A Time To Love

I wrote this while in undergrad. At the time, my professor banned us from submitting scifi or fantasy pieces because he said it was “hard to critique.” The whole class decided to submit something in those genres to prove him wrong.

“You know this can never work,” she told him.

“Well, we’ll just have to do the best with what we’ve got,” he interlaced his fingers between hers.

“How come you are so sure?”

“I’m not sure but I know it’s better to do something than to do nothing at all.”

She pondered his words for a moment and just as she was about to answer him, he disintegrated into ashes.

“You should have chosen me!” a large, black beast snarled at her before opening his jaws wide, charging for her head . . .

Kris awoke suddenly, dripping in sweat, her heart pounding. She found herself to be looking at a white ceiling with a white gold trimmed fan swirling softly above her. She sat up, surveying her surroundings of an old wooden desk, a gray lamp and a pile of dirty laundry on the floor beneath her desk. Her closet door still shut, to keep the evil inside, a vanity with a dirty mirror and a dresser with all its drawers poked out because they were all broken. Then she proceeded to touch her face and run her fingers through her hair and all over her body. She was still all there and everything was right in her world.

“It was just a bad dream,” she told herself, trying to erase the nightmare from her head but she knew that it would not go away because it was really a twisted memory of something that had happened to her a long time ago. But why now of all times did she think about that. She had not thought of him in ages and did not wish to be reminded of that which happened long ago.

Realizing that she wasn’t going back to sleep anytime soon, she decided it best to sweep the matter under the rug for later and get ready for school.

Kristian Allen was no ordinary high school student. Most of her classmates were young, without a care in the world, who had yet to experience true love and that what they were feeling right now was just “puppy love.” But Kris was much older than them. In fact she was centuries older than all her schoolmates and had loved a long time ago and had lost that love a long time ago too.

Kris was a kitsune, a fox spirit that could shape shift into any animal she wanted, including a human. She did not know how long she had live or when exactly she was born but she knew she was at least 400 years old, give or take a decade. Of course she had lived for so long she wasn’t sure anymore.

In the time that she was young, or rather the first time she was young, she lived in a lush, green forest in Japan and was the youngest of a clan of foxes; although everything was not sunshine and roses back then. Humans were starting to distrust to foxes, or maybe they had already been distrusting of foxes, but either way, she remembered wars left and right and a hatred for humans. All except one.

He was the son of a shrine master and wanted to become a priest. He would practice everyday on his spells and incantations, trying to dispel evil from the sacred temple. She thought him laughable because his spells would always backfire on him and do him more harm than his opponent. That was until the day he caught her.

She was prowling through the woods, searching for food and partly looking for a human to slaughter, crouched down on all fours, quietly inching her way towards a forest rabbit. She made sure to keep her tails low and her eyes focused, so she wouldn’t give herself away and so she would be able to see all her prey’s movements.

She saw the rabbit bend over to eat at the ground, not paying her any attention and she knew she had it; thus rising up a bit on her paws, ready to pounce on the rabbit. And just as she was about to leap upon her prey, she felt a talisman land on her forehead and paralyze her to the ground. Her prey had got away and now she was prey to a human.

“What the hell?!” she cursed.

“Yes, one of my spells finally worked!” she heard someone scream and footsteps rushed towards her. She needed to break this spell before some human kills her. “Wow, you’re a pretty little kitsune,” he leaned over her, gawking at her form.

“I am not little and quit staring at me. It’s rude to stare,” she snapped.

“I’m sorry. I just can’t get over how beautiful you are. Are all foxes as beautiful as you? I would surely hate to end the life of a creature like you,” and with that, he removed the talisman from her forehead and she could move again. And as soon as she was free, she pounced on top of him. “You have every right to kill me for I should have never attacked a creature like you.”

She was confused and surprised that a human was being nice to her. Contorted with a mix of emotions, she ran away and left him alive.

“Hope to see you again,” he called after her. “I promise not to kill you next time.”

She should have killed him. She would have never had the chance to fall in love with him. But that was all in the past now and she knew he was surely dead. There was nothing she could do about the decisions she had made back then.  

“Kristian, time to eat,” she heard her grandmother call from downstairs. Apparently Granny must have already made breakfast. Normally she was just coming back from her garden work, about to start breakfast. Either Kris had slept too late or Granny was early.

She rolled over to look at the clock on her nightstand, Granny was early, way too early.

“I’ll be down after a shower okay?” she called back, springing from her sheets and running into the bathroom.

“Want me to keep your food warm for you?”

“Sure,” Kris replied as she turned on the shower.

Cleaned and dressed, Kris headed downstairs into the kitchen and plopped herself down into a chair at the table.

“Is that what you’re wearing to school today?” her grandmother asked her as she slid a plate of French toast and eggs in front of her.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” she responded back, looking down at herself. She had on a plain grey hoodie with dark blue jeans, and grey boots to match. She really didn’t see anything wrong with her outfit and quite honestly, didn’t see what her grandmother found wrong with it either.

