The Heart of a Fox

by T. Isilwath

  As long as they returned to the village before the rice harvest, it would be okay for Akihiro to go away for a few days, but it was absolutely imperative that he be back for the Harvest. Apparently there were two rice fields terraced into the side of a steep hill that were very difficult for the villagers to reach, and it was Akihiro’s responsibility to bring in the rice from those paddies.

  Since his village had an abundance of rice, almost every person living there could have some new rice in their larder and still pay the taxes to the Emperor and daimyo. She had never eaten freshly harvested rice, and she hoped that she would have enough insulin left to allow her to enjoy a small bowl.

  She was so engrossed in her foraging that it took her a moment to realize the forest had gotten very quiet. Normally the trees were alive with calling birds, and the rustling of small animals going about their daily business of staying alive, but at the moment the area around her was eerily still. It tripped off her warning instincts because the forest only grew quiet when there was a predator in the area, and she paused to look around as she lowered her mental barriers to listen to the trees again.

  :Danger! Danger! Danger!: they were crying. :Tree-friend danger!:

  ‘Crap, ’ she thought, trying to stay calm. ‘Okay where is it?’

  With the energy patterns so disrupted by the change of seasons it was difficult for her to Feel anything, let alone determine which direction the threat was coming from. It could be anywhere. It could already be too late, and she knew Akihiro was probably too far away to come to her aid. Silently she cursed her stupidity. She’d let her guard down. She’d been living in the forest so long without any trouble that she’d forgotten she was in an untamed wilderness.

  Michael would have been so disappointed in her.

  ‘Where is it?’ she asked the trees, hoping they could give her an idea.

  :Here! Here! Here!: she heard all at once, and she spun in a circle, casting her eyes around as she gripped one of her throwing daggers firmly in her hand.

  There was a rustle in the canopy and she looked up, but the leaves were too dense to see anything. ‘Crap. It’s above me. It’s in the trees.’

  The loud caw of a crow scout sounded the alarm and she honed in on its direction.

  ‘West. Aki’s the other direction,’ she determined, then a wave of Other hit her and she froze. ‘It’s here.’

  :DANGER!: the trees screamed.

  ‘RUN!’ her instincts cried.

  Not one to ignore her base urges when it came to survival, she turned east, dropped the fishing net, and ran. Unfortunately, the sense of Other followed.

  Now that she knew it was there, she could keep a tab on it, and it was plainly obvious by the chilling sensation at the back of her neck that whatever it was was actively pursuing her. Being alone in the forest with only three knives and no bow, she knew that her chances of coming out alive were pretty slim based on her previous encounters with the Others that lurked in the forest. Her only hope was to run towards Akihiro and pray that she could get to him in time.

  ‘Maybe. Maybe I can get to him. The homestead isn’t that far away…’ she reasoned, pacing her breathing to keep from running out of breath. She was in good shape, but she was no distance runner, and she knew it. A loud crash behind her, and the sound of something hitting the ground, drove her to move faster, but she dared not look back.

  “Akihiro! Akihiro!” she called, hoping that he was now within earshot. If he’d already left the abandoned hut, it was possible that he was closer than she thought. Not to mention that his hearing was far superior to hers.

  There was no answering call from her fox, and the game trail she was following abruptly ended at a steep hillside with a rock face. It didn’t take her long to figure out that she had run in the wrong direction.

  ‘Damnit! No!’ she silently wailed as she searched for handholds. ‘There!’

  She jumped, grabbing onto a narrow ledge above her, and scrambled up the rocks. Once at the top, she headed up the hillside at a diagonal, using the base of the trees and rocks to give her purchase as she continued her climb. There was a loud whomp and this time she did look back, only to see the largest, most hideous spider she’d ever laid eyes on leap up the rock face in a single jump.

  ‘Oh my god. Oh my god,’ she thought, momentarily frozen with fear.

  It was the size of a pony, black and horrible, and all of its eight red eyes were trained on her. She couldn’t help herself. She screamed. The beast let out a high pitched shriek in answer, and the sound galvanized her to run again.

