The following morning, icy winds blew on my face. Its coldness and strength woke me up, and my eyes widened at all the white in front of me.

My body trembled, followed by my mind, which couldn’t process this occurrence.

‘This... can’t be right?’ Without any indication of what happened, the memories of last night flashed through my mind, causing me to weep, and in no time, they, too, froze. Just like my heart, there was something out of the ordinary going on. And I found myself incapable of understanding my situation.

‘Was I kidnapped from bed and dropped here?’ This thought was what I could hint at my best. It was the one that made the most sense. After all, I did partake with the family head daughter lustfully.

This would’ve been the best theory my brain had crafted if it wasn’t for the ravaging winds and the person who appeared before me.

“K-Keru?” My voice trembled with a hint of despair, realizing that everything was proceeding as it had been, not too long ago. And in a way, that was terrifying. After all, when I attempted to think things through, there was no longer a plausible justification for this scenario.

“Uh? A child? Who are you!?” The chimes rang as they had before whenever danger approached, causing him to place his hand on the scabbard.

“I’m Yuki? You don’t remember me?” This whole thing saddened me deeply, but I didn’t dare to cry, as the ones before lingered on my skin with soft, burning itchiness.

“Yuki?” His free hand raised onto his chin, showing to me that he was pondering on the situation.

“Yes! That’s my name! We’ve met recently. You even saved me!” His eyebrows furrowed, unable to cope with the situation. Thus, he gazed down at his scabbard, whose golden ornaments rang.

“Yeah... I don’t remember her either.”

At his reply, I became speechless, completely shocked. Now my body trembled, both from the coldness of the white plains and the despair it brought to me.

He took careful steps towards me, halting halfway at sword range. His eyes gazed over at me as he tried his best to get a hint of who I was. Of where he met me, and even of how I knew his name, but that turned out in vain, for me and for him.

The chimes rang once more, warning him again. Yet, because I took so much of his time, blood escaped through his lips. And the half kind, half suspicious look he had on his face became a despaired one as he was about to meet death.

“Keru!?” I attempted to move, scuffing the snow out of me, and that was when he fell on his knees on the ground, slowly drenching it in red.

“Ah...” My concerned self saw how his dimmed eyes became, how his head hit the ground, and how life had seeped away from my savior.

“What in the world happened!?” I shouted, looking everywhere, noticing an ax had pierced his back.

“Ah...” Despair escaped my mouth, pushed away by the scorn on my tongue who twirled in anguish as my hands held firm to my cheeks, as my eyes darkened in my palms, as my mind and heart trembled in distress.

“And so it begins.”

A voice from behind reached my eardrums, and with a pained look, I turned around to see who it was. At that I met it, having my mouth opening slowly in shock. It wasn’t like the wolf from the red hood tale, no. It was much worse, very much so. His eyes spoke of blood, glittering in crimson tones. The nose was long, potentially capable of smelling their prey and stalking them till the end of the world. But what made my heart tremble the most was what laid below his fangs. I knew then my tiny self would not survive. The shaking had become unbearable, and the saliva that permeated between his sharp teeth, drooling from the corners of his mouth, allowed my mind to imagine how he’d eat me limb by limb.

“Why?” That was the only word I could spit in this scenario, the only one from the darkness where my mind dwelled and sunk deeper at every second.

“For the prophecy!” He shouted while his hand moved mercilessly, the one that held the greatest ax my eyes had ever seen. For a moment, I saw the world take off. My mind felt like a bird then, flying, or perhaps floating like a balloon in the air for a few seconds till I fell onto the snow by his furry feet.

This time around, I opened my eyes, letting out the loudest shout I had ever accomplished. Around me there was only white, but not the one from the fluffy snow. It was a strange place and in it, unexpectedly, a scent of nostalgia pricked my nose drills, followed by tiny light pink petals that slowly fell out of nowhere, magically.

‘This is...’ I shed tears as my eyes attempted to widen. Before me, there was a tree, one that I knew very well, a large blackened wooden cherry tree with crimson vivid leaves.

“Why am I here?” My mouth spit words to it, believing that an answer wouldn’t come, for trees didn’t talk, but somewhere in my mind, I hoped with all my heart that this one would.

“Infinite paths your feet shall walk, and an equal amount of deaths will follow,” its voice resounded, reverberating in my eardrums. It was so loud my whole self rang and my body shook. It caused headaches, and it felt overwhelming.

