okay so I don't think I've ever posted a story in here before; but here goes! xD
This is just a story I've been thinking of for a while, and even though the first chapter is sorta short, it'll get longer. And hopefully better :x
********
(glossary of sorts
musume - 'my daughter', Japanese term for daughter only used if one is referring to one's own daughter.
otou-chan - father, or dad (Japanese)
mago - grandchild, sometimes 'magomusume' or 'magomusuko' but for the most part they don't include the gender of the grandchild.
musuko - 'my son', Japanese term for son only used if one is referring to one's own son.
okaa-chan - mother, or mum/mom (Japanese)
obaa-chan - grandmother.
********
Kokoro's eyes drifted absently over her page. She was starting to get a little bit light-headed in the bright sunshine, her drawing pad's pages rustling with the wind. It was a gentle breeze; one of those ones that felt cool but not too cool so as to make you feel the need to put on a jacket or a coat of some sort. Kokoro let out a long sigh as she stretched her arms along the wooden patio outside the front of her cottage. Well, she called it a cottage; it was sort of large for one. Kokoro had lived in this house since she was born; and her mother too. Even her grandmother had lived here for quite a while.
Before Kokoro had noticed it was beginning to get a little bit darker; the clear blue skies out beyond her house were fading to a more warm pink colour. There were few clouds scattered across the sky that evening, but the ones that floated silently were turning into a mystical purple shade, with a slight yellow hue nearer the West. She hadn't quite noticed, but her eyelids had begun flickering open and shut, and she nearly began swaying back and forth though she managed to stop herself before she lulled over and fell into a deep sleep. Well, she started sleeping the last time that happened, at least. She swiftly picked up her drawing pad from her lap and placed it gently on the step in front of her, as well as her pencil in the other hand. With both arms she yawned deeply and stretched as high up as her 12-year-old arms could take her, and flapped them back down soon afterwards.
Suddenly the air chilled around her.
Not only did the temperature suddenly drop; but a cold wind blew quickly through the land. The crops of seeds and grass metres and metres in front of Kokoro's house were blown quickly to the East and the bushes and trees full of rustling leaves and beautiful pink flowers in full blossom rustled very noisily. Kokoro's eyes glittered and the hair on the back of her neck stood up as the hair on her head was tossed strongly with the wind. Even though the sudden coldness and thrashing of wind was quite magical, what happened next was probably the most magical thing that Kokoro had ever witnessed. Quickly and silently a white, shining object flew through the sky, glittering as it travelled serenly and leaving a beautiful trail of sparkling dust behind it. Kokoro was somewhat mesmerised; she was one of the most curious girls that one could ever meet, and just now definitely was not an exception to her usual tendencies. She smiled a slightly mischevious smile before reaching to her right and grasping her hooded cloak. She stood up quickly and within a second or two she had pulled open the door and poked her head through.
She looked around the lounge which was right at the front of the house for a split second. It seemed no one was there. She shouted out, "Bye-dad-bye-grandma-I'm-going-to-go-walk-for-a-bit-bye!" in one breath and slammed the door behind her as she fllew down the patio stairs. Running at full speed in a straight line she pulled her cloak around her shoulders and clasped the two sides together, pulling the hood quickly over her head. The breeze whipped at her face harshly and she couldn't help but lick her lips as she ran further and further; causing the wind to tingle and stab at her mouth bitterly. Though that wasn't the most pleasant of feelings, she felt rather excited by the prospect of finding that shining star; the one that had so magically appeared just a walking - well, running - distance from her house.
Kokoro almost stumbled over a pebble as she ran straight to the patch of grass that the comet had landed in. Even though she almost fell flat on her face, when she looked up and focused she noticed quite a bright light coming from about a metre away from her. That must be it! The grass around this bit was super high, so she patted down her pockets on the outside of her cloak before pulling out her pocket knife. With a few quick (yet quite weak; Kokoro was a little scared to use it) slices, she chopped down some of the grass that surrounded the extraterrestrial peice of shining rock. Although that's all it seemed to be at first glance, when Kokoro dropped to her knees she studied it a little closer.
She found that it was, in fact, in the shape of a star. She had her sneaking suspicions that maybe it would be some sort of magical star, but then she realized it would be more plausible for it to be a rock. Or even a smelly old boot with some luminescent stickers attached to it.
