.post p { margin:0 0 .75em; line-height:2em; text-indent:1em; } Beyond the Werefox Whistle Written by Uehashi Nahoko Illustrated by Yumiko Shirai Prologue Chapter 2: Under the Bamboo LampThe moon fully rose, illuminating the grassy plain in silver-white light. The grass rippled like water as the wind rustled through it. It was possible for Sayo to find her way without a lantern through the grass tonight, but once she entered the forest the moonlight was blocked. It was so dark under the tree canopy that Sayo couldn’t even see the tips of her fingers.Sayo crouched down and removed her bamboo lantern from her pack. She struck a spark on a flint stone and lit a thin bamboo stalk, affixing it to the top of a much thicker and sturdier piece of bamboo. She called this a lantern, but it was perhaps a bit more crude than that. She had packed these things and not a proper lantern because she hadn’t wanted her grandmother to realize where she was going.Sayo sighed in relief as her surroundings became visible. To prevent the flame from going out in the wind, she held the thin bamboo stalk tightly as she secured it within the much larger, thicker piece of bamboo by pushing a thin stick into a hole drilled at a joint of the thick bamboo tube. The smaller bamboo stick was protected by the larger bamboo tube as it burned.She’d told Koharumaru that she wasn’t scared to walk through the forest at night, but she was scared now, at least a little. Still, she’d made a promise. Koharumaru would be waiting for her to return.Sayo hurried ahead, mindful of her bamboo lamp. The shadows swayed ahead of her, making the darkness around her seem alive. She clutched her lantern tight and tried to ignore the sensation of the forest closing in around her, darkening her footsteps.And then… there it was. Morikage Estate, illuminated by the light of the full moon above her. Koharumaru had told her that he would meet her outside. But was he really here?A bamboo thicket rustled to her left and a shadow jumped out. Sayo took a reflexive step back and cried out, waving the bamboo lantern out in front of her as a weapon. The shadow reached for the bamboo lantern in her hand and blew it out, leaving Sayo in total darkness.“Sayo? It’s just me! I’m sorry if I scared you,” Koharumaru whispered.Sayo crouched down around herself protectively.“I really am sorry. I was so happy that you came that I… well. I really am sorry.” Koharumaru’s voice was the only sound in the pitch black forest that surrounded them.Sayo let out a heavy sigh. “I brought walnut cakes with me.”Koharumaru laughed. “Really? You really brought some for me? Thank you, Sayo.” He sounded so happy that Sayo almost forgot to be angry.They got up together, then sat down again in the shade of a large flowering magnolia tree that couldn’t be seen easily from inside the Morikage Estate’s mansion. After they were settled, Sayo lit her lantern again and stuck it upright in the ground. Then she passed a walnut cake wrapped in bamboo leaves to Koharumaru.“These are great!” Koharumaru said after biting into his cake. “The walnuts inside are very sweet.”“We roast the nuts in honey, then put them in buckwheat dough shells and bake them,” Sayo said.“I’ve never eaten anything so delicious before,” Koharumaru said. He reached into his pocket and took out a small package. “I wanted to give something to you, too, so I stole it from the kitchen. It’s candy.”Sayo accepted the candy and tasted it. It was surprisingly sweet for something so small.“Is it good?” Koharumaru asked.Sayo nodded, and Koharumaru smiled.***From that day on, Koharumaru and Sayo would meet secretly in the forest at night. They looked forward to eating persimmons, nuts and sweets they had brought and chatting together. Sayo liked talking to Koharumaru. For Koharumaru, meeting with Sayo was the highlight of his life. Over the course of their visits, Koharumaru told Sayo much of his life story and circumstances.“I’ve been locked up in the estate for a long time. When I first came to the house, there was a wet nurse. But the wet nurse was young when she came and left the house to work elsewhere when she was eighteen.”“Where are your mother and father?” Sayo asked. She thought Koharumaru looked lonely.“I don’t know. They say they’ll tell me when I’m a little older. But I know that my father is a great man. I’m training to be a great warrior so that when he comes and sees me he’ll say, ‘Son, you’re just like me!’”Koharumaru was proud of his efforts. He practiced archery, horse riding, hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship every day. The estate grounds were too small for him to truly feel at ease even with such activities to distract him.“Can’t you go outside at all?”