Heat…fire…lava…death…burning…reborn…magic…nature…protect…power…heat…fire…

These images repeated ceaselessly inside Kobi LaCroix's head, his dreams not giving him any peace.

But he shouldn't be dreaming. He should be dead.

The lava had engulfed him and the fox he was rescuing from the forest. He remembered, vaguely, getting the animals out, and trying to save this one… he remembered the pain, the searing hateful pain of lava washing over his body, burning it, charring it, melting the fur off the innocent fox as it too was charred beyond recognition.

That much lava, that much pain…he shouldn't be alive at all.

Kobi opened his eyes, staring at the roof of a cave, the sounds of dripping water making his ear twitch. "How… how did I get here?" he asked nobody in particular, as he weakly pushed himself up from the ground. And promptly fell back down. "Oooogh… ow, my head… hurts… burning up!"

He put his hand to his forehead and tried to feel his skin… but all he felt was hair. Hair everywhere. Thick hair like…

…like fur.

Kobi's eyes opened wide as they took in the little light available in the cave, looking upon his extremity with shock and fear. It was no longer a human hand that had brushed against his forehead. A human-like paw—a combination between man and beast—graced his vision.

He experimentally wiggled his fingers… and the paw's digits wiggled in turn. He looked at it from all angles, finding pawpads, clawtips, dark blue fur covering the entire thing. And something odd… an extra finger. Seems like his middle finger was copied and put next to the original. He tried to get the fingers to come out individually, but having the extra finger was unusual to him, and both middle fingers came out at once.

He brought up his other hand, to find the same situation. A black over-fingered paw. "What the hell?" he heard himself say. Only… it wasn't quite his voice. It was different… a lower tone than before. And his mouth felt weird.

He brought his hands… okay, PAWS… to his face, and gasped. His hands weren't the only things that changed. He felt his nose inches away from his face, and rubbed his pawpads up his sleek new muzzle, feeling inside his mouth to finger over his many new sharp omnivorous teeth.

In a panicky move, his paws flew over the rest of his head to verify what had happened. Pointed, top-positioned ears. Fur everywhere on his face. A pointed muzzle. The fur went down further on his body, over his neck, his chest, his arms—the full torso was covered in blue and white fur, with red patches of fur over his shoulders.

Wait a moment… the red fur was different. He glanced down at the patches, and could have sworn he saw them move and glow slightly. He winced. "This has GOT to be a dream… please, oh please, let this be a dream…" he muttered, scared.

He felt something hit him from behind. He yelped and turned around—and saw nobody there. He got tapped again—brushed with something. He turned around again, and let out a growl. He stopped for a moment—yelping and growling?

The brush happened again, and he reached behind him. And got the most confused and scared look on his face.

He had grabbed his tail. He.. had a tail.

He pulled the appendage, still twitching, in front of him. The blue fur was predominant, with a white tailtip, and many more of those red, glowing, shifting patches. He put his fingers over those patches, and gasped.

They were warm. Very, VERY warm. He put his paws over the other parts of the fur. Nowhere near as warm.

He looked down past his torso, and blushed. He was naked! Instinctively, he looked for something to cover himself with, but as he looked around, his still-human mind told him not to worry. There was nobody around that would see him.

As such, he looked down and saw the most unusual thing: A sheath. There was a sheath on him. He blushed and the red spots glowed a little brighter on his shoulders and tail. "I can't believe this…" he said, reaching a paw down to feel between his legs. A soft little murr escaped his muzzle. Yup, it's real. And it's as pleasant as it was before this change. His body seemed to yell at him to continue—like an instinct of pleasure—but his mind beat down such suggestions and continued his self-exploration.

His legs were stronger than before, covered mostly in blue fur with some of the white inside his thighs. Blue fur all the way to his paws, which were 'booted' in black, similar to how his paws were 'gloved'. He noted that his feet had changed—they had become, in essence, fox hindlegs, where he would be standing on his toes. He wiggled his toes, and found his clawed digits would respond in kind.