  ‘That’s one of the demon-spiders Aki told me about. The ones that took over the caves near his village!’ she recalled, her lungs protesting the abuse as she continued up the hill, trying to figure out what to do.

  It was huge. It was fast. It had deadly poison that could paralyze her. It could also jump a hell of a lot farther than she could. If it caught her she was as good as dead, and she knew she couldn’t fight it and win. Her only hope was to get someplace where the thing couldn’t follow.

  ‘Water! I need water! The damn things can’t swim!’ she remembered suddenly. ‘Water? Where is water?’ she begged the trees.

  :This way! This way!: the trees to the right answered and she switched directions. Behind her, she heard the spider follow, but she didn’t dare spare a moment to see how close it was.

  ‘Bird People help my feet to fly,’ she prayed, pulling on reserves she didn’t know she had. ‘Cougar! Lend me your strength!’

  A minute later, she crested the top of the hill and headed down. By now she was leaping outward and letting gravity take her down the steep incline, using the trees to brace her descent, and soon she heard the unmistakable sound of rushing water.

  ‘A waterfall!’

  Her heart filled with hope as she headed for it, and she almost cried with relief when the ground gave way, and she found herself standing at the top of a tall waterfall with a pool at the bottom and a large, wide stream flowing below.

  ‘Thank you, Spirit. Thank you, Long Person,’ she prayed, and hurriedly made her way down, her feet skidding sideways on the loose, rocky soil. If she could get across the stream, hopefully the thing would be afraid to follow.

  The last obstacle was a drop of about six feet to the ground, and she paused only a moment before she leapt off the edge. She landed as lightly as she could, buckling her knees to spare them the impact, and raced for the water as soon as she recovered. The spider landed on the ground behind her, letting out another shrieking whistle that split her ears because it was so close, and she dove for the deep pool at the base of the waterfall. She knew her insulin pump was water resistant so it would survive getting wet. She didn’t know about the GPS, but she didn’t care.

  The water was cold, and she braced at the shock, but she kept going until she felt the bottom drop beneath her feet. There she treaded water, watching as the thing paced like a caged animal along the bank of the pool, shrieking as its two front legs tested the depth of the water. It drew back, scrambling away as the spray from the waterfall hit its bulbous body.

  ‘Take that you bastard,’ she thought with relief, even as her soaked leathers began to drag her down. But she couldn’t leave the water yet. She needed to make sure the thing couldn’t cross the stream further down, so she waited and watched as it moved back and forth, periodically sticking one black leg into the water.

  ‘My god, that thing is horrible. I’ll be having nightmares about it for months. No wonder Akihiro hates them. If I never see one of them again, it’ll be too soon.’

  She kept treading water as the spider kept trying to find a safe way to get to her, and she noticed that it wasn’t moving further downstream. It was as if it didn’t realize that the water might be shallower a short distance away.

  ‘Aki did say they weren’t very smart.’

  Feeling a little more confident, and getting a little too cold from the water, she swam over to the other side and pulled herself out of the pool.
Her body loudly protested her abuse of it as she knelt on the bank to catch her breath and warm up a little bit. On the opposite bank, the giant spider shrieked its dis-pleasure. She responded by giving it a one-finger salute.

  ‘Now I just have to find my way back to Aki…’ she thought, looking around and trying to get her bearings. She really had no idea how far she had run or where she was in reference to the abandoned hut. Slowly she rose to her feet, muscles aching and knees creaking, and started to stagger away, one eye still on the monster on the other side. It shrieked again.

  Suddenly there was a thump behind her, and a familiar chill ran up her spine. She already knew what it was, but she turned in time to see a black leg.

  ‘It was a trap. There were two…’

  The Feel of the first had masked the Feel of the second, and now it was too close. There was no room to maneuver and nowhere to go. She brought up her dagger and threw it, but it bounced harmlessly off the tough exoskeleton. She screamed as it advanced on her, and it shrieked, the force of the sound knocking her off her feet. She scrambled at the soft earth, trying to get away, but it was already on her. In a last ditch effort to protect her vulnerable throat, she rolled and felt the fangs sink into the flesh of her shoulder.