“Nothing, I guess, if you like that sort of look,” Granny replied, fixing her own plate and sitting beside her granddaughter. “But couldn’t you have at least fixed your hair,” Granny whined, reaching for Kris’ hair but Kris pulled back.

She had chosen to keep her golden fur but instead it was on top of her head. So the humans would call her hair color honey blonde and not yellow or golden she guessed. She also chose to keep the color of her eyes, emerald green like the trees she used to run around back home. As for her body, she figured an average height would help her blend in, not too tall that she towered but not too short that she could be ridiculed as a midget. A slender build with some lean muscle and she was set for high school.

Granny too was a kitsune and thus had to parade around like a human. So she chose to have short, grey hair with deep blue eyes and a short but not boney and withered frame. She looked quite healthy for a woman her age. As far as her age in fox years, she may have been well over a thousand but it was so hard to tell because they lived so long.

“I think I look fine Grandma. So could you please just drop it already?” she asked politely.

“Alright dear. So, made any new friends lately? Become a little more friendly certain friends already,” her grandmother asked, pouring herself some coffee.

Kris knew exactly where this conversation was going and decided to have her breakfast to go. So she grabbed her French toast off her plate and wrapped it in a napkin.

“Going so soon dear?”

“Yeah, I need to get to school early to study for a quiz,” she replied. It wasn’t totally a lie but she didn’t want to talk about certain friends that her grandmother wanted her to become more friendly with.

“Alright dear. At least let me pack your food in a proper Ziploc bag,” she grabbed Kris’ toast and headed over to the cabinet. Kris couldn’t get out of there fast enough. A few moments later Granny returned with the French toast and a container with a sandwich in it for lunch. “Here you go dear,” she handed the food over.

“Okay. Thanks,” Kris took them and headed towards the door.

“Oh and one more thing Kristian,” she heard her grandmother spoke.

“You only live once, even if we live a long time, make the most of the time you’ve got and don’t hold onto things not worth holding,” she said and then disappeared back into the kitchen.

Kris considered her words and then grabbed her bag and headed out the door but not before shouting over her shoulder, “Bye Grandma.”

It was faint but she heard her grandmother reply, “Have a great day dear.”

Kris smiled to herself, happy to have a grandmother like Granny.

It was once strange, having someone take care of her, since she never had that with her old family, but now, it felt comforting. It felt peaceful.

Many human lifetimes ago, Kris lived with a different family. They weren’t mean or anything but weren’t exactly all that nice. They believed in survival of the fittest. Only the strong deserved to live and the weak, unless they could somehow manage to stay alive, were better off dead.

Kris, although she went by the name Kisa back then did not share that philosophy but she was not dumb enough to oppose the alpha leader. The alpha leader was the one whole ruled over all the clans of kitsune. He was the fastest and the strongest and supposedly the wisest of all foxes. But even in a fox tribe culture, you had corruption. Not everyone followed the order and some rose to the top by killing all those in the way.

So when Kris was just a cub, the alpha had died and some random fox had appointed himself leader. And the way he went about doing that was by killing every leader of all the clans and marrying their widows. Technically there was no law against that, it was just that it was a barbaric custom that was long since out of practice, it was severely frowned upon to do so.

No one knew what clan he had originated from but they all knew he was a force to be reckoned with. So they overlooked the matter of all his killings and let him rule. And in his rule, the strong survived and the weak should beg for life. And women were considered weak.

That had not sat well with Kris. She could not understand how her anatomical being played into her strengths or weaknesses. She was faster than any other fox, strong enough to hold her own in a fight with any clan leader, and smart enough to out-fox the wisest of the wise. And it was for that reason, she and the alpha could never see eye to eye.

Oden, the alpha leader, seemed displeased with Kris. If ever she were in his sight, he would give her a look of such distaste that if looks could kill she would be dead. However, none of this fazed her, thus angering him more.

So when it came time for her to mate, he thought he had won by choosing her to be his, but she had politely turned him down. She could not be so easily defeated with a mere marriage proposal. And Oden seemed resigned to her choice until . . .

“Lost in thought again I see,” an annoying voice broke her reminiscing.

“What do you want Allister,” she drawled the nuisance’s name.

“Is that any way to treat your dearest friend?” he pouted.

Allister had been trying to become more than friends for over two years. It wasn’t until a few months ago that he “settled” on friends. And even then, she still felt that he was just biding his time until she would give in and go on a date with him. Still, Allister was a good friend to have. He was patient and understanding when she needed him to be and he always knew what to tell her without just telling her what she wanted to hear. He was loyal, honest and sweet. And his looks didn’t hurt either. He was tall, with dark brown hair and green eyes, just like hers. He reminded her so much of Ryu.

“Lost in your thoughts again I see,” a smooth yet irksome voice interrupted her. “You do a lot of thinking for a fox. Do all foxes think as much as you?”

“You know, its hard me to concentrate with all your chatting behind me?” Kisa retorted.

“My apologies. I just find this,” he paused. “You, fascinating.”

Kisa flashed emerald eyes opened and looked deep into his grey seas. No one had ever called her fascinating before, not even her parents.

