Kitsune : A Tail of Two Bloods

Kurou the Kitsune woke up in his bed in the middle of the night. He'd been having nightmares about a white and gold Kitsune taunting him to Hunt. Although, Kurou knew that this was normal among the Kitsune as they got closer to gaining their next tail. Kurou asked his mother if she had ever had them but some how, she never has had a nightmare before. Being the leader of the Kitsune, Kurou's mother was able to manipulate the minds of others to her will, to a certain extent... so she had been able to see this nightmare from other Kitsune and was able to talk to Kurou about his nightmare.

Kurou looked up, out the window. Into the night, to the white and brown trunks of the many trees that surrounded his village. He was thinking of how the trees felt when they lost their leaves. Did it hurt? Did they even know they were losing leaves? Did they feel sad when they lost their leaves? Kurou asked himself, he had always wanted to know more about his surroundings.

"Kurou!!" He heard his mother calling for him from down stairs. He got out of bed and went to see what she wanted.

"Yes mother?" He asked politely as was customary when speaking to an elder.

"I've been thinking about your nightmare you've been telling me about... What did the two look like again?" She asked, concerned about her son. Kurou was extremely confused on why she was asking him this but he answered anyways.

"Uh, one was a pure gold color and one was white with red markings on its head... why are you as-" Kurou didn't finish his sentence before his   mother interrupted him.

"Interesting.... What did they tell you to do?"

"Uh, they told me to Hunt them all what ever that means.... If that's what your asking..." Kurou waited for a reasponce but none came until minuets later.

"Just as i thought... Tell you what kitten, ill remove this nightmare from your head so you can return to sleep, i need you to run some arriands tomarrow." Kurou hated whenever she called him Kitten, it just made him feel childish, but it didn't bother him too much because he was still a Kit according to Kitsune law. Kurou accepted her offer graciously. After she finished, she sent him back up to bed where he was easily able to fall back to sleep.

In the morning, Kurou's mother gave him a list of four things he had to gather for her. As he walked to get his first item, he stopped to watch a Kitsune Marriage ritual. The two were fighting relentlessly with each other but Kurou knew that it was customary for two lovers to fight to assert their place in their new formed family. Loser of this fight becomes the care- giver of the family. Winner becomes the new family's Hunter to supply them with food. As he walked away from the group watching the ritual, he shouted back "Congratulations!" To congratulate the two lovers on their accomplishment of marriage.

First thing on the list, a vial of Boiled Rabbit Blood. Kurou felt that this was by far the most useless use of money he had ever seen. He could go kill a bird and put its blood into a vial and there would be no difference, but he did as he was told. After his awkward encounter with the Kitsune who sold him the vial, he continued to get his second item.

Second item, a new metal pot. When he read this, Kurou laughed a little because he remembered how his mother left their old pot on the fire and it melted a hole clean through. Kurou went to the Steel Smith to see if she had any pots to sell. Luckily, she did and he paid for the pot with the rest of his money. Kurou Again, continued to his third thing on his list.

Third on his list was Fresh Ginger. Kurou has hated ginger with a passion since he was small but he still had to do as told. He didn't realize it before but he had no money to pay for the Ginger so the Herbalist he was buying it from gave him a letter to deliver. After delivering this letter all the way across town he finally got the ginger and could move on to the the forth item.

Kurou was happy this was his last item to get. The forth item was Mint leaves and he had to go into the forest to find them. After hours of searching along the ground he spotted a small family of rabbits. Drawing his dagger , Kurou hid in a bush and waited for these Rabbits to get closer. After an hour of waiting, the family of three had come close enough.

In less then a second, Kurou had stabbed one of them through the neck, killing it almost instantly. Kurou watched as the other two ran away as fast as possible, never once looking back at their fallen brethren.

Kurou spent several minutes skinning the rabbit and lighting a fire to cook it on. After he eventually ate the cooked rabbit... He remembered... He hadn't found any mint! He looked at the sun to see it just touching the horizon.

If i'm not back before sun down... She'll have my head! Kurou said to himself, feeling like an idiot for forgetting his tasks.

He scrambled until he eventually found some of the shiny green leaves on the forest floor. After he checked if it was Poison or not he clarified it was indeed mint. He put it in this pot- bag and started on back to the village.

Kurou had walked much farther then he thought... it took him almost a full hour to find the village again. After he did he ran through the village, almost knocking over several kitsune and made it to his home. He had completed his tasks, now he needed to find out why his mother needed these things.

Kurou entered the house to find that the white fox that was his mother was no where to be found. He looked all around the house but still couldn't find her. Until he checked their back room... He saw that his mother was bathing in a pool of animal blood on the floor.

Kurou stood in the door way in silence until he was spoken too. "Come in Kurou" Kurou entered the room, dogging around the smaller pools of blood as he approached the White Fox.

When he was finally in reaching distance his mother got up from her position on the floor and put her paw in a small pool of far darker-red blood. His mother made a mark with her paw on the top of his head. It was very hard to see because of Kurou's own red- orange fur but it was still legible. The mark looked like a question mark with six dots all around it with a triangle on top.

"This will protect you from all evil Kurou, when i'm gone i want you to be safe." Her words scared Kurou a little

"What do you mean 'When you are gone'"?

"Nothing, now, go up to sleep Kurou ill see you in the morning." After she said this Kurou went to his room to sleep, but with every step he took up the stairs, it felt as if the top of his head where the mark was was burning like acid. He thought he should go wash it off but it felt as if he Knew that wouldn't work.

When Kurou tried going to sleep, the Nightmare he had been having the past month wasn't present. It was as if it had been forced out of his mind, leaving a big void of nothing but wonder. Because of this, he sleep peacefully all through the night.