Your tails flare with impatience as you fix the trembling tanuki with a piercing gaze. 'Enough trembling, little one. You will take me to where you last saw these shadows,' you command, your voice resonating with ancient authority. The tanuki's round eyes widen further, the black patches in its fur seeming to deepen at your words.

The creature hesitates, its tiny paws digging into the moss. 'N-noble Kitsune, the path is dangerous! The shadows leave... marks on those who get too close.' It turns to show its back - patches of fur missing entirely, revealing sickly gray skin beneath that pulses unnaturally. You recoil slightly, your nose wrinkling at the faint scent of decay.

With a flick of your wrist, you summon a wisp of golden foxfire that dances around the tanuki's injured back. The corrupted flesh resists your purifying flames, the shadows clinging stubbornly. 'This dark magic is stronger than I imagined,' you mutter. 'All the more reason to act quickly.'

Reluctantly, the tanuki nods and begins leading you down a narrow animal trail. The forest grows quieter as you progress, the usual sounds of insects and birds completely absent. Your sensitive ears pick up only the occasional rustle of dead leaves skittering across the path ahead - moving against the wind.

Rounding a bend, the tanuki suddenly freezes. 'There!' it squeaks, pointing a shaking paw toward a clearing ahead. The once vibrant glade now appears drained of color, the grass bleached white and the tree trunks stained with inky black veins. In the center stands what remains of a small shrine - its wooden posts cracked and leaning at impossible angles, the sacred ropes snapped like broken spiderwebs.

Your breath catches as you notice figures moving in the ruins - elongated shadows that don't quite match the shapes of the twisted trees. They slither between the shrine's remains, their forms occasionally solidifying into grotesque parodies of animals before dissolving again into smoke.