No further fox accosting as Niamh makes her way out of the main temple building. The temple proper is quiet, peaceful. A light breeze flows through it that brings with it the light smell of the flowering trees. For a moment, it's hard to believe she was just being horribly tormented and teased by well-known trouble-making spirits. The question that remains: "What now?"
Since she still needs to meditate and 'practice' holding her spirit inside, Niamh seeks out the most likely place of familiarity and comfort: the shrine's tree. She knows there must be one, so she starts looking - and tries to ignore the slight itchiness against her back.
It doesn't take that long of searching the upper platform for her to find a massive cherry-blossom tree, covered in its bright pink and white petals. Given how large its trunk is, it must be centuries old.
"And so close to the forest.. maybe it is still connected," she murmurs to herself as she heads towards the dark trunk. Once she's close enough, she looks up into the blossoming branches feels better. Trees don't pull pranks on people! Although they do sometimes drop fatally heavy branches on them, she knows. She places her palms on the trunk and tries to feel if the tree is awake before trying to infuse any of her spirit into it.
How can you really tell if a tree is awake or asleep? Plants measure time is such different ways from people. The tree feels generally still and at peace; but this is a peaceful place so that is hardly surprising.
And so Niamh tries a little 'tickle' of ectoplasm. This one is older than the ones at the fallen shrine, so needs to be handled a bit more gently.
There's a somewhat painful thump on the top of her head as the tree drops a small branch right on it! Rustling the branches of an old tree carries its risks, after all.
"Ow," Niamh complains, and looks up to see if it would better to move before trying further.
The tree has a LOT of branches. To be up close to its trunk puts her noggin in bonking range.
The alternative is search out an exposed root.. so she does glance around to see if anything shows a bit further away.
Further away are all large stone pavers, so no exposed roots.
Looking back up the trunk, Niamh briefly considers climbing.. but that's probably frowned upon for a shrine. "This is not going well," she says. So she releases the trunk, and sits down cross-legged with her back to it for now. She can still get some meditation in next to it at least. Foxes shouldn't mess with her next to the eldest shrine tree!
Surely they wouldn't come pee on her, or otherwise try to further scent-mark her. For now at least the shrine kitsune are nowhere to be seen, the air is warm and pleasant, and the tree is comfortable at her back. A great place for meditation.
And so the girl focuses on her breathing, then on the flow of blood through her heart so that she can gather her spirit there.
Like before, she can feel it coursing through her, moving softly like waves on the ocean. Back and forth, back and forth, fortunately she doesn't get seasick.
It does make it difficult to continue focus though, since it is lulling by its nature. The sun and fresh air don't help, so she begins to doze in and out of consciousness. Each type she jerks awake, she has to start over again.
Hard to really say how long she's sitting there given she keeps drifting off. The good news is, at least her back has stopped itching. The band news is the next time she jerks her head up and eyes open, she finds the tilted head of a fox looking in her face. Behind it, seven tails flick about slowly; it's one of the heralds surely.
Niamh's eyes go wide, but she manages not to jolt in alarm. "Hello?" she offers.
"Konnichiwa," the fox says in a decidedly female tone of voice. Its head tilts the other way now.
"I.. Miyuki asked you if it was alright for me to stay, didn't she?" Niamh asks a bit nervously.
"Kanojo wa shita, sore wa daijobudesu," the fox replies, its eyes crinkling and lips drawing up in amusement at Niamh's apparent discomfort. "Anata wa watashi no musume no atarashi garufurendodesu ka?"
Holding her hand out, Niamh says, "I forgot how to speak Japanese already." Of course, after the jolt she got from Noboru she isn't sure she wants to try doing the tongues trick with his mother.
"Okaa-san! Sore wa hazukashidesu," Miyuki announces from across the stonework. This causes the kitsune to look back and say, "Musume, anata o komara seru no wa watashi no gimudesu. Watashi wa aiko-ka no anata no konomi o shitte imasu." Even from here she can see Miyuki blush.
Chuckling oddly, Noboru's mother turns her head back around and looks questioningly at Niamh's hand. "Watashi wa kore de nani o shimasu ka?" she asks.
Mothers are universally embarrassing to their children it seems, Niamh thinks. "If you put your hand.. paw.. in my hand, I can speak your language for a time."
