The Fire Within a Stone Village Tanuki

Kyanoko’s nose stung and her eyes watered with the potent smell of the alcohol she recently poured on herself. She hated the way it felt on her fur, how cold she got, and the weird powdery and sticky residue it left behind as it vaporized. But the action gave her time to escape from a wolfpack that had cornered her. 

She ran as soon as the wolves began retching at the sudden smell of alcohol. Kyanoko ran until her chest heaved and her feet ached, and she ran even further. When she felt as if she was far enough away, she pressed a hand against the closest tree along the path she was traveling for support. 

Kyanoko caught her breath until the discomfort of the alcohol drying out her fur and skin was greater than the pain in her chest and legs. Releasing a groan, she pushed herself off the tree and traveled off the road and into the forest. If memory served correctly, she should find a stream where she could wash off. She was not going to set up on the side of the road smelling like an alcoholic.

It was Spring and the stream became something more of a small river from the increased rainfall. She stripped her clothes off and washed them off first. She was wearing her favorite traveling outfit and she wasn’t going to let some unlucky run-in with the wildlife ruin it. 

She brushed out her fur, making sure her comb could glide through every inch of her body. Only then did she bathe herself, taking care to thoroughly wash every part of her body. She toweled off and combed as she went to prevent her fur from matting. Kyanoko took great pride in her appearance and being out in the wild wasn’t going to change that. Kyanoko put on her favorite merchant outfit and rinsed off her tanuki leaf for good measure. She flicked it aside and, as it would always do, the leaf found its way to the top of her head. 

Back on the road, she set a line between two branches to hang her clothes to dry. Using the hybrid conjuring-transformation magic latent in all tanukis, she pulled all of the components of her traveling shop out of her backpack. First, a large red blanket was laid out. Then she set a large comfortable pillow down for herself and another across from her. Now sitting cross-legged, Kyanoko laid out merchandise she figured to be a mixture of interesting and essential to anyone wandering the roads as she does. She gave her shop four heavy, blanketed walls to protect it from the wind and to make the space feel more officially hers. And finally, she set her special Kyanoko Village brewing cask on display.

Lowering a small teacup to the tap on the cask, Kyanoko was excited to see what it determined she wanted. It was, to no surprise to Kyanoko, a warm tea. She brought it to her nose and drank of the aroma. It smelled flowery and had a hint of fruitiness- hibiscus? The tanuki leaned back and closed her eyes, occasionally sipping her tea as she sorted through her scattered thoughts.

Her thoughts kept drifting back to the wolf attack. Kyanoko women teach their children how to turn to stone. If she had been able to do that, the wolves would have lost interest in her. And she wouldn’t have needed to bathe and wash her clothes in a stream.

A shadow passed over her face and she was pulled out of her thoughts. Standing before her was an inquisitive red three-tailed kitsune adorned in many layers of colorful and expensive-looking clothing. The large straw hat on his head shadowed most of his face, but his body language filled in the expression work. His finger was resting on his chin and he cocked his head to the side as he looked over the tanuki’s wares.

“Are you offering a place to rest?” the kitsune asked as he noticed the empty pillow. Kyanoko, always eager to meet and talk to new people, gestured for the fox to sit. The kitsune moved his clothes out of the way of his legs and sat on his knees. Before settling, he adjusted a strap around his chest and pulled out a lute that was hiding in layers of cloth.

As Kyanoko always did, she brought a new cup out of her backpack and poured the brew from her casket. This time, it dispensed a rather pigmented green tea. The kitsune had pushed his hat off of his head, so his surprised expression was clear for all the world to see.

“What a coincidence!” he said, happily accepting the offered cup. “Exactly what I was craving.”

The tanuki and the kitsune both took a quiet sip of their respective teas. Kyanoko’s was still pleasantly warm in her hands. The kitsune finished his drink with a satisfied smack of his lips and a loud, “Aaah!” 

