Nightmares

Nightmares is a fiction written by Ree Soesbee.

Annotated Story


Somewhere in Kitsune Mori, ten months after the Scorpion Coup, Kitsune Ryosei is making her way through the forest. It will soon be night, and Ryosei hears a voice calling out her named and stops. A white flash of movement reveals to her that there is a kitsune nearby, and she pauses and waits for it to come to her. The fox spirit runs from bush to bush trying to hide, but stilltells her to stop. Ryosei greets the spirit, and offers it a sweetened candy to grant her passage. The fox stares off towards the west as if afraid and tells her to stop once more. Suddenly howls repeatedly sound in the distance, and the fox is spooked and flees. Ryosei draws her nagamaki, and moments later four other foxes come to where she is. The oldest of the four asks her if she is Ryosei, and she confirms who she is and that she is on a mission for her father for her gempukku. The old fox tells her they are hunting a traitor but does not wish to explain further when Ryosei asks. They are not really allowed to interfere. The kitsune seem to catch the scent of their prey and are off. The old one, Genkuro, tells Ryosei to remember that dreams are truth before he follows his brethren into the woods. The path is silent once more and Ryosei shakes her head at the strangeness before returning her nagamaki to it's sheath and begins jogging down the path to her destination. Her father is waiting.



Some time later in the Grove of Inari, the most sacred place in Fox lands, Ryosei steps into the clearing and calls out to her father. Kitsune Gohei, an old man now, responds and she moves over and kneels before him. Two normal foxes flee off into the woods, and Ryosei ponders for a moment why fox spirits have never been close to her father. Ryosei tells her father she has completed her task, returning the Ancestral Sword of the Fox Clan from it's hiding place deep under the mountains near Otosan Uchi. Ryosei draws the blade and lays it down on the ground. Gohei reveals that the blade had not been lost, but hidden from them by the Emperor Hantei Genji. He gave it to Togashi Nyoko who reforged it and bound the hilt with silk woven from Shinjo's hair. Ryosei confirms she knows the story by adding that the Scorpion stole it. Gohei reveals the Scorpion had needed it, and now in this time of darkness they need it again. Gently Gohei picks up the blade and places it on a low ritual table, before beginning to unwind the silk around the hilt. Ryosei can see the silk fall away and the wood tsuka below it, and under the tsuke is a scrap of black paper. Ryosei asks her father what he is doing, and he replies that he is seizing imomortality. He throws the blade to the ground, now stained with his blood, and begins chanting to Yogo Junzo and Fu Leng. Ryosei screams for him to stop as the ground beneath them starts to shake. Gohei says he shall use her blood to dedicate the sacrifice to Fu Leng, so Gohei can become the Walking Horror of Fu Leng. Gohei raises the Fox Clan Sword and is about to strike, but is stopped by the intervention of a fox spirit biting into his neck. The fox tells Ryosei to run as it is thrown to the ground by Gohei. A widening cleft is opening up in the ground between Gohei and Ryosei, and Gohei screams in outrage and stabs the kitune spirit repeatedly with the sword. Ryosei flees, knowing she cannot win.

Morning breaks and Ryosei wakes from her sleeping fouton in the Palace of the Kitsune. Ryosei remembers the laughter of her gempukku ceremony the night before, and teh celebrations. She see images in her mind of kneeling before her father and recieving his proud congratulations. She wonders if it could have been a bad dream, and her eyes stray to the ornate sword-stand nearby. It is empty and beneath it is the skin of a white-breasted fox, and the kitsune's warning of not being allowed to interfere rings in her head. She kneels before the pelt and swears that if they cannot interfere then she will seize the future and make it her own. She swears she will find her father one day.

Characters

 * Kitsune Ryosei
 * Genkuro
 * Kitsune Gohei

Not Present, But Mentioned

 * Hantei
 * The Shining Prince, Hantei's son
 * The Dark One
 * Togashi Nyoko
 * Shinjo
 * Yogo Junzo