So. As it turned out, she was hosting a human child and a Centiroll in her house. 

She closed the door of her magic lab, which had served as an improvised operation room as she re-opened Mirio’s wounds, and leaned against the door. He was still sleeping from the sleeping potion but she had things to do, research mainly, and she needed to take a moment to recover her emotions.

At the top of the back, she had found a bug mouth and head, one which seemed to have already suffered a few wounds - probably the work of the “doctor” which had seen Mirio. At the bottom, she had found a bug tail. Which sort of parasite Mirio carried was clear: it was a Centiroll, a creature contracted from eating specific sweets and which ate human bones to fuse with the body. 

That one had taken over Mirio’s spine. There was no removal possible without killing Mirio. But she was certain, now, that he would be fine; once established, Centirolls tended to establish a sort of symbiosis with their host… a peaceful one, at least after the initial pain of the invasion. They also brought in other benefits, but she didn’t quite remember what they were… which was why she was leaving the room with Mirio. She needed to visit her wife’s library. 

And she needed to think about what to do with the child. But that… could come later. When he woke up. Or maybe even later, when he had recovered from his ordeal… 

She wouldn’t be like the monsters that had tossed him out in the cold with barely closed wounds, that was for sure. Just thinking about it made her blood boil. She had managed to contain herself in front of the boy, but now that she was alone… 

They would pay for what they did to Mirio, she decided. His mother and the doctor she had called to “help”. She would find out who they are, she had all the time in the world. And even if she usually didn’t bother with what humans did among themselves, she couldn’t let this pass. Mirio was such a sweet, defenceless child… 

And they were monsters. More monster than she would ever be, even.

She needed to learn more about Centiroll. Quickly, she turned into her true form so that she could run faster in the hallways; which she didn’t mind her humanoid form so that interacting with other humans might be easier, there was something so freeing about running as fast as one could on four legs that she never got from running on two - she always got the impression that she was about to fall over and had to throw her legs before her to stop herself. 

She quickly arrived at her wife’s library through those means - the moment it was reached, she turned back into her upright form and knocked at the door. 

“Well, well, well,” said a disembodied voice. “Did you lose your way, Serentina?” 

“I’m here to borrow a book, Iporon,” answered Serentina. “Now, let me in, would you?” 

“Ah… what sort of book?” 

That was excessively annoying. She glared at the door, knowing that the creature that was interrogating her so was on the other side, taunting her. “There is someone here that needs assistance with a centiroll and I’m providing it. Surely I can consult a single book about those.”

“Hmmm… fine, I suppose. There’s a few that mention them, but there’s one that’s specifically about them. I’ll get that for you.”

She heard a sound like wind blowing through the door and knew that the the one that went by the name of Iporon was floating away. She frowned, a little humiliated by this entire situation. She had her wife were married, yet, without her, she was barred from her library… and that insolent guardian spirit delighted in forbidden her the access! She knew that even if she complained about it to her, her mate wouldn’t care - maybe was even glad that Serentina couldn’t get her hands on her most secret and precious tomes. 

As if Serentina needed such knowledge! She knew that her wife had secrets in her possession that would make any powerful mage green with envy, but such a thing was expected from a creature that had passed a thousand years old… and yet, Serentina knew that she would never betray her mate’s trust by reading things she shouldn’t be reading. 

But Melhi would never give her that trust… they had been married for years now. Years! And that stupid library guardian of hers was still under the order to not let her pass. 

Serentina stilled the disappointment and the sadness in her heard when she heard Iporon coming back. Not that the guardian spirit could read minds - although Serentina could never be sure… 

“There you go,” said the voice of the guardian. 

The door opened and a slim book floated right into her hands. 

“That person you’re helping better not stay around too long when my mistress is gone,” said Iporon. 

“That person will stay the time he needs to stay,” replied Serentina. “I am helping them and they don’t have another choice.” 

“Another golem for your collection?” 

“That is none of your business.” 

There were no reply, but she didn’t hear the guardian go away like she had before - perhaps he was standing right behind the door, waiting for her to leave, before he returned to whatever a guardian spirit does with their free time. She knew that he wasn’t allowed to read the secret books either, so it couldn’t be that… 

She turned around and walked back without a goodbye. She was a lot slower as she now needed her arms to carry the book; out of curiosity, she cracked it open and started to look at the illustrations. 