Several spikes stuck out from the shining, rainbow rock, all perfectly aligned and symmetrical. It was quite a spectacle to behold; though it looked sort of white, rainbow whisps spiralled through the creamy rock. Though Kokoro was a little bit scared to touch it at first, as her finger reached out to touch the rock, it was as if the colour pulsed from where she was touching it. She used her other hand to push it over a little bit while still holding one of the spikes. Even though it shone very brightly, Kokoro couldn't help but gaze into the star curiously. With her right hand still wrapped around one of the spikes, she was quite amazed to see letters - words! - forming on the surface, shining even brighter than the star itself. Wish , the word read.
With a drop of her bottom jaw, Kokoro goggled at the star, amazed. She thought over this for a while in her head. Wish? What could ... what could that mean? Do I ... d-do ... ? She flicked her jet black hair out of her eyes and tugged her cloak to the side a little before clearing her throat and straightening her back.
"I wish ..." She started, her face looking very concentrated and serious. "I wish for mother-"
"Kokoro!"
Her eyes flickered away from the star and she listened harder. The voice was faint, it was distant; but she knew she recognised it. "Kokoro! Kokoro, where are you!?" Kokoro stood up straight and patted down her navy blue cloak, feeling back into her pockets for her knife. She was pretty sure that the voice she heard belonged to her father - the quite worried sounding voice, that was. She stood up on her tip toes to see back the direction she came from to find that she was right; her father currently stood on the patio of their house with his hand placed upon his brow. Kokoro sighed a little. She must admit that inside, she wanted to investigate more ... but the thing she wanted to do the absolute least was worry her father too much.
She quickly kneeled down on one knee and whipped out her pocket knife that she was looking for earlier. Hastily she scraped a circle in the ground around the star and it seemed to glitter brighter than ever. Once more she heard her father call for her, and with that, she stood back up and thrust her hands firmly on her hips. She smiled an accomplished smile and turned in the direction of her home to start jogging back.
Firstly with her left foot, she stepped onwards. She paused for a little bit. She had heard a noise behind her; a sort of tumbling noise. It didn't continue, however, and so she countinued on as she skipped forward a few more paces.
And yet, she heard it once more.
Kokoro looked puzzled. What could it have been? Surely there was no one behind her; at this time anyone around here rarely came out. And as an added bonus; it stopped whenever she stopped. So it musn't be anything but her imagination, right?
But there it was again.
She really was beginning to get a little bit agitated. She turned from right to left and back again; there was no sign of movement anywhere. She humphed a little and crossed her arms annoyedly. With a pout she swirled backwards to take a look ... and it was there that she encountered the problem.
The star-shaped object had rolled behind Kokoro; directly following her footsteps. At first she frowned a little; but then when she realised what had actually happened the feeling of amazement struck her whole body. Her eyes widened, her mouth trembled; even her arms and legs reacted; tightening at the joints a little.
"It was ... f-following me ... ?" Kokoro asked no one in particular; still staring straight at the star. In her mind it seemed to nod at her; just tempting her to stare at it for longer. But quickly she almost literally snapped out of it; suddenly stamping one foot on the ground and frowning at it. She dismissed it; guessing it was only the wind ... which had, admittedly, died down by now - but she had to blame it on something.
And after a few more strides, she stopped again. It was true that it wasn't a sudden breeze that had decided to carry it along to follow her, but instead it was seemingly rolling along of its own accord. Heaving a heavy sigh, Kokoro reached down and picked up the star. It was incredibly heavy; and the many points made it quite awkward to carry, but nevertheless she lugged it over inside the circle she had scraped with her pocket knife. What a twelve year old girl would do as she carried a pocket knife in her cloak pocket wouldn't be incredibly obvious; but it did have its advantages.
Kokoro turned around again, now running back to her home; and yet, through the sounds of birds flying away to sleep in their nests overhead and the rustling of her hair and the grass in the wind; she could still hear that constant thumping behind her. Eventually she skidded to a halt. She found she just couldn't have the star following her to her house ... just because, well, what was it? She would have to research it, or ask about it ... and if it were to be something bad, she couldn't risk bringing it to or near her house. She kneeled down in front of it again and stared at it a little.
