Tail As Old As Time

“I will answer one question for you,” The girl lifted a finger for emphasis. “Today. Tomorrow, if you can find me again, you may ask another. In return, for each question, you will listen to one of my tales.”

If I can find you? I thought wryly. Her shrine wasn’t exactly hidden. It wasn’t visible from the road, sure, but I wasn’t going to get lost trying to find it.

Her offer was…intriguing. I was certainly curious about her. I’d discovered her shrine quite by accident, wandering around an old abandoned park. Imagine my surprise when I found some kind of ancient guardian spirit inside! I’d never heard of a Vanai before; now I’d met one, apparently. I was lucky she spoke English, frankly.

Now I could ask her any question, once a day, and in return, all I had to do was…listen to some story of hers?

That sounded like a bargain to me.

“Okay. Will you answer my questions truthfully?” I asked.

The girl frowned. “Is that your question?”

I winced. Shit, that was careless, I thought.

“If it were, it would be a very poor question.” She continued, before I could clarify. “If I was inclined to lie to you, I would of course lie, and say that I would tell you the truth. If I were instead an entirely honest soul, I would naturally tell you as much. Therefore, the answer I’d give would be the same, and the question itself would be rendered meaningless.”

As she spoke, she abruptly leapt up, several times more than she should have been able to, and landed lightly on a thick branch of one of the trees growing inside the glass building. She sat in a fluid motion, as if nothing extraordinary had just occurred.

My eyes bugged out slightly as I witnessed this. The spirit smiled, not unkindly, and continued.

“Nevertheless, the heart of the question is clear. I will address your questions…authentically.” she said, swinging her feet idly. “You will have to decide how true the answer is to you.”

Good enough for me. I coughed. “Ok, cool. Thanks for clarifying. I, uh, didn’t say that was my question, though.”

She grinned knowingly. “Oh, how careless of me! I suppose I’ll have to let you have that one.”

Then she fell backwards, catching the branch with her legs, and swung her head up to face me, her body now hanging inverted from the tree. I couldn’t help but notice a long, fur-covered tail wrapping tightly around the branch as well.

“What else would you ask of me, then?” She asked.

“Well, how about…What is your name?”

She huffed. “That’s a boring question! Ask me something else.”

“Well, if you had told me when I asked the first time…”

The girl crossed her arms, looking miffed. ”My name’s Aera. I’m giving you freebies because it's your first time. Ask me something interesting.”

“Like what?” I said. Then I smacked myself.

Aera groaned and swung off the branch, landing loudly in front of me. “You are really bad at this!” She said accusingly.

”I know, I know! Sorry, just let me…oh, I got it! What is the extent of your knowledge?”

Aera’s face lit up. “Oh, yes! That is a good one.” Then she paused. “I don’t know how to answer that, though.”

I had to laugh,

“It’s a hard question!” She protested, smiling. “How do you explain the limits of your own knowledge?”

“I guess I thought you were omniscient, or something.” I admitted.

“I don’t know much about physics, and I’m terrible at math.” She said, “But I can tell you a great deal about life and death. 

I nodded. “Okay. Guess I shouldn’t be treating you like a genie.”

“Not fond of genies, myself.” Aera said offhandedly. “They’re very…stuffy.”

I swallowed. Ok, ok, so genies appear to be real, too. No big deal.

“Alright, enough questions.” Aera gestured towards an old stone bench, which I sat on. “Let me tell you how this sacred space was founded…”

I burst into the shrine, gasping for breath. Aera was reclining one of the benches, tapping a stick against the floor. She looked up, looking bored. “Oh, hey. You again.”

I stood there, leaning against the door frame, continuing to gasp. Eventually I caught my breath enough to “What the hell?”

Aera blinked. “What?”

“I just…” I coughed. “I couldn’t find the place, and I was…why was I sprinting? I felt like I was running for my life!”

Aera shrugged. “Maybe you were. Do you have something to ask me, or what?”

I frowned at her. “What’s with y—” I cut myself off before I could finish the question. “I mean, you seem…upset.”

She groaned and rolled off the bench. I noticed, absently, that her tail was…not there anymore.  “Nah, just bored. No one ever visits this place anymore. You’re the first in a long while.”

Then why aren’t you more excited, I wondered. I thought about it, then said out loud. “Why do you linger here then?”

Her eyes flashed as she glanced at me. “Linger?” Then she laughed. “You think I’m lingering here?”

“...I mean, aren’t you?”

“Not at all.” She stood up and started strolling around the shrine. Her tails were swaying…wait, now she had three tails? “I’m not confined to this place. I can go wherever I want.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay. And you’re sitting here bored because?”

“Because I want to.”

“You want to be bored? Why?”

