Turning to face Mob fully, Fox’s eyes narrowed in calculating stare at him. He padded up to Mob’s side, “Since you’re down here, I might as well do this.”

He reached out and batted Mob’s snout with a paw. The moment he made contact, a spark of blue-purple light flashed with a tiny pop. Startled, Mob rubbed at his damp nose, which faintly twinged with the feeling of a mild static shock,

“What-?”

“So we don’t lose each other,” Fox explained as if it were obvious. He pointedly rolled his eyes at Mob, “Gods know what’ll happen if we get separated. You’d probably get yourself eaten somehow.”

Mob froze, his tail fluffing involuntarily. “There’s a chance of that??”

“Piss off the wrong person and you’ll see,” Fox sneered with a gleam of fangs as he began to trot away, “Now, get a move on, Mob.”

“Wait!” Mob shouted as he scrambled to his paws.

But Fox’s small furry body easily slipped through the shifting crowd of the plaza and Mob immediately lost sight of him.

Just as he was about to panic, Mob felt a strange tugging. It wasn’t a physical sensation per se, yet at the same time it felt as if it were. Like something was pulling at his very being rather insistently. Not enough to hurt, but enough that he couldn’t quite ignore it either.

Mob’s mind jumped back to the spark and Fox’s words. He took a few hesitant steps in the direction Fox disappeared in and the tug seemed to lessen slightly. He puzzled over this, taking a few steps back and off to the side. The force reasserted its previous strength, only now it was at a slightly different angle from before. Mob tilted his head curiously and trailed after the source. Sure enough, the tug loosened it’s hold as he walked through a crowd of elegantly dressed, masked spirits that were busy taking selfies.

Waiting for him at the end of the plaza was Fox, He raised his lip in a smug vulpine smile in greeting at Mob,

“Oh good, you’re not as dumb as I was afraid you’d be.”