The Past can Come Back to Haunt You

Sat Oct 01, 2022 12:46 pm

When you normally own a pet, feeding and taking care of them is not too difficult. You just need to remember when they should be fed, when to take them out for exercise, give them love, and make sure you have an understanding of who is the dominant. When you live as an Inuzuka though, those rules get a hundred times more complicated. Fushon had learned that from a young age and had struggled to put in the time and effort to give the animals the time and care they deserved.

She loved how strong the tiger cubs were and how fast the messenger birds could be, but spending hours each day simply feeding the sometimes hundreds of animals was exhausting. Her family would help from time to time and that would help to lessen the load. Many of the animals were very nice and sweet, so she did not mind caring for them. It was the ones who really got under her skin and just loved to annoy her that made her want to just throw the feed bag at them and stomp off.

Today, there were fewer animals to deal with at least, so Fushon was happy to knock out her responsibilities. Oddly, though, the tasks seemed to be taking a bit longer than usual. When she was trying to refill the bird feeders, the bag she had with her suddenly tore open on one side and leaked out. She had to clean up all the seed which had gotten loose before moving on to clean off horses they were keeping in the stable beside the house. Her brush went missing part way through her work and she figured one of the horses had hidden it on her. She found it later as she was leaving the stable and had to take twice as long getting the horses calmed down again.

On top of all that, the animals seemed a bit on edge that day. Fushon did not smell anything or sense anything as being off, but each of the family pets and companions seemed to be more cautious today than usual. She tried to calm each, but there was still a tense air resting over their home. As if something was not right. Fushon asked her mother for any thoughts on this and she simply told Fushon, “with fewer animals around, sometimes they become a bit tense when they may expect new arrivals. The companions being on edge seems strange, though. With all the creatures we bring through here, they shouldn’t be bothered…”

Her mother tapped her lips in thought before turning to Fushon and asking, “and how are you getting along with finding your own companion dear?” Fushon simply turned around and stalked out the side door of the house as she yelled back, “I will get to it when I find one I like!”

{WC = 479}

Sun Oct 02, 2022 11:47 am

“Mom! Have you seen my shoes? I left them at the front door and they are gone!” Fuse had woken up in a bad mood that morning. It started when she literally fell out of bed with her hair in a complete mess. She usually brushed her hair before bed, so finding it messed up in the morning was extremely unusual for her. Maybe she had just been too tired last night to put in the work to straighten it, but her bed was far too large to simply fall out of.

The water in her shower was also freezing cold and did not warm up, no matter how long she waited. She ended up half frozen by the time she got out and simply decided to warm up in the morning sun streaming through her windows. From there, odd air pockets of pressure seemed to keep throwing off her sense of balance and she almost tumbled down the stairs in her hurry to get breakfast. By now, she was already late for her usual morning exploration of the village and with her shoes missing, she was not in a good mood.

“MOM!” she yelled back as she overturned the shoe rack and began to scavenge through the cabinets near the front of the house. A tapping sound made her sit up and see her mother staring at her with a frustrated look. “Just because you lost your shoes does not mean you need to scream and wake up every person and animal within five miles of this house.” Fuse returned the look with an irritated one of her own as she responded, “I did not lose my own shoes. Someone must have moved them!”

A silent creaking noise alerted both of them to Fuse’s father quietly slipping past into the kitchen, knowing better than to step into the middle of the two. A quick glance showed the two reflections of strained composure that the younger woman had inherited from her mother. “No one has a reason to move your shoes honey. At least not since you were in charge of feeding old Scar,” her mother said. Memories of the eagle who acted as a high-speed messenger bird came back to Fuse. On the days when she ‘forgot’ to feed him, the bird would hide her shoes until she had given him his breakfast.

Fuse thought on this for a moment, keeping eye contact with her mother, as she stepped towards the front door and slid it open. She looked up into the tree in front of their house and saw the branches clear of any debris. That was usually where Scar would hide them, more so to irritate her until she filled his feeder. Looking down from the tree, she spotted her shoes resting a few feet away from the base of the tree. She glanced around for who might have moved them, but shrugged and quickly retrieved them.

