Beyond the Werefox Whistle - Prologue: Encounter - Chapter 3: The Night of the Storm by Translations by Ainikki / Anime Blog Tracker

Beyond the Werefox Whistle - Prologue: Encounter - Chapter 3: The Night of the Storm

.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 3: The Night of the Storm As autumn shadows deepened and the trees began to shed their leaves, nights in the mountains became cold. It was for Sayo and Koharumaru to meet outside for very long.Hearing Sayo’s teeth chattering, Koharumaru stamped his feet and whispered, “Let’s meet again when spring comes and it gets warmer.” He nodded to himself, but he sounded unsure.Sayo glanced up at him. “What will you do until spring?” she asked. She felt sorry for him. What would he do all winter without a friend to talk to?There was no season more difficult for Koharumaru than the snowy winter. The house would be buried in snow, so he wouldn’t be able to practice swordsmanship and it would be difficult to ride a horse. All he could do was stay inside and study calligraphy.“What if we try meeting in the barn?” Sayo asked. “You know, the barn near the hole in the fence that you took me to on the first day? It’s warm there. Do people come to the barn at night, or would it be safe?”Koharumaru’s face lit up. “Yeah! But I don’t want to make you come inside the estate. You might not be able to get away again.”“It’s okay. Let’s give it a try.”Sayo took Koharumaru’s hand and started walking. Koharumaru lurched into movement after her, impressed by her boldness. “You’re like a spy, sneaking around at night,” he said.“Maybe I’ll sneak my way into a warmer room,” she said. “It’s freezing.”Koharumaru chuckled. “You’re very brave. It’s a shame you were born a girl.”A light rain fell upon them as they walked. The two stopped for a moment and wondered if it would be better to part ways for the night. However, Sayo felt that if she put this off until tomorrow, she would lose the courage to try again, so she kept walking.It was easier than she had expected to sneak in through a rotten hole in the fence and get into the barn. The barn was built at an angle along the fence that was hard to see from where the guards on duty were patrolling, and it was also a little distance away from where the estate’s retainers and servants were sleeping.The sweet cent of dried of straw filled the barn, and it was much warmer than outside.Koharumaru and Sayo looked at each other and smiled. The sound of the rain pounded on the barn’s roof.“It’s raining hard. I’ll wear my raincoat and hat when I go home,” Sayo said.As they listened to the rain pattering on the shingle roof, they felt happy to be together, mostly dry and warm.If Tsuneyuki had not gone to the outhouse at just this moment, Sayo and Koharumaru would have talked for a while without incident and then parted ways as usual.As Tsuneyuki stood in the outhouse, the heavy rain suddenly reminded him that on the previous rainy day, there had been a leak in the roof of Koharumaru’s bedroom.If it’s leaking again, maybe I should ask the young lord to move to another room, he thought.Tsuneyuki went outside Koharumaru’s bedroom, knelt on one knee in the hallway, and then called out through the wooden door, “I apologize for disturbing you during your rest, young master.”There was no reply. The bedroom was quiet. Tsuneyuki couldn’t sense Koharumaru’s presence within.Tsuneyuki frowned and put his hand on the door, sliding it open. The room was dark. He went to his master’s bedding that lay on a layer of rice mats atop a varnished wooden floor.Koharumaru wasn’t there. The blankets was in disarray, and they were cold to the touch.Tsuneyuki’s face set in stern lines.***Koharumaru, who was talking in the barn, suddenly stopped speaking and listened.“Is something wrong?” Sayo asked.“Did you hear something just now?”Sayo listened carefully. She heard people calling out to one another and moving about outside the barn. As she listened, the ambient noise became louder. She discerned a general sense of panic from the people she was hearing.Koharumaru shuddered as a shiver of fear snaked down his spine. He opened the barn door a little and was about to look outside when he heard footsteps.“I’m going to search outside the fence! You all search the kitchen and the barn!” Tsuneyuki called out, issuing commands to unseen people.Sayo and Koharumaru exchanged glances.