Several years passed, and things were all going according to the foxes plan, with a few minor exceptions that were quickly removed from the equation. A lot of animals were starting to forget how to transform which made them easy to deal with, and those that could still transform were either eliminated by the foxes or agreements were made to pacify them. None showed the level of cunning that the foxes had, and as expected the humans were starting to run low on food stocks because of the greedy raccoons, meaning every day the foxes' advantage grew. Though one day, this would all change.
It was a vibrant Spring day, as cherry blossoms fell from the trees. The humans were preparing to plant their crops with the aid of a few raccoons, but before they could do so there was a commotion as a group of creatures were heading towards the town in a slow procession. Everyone gathered to watch them come in, as they were all hooded though quite clearly humanoid, and the patches of skin that could be seen had very faint darker spots. They seemed quite oblivious of the crowd that gathered, and continued at their relaxed pace to the centre of town and the elder's home, proceeding to create a circle around the entrance as one of their number moved forward- a creature notably larger than his companions. The elder was waiting at the door to greet them and walked up to the man that was apparently their leader. The group bowed at him as he approached, including the leader who stayed bowed as the human approached.
'Greetings on behalf of the humans,' said the elder, 'which creatures do we have the pleasure of meeting today?'
The creature in front of him stayed bowed, not saying a word. The elder could just make out the cloaked figure's eyes under his hood that seemed to be looking straight through him. The circle around him were still looking in his direction with their heads lowered, as the humans and raccoons watched and whispered amongst each other, trading opinions on the strange creatures.
'Alright then... What brings you to our village then?'
The cloaked figure said a word, though barely audible. All the figures remained bowed, which the elder was growing increasingly concerned about- what a moment ago was reverential respect, now seemed like veiled threat.
'Excuse me? You will have to speak up.'
The sound the creature made was surprisingly high pitch for such a masculine figure, and came out as a kind of whine that sounded as though the creature was not entirely comfortable with speaking in this form. Again, it was just a single word though this time it was clear what was being said.
'Laaand.'
'I'm sorry, we have no land to offer,' said the elder becoming nervous, 'we already have arrangements with the-'
He was cut off mid sentence as the creature in front of him screeched out a painful cry that hurt the human's ears.
'Land! You... will give us laand.'
'I think you should leave. We certainly don't want to deal with beasts that won't even show themselves in front of us.'
Another unusual sound came from the bowed man, and several of those surrounding him were starting to shift on their feet uneasily. The leader of the animals was shifting under his cloak as his body was getting bigger and more elongated, clearly shifting into a quadruped shape. Something like horns were starting to protrude from his hood, as the elder backed away until he bumped into his closed door. Some of the other animals were starting to transform as well, and the crowded humans and raccoons were starting to panic, some rooted to the spot entranced and some starting to run.
'Why are you...' started the elder as the creature in front of him revealed his true form, bucking the cloak off his back as he fully revealed his antlers before immediately charging at the elder, impaling him against his own door. Those others that had transformed started charging at the crowd with their antlers, as those that remained human drew blades. The elder started coughing up blood as he looked at the blazing eyes in front of him and attempted to speak.
'You are... Kirin?'
The deer snorted, pushing deeper into the wood, further crushing the elder.
'But Kirin are... peaceful? Why...?'
And with that, the elder gave one last cough before slumping over the deer's antlers, lifeless. The deer pulled himself free and observed the chaos around him before transforming back into human form. He spoke to the body of the elder, still struggling to talk.
'Not all creatures as in legend, hunter.'
He issued another blood-curdling shriek that caught the attention of all around, and the deer calmly returned to their leader's side. Little blood had been spilled as the deer only killed those that fought back, but most humans were intelligent enough to run and hide. The raccoons were long gone, having run back to their own village. The leader of the deer called for the attention of the humans and issued his decree.
'Kirin own village now. You help us. Hunter now servant. If fight, hunter die like alpha.'
The humans tried to make sense of the deer's broken language in their confused and panic stricken states, and many started to kneel. One stepped forward to speak with the leader.
'I am Kenshin, I advised the previous elder.' Kenshin bowed to the deer. 'I am humbled by your presence, Kirin.'
The deer bowed back before speaking.
'You command, hunter?'
'I will try to explain your will.'
And so the deer explained to Kenshin about how humans continued to hunt the deer when they first transformed despite their clear intelligence. The deer soon became tired of constantly running and hiding from humans, so took the offensive to reclaim their land from the hunters- then the land could be returned to the animals, and it would be the turn of the humans to be used as labouring animals. The deer didn't want to become violent, but knew fear worked much better than negotiation, hence only killing the leader and those that got in the way. Kenshin could understand their point of view, but was confused by one point- humans had made an agreement with the foxes and raccoons that they would not hunt anything and instead concentrate solely on farming, but because foxes could communicate better with other animals then they would be able to accurately judge which were suitable for hunting. Kenshin also explained that the humans were not happy with how the foxes were taking advantage of them at every possibility, as humans were too frightened of the Kitsune's power. The deer scoffed at this, saying they had no such powers- the deer were aware of their legend as Kirin which meant they should be able to spout flames from their mouths amongst other things, and that the whole idea was ridiculous. The same would hold true for foxes, who only gained transforming ability at the same time as everything else and certainly didn't have any kind of magic. It soon became evident to both of them that the foxes had played them both for fools, abusing their reputation as Kitsune to control the humans and pretending to be human as they hunted to deceive the deer. And so it was decided that if the humans could keep up the charade of being invaded by deer who abused their own reputation as Kirin, then they would be able to play the foxes at their own game.
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