This makes one ear of the kitsune splay sideways, then it lifts its paw and places it in Niamh's hand.
This time Niamh uses a very small amount of ectoplasm for the transfer.
The response is a blinding surge! It makes Niamh see stars and feel immensely dizzy ... and this time also a bit queasy! Part of her momentarily imagines this might be what licking a lightning bolt might feel like. She can just feel her hair standing on end, too.
"Ooooo.." Niamh moans and tries to pick herself back up, even though she was sitting down.
The world feels like it is spinning about her. "You lack control, child," she hears the kitsune say gently. "You need to me careful when opining your soul to another yokai. You could lose yourself."
"Yes..," Niamh admits. "It is just frustrating not being able to understand you all."
"Then take time to learn the language instead of relying on tricks," the Kitsune notes, politely. "So, you are my daughter's new girlfriend?"
"NEW girlfriend?" Niamh asks. "How many has she had?"
"One or two others. I do not generally try to keep track," the Kitsune answers and even shrugs a little.
"What happened to them?" the girl asks.. since she has a vested interest in finding out. Noboru's human mate was from the shrine, with no issues of secrecy involved, after all.
"They left? Things drifted? It was never serious; she is far too young. It is good for her to get explorations done early, for the time approaches when she will be mated and married to another clan to bring us together," the Kitsune explains.
"An arranged marriage?" Niamh asks. "Is that how you and her father met?"
"Of course. Inari chose us to be mates and we have been such ever since. We are happy to be together," the Kitsune answers.
Niamh ohs! "So Inari will choose Miyuki's mate?" she asks for confirmation. Miyuki is Inari's priestess after all.
"She has input on it, but we also have input," the Kitsune notes. "My daughter does not wish to marry, though. But, I am sure she will come around eventually."
"How old was Noboru when he was married?" Niamh asks. She doesn't want to get married anytime soon either.. but there's not convenient deity to find her a suitable husband either.
"He was seventy-five to eighty at the time," the Kitsune explains. "But it did not last; he lost his mate in a yokai incursion a mere century later. He has not remated since."
"Didn't he have a human mate after his kitsune one?" Niamh asks - this is the first she's heard of Noboru losing his mate in a monster invasion.
"Oh, well, humans do not count. They cannot pledge eternity," the Kitsune explains.
"Ah, of course," Niamh says. She's only a yosei so probably doesn't count either. But.. "Noboru did something to my back with his claws. Did he mark me somehow?"
The kitsune's head tilts this way and that ... then she swears the fox starts giggling. It even covers its muzzle a little with a forepaw. "I rather imagine he did, yes," the fox notes.
"What did he do?" Niamh asks, genuinely worried at the giggling. "Did he cast a spell on me?"
"I was not there, so I cannot say for certain," the Kitsune notes as its tails flick all about in a seven-strong blur of fluff. "But yes, I imagine a spell was involved. I am sure it is ... quite pretty."
"Did he mark me?" Niamh asks. She's seen tattoos on sailors, but never asked how they got them, so doesn't immediately draw the parallel.
"Likely," the Kitsune says and bobs her head.
At this, Niamh tries to get her shirt off to check her back, but since there are ties she's not familiar with she isn't getting very far. Then she remembers that Miyuki is there too. "Miyuki, what did your brother do to my back?" she asks a bit desperately.
"Nothing bad!" Miyuki replies as she finally does come over from the distance she was watching.
"Bad, BAD?" Niamh frets. "What do you consider bad? It's something he did without asking, again!"
Miyuki holds up her hands. "Remember, you belong to him! He doesn't have to ask!" she says quickly. "I think it is simply a watercolor painting of himself upon your back."
"Watercolor?" Niamh asks in confusion, unsure that she understands the word. "Water is not colored!"
"It is a painting style. He made your back a beautiful canvas of color," Miyuki explains.
"He.. has to stop doing things like this!" Niamh declares. "I still have to see my parents. If they find things like this they will lock me up to try and protect me!"
"Have you considered that perhaps he intended that?" the elder Kitsune points out. "He did it to protect you, after all."
"I don't understand him then," Niamh says. "I think he just does not want to teach me," she concludes. "Which means I cannot purify the old shrine guardians, and they will take me over in order to be set free.."
"Can you understand the river?" the Kitsune asks.
"You avoid them in the winter, and after the spring thaws?" Niamh asks.