The sound of a drop of water hitting a pool of water made his ear twitch again. He shook his head—gonna have to get used to that ear swivelling like that—and expertly followed the source until he got to a pool of water. He licked his lips—apparently being burned alive made one rather thirsty. He bent down to take a drink from the pool, and promptly gasped at his reflection:

It was… a fox's head. Somewhat. It's like a fox and a man mixed together. The overall shape and size of a man's head, the facial features of a fox…large tufted ears graced the top of his head, and long black hair framed his face—a face dominated by a long, pointed muzzle. Some of the black hair had remained under his chin, like a small beard. The fur around his eyes was blue, but it abruptly changed to white from his muzzle down to his chest.

He cocked his head, and the curious fox face in the water did the same. "Hello…" he said, watching his muzzle form the words. It was unusual to say the least. He couldn't help but smile, the face in the water returning a toothy grin. "My name is Kobi Lacroix. What's yours?" he asked the reflection, giggling. He should be in shock over this, but for some reason, he felt fine.

More than fine. He felt better than he had in a long time. But he also was thirsty.

He leaned over to drink of the water, and found he had to lap it up like a fox would. As soon as his tongue touched the water, he heard a hiss. Jumping back, he looked around—thought he might have heard a snake. Sensing no snake, he returned to the water, only to see a wisp of steam dissipate from where he had lapped at the water.

Curiously, he lapped at the water again. Another hiss, another wisp of steam as he drank. Yet the water didn't feel hot to him at all. Quite refreshing, in fact.

So how was the steam being made?

He cupped his hands—paws—and dipped them into the water. More hisses and steam came out, yet the water didn't feel hot to his paws either. He splashed the water on his face—instantly, more steam formed on him, yet the water was cool and invigorating.

Kobi shook his head and got up, careful to stand on his tiptoes for balance. He practiced walking slowly on his toes, his tail actually becoming a good counterbalance. Soon, he was able to walk around like he'd been born with these legs.

He stopped for a minute. Born. He tried to remember his family in the villiage, his friends… his memories had just about left him. All the memories of his human life were leaving him, like wisps of steam flowing into the ether.

"What's… happened to me?" he yelled, the sound echoing off the cave and mocking him as he grabbed his head with his paws and let out a mournful howl, sinking to his knees in despair. Everything he was, he was no longer to be. Everything had changed.

But why? Why did this happen?

His musings were interrupted by the growl of his stomach. Apparently he was hungry and needed food. He picked himself up and walked to the cave entrance, and looked around, gasping in a newfound appreciation of the beauty of a densely packed forest outside of the cave he found himself within.

And a mile or so away, he saw the volcano that had claimed his life, and the life of the village. His village? No, no longer his. He had nothing to do with them anymore. They ignored his warnings, and paid the ultimate price for their disbelief. But why was he spared? And why like this? Was this punishment because he did not move fast enough to save him and the fox?

His ear twitched as he was thinking, and immediately his mind snapped into the now. A twig had broken. He had hunted before, and his senses were keen as a result, but now… it's like the world was in slow motion, and he could move much faster, and sense more around him. Another twig broke—something was moving. Something small…

He sniffed the air instinctively. Rabbit. Male. Moving *sniff* Southwest. About 40 feet away.

Kobi blinked. How in the hell could he figure out all that? A rustle of leaves prevented him from further thought as his body went into action without him even telling it to do so, racing through the trees, dodging expertly as he chased the sound and the scent. The rabbit gave a good chase for a normal fox, but Kobi apparently was nowhere near normal, and within seconds, had tracked and killed the rabbit.

Kobi grinned and held up the carcass by his ears… then he looked rather somber, as if he wasn't supposed to have done that. He had a sense of loss at the death of the rabbit, but his tummy growled again. He sighed… law of the forest, he supposed. Eat or starve.

