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Magus Chiyo of the Hills (#1527)

Owner: 0x88Ed…972D

The Lore of Magus Chiyo of the Hills


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Chiyo poses with her fox familiar, Ki, against a backdrop of desert sand dunes and blue skies. She has a short black bob, a Kabuki face with pink Hikimayu eyebrows, and pink lips curved into a smile. She wears a yellow cowl over a billowy pink shirt and loose purple harem pants tucked into yellow boots. A magic glowing toadstool hovers above her outstretched palm. Behind her, her red fox familiar grins mischievously.



BIO

AGE: 17

AFFILIATION: Member of the Canis Coven

ROLE: Leader

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Kitsune

COMPANION: Ki the red fox

PERSONALITY: Ambitious and assertive, a natural leader

STRENGTHS: Mature and fair minded, fearless but not foolish

FLAWS: She is drawn to darkness and power, can act selfishly at times

FUN FACT: She has a mysterious tear-shaped stone embedded in her chest with an unknown rune etched upon it.

BACKGROUND: As a young child, Chiyo was separated from her twin sister, Ichiyo, after a traumatic encounter with a demonic beast that killed their mother. Chiyo was taken in by a family of foxes and remembers little of her past. Nor can she explain how a mysterious pendant got embedded in her chest, or understand what its purpose is. After forming a mysterious connection with the Kitsune beast though the use of a magic mushroom, Chiyo has embarked on a quest to unlock the secrets of her past and gain enough strength so her loved ones and precious memories are never at risk again. Little does she know, her journey will lead her to discover an enormous threat to the Runiverse, and uncover secrets that make her the target of an ancient and dangerous organization.




PROLOGUE

Chiyo’s first memories were purely sensory: the feel of coarse fur against her cheek. The tang of musk. Shrill barks like laughter. Piercing tickles on her feet as her siblings nipped her toes and heels.

What became of her original, human, family she did not know, but Chiyo’s dreams held tantalizing and terrifying clues: shadows, and screams, and a small, pale hand slipped into her own. But she did not dwell on these thoughts. Like the foxes who raised her, she preferred to live in the moment.

Chiyo was a wild girl. She learned to stalk, hunt prey, and pounce like her den mates. She wrestled with them in the sandy dunes beneath the baobab trees and learned to dig holes to keep warm during the night and cool during the day. She yowled and sang with her siblings when they made a fresh kill, and she snarled at them when she needed space.

Years passed, and Chiyo grew.

Before long she was larger than her fox siblings and took up more space in the den. She was no fool; she knew she was different. Her limbs were long and furless. Her hair was black as night and silken as strands of cobwebs. And upon her sternum a white raindrop-shaped stone was embedded. It was bone cold and etched with angular blue marks that Chiyo traced her fingers upon when she felt anxious. Sometimes she could have sworn the stone faintly glowed…

One morning Chiyo woke from another disturbing dream and scrambled out of the den, eager to bathe and clear her head. Her favorite sibling, Ki, trotted after her shyly. He never liked to be far from her side.

“Last one to the oasis is a smelly fish!” she teased.

The star known as the Kitsune’s Tear flickered gently overhead in the pre-dawn light as they raced to the watering hole.

The oasis, as always, was empty, save for a few leggy birds that Ki chased away, snapping at their tail feathers playfully. As Chiyo bathed, her sibling hunted for fish and managed to catch a large one that would feed their whole family.

When both her mind and body felt scrubbed clean, Chiyo crawled back onto the sandy bank and shook her entire body like a fox, sending droplets flying. She tugged on the rough cloth dress that protected her delicate skin from the elements and sniffed the air. Something smelled…strange.

Ki sensed it too.

“Chiyo…do you smell that?”

“It’s not me!” she joked. “I just bathed!”

“Chiyo…run!” With a yelp, Ki darted into the nearby reeds.

Before Chiyo could react, a blur of motion struck her with such force she fell back several feet. Pain flared through her body and she thrust her hands out reflexively. A small ball of flame shot out of her palms, striking what she now saw was a snarling wolfdog, larger than any she had ever seen before.

It flinched as the fireball struck its muzzle, but it rasped with laughter as the flame extinguished on contact. Chiyo glanced down at her palms in shock. They were soft and unblemished. Did she really cause flames to shoot from her hands?

The wolfdog prowled toward her, slavering. Its putrid scent assailed her nostrils, a horrid mix of dried blood and rot. Its black fur was matted and encrusted with weeping pustules and Chiyo could see the creature was suffering from some foul disease.

