Etsuyo's Sunrise: Part 2
by milo douglas
DAWN
Morning’s first light woke Etsuyo and the dewy air cleared her head. She shook her coat and glowered toward the town square where the villagers had been so disrespectful of her prank last night. As she stretched her legs, she was startled at the sight of eight tails still trailing behind her.
“This can’t be!”
Etsuyo raced to the village square where the people were finishing their meager breakfast. They drew their weapons when they heard Etsuyo crash through the trees.
“Yip! I’ve only ever been your friend! A trickster, yes, but I’ve never hurt anyone.”
Ro-Pa, the blue-haired elder said, “Is this an apology? Your shape-shifting pranks—though often inappropriate—have brought levity in these frightening times. We have long tolerated them with mirth, but this goes too far. We need help and you have nothing for us.”
Etsuyo wiggled her ears. “But your happiness was greater than your fear!”
“For a time,” Ro-Pa agreed. We expected a party with wine and meat.”
Shoran Ja added, “In my name, you lied to them.”
“If I told you the truth you would have been miserable!”
Ro-Pa continued. “Instead, we dressed up in festival costumes…”
Etsuyo fell to her haunches laughing.
“…only to hear worse news than before.”
Etsuyo cocked her head.
Blue-haired Ro-Pa worried her hands. “It is sad that you have long forgotten your purpose, Etsuyo. It makes me sadder still that earning your ninth tail means more to you than what it means to be a true spirit fox to a village.”
Etsuyo licked her nose and struggled to think of something to say.
Ro-Pa pointed a finger between Etsuyo’s eyes. “Bring accord to our hearts. Give us something to truly treasure. Then, we may be buoyed in these troubled times.” Ro-Pa began to walk away but turned back. “What am I the one telling you your job? It’s a wonder you earned any tails at all…”
“Well….” Etsuyo’s snout searched the air for a moment. “A fox’s luck can’t be beat!” The villager shuffled their feet, fiddled with their weapons. “I’ll find something for you to treasure. To lift you against the coming woes?”
Ro-Pa shook her head as Etsuyo sped back into the forest.
Etsuyo set out to fulfill her promise but with no plan for doing so.
“They may be right,” she conceded. “I don’t know what to do. I may be bound to the earth forever with only eight tails and tiresome pranks. Who is here to guide a wayward kitsune?”
Just then, a tingle bristled through her fur and she was compelled to race eastward to the coast, then north along the dunes.
“Ha! Something fantastic awaits me! Should a fox’s luck find me, I’ll earn my tail!” she cried into the sea spray.
The sun broke the horizon.
Sunrise
Etsuyo’s nose twitched at the smell of Tiamat feasting on Cthulu. The shame from the night before weight heavy on her, but she at least now had a sense of why she was led to this battle.
“So, the old dragon’s ancient magic, not treasure brought me here,” the spirit fox affirmed. “Brought all of these brutes here!”
Etsuyo looked to the tidal flats, littered with the bodies of fallen creatures and those who scrambled for some advantage over their foes.
“The village will laugh if I can’t back my hasty boast. But I’m in no hurry to be slaughtered on the battlefield.”
Something caught her eye: amidst the fray, she recognized Perseus holding at bay Diana—goddess of the hunt—with his shield and Medusa’s wriggling head of snakes. Diana’s bow was ready but her eyes were averted from Medusa’s deadly gaze.
“Perseus’s brilliant shield. That’s it! Ro-Pa said I should give them something to treasure! And they can defend themselves with it! Ha! Yip! I’ll be back for lunch and my ninth tail! That’s a fox’s luck!” Etsuyo’s paws danced. “Yip! Yip!”
She dashed down the dune and across the flats, darting between Gilgamesh and Enkidu as they were swarmed by a ferocious pack of gremians.
Etsuyo approached Perseus from behind and leapt, snatching Medusa by the snakes. Diana used the distraction to fell Perseus with a silver arrow.
Etsuyo yipped and continued to race about the flats.
Few could resist watching Medusa’s head flash along the ground in the red blur of an eight-tailed comet. The curious earned instant petrification.
Moments later, Etsuyo regarded a field of stony figures. Every beast, demigod and warrior lay felled by one another or stood stone-struck by Medusa.
“Now that’s a fine tableau!” Etsuyo cried.
Continue Reading: Etsuyo's Sunrise Part 3
Perseus image by Christopher Green
All other images by Ben Bittner