The Beginning, part ten

[sakon76]

"Dojimaru. Dojimaru." He was gently shaken awake by a hand on his shoulder. The boy, in the spring of his sixth year, rubbed his eyes.

"What is it, Mom?" he asked sleepily.

"Come into the garden," she whispered. "We are going to look at the moon together, just you and I." She glared at Dojimaru's nurse, who scurried away like a frightened spider. His mother took Dojimaru's hand. "Come, Dojimaru," she said again. "Come into the garden."

He followed along, his hand in hers, to the verandah where they sat down together.

"It is an excellent moon," Dojimaru opined. It was bright and found, seeming to light the entire sky.

"Yes," his mother agreed, and they sat together in silence for a long time.

"Dojimaru was slowly falling back asleep, so at first he thought it was part of a dream when a morning glory vine crept down from the wall and slithered over to his mother, curling around her fingers and wrist. She stroked it like it was a tame snake.

"Mom?" he asked.

"It's all right," she soothed. "Watch." Dojimaru's beautiful, elegant mother stepped down off the verandah and out into the garden, the vine following her like a faithful pet.

Other plants turned to face Kuzunoha as she walked, leaves rustling. The plum tree, already bearing small fruit, suddenly flowered again. The cherry tree, already covered in blossoms, began to shed them and produce more, it's trunk quivering as Dojimaru's mother drew near. She raised an arm up to the moon and seemed to draw its light down to herself. She glimmered with an eerie, bewitching light.

Dojimaru was fully awake now. "Mom?" he asked again.

She turned to face him. "Do you know what this is called?" she asked, gesturing at the ghostly, glowing mist that hung around her.

"No."

"It's called foxfire. We use it to lure humans, to play tricks on them."

"We?" Dojimaru's mouth was dry now.

She came closer and he thought he could see forever in his mother's eyes. "Your father and I first met when he saved the life of a fox in a trap." Another step and she was almost close enough again to touch. The foxfire clung to her like an elegant perfume, moving as she moved. "In gratitude for his kindness, I became a woman and his wife." His mother reached out and took Dojimaru's hand in her own. The light flowed up his arm, cool like the touch of mist. "This fox blood of mine flows in your veins as well and makes you powerful, Dojimaru. Soon, your father has promised me, you shall begin to study and master talents you do not yet know you possess. Promise me that you will study hard."

Dojimaru nodded once. "I promise." Then he reached up and touched his mother's face. "Mom, why are you crying?"

"Because I won't be here to see it," she replied, and suddenly he realized that the cherry tree was weeping with her.

"Where are you going?" He could feel his throat starting to hurt.

Her fingers stroked down the side of his face. "I shall return to Inari-sama, whom I serve." Her fingers came away wet. "A cruel thing, for a mother to know her child's tears."

"You're never coming back."

She shook her head. "I can't. But if you truly need me, Dojimaru, call my name, Youko Kurama, and I will come." She sketched the characters in the air and they lingered for a moment, glowing. "Remember them, Dojimaru. If you call me by the name of that mountain, it won't work."

"Youko Kurama," he repeated, storing the name deep inside himself.

"Yes. I'll leave this with you, too." She reached into a sleeve and drew out her favorite wrapped thread ball. She passed her hand over it once and Dojimaru blinked, wondering how he had ever thought it was a temari. It was a round jewel as large as two hands could hold. "With this, you will understand the speech of the birds and the beasts." She passed her hand over it again and it resumed the appearance of a toy. If Dojimaru looked hard enough, though, he thought he could still see the shape of the gem. His mother pressed it into his hands. "I give this to you, my son."

"I shall treasure it and make good use of it, my mother," he replied, bowing. It felt no heavier in his hands than it ever had before, but there was a warmth to the sphere now.

"With this, I leave you."

A cloud passed before the moon and when it moved on a nine-tailed white fox stood where Dojimaru's mother had been.

::Farewell, my son,:: a voice whispered, and the fox ran, leaping easily over the fence.

Dojimaru sat under the moon for a long time before his father came and sent him back to bed.

He slept with the temari ball clutched tightly in his arms.