Alpine Lake Creator without a conscience

@Tohka 

Maia's need for adventure and novelty had taken her far away from home and yet even in the relatively small corner of hinterlands there were places that neither of them had seen yet and that could surprise them. On a spare moment and out of an old habit Wraen had climbed up the narrow path that led to the top of a mountain and found herself standing by a huge lake with crystalline water. The sky and the sun above reflected in it's surface and she entertained herself by looking first down then up, comparing the two images. Both looked very real to her. With the initial curiousity quenched, she began to walk along the banks to see, if besides beauty there were some useful qualities about the area as well.

Tohka had taken her time traveleing across prairies and forests to find another cluster of mountains. The one that caught her attention this time may not have been the tallest or even the most majestic, but the loud, roaring waterfalls called out to her. Naturally, she ended up climbing the mountain, but this time, she didn’t try to climb the dangerous rocks around the waterfall, but actually took the time to find a safe, easy path to the top.

Her efforts were rewarded with the sight of the lake. She had seen lakes before, but rarely one so pristine, with crystal clear water that she could see deep into. What impressed her most was how still the water was. She traveled along the bank for some time until she saw another wolf and immediately noticed that the other was peering into the water, then at the sky, then back into the water. She wondered what the other was seeing and followed suit hoping to see whatever it was for herself. She peered into the water, intently studying it for a moment before peering into the sky and studying it. She appreciated its beauty, but her undisciplined eyes failed to discern how perfectly the water below reflected the sky above. She continued looking between the water and sky, only faintly aware of the other wolf approaching. So far, the other didn’t seem threatening, so Tohka saw no reason to run. Besides, she was curious about what the other was looking at in the water and sky.

It was a little later that Wraen realized she had an actress in the vicinity, who mimicked her movements. She watched the other, feeling amused and then too getting an impression that - perhaps - the other one had seen something and was not pretending at all. After a quick inspection nothing seemed to be amiss - all good and well there. 

So, Wraen approached the dark clad stranger in an easy-going and friendly manner. If they had both made this far up to the lake, maybe they could trek together for a while. Company would keep the sad thoughts at bay. "Hey!" she greeted Tohka. "Seeing anything good?" she asked.

Tohka had already known of the stranger’s presence and shouldn’t have been surprised by her approach, but she was so focused on the water and sky that she didn’t notice until the other spoke. She jerked backwards slightly and turned to face her. It only took a second to recover, and she hoped the stranger hadn’t noticed but suspected she probably had. She smiled and cheerfully returned the greeting. “Well, hi there. My name's Tohka.” she answered. “I'm looking at the lake. it's so beautiful. The water’s clear, and it just looks so peaceful and serene. But,” she hesitated for a few seconds before finishing, “but I kinda got the impression that you saw something more, and I’m not sure if I’m seeing it.”

She remembered a trick that her uncle used to pull on her and her litter-mates when they were pups and thought the stranger might be amused by it, or at least that’s what she hoped. “My uncle used to play a joke on me and my sister and brothers. He would suddenly stop talking and stare up into the trees like he was looking for something, then we would look to try to see what he was seeing, and when we did, he would laugh and say, ‘Ha ha, made you look.’ Then Dad usually yelled at him, but Dad didn’t have much of a sense of humor.” Of course, she had no reason to think the other was pulling such a prank, especially since she had probably thought she was alone.

Tohka was talkative enough for both of them, Wraen sat down and set in an easy, attentive silence, listening to the dark wolf explain, what she had been doing. Even recounting an anecdote from her childhood, which made her smile. She did not remember exactly, but it might have been that she and her siblings had played the very same game. After all - hey, look at that! - was the oldest trick in the book. Simple, but worked every time.

She cast a quick side-glance at the water, then turned back to Tohka and elucidated the reason behind her own curiousity. "When you look at the surface of the water," she said, got up to her feet and beckoned the dark pelted girl to come to the edge, "you see the world reflected in it to the minute detail. I was toying with an idea, what if there was just the same world down there as there is one up." 

