Shirayukihime and The Lost Fox

Chapter 7: A Game of Chess and Apples

Akira POV

"We should head back before Zen and Shirayuki." I recommend to Kiki and Mitsuhide. They both nod and we begin the journey back to the old house.

As we were walking in the house, I twist myself around and look back over my shoulder. I scan the forest line, but see nothing. My eyes narrow in suspicion. After a moment, I walk inside and close the door. Kiki and Mitsuhide sit back down at their table and continue their game of chess. I sit back on the stairs and rest my head on my hand while gazing at the door.

Nothing felt right about this situation. I was able to see the guard sent from Tanbarun, so that means that they were following Shirayuki all the way here. So around this time, the guard will sneak up to the door and place the basket of apples on the doorstep, right? But there's something missing, something that I forgot. But what?

"Oi, fox boy." I snap out of my trance and look at Mitsuhide. "It's Akira, ocean-head." I snap at him. His face showed confusion, then anger. Kiki covered her mouth with her hand as her shoulders started shaking with laughter. I smirk at him, who was gaping his mouth open and closed repeatedly with a look of annoyance and slight rage. Oh, it was so worth it to call him ocean-head.

"Anyway, Akira, why so serious? Come over and play with us." Kiki said with a wave of her hand. I hesitate slightly, but grab a chair and pull it up to the table. Mitsuhide lost almost instantly, and I laugh at his foolishness for letting his queen get captured. He turns and glares at me. "Why are you laughing? If you think that you can do better, than show me." He said venomously.

I smirk at him. "Alright, I'll play," I turn to Kiki. "Is it alright if I play you?" She nods her head as Mitsuhide stands up for me to take his seat. We restart the chess board, Kiki as black and I as white. After about fifteen minutes, I placed my final move of placing my bishop. "Checkmate." I say, grinning.

Her eyes widen as she quickly scans the board for any way out. She closes her eyes and says, "He won."

"What?!" Mitsuhide shouts surprised. He also scavenges the surface of the board and looks at me, eyes narrow. I smile sweetly at him. "What? You asked if I could do better, so I did." I say with a chuckle.

Suddenly, the front door burst open. Startled, I jumped in my chair and tried to turn around to see who it was. The chair starts to tip over and I come crashing down with a loud thud. "Ow, ow, ow..." I mutter to myself as I open one eye and glance at the doorway.

There stood Shirayuki and Zen, both with surprised looks on their faces. In his hands, Zen held a woven straw basket filled to the brim with ripe, red apples and a piece of cloth that I guess would have been used to cover the basket. He held a letter in his hand. Shirayuki also held a fringed purple ribbon.

"Ah... hi." I say from the floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So you're from Tanbarun, I see." Zen said after he read the letter that was found with the basket of apples. He looks up at her with a cool façade. Shirayuki continues to wind and unwind the purple ribbon around her fingers with a blank look. Zen had sent Kiki and Mitsuhide out of the room, but allowed me to stay. I sat next to Shirayuki at her request. Besides, there was something that didn't smell right. Literally. Something smelled off, and I want to stay and figure out what.

"Meaning that the person that dropped off this basket came a long way to find you." He says, waving the note around in the air. "He's a determined fellow, I'll give him that."

Shirayuki looks up and gives a nervous laugh. "Right?" She half heartedly jokes.

"THIS ISN'T A JOKE!!" Zen suddenly yells with an irritated expression. Shirayuki flinches in her seat, while I almost jump out of my skin. He points the card at her while half yelling, "How bad was it that you were forced to flee the kingdom?!"

Shirayuki pauses for a second before responding. "I had to leave because of who he is." She says quietly. Zen stares intently at her, head resting against his knuckles with his mouth set into a grim line. My eyes flicker between the conversation and the basket of apples. The smell seems to be coming from there...

Finally she mumbles, "Someone powerful... The first prince of Tanbarun..."

"RAJ?!" Zen exclaims, surprised or angered I'm not sure. He stands up abruptly and slams his hand down on the table, the one he had injured. He clamps his hand on his forearm and grits his teeth with his head down. "That... royal... moron...?!" He seethes through his pain.

Shirayuki had gained a grim smile. "Yes, that's him. He's so stupid even all of the neighboring countries know it." She said bitterly.

Zen sighs as he sits back down. "I don't blame you for running. Doubtlessly, he's having people everywhere tearing up the border crossing records." He said as he waves his arm around a little.

"Do you honestly think that he would go that far?" Shirayuki said. She seemed... drained. Like the life and will to go on had vanished.

"If there's something he wants bad enough, he probably already assumes it belongs to him." He said bitterly. Shirayuki saddened even more hearing this. She reaches out and grabs an apple from the basket. "Even if it means caging it... he's awful." She mutters. Zen looks up at her.

She rubs a bruised section of the apple. "It's starting to go bad. This red isn't good to anyone now." She looks crestfallen, disappointed, and without hope. The smell was so much stronger now, it must be the apples. A corner of my mind kept nagging at me, telling me that I'm missing something very important from the series.

I softly mutter out loud, "Those apples smell funny." It wasn't loud enough, though, to get the attention of zen and Shirayuki.

Zen stood up and walks to Shirayuki's side. I try to remember the first episode and walk myself through the events. The apples, and Zen eats one, and...

Passes out from poisoning.

At this point, Zen has grabbed Shirayuki and was about to eat the apple. I take a deep quick breath and yell.

"WAIT!!"