He returned to his cave with his kill, picking up some sticks along the way so he could make a fire. Once in his cave, he gathered up rocks from inside to make a pit, and started rubbing sticks together to make them smoke. He was never very good at this part—he never seemed to be able to make the fire himself, or it would take a long time. He was getting rather aggravated at these sticks, which stubbornly refused to yield a flame. "Come on, damn you… light… light already! Burn, dammit! BURN!" he growled.

And let out a surprised YELP! as the sticks he was holding onto burst into flame right in his paws. He dropped the sticks and ran to the water pool instinctively… but as he reached the pool, he noticed something odd.

There was no pain. There was no burn mark. There was no evidence he was holding anything flaming. He flexed his fingers—everything was fine.

He turned back to the flaming sticks and picked one up, wincing. The flames licked over his fingers… but they didn't hurt him. He blinked and applied the flaming stick to the other sticks, which immediately caught fire. He could feel the heat, but it didn't feel strong… like he could weather it. And no pain.

"I don't believe it…" he said, sitting down next to the fire that was being formed. And he tentatively put his finger in the flame. Nothing. No singing, no burning of his fur, no pain. He put more of his hand in the fire. Still nothing. Incredulously, he put his whole ARM in the fire. Nothing but pleasant heat was felt. "My god… I'm fireproof." he said, looking amazedly at his arms and paws. "But how did it go on fire in the first place?"

He picked up an unburning twig, and looked it over carefully. "I said… burn… I wanted it to burn…" He concentrated on the twig, and he noticed that his red spots were glowing more intently on his shoulder. The twig started to smolder and then caught on fire just as the sticks before had done.

Kobi went wide eyed as he regarded this. He tossed the twig on the flame and looked at his paws again in amazement. "I… can burn things?" He looked at the rabbit he had killed and hummed. He didn't have any tools to shave the fur off or anything… maybe he could burn it off? He held the carcass in his paws and concentrated, like he did with the twig. The smell of burned fur hit his nose as he saw the rabbit's fur had burned away, leaving the carcass' skin in front of him. Continuing the application of burning, he held the rabbit firmly, and evenly, cooking the flesh into something he would be able to eat. Eating the thing raw still seemed rather disgusting to him.

When it was all done, he looked at the cooked rabbit in his paws, and the fire, and back to the rabbit. He couldn't help but giggle as he realized—he could cook his own food anytime now! With that, he began to eat the rabbit, savoring the taste—it was cooked more thoroughly than a fire could ever have done.

After his meal had finished, he yawned and streeetched out his limbs, and curled up on the cave floor. It was still midday, but a lot had happened, and he felt tired—he needed to sleep.

Sleep… and to dream…

Kobi found himself in a large temple, seeming like it was carved inside a mountain. Huge torches graced the walls, and a statue dominated the middle of the temple floor, surrounded by a huge moat of molten lava. Without knowing why, he approached the lava and the statue.

The statue was of him! In his current half-fox, half-man state. But it was unusual in that… there were more body parts than it should have had. It was a two-headed statue—both heads looking like Kobi himself, looking in opposite directions with a watchful gaze. The torso sported four arms—in each hand, the statue held something that seemed important. One held a dove, another held a leaf, a third held a glowing ball and the fourth held a bowl of fire. Behind the body of the statue were three tails—much larger and fluffier than his current tail was, and with many more of those glowing red spots.

As Kobi was trying to make sense of the statue, he saw it began to melt, and become red in color. He watched in horror as the statue became lava, and flowed into the surrounding moat. As soon as the statue lava touched the moat, the lava burbled up over the dais in the middle, and began to form into a shape—a humanoid shape, with an old-looking, stern face. The face glared down at the fox, who was beginning to tremble. "KOBI LACROIX."

Kobi gulped nervously. Something told him to get on his knees. He did so. "Please do not hurt me." he said, softly, fear in his voice.

The face went from a glare to a smile. "Do not fear, fox. Stand."