Tohka looked again at the water when Wraen explained to her what she had been looking at. While the reflections in the water were not new to her, it was something she had become so used to seeing that she now took it for-granted. Her eyes widened as she looked again at both the water and sky, this time truly seeing the reflection and noticing how perfect it was, and just as Wraen said, she could see every detail reflected in the still water. “I see it now!” she blurted out, her tail suddenly wagging furiously as she peered into the water, this time looking at reflections of the clouds. “It’s… It’s so perfect!”

She was also fascinated by the other’s idea of another world beneath the water just like the one above. She also couldn’t help wondering if the other world would be exactly the same, or if there would be slight differences in the details, such as different packs holding more power than the ones in her world, or individual wolves having different personalities. Her eyes fixed on her own reflection, and she said, “I just hope the me from that world isn’t a killjoy like my dad or dull and boring like my sister and brothers.”

"So bad, huh?" Wraen remarked, hearing Tohka's vague description of her family members, but, since she was not particularly interested in hearing out the whole history of this stranger just now, she returned back to observing her reflection in the water for a bit.

"There are many stories about this, you know?" she looked up at her companion. "One of them tells of a young wolf, who was wooed by the princess of the Lake herself. He fell in love with her and agreed to go to her Underwater kingdom. They lived happily for a long time, had children and there was not a single worry in his life. Except one day, when he was out walking in the hunting grounds he chanced to see the reflection of the Earth world he had left behind." Almost like this one. 

"And he was overcome by such longing and homesickness that he persuaded his wife to let him go. Reluctantly she let him go, giving him a sealed clam as a parting gift. And told him not to open it at any cost," when this part of a fairy-tale comes in the play, you already know that there won't be a happy ending. "Back on Earth the man sought out to see his family again, except, where he had left them, very different pack resided, who knew nothing of him or his family members. He ventured to the meadows, where he had hunted, only to find an old forest there," she told and paused to fight a big yawn that had come seemingly out of nowhere.

"Things had changed beyond recognition and slowly it dawned upon this man that time here had passed way quickly than the time at his Underwater kingdom. In fact - 1000 years had gone by in his absence. Distraught, angry and unhappy, he split open the little gift his wife had given him and all the years took hold of him and he turned into dust," she finished the story and with an amused smile she added the final touch. "The moral of the story is - in case an Aqua-man or anything from a different world offers you a marriage proposal, have a full disclosure at, what it entails."

Disclaimer: the story is a retelling of a Japanese folk tale - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D.

I apologize that this is going much slower than I intended. My job is killing me, but the busy season should be winding down soon, hopefully.

It was music to Tohka’s ears when she heard Wraen say, ‘There are many stories about this,’ and she didn’t even have to ask to hear it. She turned from the lake to focus on the other and sat down, her ears perked forward and her wagging tail brushing the grass behind her. She listened carefully to the story, pleased that it was one she had not already heard.

While Wraen didn’t describe the wolf’s appearance, Tohka pictured him as pure silver and larger than life – a wolf fit to be a prince. She imagined the world of the princess that could perhaps lay beneath the surface of this very lake. Her expression saddened at the point when the wolf wanted to leave the princess to return to his old world, and even more when she described a world that had changed with time. But, she kept her eyes glued to the storyteller.

“That’s really sad,” she said softly after Wraen finished. By this time, her ears were flat against her head and her eyes were moist. Still, she managed a comment, “I have to admit, if a handsome prince came out of this lake, I think I would probably find him hard to resist, but that whole thing about time passing is pretty important, huh?” She paused for a moment to reflect before asking a question of the storyteller. “So did the princess know what was in the clam that she gave him? And if so, why didn’t she tell him? Maybe he wouldn’t have left the underwater kingdom if he had known 100 years had already passed in his world.”

Since Wraen had just told her a story, she felt she ought to return the favor, and besides she liked telling stories as well. “I got one too,” she said, “but in this one, the other world is no paradise, it’s quite dangerous in fact, and it doesn’t get all wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey either. And I’ve heard the story told two different ways. Would you rather hear the good ending or the bad ending?”

