I'm woken up by projectors light shoved in my face after an unknown amount of time. Maybe 2 or 3 hours ? Anyway, I feel like I've slept enough. I'm on the stage, on a pedestal in the middle of it. There's a LOT of noise in the auction room. From the little I can understand, there seems to be confusion, because almost everything I can understand is "what" and "how" questions being shouted everywhere.
- Je comprends votre confusion. Pourquoi une simple renarde, même si elle a [2 queues] ? Parce que c'est une bête capable de [contrôler sa magie] ! Elle est capable de [créer] une puissante tornade pouvant arrêter tous vos assaillants !
I only really understood "control its magic" and "2 tails", but with the context the tiger gave me, I can deduce that they want me to show off my magic… Huh ? Oh there's more
- Et c'est pas tout ! Cette petite renarde est aussi capable de prendre [soin] de vos [enfants] ! Elle à été [mère] de plusieures portées de petit, et les à tous amené à l'âge adulte ! Elle sera capable de [s'occuper] de vos enfants comme si c'étaient les siens ! Que ce soit les occupés avec ses rires ou ses jeux canins, ou les protéger des [dangers] potentiels qui peuvent toujours rôder aux endroits où on s'y attend le moins grâce à sa magie !
I have absolutely no idea what they are saying. Are they creating a tragic backstory about my mother that didn't take care of me or something ? Also, what dangers ? Are there any dangers around here or something ?
- Je vois que vous n'êtes toujours pas convaincus, malgré ses [2 queues]. Une [démonstration] de ses prouesses en [magie] devrait peut-être vous persuader ? Allez, montre-nous [ta magie], ma p'tite !
Did I understand them correctly ? Should I show off my magic ? Eh, why should I ? I'm still a bit sleepy, so I look at the auction host dead in the eyes before yawning hard and curving back into a ball of fur.
- On dirait qu'elle est timide avec tous ces spectateurs… Peut-être qu'un peu d'[aide] lui donnera la motivation de nous montrer ses prouesses ?
Sorry, did I understand it right ? Help ? You said "help" ? What help ? I don't think I need help, except to go back to my home. Does anyone need help ? Wait… Magic, control, help… Don't tell me they will zap me again. If they do, I'll blast them off.
And one of my wardens comes with a magic stick. Heck. Whelp, guess I'll be a good pet for once and play with the stick. I get up on my 4 paws, looking straight at the warden, and give a wind-infused paw strike to the cage. It didn't cut the cage as I expected, sadly. The bar shakes, but does not break. Then I try again. And again.
After the 4th, the presenter starts sweating, because the bars of the cage shake too much. And cracks at my 5th attack. He says something to me in his language, but I don't understand it. The warden with the stun sticks hurried and got close to me, but just when he's about to shove the electric rod inside the cage, I broke the cage and 1 of the bars flew directly in his head. Then I activate my personal spell and jump at the warden, and snatch his stick from his hand. I then sit on the ground and look at both the presenter and the warden with a defiant look in my eyes.
I hear some cries from the spectators, but then a weird transparent barrier appears all around the stage, trapping me, the warden and the presenter inside. I get up and go back to the center of the stage, then climb on the pedestal to sit on it… and completely miss the top of the pedestal and fall on the other side snout first on the ground. For the badass moments, it's the next book over.
Worst of all, I lose my grip on the stun stick and it goes rolling back to the presenter. So much for keeping the stick… The presenter hurriedly grabbed the stick, pointed it in my direction, and shouted at me away from its microphone "ASSIS ! PAS BOUGER !". They still don't understand that I don't speak their language, and can only understand some random words mostly related to magic !
I still obey his command and sit where I am and don't move from there for the rest of the auction. I'll skip the whole auction part, because I simply don't understand numbers in their languages. I just know that I end up getting sold to a little girl dressed like a princess, which I guess was bought by her dad or something. When it's time for me to be "escorted" back, I see there's a giant screen that displays a number and a picture of my fox body. If it's the brice I was sold at, it's so big my jaw drops and I trip on my paws.
One hundred forty THOUSANDS. Wait, no, I counted the zeros wrong. One point four million. 1.400.000 . WHAT THE HECK ! WHO OFFERS A 1.4 MILLION GIFT TO HIS NOT EVEN 10 YEARS OLD CHILD ! On top of that, he has no way of knowing I'm not a savage beast drugged to the moon and back to make me look calm ! I'll admit that I'm not sure if they use the same money as the one I know, but still, WTF ???
Anyway, because I tripped, the warden picked me up by the skin of my neck before shoving me into a new cage. Wait, why am I being shoved into a cage again ? Haven't I been bought already ? Shouldn't I go into my new owner's possession ?
Whelp, turns out the auction is 3 days long. I have no ideas about any of the other products being sold at that auction, but what I do know is that I was very well prepared for my new master. They even put a little pink ribbon on my tail and one purple on my left ear that they hold with a headband. And a pink collar and leach combo, to keep me at their foot I guess. Why pink ? I have no ideas.