The first few chapters were about the anatomical part of things, and Serentina skipped that. After having seen the Centiroll’s head for herself in the body of Mirio, she didn’t really want know how it had gotten itself there and she didn’t want to be given the imagery to visualise it. And she believed that Mirio shouldn’t be forced to do that neither. 

When she came back to her lab, she took a moment to observe Mirio as he was sleeping. She had operated him on a completely cleaned and cleared out table, but she had then moved him to a couch. He was a human child, and so she wasn’t sure if she read him right, but he seemed to be particularly small and delicate even for his age. She thought that the contrast between his jet black hair and his light golden skin was striking - he was going to grow into a very handsome young man, she could tell already. 

But right now, he was tired and sleeping, wrapped in a soft blanket and all bandaged up. So she pulled a chair so she would be sitting in his field of vision when he woke up, and started reading the book that she had borrowed. 

She read for a long time, and by the time she was finished the night was peering back at her through the windows of her lab. It seemed that her timing, may it be through fate or coincidence, was perfect; right a she was re-reading some chapters that seemed important to memorise, she heard Mirio’s breathing shift from slumber to stirring. She looked up to see him stretching, then wincing. 

“Careful,” she said. “You’re still probably sore, even if your little friend will take care that you don’t feel too much pain. It’s probably happy that it has room to breathe now.” 

“My… little friend?” She had laid him to rest on his side, which made it easy for him to sit up on the couch - proof that he indeed didn’t feel too much pain. “You mean…” 

“The Centiroll in your back. I figured what it was, yes, and you’re completely safe now.” 

“You mean that it’s gone?” 

Oh… she made sure to immediately clarify this, less he become too hopeful too soon. 

“There is no way for you to get rid of it now,” she said immediately. “Centirolls are with you for life, because you actually lost the bone that they ate. And for you, it’s the spine…” 

“Oh...” 

Serentina got up. She had been dreading and looking forward to explaining his predicament to him; she didn’t know him well enough to know how he would react. But she was also looking forward to deliver him some good news on the matter, at least. 

“It’s not all bad,” she said. “It seems that you might have gotten yourself a friend for life, from the sound of it. How about I tell you all about it at dinner? Surely you must be hungry by now.”

He seemed quite enchanted by the prospect of food, at least, and she hoped that it would be enough to cheer him up while she told him about his situation. 

“Please be careful while you eat, Mirio,” she said. “Your stomach probably hasn’t seen any food in a few days now, so go easy on it.” 

They were both sitting across from one another in the dining room after she had gone to fetch a whole basket of fruits for him. She congratulated herself for having had the foresight of offering fruits to eat first; that was the sort of things that wasn’t too hard to digest for humans, right? It was mostly water and sugar anyway.

Mirio, on the other hand, had practically pounced on the mandarines and the grapes that she had offered him and was more than happy to stuff his cheeks full with them. She had promised him a real dinner but, looking at how much he was eating, she was starting to doubt that it would be necessary, even if she had sent a golem to take care of it. 

Maybe as leftovers for tomorrow…?

“How do you have grapes?” asked Mirio. 

“How do we have grapes…? Oh, you mean, in winter?” 

Mirio nodded. 

“Well, maybe I will show you. We have a greenhouse of sorts, you see. We grow all sorts of plants there all year round. I can show you if you want…” she remembered that her wife would be very reluctant to have a human in the greenhouse. “But you got to promise me that you won’t touch anything and you’ll do everything I say.” 

“Do you have strawberries?” asked Mirio. 

“I don’t think we have, presently…? But if you like strawberries, I can try to make some grow for you.” Strawberries were hardy and they grew easily from offshoots; she could collect some wild one in the forest some time soon. 

But that would imply that he stayed around for long enough that he would see them bear fruit…

“That’s amazing,” he said, right before stuffing his mouth with half a mandarine. 

“What did I say about being careful?” 

Mirio at least had the decency of pretending to be sorry, but he didn’t stop chewing. 

“I just don’t want you to have a belly ache, that is all…” said Serentina. “Can you please slow down a little?” 

He nodded. And when he was done with his bite, he spoke again. 

“Maybe you can tell me about the… Centiroll?” 

“I can do that, yes,” she said. “Do you have any starting questions?” 

“Erm…” He paused to think about it. “I don’t know.” 

“You probably don’t know how to start. I was the same back in the day... When I ate my poptopus, that was.” 

“What’s that?” 

