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But why not hear all this straight from the horse’s mouth instead, so to speak? Light summer evening breeze hit you in the face. You heard the chiming of windbells somewhere far away, that snapped you back to your senses. You were looking at a small wooden cabin at the far edge of a gigantic courtyard. You were standing at the front door of the cabin. The bark was still on the planks the cabin was built from making it look very simple and mundane. Was it meant to last like this?
Apparently you had passed across the courtyard to get here, though you had no recollection of doing so. The middle of the courtyard was dominated by an equally gigantic building that could pass for a castle of sorts, also built of wood. Blue, red and yellow banners fluttered in the wind on its high walls. As you looked around, you noticed there were no walls surrounding the courtyard and there were no people to be seen. Except for the sound of the windbells everything was eerily quiet. You could see a dense, dark green forest outside the courtyard perimeter acting as a wall. It gave off a foreboding sensation but it wasn't the forest that captured your interest. Something was insisting you to open the cabin door, pulling your curiosity towards whatever it was that was inside. You knocked on the door and let yourself in.
As you entered, you were greeted by a pair of curious brown eyes watching you from under the brows. The occupant in the room beyond, a fox kit of short stature that had paused in the middle of his scribing when you entered was sitting on a pile of books surrounded by several similar piles scattered around the floor. Shelves of books and scrolls lined the walls. Large windows of coloured glass let the evening sunlight in, creating some very curious illusions and dancing patterns inside the room.
The kit, a male, appeared very young and not likely having even reached his puberty yet. Still he had an aura of seriousness about him that made you wonder and doubt your initial impression of him. His fur was dominantly red that was tilting to orange hues. The tip of his tail was white, as was the bottom half of his face. His ears were dark brown and they stood out from the half length blonde fur of his head. The kit’s choice of clothing consisted of neat, straight khaki pants, a red Hawaiian style shirt adorned with a white flower motif, and for accessories he seemed to wear a single silver earring shaped like a five-pointed star on his ear.
"I knew to wait for you so feel free to hang around for a bit. It's because you're curious about me, that's why you came, isn't it? Don't let my appearance deceive you. Go ahead and ask what's on your mind. Some questions I can answer, others I cannot. Only a few I will not."
His voice was clear and audible. The owner of the eyes lifted his face from the notebook he had been writing on, put things from his paws aside and gave you his attention. He gestured a free spot on the floor closer to him for you to stand.
"Who am I? You can call me Chi. That means 'mountain spirit', among other things in case you didn't know. It's also a most fitting name for one such as myself to have."
"This," the kit said and gestured at himself with both his paws, "is just a body that you see in front of you. Only a body, remember that. It's a vessel for an immortal spirit to dwell in. It's an illusion for your eyes created by this reality, although I must say this is one I like very much.”
"The body had a beginning and it shall have an end, then everything begins anew again. It can't be avoided, nobody can. But unlike you, I remember most of what you forget during the transitions, in the spaces between the spokes of the wheel that is called samsara. I have utterly gone to the other shore, yet parts of me are left behind. I’m in pieces, scattered around. It's a considerable strain."
The kit studied your confused expression for a moment. “Like the Heart Sutra says, no? Except that as a star you can see all the shores, not just the one you’re headed to. I always preferred watching the stars from the ground to watching these shorelines from above anyway.” Chi apparently believed his explanation would be sufficient. As he didn’t see the look of understanding on your face that he was expecting, he shifted his position on the pile of books, waved his paw as if dismissing this part of the topic and continued.
"As for other implications a name can have besides providing a description about one's character, a name infers to one's place of origin. ‘Nomen est omen’ as it was said. Home you say? Yes… I suppose one would use that word. You know, nobody ever bothered to ask us about that, my sister and I. As for myself, I’ve almost stopped using the word entirely."
The boy licked his lips and kept on after a moment of recollection.
"Our home was first called Cai. Then it became Chu and was no more. We weren't there at the time though, for we had already started our journey away from there before the end.
We followed Huai, pressed towards the sunrise and found ourselves at the coast. We crossed the sea, but found only a brief rest in the peninsula beyond until it was time to move on again.
From there we came to the isles of Wa where we stayed for a while. We learned of Cai's fall and believed we had found the peace in the new land, just like the name promised. Alas, nothing lasts forever and we had to take flight again.
We faced setbacks, but eventually found ourselves in the Eternal City, which too fell in the end. From its ruins we wandered towards the cold like nomads, through famine and disease. After many a detour we arrived somewhere south from the isle of Ultima Thule and stayed there a while until we finally stayed in the realms across the sea. Unfortunately, I can't remember all the little details that happened while we were getting there."
For some reason or another you felt like 2,500 years of history was dropped down on you without as much as a shrug, despite that the place names were unknown to you and the kit's story was vague at best. He seemed able to switch from one topic to another without difficulty but also without much clarity. You shifted the conversation towards varying paths and topics but always seemed to come up at a dead end for some reason or another. It was only when you mentioned his sister that his keen eyes lit up betraying some emotion.
"My sister? Her name's Ai and I love her very much, in every way that I can. She's the only company that I have and the closest I can call a friend. We're different, but we get along really well. I can't see us together on the spoke to follow, because something's obstructing the view, but on all the preceding ones we're tightly together. I need to shine brighter.”
You continued chatting some more about her, but how the conversation got to the point it was going you had no idea. You had an inkling about the circumstances between the two for some reason or another, but when the obvious was actually brought up, before you could fully realize yourself what had just been implied and that you had made a grave faux pas, Chi went suddenly quite quiet. Black, oily filaments started creeping in his eyes towards his pupils but retracted and disappeared quickly.
“Hm? Yes, we’re lovers. And it does include everything that lovers do. I wonder what gave that away. You haven’t been talking with her already, have you? It’s not exactly that I don’t have eyes for anybody else… it’s a kind of dogma that we follow but I prefer living it with her. There’s love and it’s for all to share in a variety of ways. Ai can tell you more about that.
Oh, you can go meet my sister if you want to and if you haven't already done so. She's right over there, in a room somewhere nearby. I can't leave here yet, there's soup to be prepared and served soon, among other things. I need to get the water yet so the cook won’t get mad. A little word of warning though. Mind your manners with Ai and don't get on her bad side. She's kind and helpful on the outside, but she can hold a mean grudge if she really wants to. Then there's nothing left that can be fixed with words, it'll be your life blood instead. Not even magic will help you, because ...it permeates her whole essence. You shouldn’t bother with the whole magic business anyway. Magic is dangerous; workings of fire burn you like fire so you’re better off without. Go now, and return in time for the feast."
The little kit returned his attention to the notes he was scribing and waved you lazily off while mumbling the last of his advise, leaving you with more questions than answers.
(Rating set to M due to content matter, just in case).