Adapted from a Korean Folktale
In a time many ages ago there lived the farmer Song. No house was more respected than Song’s and his two sons. However Song had one desire his years could not settle, secretly he wished for a daughter. So he journeyed mountain paths to a forgotten shrine and prayed there. “Please I long only for a daughter, even if she is a fox!” Soon after his wife fell pregnant and nine months later gave birth to a beautiful girl. Song doted on his beloved child and left his sons to tend the herds. Years passed and his daughter grew hale and strong. That was until one evening when song’s dutiful sons reported to him the disappearance of some cows. Song scolded them for being negligent and set his eldest to watch them all night.
In the morning the son reported trembling. “Father, I wish I had not seen it but I saw our sister creep out in the night and into the cattle shed. I followed her there and saw by the moonlight her tear the heart from a cow! She ate it raw and bloody and when she was done she stuffed the cow into a seed!”
Song refused to believe such madness “You are a bad son. Not only do you betray your duty by falling asleep but you dishonour your sister by recounting nightmares! Do not darken my door again,”
And so the eldest son was banished. Song set then his second son to guard. In the night another cow died and Song asked for his son’s report in the morning. Having seen the fate of his brother the younger son said only
“Father, I saw my sister pass in the night but she did not go near the shed. When I looked in a cow had fallen, perhaps it saw the moon and died of fright,”
Song was satisfied and ordered his son to close the shed from the sky.
Dispirited and disinherited the elder son wandered. He could not abandon his family but he did not know what to do. His travels brought him to an old temple and there came upon a monk, warding off a demon. He rushed to the monk’s aid and afterward pleaded “Master please help me, a great evil has bewitched my family,”
The monk heard his story and took him on as a novice. For a year and a day the monk trained him in the righteous ways. Finally the son could stay no longer, he gathered wards and potions and left, his master giving him one final advice.
“To kill a fox, you must first trap it,”
The son returned home but found it not as he remembered. His village had fallen far. His friends hid behind boarded windows. His family’s house was dark and the fields lay abandoned. Feeling a great foreboding the son passed through the door. There were no lamps, only the glow of his sister’s eyes.
“Welcome home brother, I have prepared a feast for you,”
The brother was wary but he could not refuse his sister’s hospitality. The food was good and the wine plenty but the son could not shake an illness in his stomach. Finally he excused himself and made ready for bed. Using his teacher’s lessons he purified himself before retiring and drew protections on his own skin.
In the night he awoke, with a great pain in his chest. It was his sister crouched atop him.
“Shh, dear brother,” she crooned “Just one more and I’ll be human.”
She reached into his chest as if flesh was water. However there came a great sizzling noise and she leapt off of him in fright. The brother staggered from his bed and ran into the kitchen seeking a weapon. The moon had come up and the brother beheld the remains of his family. Their chests had been opened as if by a child’s hands. Around the carcasses sat plates heavy with meat and cups filled with blood. He heard a growl and turned to see his sister behind him. Her eyes were aglow and there was fur behind her ears.
He fled from the house and fled up the mountain paths. Always she was a step behind, her laughter a horrible barking. She hunted him to a forgotten shrine, guarded by a stone archway. There was but one entrance and the brother thought himself lost. But his master's advice came to him and he heaved mightily against the stone arch. It cracked to the patter of feet and fell upon a form shrieking. Snatching up a bit of rubble the brother dashed it upon his sister's head. The woman died away until only a fox lay there. The brother buried it and left it to be forgotten.
