Blindly Waiting - Tori's Story

“Wait here until I get back.” He had said. That phrase has been going through my head for years, one thousand years to be exact. That seems long for a human, but not to me. It barely seems like ten months. How long was my master going to be gone?

“Did he die along the journey or did he lie to me to leave the shrine?” I asked myself, knowing very well that I did not care to know the answer.

                I was sitting on the front steps to the shrine. It looked as old as always. It being three stories tall and made entirely out of wood.  Sometimes I wondered why it hadn’t weathered or burned away as I was waiting.  I looked behind me to see the note that was posted on the front doors.  I read it once again:

“Wait here until I get back.”

                Did it have some special meaning to it? I didn’t think so. I just seemed like a command. I looked back in the direction I was sitting. The front yard was covered in snow.  Even the front gate was hard to recognize do to the sheer amount of it. I had never been outside of the front gate, but I have heard that it was dangerous beyond there. “Hunters” as my master called them, were always near the area.  He had explained to me that hunters would kill kitsunes like me. That is why there are no other kitsunes in the area.

                I was getting bored of waiting. I stood up and walked to the front gate. My feet were probably frozen by now. I turned around again to take one good look at the shrine.  This was the last time that I would see the shrine. I knew that my master lied to me, so I was going to flee. I took one step back and jumped.

                I was over the gate. For the first time I felt free.  I began running. I didn’t know where to go to, all I knew was that I wanted to get as far away from that shrine and as fast as possible.

As I kept running I took a look at my surroundings. The trees were bare like the ones at the shrine and everything was covered in snow. This scenery was even more boring than the one at the shrine.  If I knew this earlier, I wouldn’t have left. The next thing that happened made me stop dead in my tracks and sent a shiver down my spine. There was an explosion.

                Or at least something that sounded like an explosion. I, being the curious fellow that I am, went in the direction of the explosion. When I arrived, I quickly hid behind a tree. There in the distance were two hunters.  Even if I have never seen one before, my instincts told me that they were dangerous. I spied on them and noticed that one of them was holding a bunny by the ears.

                “They’re going to kill it, nya.” I thought. I was going to let an animal die by hunters, not ever. Although, I couldn’t think of a plan. So, I relied on my instincts.  I dashed and jumped onto the hunter’s back. He flinched and released the bunny. I started slashing him with my claws, but the other hunter successfully kicked me off of the first one.  I landed on all fours and glared at them.

                “Hey, Dude. Isn’t that a kitsune?” asked the first hunter.

                “Yeah, it’s very rare to see one. It’ll sell high in the market,” replied the other.

                “So be it,” said the hunter.  He caught me off guard and kicked me to the ground.  I tried to get back up, but I was pinned. The took out a weapon and……

“Slash!” I let out a blood shivering scream.  The hunter had pierced my eyes with the weapon.  That’s when I got angry.  I clawed the hunter’s head with enough pressure to slice it right off of the body.  I chucked the corpse away and got up.

My eyes were closed. They hurt too much for me to open them. Where was the other hunter? I couldn’t see him, but I knew that he was running away in fear of me. I snapped my fingers and a green fireball appeared in my hand.

“Fox Fire!” I shouted as I threw the fireball in the direction of the hunter. I don’t know if I hit him or not, but judging by the screams that I heard he was burning alive.

I managed to lie down near a tree without too much trouble. My eyes were stinging, just looking around was a challenge for me. I heard footsteps approaching me. All I could see was a black figure.  I got into an attack position started to charge at it, but what the figure said to me made me stop.

“Don’t worry kitsune; you won’t have to wait anymore.”

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Author's Note:

Yeah, not the best story around. In fact, I'm quiet surprized you stayed to read this far. Anyway, this is pretty much the reason why Tori hate humans. The mask that he wears allows him to see better, but in red.