The Beginning
The sun was setting, painting the world with pastel colors as the August breeze rattled the leaves. The chimes of a ringing bell were approaching. A Red Fox with a rather beautiful silver bell around its neck sprinted by, screaming at the top of her lungs, breaking the silence of a peaceful dirt road that lead into the heart of a serene forest. The bell rang in rhythm of the dashing fox as a mob of people ran after her, yelling and shouting with a blinding fury.
It was near the edge of the forest when a pack of wolves jumped out of the bushes. The fox cowered as the wolves gave a blood thirsty glare, however the wolves didn’t go after the fox, they went after the people.
A jet black wolf, the obvious alpha male, approached the fox with a low, threatening growl.
“You stupid, moronic fox! What the hell were you thinking?! Bringing these filthy humans to our territory! Despicable!!” He barked.
“I’m sorry!! I’m so very sorry!! I’m leaving!!” The fox quivered, lowering her ears in submission.
She quickly turned to leave, but two great wolves blocked her way. “You are on our turf now, fox. You’re punishment: DEATH!” the alpha male hollered with gleeful bloodlust.
“Eek!” The fox couldn’t help but squeal in horror.
“Wait!” A dull gray wolf spoke up, “Let the little one rest. She has been running for miles away from those savages.” She gave the alpha male a devious look.
“Alright, bring the fox with us. She seems to have taken interest in our unwanted guest.” The alpha male sighed then turned around toward a darker, shadowy part of the forest. The rest of the pack followed reluctantly.
The bell jingled as the dark ashen wolf led the fox into a den.
“Please, make yourself at home.” The alpha female welcomed her while digging something up from the dirt with her sharp claws. The fox happily made herself comfortable until she saw a few pups huddled against the den’s walls. The vixen’s eyes sparkled with delight.
“Oh my gosh! They are so lovely!” She complemented and began to rub her face against them. “And so soft! Heehee.” she giggled. The alpha female dropped a unidentifiable piece of a carcass in front of the fox.
“It was leftover from a feast. Go ahead and eat it.”
“Thank you, kind alpha female.” The fox spoke awkwardly before digging in. Eying the luminous bell, the alpha female laughed.
“Call me Shizuka, and the alpha male is Yoru. May I ask for your name?”
Settling down, she replied, “It’s Shida.”
“So why were you being chase by those barbaric humans?” Shizuka asked while cuddling with the pups.
“It’s kind of a long story.” Shida warned with an awkward voice.
“It would be a nice bedtime story for the kids. If you don’t mind, that is.”
“Oh, no, I don’t mind…I guess…It was just this morning,” Shida started, “I was sun bathing as usual…”
~
Shida was curled up on a cafe table enjoying the warmth of the sun. The slow smell of cakey goodness reached the sleeping fox’s nose. Her eyes flashed open as a string of drool began form from her mouth. She slurped the saliva up and hopped down the table to the glass window where they display the menu. “Ohh! They’re selling strawberry short cake today!!” She told herself with delight while walking up to the door. “Yap yap! Yap yap!” Shida called as she rapidly scratched the door of the shop.
A young man in an apron opened the door.
“Shida! What will it be today?” he asked, crouching down to pet her. She pawed at his leg, walked to the display case, and pointed to the strawberry short cake. “Ah, yes. One strawberry short cake coming up.” The man left to the door. Another man, neatly dress with a tag on his shirt, came walking down the street. When he saw her, he froze in shock.
“You again?!” He shouted angrily.
“Uh-oh!” Shida made a run for it.
“You vermin!” The manger yelled, sprinting towards the red fox .
Shida ran randomly around the town until, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something interesting. She made a sharp u-turn and ran to the object. It was a silver bell hanging by a ribbon.
“Shinny!” she trotted around it with glee. She began trying to grab it, but as she continued to play with it, the loop that the bell was on began to slide off. Then it fell to the floor.
“Ouch!” A strange voice echoed.
The tiles on the floor began to disintegrate, trees began to sprout, buildings melted and mixed into the ground. Shida was oblivious to her evolving surroundings, for she was still playing with the bell like a cat with a ball of yarn. She flicked her tail and bell flew next to a red flower with black dots. She trotted to the bell, looked at the plant curiously, and picked the bell up with her tail. As she turned to leave, the red flower grabbed her paw with its petals.
“What the flan?!” She struggle to get out of the plants vicious ‘mouth’. Luckily it threw Shida up into the air and tried to eat her that way. The bell rang, and the plants began to reverse in growth. The buildings arose from the ground while the ground hardened and concrete appeared. Shida fell onto the solid floor. “Ah! The pain! The agony!!” Twitching as she yelled dramatically, Shida’s paw reached for the sky.
“Ha! That’s what you get for waking me.” The bell chimed. Shida jumped.
“…Who’s there?”
“You stupid fox! Just put me back on that shrine. The sun reflects off of me just perfectly!”
The fox lifted the bell to the sun. “Yes it doe-”
“Evil spirit, be gone!” The priest came out with a broom.
“Eek!!” Shida put the bell around her neck in a panicked motion.
“Hey, I have no part in this!!” It screamed in response.
She rushed to the beach as a group of towns people where now after her, closing in quickly. The silver bell chimed a mystical pulse emerged from it.
The scenery began to change as the white, dimension-distorting ripple come upon it. The people began to evaporate, sand consume the land from below as the sea seemed to be pushed farther and farther away, forming into a sea of nothingness.