Maybe one of the other birds had picked up the habit from Scar before he had passed and couldn’t get them up into the tree. Fuse would need to have a firm talking with those birds when she was back on feeding duty.

{WC = 533}

Mon Oct 03, 2022 9:56 am

She knew she was not crazy. Fushon was just having a tougher day than usual, that’s all. The day had started off better than the one before, at least with her shoes still being where she expected them. She had just finished feeding the portion of animals she was responsible for and headed out to begin her exploration for the day. Yet… things just kept going wrong for her. The first had happened when she tried to jump on top of the gate next to her house which led back to the animals. The gate was always secured by locking it whenever someone was not going through it.

When she tried to jump onto it, the door swung with her suddenly and deposited her in the mud on the other side of the gate. She had sat up and looked back, watching the weighted door slide shut and lock itself instantly. No one had come in or out of the door at that time, so the door should not have opened on her. Fushon stood up and wiped off what mud she could, using the hose nearby to clean off the remainder. As she was spraying her shirt down, the water suddenly paused for a few seconds, then blasted out full spray at her. She was drenched from head to toe, as if someone had plugged the water and let it all out at once.

Her mother had chuckled from a nearby window and said, “sunshine, I know you love to run around like an animal, but please don't get yourself sick from the cold!” Fuse simply gritted her teeth and stomped off. She had tried to run along the rooftops, only to find the shingles she knew so well to suddenly become loose or crack at her footsteps. Running down the open streets led to sudden lips of dirt and roots shifting just so much that her feet would almost slip before she caught herself.

She tried to go slower through the village, making her way and keeping a close eye on things. Even with these precautions, she found herself surprised several times over. Events continued happening around her, such as a puff of feathers appearing out of nowhere in her face or stepping in the unfortunate remains of a dog walking by recently. By the end of her trip around the village, Fuse could not decide if she was frustrated or just fed up with all that she had experienced.

She even tried to take a nap in the large tree by the village gate that she found solace in. Only, she ended up with squirrels suddenly attacking her with nuts and the branches themselves seeming to block her escape. She made it back home covered in scratches and small bruises from all that had happened to her. When she tried to tell her parents what had happened, they simply treated it as another adventure she had gone on. Fuse could feel her frustration rising, but she had no idea what was causing all these issues…

{WC = 508}

Tue Oct 04, 2022 11:36 am

Fuse chose today to go exploring outside of the village in the hopes to avoid the strange events that kept occurring around her. The day had been peaceful enough so far, but she was still on guard as she wandered in the forests near the village walls. She had learned from the guards at the gate that she was not the only one having trouble lately with no explanation as to why. Some people claimed that they heard voices late at night whispering to them. Others thought they saw strange shapes in the dark that suddenly came running at them.

If someone was playing pranks, Fuse was going to deck them one and let them deal with what she thought of their jokes. She let off a frustrated grunt and jumped from one tree to another as she traveled through the forest. The sun and the cool wind helped to clear her mind and take her thoughts off of the irritations of the past few days. She knew that she ended up causing trouble for others whenever she had to help others, whether she volunteered or not.

Her mother had tried to teach her about karma and the idea of ‘what goes around comes around’ when she was young. Fuse just wanted to enjoy life for what it was and to find her own path in doing things. Her parents thought a companion might help her to calm down and become more responsible, but that was the last thing Fuse wanted. Each animal they tried to pair her with either could not keep up with her or just did not want to go along with the things she wanted to do.

Birds and cats were plenty fast, but birds were not strong enough to shove boulders and cats hated to jump off of tall things. Trees especially. They had tried to match her with a bear once, only to find that it had to go through buildings to keep up with her running along the tops of them. Whether it was otters, kangaroos, or even one unlucky badger, none seemed to fit Fuse's style. She knew her parents would keep putting animals up to match with her, but she knew in the end that it had to be her choice.

