Torii Painting #1

This is the first painting of a series featuring a Torii gate and apsects of the Japanese landscapes.


The story of the painting:

On a planet in a distant galaxy, a young girl ran away from home and her village. She has been mistreated there and nothing could have stopped her to leave this cruel place. Out of necessity, she started a long journey alone. In the world she was born, all animals, humanoids included, lived peacefully side by side. One day, she came across a mystical baby fox at the beach of a tiny lake with a red gate in the middle. The young male fox was lying prone and seemed very weak because one of its hindlegs was hurt. As the young traveler got closer to the fox, she noticed that the leg was actually broken. She quickly teared off pieces of fabrics of her clothes and picked up some branches from the ground; then she began moving slowly towards the fox with an outstrecked hand to calm him down. He started trembling when he noticed that the girl came closer to his resting place. After sniffing her fingers, the fox calmed down a bit. Maybe he realized that the girl wasn't dangerous. She patiently put the dressing on his leg. After the work was done she lifted up the fox and brought him to a safe place under a huge tree where they both spent the night. The next day, the fox could walk again, not well, but with the support on his leg he at least could do tiny steps. The girl spent some days around the lake to look after the fox and gathering food for the further journey. After she reassured herself that the leg was cured completely, she removed the dressing. The fox cavorted happily and thankfully around her. She left the lake and the fox as well in the early morning of the next day. He didn't join her journey because he wanted to stay in the beautiful valley with the lake, his home.

Some years later, the girl was a grown up woman now, she visited that mystical valley once again. She could remember the tiny fox very well and was wondering if she would meet him once again. 

It was late afternoon, the sun was setting over the forest and the crickets hiding in the meadows had already started to chirr. When she arrived at the border of the lake, everything seemed quiet at first. Suddenly, a shadow appeared on the top of the wooden gate in the middle of the lake - the fox was resting on it and has risen. He yowled and whined excitedly while jumping down the gate and hasted to the woman. 

After all these years, he remembered the one who was kind to him and saved his life.



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