Epilog
It was a beautiful summer morning in the city of Sendai when a little fair folk girl walked along the path on her way to school. She was dressed in a green and white school uniform with a sailor’s flap and carried two schoolbooks bound with a pretty red ribbon – only her small fuzzy fox ears and bushy red tail marked her any different from any other six (and a half) year old child.
She was not alone however, for lurking among the trees alongside the path was a fox of another sort – it was Kitsune, the nine-tailed fox demon, leering at the small child through malicious and wicked eyes.
"So, we meet again little one…" the terrible beast growled to itself in vicious delight, as it watched the little girl come down the way – "Now I shall have my vengeance upon you!"
With that, the evil creature leapt out onto the path in front of the startled girl. The Kitsune was as large as a horse and swished her nine tails back and forth like a cat, creeping toward the little girl with a noticeable limp and a feint scar along her right flank.
The little girl screamed and turned to run, but the Kitsune pounced on her with lightning speed, crushing her instantly in her vicious jaws and swallowing what was left with a quick snap.
"Yes, your innocent blood made it all the more sweet my darling," the Kitsune said, satisfied with its work and licking the blood from its claws. When it was done cleaning itself, the wicked demon then bounded back into the trees and was gone.
Then, on the other side of the path, something else stirred behind a tree. It was the same girl, just waking from sleep. She was dressed as she had been before; only now, she had a small scroll in her possession in addition to her two schoolbooks.
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, the little fox girl sat up and looked around in confusion – "Lady Shirahata? Yuki? Miya?" she called out. Then seeing the path and suddenly realizing were she was, she laughed happily and stood up, exclaiming – "I’m home! I’m home!"
But then settling down a bit, the little fox girl looked around again in wonder and confusion – "Where is everybody? Was it all a dream?"
A little sad now, she sat back down against the tree and picked up the scroll.
Unrolling it, she saw the picture she had drawn of the little fire creatures that had cooked the dinner at Yunokawa’s mountain citadel and the picture she had drawn of the Samurai of Sendai and Lady Shirahata's garden. This one was her favorite. It depicted the Samurai with Kioko and the tiny little radish-headed creatures with spiraling sprout-like limbs that inhabited the place.
No, it had not been a dream – she really did have all those amazing adventures with the Samurai.
Happy again, the little girl gathered up her things and jumped back up with a smile. Then moving to the path, she looked both ways, as if trying to decide which way to go. If she was late for school, Headmaster Gakusha would be angry, but it had been so long since she had seen her mother. The choice proved to be an easy one however, and the little fox girl turned and ran back up the path from where she had just come a few minutes before.
A moment later, she was running past all the bald monks in orange robes, that were practicing their exercises outside the temple, and crossing her mother’s garden – and there in the doorway stood her mother – a little surprised to see her back so soon, but smiling warmly all the same.
"Mother! Mother! I’ve missed you so much!" the little fox girl said through joyous streams of tears, hugging her mother as tightly as her little arms could muster – "I saw them mother! Real Samurai! And Oni! And we went to the Ancestral Palace in the sky and rode on Ki-Rin and they promised to bring me back and they did! I was lost, but they brought me back!"
"There there Kioko dear," the woman replied, sensing the sincerity of her little girl, in spite of the incredible sound of it all – "come inside and you can tell me all about it. I’ll write a note to Headmaster Gakusha, telling him that we’re taking today off, to spend it together. I love you little one, and wherever you were, I am glad that you are back now with me."
The woman then hugged her daughter and the two entered the small house – where, over a cup of hot tea, Kioko showed her amazed mother her pictures and began to tell the tale…
Author
Topic: Mythic Nippon Adventure V (Read 168977 times)