In her mind she thought her plan out; she would take out her pocket knife, cut a smaller point off the star so she could carry it under her cloak without arousing suspicion and investigate it in secret. She even planned where she would hide it; her mother had given her a small painted wooden box when and she kept precious things inside there. Or things that reminded her of her mother - she had recieved it just after her mother had ... well, just after her mother left.
She had continued staring deeply into the star comet as she thought about it; and without her realising it, a ring had appeared and began glowing brightly around one of the points. When Kokoro noticed she was rather surprised; and so gulped unexpectantly and almost choked a little inside. Slowly she leaned forward and placed her knife on the star; lining it up exactly with the glowing ring. She began trying to cut into the star; but the surface just wouldn't budge. At all. She sighed and frowned a little. Maybe her plan wouldn't work after all. But really, truly; Kokoro wasn't one who would just give up like that, oh no!
Or so she told herself.
She frowned even more a few seconds later. The star would just not give in. Pleadingly, she whined, "Oh, pleeeaase!"
And, within moments, the star was easily cut by her blade. "Huh. Just goes to show that manners do work~" Kokoro whispered to herself cheerily; although deep inside she was really quite flabbergasted and - over all - intrigued. Happily she bounced up and skipped along the path to her house; quite shocked to find that the star was no longer following her. In fact, as she looked back along her trail through the tall grass, the star had actually appeared to roll back to its original landing place!
Within a minute or two, Kokoro had escaped from the jungle of grass and ran up onto her patio. Her dad still stood there, looking a little bewildered with his jet black hair - just like Kokoro's - all messed up and his red-rimmed glasses sitting on the very tip of his nose. Granted, nowadays, this was his usual appearance. As she neared him, she ran into his arms and wrapped her right arm around him in unison with both of his arms wrapping around her. Unexpectedly her eyes widened as she accidentally put her left hand (the one that gripped the star point so tightly with her slightly sweaty fingers) to close to his body. He laughed a little awkwardly as she pulled away and smiled in an even more awkard way.
"You okay, musume?" Kokoro's father asked with a polite smile. "You pulled away a bit abruptly there. You're not hiding anything, right?" To this, Kokoro just shook her head. "Where were you just there, anyway? You know I don't like you being out by yourself when it's dark like this."
"It's okay, I'm okay!" Kokoro grinned up at her father. She shuffled on her feet a little but soon ceased to do so when her father raised his eyebrows a little at her. "I was just out walking - you know, investigating! And you shouldn't be outside by yourself either, otou-chan."
"I guess so," her father chuckled a little before he opened up their wooden door and stepped inside their sizely house. Kokoro immediately scuffed her shoes on the rug as she stepped in, and muttered a quiet "your shoes, otou-chan," at her father. He frowned silently and done the same shortly after Kokoro. "You'd better go to your room and get ready for dinner, musume."
Kokoro nodded and done as she was told quickly, dragging her fingers along the walls on either side of her as she trotted through the door on her left and through another door to her right. As soon as she stepped into her bedroom she flung herself at her bed; hastily pulling off her cloak and reaching underneath her cluttered bed to find her wooden keepsake box. Before she even touched the clasp on it, she ran her fingers over the top. She marvelled at the beautifully intricate patterns on the lid; the wondrous swirls and curves that vaguely resembled a huge red fish in a wooden ocean with blue waves - obvious enough to be able to see it; but vague enough for it to look pretty and symbolical. With a very delicate touch, Kokoro prized the box open and sniffed a little when she saw the contents. A shining white-gold chain glittered temptingly there; a beautiful red gem hanging on the bottom. There were multiple other bits and peices in the box; but at the very bottom there lay an old photo of Kokoro sitting on her mother's knee with her father standing beside the pair. It was one of the only photos her family possessed where all three of them were posed together, all facing the camera, all smiling, and most of all - looking the happiest they ever had. If anything, this was Kokoro's most prized possession.
Smoothly she lay the seemingly fragile point of the star in the box; laying it perfectly still and right in the middle. She smiled at it, a little bit in awe, for quite a few long seconds before her father called through to her.
"Musume! Dinner!"
With a wipe of her tearful eye, Kokoro closed over the box and slipped it back underneath her bed.
