‘Huff, huff.’

 

I was running. Something was chasing me, I had a vague idea of what it was, and I knew it would be the end of me if I got caught.

 

Despite all my efforts in weaving and dodging through the forest, the thing chased me unrelently, and kept up to my pace.

 

I shouldn’t have left the den.

 

I knew that going out into the wild was a risk. Mother had told me and the rest of the litter of the dangers, in fairytales and lullabies.

 

This– This thing that kept chasing me had more stamina than even a hare, and those could run for days and keep going!

 

I tripped on a small stone, hurting my right paw and causing me to dive into the leafy and muddy ground snout first. I got a mouthful of dirt as I gasped for air, pain struck my left paw like a rock had struck it, and crushed it while my entire body hurt like falling into a thorn bush. I tumbled forward, stopping on a patch of grass.

 

I think it’s broken.

 

Leaves crunched as the creature strolled closer to me. For the first time I could properly  look at what my pursuer looked like, and it was not a beautiful sight at all. Four limbs and a distinctively canine head, and a thick fog surrounding the body. Thick miasma filled the air and a spine-chilling smile developed on the figure.

 

I yelped, My brain was sending fight-or-flight signals while my heart beat so loudly it echoed in my ribs.

 

I heard footsteps coming from behind me. Something else was coming. The creature didn’t appear to pay attention and was inches from engulfing me in the black fog, when an arrow flew right above me into the creature. The arrow planted itself deep into the creature and glowed. A sizzling sound made it to my ear while the creature shook itself, trying to pry off the arrow.

The creature hissed towards the direction where the arrow came from. I turned my head towards the direction as the creature was hissing at. 

 

A female wearing some kind of special clothing fired more glowing arrows towards the creature. She wore white robe, with a long red skirt over it, and had brown hair in a ponytail with a red bow adorning it. Her golden-brown eyes shined as she used the bow and shot off arrow after arrow into the creature. The way she gracefully moved was beautiful, no. She was beautiful.

 

After firing some more arrows, she pulled out a katana and closed the distance between her and the creature. I whimpered at the sight of the sword. The polished steel glistened in the sunlight, leaves and dirt were kicked up. The blade swiftly cut off parts of the creature and went through its limbs like a hot knife cutting butter, quickly killing it.

 

Ink-like black liquid spurted and covered the nearby ground. The liquid sizzled before vanishing completely. 

After slaying the creature, she looked back at me and saw my broken paw. She walked over to me after killing the creature.

I whimpered, fearing for my life and hoping to not meet the same end as the creature that was just chasing me down. The woman gave me a soft smile while walking over to where I was. I couldn’t run because of my injured foot nor could I fight her, leaving me with little choice.

 

“Hey there little fella. Mind me taking a look at your paw? It looks pretty badly hurt,” she asked in a gentle voice, trying to not scare me. Naturally, I started growling.

 

I don’t trust you. What if you are lying?

 

I snarled at her, trying to act as intimidating as I could. My attempts were futile however, as she simply just ignored my threats and closed in. She kneeled down in front of me and used her hands to gently lift up my broken paw. I whimpered again, from the pain of having my paw moved.

 

“Itami Itami ga kieru...” (Pain, pawn, go away.)

 

A warmth spread from her hands, with a green glow accompanying the warm feeling. It slowly numbed the pain down to more bearable levels.

 

After that, she carefully scooped me into her fawn and carried me to her shrine. I stayed quiet the entire time, taking mental notes on the way.

 

We reached a smaller dirt road that led to a village. The villagers curiously looked at me, or perhaps it was the woman holding me? I wasn’t sure but all the eyes on me made me uncomfortable.

 

Another thing to note is that the village looked pretty shabby, compared to other places that I had visited, and most of the villagers looked meager, unlike the hunters I encountered once.

 

While on the road I made sure to pay attention to different landmarks, in case I decide to try and make a run for home.

 

After passing the village we continued on until reaching a set of stone stairs, they were old and worn out, and smaller plants grew through the cracks. The shrine maiden(?) climbed up the stairs. If it were me then I’d probably get tired halfway up while she just climbed up all the stairs as if she was used to it, without even breaking a sweat!

 

A red torii stood at the top of the stairs, the red colour withering away.

 

The shrine itself wasn’t anything noteworthy, though I noted places where I could potentially hide like the shrine itself or under the hut to the left.

 

The shrine had a smaller stone wall surrounding most of it, with a courtyard in the middle. The wall would be a potential obstacle if I were to try and escape, with my paw broken, landing would be incredibly painful.

 

Weird pieces of cloth hung on strings, and these poles had lanterns hanging down from them.

 

Though interestingly, the materials used to build the shrine looked pretty old, with cracks forming in the stone walls and rotting wood. The hut however, looked much newer, as if it was only recently built.