“Oh! Oh—” Serentina laughed. “I don’t think I told you, actually! That’s silly of me. Other things must have been on my mind…” 

“Told me what?” 

“That I’m a Foxtopus. A fox that ate a poptopus, that is, and that transformed after that. It’s… pretty much the same process as you went through. Now, it lives with me.” 

She rose her tails over the level of the table, curling their tips as a demonstration. 

“I was a regular fox before, just like you were a regular human. But now we’re both different, aren’t we?” 

“I wish I had a cool tail like you,” said Mirio. 

“But you do,” said Serentina. “Not the same as mine, but you do,” 

“Wait, I do?” 

“Yes, it’s just that you can hide it, and it’s been hidden up to now. The doctor tried to sew the hole shut too, probably to stop it from coming out.” 

Mirio seemed to shudder in quiet horror. Once more, Serentina had to hide the rising anger in her heart; she couldn’t believe that a human could have been this cruel to a child as to try and do this to him without his suspicion. 

“I think that if you focus on it coming out, it will,” she said. “Want to stand up and try?” 

Mirio was dying to try, and almost fell over as he tried to get up as fast as he could. She laughed behind her hand at the sight, not wanting to give him the impression that she was mocking him - on the contrary, she thought that he was very cute and she had to smile at the display.

Mirio had to adjust his clothes so that they would allow passage and seemed to take a deep breath. Serentina wondered if she should offer the advice that she had read about but, just as she opened her mouth to say something, a large, pink, and upright tail appeared behind Mirio. He turned around to look at it in delight… and seemed very puzzled by its appearance. 

“Oh, I know this bug,” said Serentina. “That’s so sweet! Seems that your Centiroll is an orchid mantis.” 

“A… A mantis?” 

“It’s a type of bug. I can show it to you in an illustrated book, if you wish; you’ll see, it’s very cute and beautiful.” 

“My Centiroll is a bug?” 

“All Centirolls are bugs,” said Serentina. She realised that she hadn’t explained that previously, which was why Mirio was confused. “You can tell what bug they are from your tail.” 

“My tail?” 

“Yes, it’s your tail, not your Centiroll’s - and you have antennas, too, but they are smaller. And those will carry your topping… the sweet that you produce as a Centiroll.” 

“Really? I make sweets?” 

“Yes, you do. As much as you want… although you’ll probably get pretty bored of it pretty fast, I’m guessing.” 

“I can eat them too?” 

“Nothing stopping you.” 

He seemed to be understanding how to make his antennas appear rather quickly. Serentina watched as two graceful tendrils dipped in dark chocolate appeared above his head. Moments later, he grabbed them with his full hands, getting some chocolate all over them. 

He let go of his antennas and looked at his hands with surprised on his face. 

“Awesome,” he muttered. 

“I already knew what it was,” Serentina said. 

“Really?” 

“Yes. You have a very rare trait for a Centiroll host, but your blood becomes chocolate as well. So, that’s how I knew.” 

“Wait…” Beat. “Can I eat my own blood?” 

“I wouldn’t recommend it… And you have the topping on your antennas, don’t you?” 

He waved them around then nodded. “That’s right. If I ever want a snack…” 

“Yes, exactly.” 

Mirio licked his hand to get a taste of the chocolate. He seemed pleased with it. 

“You know, if you were a mage, you could use your topping in many different spells,” said Serentina. 

“Really?” 

“Yes. Not only does it count as blood for many spells which require blood, but using it as a component in any spell will offer you increased mastery of it, as if you had bonded with it…” She noticed that he already seemed confused by her explanation. “It doesn’t sound too powerful but, trust me. I wished I could do that with every one of my spells.” 

“I don’t know how to cast spells. Well, I mean, just a little bit.” 

“Well, it makes sense, since you’re quite young… But you got plenty of time to learn, trust me. Maybe—” She stopped herself in the middle of her sentence. If her wife was here, she wouldn’t be liking where this conversation was going at all.

“Maybe?” 

“Maybe I can teach you one or two spell,” she said instead of what she had been planning to say.

“I’d love to!” said Mirio. “That would be really cool. You’re good at magic, right?” 

“I might be,” said Serentina smugly. 

“Like… how good at magic are you?” 

Serentina got up from her seat so that he could see her tails. “You see those?” 

“Yes?” 

“Each tail represents a hundred years of my life,” said Serentina. “I’ve been practicing magic for all this time.” 

