Hakuro's Sons

...a fuzzy haze...

...two bright faces, full of excitement and awe...

...his own smiling face, beaming back at them...

The old man's eyelids creaked open, his bones groaning in resistance as he got up from his spot under the tree and stretched. How long had he been meditating there? The tree he had been leaning against had started to grow around him. He looked around at his hermitage. It was the same as when he had last opened his eyes, save for the now deteriorating door frame and the plethora of dust and insects now inhabiting it.

"This is no place to live!" he muttered to himself. "I must repair it at once!"

He peeled the axe from where it had fused to the back wall of his house, holstered his sword to his belt, and set off to gather wood for repairs.

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Tori tripped over another root. She was exhausted, full of cuts, and pregnant.

"O gods, deliver me, for I am with child!" she cried. "At the cost of my life, at least save my child!"

It was at this moment that she heard the falling of a tree. She listened closer and heard the distinct sound of wood being chopped. Salvation had come, for she realized that the sound of chopping trees could mean one thing - there was some kind of shelter nearby! She hastily wobbled toward the sound of the chopping and as she emerged into a clearing, she saw the source of the sound and was amazed. It was a man that, from the pure white of his hair and the time-worn wrinkles on his face, should have been nearly ninety years old! But he was chopping down a tree with all the swiftness and energy of a man in the prime of his youth. She watched in awe as it took him four quick swings to cut through half a tree. Four more and a small push, and the tree fell with a deafening crash.

The old man, not a drop of sweat on his brow, sensed a pair of eyes on him and looked directly over at Tori.

"Strange woman, what brings you here, to the heart of the forest? Have you no consideration of your child?" he said, immediately determining that she was pregnant.

"Please, sir. I have been exiled from my kingdom, forsaken to walk in the wilderness to prove my loyalty to my king. I have been walking for seven days, surviving off the sparse berries and the trickles of forest streams. May you spare me some food and shelter, that I may bring my child safely into this world?" she implored him desperately.

Touched with compassion for this dirty woman and her unborn child, he agreed. He brought the wood back to his hermitage, the woman following closely behind, and built a small, separate shelter for himself, giving his hermitage to her. He had sensed the woman's loyalty to her husband and king, and dared not provide even a chance for misunderstanding, for he knew of the king and his uprightness. He had no such worries, for he had transcended such worldly desires in his meditation in isolation, but in his wisdom, considered her position.

"Wise sage, I forgot to ask - what is your name? Mine is Tori," she asked.

"I have not needed a name for a long time...you can call me Hakuro."

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Tori eventually gave birth to not just one child, but twins. However, their temperaments were very different. Lava, who she named due to his flaring but quickly calmed temper, was more of a leader than Kusa, who was as quiet and peaceful as the growing grass. She asked for Hakuro's help in raising them; he would act as a father figure, for she believed every boy needs the guidance of one to grow properly.

So Hakuro, learned in all forms of literature and poetry, and having mastered the military skills and swordsmanship, took up their education. Despite his gentle complexion, he became a completely different person while he was instructing them. In training he was harsh, and in literature he was strict, giving off an unchallengeable aura that demanded attention and perfection. But the two hung on every word that Hakuro said, their faces always full of fascination at even the most mundane topics, and his old heart was captured by their diligence. The more he perfected them, the more he realized he had come to love them. Because of this, Lava and Kusa grew up refined in all matters of the world, and were more powerful and wise than the strongest generals.

Finally, the time of their coming of age drew near, so he gave them one last challenge - to memorize the story of a man and his wife. He called them over and began telling them the story of this extraordinary couple: about their history and the challenges they faced to get to where they were, how the man was exiled because of his aunt's jealousy, how his wife and his brother refused to leave his side...about how his wife was kidnapped by the demon king and he, along with his brother and friends, defeated the demon king, bringing joy to the gods and winning back his wife. And how the man, reunited again with his wife, returned from their exile to take their rightful place at the throne.

This story was Hakuro's final charge to the two he had come to call his sons. As he finished up the story, he looked down at their bright faces looking back at him, their eyes full of wonder and awe. The same faces that had grown on his heart all these years. And he smiled at them, eyes full of pride.