Norio fantasised about running away often. It was his favourite pastime, his version of a dream or an aspiration, though really, it was hard to tell if he actually wanted it to come true or if it was merely a childish desire that he couldn't shake away. Like wanting ice cream in the winter.

He missed many things about the Snow Country. The temperature for one, and the eponymous weather. The white powdery substance had been the source of much wonder and joy when he was little. An astute psychiatrist might even point to the fact that it was the excitement and frenzied passion with which he created snowy structures and snowy people, that eventually lead him down the path of Puppetry. Though he was quite the prodigy at that, nothing could surpass his raw talent for making the snow form in any shape and way he pleased; like a skilled artisan, the snow hung on his every word. Ah, to be young again.

The boy would travel outside of the village, tempting himself, playing both the part of Adam, Eve, the Snake and the Apple all at once. The village was not his Eden however. Perhaps he had already taken the bite, or rather, someone had taken it for him. He wanted to claw his way back to paradise, but was it lost to him? Perhaps the Snow Country was not where he would find it.

Still, he enjoyed the exercise. Sometimes, walking for the sake of walking held a certain excitement to it. A sense of adventure. He could walk for hours, without people to distract him, annoy him, disgust him. Everyone was so loud and obnoxious; his "family" holding the crown for being the greatest source of irritation known to man. Norio do this, Norio do that. Norio you should eat more, because you look unhealthy. You should stop playing with puppets, and take up the honourable Hyuuga ways. Fuck you dad.  

The boy exhaled quietly. He had been following the main road for sometime now, having been thoroughly lost in thought. Letting his mind go off on its merry way was something else. It was nice not to be so focused, so sharp all the time. The world held far too many distractions - too many shiny things to peer at. In between reading people, judging them, devising new puppets, finding new ways of embarrassing and mocking others, playing with puppets, fighting with his dad and thinking of ways to kill his dad, life was too busy. Too much to do, too much to see. He needed a break, and this was it.

The road took him through a forest. He must have taken a side path, because the wood was becoming increasingly thicker, and he was increasingly walking on the grassy ground and not a footpath. Not that he minded getting lost. The boy was a resourceful one, and heck, he had a great sense of direction. If all his senses and intuition failed him, well, he always had his magical eyes to guide him back home.

And hell, what was the worst that could happen?

Life is by nature boring, spinning routine webs of tedium and sameness. When the odd moment arises that catches life by surprise and blasts its torturous plainness away, one can only rejoice. How fortunate to be blessed by such a grand opportunity to be, for once, excited; surprised; gripped by the uncertainty of what will happen next. Some moments are so beautifully unique they deserve to be enshrined; cherished. Remembered in writing.

Norio had walked through the forest without a purpose. His mind was reeling from the onslaught of frivolous thoughts besieging the mental gates; he could only be distracted by something SO unexpected like a... like a bear.

The creature appeared so suddenly in front of him that the boy walked a few more steps, before his brain made sense of the highly unlikely danger ahead and his body finally froze. His lids widened so much as to almost pop out the eyes; his mouth opened a little, his lips forming a little "o" that summed up his surprise. "Hi" he let out. The bear didn't reply.

Instead, before it could speak out or gesture in any meaningful way, a figure appeared from behind it, wielding a huge sword. Was it bigger than Norio? It felt bigger than him. Was the sword bigger than the bear? Did it have to be bigger to be more dangerous?

This handheld guillotine descended on the bear with unrelenting force. All it took was a single slice, severing the head from the torso. A symphony of blood accompanied, as arcs of red splashed and splattered all nearby surfaces.

The executioner - a girl - held on to the body part, which swinging if ever so slightly, with the wind under her grip. If this wasn't a weird sight enough, she turned her gaze to him - for a second, he thought she would swing at him to, wishing to continue her reign of terror. But instead, his figure - in some unfathomable way - scared her.

What sort of bear hunter wailed in the face of a five foot boy?

She uttered panicked words of nonsense in quick succession. It didn't happen often, but perhaps for the first time in a long time, Norio felt so... overwhelmed. He wanted to tell life to wait a minute, as he caught his breath and tried to wrap his head around what had just happened.

"You want me.. to have the head?" he managed finally, words coming with difficulty to him, as his eyes - still as wide as when they had been when he was faced with the stranger-bear - stared at her, expressing utter confusion. He was so lost.

He took it from her. He mimicked her, holding it at the level of his own head. He looked at the head, then her, then at the head again. "Look I'm a bear... and stuff?" he repeated. What sort of satanic ritual was he enacting? What the fuck was going on?