 

The door to the hut slid open and she brought me into the hut, the outside was of nothing remarkable, consisting of dark wood and plaster. While the inside was equally boring, with the same dark wood and paper separating rooms.

 

There was an open backdoor, which showed a smaller garden on the backside. Another potential escape route.

 

She carried me to a room and let me down.

 

“Stay still and wait here. Alright?”

Then she left the room. 

 

Taking a glance around the room, nothing noteworthy was there. A wardrobe, dressers, weird things hanging on the wall and… A futon? 

 

I limped over to the futon. The soft fabric gave way to my body and I dropped into it. I curled into a ball and tried to rest, and also process what had happened today.

 

From being chased to being saved to being taken away… This has been a weird day.

 

I raised my left paw, observing the injury I had. The paw was visibly broken, and I couldn’t use it to support my body, meaning that I was down to using three legs until it healed back up. The bruises were mostly gone but the blood stained my brown paw in a deep shade of red, typical of dried blood.

 

My nose picked up the scent of dried blood. The metallic smell reminded me of the sword the shrine maiden used to cut down the creature. I remember Mother speaking about it in one of the fairytales, something about a monster that ate divine energy to try and become a god? 

 

The fairytale described the monster as a “Soranaki”, or a god eater, a being that eats other spirits to try and ascend into godhood.

 

Just when I was contemplating whether to escape or not, the shrine maiden entered the room again, this time holding a bamboo tray with bandages, some kind of green sludge in a small cup, and a larger bowl filled with water. She sat down with her legs crossed on the futon I was resting on. I gave a short but noticeable growl at her.

 

She ignored the noises I made and picked me up, before letting me down again on her legs. She raised my left paw again. Using the water in the larger bowl, she cleaned the blood off my paw, I winced at the pain. By this point, the numbing effect had decreased and I could feel the pain in my paw again. Every time she rubbed my paw to get rid of the blood it was like a stone was thrown at my paw, it stung a lot.

 

Once all the blood was washed off my paw, she used her index finger to rub on the green sludge. When it coated my paw nicely she used the white bandage to wrap most of my paw, only leaving my toes exposed.

 

“There we go. All better now. I think you should stay with me until it heals up. What do you think?”

 

I gave her a puzzled look. 

 

I can?

 

“Yeah. I mean with your paw being broken you’re in no shape to go back home.”

 

You can understand me?!

“Of course I can. I’m a shrine maiden after all!”

 

Interesting, every time I went out with Mother to practice hunting she had been adamant about not having contact with humans since they would kill us. But I guess it was wrong? I’m still not sure about other humans but this shrine maiden seems to be friendly at least. 

 

Another thing was the barely noticeable bluish fog that was everywhere. It was as if I almost could control it.

 

“Oh? Is this your first time seeing magic?”

 

I nodded in response. My tail wagged back and forth in excitement.

 

Magic… Magic, magic. What is it? It looks fun!

 

“Well… It’s kind of hard to explain. Do you remember the arrows I shot before or the spell I cast?”

 

Yes?

 

“That’s all magic.”

 

That was not really a big surprise, Mother had always talked about how she would teach us magic in the future when we had grown up, but I guess that won’t happen now. My ears drooped with my tail stopping its wag at the thought.

 

Mother…

 

I gave out an almost inaudible cry. I missed Mother now, her warm embrace and the beautiful tail were the few things that could soothe me when I felt sad, and with her caring and strong attitude, was able to weather even the worst my siblings could do.

 

I think she felt my sadness as she picked me up and hugged me. I embraced her hug and shed a few tears. We stayed like this for some time, or at least until I felt a bit better.

 

“Feeling better now?”

 

Yeah, I think.

 

I used my paws to wipe off my tears, and started thinking about more happy thoughts. The shrine maiden petted my head, comforting me.

 

“Are you ready to learn how to use magic?”

 

Yesh

 

“Well, for starters I think I should know your name instead of referring to you by “you”. My name is Yuri.”

 

I got a bit uncomfortable, a name? I didn’t have one and neither did any of my siblings.

 

Umm.. I don’t have one.

 

“Alright… How about I give you a name then?”

 

Me? A name? O-okay…

 

My tail wagged back and forth at the thought of having a name, I hoped it would be a nice name.

 

“Let’s see. Something nice that sounds fitting of a divine spirit…”

 

…

 

“I know! How about Naomi? Your golden fur is beautiful and the name means “Beauty”.“ 

 

Naomi, Naomi. Naomi! Sounds really good!

 

A gentle light enveloped me, the sensation of temporarily being unable to feel my limbs only for them to return different

 

and I could feel the sensation of my body changing. It didn’t hurt, but it felt really strange, like temporarily losing sensation of a limb only for it to come back different.

 

I looked around, a bit disoriented and confused. Either everything was a bit smaller, or I had grown a bit. My paws were different, I had lost the sensation of my hind legs.

 

-o-