Hey FanFic nerds! Below is a submission of original fiction from a fellow BGN (in this case Black Guy Nerd) who wants to share his lovely romantic fantasy story with readers. Enjoy!
When Kuniyoshi Gozen is given the most powerful of gifts from the Gods, she quickly learns that even the most divine prizes carry steep consequences. Can she choose between her own feelings and those of the one she thought she lost forever?
K I T S U N E
Timothy D. Tucker
In times long past, there was a woman named Kuniyoshi Gozen who was tending to her garden one brisk, overcast day. Bulbous clouds that threatened rain loomed in the distance, and a gustful wind sent a shiver through the still bare trees. As Gozen pruned away at her asagaos and sakurasas, she seemed to hear a faint thrashing and crying, as if somebody was in trouble far away in the thicket of trees. She wiped her dirt stained hands on the hem of her kimono, unsheathed her kaiken, and headed in the direction of the disturbance. Beyond her garden was a gurgling stream that she followed along its muddy bank, the once distant cries becoming more distinct- a mixture of hoarse yelping and a helpless, throaty whimper.
The stream terminated into a large pond where dense shrubbery blanketed its perimeter, and entangled among the vegetation was a grey animal. As Gozen approached she found it was a fox of dignified age, with grizzled fur and its hind leg snared in a thicket of thorns. It looked at her with pleading, storm orbs of eyes and emitted another yelp.
Above head the roiling clouds gathered ominously, and a deep rumble of thunder reverberated across the land with the force of a celestial taiko drum. Careful not to prick her already weathered hands, Gozen used her dagger to release the creature from the thorns.
The fox trotted out of the thorn thicket and reared its head at Gozen in a gallant manner. A flash of lightning that was preceded by a crack of thunder illuminated the sky and in that fleeting moment instead of a grey fox there was an old man who stood before her. A straw paddy hat obscured the top of his face and his ash colored beard flowed to his beltline. He bowed deeply to Gozen, his silk kimono rippling across his diminutive body like smoke.
"You must excuse me," The fox man said, "As sagacious as I am even I sometimes require assistance in your human realm."
"Who are you?" Gozen asked, trying her best to stay composed.
The fox man spread his arms embracingly and proclaimed, "I am the god of thunder; the king of kings who holds dominion over the skies and I presume that you now expect some sort ofreward for rescuing me from my plight."
Their eyes finally met, his pupils milky white and face a storm of wrinkled contemplation.
"Ah! I know," He said, snapping his gnarled fingers. "For your good deed I shall bestow upon you three wishes, no more and no less."
"Three wishes...of anything I want?" Gozen stammered.
Fox man nodded. "Anything you want, but be warned: in all my years I have yet to see a human make good use of a gift from the Gods." He reached into the sash of his kimono and produced three blushing cherry blossoms.
"Take your three wishes then, you'll most likely spend the last wish unraveling the work of the first two."
He flung the blossoms in the air just as another duo of thunder and lightning punctuated the sky. Gozen caught the blossoms and put two of them tenderly in her sash. When she looked up the grey fox was dashing towards a copse of trees, disappearing into natures veil. She stood for some moments, reflecting on how she should use her gift. The idyllic life had made her content with what little possessions she owned, but there was still a deep void in her heart, one that could not be filled with material goods, riches, or fame. A void that was created when her husband, Minamoto, was slain during the war six years ago, and while time had made it easier to handle her loss, there was not a day that went by that she did not long to be with him again.
With tears stinging her eyes, Gozen held the third cherry blossom in her outstretched hand and said, "I wish more than anything in the world to have my beloved Minamoto back from the dead!"
She blew the blossom from her palm as the sky finally opened up and fat pellets of rain cascaded to the earth. Taking haste Gozen made her way back to her home, where she shed herself of her soaked clothing for dryer ones and laid in bed. Outside, the howling wind made a waning, almost melancholic rattle through the trees, and she wondered if it too was mourning someone.
When Gozen awoke it was dawn, golden shafts of early morning sun seeping through her windows. A melodious bird call was beginning to sound, along with something else- a shrill yelping that was coming from in front of her home. She recognized the cries as those of a fox and bolted out of bed. When she stepped outside she found a man standing in her garden. He was nothing more than a shadow under the crepuscular light, with eyes that seemed to glow a preternatural amber against the rising sun, but Gozen could sense his identity, and she knew that her first wish had come true.
With legs that felt too distant, she ran towards the figure and flung herself in his outstretched arms. Gozen held him tightly, for she feared that he was a product of a cruel illusion, and would vanish along with the rest of the fleeting darkness and shadows, but with each passing moment the sun crept higher and illuminated the land she found he was still there, as real as ever.
"Oh Minamoto," Gozen crooned. "I've missed you for far too long." She stared into his eyes, which had lost the eerie luminous along with what appeared to be years of age. In fact the face of her resurrected loved one was not of the man who had died during the war but of his younger self, with soft, close set eyes, thin eyebrows, and pallid, high cheekbones. She was so spellbound by her husbands appearance that she did not see the fox skulking near the edge of her garden until it began to yelp- the same high pitched whine she had heard when she first awoken.
The fox was as white as freshly fallen snow with a shaggy tail that wagged enthusiastically and piercing amber eyes that regarded Minamoto and Gozen with bashful glee. With a final yelp the fox turned on its heels and dashed towards the treeline.
"Wait!" Minamoto called after the fox before it disappeared into the trees.
"Do foxes come here often?" He asked her, his gaze still fixated on the treeline.
