The Lotus-Eyed Fox

🌸The Lotus-Eyed Fox : Hasu🪈

This is the tale of a mundane hybrid. He was everything but mundane, in the most celestial ways.

He was a little herd boy who walked domestic herds through grasslands. Not only that, he even walked through the minds of people contrary to his will.

Despite all the negative village folks whom he lived around, not once did he pray to the Almighty to bring doom upon them.

Yet, he always came upon solely such folks;

“Horrific. Look at its ears and tail! What is it, an animal or a monster? How can humans dare allow such beasts into the village? Truly horrendous! My child, cover your eyes; do not look at it!” The passerby’s words did not hurt the little fox-boy anymore. What hurt more were the thoughts. His being psychic was considered a curse by his parents instead of a blessing. They told him to hide it. The thoughts of the passerby who swore to bring an end to his kind one day terrified him more than the words and insults they would always pass at his petite form.

He was not the kind to say, “When I grow up, I will end them.” Instead, he lived in fear awaiting his end every day as he grazed the cattle. His parents taught him to be kind at all costs, but he always wondered. Did the kids who repeatedly threw stones at him, pulled his tail, and attempted to burn his cattle, not have parents to teach them to be kind?

Spring was in full bloom; the boy was out grazing his cattle. They merrily munched on greens, the flowers dancing to the melody of the boy’s flute. Some ‘generous’ folks who have the grim reaper waiting on them threw coins at his feet regardless of him not begging.

At his melody, a cow from his herd approached him. The cow called out to him in his mind. The boy was astonished and stopped playing his flute. The cow spoke into his thoughts,

“Little Hasu, your kind soul has touched my heart. I can no longer bear to see you in pain. Tell me whatever it is you wish for, I shall fulfill it.”

The boy was troubled. “I—I wish people would treat me and my family like normal humans.” The cow shook its head. “Forgive me, Hasu; that is already written in your fate, so I cannot grant what is already given. Do you wish for fortune? Prosperity? Respect? Anything material to satisfy you?” The boy was clouded with thoughts. “T—Then can you make it so that our kind will always be at peace with humans?”

“Your wish has been granted, Hasu. May you be blessed by the gods as you grow up.”

And just like that, Hasu grew up into a fine hybrid. His ears and tail were larger than before, and he would not fail to turn heads wherever he went. The humans stopped harassing him. Hasu was happy with his parents. But human nature never failed to disappoint him.

When they found out young Hasu was blessed with an ability, they came to beg for forgiveness and ask for his help in avoiding problems in their lives. They would run to this fox, toward the sound of his flute, and beg him to help them see what their future held for them.

An old man fell to his knees, earning a gasp from him.

“Oh Hasu, please tell me if my daughter’s husband will return alive from the battlefields, he is to be a father! I will pay you whatever sum you request!”

Hasu put his flute down and helped the old man stand up.

He was the man that once spat at him when he was younger, just because his daughter happened to play with him.

Hasu sighed, closing his eyes and focusing on the man’s request.

“Although he may be severely hurt, your son-in-law will make it.” The old man knelt again, thanking him and asking how many coins he should pay him.

“It is alright. Your daughter is soon to have a son; allow me to play with the child once he is born. That is all I ask of you, Sir.”

Hasu never got to live his childhood normally. He always prayed such a day would never come to other children. The old man kowtowed multiple times to him before rushing to his family to tell them they were blessed with a grandson.

“Humans never do change, do they?”

The divine cow from that day bows its head to Hasu as he goes back to playing his flute. The peacocks danced, and the girls peered from the bushes to catch a glimpse of him. The streams splattered, as though flowing to his tune.

The vast skies showered him with perpetual lotus petals.

“Hasu, you too are immutable.”

🪷THE END.🪷

© SiAh

Unlike what most say, innate kindness does not always lead to a tragic end.