She stopped at the edge of the forest and looked out onto a clearing with a small pond in the middle of it. Ducks and geese softly floated on the still waters with little frogs sitting on lily pads. With so many creatures in the world, one of them must be what Fuse was looking for. Right? Fushon let out a sigh, feeling a soft chill flow over her as she patted her shoulders for warmth. The air had shifted just after she arrived and she could feel a little light-headed. Maybe she had moved too fast through the branches.

She glanced down and saw two of the geese circling in the water in an odd pattern. It almost looked as if they were not sure which direction to go. As she watched, a large shimmering object came flying past her and swooped down towards the pond, impacting one of the frogs. She leaned forward and watched as the strange outline simply faded into the still waters, causing the smallest of ripples across its surface.

The angle and speed of the motion jogged something in her memory for a moment, but she could not really place it. It felt as if something was calling out to her and trying to get her attention. She forced the thought out of her mind and stood up on the branches. She needed to keep moving. As she leapt towards another tree nearby, she focused her attention back on the thoughts of what she wanted in a companion.

{WC = 634}

Wed Oct 05, 2022 10:58 am

“I told you I wasn’t crazy” Fushon said to her mother as they stood in the backyard. Several large scratch marks could be seen crisscrossing the ground all throughout the yard. Her mother was scratching the top of her head as she said, “we don’t have any animals though which leave marks like this. The last time we did was when we were looking after the polar bear your uncle found. That thing really loved to dig down to the cooler earth just to not overheat.”

Her mother looked at Fushon and squinted at her. Fushon threw her hands up and said, “I have no idea how they got here! Maybe one of the horses got loose last night and tore up the ground.” Her mother shook her head in exasperation, “the only two horses we have are my sweet trotter and your grandfather’s horse who we are looking after while your grandfather is on his trip. Right now, the only things that could have made those marks are a very large creature with claws or a young girl with too much time on her hands.”

Fuse gritted her teeth, trying to temper her frustration as she slowly said, “so Mom, when would I have had time to cause all this damage? I was out all day yesterday away from the village and last night you volunteered me to watch the neighbors’ kids. I have witnesses you know!” Her mother simply threw up her hands and gave out a grunt of her own. “I don’t know! But I am not going to believe some wild story about wild animals sneaking in here just to cause mayhem to get you in trouble.” Her mother gave her an intense look, “and I do not want to hear more stories of ghosts or spirits either. I know something has the kids in the neighborhood acting up lately, but I expect you to be mature enough to not let them influence you.” Her mother focused her look, “and for you to stop influencing them!”

Fushon cut off what she was about to say and looked away, feigning innocence. For some reason, a lot of the younger kids around the village seemed to enjoy following her directions whenever she came around. So what if some of them didn’t know that food fights were a bad thing and that not everyone enjoyed having their buildings repainted ‘unique’ colors. At least no one could prove that she had taught them her escape techniques…

“Fine, don’t believe me,” Fushon said to her mother and shrugged at her. “But if weird things keep happening around here, all I can say is that I told you so.” She turned around and walked away, leaving the yard by way of the side gate. She was halfway down the street from her house when she heard her mother shout loudly. Fushon took off running, realizing she had only bought herself just enough time to make a quick getaway from having to do her chores for the day.

{WC = 505}

Thu Oct 06, 2022 1:15 pm

“So, it would be awesome if it could fly, because it needs to be fast. It also needs to be strong, like a small bull that can charge through people. Maybe it could have really cool abilities that let it get away when it needs to and it can even sneak up on people who do not know its coming…” When his father had asked Fushon for what may be the hundredth time what kind of companion she imagined she wanted, he was not expecting a flood of details.

Normally, she would just tell him that she wanted one that could keep up with her. After all the crazy things that had happened lately, and her lack of ability to explain them to people, she had felt very out of touch with those around her. She realized that even if she was going crazy for some reason, a companion would still understand her. Plus, she was getting tired of escaping on her own and having no one to share in the fun.

