The Beginning of Her Story
by Michael Mark "Percival_Brock" Maquilan

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*Note that all the names used here were, for the sake of the English language, may be similar to the names under "Name Ideas by Percival". It should be easy to identify who's who. But I'm still not sure which name version to use: Japanese, Filipino, or my own names.

The sun hovered well above the eastern horizon, casting warm rays of light on the forest canopy on Murgen's western edge. Bright and dark green sheets danced a soft waltz to the morning breeze. In the banquet of leaves, some break off from their twigs to continue their graceful number with the wind as they floated down to their places on the fresh brown soil, or on the gray stone paths. One of those paths led to a brown wooden house with a red roof, a chimney, and a large square-grid window on the second floor.

A white-and-brown-furred spirit of cats shambled through the doorway yawning, stretching her sleepy limbs as far as she could.

"Good morning!" she greeted the rest of world, rubbing her half-shut eyes with closed fists.

When the hands left her eyes, the spirit knew that no one else actually heard her greeting.

She sighed.

She went to a old, wrinkled tree on the side of the path, adjusted her purple skirt of decent length, and sat on the huge, gnarled roots.

"Things happened," she told herself.

The cat spirit eyed the green jade bracelet on her left hand. "It really feels like a watch, doesn't it?" She asked herself. "Well, it certainly looks better than around my neck as a collar, eh?"

"My skin color changed, eh..." she thought, noticing her lighter, less forbidding color.

Shifting her thoughts to the previous topic, she remembers the other jade bracelets her best friend Gaou had given for her birthday. Red, purple, blue, yellow...

She smiled. "I think I like the green one because it looks most like jade..."

Just three days ago, she and Gaou, spirit of tigers, found themselves walking through a stone path lined with cherry trees -- trees saturated pink with blossoms. The pair found themselves in the middle of an endless shower of petals.

She stopped to pick up some of the leaves and petals. She paused to smell, sniffing what fragrance is left of the bundle in the hands, before she crumpled them into a fist and scattered the fragments aside.

"Poor cherry blossoms." Gaou sighed, directly eyeing her closed fist. "They fall off the branches and die, yet even in death they are trampled by passers-by and crushed by cats."

"Don't make me laugh, Gaou." she bluntly returned, kicking a rustle of dead leaves and cherry petals into the air. "This is the way to appreciate beauty."

The tiger returned her bluntless with a graceless smile. "I--see you have a problem?"

She simply nodded. Picking up a cherry petal to look at, she said, "You know, Gaou, just yesterday, I was still known as the Queen of Evil, the person who hurt so many and destroyed a lot and hated so much. Yet now, how can you be walking down this path with me?"

The tiger hesitated. "I don't know." He scratched the orange fur at the back of his head. "I just... want to be here with you, that's all."

"Really. So it's okay for you to walk this path with me? How about... everyone else?"

Gaou peered in many directions and noticed the other spirits walking down the same path of cherry trees, mostly in groups of two, three or five. He noticed the stares from some of the elder-looking spirits as he looked at them. Most of the onlookers immediately looked in the direction of a cherry tree as his gaze met theirs.

"Yes, they still remember who you are... who you -were-." Gaou shook his head in his slight confusion. "I wish there was something I could do about it."

The cat's fit of anger had already transformed into a fit of sadness. "I want to know, Gaou, why... why you aren't acting like that... like everyone else?"

Gaou locked himself in thought before he sputtered his reply. "Because... because I was your friend, and I stay here, hoping that I still -am- your friend."

"Really?"

"Really. So, am I still your friend?"

"Of course you are, Gaou!"

They embraced.

Her tiger friend really looked that much older and taller than her, as if he was her father... "I wonder if he thinks of me as... some sort of daughter?"

"I'm sure he forgives me... but how about the others?"

Two days ago, she had to deal with one of the people who would've did more than stare at her, if she didn't stop to talk with them.

She and Kelly, a spirit of rabbits, sat on a bench on a park at the outskirts of Rabbitsville.

The oak trees, elm trees, and other trees which do not have pink blossoms were not to be outdone by the cherry trees. They shed their leaves as part of one of their last dances, tributes to the coming of autumn and the arrival of winter. Most of the fallen leaves, however, seemed to have been raked into a pile -around- a metal lamppost.

Kelly acknowledged the efforts of the cat spirit. "Thanks for coming to help rake the leaves, Shaokaola!"

Shaokaola stretched her arms and rested them on the top of the bench. "It's the least I could do." she replied, eyeing the two rakes leaning on the tree to her right.

Just then, a figure appeared from down the path, moving directly towards the bench. The brown-furred Spirit of Monkeys sporting well-combed hair and well-ironed clothes stopped in front of the two girls.

"I'm surprised that you have not been banished from Murgen." he bickered at Shaokaola, sharply eyeing her. "For all you've done, are you not even regretting your..."

"Cut it off, Menkyu!" Kelly interrupted in defense of the cat spirit. "I know you came here just to pick a fight with her. You should be ashamed of yourself!"

The monkey spirit flung himself a few steps back. "But-but-eh-h-how did you know?" he blurted in his state of shock and surprise.

Kelly crossed her arms and turned away. "I didn't see you walking." she answered. "I just saw you coming. Now apologize."