“Greedy child, you’ve already asked your question.” She chastised good-naturedly. “And anyway. I’m not just here. I could be—”

“—here,” Her voice came from behind me. I jumped and spun around. She was leaning against the other side of the doorframe, yawning. “Or I could be—”

“—here.” And now she was high up in the tree, grinning down at me.

“Or, if I really wanted, I could bring myself—”

And then she was gone. I blinked and looked around, but she was nowhere in sight.

I stood there, baffled, for a couple of seconds, before she was suddenly right in front of me again. “Sorry, forgot you couldn’t follow me there.”

“I…you…where did you go?”

“Ask me next time, if you wish. Now listen up. I have a very interesting tale to share today. It starts almost 400 years ago…”

“Where did you go last time?”

“Africa.”

“Africa!?”

“Well, that was easy. Now, then, onto my tale…”

“Tell me about Vanai.”

Aera bristled. “That is not a question, that is a command. I do not like being commanded.”

“Ah…my apologies. May I ask you about Vanai?”

She nodded sagely. “You may.”

I waited, but she said nothing else.

Oh, duh.

“What can you tell me about Vanai?” I asked.

Aera shrugged. “Sorry, you asked your question today.”

Oh, Goddammit. I sighed, defeated.

Aera chuckled. “Perhaps today my story can answer your question.”

I perked up, intrigued. Aera leapt onto a stone pillar and began to speak.

“Little Niko was running through the forest. He wasn’t lost, though he wished he could be. As he came to his favorite clearing, he noticed a beautiful golden fox reclining in the moss…”

“Do you…do you really have nine tails?” I’d done some research on ‘Vanai’ and ‘fox’, and apparently some of them had up to that many.

“Oh, I have many more than nine tales! I’ve barely begun to share them all.”

“Share them…oh, no, sorry, I didn’t mean tales, like stories. I meant tails.”

“That’s what I said, tales!”

“No, tails! Like, the body part?”

“Yes, my stories are a part of—”

“Are you being intentionally obtuse?”

“Sorry, you’ve already asked your question today.”

I swore and tried to storm out of the shrine, her laughter mocking me from behind. Just as I was passing through the doorway, though, a fur-covered rope snaked out from behind and wrapped around me. Just as I recognized that it was one of her tails, I was wrenched backwards with a grunt, to fall sprawling at Aera’s feet.

“Ah, ah, ah!” She chided, grinning. Several of her tails wagged playfully. “You haven’t paid the fee yet.”

I groaned. She laughed again, before launching into a story about some girl who talked to trees…

Her stories were so…I didn’t want to say boring, but…okay, they were boring. I didn’t understand why she was bothering to share them with me. Maybe it really was supposed to be a cost?

They were all just so mundane. Sometimes the characters had cool powers, but usually not. And even if they did, the plots were so simple, just people living their lives. They didn’t have cool action, or intriguing moral dilemmas. Aera herself was an engaging speaker, but her stories were just…normal.

I couldn’t really complain. It was the price she asked for my questions. Though she was infuriatingly tricky to pin down and get a proper answer from.

Did she want to answer my questions, or not?

“Why are you answering my questions, anyway?”

Aera yawned, reclining on a windowsill. Honestly, she often struck me as much more like a cat than a fox. A cat o’ nine tails, as it were. Though she still hadn’t properly answered that question, either.

“Why not?” She asked.

“I mean, I’m just curious about the reasoning.”

She stretched (very catlike) and leapt down lithely. She looked thoughtful. “I suppose you remind me of myself, when I was younger. Much younger.”

“Uh, okay.” I didn’t know how to respond to that. She looked, like, sixteen.

“Maybe I’m looking for someone to pass on the taletelling tradition.” She continued, smiling.

I hesitated. “I’m…not sure I’m that interested in stories.”

Aera looked at me seriously. “What about yours?”

I didn’t have an answer for her.

“Do you have another question for me today?” She asked, climbing that favorite tree of hers like a squirrel. Seriously, what animal was she supposed to be?

“Yes,” I replied. “I wanted to ask you—”

Suddenly, she leapt down and landed before me. “I already know what you’re going to ask.”

I blinked, taken aback. “You do?”

Then I realized my mistake.

“YES!” She cried triumphantly. “The answer is yes! No more questions today.” She cackled and danced around for a bit.

I swore angrily. “That’s not fair!”

“Correct.” She grinned at me mockingly. “Now pay the con-woman her due and listen up.

Grumbling, I acquiesced. Maybe she was right: maybe they were starting to grow on me.

“Why are all of your stories about other people?” I hesitated before pressing on. “Why are none of them about you?”

Aera hesitated. She’d never done that before. Her usually serene expression fell slightly.

“My tales are all a part of me.” She said softly.

I frowned. “Uh, is this tale/tail confusion again?”