I could finally see my new master. Tall, with short black hair, barely any wrinkles, and a face that screams "I lead a business here". Especially with his impeccable suit that looks like it cost more than my parent's whole wardrobe and the pocket with a pen that looks like it's made of gold. He was holding the hand of a 10-something year old girl in one of the fanciest dresses I have ever seen. She might be a bit older than that, but she still seems to have baby fat so I'm not sure about her age. 5 or 15, here is the question.
Also the girl was very excited when she saw me with my ribbons. Like she wanted to dress me more or something. And she approached me without any caution, forcing herself out of her dad's grip. Like she almost ran on me and hugged me as if I was a plush. I might be fluffy like one, but heck that was surprising. If I wasn't a former human, I would have either jumped out of the way, growled at her, or even maybe attacked her (or at least tried to get out of her grip).
Fortunately for her, I didn't do anything and just "calmly" accepted the "hug", but the state I threw at her dad made him take his daughter in his arms, preventing her from strangling me. Ouf, I was about to suffocate if she didn't release her grip on my throat… Those children are surprisingly strong !
The family head then said to his daughter something along the lines of "Wait to go home to play with him" or something, I'm not sure. Fine by me, I don't want to be bothered by an overexcited child right now anyway. I then see the man call out for his aid or butler, who then pays the price. And that's a lot of currency. More than I have ever seen in my life. Also it's the same currency I'm used to. Bloody hell that's a LOT more than even the price my parents would have paid for a good mana-boosting artifact.
And only at that point do I hear them asking about my name. I don't know if they were sloppy or just didn't think this through when putting me on the auction list, but not once was I given a name. And that's when I hear, if I understood correctly, the most stupid answer I could ever think about. They said "You can call it any way you want". I don't know how their brain functions, but they're lucky I still have human intelligence.
You don't change a pet's name. Like, never. Words already have little meaning for most pets, and names are just a way to signify to your pets that you're talking to or about them. If all of a sudden you change your pet's name, they will not understand it. They literally don't have the brain capacity to understand that.
And somehow, no one on my new owner's side found it weird. I do admit that some magical beasts become smarter after awakening their magic, but only smarter in an animal way, like better at hunting or capable of stealing treats with more discretion. They won't understand human logic any better !
The little girl then shouted "Foxy !" and almost harassed her dad into accepting that name. You should have seen his face when she almost yelled in his ears, and continued talking at an unbelievably loud level for the whole duration of the "argument"... He almost regretted having picked her up in his arms.
Until at one point she blatantly asked me "Pas vrais Foxy ?", and I felt like it was my queue to not get an even more stupid name than that, so I yapped to her. I don't know if she was capable of bestowing upon me a name worthy of a pet, but I don't want to find out either… Children are capable of really… Particular names. "Foxy" is about the most normal one I think I will ever get.
The dad looks defeated. I don't know why though, his daughter finally (almost) calmed down and stopped yelling. Anyway, he takes the leash from the clerk before heading to his carriage. Except that he immediately put his daughter on my back. What am I, a horse ? She's bigger than me ! Well, it's not like I can refuse her though… Unless I want to go back to the auction. Which I don't, I'm pretty sure if I force them to cancel a transaction like that I will be osld as a pelt.
At least the walk isn't a long one. She's really heavy for a fox that didn't really train his strength. At least I know how to boost my own strength with magic, but I can't do that for long. We get to the carriage in no time, but the family head doesn't take back his daughter. Also, miraculously, she didn't do anything stupid like trying to kick my flanks like a horse or pulling on my ears or ta-...
- KAI !!
Damn I jinxed it ! I scared everyone with my cry, but that little demon pulled HARD on my ear ! That hurt for fluff's sake ! I was this close to biting her hand too ! The dad understood what happened and scolded his daughter with her full name: "Émilie Claire Rose-Marie De La Cours". And you know when your parents call you with your full name, you made a big mistake. She immediately apologized after being called out… To her dad. She hurted me, and then apologized to her dad. Yeah I guess she might not be the brightest star in the sky…
On the bright side, I guess I now know who bought me… The "De La Cours" household is a noble household from another country somewhere in the east. They are the oldest noble house outside of the royal family from there. They also never really had anyone in power inside the royal family. I know way too little about distant noble families to know where they are in the family, but I still recognize her name from somewhere. Granted, I have such a bad memory of names that I think I would forget mine if I didn't have to write it constantly at school…
Anyway, after the scolding, she was put on what I can only describe as a very big baby car seat. With the straps and everything. She is taller than I am, maybe 1,30 meters (~ 4' 3"), but she still was put in a baby car seat. And that's when it strikes me: the name of this girl is actually well known. And I remember where I heard it from...