Chira
The Byakko Seishi Amefuri
"Get her! Get the little freak!"
The small cat-like girl ran as fast
as her legs could carry. Just because
she had white hair and pink eyes and the markings on her face they thought she
was a demi-human. Half-beast and
half-human. Tears stung her eyes and
blurred them as she scurried along the rocks. And now they wanted to kill her. People had always treated her badly…but just because she'd stolen some
bread didn't mean she had to die…did it? Scrapes and tears on her flesh left a small trail of blood and she tried
to move faster. She had to get away
from them…she just had to escape.
Suddenly the young cat girl stopped
in her tracks and stared down. There
was a huge gorge before her and there was no way to get across. Her ears twitched and she heard the people
chasing her getting closer.
"Look, a trail of blood!"
"She should be around here somewhere, the little
demon!"
"We'll show her that she can't steal our food!"
"Little thief!"
"Little monster is more like it!"
She swallowed harshly, her eyes darting back and
forth in panic. The people were closing
in on her and she didn't know what she could do. There was no way over or around the gorge! Drip, drip. The echo of her blood dripping from a cut across her leg
sounded in her ears. Her heart beat
wildly in her chest, her fear becoming a thick stench around her. She turned her head sharply as she suddenly
heard footsteps nearby stop. She stared
at the people holding mundane but dangerous weapons.
"We have the little beast now!"
"Hurry! Destroy her!"
"The village will be destroyed if we
let her live!"
The little girl trembled and turned
to the gorge. Panic overrode all
thought. She had to get away now! She was agile…maybe…just maybe… she could
survive it!
The little girl turned back to look
at the furious group of people intent on her death. She had to do something. She wanted to live! She didn't
want to die! She turned back into the
gorge and jumped…
The little cat girl awoke to find
herself in a soft bed. There was a
young woman looking down at her with a small smile.
"It is about time you awoke. I was starting to become very worried."
The little girl sat up and gazed at
the woman. She winced as she felt some
pain in her arm and turned to it, seeing the bandage. She turned to the woman before her. "You saved me?"
The woman nodded and smiled. "You were very lucky. I found you and took care of you. My name is Megumi. What is your name little Amefuri?"
The girl wrinkled her nose. "Amefuri? What's that?"
Megumi shrugged. "I didn't know your name, so I gave you
one. I called you Amefuri while you
were recovering."
The little girl lifted her
head. "My name is Chira."
"Where's your family, little Chira?"
Chira lowered her head and her lip
trembled. "My family was killed because
they looked like…monsters. The people
were trying to kill me…that's why I fell into the gorge."
Megumi looked down at the little
girl and wrapped her arms around her. "It's all right. I'll take care
of you from now on my little Amefuri. I'll take care of you forever. You'll grow big and strong and I'll never let anyone hurt you."
Chira was comforted by the woman's
words and hugged her back.
Several years later, as Chira was
returning home from the market of the city—where the people didn't care about
her appearance—the people in the neighboring villages could hear an animalistic
scream of terror. The people who had
hunted her down had found out were she was living. Chira could not stop the tears or her screams as she looked at
the charred house and the mutilated body of the woman who had been her mother
for years.
Chira buried the body and wandered
into the woods of the area. Megumi had
found about her wonderful power of being able to communicate and control the
animals, from the smallest to the fiercest and since then the animals had
protected them both. But from a fire…
She entered the woods and disappeared. The people talked about a woman who wandered those woods to the east of the country Sairou who was half-beast, but no one had ever seen her.