“Ok honey, so you want it to be fast, strong, and sneaky,” her father replied over the kitchen table, pausing before he continued. “Which sounds a lot like you, and that is a good thing. The only thing is, most creatures are not a combination of birds, bulls, and snakes.” Fushon began to build up with excitement. Her father saw her look and immediately knew what she was thinking, “and no! Chimera are not real!” Fuse deflated and crossed her eyes as she gave him a sullen stare.

“Then what really exists that does fit that description?!” She dared her father. He shook his head and sighed, resting two fingers to his forehead as he tried to think and deal with his overly energetic daughter. “It would probably not be from around here. Something more exotic. Maybe a large bird with feathers patterned to reflect light? Some creatures are known to be able to rapidly burrow as well, so that would get past the issues you had with the bear.” Fushon chuckled as she remembered Tolo the bear trying to keep up with her. That poor fashion store would never get the smell of wet fur out of their walls. At least, what was left of them.

“Well, whatever kind of creature I find in the future, if it can keep up with me, it is more than welcome-” something suddenly slapped the back of her head. She whirled around, expecting to see her little brother, but came face-to-face with the wall. She looked around the room quickly, but only she and her father could be seen. “Everything ok dear?” her father asked. Fushon nodded, confused by what had just happened. “I could have swore something just hit me…” Her father raised an eyebrow as he continued nibbling on his toast. Maybe a companion would notice when these things happened.

Or at least make her feel a little less crazy.

{WC = 492}

Fri Oct 07, 2022 11:24 am

Her mother had seen it. Her little brother had seen it. Her father had seen it. Now, she was seeing it. What there was to see of it, exactly, was the question.

The sun had already set and it was mostly dark throughout the village by the late hour which her family was awake at. An odd knocking sound coming from the side gate had awoken Fushon’s father and drawn him out to see what was going on. When he checked the gate door, no one was present on either side. He had gone back in the house, only to hear the knocking continue. Her mother commented, “that noise reminds me of when grandma would get locked out of the house. She had her dog quietly kick at that door until someone let them both back in.”

Fushon’s grandmother had passed away several years ago, so she had only heard that noise once or twice when she was young. To her, it sounded more like a large creature trying to kick their way through the door. Thinking back on it, her grandmother had been no more than four and a half feet tall while her dog companion had been close to five feet. When she had passed away, he had become very lonely and needed to be cared for for the few months remaining before he followed her.

The family now stood by the front door and watched as it softly shook in front of them from the knocking. “Well I do not know what is causing that noise, but we need it to stop. It is going to wake up the neighbors at this rate,” her mother said. Her parents tried examining the door to see if someone may have attached a contraption that would cause the knocking sound whenever people were not nearby. Her little brother kept looking up into the sky, as if watching for the ghosts people had been spreading rumors about.

Fushon decided that she was tired of whatever was causing the noise. She walked over to the door and unlocked it. As she did, the door swung open away from her and two sets of footsteps became clearly printed in the dirt through the open gate. It was a small set of shoe prints trailed by much larger paw pads. The family stared at these prints in silence for several minutes before looking at one another. They all agreed that it was far too late and they must be seeing things.

As they made their way up, a caw rang out from the backyard. Fushon’s mother went stockstill as she slowly turned back towards the closing gate. “I could swear that was the sound of Scar calling for food…” Fushon glanced at the gate as it closed then took her mother’s hand in her own. “Let’s deal with it in the morning Mom. I am sure that this is not going to be over tonight. Her mother agreed as the family made their way in and up to their beds. Little sleep was had that night, as each could only imagine what they might find in the morning.

{WC = 524}

Sat Oct 08, 2022 10:16 am

The next day only confirmed what her family had been dreading. As Fushon stepped out into the backyard, she found several creatures there which she had not seen in years. Each had a different colored glow coming from their mostly transparent bodies as they went about the yard. A large, eagle-sized crow sat on the top of the main bird feeder and was attempting to rip the bottom off to more easily get at the food inside. This bird had been one of her mother’s earlier companions over a decade ago. He had died in combat fighting alongside her mother on a mission and had been buried in the backyard to honor him.

