The walk back is not nearly as exciting as the trip to the temple. Aside from the part where Noboru pounced on her from above and made sure she smelled quite foxy, nothing much of note happened. The way back came with the usual stares, and the occasional people waving at their noses and giving her a knowing look of course ... but no one accosted here. As she entered the Inn grounds, she spots her father standing near one of the large cherry trees still on the propery and cross-checking it with a paper in his hands.
"I'm back, Father," Niamh reports as she joins him by the tree. "What are you doing?"
"Comparing what is here now with a map of what was here before," Flynn notes. "Sell any more parts of your soul off to dangerous creatures?"
"No," Niamh says, trying not to sound sarcastic. "The Miko made some protective charms for me though. You know how supernatural creatures seem attracted to me, and I don't want to be attacked by my clothes again."
"I hope you did not offend the Miko. She may be young, but she does hold some sway at the Temple. Or at least according to traditions regarding them. She does seem rather young to be in that position," Flynn notes as he proceeds over to a rock and checks the paper in his hand, then taps on it a few times, humming. "And they're attracted to you because you seek them out. Be thankful we haven't had any dealings with werewolves; otherwise I fear you might end up running on all fours."
"The elves gave me a silver scythe for protection," Niamh says. She doesn't mention it's consecration to Cerridwen the moon goddess though, which may be associated with werewolves too. "I'm a shrine-maiden too you know.. well.. whatever it would it be for a druid. I've got the belt and the uniform and the stones even."
"But alas, not the wisdom," Flynn says with a sigh, then pauses to rub his forehead. "Lass, what were you thinking? You made a pact with a kitsune. A trickster of the highest order. Even not counting what that creature is, you know better than to make pacts with spirits like that."
"I didn't know it was a pact, he.." Niamh starts to argue, then deflates slightly and finishes with, ".. tricked me."
"Are you trying to figure out the original shrine's location?" she asks, eager to change the subject.
"A kitsune tricked you, imagine that," Flynn remarks rather dryly. "Yes, I am. I took a look at the artifacts in the basement earlier, and they are not much of interest. A few stones with minor annoyances bound in them; umbrella possessing spirits and the like. Nothing to quite cause the disturbances Mr. Tanaka described. "So, I think there was a lower part to the shrine that was just buried that contains the real problems."
"The Miko said the place has a dark energy or similar, which attracts Yokai like the Akaname," Niamh relates. "So.. it may not be the actual evil spirits doing things directly."
"Mm, possible. Evil acts leave evil imprints. I do assume you've read your mother's treatise on such?" Flynn asks, distracted as he makes some notes, then starts taking measurements and making notes of those, too. "You do seem rather interested in the Miko. How come?"
"She must be close to my age, and is trained to deal with all manner of evil spirits," Niamh says. "And I'm lonely. She is too, but seems to think it's to spare people from danger. These trees have deep roots, don't they? If there's a buried chamber deeper down their roots might have found the edges of it at least. Should I try to see if they have spirits that could tell us?"
"That depends," Flynn notes and gives Niamh a funny look.
"You brought me along to learn," Niamh says. "The trees are stuck here. They could need protection from the evil aura and such. You know I'm good with tree spirits."
"Can you do it without making any promises to it, or offering favors?" Flynn asks with the grin that often comes from any father that is purposely tweaking their child.
"It's bad enough the kitsune make fun of me, father," Niamh pouts. "The trees like to have their seeds carried off someplace, usually." And after saying that, she goes up to the trunk of the cherry tree and puts her palms against, giving her father a look. "So, you know I'm' going to do it anyway, don't you?"
"You also know I could send you back on on the ship, too," Flynn points out. "Your older siblings can look after you if you can't behave or act with some basic common sense. If you are going to do this, you must be careful. You open yourself to possession through these acts, and particularly strong spirits could completely overtake you."
"I know how to work with trees," Niamh claims. "I'm very careful with them, because they can draw on too much of me because of their size. I always start with just a little bit, to see if there's a response. Or I could get my circlet of Yew and the Morrigan stones and do a proper ritual under moonlight if you prefer."
"You are not dancing naked in a foreign country," Flynn says with finality. "Just be fareful."
Niamh takes a deep breath, and then releases some of her ectoplasm through her palms and into the bark of the tree, just to see if there's any reaction that would indicate the presence of a tree spirit.
The tree branches wave and the old wood somehow manages a groan.
"Well, that's a reaction," Niamh notes. She's not used to the tree seeming to move though. So, she presses in a little deeper.. in a spiritual sense, anyway. "Hello?" she whispers through the spirit-vapor from her palms.
The tree seemingly shudders ... then its trunk seems to stretch and writhe ... and an old-stooped man, covered in bark takes shape from it. It blinks several times with wooden eyes as it looks at Niamh. "Oh dear, sorry, I'm too old to spend time with you nymphs anymore. Wood I may be, but that kind of wood I lack these days."
"Oh, I'm not that sort of nymph," Niamh says. "I'm from a land far to the west. Do you mind just talking for a bit?"
"Are you sure? You look like one of those randy kinds, and you smell like you've been with a kitsune," the old tree inquires of Niamh. "But yes, we can speak for a bit, if you wish."
Blushing at the kitsune remark, Niamh asks, "Well.. how are your roots? Is the soil and water as pure as when you where adding your first rings?"
"No, it is not, but then there are more humans here now and they always manage to foul the soil," the tree answers. "No offense intended to any humans present, of course."
"Is it the usual sort of foulness, or something malignant?" Niamh asks. "Perhaps something that wasn't there when the Shrine of Fujin enjoyed your shade?"
"There was a shrine here? Dear me, how time passes; human things are so fleeting," the old tree claims. "There is more, mmm, foulness, now than there was, but I could not tell you when it came to be."
"Does it feel any worse on one side, or deeper down?" Niamh asks, smiling.
The tree has to think about this. Then think some more. Then the wooden figure starts to snore.
Niamh gives it a little more energy to see if it rouses the ancient spirit.
The tree snorts awake. "Oh, hello. I'm not looking for your sort of company anymore," the tree says groggily. "Why do I feel like I have said that before?"
"You were telling of your aches, especially in your roots," Niamh prompts. "Where does it feel the most sour?"
"Oh? Was I? It's hard to remember things when you get to my age," the tree complains and its leaves rustle. "The mossy side feels the most sickly, I suppose."
"I will ask the Miko of Inari if she can help with that," Niamh promises. "I'll let you rest now, Father Many-Rings, unless you'd like to ask me anything?"
"Yes, why is your head on fire? Does that not hurt? It hurts when our leaves burn," the tree says.
"I am an Autumn nymph, so my hair is red as the leaves of that season," Niamh claims. It's how the hair of the tree nymphs she's familiar with work, anyway.
The tree goes 'ahhh', which mostly sounds like rustling leaves. That ahhh soon fades into a snore, and the old-man shape slowly sinks back into the trunk, until is it completely gone.
After recovering her ectoplasm, Niamh turns and smiles proudly to her father. "The mossy side," she says. "Do you want me to ask the other trees as well, to narrow it further?"
"Not yet, I will do some math with my measurements against the old maps to see if that was enough," Flynn says, "And I am proud of you; so far only one spirit owns your soul..." Apparently he's not going to let that one go.
"Well, do you want me to win it back then?" Niamh counters, but then softens her expression. "Do you know what Lady Kana was talking about when she claimed to know what I was?" she asks her father.
"She called you a child of Danu, which is more or less accurate," Flynn notes as he folds up the map and tucks it into his pocket. "I'm impressed she would know the name of the Goddess of the Tuatha, but at seven tails, Kana-sama would be an ancient creature. Plus, you should learn that many spirits will say things and give knowing looks just to seem more mysterious."
"I suppose all of the straight-forward ones avoid the cities," Niamh says, as if to dismiss the notion - but having heard something similar beforehand from Noboru she is more curious than ever. She just has to find someone that can give her a straight answer.
"Good luck, I've never met a spirit that gives straight answers, lass," Flynn comments as he heads back towards the Inn to go back inside. "Please try and stay out of trouble, lass. And avoid that kitsune! They're all trouble, every one of them."
"You say that about young men as well," Niamh points out. She then.. sniffs herself. Should she risk taking two baths in one day? She has to get Noboru to stop marking her!
She doesn't smell bad. Or maybe she's just getting used to it? "I'm right about them too," her father calls back, then goes inside.