This is just a story I've been thinking of for a while, and even though the first chapter is sorta short, it'll get longer. And hopefully better :x
********
(glossary of sorts
musume - 'my daughter', Japanese term for daughter only used if one is referring to one's own daughter.
otou-chan - father, or dad (Japanese)
mago - grandchild, sometimes 'magomusume' or 'magomusuko' but for the most part they don't include the gender of the grandchild.
musuko - 'my son', Japanese term for son only used if one is referring to one's own son.
okaa-chan - mother, or mum/mom (Japanese)
obaa-chan - grandmother.
********
Chapter 1 | Wishes and Craters
Kokoro's eyes drifted absently over her page. She was starting to get a little bit light-headed in the bright sunshine, her drawing pad's pages rustling with the wind. It was a gentle breeze; one of those ones that felt cool but not too cool so as to make you feel the need to put on a jacket or a coat of some sort. Kokoro let out a long sigh as she stretched her arms along the wooden patio outside the front of her cottage. Well, she called it a cottage; it was sort of large for one. Kokoro had lived in this house since she was born; and her mother too. Even her grandmother had lived here for quite a while.
Before Kokoro had noticed it was beginning to get a little bit darker; the clear blue skies out beyond her house were fading to a more warm pink colour. There were few clouds scattered across the sky that evening, but the ones that floated silently were turning into a mystical purple shade, with a slight yellow hue nearer the West. She hadn't quite noticed, but her eyelids had begun flickering open and shut, and she nearly began swaying back and forth though she managed to stop herself before she lulled over and fell into a deep sleep. Well, she started sleeping the last time that happened, at least. She swiftly picked up her drawing pad from her lap and placed it gently on the step in front of her, as well as her pencil in the other hand. With both arms she yawned deeply and stretched as high up as her 12-year-old arms could take her, and flapped them back down soon afterwards.
Suddenly the air chilled around her.
Not only did the temperature suddenly drop; but a cold wind blew quickly through the land. The crops of seeds and grass metres and metres in front of Kokoro's house were blown quickly to the East and the bushes and trees full of rustling leaves and beautiful pink flowers in full blossom rustled very noisily. Kokoro's eyes glittered and the hair on the back of her neck stood up as the hair on her head was tossed strongly with the wind. Even though the sudden coldness and thrashing of wind was quite magical, what happened next was probably the most magical thing that Kokoro had ever witnessed. Quickly and silently a white, shining object flew through the sky, glittering as it travelled serenly and leaving a beautiful trail of sparkling dust behind it. Kokoro was somewhat mesmerised; she was one of the most curious girls that one could ever meet, and just now definitely was not an exception to her usual tendencies. She smiled a slightly mischevious smile before reaching to her right and grasping her hooded cloak. She stood up quickly and within a second or two she had pulled open the door and poked her head through.
She looked around the lounge which was right at the front of the house for a split second. It seemed no one was there. She shouted out, "Bye-dad-bye-grandma-I'm-going-to-go-walk-for-a-bit-bye!" in one breath and slammed the door behind her as she fllew down the patio stairs. Running at full speed in a straight line she pulled her cloak around her shoulders and clasped the two sides together, pulling the hood quickly over her head. The breeze whipped at her face harshly and she couldn't help but lick her lips as she ran further and further; causing the wind to tingle and stab at her mouth bitterly. Though that wasn't the most pleasant of feelings, she felt rather excited by the prospect of finding that shining star; the one that had so magically appeared just a walking - well, running - distance from her house.
Kokoro almost stumbled over a pebble as she ran straight to the patch of grass that the comet had landed in. Even though she almost fell flat on her face, when she looked up and focused she noticed quite a bright light coming from about a metre away from her. That must be it! The grass around this bit was super high, so she patted down her pockets on the outside of her cloak before pulling out her pocket knife. With a few quick (yet quite weak; Kokoro was a little scared to use it) slices, she chopped down some of the grass that surrounded the extraterrestrial peice of shining rock. Although that's all it seemed to be at first glance, when Kokoro dropped to her knees she studied it a little closer.
She found that it was, in fact, in the shape of a star. She had her sneaking suspicions that maybe it would be some sort of magical star, but then she realized it would be more plausible for it to be a rock. Or even a smelly old boot with some luminescent stickers attached to it.
