The sun was setting and she had yet to find the culprit. The rustling of steps alerted her who prepared herself to shoot, then the silhouette revealed its owner posed no threat. A silver haired fox with brown eyes, his extremely pale skin made evident he was far off his winter wonderland.

"Ah, it's just a fox." She lowered her bow.

"Just? That wounds my pride." His poker face couldn't mask his viciousness. "I am Nukpana, dear."

"Knowing your name won't change the fact that you can't hurt a fly." Unvexed, Jiya continued her search.

"You're misunderstanding, Illusions are meant to break the mind, not the body." The silver fox floated around her with his lower extremity fading in and out in a purple fog.

"In fact, I can hurt you. It's simply in a way you're not accustomed to." He blocked her trajectory, still floating.

"An illusion isn't any different from a dream, once you wake up it's over." She shrugged aloof.

"Oh really? Then you wouldn't mind having a bad dream." He blew some of the thick mist on her face.

"I never said th-" She coughed, her eyes shut automatically. When she opened them her father, Kyro, the locals and some unidentified adults were in front of her. Besides the people, everything around her was a inescapable darkness. 

There's a lot of unknown faces, Nukpana probably has been spying on the villagers for some time. Though he isn't responsible for their deaths - unless illusions aren't his only talent. But it doesn't seem to be the case, considering that he trapped me in one.

A monster started to violently tear them apart. Their screams and cries were echoing in her head, their blood went flying everywhere, including in her face.

The same scene played out, once, twice.. over and over again. What bothered her the most was the incapacity of doing anything, she was stuck in that loop as an observer. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't move an inch. Watching was her limit, this powerlessness was consuming her.

Suddenly, all those warnings about foxes made sense. Perhaps she disregarded them as threats due to Kyro's good nature. Presently it proved to be a blunder.

Her mind knew it was an illusion, her thundering heart was getting harder to persuade, her recurring gasps robbed her of all rationality… until it felt unbearable. It was as if her heart would explode at any moment. She had to get out of the trap she naively walked into. No matter what.