Back in my day, as your grandparents may say, things were different. Oh yes, way waaayyyyyy back in my day things were remarkably different. For instance, silver foxes. Let me give you a little history as to why these villagers were particularly angry and why they did what they did. Though, I will forever burn incense at the shrine they were sacrificed in memory of them.
If you hadn't already guessed, Makai had been going through a food shortage. Everyone, even nobles and royalty, were a bit thin. Families died overnight from hunger if they didn't turn out the youngest children so they could have just an extra few seeds of rice on their own plate. It had been a bad harvest this year and we were all suffering for it.
Now, in previous years Makai had always had a fat harvest. Enough for families to go to bed with bulging bellies and turn a pretty profit. This was due to the silver kitsune, master's of plants who would go out, inspect the soil, touch the leaves of plants, and then tell you what was needed to make them healthier.
Silver kitsune took nothing for themselves, were humble, and most were priests or priestess of the goddess Inari. Who was the goddess of rice and used kitsune to spread her teachings. In the human realm, or Nigenkai as others call it, I believe Inari existed as well in the Japanese culture.
Since the harvest had gone bad without any apparent reason, what do you do? Blame yourself? Maybe, but then you start to think about it. You had followed the kitsune's advice, hadn't you? Tilled the ground extra soft so the plants' roots could spread easier. Paid for a special mix of soil since your crop had grown ill from a bug infestation. Suffice to say, I need mention no more.
These special kitsune were usually given the best of everything a village had to offer. Some were even put up in mansions right next to the shrine. A few kitsune did take advantage of this, others dying their hair white and claiming to be Silver Kitsune. All in all, though, good defeated evil and life continued.
This year, however, not even the silver kitsune could fix things. Usually, in an emergency they would use their demon energy to make the plants grow or stronger. However, you can't produce energy if you have nothing to eat. When no results were shown, villages began to despise their housed guests and treated them poorly. In a few cases locking them up in the fields and demanding they make the plants grow by morning. When the villagers found their crop in the same sorry state as yesterday, they would race to shed and usually kill the poor thing. If the kitsune hadn't already killed him or herself by then.
I whispered a prayer up to Inari for the two unfortunates being taken away, a married couple by the looks of it. I hoped the child had been killed off in a moment of mercy by the parents as I turned around and crept along the wall. I felt low doing it, but the mob being occupied gave me the opportunity to steal from the remaining houses. I slipped into two more and got even less than I had at the first food, but it was still food.
When I broke into the third via an open window, I almost had a heart attack at the sight of another living being. To my astonishment, the little guy turned around and stared up at me. I blinked and looked down at the apple he had in his hands. It was freshly picked, much to my surprise.
This young baby kitsune simply blinked at me, than took another bite of his apple with small milk teeth. I now noticed small similar bit marks all around the skin of the apple. He did the oddest thing of turning the apple two or three times as he chewed, after swallowing biting into the apple again. I could hear small munching sounds and had to give kudos to the small guy for attacking the larder before I did.
I gave him a kind smile, hoping he wouldn't start crying as I stepped over him. Carefully I avoided his swishing tale as I opened the lader myself, surprised to see another couple bright red apples. I quickly put them in my sack before swiping their store of dried fish and beef. I was in luck, since they had a full sack of rice as well. I put that in a seperate pouch but unfortunately couldn't bring the whole damn thing with me. It had to weigh nearly as much as I did. At least my sack of stolen goods was full now, seeing me through another week or two of less aggravating hunger.
As I did my careful dance over the baby kit again, he looked up at me again. He was completely fearless I had to admit. Cute, too. If his ribs hadn't poking through his skin, his arms so skinny he appeared to be more of a walking skeleton than a child. To my shock he held up the apple to me. While I am a thief, I never steal from children. I refuse to, because how low can you be to steal from a brat?
However, as if this was a holy ritual, I reached down and accepted the apple. I sent a prayer to Inari for the kind little kit willing to share with me when he obviously needed more food than I did. I took the tiniest of bites, almost a nibble, before I handed him back the apple along with a handful of fish.
He smiled at me then, showing his small milk teeth as if I was the kindest person he'd ever met. As I turned to leave, the bodies of those two silver kitsune being carried through the village came back to me. Outside I could see they had set fire to the house which was beginning to smoke. What would they when they found this kit? Kill him? Sell him?
I glanced back down at him and he met my gaze again. He offered me the apple again but I shook my head no. He shrugged, and did his inspection of the apple again before taking another bite. I heard the villagers chanting a prayer at the Inari shrine, saying the two kitsune were offerings for her wraith. I hissed to myself, my wings partially unfolding.
I needed to get out of here, they wouldn't stay outside forever. It was a cold night and I could see my breath in front of my face. I glanced down at the small kit again, on a snap decision bending down and picking him up.
A look of surprise crossed his face, but he still had his apple so he didn't mind being carried by a complete stranger. With some hefting and struggling I managed to slip one wing through the strap of my pack and over my shoulder. I had to juggle the kit to another arm as I repeated the process with the other wing before it settled comfortable between my shoulder blades. With a promising weight of food on my back and the one in my arms I prepared to make my exit.
