• The Story of Katakune Tamoku
    (Hardships)

    Chapter 4 - "Winter"


    I went into Tatsuka's room last night and found a bunch of things useful. I know I promised along with brother that we would never go into a personal place a dead person spent most of their life; that it would interrupt their spirit and be very unrespectful, but it's starting to get below zero and I needed to do this for a last resort. I found some clothing he wore in the winter that I used to share with him, twenty-five gold pieces, and a locket on a chain with a picture of Tatsuka and an unfamiliar girl on it. I flip through the bit of clothing and find something that's small enough for me to wear. They were all purple, raggedy, and torn dress clothes. The top was a tight purple tails jacket that is connected at the middle with a red and gold pendant exposing the top chest and lower stomach. The bottoms were old and worn out, also purple and loose on me. The only shoes that fit me were black sandles with no socks. The last artical I wore was a purple scarf that hung loosly on my neck and blew in the wind at the slightest whisp. Then I put on his locket.
    I took all the covers off of Tatsuka's bed and put them on mine for extra warmth which Okashii completely adored, and took his pillow for him as well.
    I started to think about what I was going to do to seal the little cracks in our house to make it a tad warmer. I couldn't think of anything so I just started breakfast. I picked up the last donut and poured a little bit of water that came from the ice into a broken glass. Thank the lord it's warm enough in our house to melt an ice chunk over night. I took our small meal into my room and stared at Okashii snuggled up in the giant blanket ontop of Tatsuka's warm pillow. I smiled at the poor sick creature and sat down next to him, struggling to get him to eat. The donut had been sitting in a damp pantry for three days and got pretty cold and hard, but it was better than nothing to me.
    Since now we're out of food I'd better get it over with and buy more at the bakery. I put on my blanket with my new clothes and struggled outside. It wasn't snowing anymore, but there was still chunky crunchy snow on the ground that I had to stomp through. It was so cold but I'm glad it's not windy or else that would be much worse. I walked for half a mile utill I saw the river, frozen from the bottom to the shore. "Poor Fish," I randomly thought to myself.
    After having a whole story in my head about frozen fish I finally made it to the bakery. I opened up the door and suddenly felt like it turned to spring. It was warm inside, even some people put their hats and coats on a stand next to the door. I put the covers on the stand and suddenly felt akward; my sheets cover the whole stand and might confuse the other customers leaving. So I took it off and kept on wearing it, it's better to be warm anyway. I took out three gold coins and gave it to the clerk, asking for some eclairs. He gladly accepted and gave me just that. I kept on talking to him like a friend I never had and he complemented on how the glasses look so good on me, and I thanked him, even though they are for girls. I got out of line once people started to get angsty and left the warm place for a cold snowy village.
    My feet started hurting walking home and I thought it was just part of the sickness but I was probably wrong. Walking home I saw something I've never really seen in daily life. In various places I saw that all the animals close had shedded to white fur for the winter.
    Winter rabbits playing in the snow, snowy foxes quarreling from tree to tree; albino rats scurrying to and fro' and white owls sitting wisely looking at all of the free
    .
    This sight made my day, I smiled and ran home to Okashii. About this time I finally realized that Okashii's fur turned white overnight with only the tip of his tail still orange-ish. I joyfully danced next to Okashii singing to him about all of money we now have and good food we have. He acted like Tatsuka; whining and turning over to sleep more. I just put the eclairs in the pantry, secretly licking some of the icing in the last second.
    For the next week I kept on repairing the house with what little things I could do. The bravery I had to help the house might have helped the Fremere's guard because it finally evolved. The jewel formed as armlets, a belt, and a chin guard, where I could wear it anywhere I felt comfortable. Of course, since the Fremere's guard gave off heat, I wore it in all places possible as it gave me the warmth and strength to work on the house. I put windows in the house finally, fixed the doors, and made some improvments in the kitchen, den, and my room. It finally looks like a civilized Japanese home but the only thing missing is heating and air conditioning. I'm old enough to do yard work and house work, but something that hard, I cannot do.
    It's finally the new year and also the middle of winter where life is hardest. Okashii has gotten better and has grown a little bit in size from when I first got him. We've ran out of money and instead of resorting to theft I decided to live the real life of the people of the wilderness. Today is my first day after being broke and I'm leaving Okashii at home while I go out and hunt for fruit vegetables and meat. I laugh at my self in pity, a nine year old hunting. This is probably not going to happen, but I can rely on the power of my offensive gem, the Anima Adamantea, to help me through this is I need any help. I put on my ninja jacket and kunai and shuriken holders and set off to hunt for food for the rest of the winter along with the warmth of Tatsuka's blanket. I don't make any hurry to go out in the middle of the frozen woods. I plod along, trying to find anything still alive and edible. Scince it's winter and most animals have migrated, hibernated, camouflaged, or died, and most food like nuts and berries along with many vegetables have also died, it will be really hard to find anything to eat.