Kobi looked up at the smile and nodded, standing on his pawfeet. "Who… who are you?"

"I am the volcano spirit. My name is not known to mortals. You, Kobi LaCroix, have been chosen."

"Chosen?"

The shape gestured to the pool of lava below him, and the lava began to ripple and become transparent and glassy, and eventually became like a mirror, reflecting an image. The image was of Kobi, as a human, warning his village about the volcano's eruption. It showed them laughing him out of the village, of him going to the forest, and in despair, warning all the animals. It showed the animals listening, and immediately leaving the forest, as the volcano began to erupt, and waves of lava descended upon the forest.

Kobi looked on nervously and in awe, seeing his old life's last few moments being replayed.

The mirror showed the fox with the broken legs that had cried out as the lava approached. It showed Kobi, in a selfless move, picking up the fox to rescue him. It showed the lava that had overtaken them both.

Kobi winced at that and looked up at the spirit. "I do not understand."

The spirit's body had transformed now into the giant face of the lava elemental, which looked down to Kobi with a serious visage. "Your actions have proven yourself to me, and to my fellow spirits of nature. We have chosen you as one of our protectors."

"Protector? Me? But I couldn't protect my own village!"

"The villagers were doomed when they neglected to become in harmony with nature. You have not neglected your natural roots. You were chosen to be reborn, in this era where our avatars are most needed."

"Reborn? Avatars? I don’t understand."

"The form you have now is a gift from the spirits of nature, as well as gifted with power from me. You shall use these abilities to aid you in your tasks."

The fox walked closer to the lava pool. "What tasks?"

"Approach that you might know your destiny."

"But… But I cannot cross the lava, spirit!"

The spirit reformed to a humanoid form and reached out with his hand towards Kobi. "Cross."

Kobi gulped and tentatively put his toe on the lava, expecting to be burned. Instead, he felt an oozy feeling, but no heat. He put more of his weight on his foot… and found he was directly stepping on the lava, but no heat, no flame, no burning, no pain… and it was pushing back. It could support him!

He looked back to the spirit, and bravely put his other foot on the lava, which supported him with no pain. He began to walk over the bubbling lava towards the dias where the spirit beckoned him. As soon as he got to the dais, he felt the lava creep up from the sides, engulfing his legs. Curiously, he was not afraid.

The spirit had lowered himself to Kobi and the face smiled. "You have taken the steps to acknowledgement. The spirits of nature have given you abilities to overwhelm those who would do her harm, much like a flood overwhelms all. I have gifted you with the power to withstand heat, to generate my lifeblood in the defense of her. You have already learned much in the cave, but you must learn more."

"Wait, spirit! What abilities? How will I know what I can do?"

"Nature abides by time and experience. You will do what you can when you must." The form began to melt back into the pool.

"Spirit! Please!" barked Kobi, "I have so many questions!"

The spirit melted away into the pool of lava. Only his voice was heard: "Protect us… protect your brothers and sisters from those who would do them harm… be at one with us all…"

Kobi began to ask other questions, but the lava at his feet was working up to his waist, then his torso. It was encapsulating him. Kobi flailed and tried to escape, but to no avail. The lava had fully enveloped him…

"AGGH!"

Kobi woke up from his dream with a start, panting. The day's light had been replaced by the cloak of the night, showing that he had been asleep for some time in his dream.

Dream. Was it all a dream?

He felt over his face… and a paw had touched his furred snout. Nope… was not a dream.

He crawled back over to the pool of water, to again look at his visage. The red spots on his face, around the blue fur, continued to glow and flow slightly. "Alright… a purpose… I've been given a purpose. How the hell do I DO it?" he mused. He took another drink, amused now at the wisp of steam, now that he realized why it was being made. He then crawled back over to where he had rested, and curled back up, looking out the cave entrance to the night sky over the forest.

"How the hell do I protect the forest?" he mused… and fell back to an uneasy and dreamless, sleep.