“Why?” my trembling self questioned, fearing its almighty presence, and the following pain from talking to it.

“That is both the blessing and curse you must carry,” oddly, its tone embraced my mind calmly, delivering an abnormal amount of peace, ceasing my vision, and hindering my eyes from remaining open.

Unbidden, a memory came, a tale of the ancient tree.

“Oh god, may your graceful self protect my lineage.”

I noticed an old man in front of a tiny tree, the size of my very hand.

“May it be eternal,” the many men behind him added in unison.

From the midst of them, a young woman around my age stepped forth, kneeling in front of it.

“We offer you our priestess, as it is in the contract,” the old man took out an ornamented black dirk. And with it, he pierced his oldest daughter.

‘No!’ I shouted endlessly in my mind, but in vain as neither my body moved nor did my voice reach them.

And then the unthinkable followed.

Memory after memory, vision after vision, an endless suffering cycle before my eyes passed till it broke with my grandmother’s death whose older sister had died before.

It took a while for me to recover, and by all means, I didn’t manage it on my own. With a tingling sensation, the perfume from its branches retrieved my sanity back. It cleansed me.

“Your cursed family, their wretched sins,” its branches shook, causing the red flower to flow beautifully in circles around us.

In no time, I found myself prostrating to it, with my head on the floor and my belly on my lap.

“I’m sorry!” I yielded, “I’m sorry,” I repeated a few more times till words could no longer leave my inner side.

The overwhelming atmosphere from it changed, and with it, the white became black, leaving only the petals and its presence to be the only visible things in it. Like small flames lighting up the surrounding blackness.

“Child,” one of the branches moved, softly caressing the top of my head, “the ones before the last one wished for the lineage to never end, but your grandmother desired for your life to persist.”

My gaze raised to it, touched by his words.

“Thus, your soul shall never face death.”

The surroundings changed to a blue similar to the sea I knew. On top of its flow, the petals navigated softly despite the lack of a breeze, at least, not one that my body could feel.

“How do I break this... curse?” A hint of despair sailed out of my tongue as I didn’t want this for myself.

Eerie laughter resounded in this space, causing my ears to twitch in confusion.

“Child, you must atone for the thousands of years in your family stead.”

“Ah...” My eyes looked down, meeting my reflection, learning what my new self looked like. Despite being beautiful and even finding my new ears quite adorable, there was only a despaired expression to be met.

“I didn’t do anything to deserve this!” My voice scorned the tree, as a hint of determination remained in my pupils. My parents always told me to not accept things lightly and to always be right to myself and towards others.

“They made too many sacrifices to achieve a portion of the power you now possess. Even if you don’t want it, it is forever yours.”

‘What should I do? How do I get out of this? Is there truly no way to outdo it?’ Many thoughts roamed my mind as I sought a solution. But what could I, a powerless fox girl, do in this situation? Against what felt to be a deity at that?

“Tree god...”

Feeling a change within me, the scenery changed to a calm green, where greenery filled its every inch, yet only one tree remained, despite the multicolored plants that spawned one after another, giving life to this dimension.

“My grannie told me that deities bring forth contracts and that both sides must accept and uphold them.”

The tree branches moved, almost looking like this subject appeased it.

“Go on, child.”

I gulped all the doubts within me, forcing them to flow downwards all the way to my stomach.

“For signing a contract, and being forced to accept it, shouldn’t I get a reward?” I looked down momentarily, then returned my gaze with sadness in them, “even if it’s out of pity?”

For the first time, I felt a warm breeze pass through me, almost like the tree itself breathed. And then one of the branches’ tip, pierced the skin of my finger, causing a few drops of blood to fall from it.

“Ow!” I complained at the pain, and as I did, letters appeared on its trunk. My eyes roamed between my finger and it, understanding that he wanted me to imprint it there. Therefore, I got a hold of myself and did what had to be done.

“The contract is done,” it announced, and more than that, information ran over my mind as my eyes saw large screens identical to a paper page.

To my confusion, the twig came forth, extending a bloody cherry leaf to my lips. At that I took a bite, finding an abnormal amount of sweetness entering my mouth, intensifying further through chewing. And then it relaxed me to no boundaries, forcing my eyes to shut, and with it my consciousness too.