The Forbidden Child
Ch. 7
I opened my eyes and was staring at a ceiling. But it wasn't my ceiling, my ceiling was still a hideous shade of pink from when my mom used to have the room. I slowly sat up and saw a fire in the middle of the room with a pot of food bubbling over it.
"Where am I..." I said quietly. This 'house' was smaller than my room. Who would live in a place like this?
"Finally awake I see. My, you do look like your mother." Said an elderly woman, walking into the hut with some plants. She tosses them into the pot.
"Why does everyone keep talking about my mother?" I said confused. The element of surprise was lost though, I didn't even bother asking who this woman was.
"You must be confused. My name is Kaede. This is a sense of deja vu, now isn't it? You are in what your mother called it, The Feudal Era of Japan."
"Say what now?" I said, eyes bugging. "No way. That's like 500 years in the past right?"
"Yes, to you anyway. Soup?" She said, holding out a clay bowl. I just nodded and took it absentmindedly, swishing my chopsticks around it. I had suddenly lost my appetite.
"I'm not asleep right? This isn't some sick joke?" I said suddenly suspicious.
"Would you like me to pinch you?" Kaede said jokingly. My suspicion faded and then remembered a story my mother told me when I was just a baby.
"My mother used to tell me a story, about meeting a dog-demon, and going on adventures together along with a Perverted Monk, a Demon Slayer, and a small Fox Demon. I don't remember much except thinking it was all just a story." I said, eating some noodles and sipping some soup.
Kaede smiled warmly "All those stories are true. Has she ever told you anything besides the people she traveled with?"
I shook my head, astonished.
Kaede continued "They defeated the villain around here. It took them and your mother three years to do so."
"Wow. Why didn't she tell me?" I said in awe.
"You were probably very young, correct?" Kaede said.
"Oh right." Mom probably thought she'd frighten me or something. "So this is real. I'm 500 years in the past."
"Yes. I'm surprised the Well has worked after all these years, it's been closed for the past 15." Kaede said, sipping her bowl of soup.
"So the Well is sort of like a passage between our two times?" I said disbelievingly again.
"Correct, but it's been closed for some time like I said. We have no idea why. Your father-"
"Are you sure that's my father?" I said cutting her off. I knew it was rude, but after my episode today I wasn't really in the polite mood.
She laughed a bit "Oh yes, I'm very sure, especially now."
I wondered what she meant by that, but then he walked in.
"Oh you're up. Good." He said solemnly, sitting down across from me. Looking at him in some ways was like looking in a mirror. I could pick out features that looked like mine, which was startling. I always thought I looked like my mother, but now...it was debatable.
"I was thinking..." He continued. "I should take her back."
"What?!" I shrieked. "I just got here!"
We both stared each other down for a minute.
No way was I going back this soon.
