The Seventh Year

The boy continued to wonder the lands. He continued to walk until it got dark, so he stopped where he was and decided to sleep. He was seven years old now, his kimono shorten to the middle of his upper legs and his horns grew a bit more. He felt empty and he felt so lonely. He never realized how alone he was until he was able to understand that nobody wanted him. He finally remembered why he was alone.

He had been recently seeing it in his dreams. There woman riding on horseback, riding away from him. He wondered if that was his mother. He barely remembered her, and he could only see the back of her head. Why did she leave him? That, he didn't understand. Did his mother hate him like every other person did? Maybe she doesn't hate him, and they simply got separated and that she probably looking for him right now! But…why do the other people all hate him? He never could find out why.

He continued to sleep and dream. Over and over again, he relived his mother leaving him. His dream abruptly stopped when he heard a snarl. He quickly sat up and looked around. He saw wolves, surrounding him, hunting him. The boy began to panic; after all, he couldn't run because they're surely faster than him, and in which direction? He was surrounded. He began to pull his knees in and he started to cry.

The wolves started to step closer and closer. But something strange start happened. When one wolf went for a lunge, right before it was able to take a hold of the boy, it completely stopped itself. The wolf bowed his head and placed its tail in between its legs and started backing up. The other wolves started to sniff, and when they came to a conclusion, they started to do the same. Finally, the pack turned around, whimpering as they darted away.

The boy watched them leaving, confused. Was this how he survived from wild animals all this time? But still…did animals hate him, too? He didn't really do anything to scare them away, but he was still thankful that they decided to leave him alone so he could live another day. Still shaken up, the boy continued to cry and tried to force himself to stay awake, but he eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, he was rather tired, but he woke up when the sun had woken up. He continued to walk in an unknown direction. He continued walking until he started to hear a village near by making a fuss. He quickly started running to the sound's direction to see what was happening.

When he arrived, he observed the village from a distance, seeing what was happening. There was a little girl who appeared to be a bit older than the boy, and the girl was rather strange. She wore a long, nice fitting, pale pink yukata with a burgundy obi and a white ribbon tied in her hair. She had her hair shoulder-length short and she seemed full of energy and mischief. What was strange about her was that her hair was the color of the morning sun and on top of the child's head was horns pointed down. On the side

"Ha! Foolish humans!" the child laughed evilly. "You dare ask me to leave without giving me anything first? I shall put a curse on this village that would cause disease and famine!"

"She's bluffing I tell you! Sh-She don't have such powers!" a farmer stated unsurely. "Besides! She's only a child! I'm sure she's too weak to do such things!"

"Oh? How do you know? Would you rather take the risk?" She looked over at him.

"Just give her what she wants! This year has already been hard for us, so just give anything to her!" A woman called out.

The men started talking to each other in whispered voices until who appears to be the leader of the village spoke up. "Fine! What do you want from us?"

"Hmm…" the girl started to tap her finger to her cheek. "Some rice and cooked fish!"

"But demons don't have a real need to eat!" a man in the back stated.

"And that is why it's a luxury!" she pointed out. "Now, give me three bowls of rice and three cooked fish and make it to-go so I can leave your sight as soon as possible!"

With that, many people began rushing to gather what she had ordered and quickly packed them in a bundled and handed it to her. She smiled happily at the people as she took the bundled, looking as if it was a bit heavy for her. She swung it around her shoulder, stumbling to side to side until she finally got her footing again; she turned around and tried the best she could to skip off.

The boy didn't want to lose her, he was so curious about her. He quickly ran, following in her direction, going around the village instead, but luckily, it was a small village. He quickly looked for her, but he saw no sight of her. Was she faster than he thought? He continued running in the direction he saw her in until he stopped at a river. He stopped and looked around. The river would definitely be too deep for her to cross it—especially with the items she was carrying, right? She could have gone up, or down or maybe even across the river. Where did she go?

He then saw some golden hair from behind a tree, but when she realized that he saw her, she began running again. He quickly ran to follow her; he wasn't going to leave her alone. He continued running until someone from behind quickly grabbed hold of his shoulder and pulled him back, pushing him to the ground.

"Why are you following me?" the girl asked, placing her fists on her hips. "It's creepy!"

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"I hid and waited for you to get past me and—"

"No…to get people to listen to you." He explained.

The girl sat down in front of him. "It's easy! They're scared of people like us and when you scare them more, they'll do anything to get rid of you—even do what you say!" she smiled happily.

"People like us?" he stared at her confused. "You know what we are?"

"What? You don't?" she looked at him rather surprised.

He shook his head.

"Wow…you would think you would know by now." She sighed. "We're demons, silly!"

"Demons?" he remembered always hearing that, but he never knew what it meant. "What are demons?"

