“It's definitely fraying,” said one.
“Yes,” the one to her left agreed. “Just like the rest. Soon, it will be nothing but fluff and dust, just like the others.”
“So fragile,” said the third. “Allowing their own existence to depend on what others believe about them.”
“We mustn't let it happen to this one,” the first insisted. “It is to be woven in here,” she gestured to part of an enormous tapestry.
“Oh yes,” the third one breathed. “There...but he must be strong or the pattern will be ruined regardless.”
“Let us bind him to the this one here,” the second one gestured.
They nodded, and to make certain it did not untwine, they tied the the two ends off and plaited it with a third red strand.
They smiled. The red thread of fate now bound the two souls together, for good or for ill. They watched, perhaps not as dispassionately as they should have have, as the tapestry began to weave a new scene. A young fox, alone at temple. Its nine tails mere plumes, he skipped about the landscape looking for his elders, now all gone. No priests were there to tell where, nor to give offerings to sustain him. A tree, wearing a tasseled rope as if belted, stood proudly on the grounds.
The young fox spied the tassel swaying in the wind, beckoning him to come and play. Closer, closer. Closer he crept to the hinoki tree known as Shukumei. Shukumei looked different today. Hey, was that a hole? The cub peered inside. It was dark inside, but a light danced, though it seemed strangely far away. He went to back out, but found that inexplicably, there was now only tree behind him. Panicked, he realized he could only go forward. As he crept towards the light, his paws began to feel strange. His legs began to shoot out in a twisting pain he'd never felt before. He couldn't see what was wrong with himself, but the light was suddenly brighter and he felt the movement of warm air across his face. His face, which now seemed to feel strangely flat.
Into the light he went, and found himself in a forest filled with giant trees, the like of which he'd never seen before. The pain had stopped, but a fear gripped him when he looked down and saw his strange, furless paws. He whirled around, but the tree behind him was one of the giant strangers, no Shukumei in sight. Like the very little boy he now appeared to be, the cub sat down, leaned against the tree, and began to cry.
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