Solus

When Mama stepped out of the hospital, the sun hit my pale face. It was my first time outside. The sun danced across the roofs as Mama walked and my curious gaze followed it all around the village. It was like something in a storybook. The faces were carefully carved into the mountain, looking as though they had always been there. And the trees scattered around houses and shops and compounds. I was too busy taking in the scenery that I didn't notice the way people bowed as we walked past.

I followed mama through the path towards the south side of the village, something mama had seemingly done many times before. We stopped in front of a closed-off area. Towards the top of the entrance, large black scribbles were painted across the top. Before I could attempt to make out what they said, mama strolled through. Timidly I followed behind.

Inside many people stood. Their features varied. Many had darkly colored hair. Browns, blacks, and blues. Their auras were different too. Some very calm and quiet. Others were loud and violent. On the foreheads of some, was a drawing of some sort, a vibrant green. One thing that they all had was white eyes. The same white eyes that mama had. Pure, unblemished white.

(White like the hospital room. White like the masks the people from the hospital wore).

The people began to talk to mama. They all spoke many words that I couldn't care to understand. Mama's face was in her usual small smile before it widened. The cause was a man. One with long brown hair. I could tell he must have been very important to mama from the way her aura changed. Thick, calm waves roll off of her and seeped into the dirt we stood on.

"Hiashi," she said lovingly.

Who was this man, I wondered, this man that made my mama smile so happily?

Before he began to walk towards us, I clasped my hand tightly in mamas. I stared curiously at him as he conversed with Mama. He didn't smile as mama did. His face held a firm look, his lips in a straight line. From the way, his aura felt he must have been just as happy to see her as mama was.

Ɛ!3

The snow had yet to come, but it was still very, very cold. The leaves of the trees were brown instead of bright orange, red or green. The fallen, dried leaves crunched underneath my sandals as I walked beside Mama and the man I came to know as Papa. Despite the chilly air, I was quite warm as the dress- or kimono, as mama called it- I wore had many layers. Each layer was a different color and pattern. My hair was up. The thick, short strands twisted into a bun-like shape that sat atop my head. I had no idea how Mama got it like that as I kept my hair short- above my shoulders short- but she did.

I was confused because it was dark. When I was in my warm bed, pajamas on and ready to listen to Mama read, she came. Not with the book in hand, but instead a kimono. She helped me change into it then told me we were going somewhere. She and Papa were both wearing kimonos as well, though not as layered and as fancy as my own.

"Mama, where are we going?" I asked curiously. She looked down at me with a smile, her hand held tightly onto my own,

"To the local shrine so we can thank the Kami for making you healthy and helping you grow."

The shrine was big and very open. It had wooden pillars inside it, some were painted red. It had large lanterns peculiarly made from stone, hanging from the ceiling. Pieces of white paper with minute writing on them hung on the walls and pillars.

Mama, Papa, and I were surprisingly not the only people in the shrine. Some people were dressed in normal clothes, some were dressed in kimonos like us, and others who were female wore plain white shirts with big baggy pants that were as red as the pillars. There were also people who I recognized as clan members. They were all wearing kimonos and stood at a polite distance.

While Mama held my hand, Papa was holding the offerings. The offerings we brought were a bottle of liquid that smelled a lot like vinegar, and rice balls I helped Mama make. Papa put the offerings by the others, which were other bottled liquids and food.

They both knelt, and I knelt next to them, though I almost fell over due to the sheer weight of all of the fabric I wore. As they prayed silently, I stared ahead at the object in which the Kami supposedly resided.

"Mama, who is the kami that we are praying to?" I whispered to her, as she was next to me, and Papa was on the other side of her.

"Izanami no Mikoto, the Kami of creation," she replied.

Ɛ!3

My room was smaller compared to the others in the house. I thought it was a perfect size, however. It was my room. My safe place. One where I could go whenever I needed to escape, for whatever reason. Whether it was to escape mama's boring lessons or to escape papa's harsh punishments.

My room was my safe place, but tonight it was not.

It was late at night, and I would have been sleeping. My body was very tired from kneeling so long at the shrine. After we had left, mama helped me change out of my fancy outfit and into my pajamas. My scalp still stung from the intricate hairstyle I previously wore.

At least I was awake because if I had been asleep I wouldn't have heard the sound of my window opening. The curtains swooshed in the chilly evening wind. Someone was in my room, and I couldn't see them. I couldn't even hear their breathing. Their steps were so light that the only indication of them being in my room was their presence- perhaps they were slithering. I could feel their aura. It was seeping with their evil intentions.

This person wanted to do bad things to me.

I closed my useless eyes. My small, pudgy body lay as still as the hand-stitched blanket that covered it. The only thing that moved was my chest, going up and down as I tried to steady my breaths. The person was far bigger than me and surely stronger, what could I do? Maybe bite, scratch, or kick them. No, it would take them merely a second to snap my neck.

Suddenly they were leaning over me and I could vividly feel their sickly warm air on my forehead. Two rough tentacle-like hands reached out and an article of clothing was pushed roughly against my mouth, and with a single inhale I was asleep.

Ɛ!3

My eyes opened abruptly, but I couldn't see a thing. The cover over my eyes blocked out everything, except when I looked up I could see the dimmed light of the moon. I knew it was the moon because it followed as my, my kidnapper carried me through the woods. My wrists and ankles were tied tightly together by something, and they bounced against their back and chest as they jumped across trees.

I counted each bounce, trying not to think of what was to come. The unknown.

Suddenly, I heard a loud whoosh, the person made a loud groan, and then instead of being held by lithe, forceful arms, I was being carried by warm, strong ones. The ropes around my wrists and ankles were cut. They fell to the ground just as my kidnapper did.

"Papa," I finally spoke with a crack in my voice. I swallowed a big clump of snot and was able to see.

I looked past my kidnapper, who laid unmoving (and unbreathing), on the prickly grass. Papa's usually stoic face was gone. It was replaced with one of obvious worry. He held me gently, and my arms went up by themselves, locking behind his clothed back.

I buried my face in his neck and cried.

Ɛ!3

Mama was crying when we got back to the house. Her beautiful face was caked in tears, pieces of hair clung to her neck and cheeks. Her aura cried and shook along with her. It was the first time I ever saw her cry. She ran to us as soon as we entered the house, grabbing me and holding me tight.

"Hina-chan, oh my angel I'm so sorry."

I'd already been crying, but once I saw her I began to cry even harder.

"My angel, my angel I'm sorry," she repeated and sunk to the ground with me in her lap. I sat there crying as she said she was sorry again and again, until the tears that wetted her clothes, dried.

"I'm okay mama, it's okay," I assured her between hiccups.

Was I okay though? I had been kidnapped. What would have happened had papa not saved me? Anything. Anything could have happened. I was a defenseless, weak little girl.

But I was saved. I wasn't in the kidnapper's disgusting arms, I was in my mama's. I was alright.

"I'm okay mama," reaching up my arms, with shockingly shake-less hands I grasped her beautiful face. "I'm okay," I reiterated.

I was okay.

Ɛ!3