Background:
Asha had not always been a black kitsune. Once upon a time she, like her mother before her, had been born with fur paler than moonlight. She had become a skilled oracle at an early age however, she had grown up exceedingly sheltered within the walls of a temple. One day when she reached the equivalent age of 14, a man snuck into the temple. Asha, delighted to see a new face and unaware of the dangers strangers caused had run up to him in glee. The young kitsune had spent a couple hours with the strangr before it happened. She had been showing him a tapestry when she felt a tiny prick in the back of her neck, and then the burning started.
Three days and nights passed in flaming agony for the child before she woke. Her once glistening white fur had darkened to a deep black. It soon became apparent however, that this was not the only change that had occurred. When people came to the temple to be healed by the small oracle, they left disappointed. Where once her small hands had healed the sick, they now did nothing. At the time, it seemed as if the oracle had lost her ability to be an oracle. The people and kitsune at the temple began to whisper.
Two full years passed before the little oracle discovered her new ability. It happened quiet on accident one morning while she was going through meditation. Instead of going to the courtyards as she usually had, the girl had decided to stay in her own rooms. When she returned from her meditation. She'd been holding a pen and across the floor before her where words hinting to the future. When she showed the people at the temple, instead of happiness, Asha saw fear on her faces. A sinking feeling entered her gut that night as she began to remember all of the whispered rumors about her incident two years before. Even as dread filled her, the girl took out a journal and let herself enter into a trance again. When she awoke, she had the answer before her. Three nights later, Asha ran.
Over the next four years, some of Asha's healing abilities returned to her as she wandered around from place to place looking for a home. In those four years she had retaken her natural form but a handful of times. It was easier if folks thought she were human. Between what she had observed at the temple and her venture in the world, Asha could pass for human without suspicion not long after she left the temple. The kitsune provided for herself singing, playing her beloved flute, and telling fortunes where she could. Asha had always been naturally charismatic and this served her well as she bounced around. Soon, the freedom and the wide open spaces seemed to breed a new feeling of ease in the girl. Although she had experienced many hardships at first, by the end of these initial four years, Asha rarely ran into a problem that she couldn't talk her way out of. The kitsune made many acquaintances and friends on her journey before she finally found a small town to settle in and call home. The majority of the people where elves, humans, and half-elves. But it was a nice little community and Asha integrated herself into it as a human fortune teller. Of course, most of the people thought it was hogwash and she suffered a little for it financially. But she got by.