Several spikes stuck out from the shining, rainbow rock, all perfectly aligned and symmetrical. It was quite a spectacle to behold; though it looked sort of white, rainbow whisps spiralled through the creamy rock. Though Kokoro was a little bit scared to touch it at first, as her finger reached out to touch the rock, it was as if the colour pulsed from where she was touching it. She used her other hand to push it over a little bit while still holding one of the spikes. Even though it shone very brightly, Kokoro couldn't help but gaze into the star curiously. With her right hand still wrapped around one of the spikes, she was quite amazed to see letters - words! - forming on the surface, shining even brighter than the star itself. Wish , the word read.
With a drop of her bottom jaw, Kokoro goggled at the star, amazed. She thought over this for a while in her head. Wish? What could ... what could that mean? Do I ... d-do ... ? She flicked her jet black hair out of her eyes and tugged her cloak to the side a little before clearing her throat and straightening her back.
"I wish ..." She started, her face looking very concentrated and serious. "I wish for mother-"
"Kokoro!"
Her eyes flickered away from the star and she listened harder. The voice was faint, it was distant; but she knew she recognised it. "Kokoro! Kokoro, where are you!?" Kokoro stood up straight and patted down her navy blue cloak, feeling back into her pockets for her knife. She was pretty sure that the voice she heard belonged to her father - the quite worried sounding voice, that was. She stood up on her tip toes to see back the direction she came from to find that she was right; her father currently stood on the patio of their house with his hand placed upon his brow. Kokoro sighed a little. She must admit that inside, she wanted to investigate more ... but the thing she wanted to do the absolute least was worry her father too much.
She quickly kneeled down on one knee and whipped out her pocket knife that she was looking for earlier. Hastily she scraped a circle in the ground around the star and it seemed to glitter brighter than ever. Once more she heard her father call for her, and with that, she stood back up and thrust her hands firmly on her hips. She smiled an accomplished smile and turned in the direction of her home to start jogging back.
Firstly with her left foot, she stepped onwards. She paused for a little bit. She had heard a noise behind her; a sort of tumbling noise. It didn't continue, however, and so she countinued on as she skipped forward a few more paces.
And yet, she heard it once more.
Kokoro looked puzzled. What could it have been? Surely there was no one behind her; at this time anyone around here rarely came out. And as an added bonus; it stopped whenever she stopped. So it musn't be anything but her imagination, right?
But there it was again.
She really was beginning to get a little bit agitated. She turned from right to left and back again; there was no sign of movement anywhere. She humphed a little and crossed her arms annoyedly. With a pout she swirled backwards to take a look ... and it was there that she encountered the problem.
The star-shaped object had rolled behind Kokoro; directly following her footsteps. At first she frowned a little; but then when she realised what had actually happened the feeling of amazement struck her whole body. Her eyes widened, her mouth trembled; even her arms and legs reacted; tightening at the joints a little.
"It was ... f-following me ... ?" Kokoro asked no one in particular; still staring straight at the star. In her mind it seemed to nod at her; just tempting her to stare at it for longer. But quickly she almost literally snapped out of it; suddenly stamping one foot on the ground and frowning at it. She dismissed it; guessing it was only the wind ... which had, admittedly, died down by now - but she had to blame it on something.
And after a few more strides, she stopped again. It was true that it wasn't a sudden breeze that had decided to carry it along to follow her, but instead it was seemingly rolling along of its own accord. Heaving a heavy sigh, Kokoro reached down and picked up the star. It was incredibly heavy; and the many points made it quite awkward to carry, but nevertheless she lugged it over inside the circle she had scraped with her pocket knife. What a twelve year old girl would do as she carried a pocket knife in her cloak pocket wouldn't be incredibly obvious; but it did have its advantages.
Kokoro turned around again, now running back to her home; and yet, through the sounds of birds flying away to sleep in their nests overhead and the rustling of her hair and the grass in the wind; she could still hear that constant thumping behind her. Eventually she skidded to a halt. She found she just couldn't have the star following her to her house ... just because, well, what was it? She would have to research it, or ask about it ... and if it were to be something bad, she couldn't risk bringing it to or near her house. She kneeled down in front of it again and stared at it a little.