“What are you going to do now foxy?! Until you agree to put me back on to that shrine I will not let you leave! You will die from hunger, or thir- Hey! What are you doing?”
Shida was completely ignoring the fact that she will never get out of this sandy world for she was building a sand castle.
“…Do you even know the power that I possess?! I can control TIME!!”
Shida still building her castle. “Where ever you go you can get to the past or the future of the area you are at! But, like I’ll give into the likes of you!”
Shida begins to dig a hole, the flying dirt buring the bell in the process. “Hey what are you doing?! Stop that! You’ll get sand-”
“I’ll continue to dig until you agree that I can time travel with you!” Shida said digging faster, lifting more dirt into the air and crashing it down onto the bell.
“You know that you can’t get out of here without me.”
“You’re in no position to say that either.” Shida said smiling deviously. This was at a matter of patience and tolerance. One would have to give in eventually.
Shida stopped digging because she got tried, but by that time the bell was buried under 10 ft of sand. After few minutes there was a white pulse, buildings erupted from the ground and the wind blew the sand to create people.
“Fine!!! I’ll work for you!! Just get the sand off of me!” The bell rang viciously. Shida smiled grabbed the bell by the string and shuck the sand out. ” There it is!!” A person pointed while running to the fox. She quickly put the bell around her neck once more.
~
“As you can see, the rest of the tale leads to here.” Shida said, yawning.
“I see…” Shizuka said, still staring at the bell with great intent, “How about you rest here for the night? You have no other place to stay, right?”
“Thank you for your generosity.” Shida said bowing.
“I’m going to run some errands now, if you don’t mind. Good night, young fox.” Shizuka said while trotting to the mouth of the den. She gave the fox and pups one last icy blue glare before exiting. The whole pack had gathered outside. Anxious whines and yelps of uncertainty echoed throughout the family of wolves.
“Shizuka-sama, why did you let that fox stay?”
“Because she has that bell.”
“What can that thing even do?”
“Did you just leave her there with the pups?!”
The crowd grew uneasy with mixed emotions. Wolves shifted on their feet nervously, some paced around others. Shizuka growled.
“Silence!” She barked for order. “If we can get that bell, then we will be able to go back to the time when food was plentiful, when our pups were strong, and defeat the other wolves in this forest, so that we would be the rulers!” Shizuka explained with a voice that seemed to tower above all others. The wolves began to howl in greedy victory. “Quiet!! You fools! We will take the bell when the fox is asleep…”
“Why wait? Why not get the bell now? There’re many more of us than her. And on top of that, we are wolves, and she, a mere, young fox.”
“Looks can be decieving. The fox is a sly, devious one. She has gotten the bell to work for her.” Shizuka said now standing guard at the mouth of the den. She knew that they’d have to wait until Shida was fast asleep before taking action.
It was 7 o’clock when Shizuka directed the wolves to attack. “Move out…Or in…”
Shida was quietly sleeping next to the pups. She would have looked like another pup, except she was orange and had a puffier tail.
“Go! Get the bell!”
Three wolves went to her, slowly taking the bell from around her neck. Shida then giggled ominously.
“You don’t want to do that…” She warned with a wry laugh.
“You are in no position to speak such words.” One of the wolf said with its deadly jaws open over her body.
“Oh really?” Shida asked with a sinister voice. A pup began to whine, “Do you not care about the heirs to your pack?” She asked. The wolves looked at each other in fear.
“What are you doing?” Shizuka said coming in. Once she spoke, Shida put her jaws around her pup’s little neck. She gave a low, warning growl. “Let him go…You miserable scavenger…” Shizuka growled even lower than her and beared her teeth.
“…What threat can you place on me? By the time you get here, I’ll have ripped his little throat out.” Her sentence was muffle from the fur of the pup.
Shizuka and Shida locked in a tense glare until…
“ShidAaAaAA….A” A plump raccoon came dashing by with a turtle on her head who was unenthusiastically calling Shida’s name out. The wolves turned to the face raccoon. Seeing her chance Shida made a mad dash out the den.
“Get her, you idiots!!” Shizuka barked loudly, however the orange blur was already out the den.
Shida chucked the pup to the wolves before speaking, “Disha! Escape Plan Number 14!!”
The raccoon nodded and ran into a different direction, while Shida went another. The wolves split into two smaller groups. Shizuka was in the one after Shida while the alpha male madly dashed after the plump raccoon. Shida and Disha ran in different directions but were headed to the same area: another wolf pack. When they got to the territory, they started to yap…bark…whatever sounds raccoons make. They meet each other at the other wolf’s den.
“Disha….where’s Azai?”
“…I think I dropped him when I was yapping…” Disha replied. She seemed not to care about their turtle friend. Wolves began to appear out of the bushes.
“I’ll go get him. Let’s meet up at area 0473!″ Shida said, know taking off in the direction Disha come from and vice visa for Disha.
Azai was slowly walking back to town when HE WAS GRABBED BY AN ANIMAL WITH RAZOR SHARP TEETH!!
“Hi Azai!” Shida tried to say.
“Hi, Shida…Why I’m I even friends with you?”
“Because you just are.” Shida replied and grinned.
At area 0473 (a.k.a., a cafe) the threesome were happily eating some pastries. “Is every day like this?” the bell rang. Shida didn’t reply. She continued on eating the delicious pastry “Why do I have a bad feeling about this…” The bell thought to itself.
The Beginning