"I should have been born a tree," Niamh mutters, and heads inside as well. After removing her boots, she heads to her room with the intent of putting up the wards Miyuki gave her.
On her way to her bedroom, nothing at all happens. Her underwear doesn't even accost her when she enters it; it just continues to lay in the heap she left it in.
So she hangs the paper charms up, and hopes Miyuki can make more for the trees later. She eyes her laundry, and decides to do something about it.. soon. First she goes and opens her trunk, and begins moving clothes and other things out of it into random stacks on the mats, all so she can lift up the false bottom. In the narrow space is a folded white garment, and a square, shallow box with a sacred Yew tree carved onto it. She takes that and the garment out, replaces the false bottom and starts repacking what she removed.
After the packing is done, she unfolds the white linen. It's not a dress per se.. but it serves for everything that doesn't require dancing naked under the moon. It's just along strip with an opening in the center for her head to go through, and some ties on the sides. A woven-leather belt goes with it. It's what Niamh considers her 'uniform', even if it's quite a bit simpler than Miyuki's.
As Niamh works on repacking her clothing, she hears something. It's the wind outside she assumes. Well, right up unto the point she hears the wind say her name. Soft, barely there, but on the wind it is.
Eyeing the window, Niamh opens the wooden box and removes the small (purely ceremonial) silver crescent-moon scythe before she goes to the window and looks out.. specifically for kitsune.
Nothing really stands out, outside. The wind blows again ... and she could swear she hears her name being called again! It's not a voice she recognizes ... or maybe she's just hallucinating. It has been a trying day.
"Fujin," she mutters to herself, and then risks sliding the window open. She isn't going to lean out however - if it is the kami of the former shrine, then the protection wards aren't going to stop him, but if it isn't then she should keep everything inside.
There it is again, it's barely perceptible. It takes a bit, but Niamh thinks it may be coming from the woods outside the town. And it may make her feel better, but no sign of kitsune anywhere.
"Daiki-sama?" she asks the wind. Kirin are wind spirits.. she thinks. She also glances back to her box, with the Morrigan stones. One bears the symbol of Badb Catha, the "Battle Crow" of the trinity. She remembers reading about the Karasu Tengu, the warrior crow yokai of the mountains, which she always wondered about due to the similarity. "The only one in the forest that knows my name is Daiki-sama," she tells the wind. Unless the forest itself is calling her. She waits to see if anything replies before deciding on a course of action.
And now of course there is no reply at all. It's as if the entire island exists to just frustrate her.
"Fine, I'll come and see what you want," she grumbles, and closes the window. She doesn't leave just yet though. First she strips out of her dress and small-clothes, and puts on her ceremonial garment. It's open at the sides aside from some ties at her waist, but she also ties the belt on.. especially since it has the pouch for her sacred stones, and a loop for the sickle to set in. She uses another bit of leather to tie the circlet of woven yew to as well before putting her dress back on over it all. Then she goes downstairs to fetch her boots, but doesn't put them on until she's outside to avoid unnecessary noise.
Somehow, she manages to make her way out of the building without alerting her parents. Alas, the wind is still silent outside, so maybe she was just imagining the whole thing.
"I am not hallucinating," she tells herself, and heads for the edge of town, near the Midori Shrine. She'll stop at the shrine first, just to make sure it isn't Noboru or his parents summoning her.. and to ask Miyuki about making some sort of purification charms for the old cherry trees.
"You come here a lot," Noboru remarks from where he continues to laze atop the torii gate at the peak of the stairs to the shrine. "Here to pledge your undying love to me?" he teases and laughs, well, rather disturbingly. But then a muzzle-laugh would be.
"So, you or your parents didn't just call me on the wind?" she asks the fox-spirit.
"No. I have been napping in this lovely afternoon," Noboru says and stretches out a bit, then yawns widely. He sniffs the air, then nods, pleased. "Ah, good, you did not bathe, I do not have to mark you again."
"Enough with the marking," Niamh says. "You are like an insecure cat. Is Miyuki still in her room?"
"Do not call me a feline, it is rude," Noboru remarks. The next question gives him pause and he lifts his head for a moment and looks back towards the temple. "No, she is not," he replies a few seconds later.
"Where is she then?" Niamh asks. "I have to ask her a favor, and then visit the forest."
Noboru's ears flick back. "I do not know. I don't feel her any place close," he notes as he pushes himself up from where he was laying. "It is possible she is doing some task for the heralds, though."
"And you didn't notice her leaving?" Niamh asks, and rolls her eyes. "I'll have try and do a purification of the trees myself then. I need to leave my boots and dress at the shrine. Can you refrain from doing anything disrespectful to them while I'm in the woods?"
"You cannot go into the woods," Noboru remarks as he looks at her oddly. "And no, I did not notice her leaving, I am not her jailor. She can come and go as she chooses."
"Tell that to the woods," Niamh says. "Someone is calling to me." She then starts for the far side of the shrine grounds, towards the old forest gate.
"I'm serious. You cannot go into the woods," Noboru actually growls and jumps down from the gate. "It is not safe for you."
"Then come with me, but don't stop me," the redhead says, and tries to go around the kitsune. "I'm prepared this time."
"I need to stay here," Noboru notes, and soon Nimah finds her path blocked by four extended, and fluffy, tails. "And I will say this again; you cannot go into the woods."
"What if it's Miyuki calling me?" Niamh snaps at the kitsune. Rather than argue further, she decides to take her boots off now. She needs her feet bare.
"Why would she call you? You are as stubborn as she is," Noboru points out, and those tails remain where they are. "And twice as foolish."
As Niamh starts unbuttoning her dress, she says, "I'll make a deal with you then. If you can stop me, I'll stay out of the forest. Does that sound fair?"
Noboru sighs softly. "Of course I can stop you," the kitsune remarks, actually sounding annoyed. "Are you really so set upon dying?"
Tossing her dress at Noboru's head, Niamh can finally access her tools. She unties the circlet of woven yew twigs, bound together with a few strands of hair from a Bane Sidhe. She puts some spirit into it before putting it on her head, to activate the curse-protection. Then she reaches into her pouch and finds by feel the stone with a yew tree carved into it, like the one on the back of her garment. As she infuses spirit into it, she also finds the one sharp point in the carving to prick her thumb with, so she can add her blood into the grooves. In the old tongue, she recites, "Morrigan of Earth, Macha, lend me your strength." Standing on worked stone isn't as effective as actual earth, but Macha shouldn't mind. She's also the Goddess of Sticking Your Enemies Heads on Spikes, after all. She places the stone back into the pouch and pulls out the one with the axe on it. "Nemain, Goddess of Battle, confuse my enemies," she recites, and adds blood and spirit to this one as well, while drawing up her sickle
in her right hand. She touches the point of the blade to the carving. Nemain literally means 'Dose of Poison' in Celtic, so it's not just a symbolic gesture.
Finally she infuses her spirit into the blade itself, since she doesn't have any moonlight to catch in it, and then spreads her ectoplasm through her garment to activate the various protections woven through it as well.
Noboru withdraws his tails and uses one to pull the dress off his head. "Be an idiot, then," the kitsune notes, sounding actually angry. He turns away and goes back to one of the gates. He hops upon it, and settles back down.
I carry my kami with me, Niamh thinks, and heads for the forest gate.
Noboru doesn't try to stop her, he just watches from his perch. Soon Niamh is heading down the back stairs, and a few minutes later she is sauntering into the woods beyond the temple.
Once her feet touch soil, Niamh pauses and feels for the roots and fungus that connect them together. A forest isn't a bunch of trees, after all, it's a giant living entity in it's own right. So she feels for its spirit, while listening to the breeze. "So, who called me?" she asks the air.
Things start to feel icy and wrong. The light all around Niamh starts to fade. Shadows grow, and soon she can even see her breath on each exhale. "I did," comes that whispery voice. Smoke billows up from the soil and swirls about her. Two eyes appear in it, narrowed, slitted. A long maw also forms as the smoke splits wide, drawing back and revealing dozens of sharp teeth. "And I am hungry."
"Who or what are you?" Niamh shakily demands, bringing her sickle up in what is meant to be a defensive stance, but could also just be for using its glow to see better in the sudden darkness. She's not exactly dressed for the sudden chill, but doesn't want to try and wrap herself in ectoplasm until she knows what she's facing.
