Hello friends, both old and hopefully new! Yes, it is me, Posher10. No, I am not dead. I want to quickly apologize for my unexplained and sudden 6-month hiatus, but it happened for a reason. As you can tell be the publish date, The Tale of Rubah Foxson is my oldest fanfiction and, currently, longest ever story. In the year-ish, my writing improved tremendously and, though I loved the Tale of Rubah Foxson, I felt I had not done the idea justice. Many things were changed partway through, inconsistent, or horribly explained, and I knew it was a challenge to get through. I would like to thank anyone who stuck with me! But, either way, I decided the best thing to do was start over.

With that said, there are some important things old readers need to know, or you WILL be confused:

The arcs will be very different, do not expect the plot to be the same.

My spelling of Miriam's name is now Miryem.

Thea and Ivan's names have been changed to Paige and Kay, respectively, in honor of the two amazing writers who told me to get a move on. I changed them for multiple reasons, the main being that Thea was too similar to Theo and it felt wrong to change one and not the other.

Kay is non-binary

Rubah's description has been redone. His skin is now dark where before it was only tan, his hair is the same, but his once black eyes are now green.

There are added characters, including but not limited to, Alexei, Tyanna, Nikolai, Taiyo, Taithruin, Elrînnaur, and Kupu, who are explained in the story.

It should be noted that I use a guide to ethnicities. Noldor will have light skin, light eyes (blue, green), and dark hair (brown, black), Sindar will have light skin, light eyes (blue, green), and light hair (blonde, silver), Avari will have dark skin, light eyes (silver, blue, green), and dark hair (brown, black), Silvan will have dark skin, dark eyes (brown, black), and dark hair (brown, black), Vanyar will have light skin, dark eyes (brown, black), and light hair (blonde, silver), and Teleri will have light skin, dark eyes (brown, black), and dark hair (brown, black). Elves with mixed heritages are kind of just chance.

Almost every character has undergone construction to their personality and may be different.

In other words, just ignore Tale of Rubah Foxson. This is its own story, and it is starkly different.

For now, that's all, so, welcome, to the Tale of 'Ro Foxson!

Rubah's fingers trailed down the carvings of his knife handle. He drew a short breath and spoke,

"Kupu, it's back."

His sister, her hands halfway down plaiting her auburn hair in a tight braid, faltered. Kupu's sharp emerald eyes didn't quite match her soft voice as she asked,

"What is, brother?" He didn't twitch.

"The inch."

Kupu stared at him for a long, hard moment, then tangled herself back into her locks.

"I can make you some lotion if you'd like."

The Foxson gave an internal sigh.

"Not that kind of itch." This time, she didn't give any indication that she'd heard him at all, except for her answer, which was as cold and clear as a lightning bolt that shattered through the rain.

"Then what, my dear older brother, are you talking about?"

Rubah eyed the long sword, balanced sideways on her legs, with caution. One wrong word and that blade would be pressed against his throat. He drew another gasp of air, letting his Fox-Mask settle over his features with trained ease.

"I've felt it only twice before, sister. Once, in the morning our childhoods burned so long ago. And, twice…" A tiny crack appeared in his face as he swallowed hard, "the second time in the evening we lost Miryem."

Kupu froze. Her face was startled, but it was like even the blood had clotted in her veins. She didn't move.

Rubah pushed on.

"I've only mentioned a few times before. I never thought it was anything, not until I'd had the sick feeling in my head that something was going to happen, and we found her blood on the forest floor." His features were down in a carefully practiced blank look but even he ducked his head when he added, "One of us will die today."

His sister snapped to attention.

"You don't know that."

"Don't I?" His voice was ice. "It's only ever happened twice. I lost family both times." His eyes brightened, and he sounded almost happy when he said, "Perhaps Námo is telling me that he's finally come to take me home."

A sharp pain exploded in his cheek, and he pushed two fingers against his now red face from where his sister had slapped him.

"Don't you say that," she snarled, climbing to her feet, half-finished braid falling to pieces down her back. He rose to meet her. Though Kupu was the shorter of the two, she didn't back down. "I've already lost two siblings; I'm not going to go lose another!"

Her brother opened his mouth to reply, ire in his eyes, but then his gaze widened. His sister glanced behind him, and her mouth tightened.

"Smoke rising," Rubah murmured. He sniffed the air and coughed, though it was miles away. A hand over his mouth, he said, "Rancid, rotting. Smells like death."

Kupu gave a feral grin before her face settled into a more controlled and calm emotion. She slipped her long sword back in its sheath and tucked her hair behind her back. His sister let a hand trail down the foxtails clipped to her cuirass, muttering a soft prayer to the Valar, before turning to him.

"It's always a good day to spill orc blood."

But Rubah was troubled enough that the feeling spilled past his shield and out into his eyes.

"Kupu," he said in a quiet, logical voice, "we're in the Hidden Valley. That smog," his eyes shot to the sky, checking the position of the sun, "is to the west. What else is to the west?"

His eyes widened, and she whirled back around.

"Imladris." The elvish was so beautiful as it passed her lips, so true and right. "Imladris is to the west."

"Rivendell," Rubah mused, and the Common translation sounded just as correct on his tongue as the Sindarin name did for his sister, "the Last Homely House is burning."

His shot into a tree, feet balanced evenly on a branch. A sliver of emotion slid past his mask as he gave a crooked grin.

"Let's go see if we can save it."

With an acknowledging grin, the two eldest Foxchildren vanished into the forest. After all, they hadn't come all this way just for their destination to turn ash.

But, even with that thought in his head, a cold pit of fear at settled in Rubah's stomach. Claws were stretched over his brain, digging deep. A wave of nausea passed over him, a premonition was strong that it could not be false.

There was more than smoke on the horizon, that much was clear to the Foxson.

Death was coming with it.