He awoke the next morning to the most startling of sounds. Something he had never heard before. It sounded like thunder, but was weaker – it wasn’t from the sky, but within the forest. “What in the world is that?” he said to nobody in particular. The sound repeated itself twice more, and Kobi’s curiosity got the better of him. He emerged from the cave and looked around the forest. He could not see anything out of the ordinary.

But his nose told him another story. Carried on the wings of the breeze was a pair of scents. Not of animals that he knew of, but of ones unfamiliar to him. His ears helped him locate where they were, and he stepped into the forest, almost melding with the trees in his stealth.

“Must be a ten-pointer, huh?”

“Yup. He’s just scratched his velvet off, tho. Likely to be a doe ‘round here. Keep your eyes peeled.”

These words were spoken in a language Kobi had never heard of, yet understood perfectly. Must be one of the many abilities he was granted by the volcano spirit. He oriented his face towards the two figures who had spoken. Never had he seen such odd clothing. Not simple clothing, like his life as a villager, but full body coverings even in warm springtime weather. They were covered with blotches of black and green and brown, like they were trying to blend in with their surroundings. If only they knew how much their scents broadcast their presences.

One of the men hefted up the head of a deer – a stag, with three holes in his side, and blood dripping down the brown fur, pooling on the forest floor. “This one’ll be great for the den as a starter, right Jim?”

“You betcha. I’ve been wanting to practice my taxidermy for a while. Shame I don’t like venison – this one’d feed us for a long while.”

“Yeah, me neither. Maybe we can sell it, get some more ammo. Clean up your equipment and we’ll head out again.”

Kobi did not know what these words meant, but he recognized the type of people. In his village, he had known those to hunt for the sheer challenge of it. Back then, it was more of a contest – the hunters had spears and had to meld with nature in order to hunt the more powerful stags. Only the ones who were physically superior would have a chance at taking one down, and would be celebrated as a hero. Something Kobi never decided he would do, as it was unfair to the stag.

But this… this was even worse. These two humans were fat, old, and nowhere near in a condition to take down a stag! How had the stag been so careless as to let them anywhere near…

Then Kobi saw it. Some sort of wood device, with a long gleaming beam over it. It looked like no tool Kobi could recognize, yet one of the men – Jim, apparently – was busy cleaning it with a cloth.

And in his mind, Kobi knew what it was called. A rifle. It was a gun. Firearms. Items used to shoot small projectiles at long distances with deadly accuracy. Makes a horrible thunderous sound when used. Kobi did not know HOW he knew this information, but he knew nonetheless.

And he knew he hated it. For some reason, Kobi hated that thing, despised it. Almost like he knew that’s what was used to kill the deer from a distance. No wonder the stag wouldn’t have bounded away – he had no idea these cowards, these cruel people would be killing him for no reason.

His eyes burned red, fixated on the human cleaning his ‘gun’. And before he could stop himself, he let out an inhuman howl and ran straight for him, teeth bared and claws extended.

The hunter-man looked up in frozen horror at the sight approaching him – with incredible speed, it was some sort of blue wolf… had to have been at that size… but he was running on two legs! Some sort of werewolf? His brain SCREAMED at him to run, but he was rooted to the spot, his eyes wide with fright as the demonic thing leapt at him, snarling…

*BLAM!*

The other human had raised his rifle and delivered a shot right to Kobi’s heart. With a whimper, the ‘werewolf’ had slumped to the ground, twitching. “Holy Jesus Mary Mother of God… what the hell IS that thing, Jim?”

The other man couldn’t speak, only stutter meaninglessly. The first man readied his rifle again and approached the still form of Kobi. He looked under the creature to see what looked like blood seeping from his wound. Only.. it wasn’t blood. It was too bright a shade to be blood. And it was hot. He could feel the heat from where he was.

“Whatever you are, you’re gonna pay for scarin’ my buddy to deaAAAAGH!”