"Death," the creature answers as it swirls around and around the girl ... and is slowly drawing in. "And you are a meal, nosy creature."
Starting to walk backwards, Niamh notes, "I'm used to Death looking more shapely. If you want nosy flesh, why not try for a tengu instead?"
"This isn't the mountains, and you are bothering things you should not be," the creature claims as it starts to draw in even closer. My, what big teeth it has. It grins like a giant jack-o-lantern of doom.
"It isn't Wonderland either, and you're a poor rendition of the Cheshire Cat," Niamh says, still moving (she thinks) back towards the old torii. "I'm sorry if I'm a bother, but it's only my second day. You're the one who called to me, so I don't think you should call me nosy for answering.."
"No, I think you a simpleton for following voices that you do not know. You lack survival instincts, little yokai. It is a kindness to prune you from nature," it claims as it suddenly circles around Niamh and cutting off access to the Torii gate.
The girl spins to keep her sickle between her and the.. mass. "You don't seem the kind-to-strangers sort," she says. "Do you have an actual name?" With her feet planted for the moment, she once again tries to reach out for the forest spirit. "My sickle has spirit-poison on it, you should know."
The shapeless mass gasps. "Oh, whatever will I do?! Help, help, this child has a sharp stinky stick, it remarks rather mockingly. "I am death incarnate, your feeble powers hold no sway over me." Niamh starts to feel a bit itchy, as if her pull for the forest spirit for the attention got something.
Now things feel really weird, and the air and landscape around the creature ... and her starts to shimmer. The weird does not stop there, as mirror images of Niamh start popping into existence in several places around her.
"Is the forest helping me?" Niamh wonders. She didn't even have to invoke the ancient bond.. but if she gets through this she'll definitely perform the full rites. She steps to the left to see if the images.. mirror her. "Please let this be the forest and not Death-Ghost."
A few more pop into appearance, making the Niamh count around eight, including the real one. They all then smile at the Enenra ... and seven of them promptly pounce onto it and pull it into the ground in a giggling mass of Irish girls. Talk about a nightmare. Then a hand grabs the collar of Niamh's robe and a voice hisses, "Run!"
And so Niamh runs for the Torii, a bit more recklessly than she normally would, but the soles of her feet are pretty tough.
And thus Niamh is leaving the giggling 'orgy' of copies of herself piled on the shadow-thing! Then theyre's a blur of red and white as Miyuki goes gracefully running by her, robes and skirt billowing out behind her as she hop-runs across some stumps, rocks, and then gracefully jumps through the Torii gate leading up to the shrine.
"It was Miyuki, and not the forest?" Niamh thinks as she reaches the steps. She's sure to be dressed down now!
Miyuki then spins about, jumps, and kicks off one of the Torri gate poles, then over to the other, and actually hops her way up the gate and lands on its cross-beam. She then gingerly sits down and folds her hands in her lap as she peers down at Niamh, then out into the forest. She flicks her right hand a bit absently ... and there's an annoyed roar back where the creature was left.
Niamh just sits under the gate where Miyuki is perched for the moment. The first thought through her mind is that she can't recover the energy she put into the sickle, since it's tainted now.
There is a long-suffering sigh from above. "What were you doing, de Sihde-san?" Miyuki inquires. "It is dangerous to try and directly fight an Enenra, they feed off life. Many were people once, before they died and did not ascend."
"How can this land be so saturated with evil spirits?" Niamh asks a bit quietly. "It doesn't make sense."
"Evil is relative," Miyuki notes from above, "To them, they are not evil. To a hungry wolf, eating another creature is not evil, and so on. Still ... it seemed to be targeting you specifically. I wonder why; you are ... well, not to be cruel, but you are one sad yokai, de Sidhe-san."
"I've always been a target," Niamh says. "It's why I.. learned all of this.." she says, gesturing with her sickle to her baldric and crown and pouch. "So that the forest would protect me. It seemed to be working, but I don't know if your forest will accept me, if it even has a spirit if things like that Enenra are allowed to wander it. In Springtime no less! The season of New Life!"
"Thank you for pulling me out of there, by the way," Niamh adds.
"Life is not so black and white. Death is necessary for new life; the decay of the old makes way for the new. And besides, this isn't your home," Miyuki notes as she peers off into the forest. There's a bit of thrashing, then a howl of, "Ichino o norou!" Miyuki counters it and shouts right back; whatever she said ... it might have been vulgar. "You need to be more careful where you tread," the perching girl says afterward. "I felt your call and answered it."
"I was trying to reach the forest spirit," Niamh says. "I can't even manage that here. At least individual trees respond to me - oh, can I get some purification charms for the trees around the old shrine?"
"Well, then I am sorry I disappointed by showing up instead," Miyuki remarks a bit dryly. "I can help make some charms for the trees, but ... not today. It took a lot out of me to buy you the time to run." There's another sigh from above, then she adds, "This is a very old land, with much history. Dangerous spirits may lie in wait ... and when someone young steps in that has the beginnings of power behind them, they become tempting meals. You must be careful who and what you trust in lands you do not know. Some curses here are very dangerous."
"There are curses that aren't dangerous then?" Niamh asks, with a bit of a smirk. "So I need to learn to be a proper yokai to avoid everything wanting to eat me or.. worse. Since you were eavesdropping, do you know what Lady Kana was talking about when she said she knew what I was?"
Miyuki leans over and peers down, making her hair frame her face. "Why? Have you forgotten what you are?" she asks, then tilts her head slightly.
"I didn't know I was a yokai before getting off of the ship," Niamh points out. "You said I was a forest yokai from my scent or something. So is there some specific sort of yokai I resemble?"
"You do know there are thousands of types of yokai, yes? Even within a group there is a wide variance," Miyuki points out. "I cannot speak for what an honored seven-tail might be thinking, of course, but she probably meant you are like a Yosei."
"Well.. what is a Yosei then?" Niamh asks. "Some sort of half-breed?"
"Fairy," Miyuki explains. "In your language."
"Ah, and the other yokai consider them some sort of delicacy then?" Niamh asks. She didn't know Japan had fairies.
"No, not a delicacy. It is more ... you are an easy target. You charge ahead without care," Miyuki explains. "And since you do have some ... otherworldness about you, consuming you would bolster them more than a mere human."
"Can you or Noboru teach me how to hide that part then, if not how to defend myself?" Niamh asks.
"Hmmm, can a kitsune teach you how to use illusions to conceal," Miyuki remarks as she taps her chin and tries to look deep in thought.
"Do you really want to owe Noboru more favors?" Miyuki asks after a bit.
"I tried learning fairy glamour before, but it didn't really work for me," Niamh admits. "I can usually detect it if I try though."
Miyuki pushes herself off the upper beam of the Torii gate and lands a couple feet in front of Niamh, sort of crouched down and on her left hand. She leans forward and peers at Niamh a little.
The redhead leans back slightly in response.
Miyuki's clothing is moving a bit ... oddly, given the breeze and having just jumped down. She's also tilting her head side to side a bit as she moves closer. "I might teach you, perhaps," she says as she smiles; a rather predatory grin for a brief moment.
"Is that really you, Miyuki?" Niamh asks, and sends out an ectoplasmic 'pulse' to see if the shrine-maiden before her is giving off any telltale non-human spirit qualities.
"Of course it is me," Miyuki claims as she moves until she's a few inches away. The pulse itself echoes ... and seems off somehow. She can't put her finger quite on what it is, though.
"I'm not so certain," Niamh says, and holds up her sickle between her and Miyuki. "Something's off in your aura. Casting all those illusions back there seems like a Kitsune skill more than a shrine-maiden's." She also.. sniffs the air for any telltale odors.
Well, there's certainly fox-smell in the air; hardly surprising at this shrine, though. Miyuki sits back and shakes her head a moment. "Is it? Well, dealing with creatures takes a lot out of me," she admits.
"You're acting a lot less reserved as well," Niamh points out. "Are you carrying a talisman maybe?" she asks.
Miyuki waves her right hand. "I am just tired," she says, "Sorry." She backs up a bit, stands, and stretches a bit, along with a wide yawn and momentary curl of her tongue.
"Well.. can you take me back to the other gate?" Niamh asks. "Noboru is probably sleeping on my dress now."
"You'll be lucky if he hasn't peed on it," Miyuki comments and starts walking up the stairs back to the temple proper.