“Only sometimes, when Dairou comes. Then I can ride my horse and shoot arrows in the open field. It feels so good! I want to ride my horse and shoot arrows in the open field every day!” He sighed heavily.“Can you ask Mr. Dairou to come and see you more?” Sayo asked.Koharumaru shook his head.“I have asked him, but he told me that if I go out too much, I’ll attract attention and it’ll be dangerous.”Sayo frowned. “He’s mean.”“Mean?”“Yeah. He could come and let you go outside more, but he doesn’t. That’s mean.”Koharumaru repeated the words to himself, which he had never heard before. He must have found them amusing, as he suddenly burst out laughing.“Dairou, you’re mean! Mean, mean, mean! Ah! That feels good to say.” He grinned. “But really, Dairou isn’t a bad person. He tells me stories about different places and he’s always so interesting to talk to. Oh, I know! You should tell me something about your village! I don’t think I know anything about it.”So Sayo talked about the village for awhile. It was autumn, the season of the harvest, and the other children were busy so they couldn’t come and play much. The autumn festival would be held after the harvest.“Everyone talks about it all the time. They say they’re helping out their older brothers with the preparations, and that this year, a famous entertainer is coming. They can’t wait for the festival.” She looked down.“What about you, Sayo?” Koharumaru asked. “Aren’t you looking forward to the festival?”“I don’t worship the village’s god. My grandma is the one who attends the festival. I’ve only ever seen it at a distance.”“Why don’t you worship the village’s god? Why can’t you go?”“Grandma isn’t from the village. She came to the village from across the mountains a long time ago. After my mother died, she carried me on her back and brought us to this place. The villagers don’t like wanderers, but at that time, Nishihata’s wife was suffering from a difficult birth and the other women didn’t know how to help her. My grandma saved her life.”“So you became good friends with the villagers after that, right?”Sayo nodded. “Grandma is amazing. Whenever she goes to the market, people from other villages start talking about her. They say that it’s thanks to grandma that no woman in the village dies during childbirth.”“That’s great! If that’s the case, you should be proud to go to the festival. Isn’t your grandma like your adoptive mom now?”Sayo shook her head. “If I went to the festival, I’d just be inconveniencing everyone and disobeying my grandma. She’s the one who tells me I shouldn’t go.” She rubbed her hands together and then said quickly, “Anyway, it’s fine. When we deliver a baby, everyone cries and laughs and says, ‘Thank you!’ Grandma knows a lot about medicinal herbs and is very good at weaving. I’ve already learned quite a bit from her.”“I see. Sayo is also training!” Koharumaru smiled and patted Sayo on the shoulder encouragingly.Koharumaru found himself becoming very familiar with the names of the village children as he and Sayo met to talk more and more. Sayo, for her part, found herself becoming very knowledgeable about the people who lived at Morikage Estate.The big man with the booming voice who had tried to find Sayo the first night they’d met was named Tsuneyuki. Tsuneyuki was in charge of all the other servants and retainers at the estate.“Tsuneyuki is a strong warrior, but he is very strict. If he finds out that I’ve slipped out like this and am meeting you, he might kill you,” Koharumaru said very seriously one day. “No one should know about me. Hey, do you remember that night, when I told you that it would be dangerous for you to meet me like this? I called you a coward. I’m sorry. And I’m sorry if I put you in danger.”Even though he said that, Sayo didn’t really think that her life was in danger. She’d never thought that way. “It’s all right,” Sayo said. “Let’s be really careful and do our best not to get caught.”***Nobi the little fox watched Sayo and Koharumaru talking in the dim light of fireflies from where he peeked out from behind a clump of bamboo shoots. He had watched them all night, and the night before that.It would be fun to play together, he thought. But he knew he couldn’t join the children. Not now.When I’m in this forest, my fur tingles. I wonder if it’s enchanted to repel familiars? Does it tingle because I’m cursed? Nobi felt sad. It was like the forest was telling him that he shouldn’t be here. He was the arrow of his master’s vengeful will. Such an accursed object should never be allowed to touch something so beautiful and pure.Enshrouded in darkness, Nobi the little fox watched over Sayo and Koharumaru, his nose twitching toward the sky toward an unseen sun.
Mar 12, 2024 • Subscribe
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