Just A Kid

You open your eyes and groan. As you sit up slowly, you feel something wet against your cheek. You look down and smile. “Takumi! Are you alright?” you say as you hug the demon close to you. Takumi starts to squirm out of your grasp. You let go. Takumi looks around. You look around as well. “Where are we?” you say to Takumi. Takumi looks at you and twitches his tail. “I guess you don’t know either,” you say as you get up slowly. You seemed to be in a clearing. Trees surrounded the small clearing. A small pond was beside where you were standing.

“Water!” you say as you run towards the pond. You kneel beside the pool and cup the water in your small hands. You see your reflection in the water. Your ear twitches as you hear footsteps behind you. You growl and turn around. You trip over a root and fall over. You yelp as you land on your butt. You clamp your eyes shut and put your arms over your head.

“Peace, child. We mean you no harm,” a female voice says from above you. “We are only here to help you,” a male voice says. You look up to see a tall, young woman with pale skin and long green hair tied in a braid dressed in a blue kimono. Her big orange eyes looked at you with sympathy.

You look beside her. A young man stood there beside the woman. He was the same height as her, with pale skin. The only difference was that the man had long, light blue hair with violet eyes. His eyes too, seem to look at you with sympathy.

“W-who are you? Where am I? Where are my friends?” you say, shaking. Tears sting your eyes.

“Oh you poor child. You must be scared to death!” the man says as he kneels in front of you. “My name is Seishin,” the man says as he brushes your bangs out of your eyes. “This is my sister, Kazoku” Seishin says, gesturing to the woman. Seishin appeared to be wearing the same thing as his sister, except his kimono was green.

“What is your name, child?” Kazoku asks in a soft voice.

“Araile” you say shyly.

“Araile, what a pretty name” Kazoku exclaims. You give her a small smile. Seishin offers you his hand. You take it and he helps you up.

“Where am I?” you ask and you hold Seishin’s hand.

“You are in the Land of Mortality,” Kazoku says. You look around with wide eyes.

"Come now, you must be hungry" Seishin says as he starts to walk, with your hand still in his.

"But I can't leave Takumi!" you say as you look behind you.

"Don't worry. Your friend is alright," Kazoku says. You look up at her in confusion. Seishin laughs and looks down at you while walking.

"Don't worry about it. You will see soon enough". You continue to walk.

Just as the sun sets, Seishin and Kazoku lead you into a small hut. As you enter the hut, you give a small gasp. "Hey Seishin-chan, whose that?" a voice says from a darkened corner. You hide behind Seishin's pant leg as another voice comes from the same corner.

"Pah, its probably another weakling". Kazoku lit a lantern, lighting up the hut. Two boys and a girl appear out of the darkness.

"Children, this is Araile. She will be staying with us," Seishin says as he steers you over to the other children.

The first boy comes up to you. The boy's fierce red eyes inspect your face. You shyly look away as the boy scoffs and walks away and sits in a corner. The boy had short, dark blue hair with white streaks. He seemed to be older than the other two children. You twitch your tail nervously as the other two come near you. Seishin sits down on a mat and takes something out. Kazoku starts making some food.

"Hi! My name's Meiyo" the girl says. Your ear twitches slightly. "Oh, you have kitty ears! That's so cool!" Meiyo exclaims.

"Can you not see, Meiyo? The girl is a cat demon," the boy with fierce red eyes says. Meiyo sticks her tongue out at him.

"Nobody was asking you!" Meiyo says as she turns to you and says, "that’s my big brother, Taiyou. He thinks he's so cool just because he's older". You look over to Taiyou and shrug.

"Anyways, this is Shinrai. He's a demon, just like you" Meiyo says as a boy with long purple hair and green eyes stands patiently beside Meiyo. You gaze at the boy. Shinrai looked at you. Both of your eyes met and Shinrai looked away as a faint line of pink ran across his face. "Shinrai is a wolf demon" Meiyo finished.

"A-are you and your brother demons too?" you ask, still shy. Meiyo nodded vigorously.