Niamh follows, and decides to try something along the way. She's learned how to hide the auras of spirit-possessed items (along with detecting them), so she tries to do it on herself by creating a second skin of ectoplasm. If she can keep Noboru from sensing her immediately then it may worth practicing more at.
IF Niamh wishes to slime herself, she does manage that. As they make their way back up to the upper temple, it's easy to spot her dress is right where she left it. Noboru is perched up on the far Torii gate still, with his back to them both.
Since she's barefoot and barely dressed, Niamh tries to minimize her noise and attempt to sneak up on the Kitsune.
The lights immediately go out for Niamh ... and the world becomes ... fluffy. Mainly because one of Noboru's tails has wrapped around her head.
With a sigh, Niamh says, "Oh, you noticed me."
"Your breathing is loud, I can hear your footsteps, I can hear your clothing move, and I can smell you," Noboru comments, sounding a little muffled through that tail. "Any predator paying attention could."
Noboru's tail uncoils, but not without leaving a lot of white shed fluff stuck to Niamh's head, and up her nose.
"So are you going to teach me how to be less noticeable?" she asks after a quick sneeze.
"Did you want me to?" Noboru asks. "I happen to remember this half-human not more than half an hour ago completely ignoring my warnings, and actually trying to threaten me to 'make her stop'," the kitsune actually purrs. "Now, why would I want to put out effort to help someone like that? What would be in it for me?"
"Noboru-sama," Miyuki says, "Remember, she's young. Like ... er, hm. Well, under twenty I think? I'm not sure; they all look the same to me."
"Because you're bored and think I'm pretty?" Niamh suggests. "I remember a certain Kitsune offering to help me 'release the wild yokai inside' back in the bath-house. Or were you just trying to seduce me?" She looks at Miyuki, and has to finally ask, "How old are you?"
"Older than you, probably," Miyuki replies, all smiles.
"You look like you're.. thirteen, maybe?" Niamh guesses.
"Gems lose their luster when they manage to insult you," Noboru comments, lifts his head, and looks back at Niamh. "And given that you do not listen to me, why would I assume you would listen to anything I tried to teach."
"Hey, I am not some drooling baby!" Miyuki says, sounding slightly miffed.
"Maybe I had the romantic notion that you'd come to my rescue?" Niamh tells the Kitsune. She then blinks in surprise at Miyuki. "That.. isn't what thirteen-year-olds are actually like here are they? You're so small.. so I guessed based on that."
Miyuki ends up tapping her foot, and counting, pursing her lips now and then. "I think I'm seventeen," she admits, sounding a little uncertain about that. "The way your people measure time is different from mine."
"Your aid?" Noboru asks. "You made it quite clear you didn't want my help. The kitsune then chuckles a little and says, "And yes, Miyuki-chan, you are seventeen in their calendar."
"A year is still a year no matter what the calendar says," Niamh points out. "Unless you use a lunar calendar. I still find it hard to think of you as being a year older than me though."
"If you want his help, you should apologize," Miyuki comments to Niamh quietly. "You did rather offend him, judging from his tone. I believe the way to put it was you showed significant disrespect."
With another sigh, Niamh gets down on her knees (tucking her legs tightly together) and then prostrates herself towards the Kitsune. "I deeply apologize for not accepting your warning, condescending and uninformative as it may have seemed to me, oh wise Kitsune. How may I make amends?"
"Insults veiled in false apologies are not worth me even acknowledging," Noboru notes, sounding a bit non-plussed. He turns back around and sets his head back down; his back once more completely to Niamh.
Miyuki just covers her face. "You are digging your grave deeper, de Sidhe-san," she notes quietly. "You must be sincere, open, and honest. Not ... what that was."
"I meant no insult, I just wanted you to know how it seemed to me," Niamh says. "For my people.. it would come across as a challenge. We are not exactly the most obedient sorts."
"I'm at a rebellious age for my culture, is the honest truth," Niamh admits.
Noboru lifts his head and looks back. "The last time I dealt with a petulant child that refused to listen cost me one of my tails," he says, voice even. "And that was one of my sisters. She was stubborn, headstrong, and sure she could handle anything. I had to carry her broken and bleeding body back from one of her 'adventures', and give up part of myself to save her. It is not as if I am trying to prevent your fun, but keep you alive." The kitsune sighs loudly, glowing breath flowing from his jaws, as he shakes his head. "If you want my help, then you have to agree to owing me another favor, to be claimed at the time of my choosing, and whatever it is I choose."
"We aren't blood, and I cannot agree to help you without something in trade," Noboru notes, "So that you will be bound to listen to me."
"I will agree to that, if you agree to be more specific about dangers I may face," Niamh says. "To simply tell me that it is too dangerous does not work as well as giving specific examples. Named dangers are more real to me. My experiences have been very different, such that the notion of the forest being dangerous strikes me as being told it is safer to stand outside in a storm. I need a teacher to understand me as well."
"Noboru-sama, please, she is a foreigner and doesn't understand our ways. Do not remain too angry at her. I am sure she spoke without thinking," Miyuki speaks up a little, though she's looking down at the stone and drawing circles with one foot.
"The greatest danger you face is yourself. You have defined in stone how you see the world, only you based that definition on a very narrow view of it. I am sure to you, that you seem like an adult ... but I have lived thirty times your lifespan. So you are just a kit to me in many ways," Noboru says, the harder edge in his voice easing up a bit. "So, you need to open your mind and quit trying to force your short experiences as to defining the world so completely. If you can open your mind, I may be able to help."
"Fairies can be fickle," Niamh admits. "But I'm here to learn, I only need someone to teach me. Not tell me, but teach me in a way I can grasp. That requires some open-mindedness on the part of the teacher as well."
"Insults, again?" Noboru inquires, ears flicking. "Do you agree, or no?"
"I'm not insulting you.." Niamh says, on the verge of frustration. "I'm just trying to explain my limitations and weaknesses, so that you do not end up frustrated as well. I have a fundamental need to prove myself, and.. you will have to accept and deal with that. Do you agree to deal with me as I am instead of forcing me into a familiar mold? If so, then I can agree to you."
"I can tolerate a level of disobedience; I am kitsune, after all. But, if you go too far or ignore me, I will terminate any further education, among other things I may do," Noboru says. "So, think on my offer, and if you decide to agree, show up here tomorrow at first light, and bring your best hairbrush."
"I only brought the one brush, and it isn't my best," Niamh looks up to say.
"Are you trying to irritate me?" Noboru has to ask, seeming dumbfounded that Niamh would say something like that.
"What? No," Niamh says. "You asked me to honest and open. The brush I have is fairly plain, so I didn't want you to think I was insulting you by bringing it."
"If it is the best you have here, it is the best you have. Why would I think otherwise?" Noboru has to ask. "Remember, I've seen you in bath; I am not expecting some ivory-carved heirloom."
"My nice one is an ivory-carved heirloom," Niamh notes. "Which is why I didn't bring it. I have a wooden one with.. I think.. boar's hair bristles."
Noboru looks at Miyuki. "How have her parents not strangled her?" he asks. Miyuki ends up shrugging a little.
"Nobody goes on a long sea voyage carrying around things others might find valuable," Niamh notes. "I've traveled enough to learn that lesson."
"Anyway, think upon the offer. Show up if you agree, don't if you do not. I'm going back to my nap now," Noboru comments. "And Miyuki-chan, you need rest too; you are starting to wear thin. You do need to take better care of yourself; I cannot always be around to protect you."
Niamh wisely does not remark on Miyuki's clear ability to protect herself, and ties her circlet to her belt before putting her dress and boots back on. "I'll visit you tomorrow, whether I accept Noboru's offer or not," she tells the shrine-maiden.
"Are you going to?" Miyuki asks, perhaps a bit curious. "Accept, that is."
"I haven't decided," Niamh admits. "I'd like to. If I can get through the night without something else attacking me I should have a clearer head to decide with."
"Just don't use the restroom at night," Miyuki suggests, "And do provoke spirits, and you should be fine." She yawns widely again, then waves. "I am going to get a nap. Be safe."
do NOT provike, that is.
"Toilet ghosts too?" Niamh mutters. She waves to Miyuki and starts to descend the steps, wondering what the locals will gossip about her this time. She also realizes she's hungry, so picks up her pace a bit to be back before dinner!
