My boyfriend is a nine-tailed fox

Chapter 7: The Whispering Winds

The forest was eerily quiet as Anita, Claire, and Max stepped out of the temple. But Anita’s mind was elsewhere, her hand tightly gripping the fox-shaped pendant she had found.

“Anita,” Claire said, snapping her fingers in front of her face. “You good? You’ve been staring at that thing like it’s about to start singing.”

Anita shook her head, trying to brush off the unease creeping into her chest. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just... this feels important somehow. Like, really important.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “Important how? Like, historical-significance important or ‘I’m-about-to-summon-demons’ important?”

Before Anita could answer, a sudden gust of wind swept through the clearing, rustling the trees with a hollow, haunting sound. The force was strong enough to scatter the sketches Claire had been clutching, sending papers flying into the air.

“Hey!” Claire yelled, scrambling to catch them.

“Where did that even come from?” Max asked, looking up at the now still canopy.

Anita didn’t respond. Her focus was locked on the pendant, which had begun to emit a faint, rhythmic pulse, almost like a heartbeat. The sensation spread through her fingers, warm and insistent.

“Anita?” Claire called, her voice tinged with worry.

The wind whipped again, sharper this time, and Anita staggered back, her hair flying wildly around her face. She could hear it now—soft, unintelligible whispers carried on the breeze, curling around her ears like a secret.

“Do you hear that?” she whispered, clutching the pendant tighter.

“Hear what?” Max asked, looking around nervously. “All I hear is the wind.”

“It’s not just the wind,” Anita said, her voice shaking. The whispers were growing louder, words just out of reach but tinged with urgency.

Claire grabbed her arm. “Anita, stop. You’re freaking me out. Let’s go back to town and—”

The pendant flared suddenly, its golden light illuminating the clearing. Anita gasped as a wave of energy shot through her body, leaving her breathless. The whispers coalesced into a single word—soft, clear, and spoken directly into her mind.

“Awaken.”

Anita’s knees buckled, but she caught herself, the pendant still glowing faintly in her hand.

“Anita!” Claire shouted, steadying her. “What just happened?”

“I...” Anita shook her head, trying to steady her breathing. “I don’t know. It’s this pendant. It’s like—it’s alive or something.”

Max stared at the glowing artifact in her hand, his face pale. “Yeah, that’s not normal. Can we all agree that’s not normal?”

Anita wanted to dismiss it, to pretend it was all her imagination, but the warmth in her palm and the lingering echo of the whisper told her otherwise.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said, her voice firm despite the fear bubbling inside her. “We can figure this out later.”

As the three of them hurried back through the forest, the pendant’s glow dimmed, but Anita couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever she had awakened wasn’t going to let her go so easily.

.kened wasn’t going to let her go so easily.

.