Under The Fox's Tail ⁷

Sound

You travelled with your eyes the path that was waiting for you to walk it through and left a deep breath of exhaustion to escape your lips, thinking that your friend was sure cruel for expecting you to walk all the way till you arrive at the top of the mountain where her village laid, which was also your destination.

You two had come a long way to Japan, from where your friend was. You two girls had met each other at University as you were both in your first year of Bachelor's and had happened to have some common classes, with time getting into conversations with each other made you become closer.

The time had passed and the season break had arrived, finding the two of you travelling to Europe where your house was then straight to Japan, to visit her relatives as well.

You had accepted her offer of going along as you had never gone to Japan and it sure seemed like a good opportunity to visit the country but when you had agreed you hadn't imagined that, except for the beautiful Tokyo where you had stopped by and stayed with her parents for two days, you had to travel all the way to Kyoto and farther from it, looking for the village where her grandmother lived, to pay her a quick visit as well.

The trip had been long and tiring and to think that on top of that all, now she was asking of you to walk till you reach the top of the mountain, was an absurdity.

"Yukio are you sure there is no easier way to reach there? I am already exhausted you know." You told her, while still observing the mountain and the road that sneakily travelled on it.

"I am sorry, no public vehicles go up to here and we don't have a car." She responded while grabbing her loaded backpack and shoving it above her shoulders.

"I understand but can we at least go by the forest and not the road? You know to cut it shorter." You suggested as if you would do so you would definitely save time.

She turned around and gave you a look before denying aggressively, someone might say. "No! No way. We can't enter that forest. It's prohibited."

You laughed a little at her words, your mind coming to some comments you had heard about Japanese people and how they believed in superstitions and stuff.

"Why is that? Is the forest hunted by ghosts or something.?" You asked jokingly but Yukio's face didn't seem to let her seriousness fall.

"No, it's not that. It's just that around this area, my grandmother always said that people were prohibited to go into the forest because it didn't belong to humans. However, if you were to pass by its grounds, you were to never speak a word or make any sound. To not disturb the owner. "She explained, her eyes shining a little as she talked, with fascination about the story.

" Sounds interesting and cool but I am still too tired to get a long way. "You insisted, giving her a tiring look, hoping she would pity you.

" Fine! Stop looking at me like that! "She gave in, hitting your shoulder and you laughed as the same trick had worked again on her.

" But promise me Y/N! Promise you won't make a single sound while in there. Not any noise. Promise. "She demanded, raising her finger at you and you nodded eagerly.

" I give you my word. You won't even hear me breathing if that's what you want. "You reassured her then smiled, soon following her as she started leading the way.

After a good half hour inside the forest that you had exchanged no words, you started getting frustrated, because you wanted to take a break but had no way of letting her know.

She was some feet ahead and you were trying to catch up to her so you could touch her and make her a sign that you needed to take a stop but you were too tired to get close enough.

Being unfit and not having done any exercise since high school somehow felt regrettable at the moment, realizing your low stamina. Walking around the city all day, going shopping and doing chores plus studying till late, wasn't enough to keep you in form.

Considering how messed up your schedule had actually become, you weren't surprised you would get tired by walking half this hill.

God this is so stupid.

You thought as you found this story getting on your nerves at that moment, however, you had promised and Yukio would kill you if you didn't respect that promise.

You took a deep breath and fastened your pace towards her, having made up your mind to reach to her and grab her shirt, pulling her to sit down and catch your breaths however as you were about to succeed in doing so, a sound echoed making your feet halt abruptly as well as hers.

She shot her head back at you and met your wide eyes as you yourself were surprised by the ringtone that had gone off, coming from your pocket.

"Oh my! I am so sorry Yukio. It must have gone out of silence mode by mistake." You told her, while in a panic you were trying to get it out of your jacket's inner pocket and shut it down.

"There." You murmured as you pressed the button, declining the incoming call of a friend that was calling you.

"Y/N! Why did you speak?!" Yukio scolded you, whispering at you aggressively as her face was depicting clearly how much she was panicking.

"I am sorry. I forgot." You replied sincerely, as at that moment it had slipped your mind and you were only thinking about the sound that your phone was making.

"Run! We have to get out of this forest quickly!" She said, grabbing your wrist and pulling you with her.

"Yukio, calm down. It's just a story, nothing will happen to us." You told her while you were running like crazy with her inside the forest, she desperately pulled on you to go faster.

You tried to keep up with her as much as you could since she didn't seem to slow down, till she stopped abruptly, to your surprise, because tree branches started moving and seemed to be closing up on you.

"Oh, my God! What is going on?!" You exclaimed in shock as this didn't seem like a normal phenomenon.

Soon, you were surrounded by branches with no exit, only left in a circle while holding each other's hands.

"Yu-Yukio." You called her name, now being somehow scared and changing your mind about that story being just a story.

"He is here." She responded as soon as a cold breeze presented itself into the atmosphere followed by a thick fog that engulfed the place in a matter of seconds.

"After so many years. I finally got a visitor" A voice was heard, making you both look around you trying to spot from which direction it came.

"To whom do I own the pleasure?" The voice added, soon a wave of air hitting your face, making you put your hands up to protect your eyes.

When you pulled them down, a figure came into sight, a tall figure of a man, standing on a tree branch, looking down upon you with a smile.

" The Fox Spirit " Your friend's voice hit your ears as your eyes were unable to leave the stranger's figure, having become astonished by the sight of his body that was carrying a part that normal humans didn't have.

Nine foxy tails, white as the first snow, long and beautiful, veiling as smoothly behind his back as the sea waves on a calm night.

---To be continued...

Copyright © 2019 by LizSorora

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and specific other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the author.

-----------------------------------------------------------