Mirio’s eyes widened. He seemed to quickly count many tail tips he could see poking out from behind her, before he exclaimed, 

“You’re four hundred years old?” 

“Soon five.” 

“That’s so old!” 

Another lady might have taken offence to Mirio’s innocent exclamation, but Serentina took it as a compliment. Yes, she was old, quite old too, even if there some that were far older than she - her wife were among them. But that didn’t take away any of the merit of living for this long, far from it.

And, deep down, Serentina was a proud creature. A little vain too. 

“Thank you,” she said with a glowing smile. 

“Can you teach me how to use chocolate in my spells?” 

“I can try,” she said. “I’m not entirely sure how that works, since I never worked with a Centiroll host before… But we can try to experiment together. That’s how a lot of magic works!” 

“Oh, that’s great…” 

He stood there for a while, thinking. A more sombre expression came upon his young face. 

“Is something the matter?” she asked, a little worried. 

“Serentina, is it true that I will get killed by people if they know that I have a Centiroll?” 

Serentina sighed. “Humans…” 

“I’m sorry…” 

“No, not you. Want to sit down again? Are you still hungry? This might take a while, I think. It’s complicated, and other humans - as I said, not you - can be very weird about this.” 

“Why?” 

“Because Centirolls like to eat their bones.” 

Mirio nodded. “Well, mine already did that, and I’m fine now… I mean, it was very painful though.” 

“It’s not just that. Your Centiroll still craves bones, it wants other people’s bones.”

Mirio suddenly seemed speechless. He even covered his mouth with his hands, both of them. 

“Of course, you can also feel your Centiroll animal bones if you wish,” said Serentina. “That will do just fine, or so I read. But people are scared of that, and that a Centiroll host might kill them to steal their bones.” 

“I would never do that,” said Mirio. 

“Oh, I believe you,” said Serentina. “Not that I would blame you if you did, seeing as some of them might want to kill you. But surely… not all.”

“My mom would never kill me…”

The mother that had abandoned her child to the woods? Serentina balled her wrist so that she wouldn’t speak up her mind. She had certainly tried, but she wasn’t about to point that out. 

“Well, there are plenty of others that would,” said Serentina. “It’s not safe for you to show your true appearance to anyone.” 

“My… true appearance…?” He repeated.

“The one you have right now.”

“It’s my true appearance?”

“Well, I suppose it is. Just like I have a true appearance, and it’s not this one that you see right now but my fox one…”

“Wouldn’t my true appearance be when my antennas and my tail are in? So that I looked like I was before?” 

“But you’re hiding parts of you, are you not?” 

He nodded as he seemed to understand something new. 

“As for me, my case is a little different,” said Serentina, “because I was born a certain way, and while I can change into a human form, I will always remember where I come from…”

“How did you eat the poptopus?” asked Mirio. “Was it someone that gave it to you?”

“Someone that gave it to me? No, not really. I was a wild fox going through trash back then, it wasn’t a very exciting story… the transformation and everything that came after is a lot more interesting, however.”

“There was no strange man in a cart giving out samples or something?”

“None. In fact, if there were, I probably wouldn’t have approached him. I was a fox true and through at the time, and I was just as wary as one could be.”

“Wait… as in, really a fox? Completely?” 

Mirio sat back down at the table, interested. Now, it was time for him to learn about the woman that had saved him. The thought that they traded such information as the time where they became infected amused her.

“Yes. I still am a fox. Now, I’m just immortal, or rather I can live on for as long as I can unless someone tries to kill me. And I can take a human appearance, of course.”

“You’re a fox… with tentacle tales.” 

“Exactly.” 

“That’s kind of cool.” 

Mirio rested his head on the table. He looked like he was quite tired now, but not quite ready to go bed; Serentina guessed that she could entertain him a while longer, then. He still seemed to have questions. 

“So, you said that you were a foxtopus, before, but now you say that you are a fox,” he asked. 

“I am both. Really, at the moment… I am the fusion of two beings, especially after having eaten the poptopus. But the second one, the poptopus, is dormant. It’s letting me haven the control. So, really, in my body, I am a foxtopus, but in my mind I’m just a fox.” She laughed. “A smart fox. I learned a lot in five hundred years.”

“Is your wife also a fox?”

“My wife? Yes, she’s both a foxtopus and a fox, just like me, although she had nine tails. That makes her a lot, lot older.” 