“Delicious! Thank you for your generosity!” the kitsune appreciates as he licks the last bit of flavor off of his lips, showing off his pointy teeth in the process. “I suppose I should give you my name. You can call me Akata Hayate.”

“Kyanoko Haru,” the tanuki finishes the exchange of names. She didn’t like giving new people her personal name, but Akata gave his and it was only fair. “Based on your attire and your lute, I take it you’re a bard? What brings you on the road?”

“I am!” Akata proudly declares, bringing his slender hand to his chest and throwing his head to the sky. “I performed for the same faces for so long. And, to keep it short, I’m beginning to burn out. I need to see new faces, hear and make new experiences, and see new sights! I can’t get better by playing it safe for the same crowd and their interests.”

“I’m a new face.” Kyanoko invites. “Do you have a story you’re willing to share? I’ll give you something in exchange for the performance.”

“I would, I would. But right now I’m sick of telling stories. I’d like to be the one being told a tale, just this once.” the kitsune splits a grin on his face so wide that his eyes were forced shut. “Maybe Kyanoko would like to share her story instead of hearing another’s today? You looked rather lost in thought when I saw you an hour or so ago.”

“It’s been an hour?” Kyanoko questions. Then how was her tea still warm? Sure, it came from her magic cask, but the cask couldn’t do anything special to the liquid once it was dispensed. The kitsune’s eyebrows turn into a curious expression as he crosses his arms over his lute and rests his head upon them.

“Where to even begin? I was thinking about my village. We’re able to do some stone magic, whatever form that takes. But all of us learn to turn our bodies to stone and mimic statues.” Kyanoko explains and takes her last draw of tea. “But I can’t. It didn’t matter how hard I tried or what techniques were suggested to me, I can’t even make my pinkie turn to stone. Much less the rest of me.

“We tried to start with something else. I couldn’t encourage any plant growth. I can’t touch the ground and pull out a dirt wall. Nothing that would suggest that I had any latent magical abilities whatsoever.”

“What about the tanuki leaf?” Akata gestures to the leaf on her head. “I’ve watched it follow you around even when it should have been blown away. I heard they only attach to those tanukis who have some magical ability.”

“That’s part of it.” Kyanoko nodded. “I can use some magic. The entirety of my shop and my wares can fit into a backpack if I wanted to. I prefer using a cart, but it is an option.”

“Perhaps your elemental magic lies elsewhere?” Akata suggests, tapping his chin in thought. He sits up and holds out his hands to Kyanoko, “Maybe I see a hand?”

Wordlessly, Kyanoko slides one of her hands toward the kitsune. He takes her hand in one of his and uses the other one to run his fingers over her palm. She was surprised to see that Akata’s hands were only a little shorter palm-to-finger tip than hers. But his hands were so slender and her own so large that her hands were still easily three times the size of his. 

“Your hands are very warm,” he comments, his three tails steadily swaying.

“I was just holding hot tea.”

“Or was the tea hot because of your hands?” Akata challenges, releasing her hand. He rests his face on a fist that pushed his cheek into his eye.

“What are you getting at?”

“Perhaps your latent power lies where mine did- fire.”

“And you’re speculating on this because my hands were warm?” Kyanoko doubted, tilting her head to the side.

“It is but a small, but recurring thing among those who have fire in their souls.” the kitsune nods. “My hands were once just as hot as yours. Perhaps others have commented on your warmth?”

Kyanoko takes a moment to reflect on Akata’s words. Now that he mentioned it, Mama had always told her how warm she was when they hugged. Or how a traveling partner she had for a short while would stop shivering quickly after she put an arm around them. And there’s of course how her tea always remained hot for longer than everyone else’s despite how long it took for her to drink. It was mild and easily dismissable, but the fox had a point.

“What can I do to find out?” Kyanoko finally asks.

“You might have been channeling it through your hands unknowingly, so it’s practiced,” Akata suggests and then makes a cup with his hands. “Focus on your palms. Draw heat into them. Visualize the fire. And bring the flame to reality.”