In her mind she thought her plan out; she would take out her pocket knife, cut a smaller point off the star so she could carry it under her cloak without arousing suspicion and investigate it in secret. She even planned where she would hide it; her mother had given her a small painted wooden box when and she kept precious things inside there. Or things that reminded her of her mother - she had recieved it just after her mother had ... well, just after her mother left.
She had continued staring deeply into the star comet as she thought about it; and without her realising it, a ring had appeared and began glowing brightly around one of the points. When Kokoro noticed she was rather surprised; and so gulped unexpectantly and almost choked a little inside. Slowly she leaned forward and placed her knife on the star; lining it up exactly with the glowing ring. She began trying to cut into the star; but the surface just wouldn't budge. At all. She sighed and frowned a little. Maybe her plan wouldn't work after all. But really, truly; Kokoro wasn't one who would just give up like that, oh no!
Or so she told herself.
She frowned even more a few seconds later. The star would just not give in. Pleadingly, she whined, "Oh, pleeeaase!"
And, within moments, the star was easily cut by her blade. "Huh. Just goes to show that manners do work~" Kokoro whispered to herself cheerily; although deep inside she was really quite flabbergasted and - over all - intrigued. Happily she bounced up and skipped along the path to her house; quite shocked to find that the star was no longer following her. In fact, as she looked back along her trail through the tall grass, the star had actually appeared to roll back to its original landing place!
Within a minute or two, Kokoro had escaped from the jungle of grass and ran up onto her patio. Her dad still stood there, looking a little bewildered with his jet black hair - just like Kokoro's - all messed up and his red-rimmed glasses sitting on the very tip of his nose. Granted, nowadays, this was his usual appearance. As she neared him, she ran into his arms and wrapped her right arm around him in unison with both of his arms wrapping around her. Unexpectedly her eyes widened as she accidentally put her left hand (the one that gripped the star point so tightly with her slightly sweaty fingers) to close to his body. He laughed a little awkwardly as she pulled away and smiled in an even more awkard way.
"You okay, musume?" Kokoro's father asked with a polite smile. "You pulled away a bit abruptly there. You're not hiding anything, right?" To this, Kokoro just shook her head. "Where were you just there, anyway? You know I don't like you being out by yourself when it's dark like this."
"It's okay, I'm okay!" Kokoro grinned up at her father. She shuffled on her feet a little but soon ceased to do so when her father raised his eyebrows a little at her. "I was just out walking - you know, investigating! And you shouldn't be outside by yourself either, otou-chan."
"I guess so," her father chuckled a little before he opened up their wooden door and stepped inside their sizely house. Kokoro immediately scuffed her shoes on the rug as she stepped in, and muttered a quiet "your shoes, otou-chan," at her father. He frowned silently and done the same shortly after Kokoro. "You'd better go to your room and get ready for dinner, musume."
Kokoro nodded and done as she was told quickly, dragging her fingers along the walls on either side of her as she trotted through the door on her left and through another door to her right. As soon as she stepped into her bedroom she flung herself at her bed; hastily pulling off her cloak and reaching underneath her cluttered bed to find her wooden keepsake box. Before she even touched the clasp on it, she ran her fingers over the top. She marvelled at the beautifully intricate patterns on the lid; the wondrous swirls and curves that vaguely resembled a huge red fish in a wooden ocean with blue waves - obvious enough to be able to see it; but vague enough for it to look pretty and symbolical. With a very delicate touch, Kokoro prized the box open and sniffed a little when she saw the contents. A shining white-gold chain glittered temptingly there; a beautiful red gem hanging on the bottom. There were multiple other bits and peices in the box; but at the very bottom there lay an old photo of Kokoro sitting on her mother's knee with her father standing beside the pair. It was one of the only photos her family possessed where all three of them were posed together, all facing the camera, all smiling, and most of all - looking the happiest they ever had. If anything, this was Kokoro's most prized possession.
Smoothly she lay the seemingly fragile point of the star in the box; laying it perfectly still and right in the middle. She smiled at it, a little bit in awe, for quite a few long seconds before her father called through to her.
"Musume! Dinner!"
With a wipe of her tearful eye, Kokoro closed over the box and slipped it back underneath her bed.