As the bird paused and set its sights on Fushon, the piercing glare reminded her of just how much she disliked Scar. The bird had always been mean to her when she was little and loved to chase her around the yard. Her mother had told her it was due to shirking her chores, but the bird just loved to harass her on the days she was not working as well. She took a fighting stance as the bird turned to face her, slowly spreading its wings. She was far better trained and prepared than she had been when she was a child. She was ready to flatten that bird the moment it came at her.

“Enough!” her mother shouted as she marched between the two of them. Both were surprised and thrown off guard by her sudden appearance. “You-” she pointed at Fushon, “deal with the ferrets who got loose in the kitchen and the polar bear that is trying to dig its way to the center of the planet.” She then turned on Scar and gave him a glare that made the bird shrink back. “As for you. I don’t know how you got here, but I will not have you harassing her the entire time. She already has enough bad habits trying to escape from her duties and this is the worst possible time to give her a reason to do it.”

The bird shifted awkwardly on top of the feeder before hopping down and looking up at Fushon’s mother. After a moment or two, she sighed with a big smile on and scooped the bird up into a tight hug. She carried the bird away like a child, giving him plenty of love and attention while Fushon turned back to the yard. While every living animal they had was already put away in their pens and holding areas, several dozen spirit animals of all sizes were running loose along the yard. Most seemed comfortable to stay close with a few attempting to escape the yard and being oddly drawn back moments later.

Fushon went to work carrying smaller animals into the empty holding cages and pens nearby while she had to round up some of the larger ones into the stable. Several peacocks had been sent to their residence as a prank by one of older kids in the village and an untimely firecracker had ended with terrible results. Their spirits were confused and rambled in all directions, eating the bird feed and pestering the bear spirit which was napping by the side gate. Fushon stuffed them all together in one of the stable pens and figured they would not cause too much hassle.

As she approached the bear, it looked up at her lazily and reached for her with its nose. She tried to pull back, but it quickly gave her a lick right up the center of her face. A fog-like saliva layered her face as she gave him a frustrated look and waved her hands at him to get up and move. When the bear flopped over, refusing to listen to her, she summoned up a pair of clones and the three of them lifted him up and tossed him into the pond nearby. He floundered out of the water, spitting some of it out of his mouth, and glowered at her. She stared him down and pointed at the larger pen kept towards the back of the yard where they kept animals that outsized the horses.

After an hour or so of organizing and redirecting the animals, the yard was back at peace. The only problem was that an hour later, more spirits appeared.

{WC = 725}

Sun Oct 09, 2022 10:42 am

Her father and younger brother joined her in the backyard, carrying containers or bags with smaller animals that had gotten loose in the house. Her younger brother was ecstatic as two of his hamsters had reappeared and were sitting on either of his shoulders. “Fushon! Hammy and Scruffles are back! They told me how to catch the other animals in the house!” he yelled to her. She waved a hand dismissively and said, “yeah, yeah that’s nice. Let me know if they know how to stop the spirits from showing up and I would really appreciate it.”

He huffed and marched off with a small bag of spirit turtles and a container of spirit mice. Her father tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention as he spoke. “Honey, be nice to your brother. We are all having trouble adjusting to… this'' he said as he waved a hand towards the yard full of spirit creatures. Fushon let a breath out, dropping her tension as she nodded. “I just do not understand how this can be happening. I mean, how could we have predicted that-” she cut herself off as she thought back over the days since the month started.

She had been harassed and picked on by an unknown force almost every day. People in her family had thought her crazy, but she knew something had been up. As the memories of the missing shoes and the slap to the back of her head came to mind, Fuse could feel her pulse rising. She turned back towards the animals in the yard and shouted, “Ok! Which of you were screwing with me over this last week?!” All the animals stopped and turned to look at her. Several ran for cover while the larger animals tried to grab anything in reach to use as a shield.