    It started getting windy so I pulled the blanket over my head, looking even harder for food until I got to the point where I had to crawl to look so far down. After hours of searching I find a weakening shrub preserved under a dead tree with a lucky amount of strawberries to feed off of. I pick as many as there are on there and put them into a scroll pouch on my vest. I kept crawling on my bare hands and knees for hours finding a whole much of half eaten nuts and berry bushles to fill up my pockets. My knees hurt and I get on my feet and suddenly feel warmer. The snow also seems to get less and less dense as I keep walking and walking. I finally get to the point where I can't walk anymore because the only thing in front of me was a big hot spring. My eyes opened in awe to see this miraculous sight, a hot spring in the middle of a forest in winter. What better could it get? The best part is that it's the only body of water near me that's not frozen, and it's heated too. Without hesitation I strip and jump into the steaming baths. It was so very soothing that I couldn't help myself, I closed my eyes in the warmth of the spring and took a quick nap. A long quick nap. When I got up the air around me was bitter cold and my head was shivering. I think I got another cold, but my body was warm... and pruny. I dried off and put my clothes on. I nostalgically looked at the waters and sighed. I wish I could take them home with me, but that would be impossible.
    At that very moment the Anima Adamantea started to glow and the water rose in a bullet shape. I wasn't scared and I knew what was happening, I kind of laughed too because of this great event. I held out my wrist and a good bunch of the spring magically entered the jewel. It gleamed bright for a moment then dimmed. "I now have a hot spring on my wrist that I can put in my house now, lucky me," I thought to myself. "Wait until Okashii sees this, he'll be outstanded!"
    I ran home, following my crawling tracks, and shut the door behind me. I think I'm getting good at hunting, I've gotten alot of stuff and I didn't even encounter any animals! It sounded a little too good to be true. I went into the kitchen and put the food up. Then turned around to greet a hyper little fox that quickly pounced on me quicker than you could say "eclair". It seems like Okashii's well again, but I'm not. Keeping Okashii at home to rest has been a good thing. I gave him a nut to chew on and soon after we went to bed for the night.
    The whole winter season has been a real tough challenge for me especially during the middle. I dug a hole in the ground in the back-field near the training field and filled it with the hot spring. Okashii and I bathed there to get warm and clean; it magically stayed very warm the whole season. The food lasted enough each time I hunted but I never seemed to get over this cold. It always came back to get me more sick. Winter has been slowly but surely going away day by day. I could tell by it getting warmer, and hunting got easier as the nuts and berries grew faster. After the third month of winter it stopped snowing and only rained on very cloudy days. The only thing I like about winter is the snow because if you melt it, it makes natural water which is essential for life. The bad thing is that winter hid away the food. Spring is just around the corner which also includes my birthday. New challenges are going to come along each day and I have to grow and get stronger until I can grow out of these gem-stone protecters and I can finally cut the umbilical cord and really live on my own. Some day I'll be able to live out here in the wilderness knowing everything there is to know about living in all four seasons right and forgetting about the bad times and living up the good times. I know there really isn't a good time every day of your life and play can bearly be insisted, but work is most important and I shall learn to live that way and stop risking myself with sicknesses. It can also get boring alone out here so entertaining yourself and having fun can also be a great part of this challenge Tatsuka put me through so I don't go completely crazy and kill myself.
    The days have finally gotten warmer and I no longer have to wear the blanket when I go out. My cold has calmed down and Okashii is at full energy once again. He's also grown back into his bright apricot fur and ready to hunt with me for any help. After spring will be summer, the season of droughts and animals. Mothers will be looking out for their new born babies and food will be scarce as I run the race of chance including other beasts of the wild now. Winter seemed easy without the bitter cold and sicknesses but can summer be any easier? I'll just have to see later, this time with Okashii by my side and an age older. I want to test my abilities against all four seasons and with three knocked out I have one more big one coming up that'll change my life forever. Every day as the days get longer and hotter, I shall think about how Tatsuka planned this out for me to get ready by living on my own in the forest. I thank him for being a great influence on me and can't wait to see him again someday. To you, Tatsuka, I salute.