Sokali runs through the meadow at dawn, her fox-like and dusty pink body weaving among the summer-bright wildflowers and grasses. A cluster of five tails are what peaks through the grasses where she bounds, each one tipped with silver that catches on the light of the new day.

The growling behind her stopped some time ago but still she runs, laughter bubbling from her every now and then when she remembers the shock and then anger on the badger’s face when it woke up to find her snuggled up with its kits. It had been tricky to crawl into that den - and she had to rely on both luck and a little push from her abilities to keep the badger family from waking. There was a scratch on one of her hips, the pink fur there matted with drying blood, but it was a minor injury and well worth it. She had stumbled on her way out, a sloppy move. Next time, she’ll need to be faster.

Only once breathing starts to become difficult does she stop, climbing up onto a boulder and collapsing there. She intends to roll over and lie on her back but doing so makes the wound on her hip hurt so she sprawls out on the surface of the rock, still cool from the night air, and pants with a wild smile bright in her silver eyes.

Someone approaches and her pink ears twitch at the soft fall of paws instead of hooves - and then Sokali is delighted to see it is someone else in a fox-shape. Her smile (combined with the panting) makes her mouth spread wide enough for her tongue to loll out when she turns her head and focuses her silver eyes on him.

She notes the feathers and feels a brief flash of jealousy - wondering why she couldn’t have feathers too - but he offers her a chance to talk about her most recent exploit so that thought disappears from her mind.

“Badger dens are a cozy place to sleep but you gotta make sure you’re faster than the mom.” She inhales a deep breath, trying to slow her heart, but she is still winded from her escape. Still, she sits up - her tails curling around her feet as she looks at him from her rock. “Next time I will be.” Her tone is matter-of-fact, even though her attention momentarily is caught by the flight of a nearby bird before she focuses on the other fox again.

“What’s your name? I’m Sokali.”

He doesn’t ask any follow up questions about the badger - which is somehow both disappointing and relieving. Sokali wouldn’t mind talking about the adventure even more (even though she had already said everything about it - but he didn’t know that!) but she also was glad to get the opportunity to not have to think of anything to beef the story up at all for Malik and entertain him. Perhaps she had been running away when she crawled into that badger den.

Even if she was fully grown and it wasn’t so much ‘running away’ as ‘moving out’.

Regardless, Malik instead asks another question about something she is happy to talk about - her tails! Her silver eyes are bright with a smile as they unfurl from around her paws and fan out behind her so they can be more easily seen - and counted. “Five. Every couple of years there’s another one, I have no idea how many I’ll end up with.” Her dad had tried shifting into a kitsune once, on her request, and he had six at the time - but there’s no telling where it’ll end. “I hope it stops before I’m all tails though.” She admits, half as a joke and half as a very serious, very real fear.