Her father, sensing the moment, figured he would try to reduce her anger. “Honey, you do remember the many, many, many times that you chose not to care for the animals. Right?” Fuse hesitated, her pulse still rising a tad slower than before. “The times you chose not to feed the animals, and many went hungry for an hour or two. Or when you chose not to walk the canines and felines in the morning, and they ended up tearing apart the majority of bushes and trees during the afternoon walk. Maybe that time you accidentally let the birds into the cat house right after you forgot to close the door to the coyote kennel?”

Fuse had gripped her fists at her sides, feeling her pulse holding where it was as she spoke through gritted teeth. “Yeah, and I was a child back then. I learned my lesson and I do my chores now.” His father let out a laugh and said, “when you are not escaping, as you labeled it yourself. If I was in their shoes, a little bit of payback would not be out of the question.” He turned to look back at the spirit animals, some looking hopefully on. “Besides, your brother was telling the truth. They actually do understand what you are saying, and they can speak our language now. Not sure why, but maybe it has to do with whatever is going on right now”

Fushon slowly began to calm down again as she crossed her arms. “Fine. But if any of you play another prank on me, I may end up with a new pair of boots by the next day.” Her mother yelled out one of the upper windows, “and I will have one less child the day after that! Especially if you do anything to the animals that have already died once!” Fushon kicked a small rock and marched off.

{WC = 626}

Mon Oct 10, 2022 4:11 pm

After a full day of appearing, the number of animals stopped at double what their home could hold. Multiple make-shift pens and holding areas had been constructed and some animals were doubled up wherever possible. They tried to keep the spirit animals and live animals separate as much as they could, but they just did not have enough space to handle them all. By the end of it, Fushon had several smaller animals sleeping around the foot of her bed and it was pretty much the same in every other room of the house.

Fushon had hoped to escape the madness by heading out into the village in the morning, but only found more spirits throughout the streets. Several older spirits called out to her to get off the rooftops and to not cause any more trouble for them than when they had been alive. She ignored them and made her way to the front gate and tried to escape out into the forests nearby. She had made it a half a mile out before she relaxed on a large branch and tried to catch her breath.

A slight shift in the leaves above her was her only warning before several squirrels, now swelled in numbers with spirit squirrels, appeared armed with nuts. She held her hands up and said, “Can I just take a moment to rest here? Aren’t things crazy enough already?” The spirit squirrels seemed to stop with the living squirrels noticing their hesitation. The squirrels seemed to quietly discuss things before a very old spirit squirrel appeared on a branch above her head. She looked up at it confused.

“You are one who shakes our branches and quakes our homes. You know nothing of how animals live in the wild, yet you pretend to be one. Why should we show you any kindness?” it asked her. Fushon thought for a moment and said, “I live with a lot of trained animals and I just don’t care for how restrained they are. I don’t mean to ‘shake and quake’ your homes, I just want to get away from my family as quickly as possible sometimes. I don’t know why you would show me any kindness, I just want some time to clear my head of my problems.”

The older squirrel stared at her for a time before speaking. “You may rest here for a short time, but understand that you still have much to learn. You live with animals, yet you do not truly understand their nature. You carry their scent and act out their behaviors, yet you have no awareness of their true natures.” The elder jerked its head and the rest of the squirrels disappeared into the trees and branches around them. He then looked back at her and said, “if you wish to find a connection with an animal, as your family does, then spend time bonding with the animals around you. Do not simply see them as problems you wish to avoid.”

Fushon looked at the elder confused, “how did you know-” The old squirrel held up a little paw and cut her off as he said, “we are squirrels. We see all. You only see us when we want you to.” As he finished, he scampered off into the upper branches of the tree. Am I really going to take advice on how to live my life from a squirrel? Fushon thought to herself. After all the things which had been going on lately, this seemed like one of the least unusual ideas.

{WC = 591}

The Past can Come Back to Haunt You

The Past can Come Back to Haunt You

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