In the blink of an eye, Kobi’s clawed paw was around the barrel of the gun as he brought himself up, snarling, and with a strength he didn’t know he had, yanked the gun out of the human’s hands and flung it yards away, into the thick brush of the forest.

The man was not expecting Kobi to still be alive… in fact, his shock turned to horror as he watched the gunshot he inflicted on the wolf-thing begin healing himself at a phenomenal rate, and in mere seconds, looked like he was never shot to begin with.

Kobi growled and latched both his hands around the neck of the shooter, and squeezed. Hard. The man gasped and writhed, his flabby body jiggling as he was lifted off the ground by a snarling, glowing-eyed blue wolf-demon. Kobi squeezed harder, even as the man tried to speak, his eyes beginning to bulge. “*gasp* Jim…*cough* Help…help…”

Apparently, this woke the other human – this ‘Jim’ – out of his stupor, and he walked up to Kobi with his gun ready to shoot…

Kobi looked at the man, and his gun… he needed to steer that thing away somehow, but he wasn’t willing to give up on ending the life of this pasty human being…

“Let him go, you son of a bitch! HEY!”

Kobi had yanked the man’s gun out of his hand, and like his friend’s gun, had flung it deep outside of the forest area. The man’s eyes went wide in horror again because of HOW Kobi had done so:

The werewolf thing sprouted an extra pair of arms which he used to disarm the man, even while he had the first pair still squeezing the life out of the other.

“Oh my god…” said ‘Jim’, as he looked to his friend, and to Kobi. The fox looked at Jim and growled, then let go of the first hunter, who fell to the ground with a thud, unmoving. Kobi looked down at his hands – all four of them – in a moment of amazement. He could feel all four hands like he was born with them, all of them identical. How he had done this was not clear… “S-stay away… holy … oh god, HELP!” he screamed, as he took off out of the clearing towards the edge of the forest.

Kobi looked at the man on the ground, and had all four sets of claws extended from his hands as he sped after him. The man was not as immobile as Kobi led himself to believe, but this new fox body gave him a strength and speed that no man could match. In seconds, he was almost upon his target, when the world turned upside down for him as something yanked under him and pulled him up off the ground, tangled in a net.

Kobi growled as he clawed at the net – it seemed to resist cuts from his claws rather well, and the more he clawed, the more entangled he became. Below him, the hunter ‘Jim’ panted and wheezed, but looked up with a sense of satisfaction.

“Okay, whatever the hell you are, you son of a bitch… you killed my best friend, and I’m gonna make sure you follow him!” he said with a glower. He pulled out another gun that was strapped to his side – Kobi ‘knew’ it to be a ‘pistol’ – and levied it at the fox.

Kobi knew he was in trouble. Even with four sets of claws, he couldn’t get out. He needed to be out, he needed to be out there so he could disarm this guy… he needed to be there…

Jim grinned evilly and pulled the trigger, only to have the gun jerked away by a blue-clawed paw. The shot rang out and had been pulled aside, missing Kobi by mere inches. “What the hell? ANOTHER one? Where’d it come from?”

Kobi, puzzled, looked down, and saw… himself. A blue and white, four armed fox creature, with glowing red spots, had appeared on the ground near Jim, and was growling, advancing on the hunter. Kobi was very confused – he was up here, trapped. How could he have been down there?

More shots came from the hunters gun, some piercing the other Kobi in his chest and arms. And like the original, they healed almost instantly. The hunter’s eyes went wild as he tried to run, but one quick pounce by the other Kobi landed him flat on his stomach, the fox creature snarling above him. The gun had been knocked clear, at the feet of the ‘free’ Kobi, while the captured one was still hanging above.

