Once upon a time in a far away land between the rifts begins a tale of a child and a fox. It's as simple as the water flowing in the Han river and the cherry blossoms blooming in the Yeouido. He saves it from the heartless clutches of the hunters and it saves him from itself.

 

A tale as old as time. A tale as simple as the facts.

 

//

 

 

The dark black canvas of the midnight sky with the diamond like stars, waits for the queen of the night with longing and desperation. Wind blows into the empty distance of time and space. There is nothing special to look at. There is no where special to go to. With no hint of the moon, the stars are lonely, craving for more light. It waits her majesty to shine through the night. To show a glimpse of her face.

 

It does, not so clearly. But, the new moon is tonight, she realizes; when she stands up on two feet, when her hand grows five fingers, when her fur replaces skin and hair, when her soul given the knowledge of all, when she becomes human in form.

 

It's the new moon. A complete thousand years of life time.

 

//

 

 

She's dark and alone, cold and . Her heart pumps against her chest in agony. Her bony fingers shivers against the damp earth. A light shines through the sky– The Goddess of the Moon, the beholder of the night sky. It speaks to her and the voice echoes through the night. Like a distance song, a horror tale whispered.

 

“Dear fox-child. You have the flesh of the fairest of them all but the heart of a nine-tailed demon. You can only be one. You have fifteen days less one. My dear, you know what to do.”

 

Three choices, one unacceptable. Fourteen days. Nine tails.

 

//

 

 

She doesn't have a lot of choices. Feed or make a wish upon the moon. The third, still unacceptable. Not a lot of choices. Not a lot of time.

 

The night of the first young waxing crescent moon, she loses a tail.

 

(Three choices, thirteen days, eight tails).

 

//

 

 

It's torture, she thinks.

 

Listening to the thousand thumping hearts in the distance village. It tells her of all the more time she could buy. All more years, centuries she could have to live. It reminds her to choose, take the easiest way out. Feed on a beating heart. She could still have eight centuries. One for every tail. The thirst would continue. She would always want more. A monster she would become. It's a decision between her humanity and evil.

 

The fact that she's struggling may prove something. That she still haven't taken a life must mean something. Maybe one side is dominating the other. Maybe her humanity is stronger than all.

 

So she decides to win against all odds. To be a pure soul, to have a human heart. Thus begins a journey to the top of the earth.

 

//

 

 

She's proven wrong. 

 

The evil resurfaces more powerful than ever. It comes in the form of temptation. The scent of the human blood, the faint beating of a human heart. A wounded soldier or a thief, perhaps someone who deserves death in it's ugliest form. All wishful thinking, as she approaches the mess of blood and havoc. Her hand trembles, reaching against the chest of the poor soul. A single etch of her finger and she's in another world.

 

Hunter, bows and arrows. Blood and herbs. Cries, oh, terrible cries. A boy, a fox. A savior.

 

Her hand withdraws as the electricity passed through her body. A glance at his painful face stops her in his tracks. She looks at the moon, the crescent more than the night before. Time, he doesn't have a lot.

 

She leans against his heart, hands reaching through his chest. Closing her eyes, she passes her energy through to his erratic heart. It becomes stronger. His wound starts healing. She becomes weaker. Her body starts trembling. By the time it's over, she collapses on the earth. The moon stares into the night. Two more tails gone.

 

(Three choices, twelve days, six tails).

 

//

 

 

The sunlight streams through the high trees of the forest. Her eyes open timidly, almost scared to open them. It's too bright, almost surreal. Is she in the afterlife? she wonders. No, she couldn't be. Fox-children do not get afterlives. They disappear into the air as nothing. Invisible, forgotten.

 

Thus, she forces her eyes open. He sits a distance from her staring intensely. She sits up immediately, almost as if caught doing something she shouldn't. 

 

"Did you heal me?"

 

She nods.

 

"How long have I been out of it? A week? Two?"

 

She nods, lying. He cannot know what she is. He cannot know how she healed him. She has to leave. He might know. She stands up, bows and starts walking towards the top of the mountain again. She has already lost one night. She cannot afford to lose more.

 

//

 

 

She's stupid to think he would go on his own way, leaving her on her own. Human beings are insisting, stubborn creatures always trying to get their way. Their pride is bigger than anything, and they doesn't owe to others. Much like her people but worse. He has been following her through the thick woods since morning. Stopping when she stops, asking her questions she can't answer.

 

She reaches her limits and turns on her heels. He stops in his tracks.

 

"You owe me nothing. Leave."

 

"You saved my life."

 

You saved mine too, once. But she doesn't say so. He can't know. She doesn't want to disappear.

 

"What do you want?"

 

"To assist you. It's the least I can do."

 

//

 

 

Sunsets in the horizon, shades of blue, red and orange mixes in the sky. He falls asleep before the moonlight. The first beam of silver and her tails appear.

 

(Three choices, eleven days, six tails.)

 

//

 

 

"I don't know your name."

 

"I don't know yours either."

 

"Howon, like the river."

 

"Eunji."

 

"Funny, I once had a friend called Eunji."

 

She doesn't tell she already knows. She doesn't tell he named her. She doesn't tell, she can't.

 

Night falls the same; him in his slumber and her tails appearing in bright red reminding her of the choice she made and time left for her.

 

(Three choices, ten days, five tails.)

