Blade Song

Chapter 10- Stargazing

Long after the chatter had faded and everyone else had gone to sleep, I quietly made my way out of the camp, backtracking the short distance to the lily pond. I sat down, stirring up the fireflies that were playing at the water's edge. Leaning back on my hands, I turned my head towards the sky and watched the stars glow against that bluish-black ocean while the frogs sang to one another.

"Up late again, I see," Kiyoshi said from behind me.

"You're not really one to talk," I said without bothering to take my eyes off the stars.

He laughed and took a seat next to me on the grass. "I suppose not."

"Not tired?" I asked.

"No," he said. "I never really sleep much. What about you?"

I chuckled. "Not really."

The frogs filled the silence for a minute until he spoke again. "It is quite beautiful tonight. The sky, I mean. Have you always enjoyed stargazing?"

I nodded. "Ever since the first time I saw it. I like what it represents, I suppose. I didn't see it like this until six years ago. I was always inside until then."

I looked over at him finally. He wasn't looking at the sky at all, just staring at me with a sad look in his eyes. Why did I keep telling him things for no reason? My goal was to learn more about him, not to spout off sentimentalities.

"So, what's your story?" I asked him.

"Story?"

"Yeah, your story. You have a half-breed brother and you're whisking us all off to Utopia, remember? Why?"

"Ah. Well, let's see." He paused a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. "I never knew my mother. She died while giving birth to me. My father was grief stricken for a long time. I was fifty-two when he brought Tsukiko home to be his new wife, and it filled me with so much anger. I couldn't understand how my father could possibly be trying to replace my mother with this...this..."

"Thing," I said.

He grimaced. "Yes, thing. Humans and half-breeds were somewhat rare in the White Wood. Back then, there were a handful, but they were mostly used for field work. Foxes usually keep to themselves, so we weren't really into venturing out to buy them. Tsukiko was no different. Before she won my father over, she was out working the fields every day."

"Did he buy her?" I asked.

Kiyoshi nodded. "Although her owner said she could be a gift, my father insisted on buying her. For an awful lot of money, too, as I later found out."

"Your father must have been well liked."

"He came from a long line of respected and magnanimous lords. I can only hope to live up to that line."

"Ah, that's right. I almost forgot. Kiyoshi, fox lord of the White Wood. Please continue with your story, my lord." I bowed my head.

He plastered his ears to his head and made a disgusted sound. "Please don't call me that. I hate it when people call me that."

I laughed. "So, all the people in the White Wood call you what? Kiyoshi?"

He nodded. "I much prefer it."

"I suppose what matches you pretty well. You are out here doing the grunt work instead of staying at home."

"I wouldn't ask anyone to do anything I wouldn't do myself. Besides, I'd get far too antsy sitting around in the White Wood all the time."

"And so? Your father married a human who you hated? What then?"

"I suppose it's worth mentioning that fox demons age a little differently than most. Because our life expectancy is so long, we remain as children and teenagers for the first hundred years or so of our lives. So, when Tsukiko moved in, I looked much like a ten year old. However, a year is still a year. Even though you are a child, you are expected to behave more dignified and mature than a normal child would." He paused and sighed. "I did not behave well. I was very cruel to her. I said terrible things and threatened her often. She never got angry at me, though, and would only ever smile at me when I did these things, her eyes full of understanding. This infuriated me. I was, of course, punished for my inexcusable behavior, to which I would blame her as well. I was blind to my anger instead of trying to see what my father saw in her."