity.<br/><br/>Driven by a thirst for knowledge, no matter how trivial, she sighed and started out towards the bulk of the sands, one aching paw in front of the other. Internally, she grumbled, though the only sign of this was the mild grunt that escaped her narrow muzzle and the flare of foxfire that sprang up in her wake, weak beneath the midday sun and snuffing itself out before she'd gotten a few paces beyond.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The light jog was tailor-made for helping her to eat at the miles, putting them firmly behind her as she took towards the seashore. The footprints of the humans strengthened every now and again, then dulled only to rise once more in clear-cut edges where winds and grains had yet to erode them. It made it terribly difficult, given the soft terrain, to figure out how long ago they had left comparative to her arrival. It could not have been so long, given that the last time she'd seen these sands was barely a month past, and the festering cesspool had still been standing.<br/><br/>Once again limited to traveling on foot, the fox made her way towards the shore at a pace only marginally faster than that of a human, given how every fourth step was a limp. Her trail was left uneven and her appearance disheveled, but she finally came upon the place where her nose and her eyes told her that great numbers had assembled. If she didn't know any better, she would say that whatever was driving - or leading, she supposed, but most likely driving - these people had chased them clear into the sea, and not so long before her arrival. The higher stretches of shoreline still held the prints of scores of feet in shoes and boots alike, lingering in places the higher tides might have already wiped clean had they been present only a day before she had come upon them.<br/><br/>But there were no bodies in the sea, no sign of the drowned. Were these perhaps enchanted, somehow? Protected? The fox sat in the damp sand at the edge of the water and contemplated. She contemplated and she gnawed, she thought and she chewed, and came to no satisfying conclusion in either case. She was still confounded as to the fate of the city and the numbers who had seemed to have taken it. She was still tormented by the thorn in her paw, that defense of a thistle recently trod and both problems made her first sour and then sleepy.<br/><br/>It didn't take long, given the sound of the waves lapping at the shore, the sound of the gulls circling high overhead, the shadows of the birds as they passed between sun and sand, sky and surf. She felt the gentle, steady sigh of the whole earth beneath her feet and fur and cursing her nature that she could not follow her quarry, could not track them even if she could. The thoughts ran round in her head until she began to nod off, with hide nor hair of her prey in sight.