Read The whisper of the forgotten God :: chapter 2 It's much more reminiscent of a puppet show

chapter 2

It's much more reminiscent of a puppet show

Totally confused, I look around.

White walls, ugly laminate flooring, large window with ugly curtains, hospital bed and penetrating hospital odour.

Sure enough, I'm in my grandmother's hospital room.

I swallow hard.
This must be a dream.

"Ouch," I cry out.

After I had pinched myself properly.

Now I look to my grandmother again. She is smiling.
"Exactly, Kuzunoha, the fox mother," my grandmother interrupts me.
"Fox Mother?" I ask her irritated.
Where did she get the idea of a fox mother?
Currently, I am feeling overwhelmed by the situation.
On one hand, I am struggling to accept that I am in her hospital room again

rather than in my bed contemplating life. Additionally, my grandmother has just appeared with an surprise and talking about a fox mother.

This must be reality, but was the other one just a dream?

I should not pinch myself so hard next time.
"Child, don't tell me you don't remember my little adventure in Japan?"

I say nothing to her.

Instead, I look at her with a big question mark on my face.

A question mark she will probably see more than once this evening.
She shakes her head and sighs before leaning back in her seat. She briefly glances out of the window.
There is no indication that she has ever been to Japan or discussed the country.
It was always the ancient Greeks, and now it's the ancient Japanese?
"Just a minute," she replies under my curious gaze.

She starts to look for something in her drawer.

Strange, there's never anything in that drawer.
Wordlessly, she shows me a black wooden box.
A very simple, almost insignificant box.
"From me to you," she hands me the box.

Gratefully I accept it.

Now I look at this simple box from up close.

It was fascinating.
It is made of ebony and much heavier than I expected.
A closer look reveals the many ornaments.
Patterns and inscriptions that really make it look very noble.
Is this really the same box she held in her hand a few seconds ago?
"I was only a year older than you, but even as a child, I always wanted to travel to the Far East.
My parents were against it, but somehow they allowed me to go. It was probably my older sister who convinced them. I am still very grateful to her. Without her I would never have had this adventure. Now that I had arrived in Japan, I was of course only formally curious to visit the famous temples. So I joined a tourist group. But during the free time to explore, I got terribly lost".
She pauses.
Why am I not surprised? Grandmother never had the best sense of direction.

When I was 8 years old, I wanted to visit a fairytale forest, but unfortunately I never had the opportunity.

My grandmother and I got lost and ended up in a village 200 kilometres away.

Tragically...

Well, due to time constraints, I haven't been able to visit the forest since.

I hope I can make up for it on my 18th birthday.
"I was alone in the forest," she continues.
Suddenly I felt a huge sting that went through my whole body.
A sting that got worse by the second.
At the same time, many vague scenes flashed before my eyes.
Strange voices echo through my head.
While a pressure literally presses my body down to the cold floor.

"Where am I?"

Questioningly, my eyes roam the strange surroundings before me.
"Ouch," I cry out again.
Again, too tight....
It can't be true, can it?

How can I go from my grandmother's hospital bed to a dense forest?
"My gaze sweeps through the dense forest in front of me. Right, left, up and down, all I see are these trees that literally surround me," I hear my grandmother's voice say, as if from nowhere.
"Grandmother!?"
Startled, I jump back.

It can't be! My voice, what's wrong with it?
I can open and move my mouth freely, but no sound comes out.
Not a single word of my thoughts will come out.
"Out of sheer desperation I fell to the floor," she continued.
Suddenly, against my will, my body took on a life of its own and I fall to the floor.

Like she said.
"My tears wet the floor".
At the same time, said tears run down my cheeks to the floor. I feel like a shell trapped by emotions that are not mine.
No, no, it's more like a puppet show!
My grandmother is pulling the strings and I'm acting for her.
"Just when I thought all was lost, a strange fox appears in front of me out of nowhere.
Suddenly I stopp crying.

I turn my eyes to the creature I have never seen in this form before.
A strange white fox greets me, wearing a jewel around its neck.
He or she is also looking at me.

The fox's gaze is so intense that I can't look away.
"Our gazes meet. While I am enchanted by the sight of the strange fox in front of me.
I feel a strange urge to feed him. But something inside me prevents me from doing so".
Playfully, the fox moves towards me.
"The fox moves towards me in a playful way. He goes like a cat to the ground and teases me in a strange way, urging me on".
Strange thoughts fill my mind. Then suddenly my body jumped up by itself.

The fox in front of me imitated me. Neither of us misses a breath of the other. We both wait almost tensely for the other's next move.

Then, all of a sudden, he or she runs away.

Naturally, I run after the fox.
I don't notice any of the obstacles that could hurt me or cause me to stumble.
I feel nothing because my whole attention is on the fox.
We pass a river that led us to a waterfall.
He stopp at it.

Look at me with his ice-blue eyes and jump into the waterfall.
"The fox jumped gracefully into the waterfall. But despair overcame me again.
Suddenly, the waterfall splits and a blinding light hits me.
"Only when the bright light faded did I recognise something incomprehensible.

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