Kireizaki

Hey all! I'm back with a big story! I love me some tanukis, especially their place in Japanese folklore and their shapeshifting abilities, so I thought I should give them my own twist. Enjoy! --- --- In two months of spring, there are tanuki in the country of Mutsu, they turn into humans and sing songs. The bake-danuki, mysterious and mischievous shapeshifting creatures that have peppered the lands of Japan ever since the Nara period, if not earlier. Many a tale has been told of their propensity for annoying but ultimately harmless pranks on humans, but this story is one of a tanuki whom wished for more, one that sought to explore more than to make fun. It knew that this made it slightly different from most of its kind; the human world was one that the tanuki interacted with on its fringes, not something they particularly stuck around or embedded themselves deep in. It wasn't as though its wants stemmed from any external source either. Sure the course of history undoubtedly would

The dark cold night gave little illumination to the sprawling white of the Siberian forest, the only sources of light being the dim stars that hung above. There was civilization in the distance, yes, but even in their most bustling nights the light they produce would only come to a mere speck in these vast wildernesses, that is if you could even see it amongst the ever-changing terrain. To be lost amongst the black trees and white snowed ground is to be stuck in a monochromic trap, easy prey for the apex predators that inhabited it. And it was in this dark night that one of those apex predators was doing its rounds as usual, prowling through the snow and passing by the trees with aggressive ease. A white Siberian tiger, as much gorgeous to look at as it was deadly. Its brilliant black striped white coat of fur was peppered with bits and pieces of fallen snow, camouflaged almost completely among the trees and ground if not for its striking amber eyes, glazed yet sharp in its gaze.