Wraen was very glad to have found such an eager audience. Kids nowadays weren't into her long stories, their attention span being as brief as that of a bird's. Which was a shame, because she had so much to give them. Maybe as their aged their interests would shift and not all was lost there. It would be nice to have someone, who continued her legacy.

"Oh, yes, she did. That's, why she did not wish to let him go," she explained. Another reason, why a marriage settlement was so important. You had to know everything before tying the knot. "There is that old saying about "you have to let go those, who you love"," Wraen mused. "I believe that the man would have been very upset with her for telling the secret only then," she said.

"Do tell both," Wraen encouraged Tohka and settled down to listen carefully.

Tohka was pleasantly surprised, albeit a little overwhelmed, when Wraen asked her to tell both versions of the story. “Alright,” she said, “I guess I’ll start with the bad ending. The good ending is much longer, and I’d rather end on a happy note.”

She gazed out over the water, then the sky, then returned her attention to Wraen and began telling her story. “It all began with a severe illness that struck a litter of pups, and only one of them survived. Although the boy did recover his illness, it left him weak and sickly, so he wasn’t able to do much on his own. As the only surviving pup, his parents doted on him constantly. They fed him, protected him, and talked or sang to him whenever he wanted, so he basically always got whatever he wanted and didn’t have any responsibilities to speak of. He never learned to take care of himself, and even believed he couldn’t take care of himself.”

“As he grew older, he wandered further and further from the den, and one day he happened upon a pond, similar to this lake here, but much smaller. He knew from the stories he had been told that the pond was actually a shrine to Taijo, the dragon of the forest, and that the water within was sacred. But he didn’t care. He was used to doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and he wanted to play in the pond, so that’s what he did.”

“Soon the enraged dragon appeared.” Tohka deepened her voice and spoke loudly, trying to imitate what she thought the dragon would sound like. “ ‘How dare you defile the sacred waters!? Get out of that pond right now!’ his angry voice boomed. The boy trembled as he returned to the shore and faced the dragon. ‘As punishment for your insolence, I will put a curse upon your mother and father. They will itch as if covered with fleas, but there will be none, and the healers will not be able to remedy the affliction.’ ”

For the boy’s voice, she lowered her pitch just enough to give the impression of a masculine voice and continued. “ ‘Why would you curse my parents?’ the boy asked, ‘They didn’t do anything wrong. Shouldn’t you curse me instead?’ ”

“The dragon’s booming voice answered, ‘Why should I put a curse on you when you’ve already cursed yourself? You do not hunt, gather, or fight. You contribute nothing to your pack, and even believe that you can’t. You would learn nothing if I simply cursed you. That is why I will curse your parents instead.’ ”

“The boy returned home to find his parents already under the dragon’s curse. They could no longer hunt, gather, or even play. Instead they just kept scratching themselves, trying to vain to relieve the itching. The pack’s healers tried to cure them, but nothing worked. The pack refused to share any food with him, knowing that it was he who brought the curse on his parents, and he still believed he couldn’t hunt on his own. He just watched helplessly as his parents’ condition deteriorated until they passed away, and he starved to death soon after.”

Tohka paused to allow the the story to sink in, then said in an uncertain tone, “So I guess the moral of the story is that if parents don’t teach their pups to be responsible, then the pups may get themselves and their parents in trouble later.”

After another brief pause, she continued, this time telling the ‘good’ version of the story, or the one that she liked better anyway. “The pond plays a bigger role in the version of the story with the good ending. Instead of helplessly watching his parents die, the boy went back to the pond and called for the dragon. When the dragon finally appeared, he lowered his head and said, ‘I’m sorry for what I did. I knew I wasn’t allowed in the pond and decided to play in it anyway. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you? Is there any way for you to lift the curse on my parents?’ ”

“It was the first time the boy had ever tried to be responsible, and the dragon recognized that. ‘There is indeed something you can do. The pond is not just a mere puddle. It is a gateway to another world, and a kitsune from that world stole one my scales. Dive deep into the water and return to the surface to enter the other world. Find the kitsune and recover my stolen scale and bring it back to me, then I will lift the curse.’ ”

“The task seemed impossible, but the boy knew he had to try. He took a deep a breath and dove into the water. To his surprise, he found that he could swim quite easily. He dove down deep, passed through the gateway, and swam to the surface to emerge in the other world. He found himself in a forest similar to the one he had left, but he had no idea how to find the kitsune. He finally put his nose to the ground and sniffed for anything that smelled like a fox.”

