In the end, it took relatively little effort to get the boy to follow me out of this hellish dungeon, perhaps unsurprisingly so considering how horrifying this place was, and I highly doubted that whatever had happened to him here had been pleasant.

  Even then, however, as I led the boy away from his cell and through the dungeon, it wasn't hard to tell that he still didn't trust me all that much, and judging from the half-fearful and half-stunned looks he kept sending me when he thought I wasn't looking, he clearly felt uneasy around me.

  I wasn't sure of the exact reason, but I had two possible explanations for why he was so scared of me. The first was rather simple; he was a traumatized child who had gone through a horrible ordeal, and I was a stranger who had popped out of nowhere in the midst of his hell without any explanations.

  The second possible reason was also rather simple, and unfortunately, not something I could easily fix: the fact that I was far, far stronger than he was.

  ?Even without scanning him with my spiritual sense, it was easy to tell that the boy was a flickering candle compared to my roaring supernova. While I'd done my best to restrain my energy so that he wouldn't feel overwhelmed, I hadn't exactly had a lot of time to learn that particular skill, so maybe some of my aura had leaked through and spooked him, or maybe my initial scan had.

  Both were reasonable explanations, in my opinion. Still, the answer for which one was correct or whether it was something else entirely would have to wait until the kid relaxed enough to share his story with me, and considering how he looked a jumpscare away from having a heart attack... Well, it would probably take a while.

  Regardless, as we walked along dirty and blood-stained corridors in a rather awkward silence, I decided that, ultimately, his reasons for being uneasy didn't matter right now. I was the adult here, or well, at least I felt as though I was, so it was my duty to show that I didn't mean him harm.

  So, clearing my throat and trying my best to suppress the nervous flicking of my tails behind me, I spoke up, breaking the silence that had descended between us ever since we'd left his cell.

  "So!" I said a bit too loudly, clapping my hands together and causing the boy to flinch as I turned to face him, walking backwards as I spoke so that we could properly look at each other. "I probably should've asked earlier, but what's your name? I mean, I've just been calling you 'boy' in my head, but that sounds a bit rude and dismissive, you know?" I said, smiling awkwardly as I tried to avoid wincing.

  God, I really was horrible at this. "I mean, if someone just called me 'girl' all the time, I'd get offended, you know?" I rambled on, forcing myself to keep smiling and talking despite my mind utterly blanking out as I desperately tried to find some topics to talk about.

  Turns out, losing all of your memories only about an hour prior and having no idea what was going on with anything makes you a poor conversationalist. Who'd have thunk it.

  But regardless of my inner and outer rambling, my words did at least cause the boy to speak for the first time since we'd met, a small, vexed frown on his face as he did so.

  "I'm... Xiang. Xiang Fang." He said, his voice a bit hoarse as he did so, and even saying just that much made him look as if he'd just had a tooth pulled, but I'd take my wins where I could find them.

  "Xiang, huh? Nice. I like the name!" I praised, giving him a thumbs up that only seemed to further confuse him. Then, in a comically exaggerated manner, I grinned and threw him a wink. "Xi-ang, f-ang. Your parents had a sense of humor, I see."

  The boy, Xiang, blinked. "I wouldn't know." He eventually said after a short and yet plenty awkward pause. "I've never met them."

  I deflated, feeling my ears drop sadly on top of my head. "Oh. Uh..." I winced, rubbing at my neck as I looked away. "Well, that sucks. Um, sorry for bringing that up, then." I apologized, even as I internally chanted 'stupid, stupid, stupid!' at myself.

  Again, God, I was bad at this.

  ?Xiang tilted his head, frowning at seemingly nothing for a moment before speaking. "It's alright," he said haltingly, his hoarse voice echoing through the corridor as we made a turn to the right. "What about you?"

  "Huh?" I asked dumbly, momentarily taken aback. However, when I fully registered that he'd just asked me a question, I immediately perked up from my slump. "Oh, uh, I'm not sure. Maybe I have, maybe I haven't? I can't really remember." I answered, frowning as I furiously tried to push through my amnesia and see if I could remember anything about my parents.

  Unfortunately, and also unsurprisingly, that didn't work, and my memories remained stubbornly absent.

  "Err, I... I meant your name, honored eld-, uh, my lady? Your Highness?" He awkwardly corrected, although despite his growing confusion and awkwardness, it did seem as if he was slowly untensing, at least a little bit.

  "Oh. Whoops, hehe, my bad," I chuckled awkwardly, feeling a bit dumb. Of course, he meant my name. Afterall, why would he be asking about my parents of all things, especially in a situation like this... Still, I nonetheless answered after a moment of internally calling myself a dummy.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Or at least, I tried to. Unfortunately for me, when I opened my mouth to answer, nothing came out, and once again, I felt like a complete dumbass.

  "Um... I'm not sure about that either, to be honest." I admitted sheepishly, feeling a growing sense of annoyance with how badly this whole amnesia thing was messing with my communication abilities. "I can't really remember my name... Or much of anything else, I guess."

  Xiang stopped in place at my words, his face going blank. "What?"

  I stopped as well, sighing quietly. I'd been wondering how to go about explaining my condition, but between not wanting to burden the young boy with further troubles as well as my general awkwardness, I hadn't yet figured out a good way to do so.

  Well, the cat was out of the bag now, so I suppose that was one less thing to worry about.