“At last!” it snarled. “Give it to me.”

“Give what to you?” Chiyo cried, thrusting out her hands again. But no flame emerged this time.

Before the creature could answer, there was a crackle of brush as another dog burst from the foliage and tackled the wolfdog.

Chiyo watched in horror as the two dogs snapped and wrestled on the sand, their fur and blood flying in the melee. The newcomer was a slender brown mutt with a soft coat. It did not look like a fighter, but it fought like one.

“Chiyo!” Ki cried from his hiding spot nearby. “Now’s our chance! Let’s go back to our den where we’ll be safe!”

But Chiyo could not move. She continued to watch, rapt, as another figure stepped into view. He was tall, dressed in colorful desert garb. Though his body looked human, his head was that of a stag with wide reaching antlers.

He smelled strange, like sage and something mineral. He smelled like another world. Years had passed without a single intrusion upon the remote area in which Chiyo lived with her fox family and she was as frozen as a hare from shock.

The stag-man calmly lifted his hands into the air as the dogs continued their violent battle, and he muttered strange words under his breath. His palms glowed with an eerie light.

“A wizard!” Ki yelped.

Chiyo had only heard of such beings, those who could manipulate natural forces to create miraculous effects, but she had never seen one until now.

In the next instant, the stag wizard thrust out his hands towards the fighting dogs and he roared, “Back where you belong, cur!”

The wolfdog yelped in pain as it dissolved into smoke before Chiyo’s eyes.

The surviving dog limped to his master’s side, licking his wounds. “I could have felled him,” he remarked balefully.

“That was no ordinary Dreadhound,” the wizard replied in a low voice.

“Who are you?” Chiyo managed to choke out as she got to her feet. Ki nipped at her heels and barked. “No talking to strangers, Chiyo! You know the rule!”

The Stag Wizard smiled gently and said, “My name is Wizard #7913. There, I am no longer a stranger, little fox.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Ki cried, his fur bristling along his spine. “We’re leaving!”

But Chiyo did not move. She regarded the wizard with a calm expression though her heart was pounding in her chest beneath her stone. Ki raced off without her in a rare display of defiance.

“Thank you for saving me,” Chiyo said. “I owe you my life.”

“It was fortunate that my familiar and I were already tracking that corrupted Dreadhound from Wolf Dungeon or we would not have made it here in time,” Epher replied.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before…or anyone like you,” Chiyo admitted.

Epher pulled out a pipe and cocked his head at Chiyo quizzically as he lit it. “I’m just a humble Hunter with his hound. We’re common enough in these lands. But you…” He trailed off.

“What about me?”

“Forgive me for asking, but why is a young wizard such as yourself living like a wild fox in the middle of the Baobabs?”

Fear spiked in Chiyo’s heart as she cried, “I’m no wizard. I’m just…Chiyo. And I’ve lived here with my fox family my whole life.”

“I saw the fireball you shot at that Dreadhound,” Epher’s dog remarked.

“So that was me,” Chiyo whispered, gazing back at her hands.

“Indeed,” Epher chuckled. “Were it not for your magical abilities you would not be able to communicate with your foxes or have survived out here for as long as you have. In fact, your magical essence is quite strong. You must learn to use your abilities to better protect yourself!”

“Until today, I’ve never known violence.” The stone seemed to throb in Chiyo’s chest. Why did that statement feel like a lie?

“I fear your days of peace are coming to an end,” Epher said somberly. “The heliacal rise of the Kitsune’s Tear came too soon this year, bringing early flooding to the Peixan people to the west. The previously dormant Wolf Dungeon has been stirring with unusual activity. Not only do these events appear to be connected, but I also now believe that Dreadhound was on the hunt… for you!”

Shock trilled down Chiyo’s spine. “Me?” she protested. “What do I have to do with any of this?”

Epher took a puff of his pipe and looked at Chiyo for a moment before answering. “That stone in your chest… do you know what it is?”

“It’s always been a part of me,” Chiyo replied with a shrug. “Like my hand, or my nose. Why would I question it?”

“That is no ordinary stone, child. I fear it will make you a walking target for as long as you have it in your possession.”

“I don’t understand!”

“Before I explain, listen carefully.” Epher shrugged off the golden cowl that was wrapped around his neck and handed it to Chiyo. “Take this cowl and keep that stone hidden. Especially if you ever venture to the lands of men! Never reveal it!”

“That’s enough!” a high-pitched voice interrupted them. Chiyo turned to see her mother fox arrive with all her kits in tow. “Stay away from my daughter!”