Menkyu was about to turn away himself when he himself saw the tears in Shaokaola's eyes. Not the one who is good at apologizing, Menkyu just stood there.

"What are you waiting for?" Kelly nagged. "Say sorry!"

"Er..."

"Now!"

The boy adjusted his collar, cleared his throat, sighed, stammered "I... I... I..." but no sorry would come out.

"No, don't say sorry!" Shaokaola cried. She stood up, wiped the tears off with her right arm, and said, "I... I did so much wrong that no one could forgive me!" Her fists became tight grips and her sniffs became painful sobs.

Kelly eyed Menkyu. "Please leave if you can't say sorry. You're no help." she told him sternly.

Dejected, Menkyu turned his back and slowly walked away. "I... I'm sorry." he whispered as he left the presence of the two girls.

As Shaokaola, stood there crying, Kelly invited Shaokaola to once again sit down with her on the bench. The cat spirit agreed and she was once again seated, but the tears haven't subsisded.

Silence then befell the two.

The wind blew.

More silence.

Kelly sighed, "I'm sorry. I don't know what to say."

"He's right." the cat spirit whispered. "I am evil..."

"Yes! But you know, he may be right, but he's also wrong!" the spirit of rabbits interrupted. "Menkyu was right when he mentioned all you done. Even I will admit what you did then was not good. But he was wrong when he said that you deserve to be banished from Mugren. By that he meant that you are still evil... but I know... you have changed."

"You know," Kelly stood up and continued, "two days ago, after Powell defeated you--the "Queen of Evil" part of you--and when the demon told you what a fool you were to be used by her, I knew by then that you wanted to change. Then I sat beside you tending your wounds. Normally I would've been afraid to even approach the Queen of Evil, but I knew you wouldn't hurt me. In the end, you helped us defeat the demon and restore order to our world. You didn't betray my trust then. That's why I trust you."

"Really?" the cat spirit sobbed.

"Really!" assured a smiling Kelly. "Come on, let's have some orange juice."

Drawing a furrow in the rich forest soil, Shaokaola's thoughts came out of a sigh:

"Yes, maybe I have her trust, but will the others trust me too?"

The air picked up the question and scattered it into the four winds. It is a question she may not resolve for a long time.

Yesterday morning, when Shaokaola was tending to her flowers a lonely traveler passed by and greeted her.

"Oh, hello!" Shaokaola greeted back.

"How are the flowers?"

"Oh, they're fine."

"You live here?"

"Um, yeah."

"I heard that this house was destroyed two days ago."

"Oh? Um... yeah." Shaokaola remembered that she (as the Queen of Evil) herself destroyed it then. "I almost forgot about that."

"Really. You must be fortunate that the Princess remembers your house."

Then the traveler started to walk away.

"Wait!" Shaokaola called his attention. "Where are you heading?"

"West." the traveler replied. "There is a watch tower there, and I've been assigned there."

"Really?" Shaokaola doesn't remember that there was one, but she dismissed it as due to her not living in Murgen for a long time.

"Yeah. I'll be working alone. I'll be living there for a long time."

"Oh?"

"Hm... you are so kind to be talking to me this way. You can't possibly be the Queen of Evil. The rumors should be false."

Then the traveler turned to go again.

"Thanks!" Shaokaola called his attention. "Oh, before you go, who could you be?"

The mysterious traveler glaced above his shoulder and answered, "My identity will probably not contribute to your story at this time. It's best left unknown."

And so he walked down what remains of the forest path and disappeared into the forest.

"M-my story?" Shaokaola asked herself, wondering what the traveler truly meant.

In her curiosity, Shaokaola went into her home, picked up a phone and called up her best friend.

"Hello? Oh, it's you, Shaokaola."

"Hello, Gaou!"

"So what brings you to call me?"

Shaokaola told her friend about the mysterious traveler and what he told her. "He said something about 'my story'. What does that mean?"

"Your story? Perhaps it's like what the Princess said about the exploits of the Eto Rangers. Sometimes the story leaves a mark on history, thus creating a new Novel World. Maybe what the traveler means is that the events of the past few days may become part of your story in the future."

"Really?"

"I don't know..."

"Okay, thanks."

"Goodbye, Shaokaola."

"Goodbye, my dear friend."

And Shaokaola put down the telephone.

"So... all this happening to me... the people who forgive me... and the people who don't... the traveler... they're all part of... 'my story'?"

"My life isn't that so normal, after all. Not everyone can profess to have become a 'Queen of Evil'..."

There are the people who trust her, but there are the people who don't, and there are also the people she doesn't even know, but they have made a mark on her life.

"My life makes a story?"

And so what could Shaokaola do? She stood up, and laughed.

"Maybe I should try living this life... after all, I've got a story to write."

Meanwhile, hidden among the leaves above Shaokaola, a male spirit sporting a pair of square-framed glasses and an identification card ("Murgen Times") pinned to a stylish blue polo shirt, presses the stop button on his tape recorder. "Ha!" he thinks. "This will make a good story! I can finally stop writing about myself..."

"I can already imagine the headline: 'Former Queen of Evil Returns to Murgen, Contemplates Life After Reign of Terror'. Yeah, I'm a genius!"

And so the Kirin guy hops off the branch and escapes the woods, afterwards getting on the road towards the city, towards his office.

(The end?)