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England, 1790
The young man stood in front of the watercolor painting he had acquired. Rubbing his chin, he studied it. He couldn’t say for sure why it had interested him, but once he saw it he’d felt compelled to buy it.
It was a portrait of a beautiful Asian woman, with long, flowing, ink-black hair and a silver fox looking away from her. The woman’s dress was white, although Simon now knew that when the moonlight touched the artwork the dress would become silver with a faint tint of blue.
The background behind the woman was of a few branches with delicate blue flowers, like blue forget-me-nots.
It was indeed a beautiful piece of art and was said to have come from an ancient temple that had burned down in some far away land. The seller had not known exactly where it had come from in the Orient. He had thought the calligraphy appeared to be Chinese.
The young man ran his hand through his thick, dark brown hair and glanced out the window. He could see the dark shadows of the trees shaking their leaves in the gentle wind. The moon was bright and full in the late summer night.
Just like the last time—Simon shook his head. Just like last time, right? He must have been drunk from having an evening at the club with his friends. After that first occasion, Simon had repeatedly tried at different times of the day and night to see if the painting changed. And in varying degrees of soberness. Yet, each time, the small fox sat there as if mocking him. But, he could not deny what he had seen, could he? She haunted his dreams, the small silver fox with the tails.
Tails? Foxes have only one tail. Yet foxes were usually red, and this fox was certainly not red.
Taking a deep breath, Simon pulled open the draperies and went to stand again before the portrait of the woman and fox. As the moon hit its full height that night, the soft white glow flooded the room. The fox shimmered, and where there had only a moment before been one tail, there was now nine.
Simon fell into his favorite chair before the hearth, heart hammering. The fire continued to flicker and crackle in the fireplace.