The Fox Trials

"Ichirou! Come on in Ichirou!" Kenta, the village shaman, called out my name over the group of people standing by the entrance to my home. Seeing pairs of eyes set upon me while I came out of the little ball I had curled into only made my anxiety spike more.

"Momma! Is she going to be okay?!" I asked the healer, seeing the grim look on his face, tears forming at the rims of my eyes, as I clutched the ends of his robe. “Please tell me you can do something!"

He shook his head and picked me up into his arms to console me. "I'm sorry. But she died before I even had a chance to finish the examination. Her last words were for you to read this letter." He reached out from under his garb and handed me a white envelope with my mother's initials on it.  All this news was so sudden and I didn't know what to say or even do.

"No!" I cried, tears streaming from my face. "No!"

Jumping out of Kenta's arms, I sprinted inside, shoving through people to get them out of my way. I stopped when I saw my mother's still body. She had died with her eyes open and an expression on her face of pure suffering permanently engraved on it.

The next few hours seemed to just blur on by as I was still in a state of shock from the experience. All my immediate necessary belongings had been gathered by the other villagers and moved into a room at the shaman's house. Kenta had always been a close family friend of my mother and I, so it made the most sense that he adopted me, him also having no family of his own as he made the dedicated choice to abstain from settling down with a family and focus on his duties of caring for the other villagers.

Sitting on the makeshift bed and staring out of the window, I thought about my mother. A few tears crept down my face as silent whimpers escaped under my breath. I don't know how long I cried, but I didn't care.

"Ichirou," I heard Kenta's old scraggly voice say my name as he opened the door.

I looked over to him as he came closer, sitting at the side of my bed. Turning over to face the wall away from him.

"I know you want me to go away child, but you need to come and eat some food at some point. You won't get any better by starving yourself," he stated, concerned for me. I ignored him and sighed. "Things will get better. I promise," he tried to reassure me. But it was all in vain. The only desire I had was to see my mother again. "I'm here for you when are ready to talk," he said, placing a hand on my shoulder before walking out of the room and closing the door.

I turned back over to look at the desk across the room from me. On it rested the white envelope that Kenta had given me before. He had told me that it was from my mother. Standing up and reaching over for the letter, I looked at my mother's initials on the front and smiled. "What could she have written for me in this?" The question echoed in my mind repeatedly. It had to be especially important if this was the thing she specifically requested for me to have right before she died. Opening the envelope and looking at the date of the letter, I realized she had written this over a year ago.

The message read:

"To my little Ichirou,

If you are reading this, then that means I have passed away from a sickness that I suffered from for my entire life.  I wrote this with the intention of you understanding that this was going to happen before you become an adult. It was only a matter of time before I could not fight this any longer.

And that brings me to final request. You know of the legends of the legendary kitsune that grants the desires of those who make it through the trials he sets up for those who traverse through his forest trail. My wish is for you to go to him. I want you to tell him about my death. While I do not know exactly how to explain this to you, just know that this is my last desire. I know this may sound like a massive undertaking for a boy of your age, but I know you can endure the trials he will use to test your worth. My love for you is everlasting my son. Never forget that.

-Mom"

“Mom.” I muttered under my breath.  Looking out of the window, I stared off at the forest on the horizon. Folding up the letter, I put it up back in the envelope and set it on the desk. The sliding door opened and Kenta entered holding a bowl full of a meat stew.

“Thought you'd be hungry. It's late and you never ate so...”

“Thank you,” I replied, feeling a bit better in his presence. He set the bowl on the desk and took a seat on the bed next to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and I hugged him tightly. Wrapping his arms around me, he stroked my hair like a father or mother would their crying child. “I'm here for you kid. I love you like family," he comforted me. “Why don't you get something to eat?”

“Fine,” I said back, grabbing the bowl. Sipping on the stew, its flavor was heavenly. "Oh my god. This is good.”  It wasn't long before I had downed the entire bowl and handed it back to him. He took it out of my hands, setting it back on the desk. He took notice of the envelope and picked it up, bringing it over to me.

