Ch. 2 Kitsune.Tsuki

Ch. 2 Kitsune.Tsuki

Ch. 2
"Oh JinSey honey, you're home! I made you some tea. Now come and sit with me, I'd like to talk to you about your day." Jin slipped his shoes off hesitantly, uneasy to approach the health of his sick mother. "Thank you mom, I really appreciate it." He kneeled next to his mother, her thin fingers clenching the sofa's arm. Her hands grabbed at something that had left her with a weak body and the fight to live. Jin squirmed, moving her blankets around, constantly asking if she'd like another. "No, please, I%u2019m fine. Just drink your tea and tell me what you did today." "My teacher and I had a good conversation," Jin sipped his tea, "and I read a book with a friend of mine." "That's very nice. Seems to me as though you and your teacher are good friends" Jin's mother exerted. She did not know of her son%u2019s residing negligence toward his peers. Hiding his true feelings was a task of grace, an easy escape from conversations about his family life. "Why don't you go see what your brother is doing?" his mother let out a hoarse cough. "Alright." Jin squandered to his feet, his brow lined with heavy worry.
"Haru, mom wants to know what you're doing." Jin slid his body against the frame of his brother's door, pushing his fingers along the wood. There was no answer from Haru's room. Jin sat against the wooden door, the object that unties the strings between siblings. "Huh? What does she want? I'm sleeping" Haru answered. Jin heaved himself off of the floor, toward his mother's throne. "He's sleeping" Jin said. He walked around to the front of her, noticing she had fallen asleep. He then realized how sleepy he was as well, and fled to his room, snuggled under his pillows and drifted off.

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"Beneath the sky, where it rains even as the sun shines, you will find me. Beside trees, where the river flows endlessly, you will find me. On top of the lowest hill, where the flowers never wilt, you will find me. Come, my messenger."
The words echoed, beckoning, forcing Jin to follow them. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he noticed it was still night, the moon shone with an eerie yellow glow. Again, the words still summoned him; an odd feeling in his chest forced his body forward. Jin struggled to keep himself against his bed, but the sensation overcame him. Striding out the door, he grunted, the force becoming stronger and more painful as he tried to escape its hold. His body wandered down the stairs, and out of the door of his house. He hoped no one had heard his cries and the thud of his feet. The last thing he wanted was to worry his mother. Jin's thin and long structure caused him to trip over raised ground, making it even harder to stay upright. For if he fell behind, the pain in his chest might cause him to black out. Passing cars and houses, running through red lights, slipping on gravel, brushing the hair from his eyes %u2013 he arrived at the end. The twinge relieved itself from Jin's upper body, heaving him before the ground of a small temple. Gaping up at the structure, he noticed the land was covered in small statues of foxes decked with red bibs.
The temple was on a tiny hill, near a river that emptied itself into a fishpond that housed multihued koi. The sky above was clear, though it drizzled with sparkling tears of the heavens. Jin pushed himself to his haunches. What is this place? "This is my temple," a booming voice left the shrine with a rush of wind, "and you are my messenger." "Who's talking, show yourself!" Jin hesitated, almost falling over himself. "I am Oinari-sama," an individual appeared before Jin covered by shadows, "you are my kitsune." "Stop saying I'm your...whatever! I am my own person, what do you want from me?" "It's more a matter of what you want from me" the voice answered. The questions sent a shrill through Jin's spine. The body moved forward from the shadows to reveal a face that was feminine yet masculine. It was beautiful and handsome. "Now get up off of the dirt and come into my shrine."