"Hmm…from what I learn, we're children of bad omen with powers—but we're the kind that are usually born from humans first, but we're not really the human's children."

"I don't get it."

"I don't either, but that's what I heard from an old lady." She said.

"What's your name?" the boy asked.

"My name is Rin!" she smiled. "What's your name?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know your own name?"

"I never learned…my mom and I got separated from each other when I was really young." He explained. "I've learned to talk from watching how people talked."

"Oh! Well….what if I give you a name?" Rin suggested. "Or do you already have a name?"

"I don't know much about names…so you name me!"

"Hmm…you look like a Len." Rin stated as she tapped her fore-finger to her cheek.

"Isn't Rin and Len the same besides the vowel sound?" he asked.

"You don't know much about words, but you know about what a vowel is!" Rin sighed. "Do you want it or not?"

"I don't know much about names…so I'll be Len from now on." He stated with a slight nodding of his head. "Len…it's weird to have a name. I have to get used to it…I hope I don't forget it."

"I'll remind you if you forget!" she said. "We're going to be sticking together from now on after all!"

"We are?"

"Isn't that why you followed me?"

"I don't know…I was just curious."

"Well, do you want to stay together or not?" Rin asked. "It gets pretty lonely, you know…"

The boy, Len, thought about it. It's true, it does get very lonely…he likes the thought of having a friend. "Let's be friends."

"Good!" Rin went over and grabbed her bundle and brought it closer to them and she began to untie it. "Here! Let's eat!"

"But we don't need to eat." Len stated.

"But food taste good no matter what!" Rin smiled. She pulled out a bowl of rice that had a lid on it, took of the lid and she licked her lips. "I'm digging in!" and so she did.

Len grabbed a bowl of rice and also took of the lid. He stared at it, not remembering what it's like to eat food. Has he ever eaten food before? He shrugged as he started to eat. A grin appeared on his face. "It's good!"

"Try the fish!" she placed the bowl aside and handed a fish to him. "Just avoid the bones!" She also grabbed a fish and started to eat.

Len took the fish and began eating without hesitation. "This is good! I see why people like to eat!"

"Well, we don't need to eat, but the humans do." Rin pointed out.

"Why don't we need to eat?" Len asked, continuing to eat.

Rin didn't answer for the longest time. Len thought that she might not know, so they continued eating until there was no more food left. Then looked up at Len, late, but finally answering his question.

Rin wiped her mouth with the inside of her sleeve. "I don't think we have our own physical bodies exactly… We're only here by people's memory."

"People's memory?"

Rin got up and walked over to the river, washing her hands. Len walked over and started to mimic her. Rin splashed some of the water on her face and wiped her face dry with her sleeve, and Len did the same. Rin stood up and stared down at her reflection and sighed.

"You really don't know anything, do you?" she sighed again. "You and your mother didn't get separated, she abandoned you!"

"No she didn't!" Len protested feeling his heart ache, but he also had the feeling he knew all along. "She just lost me!"

"No she didn't, she threw you away!" Rin looked at him with an angry look. "My father and mother did the same to me when I was five! It's because we're demons, they threw us away!"

Len looked at her, trying to hold back tears, wanting to deny it. But what proof did he have? All he remembered was his mother leaving him. But she would have obviously known something was missing. Could it be true that they were abandoned?

She looked back at her reflection, her blue eyes saddening. "I purposely go to every human village I can find and cause trouble… All demons do."

"Why?" Len asked, seeming confused.

"All demons are different, but we all have the same thing in common…" Rin paused before she continued. "If 'we' are to disappear from the human's memory, we would truly disappear. We're only anchored here in this world by memory…"

"Really…?" Len thought about how he never seen many humans and he was scared what she said might be true. "W-W-What's it' like to b-be forgotten…?"

"It's scary…very scary…" Rin started to stare at her hands, then she spoke like she was speaking to someone else now. "Please…please don't forget me…I don't want to disappear again…it's scary…it's so scary…" she then placed her face in her hands as she started to cry.

Len stared at her crying for a moment. He took her hand and held onto it as firmly as he could. He knew her anguish was growing. He smiled, "It'll be alright…"

Rin looked at him, smiling, holding his, also very firm. They sat down side by side as they leaned up against each other, staring at their reflections and trying to think of calming thoughts.

A/N: I only own this fanfiction but I do not have copyright to Len or Rin. : D So derp away, lawyers! AGWY FACE!

Bob: It's good how this chapter was longer...but you just killed the mood once again.

Weird Girl: No need to thank me...I'm just doing my job! ^-^

Bob: It wasn't really a compliment...

Weird Girl: Reviews will beg a nice huge buffet served by Bob and silent readers will DISAPPEAR and trolls will be served invisible food.

Bob: ...Lovely.