Logfile from Envoy. (OOC) Log start: d:\logs\cjpn\12_09_2017-askedtoleaf.htmlThe walk back is not nearly as exciting as the trip to the temple. Aside from the part where Noboru pounced on her from above and made sure she smelled quite foxy, nothing much of note happened. The way back came with the usual stares, and the occasional people waving at their noses and giving her a knowing look of course ... but no one accosted here. As she entered the Inn grounds, she spots her father standing near one of the large cherry trees still on the propery and cross-checking it with a paper in his hands.
"I'm back, Father," Niamh reports as she joins him by the tree. "What are you doing?"
"Comparing what is here now with a map of what was here before," Flynn notes. "Sell any more parts of your soul off to dangerous creatures?"
"No," Niamh says, trying not to sound sarcastic. "The Miko made some protective charms for me though. You know how supernatural creatures seem attracted to me, and I don't want to be attacked by my clothes again."
"I hope you did not offend the Miko. She may be young, but she does hold some sway at the Temple. Or at least according to traditions regarding them. She does seem rather young to be in that position," Flynn notes as he proceeds over to a rock and checks the paper in his hand, then taps on it a few times, humming. "And they're attracted to you because you seek them out. Be thankful we haven't had any dealings with werewolves; otherwise I fear you might end up running on all fours."
"The elves gave me a silver scythe for protection," Niamh says. She doesn't mention it's consecration to Cerridwen the moon goddess though, which may be associated with werewolves too. "I'm a shrine-maiden too you know.. well.. whatever it would it be for a druid. I've got the belt and the uniform and the stones even."
"But alas, not the wisdom," Flynn says with a sigh, then pauses to rub his forehead. "Lass, what were you thinking? You made a pact with a kitsune. A trickster of the highest order. Even not counting what that creature is, you know better than to make pacts with spirits like that."
"I didn't know it was a pact, he.." Niamh starts to argue, then deflates slightly and finishes with, ".. tricked me."
"Are you trying to figure out the original shrine's location?" she asks, eager to change the subject.
"A kitsune tricked you, imagine that," Flynn remarks rather dryly. "Yes, I am. I took a look at the artifacts in the basement earlier, and they are not much of interest. A few stones with minor annoyances bound in them; umbrella possessing spirits and the like. Nothing to quite cause the disturbances Mr. Tanaka described. "So, I think there was a lower part to the shrine that was just buried that contains the real problems."
"The Miko said the place has a dark energy or similar, which attracts Yokai like the Akaname," Niamh relates. "So.. it may not be the actual evil spirits doing things directly."
"Mm, possible. Evil acts leave evil imprints. I do assume you've read your mother's treatise on such?" Flynn asks, distracted as he makes some notes, then starts taking measurements and making notes of those, too. "You do seem rather interested in the Miko. How come?"
"She must be close to my age, and is trained to deal with all manner of evil spirits," Niamh says. "And I'm lonely. She is too, but seems to think it's to spare people from danger. These trees have deep roots, don't they? If there's a buried chamber deeper down their roots might have found the edges of it at least. Should I try to see if they have spirits that could tell us?"
"That depends," Flynn notes and gives Niamh a funny look.
"You brought me along to learn," Niamh says. "The trees are stuck here. They could need protection from the evil aura and such. You know I'm good with tree spirits."
"Can you do it without making any promises to it, or offering favors?" Flynn asks with the grin that often comes from any father that is purposely tweaking their child.
"It's bad enough the kitsune make fun of me, father," Niamh pouts. "The trees like to have their seeds carried off someplace, usually." And after saying that, she goes up to the trunk of the cherry tree and puts her palms against, giving her father a look. "So, you know I'm' going to do it anyway, don't you?"
"You also know I could send you back on on the ship, too," Flynn points out. "Your older siblings can look after you if you can't behave or act with some basic common sense. If you are going to do this, you must be careful. You open yourself to possession through these acts, and particularly strong spirits could completely overtake you."
"I know how to work with trees," Niamh claims. "I'm very careful with them, because they can draw on too much of me because of their size. I always start with just a little bit, to see if there's a response. Or I could get my circlet of Yew and the Morrigan stones and do a proper ritual under moonlight if you prefer."
"You are not dancing naked in a foreign country," Flynn says with finality. "Just be fareful."
Niamh takes a deep breath, and then releases some of her ectoplasm through her palms and into the bark of the tree, just to see if there's any reaction that would indicate the presence of a tree spirit.
The tree branches wave and the old wood somehow manages a groan.
"Well, that's a reaction," Niamh notes. She's not used to the tree seeming to move though. So, she presses in a little deeper.. in a spiritual sense, anyway. "Hello?" she whispers through the spirit-vapor from her palms.
The tree seemingly shudders ... then its trunk seems to stretch and writhe ... and an old-stooped man, covered in bark takes shape from it. It blinks several times with wooden eyes as it looks at Niamh. "Oh dear, sorry, I'm too old to spend time with you nymphs anymore. Wood I may be, but that kind of wood I lack these days."
"Oh, I'm not that sort of nymph," Niamh says. "I'm from a land far to the west. Do you mind just talking for a bit?"
"Are you sure? You look like one of those randy kinds, and you smell like you've been with a kitsune," the old tree inquires of Niamh. "But yes, we can speak for a bit, if you wish."
Blushing at the kitsune remark, Niamh asks, "Well.. how are your roots? Is the soil and water as pure as when you where adding your first rings?"
"No, it is not, but then there are more humans here now and they always manage to foul the soil," the tree answers. "No offense intended to any humans present, of course."
"Is it the usual sort of foulness, or something malignant?" Niamh asks. "Perhaps something that wasn't there when the Shrine of Fujin enjoyed your shade?"
"There was a shrine here? Dear me, how time passes; human things are so fleeting," the old tree claims. "There is more, mmm, foulness, now than there was, but I could not tell you when it came to be."
"Does it feel any worse on one side, or deeper down?" Niamh asks, smiling.
The tree has to think about this. Then think some more. Then the wooden figure starts to snore.
Niamh gives it a little more energy to see if it rouses the ancient spirit.
The tree snorts awake. "Oh, hello. I'm not looking for your sort of company anymore," the tree says groggily. "Why do I feel like I have said that before?"
"You were telling of your aches, especially in your roots," Niamh prompts. "Where does it feel the most sour?"
"Oh? Was I? It's hard to remember things when you get to my age," the tree complains and its leaves rustle. "The mossy side feels the most sickly, I suppose."
"I will ask the Miko of Inari if she can help with that," Niamh promises. "I'll let you rest now, Father Many-Rings, unless you'd like to ask me anything?"
"Yes, why is your head on fire? Does that not hurt? It hurts when our leaves burn," the tree says.
"I am an Autumn nymph, so my hair is red as the leaves of that season," Niamh claims. It's how the hair of the tree nymphs she's familiar with work, anyway.
The tree goes 'ahhh', which mostly sounds like rustling leaves. That ahhh soon fades into a snore, and the old-man shape slowly sinks back into the trunk, until is it completely gone.
After recovering her ectoplasm, Niamh turns and smiles proudly to her father. "The mossy side," she says. "Do you want me to ask the other trees as well, to narrow it further?"
"Not yet, I will do some math with my measurements against the old maps to see if that was enough," Flynn says, "And I am proud of you; so far only one spirit owns your soul..." Apparently he's not going to let that one go.
"Well, do you want me to win it back then?" Niamh counters, but then softens her expression. "Do you know what Lady Kana was talking about when she claimed to know what I was?" she asks her father.
"She called you a child of Danu, which is more or less accurate," Flynn notes as he folds up the map and tucks it into his pocket. "I'm impressed she would know the name of the Goddess of the Tuatha, but at seven tails, Kana-sama would be an ancient creature. Plus, you should learn that many spirits will say things and give knowing looks just to seem more mysterious."
"I suppose all of the straight-forward ones avoid the cities," Niamh says, as if to dismiss the notion - but having heard something similar beforehand from Noboru she is more curious than ever. She just has to find someone that can give her a straight answer.
"Good luck, I've never met a spirit that gives straight answers, lass," Flynn comments as he heads back towards the Inn to go back inside. "Please try and stay out of trouble, lass. And avoid that kitsune! They're all trouble, every one of them."
"You say that about young men as well," Niamh points out. She then.. sniffs herself. Should she risk taking two baths in one day? She has to get Noboru to stop marking her!