“Nine tail? That’s so many.” 

“It is a lot. She’s far older than me, and very wise.” 

Although she could be awfully stubborn, sometimes, Serentina thought as she recalled the library incident from before. Stubborn and wary… 

“Will I get more tail when I get older?” 

“Hmm? No, I don’t think you will. Centiroll don’t work like that. But I, for one, think that your tail is already very nice.” 

“I wish my tail was as cool as yours. You can hold things with yours.” 

“Maybe… but you have your tail and I have mine. There’s no need to think about what we don’t have. Just like I don’t think of my life from before.”

Something about what she had just said seemed to make Mirio stop in his tracks. He looked at her, and suddenly she say tears in his eyes, and suddenly those tears were rolling down his cheeks. He had started to cry so quickly that he hadn’t even started to sob, but those dreaded sobs made themselves heard soon after,

Serentina stood up, surprised by the sudden change in attitude. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

“I— I want to go— I want to go home,” said the little boy, hiccuping his way through his sentence. “I want to— Mom—“

Serentina felt a wave of compassion for the little boy. In and instant, she was next to him, holding him in her arms, and he was holding her back. She regretted making him think of his life before - a life that would never come back. Stupid! They were not the same. Even if their experience were similar, even if they both shared their body with another being… she had ultimately gained, while he had lost everything except himself. 

And he was going to have to live with that, regardless of whether or not those people he had to leave behind deserved him in their lives. 

Mirio cried in waves, this much was certain. She held him as he was wrecked by tears and wordless wails. She held him and she waited for him to cry it out, but she had him know that she was right there with him. 

And then, he calmed down again. Slowly. Or maybe he simply had ran out of tears. 

“Will I see her again some day?” he asked, his voice almost too quiet. 

“I’m certain that you will, yes,” said Serentina. “She must be right where you left her.” 

“I want to go home.” 

“You can’t, you know that.”

“I want to go home now.” 

“Mirio…”

He pushed her away. His eyes were shining and red.

“I want to go. Home.” 

“I know,” said Serentina. “And you will. But not right away… and you can’t stay with her. It will be only for a visit, all right”

“I want to stay over there. At home.” 

“I know. I know you want nothing more than that, that you wish it with your entire heart. But you can’t, you know you can’t. We discussed this.”

Mirio lowered his gaze. “I know. They will kill me.” 

“That’s why I can’t let you go back. But, you know what? I promise that I will try to have you meet your mother again as soon as possible. No one can see you two though, so it will have to be at night…” 

“Tonight?” 

“No, my dear. Not tonight. But as soon as possible.”

Mirio nodded. The promise hadn’t given him his smile back, but it seemed to have calmed him. He had a new look of determination on his face. 

Serentina kissed his forehead. “You are the bravest little boy that I know of.” 

He nodded. 

“And I think,” added Serentina, “that it’s time for you to go to bed. It’s been a very long day. Unless you’re still hungry?” 

Mirio shook his head. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Well, know that there is food for you if you want to tonight, exceptionally. I will have a golem outside of your door and if you need anything, you can just ask.” 

Mirio didn’t answer, but he looked concerned by what she had just said. 

“What is the matter?” 

“I don’t like them,” he said. “The Golems, that is. I think that they are scary.”

“Oh, there’s nothing to be afraid of. They would never hurt you. They obey me perfectly in everything.”

“But they have no mouth and their eyes are shining…” 

“That’s because I made them that way. But I promise there’s nothing to be scared of, you just have to get used to them, that is all.” Beat. “Would you prefer it if I made sure that there is some food in your room and you don’t have to talk to a golem?” 

Mirio nodded.

“Then we’ll do it like that. Now, come. I’ll get you ready for bed. You’ll see that there is a nice, warm room waiting for you upstairs. We’ll talk some more tomorrow.” 

Once Mirio was in bed, Serentina had a lot to think about on her own. 

She perfectly remembered her earlier anger at Mirio’s mother and the doctor, but after having witnessed Mirio’s sadness at the idea that he would remain separated from his mother, she had to reconsider. Foxes did not form the same attachment to their parents than humans, it would seem, and so she had to admit that she might be venturing in unknown territory. But what she did know was that maybe, if Mirio wanted revenge, it was best to leave it up to him. 

No matter how angry she was at Mirio’s mother for abandoning him, she couldn’t act rashly and strike her down without a good reason. But was she really going to let her get away from this scot-free? 

