Kei: Calm down, Kei, I’m not scared. I’m not scared.
I whisper the words aloud to myself.
There. The sound is really quiet.
To begin with, a ghost probably wouldn’t be making noise, and if it was someone larger and stronger than me, the sounds would be much louder (than the ones I’d make, at least).
In other words, that would mean—
—There, I thought so.
The one that protrudes its face through the blades of grass to observe my appearance is a baby fox, maybe just tiny enough to pick up with one hand.
Pure white from the top of its head to the tip of its tail, it looks like an animal that would even live at the North Pole.
The moment I make that recognition, the power flees from my legs.
Kei: Come on, don’t scare me like that!
Having collapsed from loss of strength, I nearly feel like crying.
Kei: I was really scared, okay?
As I spill out a muttering complaint, that animal stands up on its hind legs and claps its front paws together in front, while moving its head up and down.
Kei: ……Does that mean… are you apologizing to me? (TN: This is an apologetic hand gesture in Japan.)
*koku koku* (nodding)
Kei: ……Do you understand what I’m saying?
*koku koku*
It probably doesn’t, but that gesture is so incredibly cute, my mood improves immediately.
Kei: That’s okay, I forgive you.
As I do, the baby white fox returns to all fours and wags its fluffy tail.
Kei: Wah, does that mean you really understand what I’m saying?
*pui*! (one shake)
It averts its face. …In fact, that seemed kind of cheeky just now— wait, huh? Really?
Kei: Hey—
This time from farther away, there is a sound much like the one before.
It’ll be all right. I’m calm, now.
Could it be this one’s family or friends?
All things considered, it sounds kind of loud?
Setting aside investigations of language comprehension, I turn my head from where I sit to look that way.
Kei: —!?
A human… and a child small enough to be in elementary school at that, is visible heading into the thick of the forest.
Kei: Wah, hold on, wait! That’s dangerous, you know!?
In a different direction than the path I followed here, she stitches a path between the trees, through a path that even animals might not deign to tread.
Even carrying a rucksack large enough to hide her back, she is amazingly fast.
At any rate, she’s definitely faster than me.
Kei: Hey, please stop! I won’t do anything, so you don’t have to be scared!?
At my call to stop, she continues to head deeper and deeper in, without even looking back.
……And quickly fades from view.
Kei: Does my voice sound scary enough to make a person think they have to run away?
As I sigh out a complaint, I see that the baby fox who was supposed to listen to me had already disappeared somewhere.
…………
Kei: ……Was I bewitched? (TN: In Japanese folklore, some foxes have the ability to shape-change, to mischievous and often malicious ends.)
Somehow I come to feel that way.