"Yes, I've seen quite a few in the forest but this was the first time one has come this close to the house," she told him, and he smiled.
Minamoto was just as dutiful as a husband now than he ever was before. He was tender and loyal, helped her to care for her garden, and even busied himself in the kitchen, where he proved to be a formidable cook. But as time went by Gozen began to sense that Minamoto was not happy. He often wandered listlessly and would sometimes spend hours in the garden sitting cross legged and as motionless as a statue, as if he were waiting for something.
One evening Gozen was making her way along the stream when she saw Minamoto down by the pond, a white fox in his arms. She remembered the fox as the one that had greeted them the morning of Minamoto's return and as she drew nearer she could hear the fox weeping softly, its muzzle buried against Minamoto's neck.
"Minamoto, what are you doing?" She asked, perplexed by his actions.
"Forgive me Kuni, But I've kept this a secret for too long." He removed an unseen pendant from around his neck and dangled it towards Gozen. The jewel on the end ebbed a faint amber color, the same light which had radiated in his eyes before. "I may wear the visage of your husband, but my home is amongst the foxes. I was abducted by the Thunder God and recast in this image as punishment, now my brother Gohan has been living all alone to fend for himself."
The white fox, Gohan, wailed in agreement, communication his hardship. Gozen now understood that Minamoto was a fox from the forest, his very life essence condensed into the jewel he carried around his neck, and that realization brought back echoes of that same crushing void she had felt before her first wish, for she knew that when a human being falls in love with a fox they were doomed to sorrow.
"What if I used my second wish to turn your brother into a human, so that you two can be together?" Gozen suggested.
Minamoto shook his head. "I was already punished. I could not ask the same thing of Gohan."
She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and said, "Minamoto...is it really so hard to be human?"
"More than I ever could imagine." He answered.
"But don't you love me at all?"
"I do love you," He said, tears beginning to well in his eyes.
"But I miss the old life of the forest where Gohan and I were free, truly free to roam to our hearts content and never look back."
"Then shall I use my second wish to turn you back into a fox?" She asked, and felt a wave of grief undulate her heart.
"I will not be as unkind to you as that. I am a man now, and with each passing day I feel the fox spirit in me waning." He replaced the pendant around his neck. "I will stay with you."
As much conviction as Minamoto tried to muster, Gozen could still see the pain in his eyes and did her best to make their lives happier, accompanying him on hunts through the forest, caring for the various tsubaki and kakutasu flowers that grew in their garden together, and even suggesting a trip to Edo. But he declined, preferring to stay in their own house near the pond.
She noticed that he spent more and more time in the kitchen, preparing bushels of rice filled fried tofu and stringy udon and soba noodles. He would often take basketfuls of his cooking into the forest, and one day Gozen followed him to find her husband feeding the white fox Gohan.
The two brothers spent more time together in the forest, communicating in a wordless fashion. For a time she thought all was well, until she began to notice how weak and pale Minamoto was becoming. On a night where the cherry blossoms were in full bloom Gozen awoke to find her husband in the grip of a nightmare, his face a mask of anguish and sheened with sweat. Faint mutterings escaped his mouth but Gozen swore she heard him calling for Gohan. It was then that she realized it was pointless to continue to prolong his suffering. He was not a man, nor her husband, but a shade of both who was upended from his life and forced into hers; he would never be happy as a human being. With a heavy heart she placed a soft kiss on her beloved's forehead, took another cherry blossom from her commode, and used up her second wish.
The next moment instead of Minamoto there was a sleeping fox lying on the bed, his ebony coat lush and sleek in the moonlight. She wrapped him in the blanket and carried him outside past the garden, where she laid him down gently on the grass.
"Minamoto! Minamoto!" Gozen called, rousing the black fox from his slumber. He gazed around his surroundings in shock for a moment, and then came up to her and shook himself, his pendant dropping at her feet.. She bent down and embraced the fox deeply.
"I release you from your punishment. Go on, you are free!" The fox regarded her with steely eyes before giving a curt nod that felt all too final and finally ran towards the treeline, disappearing between the mingling shadows and underbrush. Gozen retrieved Minamoto's pendant- her pendant- which had began to pulsate with shades of rich amber, and placed it around her neck. She heard a harsh cackle behind her and turned to find the Thunder God staring at her with malicious glee.
"So much for your first two wishes, eh? What will you do with the final wish, turn yourself into a fox to frolic in the dirt with those two fools?"
"I shall not," Gozen said defiantly. "Foxes and humans are better off with their own kind." For all her words however she gazed longfully towards the forest and fingered her pendant- Minamoto's pendant. Enduring the Thunder Gods now maniacal laughter she walked slowly back to her empty house. The next day she saw two foxes playing near the pond, one black and the other white. The black fox came up to her and rubbed its muzzle against her hand. Kuniyoshi Gozen and her two foxes came to be well known across the land. There were tales of her singing to the foxes in a strange, almost lupine manner that only the three of them could understand , and when bandits tried to break into her home who were set upon by two foxes in a frenzy of claws and teeth.
As Gozen grew older everyone wondered of her well being. Even when her body grew weary with age and her hands afflicted with arthritis she continued to go about her work in the garden, the two foxes close at hand.
One autumn night nearby villagers could hear the mournful sound of a fox keening. All night it went on, melodious and harsh, clear and distant. In the morning Kuniyoshi Gozen was found dead in her bed, a look of great serenity on her face. In between her hands, which lay clasped on her chest, were a dried husk of amber jewelry and a withered cherry blossom.