“There is no confusion.” She said, confusingly.

I crossed my arms. “Why won’t you ever just answer a simple que—”

“How many tails do you have?” She asked abruptly.

I faltered, nonplussed. “I…I’ve never had one, I’m human.”

“So am I”

My eyes widened. “You are?”

Aera nodded solemnly. “I will tell you a secret; people always leave something in their wake. For some, it’s a song, playing in the background of your soul. For others, it’s like fire, crackling and spreading, consuming or illuminating as you choose.” She chuckled. “Sometimes it’s a smell, and not always a good one.”

She gestured towards herself. “And for some of us, it’s…tails.” Then she gestured towards me. “You have one right now.”

Huh? Despite myself, I found myself glancing behind me, just to ensure that, yeah no, one hadn’t just sprung out of my backside. “No, I…don’t?”

Aera shrugged, arms spread wide, as if to say, look at me.

Fair point… Her tails weren’t visible, yet I definitely knew she had them. But surely I didn’t…

Just then, Aera closed her eyes and breathed out slowly. As she did, multicolored light began to emanate from behind her, a prismatic wave of energy coalescing into a semi solid form. I began to make out the form of her tails, though they were spectral now where they were solid before.

There were so many! But they weren’t…separate, they were connected. With a gasp I realized that they were all branching out, like a tree, or a glowing piece of coral. Each branch was distinct in color and…texture? But together they shined like the aurora borealis.

The energy continued to spread, softly and slowly, filling the room. I half noticed that it had gotten dark outside at his point, and the glow was mesmerizing.

I stood in silence for a moment, transfixed by the otherworldly beauty. Aera waved her arm backwards and pulled forward one of the tendrils of light. It solidified somewhat, though it was still translucent, and I suddenly noticed a…presence.

“This is Naomi.” Aera said, holding the ribbon of light out before her. “My granddaughter. She was energetic, wild, and extremely friendly. She inherited most of that from her mother, and by extension, me.” She laughed, eyes shining. “I have no idea where the friendly part came from, but it served her well. She was beloved by the ones she loved, and vaguely distrusted by strangers for being a little bit too nice.”

She reached back behind her shoulder and grabbed another huge branching column of energy. I felt several presences this time.

“These two are twins. Akira and Ren. Believe it or not, they actually married another set of twins! They were very close growing up, but they moved apart when they got married, so there wouldn’t be any…ah, confusion amongst the couples.” She laughed again, but I noticed a tear rolling down her cheek as she spoke. “Ren moved to his wife’s country; Akira stayed here. They grew apart over time, but they never forgot each other completely. I forget, honestly, how they’re related to me. It was a bit after my time.”

Then she moved to reach behind herself once more, and hesitated. Tears were rolling freely down her face now. I could see genuine joy in her eyes when she spoke of the ones she loved, but also sadness. Loss.

At length, she pulled another tail forward. This one was…alone. No branches, just a single fox's tail, glowing a verdant green.

“This is Sora. My daughter. Her life burned bright and fast. She was not nice, or polite, but she was fiercely, fiercely kind. She lived…a short life.” Aera closed her eyes. “A good life.”

I had no words. I hadn’t imagined, couldn’t imagine, that she would have such a family. After however many hundreds of years, it made sense, but…I just couldn’t think on that scale. And to have gone through that loss…

I waited, unable to say anything, to break the silence. Eventually. Aera looked up again. The tears had stopped.

“You’re leaving tomorrow.” She said. It wasn’t a question. I wasn’t sure how she knew, but I nodded. Tonight was my last night before I went back home. I may never see her again, I thought.

Aera sighed, and the light from her almost literal family tree dimmed (Family tree tail? Family trail?)

“I’m not sharing this with you because either one of us is particularly special.” Aera said, somewhat bluntly. “I just think you deserve to know yourself. You don’t have anything in your wake yet, but I see in you a strength that I’ve discovered in myself over the years. The strength to connect. Most people don’t recognize that” She gave me a half smile. “Hell, most Vanai don’t even recognize that. We’re not entirely put together, either.”

I still didn’t know what to say. I eventually settled on “Thank you.” She smiled and nodded.

“I won’t keep you. We might meet again someday, but if not…it was nice to be able to share my tails again.” She paused. “Oh, and to answer your silly questions, too.”

I laughed. “It was nice to ask them.”

Our business concluded, I began to make my exit.

“Oh, one more thing.”

I paused, glancing back.

Aera looked…embarrassed? “Try not to be too freaked out by…y’know. The tails.”

I chuckled, somewhat nervously. “It is kinda weird, isn’t it?”

“It is. It really is.” Aera said, nodding fervently.

And then I left. Back to my normal, uninteresting life, but bringing with me a connection I would not soon forget, and…a somewhat furrier behind.