A Foxes Tail On Dream Island

1) Finn The Human

Finn Nieminen glanced out over the city of Osaka, sprawled out just below him in grids and rectangles of many different colors. There were many waterways that transformed into nearly dried rivers and creeks that drained from the surrounding hillsides.

From the window view, down below, he mumbled in his well-mannered English dialect of a gentleman well educated and sophisticated.

"So, this is Japan." he whispered to himself, overwhelmed with the density of the city that was to be his home for a few months.

His blue eyes glanced across the hazy horizon to the heart of Osaka with its towering skyscrapers hugging the coastline. He prayed that he would never have to visit there, for it looked crowded.

His fear of being in crowded places had begun when he was only seven years old.

He still remembers that day as if it had happened yesterday: lost and all alone in downtown Portland. His parents had vanished, leaving him behind, all alone on the streets. For nearly twelve hours, his home was amongst a forest of steel, cement, and glass high-rises.

Finn remembered being huddled against the mortar of a 546-foot-tall Wells Fargo building, watching a large group of protestors marching down Jefferson Street towards the Multnomah County Courthouse.

The protestors were dressed as if they were a citizen militia armed to take down the local government with baseball bats, crowbars, fireworks, and rocks. And opposing them were police dressed in their riot gear, of whom stood back and allowed all hell to break loose in the city.

Only an hour to midnight, the police then began making street arrests and Finn was one of those people arrested for breaking curfew. He, however, was released to his parents who had reported that their son had gone missing and any charges for rioting and or vandalism were dropped that evening.

Ever since then...Finn has been terrified of crowded places; along with girls, gambling, and animals with long sharp teeth: especially dogs! He was absolutely petrified of them!

The proof of his hatred for canines still hangs on his parents' refrigerator like a well-earned trophy. The disaster happened during one of his father's many business trips to the island nation of Japan.

When his father had time off, which was extremely rare, they would travel around and sightsee. And on an adventure into the wooded mountains near Shiroishi, they stopped at a strange village that had over one hundred foxes living there.

Finn had not seen so many fluffy foxes ever before in his entire life! There were Artic white foxes, silver foxes, platinum foxes, artic red foxes, and kitakitsune red foxes that Finn absolutely adored.

He rubbed his right hand softly to smooth out the aching pain from his trip down memory lane. "I wonder if kitsune mura is still in business?" as he recalled the haunting screams that once escaped between his lips while the jaws of a sly silvery white fox had dug deeply into his tender flesh.

Those scars were his constant reminder to be weary of all types of canines, especially crafty foxes. No matter how cute or fluffy they look, they all have sharp razorlike claws and bone crushing teeth.

With a sudden shift of the jet plane pulling Finn out of his head, the tip of the wing pointed down towards the black asphalt of runway 14, below. The plane descended for its landing as Finn closed his eyes, saying a small prayer for blessings in his upcoming schooling at Naniwa University and teaching at Kansai Elementary School in Osaka.

The plane banked as it leveled out and descended towards the earth. Finn's heart raced as his new life was soon about to begin once he walked off the international flight.