Perhaps Mirio’s mother needed some testing. Then her true character would be revealed. 

Finding the home of Mirio’s mother was easy for someone as knowledgable as Serentina. She was familiar enough with Mirio that she could detect his smell, and his still lingered strongly around the house where he used to live. It was a little isolated in the village of Buckrest, the perfect house to have a doctor come and perform ungodly operations on a child (just the thought to it made her angry all over again.) But, just in case, Serentina also performed a recognition spell, just a simple formula that could pick up on the subtler energies that still floated around. 

It only confirmed what her nose had already told her. Serentina rolled her eyes. Sometimes, she really should just trust her nose and not over-complicate things. Maybe she had been married to her wife for too long; her mate’s over cautiousness was starting to rub on her. 

Next step, she needed to locate the mother of Mirio. Humans were diurnal creatures, so she guessed that she might be in bed, but Serentina had to locate it first. She did so rather quickly as well, this time only using her magic because she didn’t want to get caught; there were two humans in the bedroom upstairs, and one was awake. 

There was a frozen pond in the land surrounding the house, hidden between reeds and other wild plants. Serentina approached it and, with a sweet of her tails, cleared off the snow which was covering a portion of ice. She summoned an image from the inside of the room there, and saw what was happening in it. 

A man was sleeping soundly, but a woman was sitting on the side of the bed, clad in a nightgown. Her eyes were puffy and red because she seemed to have been quietly crying before, but now she was only staring at the slice of moonlight on the ground near her feet. She was completely still. 

The display was convincing, Serentina had to admit, but she was determined to go through with her test. Using another spell, she conjured an illusion of Mirio’s voice calling to her in the hallway, a “mom?” that she hoped was convincing enough. 

It must have been, because the woman stood up immediately, looking around her. A second attempt from Serentina and she was moving to the door of the room with an expression of disbelief. 

She didn’t have to believe if it was real, Serentina decided. She only needed to follow the voice, which she did. And, as it went with illusions, once the victim had started to follow, it was rather easy to lead them anywhere one might wish to lead them… more often than not, to their doom, which they only realised when it was too late.

Serentina lead her so through her house and then outside; right as the mother of Mirio hesitated, standing in the open door, Serentina made her catch a glimpse of her son among the dark trees of the forest ahead. 

The mother of Mirio started to run. “Mirio,” she called, “Mirio, wait for me!”

And, behind her, hidden in the shadows, Serentina was following her too. 

She wasn’t interested in toying with her victim any more than necessary. Using a magic that was similar to the one she used to created golems, she gathered snow in her tentacles as she went and infused it with a semblance of life. And then, the moment she came upon a clearing, she struck. 

She stilled the illusion of Mirio so that he would be standing still in the clearing. Then, circling around the clearing, she went to the other side and tossed the enchanted snow on the ground before Mirio. 

Right as the trap was ready, the mother arrived on the scene and saw the vision of her son standing with his back to her. 

“Mirio!” she called. “What are you doing?” 

The magic infused in the snow caught on in its surroundings, creating a temporary being of snow that rose from the ground. It was not very worked out, meaning that it took the shape of a gigantic toad with a gaping mouth running towards the illusion of Mirio.

“Mirio, no! Run!” 

The mother didn’t run away. Instead, she rushed right up to the creature and stood in its path, throwing her own body in the path of the thread to protect her child. 

But the creature didn’t stop. It opened its mouth wide and gobbled her… 

Before falling apart around of her, leaving her confused and disoriented in a heap of snow. After all, for a golem to work, it needed a bit more than a handful of common ingredients and a single spell. 

“Mirio?” called the woman again. She looked around, but her son was gone. “Mirio, where are you?”

“Your son is gone, human!” said Serentina in an amplified voice. 

She dissipated the shadows surrounding her, replacing them with an overpowering light as she perched on a rock to be above the woman. The latter looked at her with her mouth gaping, probably very confused by the succession of events that had just taken place around her. 

“He left when you chased him away, yet when you see him in danger, you rush to sacrifice yourself,” said Serentina. “Why?” 

“Why?” said the mother. “Why, because I am trying to save his life! Where—“

“Save his life by chasing him away in the dead of winter with nothing but a few clothes on his back!” 

“I gave him his best chance! He still had a chance to survive, where as here, he has none!”

“You still sent your own child to maybe meet his own death.” 

