• The Story of Katakune Tamoku
    (Hardships)

    Chapter 3 - "Okashii"


    "Finally home." I'm so tired and hungry, I can't wait to eat these donuts before they get cold. They're still warm and fresh from the bakery. I open up the door and stand there stunned. Everything in the whole entire house had been torn to shreds. So many surprises in only one day, I'm not sure I could handle this anymore. At first I thought it was a dream, like I was still on the ground after the wolf attack, so pinched myself on the arm but that didn't do anything but give me a bit of a sting on the shoulder. Then I blamed it on my glasses, maybe my glasses are cracked and there's something wrong with them. I took them off and wiped them on my shirt, still nothing. About this time I started to panic. I walked through the crashed livingroom, passed the destroyed kitchen and into the hallway. I saw my door open to the left and paniced more. "Oh please, whatever did this, please don't tell me it destroyed the black roses too!" I thought to myself. I jolted into my room and saw everything destroyed, everything but the rose. "Oh thank you lord, the most precious thing to me has been preserved under my will, thank you so much."
    I started out but then noticed a shuffling noise. I suddenly stopped then looked over my shoulder, "who is there?" I turned my whole body around now. "scritch scritch" I cocked my head in confusion. It didn't answer me. It has to be some kind of animal? I walked towards it, unsure, and kneeled to look under my bed where the wierd sound was coming from. A sweatdrop crawled down my face from my temple to my cheek and dispursed. I nervously started to lift the covers up and saw two little yellow lights looking back at me. I winced back a little and a sudden flash of orange pounced on me. I screamed and fell back, waiting for the warmth of the Fremere's Guard to help me. The Fremere's Guard didn't activate, but I could still feel a kind of warmth and a pressure on my chest. Then I felt a cold wetness strike quickly across my face over and over again. My eyes slowly opened to a tiny furry friend. I looked at it like it was someone who did something really stupid. It just looked back at me with a huge smile. A smile, that's it. I hadn't ever thought about having a pet, especially not a wild fox, but now felt like a good time. I need someone to get me through these hardships and help me forget about Tatsuka. I smiled back at it and wrapped my arms around it so tight. This is the first time I'd ever had any warmth next to me so close. Without a thought I cried tears of joy on his head and laughed at the same time. It just whimpered and nuzzled its head with mine. Since this is such a happy moment, I'll name him Okashii, which means "Smile" In Japanese.
    I pick him up and start to make the bed. He quickly goes to sleep in my arms. I kiss him on the head and set him on the bed while I fix up the rest of the house. When I get done, it's about midnight and I still haven't eaten anything. I get a donut and go into my room to share it with Okashii. I know donuts aren't part of foxes' diet but he seemed to like it anyway. We quickly fell asleep right after eating.
    The next morning Okashii wakes me up with a whine and tugs me to the front door. I'm really cold and wonder what he's doing. I rub my eyes and as we get closer to the door i get more and more cold until i get to the point where I'm sniffling. "What is it, Okashii?" I say. He ignores me and scratches on the door. I huddle up with myself and open it. A cold wintery blast fills the house and I look around the whole forest. Everything is white, as white as an albino rat. I doubt I'd ever be able to see any out here though. The sun has been blocked by the cold, light gray clouds and chilling winds. Tiny white puffs softly fall from the clouds and through the spaces in between the trees. I'm amazed at how something so small could come from something so big, but so much, it could make something bigger at the other end.
    Okashii yelps and quickly runs out to the snow and plays all through it. I really wish our house had windows so I could see him from inside because it's freezing out here, but alas, we only have a back and front door. He looks very playful like he's enjoying himself, and I got to say, I want to do it too. I run out to where Okashii is, keep in mind, I only have summer clothing on, and start playing with him. The bitter cold made my veins numb and unaware of the pain it's putting my body through just to play with my pet. We play in the snow for hours until our noses are waterfalls of mucas. I tell Okashii to come back in and he quickly agrees and jolts inside the house faster than I did.
    We walk in the house and close the door but the house is still cold, not as cold as outside of course, but still really cold. I walked to my room with rapid sniffs followed by a couple sneezes, Okashii right behind me. We got under the covers in my bed and snuggled up close to eachother to keep warmth. My cold pale face against his cold wet nose didn't do much for warmth, but the covers helped alot. I woke up a few hours later but didn't get out of bed. It sounds like it's still snowing. I nudge Okashii a bit to wake him up but he doesn't. I nudge a bit harder, still no answer. I nudge harder and harder until I'm shaking him vigorously. I finally stopped when he whimpered, and whimpered, and whimpered. I got scared, what was wrong with him? I looked closer at him and the outside of his eyes were a pinkish color, his nose was running fluids everywhere, his body felt weak, frail, and shaking, and his ears were constantly drooped down.
    I felt really bad for him and worried too. I sniffled. I think I'm getting a little cold too. "This is going to get bad," I thought to myself. I slowly get up, aching everywhere, then open the door and walk to the kitchen. This room was bare and empty: rusted faucets, broken chairs, rotten wood, and leaky taps. I walked to the cabinet and opened it, revealing a lonely bag with a couple of donuts left in it. "So that's about two more days, I guess." I'm so hungry, sick, and tired so surviving on just this probably won't give me much energy at all, but here in Winter I need as much energy as possible. I think about Okashii, how he's so full of life, just by knowing him for one day. I just can't imagine something so filled with joy like him could act like that. It's hard to imagine him sick, but it's my time to help him with his sickness even if I'm sick too! I sneeze out of irony. We're both at the worst energy we could possibly ever have and at the start of winter too. We basically have no food and no energy, and no support and no encouragment. I look at myself and I'm worse than I thought. My skin is so pale right now it could possibly be blue, my nose is bright red along with my warm yet cold cheeks. My glasses are even starting to frost up and I'm constantly sneezing and sniffling. I'd really hate to think what it'd be like in the middle of winter.
    For the longest time I tried to fill a half broken glass up with water, drop by drop. Then after the hour long fill of a glass, I started rubbing two kunai knives together as fast as I could to make some friction and heat. My hands started to ache and my skin was becoming tender to the touch but that didn't stop me. I kept on rubbing them until they both had an orangish tint and stuck them in the water. I put my head over the glass as the steam warmed my face. It was soothing and I completely forgot about my bleeding hands making marks over the glass. I walked to my room again and sat next to Okashii to try to get him to drink the warm water. after a short struggle, I finally got him up and got some water into him. It's warm so it gave him a little bit of energy which is great. I went back into the kitchen to grab the donuts and came back. We split one half and savored it. It's the only thing we had to eat that whole day anyway. After our small morsle I challenged myself and went outside with a rusty old pail I found in the den to scoop up some snow. I brought the blanket with me, since I needed it the most and filled the whole pail up with snow. When I went back inside I immediantly put the covers back with Okashii, sneezed, and put the snow in the sink; with a plug in the drain first of course. Tommorow It would melt and we would serve that as water for the next week or so. Even though it's not warm, it's still enough for us to survive on... Hopefully.