"Yep. We're both tiger demons," she said, proudly. Meiyo did look like her brother. They both had short blue hair and red eyes. Except Meiyo had her hair in two pigtails.

"Children, come over here. I've got a story to tell" Seishin said.

"Oh boy! A story! Seishin tells the best stories!" Meiyo tells you excitedly. She ran over to where Seishin was sitting and sat beside him. Taiyo looked up, but stayed where he was.

"I wonder where Kakashi and the others are. I really miss them," you think to yourself as you look down.

Someone suddenly grabs your hand. You look up, surprised.

"Lets go. You can sit beside me," Shinrai says.

You nod and blush faintly. Shinrai leads you to where Seishin was sitting. Both of you sit down on a mat. Kazoku smiles as Seishin clears his throat.

"Alright now. This story has been passed down from generation to generation. It's a story about how a warrior managed to defeat a great snake demon" Seishin starts. You can feel Shinrai tremble slightly with excitement. You smile slightly.

"A time ago, in a castle far, far away, there was a warrior. But, this warrior was no ordinary warrior; for this warrior had a special gift called the Sight. This gift enabled him to do three things: to look through the eyes of any animal he wanted, to see the past, present, and future, and the call upon the elements to help him.

The lord of the castle always called upon this warrior to help him in battles. The lord, whose name was Himitsu, was a good fighter, but he was not as good as the warrior. But this warrior was also a half-demon. His human mother gave the name Wakusei to her baby. That baby turned into a warrior. Wakusei was walking along the castle corridor when he bumped into someone.

'"Oh, I'm sorry,"' Wakusei said.

'"That is alright. I was being clumsy"' a familiar voice said. It was the lord's daughter, Sainou. Wakusei was quite fond of Sainou and couldn't help but blush a little bit. '"My father wanted to talk to you, Wakusei'" Sainou said. The warrior nodded his head briefly and walked to where the lord was resting".

"Was Sainou beautiful, Seishin?" Meiyo asks, interrupting the story's plot. "Stop interrupting, Meiyo" Taiyo says, scowling. Meiyo sticks her tongue out at her brother. Seishin laughs and puts a hand on Meiyo's head. "Yes, Sainou was beautiful. Now, lets continue with the story".

"As soon as Wakusei entered the lord's room, he immediately sensed that something was wrong. The lord was slumped on his side, with blood pouring from a wound in his head. A creature stood over the lord, its fangs glittering. Wakusei unsheathed his mighty sword and ran at the creature. The creature hissed and slithered out of the way, smashing into a wall in the process.

"Suddenly, Wakusei hears a scream. He suddenly realizes that Sainou was just outside. Before Wakusei could do anything, the creature got hold of Sainou and slithered out of the castle. Wakusei realized that the creature was a great snake demon called Uugi. Wakusei ran outside, just in time to see Uugi slither away into the forest. Wakusei then lifted his hands to the sky, calling upon the Sight to help him.

'"In the name of the power within me, I call upon the Sight to call upon the element of snow!"' Wakusei shouted. Suddenly, the wind started to howl. Dark clouds rolled in. A snowflake fell, then another, then another, and another, until a fierce winter storm started. Wakusei hears a howl and a scream. Wakusei stopped the storm and ventured outside.

But he did not have to venture out for long. The snake demon had frozen and Sainou had fainted. Wakusei picked Sainou up and walked to the castle, where they lived happily ever after".

Seishin finished his story with a sigh. Looking around, he saw that Meiyo, you, and Shinrai had fallen asleep. Taiyo got up and picked up his sister. Meiyo grunted, but continued to sleep. Your ear twitches as Kazoku opens the door for them.

"Where are they going?" you say sleepily as you rub your eye and sit up.

"They have always slept outside" Seishin says as Kazoku closes the door after them. "Now, time to get some sleep" Seishin tells you. You nod and lay on your side.

Your eyes close as you fall asleep. Seishin sighs and lies on his side.

"You did a good job telling the story, Seishin" Kazoku said softly. Seishin nodded.