The one in the net had still decided that he needed to get down, but wouldn’t ask the … other him to let go of the hunter. He needed to keep him there. How was he to be let down? He looked down, and noticed that his red spots had been glowing forcefully. “What in the…” he said, confusedly, and then a brief light come from his body. In the light, he had seen a form… one much like himself, be pulled from his body. It was amorphous and aglow, like a creature of lava, but soon after its extrication, it formed on the ground into yet ANOTHER Kobi.

The hunter whimpered, and all three Kobi’s smelled the scent of urine. The one on the ground examined where he was, and realized he was made to get the first one out of the net. He followed the rope that held him there, and went to the tree it was tied to. With his four hands, he quickly slashed at the rope with his claws – the net may have been impervious to clawings, but the rope was not. The rope fell, and Kobi grabbed onto it quickly to slow its descent, lowering the first Kobi to the ground.

The twin then helped disengage the net from the original, and both had looked at each other with wonder. It was like he was in both bodies. Make that… all THREE bodies, as all three of them were aware of each others’ presence, viewpoint, and location. It was like one mind, three bodies.

A moan from the hunter caught all three of their sets of ears, as the Kobis surrounded him. The one on top of him let him up, but wrapped one of his strong paws around his shoulder. The hunter shivered and shook. “P-p-please don’t kill me, oh God, please… I swear I won’t hunt again, I promise!”

Kobi sneered in triplicate. “Why shouldn’t I kill you?” asked one of them. “You killed that stag for no reason, unfairly!” “You weren’t going to eat him, just use him as a trophy!” All three were somewhat amazed that they were able to speak this language fluently, as well as understand it.

The hunter whimpered again, cowering in front of the three Kobis. “Crap.. y-you can TALK?!”. The foxes did not answer his question. One of them looked to his gun and picked it up. “These things… these guns… all they do is kill…” he murmured. He looked to the human, and back to the gun, and grinned. He then let out his heat – like he did with the rabbit – and within fifteen seconds, the gun began to liquefy in his paw, right in front of the hunter. The metal dripped away onto the forest floor in an unidentifiable mess. All three of the Kobis looked on in interest, and smiled, nodding to each other. This was the best way to deal with these ‘guns’, in their opinions.

‘Jim’ kept struggling, at which point one of the Kobis brought him up to his face and snarled at him. “If you or your friends ever, EVER come back here to do this again, we will not be so kind. Let everyone you know hear that nature has a new protector.” One of the other Kobis growled at his side. “And as you can see, we can be everywhere…” The last Kobi came in from his other side, and grinned. “Now, go, take your friend. He is not dead. He sleeps. Both of you leave, and never return! Or next time we will not be so generous to you!”

Twelve paws grabbed Jim and flung him towards where the other human was—groans could be heard as he was waking up. The hunter scrambled to his feet, knees knocking, and nodded hysterically as he ran haphazardly towards where his friend lay.

The three Kobis looked at each other and grinned. “Wow.” “I had no idea we could do that!” said two of them, apparently to the original whom all had recognized. “Well, now we know how we can help protect the forest, right?” Twin nods of assertion followed. “Soo… how do we get back?” asked one.

Kobi hummed. “Hold onto my hands.” He said, and the other two Kobi’s did so. The flash of light came back, and the two Kobis became noncorporeal, merging back with the original. Also, the extra arms had melted away into lava, reabsorbed by his body. When the light was gone, Kobi was back to his normal limbed and numbered self.

And in the back of his mind, he heard the voice from his dream: "Protect us… protect your brothers and sisters from those who would do them harm… be at one with us all…".

Kobi smiled. “I accept my destiny.” he said in deference to the volcano spirit. He felt a welling of heat inside his body at that, as if the spirit had conveyed its pleasure in Kobi’s work. The fox then retraced his steps to where he left the first human, to find that both had left. Satisfied, he said a prayer of nature for the deceased buck, and took him back to the cave. As it should be in nature – nothing is wasted, and he ate heartily that night.

For he knew in the morning, he would need strength to continue his work – the work of protecting nature from those who would desecrate it – as he would have to do so for a long time.

FIN