“It seems they’ve found out that I’m not in my bedroom,” Koharumaru said softly.Koharumaru hid Sayo behind a bundle of straw. “Stay here until it’s quiet outside. I’ll go out and get some food. I’ll lie and say I sneaked into the kitchen after I went to sleep. Don’t worry.”As he was about to leave, Koharumaru looked back at Sayo. It was dark and his face was half-hidden in shadow, but his eyes shone with an inner light. “Sayo, be careful on your way home. And don’t come here again.” His voice was thick with emotion.“What?”“I’m a coward after all. I’m supposed to be strong, but I’ve been so lonely… and now I’ve put you in danger.”Sayo stood up in surprise. “Koharumaru, you’re not a coward and neither am I. I wanted to come and here and see you, too. This isn’t your fault.”Koharumaru shook his head. “Thank you for everything. I think this is goodbye.”Koharumaru rushed out into the darkness. The rain was pouring down. When Koharumaru was found, Sayo heard men shouting to one another in the middle distance.Sayo quietly slipped out through a gap in the rotted boards of the fence. Tears welled up in her eyes as she walked along the mountain path towards home. There was no moon tonight, so the path was dark. There was no light at all aside from occasional flashes of white lightning from the sky.Sayo covered her ears so that she wouldn’t hear the angry voice of the thunder god. Relying only on the storm’s light, she set off down the mountain.***When Sayo arrived home, she tracked the mud clinging to her shoes into the house and shivered. She did her best to be quiet so that she wouldn’t wake her grandma.“People get less sleep as they age,” Sayo’s grandmother said calmly. She sat upright by the hearth, staring intently at Sayo.Sayo froze.“I know you’ve been sneaking out at night. Don’t worry; I’m not going to punish you. I assume you had something to prove to yourself. A test of courage from the village children, perhaps.”Sayo sat across from her grandma by the hearth and bowed her head. Water trickled from her hair onto the floor, making the wooden boards darken further in the low light.Her grandma stood and picked up a dish towel that was hanging on the clothes rack. She used it to dry Sayo’s hair carefully. Her hands were so warm and comforting that Sayo leaned into her. She started crying, still bowing her head.Her grandma’s hands stilled. “Please don’t cry, child. You’re not in trouble. But you should stop going out into the forest at night. It isn’t safe. I know children like to play around and test their boundaries, but the mountain forest contains evil creatures as well as good ones. If an evil creature were to possess you, it would be a terrible problem for us both and everyone else.”“I’m sorry, grandma.”“As long as you understand, that’s fine. Now, change out of your wet clothes and get into bed. I warmed up the covers for you.” She spun slowly and resumed her seat next to the hearth.Sayo sat next to her for a short while, listening to her grandma’s usual late-night mutterings. “Children, children… they always have too much energy. Surely sleeping is easier than sneaking out?” She poked the fire.Sayo went over to her bed and wrapped the warm blankets around her. She shivered a bit, but already felt much better.Her grandmother noticed that she’d settled in her bed and moved away from the fire. She retired to her own bed.Familiar sounds gathered around Sayo like a cocoon of warmth and safety. Her bed and blankets were as familiar to her as the hard-packed earth floor and the sounds of her grandma tossing and turning in her sleep. Everything in her environment was so comforting and ordinary that it was hard for her to believe what had happened at Morikage Estate tonight.But she knew that what had happened was real. It hadn’t been a dream or anything like that.I wonder if Koharumaru is in trouble. She thought that she might never see Koharumaru again, and the idea made her feel desperately lonely. She pitied him: he had no family, no nurse, no friends of his own age except for her. Would he be confined to the estate with his terrifying guards and retainers for the rest of his life?Sayo fell asleep with the sound of distant thunder fading in her ears.***Sayo couldn’t help but feel sorry for Koharumaru, so she went out at night again against her grandmother’s express wishes. She managed to reach Morikage Estate several more times, but Koharumaru never came out to greet her. Winter passed and spring came with no sign of him. Then a year passed, and two more.By the time three years had passed since Sayo had last seen Koharumaru, her memories of him were faded around the edges like a half-remembered pleasant dream.

Translations by Ainikki

Mar 13, 2024 • Subscribe

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