"So, no you do not," the Kitsune concludes. "We are forces of nature; not so easily grasped by humans; or yokai who thought they were human. If my son said he would teach you, he will. But, that does not stop him from following his nature and teasing you too. It shows that you interest him."
"Am I allowed to tease him back or play tricks on him?" Niamh asks, biting her lip. None of this sounds reassuring.
"Oh, of course you are. But be careful, you may inspire his interests to become more romantic in nature if you do," the elder kitsune explains.
"I should have let him see me naked," Niamh laments. The worse she can do to him is make him slightly damp as it is. Unless she can get Miyuki to help somehow. "Is there a mirror here?"
"There is a water mirror in the room of divination," the Elder Kitsune offers.
"That.. isn't standing up though is it?" the girl asks. "I don't need to divine anything, I just want to see my back."
"No, it isn't standing up," the elder Kitsune agrees and shrugs a bit. "You can lean, can you not?"
"I wouldn't want to fall in," Niamh says. "And I would not put it past Noboru to make me think I have a painting on me so that he can dunk me in a pool."
This makes the kitsune giggle again. "Well, see? He's teaching you after all," she points out and even gestures with her forepaw.
Niamh gets to her feet, and then reaches up to feel her hair, in case it really is frizzed out.
"She's as frizzy as a dandelion right now. Miyuki is just standing a few feet away looking a little uncomfortable.
This time Niamh does use her ectoplasm to dampen her hair down, running her palm over it.
That at least works and soon she's looking less like plant life on fire. "Are you mad at Noboru?" Miyuki asks, in english.
"I am not happy with him right now," Niamh says. "He does these things because he knows it will upset me."
"Yes? He does things like that to me all the time," Miyuki notes and shrugs a little. "It is our way."
"What do you do to him?" Niamh says, ready to follow the herald.
"I cannot say, otherwise he might find out it was me," Miyuki says wisely. The herald simply shakes her head and mutters something about youth and their poor quality jokes.
"Fairies can be mischievous too," Niamh claims and follows.
"Your funeral!" Miyuki calls after them, and the herald simply laughs. The walk through the temple platform is as unremarkable as it was previously, except for this time she's staring at seven fluffy tails darting all about. They seem to be heading to a small building off to the side; all stone, work, and closed with a heavy-looking door.
"Are there any rituals that must be observed before entering?" Niamh ask the mother kitsune.
"I think you have had enough teasing for today. Since you are not going to ask for a divination, no, no ritual is required," the elder Kitsune says. Her tails flick this way and that, leaving ghostly kanji in their wake. Seheral dull thumps are then heard, as if large bolts on the door have been released. The door then creaks open a bit ominously. "Go ahead and go look if you wish. I will wait here."
Niamh opens the door further until she can pass through, and wonders if there is a skylight at least for illumination.
No skylights, but all the wall lanterns within light up with a ghostly white light, leading into the building and the large pool-like shape at the end.
"Fairy lights," Niamh says, then heads for the pool and kneels down to look into it.
It looks like a piece of reflective glass, the water is so clear and still. She can see herself well in it.
She doesn't bother with the ties, and just tries to pull the shirt off over her head this time. "Painting on me," she mutters.
It's like trying to remove a straight-jacket, or so she might assume ... if she has never worn a straight jacket before. So, it's a lot of struggling to get it off. Eventually, she does worm her way out, and that gives her pause to realize she has to put it back on later.
After letting a long breath, and then having to smooth her back again, Niamh tries to position herself so that she can see her back without completely twisting around. Maybe kitsune can turn their necks further than humans can, but she is rather limited. She isn't part owl after all.
IT takes a bit of effort to find the right position before she can really see her back, but when she does ... she discovers it's almost completely covered in a stylized and rather beautiful 'painting' of a four-tailed kitsune, almost pure white, with his blue markings that seem to still shimmer. His posture is also as if he's guarding something, or more specifically, like he's guarding what is directly behind him ... her back.
"Hmm," Niamh huffs. "It's not bad," she admits. She still would have liked the option of being asked though. It should wash of though, she hopes, and then tries to struggle back into the seemingly loose top, but that is apparently just the sleeves.
It's like fighting with an octopus to put the shirt back on ... then she discovers she put it on backwards and has to do another dance to get it turned back around! It's a good fifteen minutes before she's got the top back on and certain parts of her anatomy feel rather jostled around now.