She doesn't smell bad. Or maybe she's just getting used to it? "I'm right about them too," her father calls back, then goes inside.
"I should have been born a tree," Niamh mutters, and heads inside as well. After removing her boots, she heads to her room with the intent of putting up the wards Miyuki gave her.
On her way to her bedroom, nothing at all happens. Her underwear doesn't even accost her when she enters it; it just continues to lay in the heap she left it in.
So she hangs the paper charms up, and hopes Miyuki can make more for the trees later. She eyes her laundry, and decides to do something about it.. soon. First she goes and opens her trunk, and begins moving clothes and other things out of it into random stacks on the mats, all so she can lift up the false bottom. In the narrow space is a folded white garment, and a square, shallow box with a sacred Yew tree carved onto it. She takes that and the garment out, replaces the false bottom and starts repacking what she removed.
After the packing is done, she unfolds the white linen. It's not a dress per se.. but it serves for everything that doesn't require dancing naked under the moon. It's just along strip with an opening in the center for her head to go through, and some ties on the sides. A woven-leather belt goes with it. It's what Niamh considers her 'uniform', even if it's quite a bit simpler than Miyuki's.
As Niamh works on repacking her clothing, she hears something. It's the wind outside she assumes. Well, right up unto the point she hears the wind say her name. Soft, barely there, but on the wind it is.
Eyeing the window, Niamh opens the wooden box and removes the small (purely ceremonial) silver crescent-moon scythe before she goes to the window and looks out.. specifically for kitsune.
Nothing really stands out, outside. The wind blows again ... and she could swear she hears her name being called again! It's not a voice she recognizes ... or maybe she's just hallucinating. It has been a trying day.
"Fujin," she mutters to herself, and then risks sliding the window open. She isn't going to lean out however - if it is the kami of the former shrine, then the protection wards aren't going to stop him, but if it isn't then she should keep everything inside.
There it is again, it's barely perceptible. It takes a bit, but Niamh thinks it may be coming from the woods outside the town. And it may make her feel better, but no sign of kitsune anywhere.
"Daiki-sama?" she asks the wind. Kirin are wind spirits.. she thinks. She also glances back to her box, with the Morrigan stones. One bears the symbol of Badb Catha, the "Battle Crow" of the trinity. She remembers reading about the Karasu Tengu, the warrior crow yokai of the mountains, which she always wondered about due to the similarity. "The only one in the forest that knows my name is Daiki-sama," she tells the wind. Unless the forest itself is calling her. She waits to see if anything replies before deciding on a course of action.
And now of course there is no reply at all. It's as if the entire island exists to just frustrate her.
"Fine, I'll come and see what you want," she grumbles, and closes the window. She doesn't leave just yet though. First she strips out of her dress and small-clothes, and puts on her ceremonial garment. It's open at the sides aside from some ties at her waist, but she also ties the belt on.. especially since it has the pouch for her sacred stones, and a loop for the sickle to set in. She uses another bit of leather to tie the circlet of woven yew to as well before putting her dress back on over it all. Then she goes downstairs to fetch her boots, but doesn't put them on until she's outside to avoid unnecessary noise.
Somehow, she manages to make her way out of the building without alerting her parents. Alas, the wind is still silent outside, so maybe she was just imagining the whole thing.
"I am not hallucinating," she tells herself, and heads for the edge of town, near the Midori Shrine. She'll stop at the shrine first, just to make sure it isn't Noboru or his parents summoning her.. and to ask Miyuki about making some sort of purification charms for the old cherry trees.
"You come here a lot," Noboru remarks from where he continues to laze atop the torii gate at the peak of the stairs to the shrine. "Here to pledge your undying love to me?" he teases and laughs, well, rather disturbingly. But then a muzzle-laugh would be.
"So, you or your parents didn't just call me on the wind?" she asks the fox-spirit.
"No. I have been napping in this lovely afternoon," Noboru says and stretches out a bit, then yawns widely. He sniffs the air, then nods, pleased. "Ah, good, you did not bathe, I do not have to mark you again."
"Enough with the marking," Niamh says. "You are like an insecure cat. Is Miyuki still in her room?"
"Do not call me a feline, it is rude," Noboru remarks. The next question gives him pause and he lifts his head for a moment and looks back towards the temple. "No, she is not," he replies a few seconds later.
"Where is she then?" Niamh asks. "I have to ask her a favor, and then visit the forest."
Noboru's ears flick back. "I do not know. I don't feel her any place close," he notes as he pushes himself up from where he was laying. "It is possible she is doing some task for the heralds, though."
"And you didn't notice her leaving?" Niamh asks, and rolls her eyes. "I'll have try and do a purification of the trees myself then. I need to leave my boots and dress at the shrine. Can you refrain from doing anything disrespectful to them while I'm in the woods?"
"You cannot go into the woods," Noboru remarks as he looks at her oddly. "And no, I did not notice her leaving, I am not her jailor. She can come and go as she chooses."
"Tell that to the woods," Niamh says. "Someone is calling to me." She then starts for the far side of the shrine grounds, towards the old forest gate.
"I'm serious. You cannot go into the woods," Noboru actually growls and jumps down from the gate. "It is not safe for you."
"Then come with me, but don't stop me," the redhead says, and tries to go around the kitsune. "I'm prepared this time."
"I need to stay here," Noboru notes, and soon Nimah finds her path blocked by four extended, and fluffy, tails. "And I will say this again; you cannot go into the woods."
"What if it's Miyuki calling me?" Niamh snaps at the kitsune. Rather than argue further, she decides to take her boots off now. She needs her feet bare.
"Why would she call you? You are as stubborn as she is," Noboru points out, and those tails remain where they are. "And twice as foolish."
As Niamh starts unbuttoning her dress, she says, "I'll make a deal with you then. If you can stop me, I'll stay out of the forest. Does that sound fair?"
Noboru sighs softly. "Of course I can stop you," the kitsune remarks, actually sounding annoyed. "Are you really so set upon dying?"
Tossing her dress at Noboru's head, Niamh can finally access her tools. She unties the circlet of woven yew twigs, bound together with a few strands of hair from a Bane Sidhe. She puts some spirit into it before putting it on her head, to activate the curse-protection. Then she reaches into her pouch and finds by feel the stone with a yew tree carved into it, like the one on the back of her garment. As she infuses spirit into it, she also finds the one sharp point in the carving to prick her thumb with, so she can add her blood into the grooves. In the old tongue, she recites, "Morrigan of Earth, Macha, lend me your strength." Standing on worked stone isn't as effective as actual earth, but Macha shouldn't mind. She's also the Goddess of Sticking Your Enemies Heads on Spikes, after all. She places the stone back into the pouch and pulls out the one with the axe on it. "Nemain, Goddess of Battle, confuse my enemies," she recites, and adds blood and spirit to this one as well, while drawing up her sickle
in her right hand. She touches the point of the blade to the carving. Nemain literally means 'Dose of Poison' in Celtic, so it's not just a symbolic gesture.
Finally she infuses her spirit into the blade itself, since she doesn't have any moonlight to catch in it, and then spreads her ectoplasm through her garment to activate the various protections woven through it as well.
Noboru withdraws his tails and uses one to pull the dress off his head. "Be an idiot, then," the kitsune notes, sounding actually angry. He turns away and goes back to one of the gates. He hops upon it, and settles back down.
I carry my kami with me, Niamh thinks, and heads for the forest gate.
Noboru doesn't try to stop her, he just watches from his perch. Soon Niamh is heading down the back stairs, and a few minutes later she is sauntering into the woods beyond the temple.
Once her feet touch soil, Niamh pauses and feels for the roots and fungus that connect them together. A forest isn't a bunch of trees, after all, it's a giant living entity in it's own right. So she feels for its spirit, while listening to the breeze. "So, who called me?" she asks the air.
Things start to feel icy and wrong. The light all around Niamh starts to fade. Shadows grow, and soon she can even see her breath on each exhale. "I did," comes that whispery voice. Smoke billows up from the soil and swirls about her. Two eyes appear in it, narrowed, slitted. A long maw also forms as the smoke splits wide, drawing back and revealing dozens of sharp teeth. "And I am hungry."
"Who or what are you?" Niamh shakily demands, bringing her sickle up in what is meant to be a defensive stance, but could also just be for using its glow to see better in the sudden darkness. She's not exactly dressed for the sudden chill, but doesn't want to try and wrap herself in ectoplasm until she knows what she's facing.
