The Child and The Fox Spirit

There once was a great Fox Spirit who lived in a forest on the edge of a secluded village in the country.

Well, "lived" isn't the right word, as he couldn't leave even if he wanted to. He had been sealed there by a powerful exorcist a hundred years ago.

This Fox Spirit was a mischievous being whose greatest pleasure was troubling humans in various ways. He had settled in the village for a few years, playing different tricks on the humans who lived there. The humans, weary of his games but powerless themselves, begged the help of the most powerful exorcist.

He agreed to help them, and after some trouble, trapped the Fox Spirit in the forest behind the village. But that was all he could do, as even he was unable to kill the fox spirit.

The Fox Spirit, being a powerful spirit, found a way to leave after a while, but the only way he could do so was with the help of a human.

Unfortunately for him, humans stayed far away from the forest now that he inhabited it, and he had been forced to remain there for a hundred years.

Until one day, he heard a commotion at the mouth of the forest, but just as quickly as it started, it ended.

Incredibly bored, he ventured forth to investigate and almost couldn't believe what he found.

A human child had come into the forest.

Well, "come" wasn't the right word. There was no way this child had come in there of his own will, as they were tied up from head to toe.

Looking closer, he saw the child was covered in wounds. Horrible cuts, scars, and gashes marred their small body.

The Fox Spirit began to panic. A human had finally come, and they were about to die? He couldn't let that happen.

Picking up the child, he took them back to his home in the center of the forest.

He cut the ropes with his claws and placed the child on a patch of dead leaves.

As he did so, the child's eyes fluttered open.

"Is this hell?" The child asked deliriously.

"Yes," the fox spirit replied.

"Oh. Good." With those words, the child's eyes closed once again.

The Fox Spirit resumed tending to his wounds as best he could.

The sun set and rose and set again before the child woke up again. The Fox Spirit watched with tense excitement all the while. He hadn't had such an experience in a hundred years. He was starved for entertainment, even the poor entertainment of watching a child sleep. He also had to make sure that the child didn't die, no matter what.

Not yet anyway.

The child examined his surroundings bewildered for a moment before his eyes met the fox spirit's. A moment passed before the child screamed and passed out again.

The Fox Spirit chuckled silently.

When the child awoke again, all fear was gone, and they faced the spirit calmly. The Fox Spirit was a little disappointed.

"Are you going to eat me?" the child asked.

"Not yet," the spirit replied.

"... Oh."

Silence filled the clearing the Fox Spirit called home.

"Why did they bring you here?" the Fox Spirit asked. He had been quite curious about this. After all, no humans had even come near the forest for a hundred years.

The child shifted uncomfortably. "They said I was possessed by a spirit and only brought bad luck. So they took me here to get rid of me."

The Fox Spirit, being a spirit, knew the child before him was a normal human and was puzzled. "Why do they think that?"

The child waited a moment before answering. "They said my white hair was a sign that something evil dwelled within me."

"Hmm," was the spirit's only reply.

The thoughts of humans always amused him, and this was true even now. Casting away one of their own due to a simple difference in color. Indeed, humans were interesting creatures.

He was grateful for their ridiculous notions in this instance as now, through this child, he had a way to escape his prison.

"Well, you are here now, and I find nothing evil within you. Rest and heal for now," the Fox spirit said.

"You are the spirit of the Forest, are you not? Why do you not kill me? I heard you were an evil being." The child looked confused.

The Fox spirit's mouth widened in a wicked smile. "You humans are all so impatient. Fear not, I am the so-called spirit of the Forest, and I will eat you. But I prefer my meat fattened and healthy. If you are so eager to die, please heal and grow stronger."

The child pondered this for a moment, before nodding. "I suppose you are right. Is there any food here?"

The Fox Spirit rose and led him to a grove of trees, fresh fruit hanging from their branches.

The child strained to reach them but was unable to.

The Fox spirit laughed at their pathetic figure. "Mount me and take hold of them."

The child climbed the spirit's soft pelt tentatively and reached out. They were still unable to reach. Struggling and stretching their arms, they were finally able to reach one, but they fell off in the process.

The child shrieked as they fell, but they found themselves hovering a few feet before the ground, hanging from the spirit's snout by the back of their clothes.

The Fox spirit dropped them gently on the ground. "Be more careful. Your body belongs to me now. Treat it with care."

The child, still stunned, nodded. Then they giggled. A giggle which soon turned into a hearty laugh. They laughed, and the Fox Spirit, though unaware of the joke, laughed along.

They laughed together, outcasts banished to the cold dark forest.

And so time passed.

Two years later, the child had grown taller, stronger, and perhaps even a little wiser.

The Fox spirit remained unchanged. The days had passed without their permission, but they didn't mourn their passing.

Through the spirit, the child had remembered the joy of living, and through the child, the fox spirit remembered the joy of trickery and mischief.

Put simply, they had fun.

But all things must come to an end.

One day, the child left the spirit sleeping and set off to gather food for the day. As they wandered through the forest, they heard a strange noise.

In truth, it was a rather normal noise, but to the child living in seclusion in the forest, it had become unfamiliar and strange.

It was the chatter of humans.

Confused, they followed the chatter till they came face to face with the group responsible for the noise.

It took only a moment for the child to remember their faces. They had grown older, but they were still the same people that had cast him out of their midst.

Used to sneaking through the forest with the spirit, the child had crept up silently, startling them as he stepped out into their view.

It was over before it could even begin.

The Fox Spirit awoke a few hours later, as the sun reached its zenith. It was too hot to sleep comfortably.

Stretching, he noticed the human was missing but was unalarmed. The habit of waking early was something the child had been unable to cast away through the years.

The Fox spirit wandered in search of the child and found them all too easily.

Just like the day they met for the

first time, at the mouth of the forest, the child lay still. However, unlike that first meeting, the Fox Spirit knew at a glance that the child was dead.

They had bled out from an arrow wound in the stomach. Their face was twisted in an expression of confusion, as if their last moments had been spent trying to work out a puzzling instance.

The Fox spirit sat by their side. He gently pulled out the arrow and threw it away, the taste of blood staining his tongue as he did so.

The Fox Spirit felt no sadness. On the contrary, this was the moment he had been waiting for, for so long.

The Fox Spirit smiled and ate the child.

The hunters that had gone into the forest in hopes of catching prey returned with a story instead.

They told the village of how they encountered the white-haired demon that had survived despite their efforts to rid themselves of it years before. How it had nearly killed them, but they finally truly managed to slay it.

They were hailed as heroes.

For all of seven hours.

That evening, as the village celebrated the death of the white-haired demon, the white-haired demon returned.

The demon crept out of the forest on all fours like a wild animal, but as it moved towards the village, it began to walk on two legs.

It spoke gibberish and nonsense, but as it moved towards the village, it began to speak the words of humans.

It twisted its face into a myriad of different expressions, the sort that only a demon could make, but as it moved towards the village, it smiled.

The first to discover it, a young man, tired of the celebrations and headed home, tried to scream and had his throat cut.

The next, a group of children, had paled and shook with fear when faced with its fearsome grin, until one by one, it had disposed of them all.

And so the demon moved through the village.

The Fox Spirit looked around the burning village and smiled. The cheers of celebration had turned to cries of terror and finally to silence.

Only the crackling of burning houses could be heard now.

The Fox Spirit, examined his new form's blood-stained hands and laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Humans really are such fun."

With those words, the Fox Spirit walked away, in search of more humans to deceive and beguile.

Author's Note: youtu.be/uKbRXeJ9lv4?si=rVi7Os0IizfKDHjx