Faeries and Cryptids

OK

final one

for all the marbles,

this one doesn't have an illustration bc i think it was just a kids novel but i haven't been able to find ANYTHING about it on my occasional internet queries:

kids is staying with his (grandmother?) in the woods and she warns him not to look a fox in the eyes bc they're tricksy and will swap places with you. obviously that's the first thing the little boy does and gets body snatched by a fox who uhhhh proceeds to pig out with his new little boy human hands and the boy has to trick the fox into looking him in the eyes again to switch back...

things get really tricky here because what amount of canonical events between them would happened even if mob never had reigen as his mentor? i think their emotional struggles would just spread their roots deeper and stronger like ritsu's inability to have a "brotherly fight" with shigeo or mob's paralyzing fear to snap once again and hurt his little brother. lots of things to consider here, but anyway i think they're still weirdly close and attached to each other in any possible universe. i feel like they both hate family gatherings for that non stop comparing one to another but never speak out. i think sometimes ritsu would get really stressed and carried away after family meetings and say something like "why can't you just be more independent, more responsible, more normal" or "well maybe if you actually used the potential you have the right way things would turn out different for you" and he will immediately get ashamed of himself when he realizes what he just said. ritsu must suffer like he's doing it for both if them and mob would just... dissociate from it all as much as he can? it must be really fucked up because of all the emotional suppression. like "it's ok ritsu i know you didn't mean it" but his face is slowly covering with black statics and somewhere in ritsu's mind there's a thought like "i actually mean it".