“You read the whole letter yet?” he asked.

Nodding back to him, I took the letter and opened it up. “Her last wish was for me to visit the legendary spring in the forest,” I told him. 

He let out a heavy gasp, staring down at me with all I could describe as a look of pure shock. “Are you sure you didn't just misread that?” he questioned.

Shaking my head, I handed the letter back to him. “Look for yourself,” I told him.

While he was hesitant for a moment, as he didn't want to violate the privacy of my letter, he grabbed it and proceeded to read through the whole thing. He let out a heavy sigh upon putting it down and then looked at me with a rather grave expression on his face.

“Ichirou you should listen to me, and listen well. I know that fulfilling your mom's final wish is important to you, but stepping foot inside of the forest is dangerous. You should know from the number of people who have ended up missing from venturing into that forest and never returning. It's full of wandering spirits that will probably no doubt lead you to your death,” he warned.

For the first time, the thought crossed my mind of just how unsafe a journey it was that my mother had asked me to undertake. "Why is that forest so dangerous? Why would the fox not want anyone to enter it?” I questioned Kenta.

He looked at me and sighed. “According to the legend, those who make it through the perils of the trials get their heart's greatest desires granted by the fox that was bound their by the gods long ago as punishment for his transgressions against humanity. So in order to test those who should be worthy, he cursed the forest to become dangerous and unpredictable place. And to this day, there is only one person who has ever attempted this journey and had their wish granted. And that was your mother Ichirou.” 

I looked back at him dumbfounded. Not once in my life had ever been told that my mother was the one that had survived the kitsune's forest trials.  That most likely was the reason why she believed that I could do it. After all, I was her son.

“But if she had gotten her deepest wishes granted by the kitsune, then how come in her will she states that she wants me to go and inform the spirit about her death?” I asked.  It was rather confusing.

Kenta looked outside of the window. He was just as confused as I was about this matter. After a few minutes of not saying anything, he looked back at me and sighed.

"I have no idea why your mother would want you to do something that is by all means of the word crazy." He stated. "She was never the kind of woman that wouldn't ask someone to do something unless it had an important purpose as to why. But still, that didn't explain the reason why she would want you to do this."

And suddenly, I remembered the one detail about the fox pertaining to those that could endure his trials. An idea started to sprout in my mind.

"If I can make it to that spring. I could use my wish to bring my mom back to life," I thought in the back of my head.

I looked over to Kenta, with a look of determination.

"I know that you're bound to keep me from doing this, but I wanted to honor my mother's last wish. It's the least I could do for her," I stated to him.

"Absolutely not!" he protested. "I know that this important, but I would not allow you to embark on such a dangerous journey. I didn't care for what reason you want to travel into that forest, but as long as I was looking after you, you were barred from even so much as getting within a short distance of that forest.”

"But, you don't get it..."

"Enough!" he silenced me one and for all. There was no way he would have changed his stance on this issue.

He let out a few light huffs before taking a deep breath and calming down. He pulled me into a deep hug and I could feel tears dripping onto my face as he cried a bit. I let him embrace me, as we were both still rattled from the day. And while I was annoyed with him, he remained a source of comfort.

"I promise you everything will be okay. While your mom may be gone, she is still here with us watching over you. I love you," he said to me.

"I know Kenta and I love you too," I said back to him.

"And I am going to get her back. I will make it through those trials and get my wish to bring her back to life while honoring her will." My thoughts rang in the back of my head.

Kenta released me from the hug and then stood up.

“Good night Ichirou,” he said to me.

“Good night Kenta,” I said back to him as he left the room leaving me to sleep.

Undressing out of my day clothes, I fell back onto the bed as exhaustion had overcome me.

"Soon mom. Soon," I muttered to myself, pulling the covers over myself and drifting off into a slumber.