𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗨𝗠𝗜𝗛𝗢 | 𝐓𝐚𝐞𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧𝐠/𝐕

ɪɪ

He held the little girl close to his chest while sitting on her tiny bed that was meant for a kid like her.

"Appa, can you tell me a story before I go to sleep like always?"

"Of course, what kind of story that you want for tonight? Princess, fairy, or—"

The little girl shook her head no furiously at the suggestion that her father gave to her. She didn't want to hear the story of the same characters again. It was fun and cute but she got bored so fast. She wanted another kind of story that didn't have a princess or fairy or whatever it is that she always asks her father to tell her.

"Another story! I want another story that doesn't have princess and stuff! I'm getting bored." She puffed her cheeks to show that she disliked the idea of the story that she said.

The adult thought for a few minutes about the kind of story that he would tell to his daughter. It was so rare of his daughter to say this as he knew so well that the little girl was obsessed with a princess that she begged him to buy many Disney princesses' dress that was suited for kids. Then he came to a story that he read somewhere in a small journal that he found during a trip to a village. He was an archaeologist so he was set on a mission to find precious artifacts that were known from the Joseon era for further study with his team to uncover hidden mysteries that lay beneath the dusty ground.

His team made an assumption for a possible location of those artifacts in a small village called Watanabe. During his work over there, he found a strange journal of someone hidden by multiple rocks.

"I have this story from a journal of someone. Although it is weird to have a journal filled with a myth. It's a folk tale about Gumiho."

The little girl scrunched her face in confusion at the last word that her father said to her. "What's Gumiho?"

"Gumiho is a legendary creature that lived for a thousand years. It is originated from China but is also believed by some people in South Korea. The creature is shown in a fox form with nine tails behind its back. The color of it is like a fox, reddish-brown almost like orange with bright red eyes. It is believed that this creature can change into a huge form too."

"How huge, Appa?"

The adult man pursed his lips while trying to remember about the journal. It was said that its size was almost like a mountain, if not bigger than that.

"Do you know Godzilla?" The little girl thought about a fantasy creature that was created by humans. She nodded her head after remembering how afraid she was after watching the Godzilla movie. It shuddered her a little.

"That's the size of Gumiho more or less. If it's in normal size then it has the same size as a normal fox but a little bit bigger than it."

Although it was very unconvincing after reading the journal that he found, he couldn't help but shivered a little by imagining the creature's figure. It was also weird how the person that wrote the journal narrated the story as if it was a real experience of some sort. He would have to applause this person who wrote that because it managed to bring some sensation inside him, one that was terrifying about this legendary creature. But after all, it was just a tale, right?

He once heard about it too when he was still a kid by his parents although they didn't tell him about it, more like eavesdropping on his parents' conversation with some of their colleagues.

The little girl on his lap grimaced after hearing the description. She really couldn't imagine it at all.

"Is it real?" She asked worriedly while tightening her little hands on her father's arms. The man snapped out of his memory when he heard his daughter's question. He chuckled because of her innocence before answering her. "Of course not, like what I said before this is a legend, folk tale, myth. It means that this isn't true."