The night was long. Actually, it wasn’t very long – it was only four hours since the sun set. The earlier red-and-orange Megatian sky had now become dark midnight blue and the moon and stars shone bright. The trees held the positions they had since they had grown – proud and tall, like sentinels in the night. The path lay out on the grass, leading whoever would tread on it to either the town or somewhere else far away. Everything was bathed in the moon’s soft light. Not a sound was heard anywhere. Everything was silent; everything was still.
Except for two.
Ikkin groggily trudged on the road, not really wondering where to go or where she could rest. Sev, her trusty phoenix companion, flew above the kitsune knight; concerned with nothing but where his owner was going (and if she was going to get herself into another heap-load of trouble or not.) Stumbling, Ikkin saw through her tired light-brown eyes an old but sturdy tree stump. The kitsune tiredly walked toward it, tripping on a pebble (and getting up) along the way. Once she reached the tree stump, she shook away a little of her exhaustion and sat on it. Sev perched on her shoulder, also weary from the trip.
Ikkin, once seated, felt a wince of pain. Frowning, she rubbed her right arm, which was bandaged. Those monsters can be pretty darn nasty if they fought you before having their morning coffee. Plus, Sev’s powers were weak so he wasn’t able to heal the deep cut the monster had given her. Luckily, a friendly Megatian came by, and though she had freaked the kitsune out (half-toad-half-humans can be frightening), she was able to place some ointments on Ikkin’s wound and bandaged it before it could get any worse. Ikkin looked at the bloody bandage, longing to take it off. Sev looked at the knight’s wound, his feathers shining in the moonlight. “I think you should change that thing,” he said with a tone of sympathy and disgust. Ikkin sighed and shook her head. “We don’t have any bandages,” the kitsune mumbled, her eyes dull. She wasn’t thinking about her wound anymore. Sev cocked his head and looked at his owner with concern. “Ikkin, are you okay?”
She did not answer.
For a while, Silence ruled over the area. Then Ikkin sighed and, with tears threatening to flow out from her eyes, looked at the phoenix and asked in a small, somewhat frightened voice:
“Sev, wh-who am I, really?”
Sev was slightly shocked and confused by this presentation. Ikkin? Afraid? She wasn’t like how he remembered her – he remembered her as the strong and powerful kitsune knight, brave, daring, always game for anything and never lost her way! Now he saw a timid, frightened and lost kitsune pup, who had, for once, not known what to do! It was all twisted now.
“Sev! Who am I?”
Sev looked weirdly at Ikkin. “You are Ikkin,” he answered. “A noble kitsune knight and master of the phoenix, Severus. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
Ikkin only shook her head wildly, crystalline tears forming from the corners of her eyes. “Aside from that! I’m not just a kitsune knight. There must be some other part of me I can’t find! I’m more than what you are describing me as!” She then stopped, inhaled a bit of air and – to the phoenix’s surprise – broke down in sobs.
“W-why can’t I r-re-remember anything?” she asked helplessly. “Why did I lose my memory? Sev, tell me why!”
The phoenix sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted. ‘I don’t remember much anything, either. I only remember that I was separated from you when we landed here in Megatia.” He looked at his master curiously. “Tell me, Ikkin. Do you remember anything?”
Ikkin was as still as a statue. Only her lips moved. “No,” she answered darkly. “I only remember my name, a-and something that happened b-before we got here . . .” Then, a flashback came to her. It was the horrible event that happened before she was sent to this unfamiliar place. Each and every single detail played in her mind. She heard voices, crashes, screaming . . . then everything went black. That’s all she remembered. The kitsune huddled herself on the tree stump and sobbed quietly.
The phoenix looked at his master worriedly. He knew what memory was playing in the poor knight’s head. “How about happy moments?”, he asked. “Do you remember anything happy?”
Ikkin shook her head. “Iot’s been a while since I knew what happiness exactly was.” Then, she was quiet.
Sev only shook his head and sighed. They were both hopeless now. If Ikkin couldn’t pull herself together, she would have no way to recover her memory and they would be stuck in Megatia forever. Yes, it looked like both master and servant were doomed.
Silence. None of the two talked for a while. Everything once again became still. The moon kept on shining its light, bathing the kitsune and the phoenix in a faint white glow. For a moment, nothing had happened.
Then Ikkin decided to say something.
“Sev?”
“Mmm?”
“Can you sing?”
Sev’s eyes grew wide at Ikkin’s question. Sing? That really wasn’t the type of question he had expected from the broken girl. But nonetheless, he answered, “Yes, I guess I can.”
“Can you sing something for me?”
“Hmm. I don’t know, Ikkin. All the songs I once knew have been erased from my memory.” The phoenix thought hard. “Oh, yes, I think I remember a song. I learned it when I was a young chick.”
“Sing it for me.”
“Okay then.” Gathering all his confidence, Sev opened his beak and out of it, a sweet, melodious song floated out.
“The moments of happiness,
We had the experience but missed the meaning
And approach to the meaning restores the experience
In a different form beyond any meaning
we can assign to happiness
The past experience revived in the meaning
Is not the experience of one life only
But of many generations
Not forgetting something that is probably quite ineffable . . .”
The phoenix’s song soothed the emotionally drained kitsune knight. Slowly, Ikkin lowered her eyelids and soon, she was nearly asleep from the song.
Then, something happened. Just as she closed her eyes, her mind perceived a faint image of a black-haired girl wearing a white shirt, blue pants and what seemed to be a red cape tied around her neck. Her face was blurred out, but her voice was clear as she opened her mouth to sing a deep, somewhat hopeful tune:
“Moonlight,
Turn your face to the moonlight,
Let your memory lead you,
Open up, enter in
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is,
Then a new life will begin.”
Then Ikkin perceived more – many other faint beings, standing behind the red-cloaked girl. Though their faces were blurred out, there was a feeling of familiarity that surrounded them like dust motes in the morning sunlight. They, too, sang with voices too familiar for the kitsune to ignore.
“Moonlight,
Turn your face to the moonlight,
Let your memory lead you,
Open up, enter in
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is,
Then a new life will begin . . .”
When their singing ended, the kitsune knight was enlightened. She opened her eyes and glanced at the moon. Her dull eyes have now become lively again with the moonlight’s sparkle. Quickly, she stood up, startling Sev so much that he almost fell off her shoulder. “What in blazes – Ikkin?” The girl looked at her companion, grinning widely. “C’mon, Sev, we gotta get going!”
“Get going?” The phoenix asked as his master jumped off the tree stump. “Why? Haven’t we traveled enough today? I thought you were moping a few minutes ago!”
Ikkin’s eyes shone brighter. “I saw them,” she told her phoenix. “I saw my friends!”
“Friends? I thought you didn’t know who they were!”
“I don’t, but probably, if I keep searching, I’ll know them and we’ll be friends again!” She happily walked down the path to the unknown parts of Megatia, a grumpy Sev perched on her shoulder. “I think I liked it better when you were emotional,” he grumbled.
So the two went down the path, not stopping for a bit of rest nor for directions. And even as the Megatian sun rose, they still searched on, looking for Ikkin’s lost memories and piecing together the pieces of the life she had lost.
Look, a new day has begun . . .
===*===
End.Songs used are 'The Moments of Happiness' and 'Memory', both from the musical CATS.