“I mean no disrespect,” Epher said with a small bow.

“Chiyo, we’re going home,” mother fox snapped.

“But mother…is it true that I’m a wizard?” Chiyo blurted.

Her mother narrowed her eyes at Epher and snarled, “Who are you to tell her such things? This is why we do not speak to outsiders!”

“Madam fox, you know what I say is true!” Epher exclaimed. “The girl’s gifts are squandered here. Worse, she could be in danger—”

“No!” mother fox yelped. “I swore an oath to protect this child. She is safe as long as she remains with me!”

Chiyo’s eyes widened. An oath? To whom? Her mother had always told her she was found as a baby, crying in the reeds of the oasis.

“Chiyo,” Epher said, breaking her thoughts. “Your mother has done well to raise you all these years, but you belong with your own kind. I can bring you to the Blue Wizard Bastion to the north. They can teach you to use your magic and you will be safe there!”

“I still don’t know why I’m in danger,” Chiyo replied as fear gripped her heart. Could she truly leave her home and follow this wizard into the unknown?

Epher pointed to her stone and said, “That, child, is a summoning stone. I have never seen one fused with a person’s body like that. Unfortunately, there are those who would kill you to possess it.”

“What does it summon?”

“In truth, I do not know. The rune etched upon it is foreign to me…”

“Stop scaring her!” mother fox cried. “If you don’t know anything, keep your mouth shut!”

Epher nodded and said, “It’s true my own knowledge of the subject is limited, but there are Blue Wizard scholars who can help—”

“She can’t trust them!” mother fox interrupted with a barking laugh. “Wizards are the most power hungry of them all! They would be the first to kill her and claim her power for their own. Now be gone!”

Epher nodded again and turned to address Chiyo. “The choice is yours, child. If you come with me, I can bring you to people who can teach you about your magic…and your summoning stone.”

Chiyo felt frozen in place once again as she tried to absorb all this information. I’ll have to become a human instead of a fox, she thought to herself. And for some reason this scared her most of all.

But she couldn’t deny the curiosity she felt blooming inside her, the desire to learn about magic and use it to create astonishing feats.

She looked at her fox family, who huddled together, trembling. She could see the fear reflected in her mother’s eyes. She could see Ki’s desperation as he waited for her reply.

“I can’t leave my family,” she said softly.

“You tried,” Epher’s dog said to his master.

“Very well,” Epher conceded with a sad shake of his head. “We shall be on our way. But allow me to leave you with a small gift.”

Epher reached into the folds of his cloak and retrieved a small pouch which he placed in Chiyo’s palm.

“You may not be ready to leave your nest now. But one day your magic will call to you, and your heart will long to answer. Eat these when you have decided to pursue your rightful path. They will give you clarity. Until then, stay safe, child.”

And with that, the wizard and his dog departed through the thick foliage.

“Chiyo, let’s go,” mother fox said sternly.

Chiyo hesitated, watching as Epher and his hound receded into the wavering distance. The day was growing warm, and heat distorted the horizon. A horizon that she did not know what lay beyond.

“Chiyo!”

“I’m sorry, mother.” Chiyo turned and followed her family back to their den, cupping the pouch to her chest.

“Are you mad at me for getting mama?” Ki whispered anxiously as he trotted at her side.

“You were just trying to protect me.” Chiyo ruffled his fur.

“Please never leave me!”

That night, they shared the fish Ki caught, and like true foxes living the moment they did not speak of the day’s events. It was already in the past, forgotten, blown away like sand upon the wind.

But Chiyo could not forget.

“Mother? What did you mean when you said you swore an oath to protect me?”

Her mother did not reply for a long moment. Finally, she placed a paw upon Chiyo’s knee. “As a mother, it is my duty to protect all my cubs. Including you.”

Chiyo nodded, but that was not the answer she craved. Only humans troubled themselves with questions like these, did she truly expect something different?

That night she could not sleep. Even her nightmares escaped her. She quietly slipped out of the den, which suddenly felt too small, too warm.

Too safe.

Under the dim light of the sickle moon she opened the pouch Epher had given her and shook the contents into her palm. Tiny red mushrooms spilled out like little jewels, glowing with a soft magic.

She held them gently, human thoughts and questions tumbling in her mind. The stone in her chest seemed to pulse in time with her heart. When? When? When?

The Kitsune’s Tear winked in the sky above, watching.




As inscribed by @taniadelrio / caniscoven.eth

Entered by: 0x4C97…3f86 and preserved on chain (see transaction)