“Again I’ve lost you Kris,” he sighed, coming up behind her and hugging her. “If only I could keep your mind focused on me,” he whispered gently in her ear. She felt chills run down her spine.

“Allister, look I—“but before she could finish her sentence she felt a dark presence descend around them. “Get behind me Allister,” she told him.

“Why what’s going on?” If only she had time to explain.

She quickly shoved Allister behind her and she waited for their “guest” to show himself. She could smell from the air that it was a fox but she could not tell quite yet who had decided to come visit her.

She wasn’t surprised when she ran into another kitsune at school. Seeing as how humans were taking over more, destroying their homes for wood to build houses, kitsunes could not walk about in their true form and thus had to morph and blend into human society. And then a human war broke out that nearly wiped out Japan, thus forcing many to scatter all over the world.

“Isn’t this touching,” she heard the presence utter from somewhere above her. “A pet protecting its master.”

“I am not her master, nor is she my pet,” Allister spoke before she had time to rebuttal. “Now show yourself.”

“Allister don’t, you’ll only make things worse,” she tried to step in front of him but stood firm and even went so far as to place an arm in front of her, as if he were protecting her! She did not now nor would she ever need Allister’s protection.

Suddenly the dark aura stood in front of them in what looked like a human. He had dark hair, cold blue eyes and a sinister smile. Kris did not like the looks of this.

“Oh this is interesting. Now it is the master protecting the pet. Think your tough enough to take me on?”

“I don’t intend to take you on. I wouldn’t want to embarrass you,” Allister smirked in reply.

What the hell! Allister never smirked or got cocky with anyone. Well, anyone except her but here he was getting in this fox’s face, challenging him right back. This was nothing like the Allister she was used to seeing.

She needed to do something. As confident as Allister felt, there was no way he couldn’t defeat a creature centuries old with magical powers and sharp claws that could kill him in an instant. But she knew once Allister’s mind was fixated on something or someone, he would not give up. She both loved and hated that about him.

“Embarrass me? You? Don’t make me laugh,” the fox shoved Allister back. Seriously, she needed to act before things got out of hand.

“Listen,” Kris began, trying to get between her friend and her enemy but Allister stepped around her and cut her off.

“Do not take me so likely. I will do whatever necessary to protect Kris. And neither you nor anyone else is going to get in the way of that,” he spoke firmly.

She stopped at the point. She knew deep down in her soul that she had heard that some time before by the human she had fallen in love with centuries ago.

“Move human,” Oden barked at the man standing before him.

“I cannot do that,” Ryu replied, blocking Oden from Kisa. She didn’t understand. He was only a mere mortal. He should be terrified of Oden and yet here he was, standing his ground, ready to face whatever would come her way. “I must protect Kisa at all cost, even if it means giving up my life to do so and neither you nor anyone else will prevent me from doing so.”

“Allister, we need to leave,” she pushed him behind her and faced her enemy. She had a lot of things she wanted to say right now, a lot of feelings swirling inside her but she needed to get him to safety first. This time, she would not allow him to die for her. This time, she would be the one protecting him.

She morphed her hands into claws and grabbed her opponent by the neck.

“Kris,” he began but she cut him off.

“Shutup! I will deal with you later,” she spoke in a dark voice before turning back to her captive. “Give me one good reason why I should not crush your windpipe and kill you dead on the spot?”

“You kiisama! How dare you—“

“That didn’t answer my question,” she squeezed his throat tighter.

“Alright, alright! I’ll say whatever you want, just please don’t kill me,” the fox whimpered but she was in no mood to be merciful.

“Too late, you should have answered when I asked,” she squeezed harder, about to finish her off when Allister touched her arm.

“That’s enough Kisa.” He used her real name. “You’ve proven your point now let him go.”

She looked back at the man who apparently had not been dead all these centuries and the fox in her hand. Had she been back in Japan, she would not have thought twice and killed him but since she met her beloved Ryu or Allister, she no longer had it in her to be as cruel and ruthless as the foxes she was raised by.

She dropped the coward and turned to the man she had presumed dead. “You and me need to talk.”

“Yes we do.”

~//~

“So let me get this straight,” Kris looked at him. “You gave up your immortality just so we could be together but by the time you had become immortal, I was already long gone.”

“Yes. I couldn’t find you in the village and I could not sense your presence in the woods either. I thought you were dead so I left Japan and traveled the world until I found myself here. And then out of the blue, you enrolled in my high school and I just had to reconnect with you.”

“I see. But you know I will die someday, I won’t live forever.”

“No, you won’t but you live longer than most and the thing about immortality, is that it too can run out. I can’t be immortal in a place where there is no mortality. Once the world ends, so will I, so you and I will probably be together for about the same amount of time,” he replied.

“How can you be so sure?”

“I’m not but isn’t it better to try than to never have done anything at all?” he looked at her.

She smiled. He was the same Ryu even after all these years. So maybe the world would end or she would die before him, but it didn’t matter. They had each other now and they should live as best they can while they had time.