"Death," the creature answers as it swirls around and around the girl ... and is slowly drawing in. "And you are a meal, nosy creature."
Starting to walk backwards, Niamh notes, "I'm used to Death looking more shapely. If you want nosy flesh, why not try for a tengu instead?"
"This isn't the mountains, and you are bothering things you should not be," the creature claims as it starts to draw in even closer. My, what big teeth it has. It grins like a giant jack-o-lantern of doom.
"It isn't Wonderland either, and you're a poor rendition of the Cheshire Cat," Niamh says, still moving (she thinks) back towards the old torii. "I'm sorry if I'm a bother, but it's only my second day. You're the one who called to me, so I don't think you should call me nosy for answering.."
"No, I think you a simpleton for following voices that you do not know. You lack survival instincts, little yokai. It is a kindness to prune you from nature," it claims as it suddenly circles around Niamh and cutting off access to the Torii gate.
The girl spins to keep her sickle between her and the.. mass. "You don't seem the kind-to-strangers sort," she says. "Do you have an actual name?" With her feet planted for the moment, she once again tries to reach out for the forest spirit. "My sickle has spirit-poison on it, you should know."
The shapeless mass gasps. "Oh, whatever will I do?! Help, help, this child has a sharp stinky stick, it remarks rather mockingly. "I am death incarnate, your feeble powers hold no sway over me." Niamh starts to feel a bit itchy, as if her pull for the forest spirit for the attention got something.
Now things feel really weird, and the air and landscape around the creature ... and her starts to shimmer. The weird does not stop there, as mirror images of Niamh start popping into existence in several places around her.
"Is the forest helping me?" Niamh wonders. She didn't even have to invoke the ancient bond.. but if she gets through this she'll definitely perform the full rites. She steps to the left to see if the images.. mirror her. "Please let this be the forest and not Death-Ghost."
A few more pop into appearance, making the Niamh count around eight, including the real one. They all then smile at the Enenra ... and seven of them promptly pounce onto it and pull it into the ground in a giggling mass of Irish girls. Talk about a nightmare. Then a hand grabs the collar of Niamh's robe and a voice hisses, "Run!"
And so Niamh runs for the Torii, a bit more recklessly than she normally would, but the soles of her feet are pretty tough.
And thus Niamh is leaving the giggling 'orgy' of copies of herself piled on the shadow-thing! Then theyre's a blur of red and white as Miyuki goes gracefully running by her, robes and skirt billowing out behind her as she hop-runs across some stumps, rocks, and then gracefully jumps through the Torii gate leading up to the shrine.
"It was Miyuki, and not the forest?" Niamh thinks as she reaches the steps. She's sure to be dressed down now!
Miyuki then spins about, jumps, and kicks off one of the Torri gate poles, then over to the other, and actually hops her way up the gate and lands on its cross-beam. She then gingerly sits down and folds her hands in her lap as she peers down at Niamh, then out into the forest. She flicks her right hand a bit absently ... and there's an annoyed roar back where the creature was left.
Niamh just sits under the gate where Miyuki is perched for the moment. The first thought through her mind is that she can't recover the energy she put into the sickle, since it's tainted now.
There is a long-suffering sigh from above. "What were you doing, de Sihde-san?" Miyuki inquires. "It is dangerous to try and directly fight an Enenra, they feed off life. Many were people once, before they died and did not ascend."
"How can this land be so saturated with evil spirits?" Niamh asks a bit quietly. "It doesn't make sense."
"Evil is relative," Miyuki notes from above, "To them, they are not evil. To a hungry wolf, eating another creature is not evil, and so on. Still ... it seemed to be targeting you specifically. I wonder why; you are ... well, not to be cruel, but you are one sad yokai, de Sidhe-san."
"I've always been a target," Niamh says. "It's why I.. learned all of this.." she says, gesturing with her sickle to her baldric and crown and pouch. "So that the forest would protect me. It seemed to be working, but I don't know if your forest will accept me, if it even has a spirit if things like that Enenra are allowed to wander it. In Springtime no less! The season of New Life!"
"Thank you for pulling me out of there, by the way," Niamh adds.
"Life is not so black and white. Death is necessary for new life; the decay of the old makes way for the new. And besides, this isn't your home," Miyuki notes as she peers off into the forest. There's a bit of thrashing, then a howl of, "Ichino o norou!" Miyuki counters it and shouts right back; whatever she said ... it might have been vulgar. "You need to be more careful where you tread," the perching girl says afterward. "I felt your call and answered it."
"I was trying to reach the forest spirit," Niamh says. "I can't even manage that here. At least individual trees respond to me - oh, can I get some purification charms for the trees around the old shrine?"
"Well, then I am sorry I disappointed by showing up instead," Miyuki remarks a bit dryly. "I can help make some charms for the trees, but ... not today. It took a lot out of me to buy you the time to run." There's another sigh from above, then she adds, "This is a very old land, with much history. Dangerous spirits may lie in wait ... and when someone young steps in that has the beginnings of power behind them, they become tempting meals. You must be careful who and what you trust in lands you do not know. Some curses here are very dangerous."
"There are curses that aren't dangerous then?" Niamh asks, with a bit of a smirk. "So I need to learn to be a proper yokai to avoid everything wanting to eat me or.. worse. Since you were eavesdropping, do you know what Lady Kana was talking about when she said she knew what I was?"
Miyuki leans over and peers down, making her hair frame her face. "Why? Have you forgotten what you are?" she asks, then tilts her head slightly.
"I didn't know I was a yokai before getting off of the ship," Niamh points out. "You said I was a forest yokai from my scent or something. So is there some specific sort of yokai I resemble?"
"You do know there are thousands of types of yokai, yes? Even within a group there is a wide variance," Miyuki points out. "I cannot speak for what an honored seven-tail might be thinking, of course, but she probably meant you are like a Yosei."
"Well.. what is a Yosei then?" Niamh asks. "Some sort of half-breed?"
"Fairy," Miyuki explains. "In your language."
"Ah, and the other yokai consider them some sort of delicacy then?" Niamh asks. She didn't know Japan had fairies.
"No, not a delicacy. It is more ... you are an easy target. You charge ahead without care," Miyuki explains. "And since you do have some ... otherworldness about you, consuming you would bolster them more than a mere human."
"Can you or Noboru teach me how to hide that part then, if not how to defend myself?" Niamh asks.
"Hmmm, can a kitsune teach you how to use illusions to conceal," Miyuki remarks as she taps her chin and tries to look deep in thought.
"Do you really want to owe Noboru more favors?" Miyuki asks after a bit.
"I tried learning fairy glamour before, but it didn't really work for me," Niamh admits. "I can usually detect it if I try though."
Miyuki pushes herself off the upper beam of the Torii gate and lands a couple feet in front of Niamh, sort of crouched down and on her left hand. She leans forward and peers at Niamh a little.
The redhead leans back slightly in response.
Miyuki's clothing is moving a bit ... oddly, given the breeze and having just jumped down. She's also tilting her head side to side a bit as she moves closer. "I might teach you, perhaps," she says as she smiles; a rather predatory grin for a brief moment.
"Is that really you, Miyuki?" Niamh asks, and sends out an ectoplasmic 'pulse' to see if the shrine-maiden before her is giving off any telltale non-human spirit qualities.
"Of course it is me," Miyuki claims as she moves until she's a few inches away. The pulse itself echoes ... and seems off somehow. She can't put her finger quite on what it is, though.
"I'm not so certain," Niamh says, and holds up her sickle between her and Miyuki. "Something's off in your aura. Casting all those illusions back there seems like a Kitsune skill more than a shrine-maiden's." She also.. sniffs the air for any telltale odors.
Well, there's certainly fox-smell in the air; hardly surprising at this shrine, though. Miyuki sits back and shakes her head a moment. "Is it? Well, dealing with creatures takes a lot out of me," she admits.
"You're acting a lot less reserved as well," Niamh points out. "Are you carrying a talisman maybe?" she asks.
Miyuki waves her right hand. "I am just tired," she says, "Sorry." She backs up a bit, stands, and stretches a bit, along with a wide yawn and momentary curl of her tongue.
"Well.. can you take me back to the other gate?" Niamh asks. "Noboru is probably sleeping on my dress now."
"You'll be lucky if he hasn't peed on it," Miyuki comments and starts walking up the stairs back to the temple proper.