“You think that was an easy decision?” scream the woman. There was a sort of despair in her voice that quieted Serentina for a moment. “Do you have any idea what it might be, to do that to your own child? Do you think I did it happily? No! How am I going to live with myself— where is he! He was there just moments ago…” 

The woman started to pat down the snow frantically, as if it was a blanket and her son might be hiding beneath it.

“That was an illusion.” 

“An illusion!” The woman turned back to the Foxtopus. “So you know where he is! You’ve seen him. How is he? Is he okay?” 

“He’s sleeping right now. I rid him of the horrific things you’ve done to him… cut away those strings that closed those wounds that weren’t meant to be closed.” 

“It doesn’t matter… oh, it doesn’t matter, I shouldn’t have listened to that man anyway— all I wanted was to keep Mirio by my side, but he said that this would be the way.”

“That man… are you talking about the doctor?”

“Yes, he said that he could live a normal life like that, that he would kill the bug, but he couldn’t! He tried to fight it inside my son’s body, wanted to open him further to pull it out but I had to stop him— he was going to kill him!” 

Serentina had nothing to answer to that. The love that humans had for their children… it was alien to her. It wasn’t that foxes didn’t love their children, but they as attached and, dare she say, irrational. But, deep down, it was the same essence of feelings… and she could see that the intentions of Mirio’s mother had been pure, as proven by her explanation and her test. A woman willing to sacrifice anything for her child… even her own life. 

It was admirable, and Serentina caught herself admiring it. But the doctor…

While Serentina gathered her thoughts, Mirio’s mother had devolved into a sobbing, shimmering mess. Serentina came down from her rock, dimmed the blinding lights which had been behind her, and sat in the disturbed snow with the human. 

“Your son will be safe with me,” she said. 

The woman rose her head and wiped her tears. “Pardon?” 

“Your son will be staying with me now, where he will be safe.” 

“But… where?” she asked. “You’re… a fox. Is he in your burrow?” 

“I am the wife of the winter witch, as you might know her.” 

“The winter witch!” 

“She’s not home at the moment, and even if she was I wouldn’t let her harm him. He’s comfortably Latin in a bed suited for humans, and a few steps away from him a meal is waiting for him should he be hungry. I found him wandering in the woods, almost frozen, but he is strong and he survived the cold and his wounds fine. He needs rest, but he will be back in shape in no time.”

“You saved him,” said the woman. With tears in her eyes, she bowed to Serentina till her forehead was resting on the snow. “You saved my son! You have my eternal gratefulness.” 

“He will be staying with me now.”

“Will he be well fed and looked after?”

“Yes.” 

“And protected should anything or anyone come for him?” 

“I will let no harm come to him from anyone.” 

“Thank you, thank you,,.” 

“You might never see him again.” 

“I know…” She seemed to hold back a sob. “But if it’s what’s best for him, if he’s healthy and happy… I will be in your dept for ever. If there is anything a humble woman like me can do…”

Serentina was not interested in gathering the favours of some human woman, but she was touched by the sentiment. There was only so much anger that could be eroded away before the woman touched her foxtopus’s heart. 

“Luckily,” said Serentina, “I’ve promised him that he will be able to see you if he wishes, so you will see him again in secret.”

“Really?” 

“As true as I stand before you. Now, I need to go back, and you need to get out of the cold before you freeze to death. But we will meet again.”

Serentina, that truly had nothing more to say to the woman, turned to walk away, but the woman wasn’t done with her quite yet.

“Wait!” she said. “You’re standing here before me for real… are you truly a talking fox? This is not an illusion?”

“It isn’t. I am a Foxtopus.”

“A— a Foxtopus? A real Foxtopus?”

“I recon my wife and I are the only ones of our kind in those parts, so I’m not surprised that you’ve never seen one. But yes, I am a real Foxtopus.” 

“An immortal…”

Serentina had nothing to answer to that, so she didn’t. The woman seemed pensive before she added,

“If you talk and reason, then you must have a name. May I know it?” 

“It’s Serentina.” 

“Thank you. And thank you, Serentina, for looking after my son. I am in your dept…” 

“Good night,” said Serentina, 

She was in a hurry to get home; all that magic casting had tired he out. But she was glad she had made the extra effort on that night and had gotten to the bottom of it; otherwise she would have made a grave mistake. 

All that was left was to decide what to do with that doctor.