 

//

 

 

Choice one comes with being human. Be the first person to see the first full moon of the lunar year, wishing on the God of the Moon to give her the mortal life. To grow old, to find love, to be human. Being human, the most majestic living being of all.

 

Choice two comes with being a fox. A nine-tailed fox as they say. Feed on the beating heart of a human. Bringing in hunger, the thirst for blood and destruction. Inhumanity in her blood. A century for each tail left before she feed. A few become nine-tailed, living for nine centuries and at times being given eternity. 

 

Third choice is unacceptable. Death in the form of a fox-child brings only painful disappearing into thin air into nothingness. As if one never existed. Deleted from the phase of the earth. She doesn't want to disappear. She wants to be remembered.

 

She wants humanity, not immortality. She wants a soul and heaven. She doesn't want darkness. Thus, the journey continues. He doesn't know. She doesn't let him.

 

(She stops thinking about choices).

 

(Nine days, five tails).

 

//

 

 

"Why are you going to the top of the mountain?" He asks getting up from the thin stream of water following through the mountain. Water drips from his face and he bends again to drink water.

 

"Meet someone." 

 

"On the top of the mountain?"

 

"Yes."

 

"Who?

 

"You ask way too many questions."

 

She stumbles through the day. Energy drains. She's becoming weaker. Her time is running out. It's unfair, really. To have conditions to live. To have a time limit to survive. It's so wrong, so wrong.

 

(He makes everything a little better).

 

//

 

 

He likes that way she smiles. It's rare, but beautiful. Brighter than the sun in the horizon, shinier than the moon reflecting the sun. Eyes that twinkle, rosy cheeks and flawless skin. Perfection, in his eyes, she is. He fall a little deeper every time. A little harder. Unaware of the ticking clock, he keeps falling with nobody to save him.

 

(She can't save him when she can't even save herself).

 

(Eight days, four tails.)

 

//

 

 

"How did you hurt yourself?" she settles herself as far away from him as possible for the night. The clouds cover up the quarter of the moon. She's lucky the night is dark.

 

"Humans."

 

"What?"

 

"They are selfish. Aren't they? Eliminating the people of danger. Doing all the wrong things."

 

"Not everyone." Not you, she thinks. She reminisces the selfless little child who cried to save her life. The boy who carried her through the woods searching for herbs to cure her wound. A mere fox, she was then. But, he saved her. With his innocent little selfless deed, she's alive. If any one had impeccable love and passion in the world, she decides, it's him.

 

(Seven days, four tails).

 

//

 

 

They are close to the top now. The full moon awaits in a few nights. She's getting weaker by the minute. Her hands trembles, lips quiver and she shivers through the days. Her energy is slowly dying out. Time slips through her fingers but he doesn't. He holds her hand. He's her warmth and hope. He's everything that reminds her of the reason why she wants to be human. She only hopes the God of Moon will save her. He has to. He can't break two hearts. 

 

//

 

 

"Your friend, Eunji, what happened to her?" she asks, sitting close to the fire with her hands rubbing against each other. She wants to know how he remembers her. She wants to know how he saw her before she was half blooded.

 

"She disappeared."

 

She doesn't tell his father had her abandoned in the woods.

 

(Six days, three tails).

 

//

 

 

"What are you?" she doesn't expect him to be awake in the late night. She stands on a rock, her toes on the edge, her tails spreading through the night, shining in the glory of the moon. Hearing his words she collapses.

 

"I- " she can't speak. She can't, not when he's looking at her like that. Like he's disguisted, like he doesn't want her. She takes a step forward.

 

"Get away from me."

 

"Listen- "

 

He runs. She's left staring at the empty space he leaves behind. She doesn't want to count but the numbers stay in her mind, mocking her. 

 

(Five days, three tails).

 

//

 

 

She wants to give up. There is no other reason to live, become anything. She should've known. Somehow her feet drags her towards top of the mountain. The moon, almost full glances down at her, sympathzing her. But, she doesn't need pity. She need him. 

 

(Four days, two tails.)

 

//

 

 

Halfway down the road he collapses.  He feels shame in his bones and mind. He thinks how he became one of the people he hated. Selfish, coward. Running, killing, despising, judging. He isn't one of them, he isn't his father. No, he can't leave her. He loves her. Despite all the differences.

 

He starts his journey back up.

 

(Three days, two tails).

 

//

 

 

"You came back."

 

"I couldn't leave."

 

There stare at the full moon. His hands slipped into her as her only tail weavers in the cold night air.

 

(Two days, one tail).

 

//

 

The top of the mountain, the open air, the cloud within the hands reach. The wait for a glance of the moon, full and bright. The breeze slowly passes singing in songs of the great unknowns. His hands in hers, she smiles with her eyes twinkling brighter than the starts. The talk about all the things left unsaid. They make up for all the things they couldn't do. The silver of the moon and their raw hearts races. The first to glance at the moon has their wish made true.

 

He's the first to see the moon.

 

"I wish for her wish to be fulfilled."

 

(Her wish, we all know).

 

//

 

 

A tale as old as time. A tale as simple as the facts.

 

A tale twisted through the times in the end becoming two tales. Both running to humanity, through the distances of time. Raw hearts trying to strive for beauty. Slipping away and reaching for the stars. Wishes upon stars, and a moon to fill their wishes.