"THIEF! Thief! He's stolen our food and has the last one! Thief!" Screamed a youkai from the doorway. I glared at him, but he was armed with an axe. Without another moment to spare the youkai who had sent up the alarm came at me with his weapon.
I was at a disadvantage with the child, but I swung out of his way. My hand flying to the scythe at my side as I snapped it out with a flick of my wrist. This weapon is more like the head of a scythe, because I prefer the curved blade rather than the pole.
The youkai had missed by a longshot, but my blade struck true embedding in his skull as he fell from the momentum of his charge. I yanked the blade back with a spray of blood and caught it with me free hand. Hooking it back onto my belt I spun on my heel and flew through the open door.
I came out into the middle of the street right in front of the raging mob. Panicking, I spread my wings and hissed, baring my fangs to try and scare them off. I had to hold back from bursting into laughter at the sight of thirty demons all sliding to a halt at once in horror.
I had to be quite a sight to see with my twenty foot wingspan held in the air. Eyes glowing red as my teeth sharpened into a mouthful of needles. Every demon can do this, appear like a monster to someone when they are threatened. We also can fall into a beast-like state when our survival is threatened. Instincts, is what we call it.
Still, my big and scary show couldn't have them staring at me in rapt horror forever. I searched for something I could jump off of for a quick takeoff and spotted a back hoe leaning against a cart. Hefting the kit into a tighter grip on my arm, I summoned up the last of the demon energy I had left.
Usually everyone was just about wiped these days, but the food I had eaten earlier had revived me earlier. I was a bit better fed than these walking skeletons, but only a bit. I spread the energy to my wings, legs, and feet as I sprinted full speed at the hoe and cart. I scaled the hoe easily and leaped off it onto the cart. I ran the length of the cart before my feet met open air. I desperately began flapping my wings to the rhythm of the small, pounding heart against my chest. I craned neck to see if the villagers had come after us and saw they were running at me with their own various weapons.
Most waving shovels, hoes, and other instruments for farm work harmlessly at me. A few smart ones had gone back to their homes to retrieve bows an arrows. One even had a slingshot he was aiming at me.
Panicking again, I strained my wings to rise higher. The weights I had found so comforting now would be the death of me! I only had a small bit of energy left and already I felt my lungs burning from the exertion. My wing muscles screamed for being forced to work so hard after so long of disuse.
By this time I was about ten feet in the air. Praying it worked, I angled myself so I landed on the roof of one of the village houses. I wasted no time in sprinting across the roof, flapping my wings like a maniac as I leaped to the next one. Behind me the mob screamed and stamped it's protest, waving torches as they began to pursue me.
I concentrated on the flapping of my wings and ignored my aching leg muscles. They hated receiving a shock each time I landed heavy on the next roof. I promised myself a long soak in a hot spring once all this was over as I came to the last roof. By now I was going quite far with my tactic but I still wasn't truly airborne. People may think I simply flap my wings and takeoff, but it isn't so. I have to either leap from somewhere and jump up high enough to start flapping and gliding.
I took a deep breath and ran like a bat out of hell towards the end of that roof. Around me arrows clattered on the shingles as I dashed to my only hope. I felt the thud of a rock hitting my pack but kept on running. At the last moment I screamed as I leaped off the edge of the roof into darkness, streamlining my body in midair as I flapped my wings.
I sucked in a breath as I waited to see if I would drop to the floor. A simple bat waiting to be torn apart by the ealge which has caught it grounded. To my delight I continued in the air, steadily rising until the shouting behind me became faint than silent. I let out a whoop, squeezing the kit in my arms with delight as I continued to fly.
"Who are you?" My passenger finally asked after about ten minutes of me flying. I almost dropped him because I hadn't expected him to talk. Especially in so clear a voice I had assumed he was around four years old. From the way he spoke and looked at me he was clearly aware of the situation, so he could probably be eight or six. I guess this year had been hard pressing him in more ways than one. He could always be this small if not properly fed in the next couple of years.
"My friends call me Kuro, but you can call me Kuronue." I answered him in a friendly voice, hoping he wouldn't question why a stranger had probably just kidnapped him from the only home he knew. The youngster wrinkled his nose at my reply. I noticed he still had his apple which he held close to his chest.
"That's an ugly name! My mommy said beautiful things have to have beautiful names." He declared, taking a huge bite of his apple for emphases. I couldn't help myself, I laughed. His small ears pressed against his skull in annoyance. I didn't point this out to him it only made him appear cuter.
"Well, now that you know who I am, who are you? What's your name, fuzzy?" I asked the small kit. His golden eyes widened at the question as if he had never thought to tell me his name. Maybe he hadn't? I would never know, but he certainly seemed meek telling me.
"My mommy named me Youko. Youko Kurama." AUTHOR'S NOTE: I think quite a few people used the whole "Youko's house burned down and his parents were killed" storyline, but it seemed like the one which would best fit him. As for the goddess Inari, she actually is a real goddess in Japanese literature. I don't think I was fully correct in her being the goddess of rice, but in Japan they believe she rules the kitsune. I'll double check my facts but on the whole I'm quite proud I managed to implement Inari into it.
