Haiki

Gloaming

**Haiki** is a fox Isla meets in The Wildlands*.* He becomes her friend, but in the end betrays them for The Mage. Afterwards he disappears, but reappears in The Mage and helps Isla and her friends find the Mage's Lair and stop the White Fox from rising.

## Appearance

Haiki is a gray furred fox. He is young, but most likely older than a cub. He is said to have brown eyes and a thick tail, which he tends to wag a lot. His pelt is long and Isla said (in her mind) that it was longer than any other pelt she had seen.

## Personality

Haiki cares a lot about his family and in The Mage he is described as happy-go-lucky. He is a friendly fox who has a friendship with Isla, but their trust is broken when Isla finds out about Haiki working for the Mage. He was also quite talkative and excited during his time in The Elders. After Isla having to tell him to be quiet multiple times, he remembers when his ma said that he "talks too much."

## Foxcraft

He appears to be bad at Foxcraft when Isla tries to teach him. He is, however, skilled at unmasking Foxcraft users such as being able to see a fox slimmering without much trouble. However, seeing through Foxcraft should be a Foxcraft.

## In The Books

### Before the Books (or possibly during *The Taken)*

Haiki is hunting a rabbit. When he comes back, his skulk is gone. He makes a deal with The Mage to lead Isla to Elder Rock and be let in so the Taken can attack the Elders. Presumably he was offered his family in return. The book itself said that Haiki knew his skulk was dead, like Isla's (Later in the book).

### The Elders

Haiki is first shown drowning in the river having to be rescued by Isla. He later helps her chase off two dogs by lying and trickery. Isla and Haiki travel to the Wildlands where they eat a rabbit that belonged to Rupus' skulk. They explained their situation to the skulk and explained they were not pleached. The skulk forgave them.

When Simmi, Tao, and Isla take their giant journey to the Elders' Rock, he leads the Taken to the Elders' Rock while the fox Shaya is performing shana-sharm. He then slips away, feeling guilty and a little confused, not knowing that by helping The Mage he would be hurting Isla and her friends. No one knows his whereabouts as of now.

### The Mage

When he comes back to Isla, she is outraged. He tells her that when the Taken attacked the Elder Rock, he fled, but Koch spotted him and stopped him. Koch told Haiki that his family was long dead. After that, Haiki ran away. Haiki leads Isla, Siffrin, Simmi and Tao to the Mage's lair, but before that, he leads them through a dangerous swamp, and Isla had to trust him. They arrived at Petris Wood, a forest made of mysterious ancient trees that altered memories. When they escape the forest, they found the blood bark tree. Isla tells Haiki, Simmi and Tao to dig and find the white tail tips of the Narral and the pleached foxes.

When Haiki digs up all the furballs successfully, Isla tells him to chant, "Run fast, be safe, live free." They all repeat this and the Taken who were attacking were freed from the pleach. After a little bit of confusion, Koch and the Narral appear, and Koch said he will kill Isla for releasing the Taken. Haiki said that Koch would have to kill him first before he could kill Isla. Haiki loses the fight and gets killed by Koch.

At the end of the book, Haiki is mentioned a little bit. Isla sees his body and remembered what Mika told her, that help comes from unexpected places and to know kindness for what it is. Isla forgives him, and thinks of him again before the end of the book.