Niamh follows, and decides to try something along the way. She's learned how to hide the auras of spirit-possessed items (along with detecting them), so she tries to do it on herself by creating a second skin of ectoplasm. If she can keep Noboru from sensing her immediately then it may worth practicing more at.
IF Niamh wishes to slime herself, she does manage that. As they make their way back up to the upper temple, it's easy to spot her dress is right where she left it. Noboru is perched up on the far Torii gate still, with his back to them both.
Since she's barefoot and barely dressed, Niamh tries to minimize her noise and attempt to sneak up on the Kitsune.
The lights immediately go out for Niamh ... and the world becomes ... fluffy. Mainly because one of Noboru's tails has wrapped around her head.
With a sigh, Niamh says, "Oh, you noticed me."
"Your breathing is loud, I can hear your footsteps, I can hear your clothing move, and I can smell you," Noboru comments, sounding a little muffled through that tail. "Any predator paying attention could."
Noboru's tail uncoils, but not without leaving a lot of white shed fluff stuck to Niamh's head, and up her nose.
"So are you going to teach me how to be less noticeable?" she asks after a quick sneeze.
"Did you want me to?" Noboru asks. "I happen to remember this half-human not more than half an hour ago completely ignoring my warnings, and actually trying to threaten me to 'make her stop'," the kitsune actually purrs. "Now, why would I want to put out effort to help someone like that? What would be in it for me?"
"Noboru-sama," Miyuki says, "Remember, she's young. Like ... er, hm. Well, under twenty I think? I'm not sure; they all look the same to me."
"Because you're bored and think I'm pretty?" Niamh suggests. "I remember a certain Kitsune offering to help me 'release the wild yokai inside' back in the bath-house. Or were you just trying to seduce me?" She looks at Miyuki, and has to finally ask, "How old are you?"
"Older than you, probably," Miyuki replies, all smiles.
"You look like you're.. thirteen, maybe?" Niamh guesses.
"Gems lose their luster when they manage to insult you," Noboru comments, lifts his head, and looks back at Niamh. "And given that you do not listen to me, why would I assume you would listen to anything I tried to teach."
"Hey, I am not some drooling baby!" Miyuki says, sounding slightly miffed.
"Maybe I had the romantic notion that you'd come to my rescue?" Niamh tells the Kitsune. She then blinks in surprise at Miyuki. "That.. isn't what thirteen-year-olds are actually like here are they? You're so small.. so I guessed based on that."
Miyuki ends up tapping her foot, and counting, pursing her lips now and then. "I think I'm seventeen," she admits, sounding a little uncertain about that. "The way your people measure time is different from mine."
"Your aid?" Noboru asks. "You made it quite clear you didn't want my help. The kitsune then chuckles a little and says, "And yes, Miyuki-chan, you are seventeen in their calendar."
"A year is still a year no matter what the calendar says," Niamh points out. "Unless you use a lunar calendar. I still find it hard to think of you as being a year older than me though."
"If you want his help, you should apologize," Miyuki comments to Niamh quietly. "You did rather offend him, judging from his tone. I believe the way to put it was you showed significant disrespect."
With another sigh, Niamh gets down on her knees (tucking her legs tightly together) and then prostrates herself towards the Kitsune. "I deeply apologize for not accepting your warning, condescending and uninformative as it may have seemed to me, oh wise Kitsune. How may I make amends?"
"Insults veiled in false apologies are not worth me even acknowledging," Noboru notes, sounding a bit non-plussed. He turns back around and sets his head back down; his back once more completely to Niamh.
Miyuki just covers her face. "You are digging your grave deeper, de Sidhe-san," she notes quietly. "You must be sincere, open, and honest. Not ... what that was."
"I meant no insult, I just wanted you to know how it seemed to me," Niamh says. "For my people.. it would come across as a challenge. We are not exactly the most obedient sorts."
"I'm at a rebellious age for my culture, is the honest truth," Niamh admits.
Noboru lifts his head and looks back. "The last time I dealt with a petulant child that refused to listen cost me one of my tails," he says, voice even. "And that was one of my sisters. She was stubborn, headstrong, and sure she could handle anything. I had to carry her broken and bleeding body back from one of her 'adventures', and give up part of myself to save her. It is not as if I am trying to prevent your fun, but keep you alive." The kitsune sighs loudly, glowing breath flowing from his jaws, as he shakes his head. "If you want my help, then you have to agree to owing me another favor, to be claimed at the time of my choosing, and whatever it is I choose."
"We aren't blood, and I cannot agree to help you without something in trade," Noboru notes, "So that you will be bound to listen to me."
"I will agree to that, if you agree to be more specific about dangers I may face," Niamh says. "To simply tell me that it is too dangerous does not work as well as giving specific examples. Named dangers are more real to me. My experiences have been very different, such that the notion of the forest being dangerous strikes me as being told it is safer to stand outside in a storm. I need a teacher to understand me as well."
"Noboru-sama, please, she is a foreigner and doesn't understand our ways. Do not remain too angry at her. I am sure she spoke without thinking," Miyuki speaks up a little, though she's looking down at the stone and drawing circles with one foot.
"The greatest danger you face is yourself. You have defined in stone how you see the world, only you based that definition on a very narrow view of it. I am sure to you, that you seem like an adult ... but I have lived thirty times your lifespan. So you are just a kit to me in many ways," Noboru says, the harder edge in his voice easing up a bit. "So, you need to open your mind and quit trying to force your short experiences as to defining the world so completely. If you can open your mind, I may be able to help."
"Fairies can be fickle," Niamh admits. "But I'm here to learn, I only need someone to teach me. Not tell me, but teach me in a way I can grasp. That requires some open-mindedness on the part of the teacher as well."
"Insults, again?" Noboru inquires, ears flicking. "Do you agree, or no?"
"I'm not insulting you.." Niamh says, on the verge of frustration. "I'm just trying to explain my limitations and weaknesses, so that you do not end up frustrated as well. I have a fundamental need to prove myself, and.. you will have to accept and deal with that. Do you agree to deal with me as I am instead of forcing me into a familiar mold? If so, then I can agree to you."
"I can tolerate a level of disobedience; I am kitsune, after all. But, if you go too far or ignore me, I will terminate any further education, among other things I may do," Noboru says. "So, think on my offer, and if you decide to agree, show up here tomorrow at first light, and bring your best hairbrush."
"I only brought the one brush, and it isn't my best," Niamh looks up to say.
"Are you trying to irritate me?" Noboru has to ask, seeming dumbfounded that Niamh would say something like that.
"What? No," Niamh says. "You asked me to honest and open. The brush I have is fairly plain, so I didn't want you to think I was insulting you by bringing it."
"If it is the best you have here, it is the best you have. Why would I think otherwise?" Noboru has to ask. "Remember, I've seen you in bath; I am not expecting some ivory-carved heirloom."
"My nice one is an ivory-carved heirloom," Niamh notes. "Which is why I didn't bring it. I have a wooden one with.. I think.. boar's hair bristles."
Noboru looks at Miyuki. "How have her parents not strangled her?" he asks. Miyuki ends up shrugging a little.
"Nobody goes on a long sea voyage carrying around things others might find valuable," Niamh notes. "I've traveled enough to learn that lesson."
"Anyway, think upon the offer. Show up if you agree, don't if you do not. I'm going back to my nap now," Noboru comments. "And Miyuki-chan, you need rest too; you are starting to wear thin. You do need to take better care of yourself; I cannot always be around to protect you."
Niamh wisely does not remark on Miyuki's clear ability to protect herself, and ties her circlet to her belt before putting her dress and boots back on. "I'll visit you tomorrow, whether I accept Noboru's offer or not," she tells the shrine-maiden.
"Are you going to?" Miyuki asks, perhaps a bit curious. "Accept, that is."
"I haven't decided," Niamh admits. "I'd like to. If I can get through the night without something else attacking me I should have a clearer head to decide with."
"Just don't use the restroom at night," Miyuki suggests, "And do provoke spirits, and you should be fine." She yawns widely again, then waves. "I am going to get a nap. Be safe."
do NOT provike, that is.
"Toilet ghosts too?" Niamh mutters. She waves to Miyuki and starts to descend the steps, wondering what the locals will gossip about her this time. She also realizes she's hungry, so picks up her pace a bit to be back before dinner!