  "Yeah, I don't really remember much... Or anything at all, really," I said, my voice much quieter as I looked away, staring at one of the cells beside us. It was mercifully empty. "I can't remember my name. Can't remember who I was. Can't remember how I ended up here. Can't remember where here even is."

  I sighed, running a hand through my long blonde hair, the act feeling surprisingly relaxing as the silky-smooth locks caressed my fingers. "I woke up about an hour ago in a weird cave that I can't remember ever entering, under an empty town that I've never seen before."

  I turned, looking at Xiang in the eyes and giving him a small, sad smile. "So... Yeah, that's me. Or I guess, the lack of me. Just an amnesiac fox woman. But hey, I guess it can't be worse than whatever you went through in this shi- er, craphole."

  Xiang stared at me. And then stared at me harder. And then practically tried to bore a hole through me with his eyes, all the while I just stood there, awkwardly smiling as I waited for him to react.

  And react he did. "Oh." He said, sounding more than a little numb as he did so. "Well, that's... I mean... Uhh..." He mumbled, looking so much like a lost puppy that I couldn't help but let out a small giggle.

  As my laughter echoed, though, I could've sworn I could hear the faint echo of someone else's maniacal laughter alongside mine, but considering it was just Xiang and me here, that was probably just my mind playing tricks on me. Hopefully. Unless this place was haunted by ghosts.

  My giggles cut out, and I gave a nervous glance at the cells around us, and at the few skeletons I could spot.

  Considering how fucked up this place was, ghosts popping out to jumpscare me wouldn't have been that surprising. Thankfully, none did so, but who knew, maybe they were hiding, waiting...

  I shuddered. How scary.

  "D-don't worry about it!" I exclaimed a bit too loudly, forcing myself to stop thinking about it, and in doing so, remembered something else that had mildly concerned me before. "Oh, yeah, by the way, why'd you call me your highness and lady and all that stuff? What was all of... That... About..." I trailed off, blinking in concern as I noticed Xiang wasn't exactly registering my words.

  And, sure enough, a moment later, his eyes practically rolled to the back of his head as he collapsed. Or, well, he would've if I hadn't practically teleported to his side, catching him before he could hit the floor.

  "Oh god, Xiang?" I asked, gently shaking the boy's shoulder. At his non-response, I grew even more frantic. "Xiang? Xing! Kid, are you okay? Oh god, please tell me you're okay. Did I do something wrong? What happened? Shit, shit..." I mumbled in a half-panic, frozen in place as my mind utterly blanked out on what I was supposed to do here, my amnesia once again coming in to bite my foxy ass.

  Was I supposed to lay him down? Hold him up? Do CPR? Wait, what was CPR? Use antidotes? What antidotes, and where could I find one? Oh god, I had no idea what to do...

  Thankfully, my panic was interrupted by Xiang stirring slightly in my arms, his movements stiff and strange.

  ?But right now, that didn't at all matter to me. "Xiang! Xiang, are you okay?" I asked quickly as I saw one of the boy's eyes half-open. "Are you hurt? Sick? Did you-"

  "I'm... I'm just..." Xiang interrupted me, his voice sounding a bit strange to my ears as he did so, but I quickly pushed that thought away. Of course he sounded strange; he'd just collapsed out of nowhere. "Just... Tired."

  And then his eye closed, and his stirring stopped. Thankfully, his chest continued to rise and fall at a steady rate, his breathing strong and consistent despite everything.

  Meanwhile, I couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh. So, he was just tired. Thank goodness, I'd been really worried there for a second.

  Still, looking down at the now peacefully sleeping boy, his face almost serene, I couldn't help but feel a pang in my heart as I compared how he looked now to when he'd been awake.

  Poor child... Clearly, he'd been through a lot. Maybe I shouldn't have trauma-dumped him as I did, but what else could I have done? It's not like I can hide my utter lack of memories, and from what I felt, it was always better to be open and honest than try to hide things only for them to come to light later.

  But speaking of light, I decided that some of that would definitely do the child some good. Gently and carefully, I maneuvered the boy in my arms until I was holding him in a princess carry, his thin, slightly malnourished-looking body feeling lighter than a feather as I ensured he was settled comfortably in the crook of my arm.

  Then, once he was secure, I looked around at the prison around us, and at the sheer, crawling vileness that practically irradiated it all.

  "... Fuck this place," I mumbled under my breath, sighing quietly as I gazed at the boy in my arms. "Don't worry. I'll bring you somewhere better, kid. Sleep well in the meantime, okay?" I rambled quietly, giggling slightly at the way his face scrunched up slightly when the hot air of my breath hit his face.

  How adorable, I thought to myself before tearing my eyes away from him and back to the dungeon around us, and despite my best efforts, I couldn't stop the dark frown that formed on my face.

  I remembered basically nothing. My past. My family. My very self. Even my name eluded me.

  And yet, as I stared at this wretched place that took innocent children like Xiang and spat out corpses and skeletons... I knew what to do.

  My tails swished behind me, and as they did so, a subtle glow overtook them. Then, with a single, collective flick of all nine of them combined, the glow vanished.

  I hummed in approval. Then, once again, somehow just knowing what I had to do, I willed myself and the sleeping boy in my arms away, my mind easily conjuring up my desired destination.

  Just like that, we vanished in an instant, off toward better places where dreams didn't go to die.

  And then my parting gift made itself known, and an apocalyptic blast erased the prison and the town around it from the face of the planet.