  ********

  When she had called his name, he had heard the fear in her voice and had already started running, but when he’d heard her scream his entire body went into full alert, and he sped through the forest at top speed, crashing heedlessly through brush and trees.

  “Joanna! Joanna, I’m coming!” he cried, hoping that he wouldn’t be too late as he located her scent and followed it.

  He didn’t know what had happened, but he knew it was big enough to make his vixen run because her trail led deep into the woods, and a moment later he caught the telltale stink of one of his most hated foes.

  ‘Oni-gumo!’

  Being that the scent of the demon spider closely followed his vixen’s route, he knew immediately what was going on and fear seized his heart. ‘It’s hunting her. Oh no! Joanna, please be safe until I can get there!’

  There were no words to describe the overwhelming terror that seized him, the chilling numbness of desperate fear as he raced to find her. He knew all too well how deadly an oni-gumo bite could be. Even with the medicine Ichiro had to counteract the venom, many victims never recovered. Plus Kaemon had told him that humans with Joanna’s disease didn’t heal as quickly as healthy people, and stress and illness could make them much worse. With his vixen being so close to running out of insulin, an oni-gumo bite was the last thing she needed.

  ‘Please let me be in time!’ he prayed.

  He followed her trail as it twisted through the forest, secretly pleased at how she had avoided running in a straight line, and leaped up a high rock face as he tracked her up a hill. He smelled the water as he crested the top, and hope surged through him as he realized what she was doing.

  ‘She’s headed for the water! My wonderful, smart vixen remembered that the bastards can’t swim!’ But his elation was short-lived as a second scream pierced the air. ‘Joanna! ’

  He reached the top of the waterfall a few heartbeats later and looked down to the other side. What he saw made the rage boil inside of him and his demon-blood cloud his vision with red. His vixen lay prone on the ground beside the waterfall, and it was obvious that she had been taken by surprise. Standing over her was a juvenile male oni-gumo, and it was beginning to wrap up his vixen’s body in its webbing. Pacing on the opposite side of the wide stream was a second demon spider, also a juvenile male.

  ‘Scouts out looking for a new nest. They set a trap and herded her into it,’ he seethed as the fury rose and the fox scratched and clawed at his insides, begging to be let out. ‘Vixen! Vixen hurt! Maim! Kill! Save vixen!’

  He growled, his human and demon sides in complete accord, and jumped into battle. His leap took him down the length of the waterfall and over to the other side of the stream where he landed with little more than a grunt to give himself away. He saw Joanna’s dagger lying on the ground, but he didn’t need it as he attacked before the second spider could sound the alarm. Brandishing his claws, and working on instinct as the fox took over, he aimed directly for the muscles on the lower abdomen that controlled the beast’s web sacks. Just as the human exterminators sought to disable the oni-gumo’s ability to shoot webbing, he sliced at the dark flesh, cutting into the thing’s underbelly and severing the tendons in one swipe. The spider shrieked, making his head ring, but he rolled underneath it, recovered a short distance away, and crouched on all fours, snarling as the thing turned to face him.

  He knew immediately that his first strike had been successful because webbing dribbled out of the web sack and hung in useless strings from the hole.

  Smiling maliciously, he took in the scent of the wounded beast and waited to see what it would do. Oddly he felt no fear, only rage and the need to kill the thing that had hurt his beloved. There was no hesitation, no second-guessing, no doubts of his victory or his opponent’s death. His demon blood was in full control, and it was cold and calculating in its fury.

  Oni-gumo were harder to kill when attacked from above. He had to get underneath it again, to the soft underbelly where it was easier to strike a killing blow. The problem was the monster knew its vulnerability and would protect its weak spot now that it knew he was there. Not to mention that it was only a matter of time before the second scout made its way across the stream. He had to end the fight quickly if he had any hope of saving Joanna.

