It was a wonderful sunny day, and Gumiho was waiting at their usual spot for her friend Ea. Ea… her closest friend, and… maybe more. Gumiho's eyes became distant as she remembered what had brought them to where they were now, best friends and possibly much more…
Gumiho was only barely ten years old when she befriended Ea. She remembered she was running around diving in and out of haystacks at the height of summer, her single fox tail swishing around in barely contained excitement. That was when she had run full tilt into Ea.
"Ouch!" exclaimed both of them.
Little Gumiho had ran into Little Ea so hard both of them were sprawled on the floor with Ea on her back and Gumiho on top of her. Gumiho blinked and looked into a girl with the most mesmerising eyes she had ever seen. They were like pools of black water. She had long white hair, so long that it flowed out behind her like water. Gumiho sat up rubbing her head.
"Oh! S…sowee! I wasn't looking…" Gumiho had said sheepishly.
Instead of berating her, Ea had instead laughed. It was a girlish laugh full of warmth.
"No harm done! I am perfectly fine! How about you? Are you ok?"
And it was Ea's turn to look concerned as she reached up her hand and rubbed Gumiho's head. That was when she felt the furry fox ears on Gumiho and realised that this was no ordinary little human girl.
"Oh! You… have fox ears… and a fox tail! Oh wow…. They are so cute! Can… can I touch them?"
Little ten year old Gumiho had been rather taken aback. The usual reaction from humans had been more of the scream and run away while calling her a monster kind. Yet, here was this girl wanting to actually touch her fox ears!
"Erm.. I guess so, as long as you don't pull them or anything!"
She had said cautiously and she stayed still controlling her natural impulse to run away.
Little Ea reached out and gently stroked Gumiho's ears. Gumiho couldn't help twitching them a little under her soft touch. In fact, she enjoyed Ea's stroking so much that before she even realised it, she was curled up next to Ea, purring like a cat with her tail swishing back and forth. Ea giggled and continued to stroke her ears gently. Her other hand stole round and started to stroke down Gumiho's back ending at her soft bushy tail and Gumiho by this time was so lost in bliss she didn't mind one bit.
It was only much later when Ea finally stopped and stood up, that Gumiho came out of her blissful daze and realised that hours had passed.
"I would love to play some more, but I have to go. Its getting late! What's your name? My name is Ea!"
Gumiho blushed red as she realised just how much time had passed while she had just sat there letting Ea stroke her ears and her back.
"Erm… I .. I am Gumiho!" She stammered a bit.
Ea flashed her a warm smile.
"You will be here tomorrow again right? Please say you will! I want to play some more! Bye Gumiho! See you tomorrow!"
And with that, little Ea had waved goodbye, turned around and run off. As she came to a river that was by the field of haystacks, she ran across the surface of the river lightly as if it was solid ground instead of water. That was when Gumiho realised that little Ea, like her was no ordinary human either.
And of course, Gumiho had turned up the following afternoon, and that was the start of their friendship. Ea had been delighted to see Gumiho and they were soon the best of friends. In fact, Gumiho soon found out that Ea had a wicked sense of humor even though she was the gentlest person ever.
This was reinforced the minute she found out that Gumiho had a rather fatal weakness in cute little balls … especially cute little balls which moved! Ea had concentrated hard and her face split into a brilliant smile as she held out her hand. In it, water coalesced to form a swirling ball before Gumiho's amazed eyes. Gumiho reached out her hand to touch it, and the ball had leapt away from her! All rational thought had fled her mind as she took off in hot pursuit after the swirling ball, her bushy snow white tail flying wildly behind her.
The ball led her into a truly merry chase, amidst Ea's twinkling laughter. It seemingly had a life of its own as it leapt and spun through the air, bobbing and jinking and diving, always just out of Gumiho's reach, but not out of her sight. So enthralled was she that she didn't even realise that the ball never left a certain radius around the laughing Ea.
Gumiho just kept on chasing and chasing the ball until at last, even her considerable energy gave out, and she was flat on her stomache, ears down and heaving with exhaustion, her breath coming out in pathetic puffs of air. She glared defiantly at the infernal ball still dancing before her, but little gumiho was too tired to move. Ea finally took pity of her friend and let the ball slide over to rest upon her hand. She then presented the swirling ball to Gumiho.
Slowly stretching out her hand, which actually took effort, because she was so tired. Gumiho hesitantly touched the ball, and felt the wetness on her hands. It was made of water! She batted it and it burst like a water balloon sending sparkles of water into her face!
"Ahhh! Its … its made of water!" Gumiho squeaked out, even as she wiped the water from her face.
"Yes, Gumichan! It was nothing but a ball of water!" Ea said… before she burst out laughing again.
Gumiho's merry chase of her ball of water had been absolutely hilarious to Ea! Gumiho shot a friend a betrayed look and flopped down, her chest still heaving. Now that she realised the ball of water had been under Ea's control all along, she felt absolutely silly and totally exhausted. Ea looked at her friend, whose ears were down, even her tail was trailing on the floor.
"Awww…. Are.. are you mad at me Gumichan? I am sorry! But it was just priceless seeing you chase after my ball, and you looked like you were having a lot of fun too!"
Ea wasted no time and gathered her Gumichan in a big warm hug. Gumiho was too spent to resist and well, she did like Ea's hugs too. Ea stroked Gumiho's soft foxy ears gently again, and soon Gumiho had forgiven Ea of her prank. The tired out little fox girl fell asleep in Ea's arms, lulled by her soft caress.
What poor Gumiho didn't realise was that Ea really loved to stroke her ears! And once she found that the best time to do that was after having her Gumichan tire herself out chasing her ball of water, Ea conjured up that infernal ball of water very often!
Now… they were both of age. Gumiho was now a very pretty girl with nine bushy white tails swishing behind her while Ea... As she came to that thought, her Ea appeared. She now looked like a goddess, her long white hair so long it reached almost to the ground, and it flowed behind her like water with a life of its own. She wore a white dress inlaid with simple stylish gold jewellery. Gumiho often caught herself staring at Ea very often recently, and sometimes, she realised that Ea knew because she would catch her stare and return it with a smothering glance of her own, and Gumiho would blush furiously and look away.
"You are here, Gumichan!" Ea exclaimed and hugged Gumiho in a warm hug.
Then she was tugging on Gumiho's hands as she led her away from their meeting point.
As she followed Ea the goddess, her fingers caught in her small hand, Gumiho suddenly and rather painfully realised something. She … she was smitten … with her best friend! And as she was led away, Gumiho, the nine tailed fox wondered if she would ever have the courage to confess to her best friend Ea that she had fallen deeply in love with her…
Read more: thread/3168/gumiho-ea-fanfic#ixzz32otg5jwz