“He eventually found the scent trail of a fox and followed it until he found the animal that left it, which was a large fox with nine tails, and he held the missing dragon scale in his mouth. Upon seeing the boy, the kitsune fled, and the boy chased him. When the boy finally caught up, the kitsune simply said, ‘Play with me. If you play with me, I’ll let you have the dragon scale.’ ” She used a slightly higher pitch than for the fox’s voice to give the impression of a smaller animal. The boy agreed, and the two chased each other, tackled each other, and wrestled until the boy had no more energy and lay down in the grass. The kitsune said, ‘That was fun. We should play again sometime.’ With that, he ran off, leaving the boy and the dragon scale behind.”

“The tired boy picked up the dragon scale and returned to the pond. He dove down into the pond, passed through the gate returning to his own world, and swam to the surface. He found the dragon and presented the scale to him. ‘Well done,’ the dragon said, ‘As promised, I will lift the curse I placed on your parents. You may keep the scale if you wish. I have no more need of it than you need the fur you shed. The point of the quest was for you to see what you could do if you actually tried. You tracked the kitsune, chased him, and in your play you tackled and wrestled with him. Those are things required of a hunter. There’s something for you to think about.’ The boy returned home to find his parents well and no longer under the curse, and he took what the dragon said to heart and joined the pack on their next hunt.”

After a brief pause, she concluded by saying, “The point of this story is that you shouldn’t be held back by things you think you can’t do, or even by things that others think you can’t do.”

"This was truly amazing," Wraen said after Tohka had finished. It was not every day she got to be in the audience for a story that she had never heard of before. She loved every bit of it, though the happy ending part won her preference. The inclusion of nine-tailed fox character gave the story more magic than the weather-worn role the dragon played. She closed her eyes and her lips moved silently, as she memorized the details, added some mental illustrations to the story and then stored it among others in the library of her mind. 

"You are very talented," she praised the other girl. "Are there more stories like this from, where you come from?" she did not wish to let the opportunity go, in case there were more gems in Tohka's treasure chest.

Tohka raised her head and perked her ears, and her eyes went wide when Wraen spoke. She had not expected such compliments; they were almost foreign to her. As the kind and appreciative words sank in, she began to gently wag her tail, pleased that she had been able to make someone happy, even if it was only for a moment. More than that, the other’s response validated her belief that her stories were not entirely useless. “I’m glad you liked it,” she said softly after she regained her composure. “Most of my stories I heard from my uncle, including the one I just told you. I like to try to come up with stories of my own too, but I’m not sure they’re that good.” She lowered her head and flattened her ears with her final statement. Then she changed the subject.

She turned her gaze to the lake once again and said, “I wonder what it was like for the fox to have nine tails. Like if he could wag them all at once without getting them tangled up, or how heavy they would get when he got wet.” With a sheepish laugh she added, “I think just one tail gets heavy enough when it’s wet.”

She stretched out and yawned, then said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry.” She had walked all the up the mountain slope after all. “I’m going to see if I can find some food. Maybe you could join me, and maybe tell more stories after?”

"I think that is, where the term "imaginary" becomes handy. It is very likely that those nine tails are lightweight and the creature itself - because it is itself - manages them no problem," Wraen told and smiled. Invitation for a lunch was accepted readily, she got to her feet, did some wolfy-yoga, stretching her feet and back and was prepared to either lead the way or follow the stranger.

"I can suggest going to the plains and forests below. That's a terrain I am familiar most," she suggested. "Mountains - not so much. And I fear getting lost here too." 

So, having a friendly conversation and swapping more stories along the way, the two wolves went to the nearest restaurant on the block and had a fantastic meal.