  Foxes were cunning hunters, swift and intelligent, and his body was already moving of its own accord as the spider charged. It spit venom at him, but he anticipated the move and dove out of the way. His roll brought him closer to Joanna and he spared a moment to check on her. There was blood on the shoulder of her leather shirt, but he thankfully did not see any wounds on her throat.

  She was, unfortunately, quite obviously paralyzed by the spider venom, but he didn’t have any time to gauge the extent of her injuries because the oni-gumo attacked again. This time he moved in the opposite direction, drawing the beast away from its helpless victim, and jumped into the branches of a nearby tree.

  ‘I have to put an end to this. Joanna needs me,’ he reasoned. His vixen had been bitten, and he needed to get her to Ichiro as soon as possible. The fox agreed and he surrendered to it again, trusting his demon instincts to lead him to victory.

  The spider reached up the tree trunk, spitting more poison at him as it shrieked, trying to knock him off the limb with the force of its sound. He flattened his ears and snarled in answer, avoiding the burning venom as he leaped over his opponent and raked down its back with his claws. The blow had the desired effect of causing the oni-gumo to scream in rage and spin around. It jumped at him and he sprang away, swiping at one of the thing’s long legs as he dodged. His blow hit home and he felt the leg snap at the joint. The spider howled its fury and spit venom again even as it dragged the injured leg behind it. He avoided the burning poison by spinning in mid-air as he bounced off another tree trunk and landed beside his vixen.

  His heart was pounding, his breath coming in deep gulps, as he dug the claws of his feet into the soil and stood his ground. He was now between the spider and Joanna, and there was no way he was going to let the beast get past him. As the two faced off, he gritted his teeth, preparing to fight to the death if he had to, but knowing deep inside that he had nothing to fear. He might be an adolescent, but he had his father’s blood coursing in his veins, and the great Kazehiro had never lost a battle against a demon in his life. There was no way he was going to lose to a stinking, juvenile oni-gumo. He’d see himself in hell before he let that happen.

  Something inside of him moved, something deep and primal, as if his desire to protect the woman he loved had broken a barrier inside of him. A surge of power raced through his body, hot and crackling like the energy cast by a Seal, and he felt a semi-familiar tingling in the palms of his hands. It was akin t
o the feeling of a hunter preparing to strike, knowing his weapon was at hand and ready to make the kill, and he recognized the sensation for what it meant.

  An evil grin came to his lips, and he braced for the spider’s next attack.

  His fox knew what he needed to do, and for the first time in his life he consciously grabbed hold of his kitsune magic, and prepared to blast his opponent off the face of the earth. It was a moment of truth and perfect clarity as he wielded one of the kitsunes’ greatest defensive weapons; a weapon that up until that very moment had been beyond his ability to command and harness. The spider shrieked again and charged as he thrust his hands in front of him and let the power go.

  “FOXFIRE! ” he roared and blue flame burst from his palms.

  The monster screamed and instinctively reared away, but in doing so it exposed its soft underside. He wasted no time as he leapt up, claws at the ready and plunged his arm into the beast’s chest. The spider screamed again as he ripped open the vulnerable torso and tore the black flesh to pieces. The beast pitched over onto its back, and he went with it, bracing his feet against the base of the wildly swinging legs, as he refused to let up his attack. It shrieked and convulsed beneath him as its legs curled up in the rigor of death.

  When the red haze of his rage finally ebbed, he looked down at the dead creature, and his own black blood-stained hands, as he brought his breathing under control. It was the first time he had ever killed a demon so viciously and quickly, but he had no opportunity to revel in his triumph as he hopped off the body and immediately ran to his vixen’s side.

  “Joanna? Joanna-sama can you hear me?” he begged as he tore away the webbing the oni-gumo had wrapped around her legs and hips.

  His heart sank when there was no answer and he frantically searched for a pulse. When he found it, it was weak and erratic, but it was there.