Kyanoko inhaled deeply through her nose and closed her eyes. She pushed all of her thoughts away and cupped her hands. She focused on the warmth of her hands and thought of a hot teacup between them. The heat in her hands began to rise and it made her feel clammy and uncomfortable. 

The warmth crept up her arms and she began to feel oddly cold in other parts of her body. She pushed the feeling of heat in her palms even further, imagining them catching aflame. The heat became unbearable and her tongue slid out of her mouth. Just a bit more. She could feel the sweat on her hands evaporating from her own heat.

FWISH!

She was holding fire! Akata was right! In her excitement, the fire grew. And in her panic, the flames reached even higher. She saw the kitsune spring back and shout something at her, but she didn’t hear it. Kyanoko felt her heart racing and her primal instinct to run away from danger kicked in. Her head felt painfully hot and she looked up to see the flames had licked her protective blanket and caught it on fire.

She stood quickly, sweeping at the sticks that kept the roof up. The structure collapsed and the fire began to spread to more of her things. Kyanoko stomped her foot at the fire, but the slotted structure of the sandals she wore did nothing to smother the flame. She heard a few panicked plucks of metal strings and then-

Woooooosh!

A gust of wind came to the rescue, blowing too hard and too fast to stoke the flames, instead blowing them away. Kyanoko groaned again, her racing heart pounding in her chest as she collapsed, falling onto her butt. Akata gently pat her shoulder and laughed nervously.

“That would be my fault.” he apologized. “It was not smart to offer that here. I will pay for the damages.”

“Was- was that you?” she asked, dragging her cask over. “The wind?”

“It was, yes,” Akata confirmed with a nod and by plucking his lute, creating another small breeze to run through their fur.

Kyanoko fell to her back with another groan. She wasn’t in the mood for picking up her wrecked shop. Or for figuring out what might have been scorched and lost in the fire.

“I wish I was born with the earth power I was meant to have,” she sighed aloud.

“Hmm…” Akata strokes his beard and looked thoughtfully down the path. “You were not raised with other fire elementals. It’s not fair to suggest you would never be good at wielding fire.”

“I don’t think I want to be good with it. Fire is destructive and I don’t think I want to be made mad and have-” she gestures towards the pile of blankets and trinkets “-this happen again.”

“Yes, fire can be very vicious and hard to control.” Akata shakes his head. “But to dismiss it as only being destructive is narrow-minded. There’s plenty of practical and nondestructive uses for fire.”

“Like?”

“Well, you kept your tea warm for over an hour.”

“Hm…”, Kyanoko mused. She wouldn't lie to herself, warm tea didn't feel worth burnt belongings.

“There is a way to change what element rests within you. But it is a very time-consuming task. Very challenging on top of that.” Akata offers, reaching out a hand to help the tanuki stand. “Why don’t you try to make the fire work for you first? There’s something we teach kits that are having issues mastering their fire- start with the smoke.”

“The smoke?” Kyanoko accepts his hand but gets up on her own, just putting in enough weight to let the kitsune think he helped.

“It’s just as much a part of the fire as the flame.” he nods wisely.

“You changed your attunement to fire.” Kyanoko brings up skeptically.

“Aye, I did. And I was good at using fire on a technical level. But it didn’t feel right for me.” Akata shared a snippet of his own story. “I found a crane and the crane taught me how to change my thinking and helped attune my soul to the wind. I’m not as good with it as I was fire, but I’m happier.”

“Then why should I stick with keeping myself a fire elemental?”

“Because you won’t know if you like it if you don’t give it a fair shot.” Akata smiled. “I should be on my way now, Kyanoko. Thank you for your story. What do I owe you?”

Kyanoko looked between her disheveled shop and her hand. She’ll try to follow the kitsune’s advice. Maybe with mastery over the dormant power within her, she’ll find happiness. She closes her fist and turns to the fox with a smile.

“I think you paid me enough.”