"How do they do manage this without help?" Niamh asks the ceiling. After making sure she's presentable again she heads for the door, hoping she hasn't been locked inside as another joke.
The door is still open and the elder Kitsune is still sitting outside as she said she would. "Satisfied?" she inquires, then flicks her tail all about. The lights go out, the door closes behind Niamh, and the bolts re-lock.
"I've seen it at least," Niamh says noncommittally. "Can you tell me if the old cherry tree is friendly?"
"It is a tree. Friendly in what manner?" the elder inquires as she looks over.
"It's spirit I mean," Niamh says. "Does it like to talk? Is it still connected to the forest?"
"Sakura is the spirit. She is even older than I am, I believe. If you enjoy speaking with a grandmother-like figure that often falls asleep, then I assume you could call her 'nice'," the elder comments after some thought. "As for still connected, of course. All trees here are."
"Sakura," Niamh repeats. "I will try to talk to her then, if she does not drop any branches on me. I need to contact the local forest god. Just as you required my family to meet with you, I'm obligated to introduce myself."
"Why? The forest here tries to avoid interacting with humans too much. Granted you are only partly human, I suppose, so the rules may be different," the kitsune concedes. "Miyuki is our liaison to the forest god, when we need to send messages."
"It is.. It's the pact, it's very old, between the fae and the forest," Niamh tries to explain. "I need to know if the forests here recognize it."
"And if they do not?" the elder inquires.
"Then I need to find favor with it, or there is no point in my learning the chinkon from Miyuki," Niamh says. "I can't match the power of the Koma-inu without the help of the forest."
"Why are you even trying to? Those humans chose their fate when they converted that old shrine into that ... place. If the Inu now haunt them, they deserve it," the elder notes.
"What about the cherry trees?" Niamh asks. "Have they sinned, to be rotted away by the foulness of those guardians? Where will it end? What if they Koma-inu are released?"
"Then myself and my mate will kill them," the Elder says. "Imprisoning them was a kindness; more than they deserved for that they did to my child."
"My family tries to keep dangerous spirits from hurting people," Niamh says. "To me, leaving the guardians there was not a kindness. You could have imprisoned them and tossed them into the sea, where they could never cause harm again."
"Not killing them was a kindness. But now they can mostly only observe and see the world, but are denied its caress. That they are stuck in limbo is their punishment for defiling a celestial kitsune pup. And until you have your own children and then nearly lose them to such creatures, I suggest you do not judge our actions," the elder remarks a bit harshly. "No mother can not want the creatures that tore half the face off their child to suffer some."
"It is fine to make them suffer for what they did, but others should not be caught up in it," Niamh offers. "Humans are weak, they have flaws. This situation was bound to happen. If I am to accept your nature, you must also accept human's nature."
"They were wanted to stay away from the shrine. They ignored the warning," the elder points out. "They chose their fate."
"You don't care for humans, do you?" Niamh asks the elder kitsune.. who has probably seen a lot of humanity's uglier behavior over the centuries.
"They tend to bring misery in their wake," the Elder notes.
"Then why do you serve at their shrine?" Niamh asks.
"This is Inari's shrine, not the humans shrine. I serve Inari, and she always hopes that humans some day will grow up and quit being so destructive," the Elder comments.
"Is she the fox goddess as well as a human goddess?" Niamh asks. She isn't quite sure how it works with multiple deities after all. She only has to worry about Danu and the Horned God after all.
"Yes," the Elder replies.
"But.. did she create foxes then?" Niamh asks. "Our foxes don't have their own specific god."
"Legends say she did. I am not so old as to know for certain," the Elder admits.
"I'll have to tell the foxes back home and see what they think," Niamh says, keeping an eye out for Miyuki and Noboru.
The pair are nowhere to be seen. "I have other duties to tend to," the elder says and rises. "If you and my daughter ... explore each other, just do try to be somewhat quiet about it." And with that, she saunters off with seven-tails a-flicking.
"Quiet?" Niamh wonders. Does Miyuki make a lot of noise? She hopes that she doesn't.. but she probably doesn't, otherwise Noboru would tease her about it. She shakes her head, and heads back towards the cherry tree. Even if she doesn't try talking to Sakura again, she can still get some more meditation in before foxes seek her out again.