A short story
Shiina was a fox like any other. And like most of them, she possessed magic and she could also change her shape according to her wish. Yet there was one thing in which she was different from her brethren: Shiina liked people and therefore chose to dwell among them, and she has been living so since many years ago. After she’d decided to forsake the green shadows of her birth forest, she went to live between the deep shadows of the city skyscrapers. She lived in an old little house that stood squeezed between two huge concrete blocks of flats and offices. As for her human form, she chose the likeness of a young woman. When she left her native land, first she tried to look like a young man; that she did not fancy for long, because things were expected from her she didn’t want to do, like fighting other young men. Then she looked like an old woman, but that meant her limbs were ought to be weak and her sight poor and her teeth made from plastic and she did not like that either. Finally she changed to a young woman of a homely face and a rather stocky body, who, while taking a walk or bringing home groceries from the nearby store, would stir about as much commotion as a golden autumn leaf floating in the air. In contrary to her short limbs she posessed long deft fingers, a smiling round face with a pointed chin, red cheeks, slightly slanted eyes of the colour of honey and merry eyebrows. The only vanity she allowed herself was a shoulder long mane of auburn red hair, which she liked to describe as spun golden illuminated by the red rays of the setting sun, although a poet or an artist could maybe label them as titian. Others simply called them ginger. In short, her appearance was in no way beautiful, but at least it was interesting.
