The rest of the day passes without much event. Well, there is an event, and it's the noisy ruckus that's going on somewhere near the shrine. The what, though, Niamh can easily guess. It's two kitsunes that sound like they're trying to make up for a century of celibacy. It's a bit loud, and when the wind blows just right ... fragrant. But fortunately it ends just as the sun is going down. Noboru has returned and perched himself on the main Torii gate again, watching over the temple grounds. This means Nimah is now free to grab Miyuki and tend to the ritual she has been planning.
So, as the sun goes down Niamh fetches Miyuki, and Miyuki switches into a more formal miko outfit (or at the very least a cleaner one), and the pair head down the back stairway to the clearing...
"So, I'm going to just be keeping watch, i don't know your ritual at all. Just ... try to not do anything too weird? Or too western, we don't need reminders of the barbarians that keep trying to invade out shores," Miyuki requests. Though it also comes with a laugh, so it was probably the kitsune just teasing.
"Just so you know, the history of my homeland is written in something called The Book of Invasions," Niamh claims. "We were always the ones being invaded." She then removes her baldric, and folds it before setting it on the lowest step, which leaves her just wearing her golden 'belt' of hair. She then paces about in the space beyond the stairs, pausing now and then to dig her toes into the topsoil as if testing it.
Miyuki moves out of the way, placing herself at the bottom of the stairs and leans against one of the pillars. Her tail flicks around behind her, slowly, lazily. She also has her ears out and those are cupping, twitching, and listening to the forest. She's also sniffing here and there. So, while she may look bored, she's actually watching the surroundings. The dirt itself feels fine to her toes, nothing 'wrong' at least.
Niamh finds her spot. She arches her back and raises her arms skyward, then drops them down as bends her right knee slightly and moves her left leg out straight, held so that the toes are brushing the soil. She begins to sweep that leg in an circle, until she has to jump slightly and switch legs as she spins to complete it. All the while she's speaking softly in a strange language. "Thig thì nithean gun iarraigh.."
And for the moment, nothing happens. The wind is light tonight, so the leaves rustle softly. Miyuki is just minding herself, at the edge. Still sniffing, listening. Nothing seems to have alerted her yet...
The the dance becomes.. more of a ballet, with an invisible partner. The circle motif is constant, with the sweeping and switching to continue a different arc, always moving her center in a larger circle. The arcs are drawn on the ground by her toes, looking like she's sketching out a lotus-like flower. Niamh has her eyes closed, and is clearly not paying any attention to her surroundings.
As her aura gets brighter, Niamh's movements become more deerlike; almost prancing once the larger shape has been inscribed, and her voice a little more musical.
the moon is also slowly moving more overhead, its light flowing down into the clearing. It seems to make Nimah glow, perhaps. Or maybe it's naked girls in the forest just look odd? Miyuki makes a small 'hmf' sound as she watches, but nothing more than that. She's trying not to distract.
The dance continues for some time, until the girl glistens with perspiration. Then, almost suddenly, she seems to collapse to the ground in the center of the pattern she's drown, her legs going straight out to the sides as she does the splits, with her palms pressing down into the soil immediately in front of her. Then the perspiration starts to reverse, drawing into her. Her ribs start showing even more than they already had been, as well as the wings of her pelvis, her cheeks and her spine, as if her skin were being pulled into herself. She's drying out as she pulls everything into her core, her womb to build up her ectoplasm there.
"Erm, that doesn't look healthy," Miyuki says and pushes herself off the pillar. She starts towards Miamh now. "You don't want to push yourself too hard, you're not made totally of spirit like me.
The forest needs to know what I'm willing to give, Niamh thinks. Her mouth is too dry to actually speak anymore. When she's built up as much as she can, she pushes it down, reaching as deep into the groundn with it as possible to link up to the roots of the forest.
Miyuki stops, and backs away, then. "Just, ... be careful," she asks. The forest around her is still silent. And remains so for what feels like minutes. Then one by one, the trees begin to light up, a soft glow starting at their roots and weaving its way up until the leaves shine like mini-candles. As more time passes, the intensity increases...
Slowly, Niamh tries to pull her energy back, hoping that some of the forest energy will come with it, that she's made the connection.
Pulling the energy back is proving difficult It's like trying to shovel sand. Sure, you get some out, but it falls a bit through your fingers, and the hole has a tendency to fill in. But, if you shovel enough, and for long enough, you can slowly make a hole. It's like this for Niamh, a slow draw back, a drop at a time as it swirls about.
So she keeps spreading herself out again, trying for a better connection and hoping she doesn't just collapse from exhaustion. She's never felt so thin before. She wasn't already weakened when she did this back home, after all, and the journey has taken its toll. She digs her fingers deeper into the soil, then relaxes them. You can't force it, you just need to be more accepting, she tells herself. Relax.
Nimah feels even thinner all of a sudden and her vision begins to swim. Maybe she did push herself too far. Then she feels two small hands cup her shoulders. "Focus on my voice," Miyuki asks. "Just focus on it, use it as an anchor for you. Imagine me as a whirlpool, a force to draw in everything around and use it. No one person can do everything, so I lend you some of myself to help..."
So the girl reaches out as if drowning. The forest is so different here, and she needs a medium to make it work. It's just beyond my reach, she thinks. A little further, she just needs help to reach a little further.
It's better, the reaching out. Maybe having Miyuki there to help, to act as a familiar sort of spirit to help synchronize with this land. And then she makes a connection. It's a bit tenuous, but it's there. And as she slowly draws from it the connection only gets stronger...
Macha isn't the goddess of the land here, Niamh realizes to herself. Going through Miyuki makes her understand. So she releases the Yokai energy she's been keeping separate in her tail. She should have done that from the start, to be more familiar to the forest.
THAT helps. The connection grows even stronger, she feels more a part of this land than before. Maybe ol' Noboru had a reason for all the messing he had done earlier. The forest energy starts to flow back.
Finally, Niamh begins to fill back out. The shadows of her ribs fade and smooth out so that she doesn't look half-starved anymore. Certainly healthier than when she arrived. She feels the energy pooling back inside of her, pushing outward. Much more and she'll start to glow.
"There you go, you've got it now," Miyuki murmurs and lifts her hands off Niamh's shoulders. The fox draws back to her guard place so that Niamh can recover in peace, and slowly drink from the forest and the land. "Well, my home just got a new yokai, it seems," Miyuki even murmurs softly.
At least Niamh tries for something familiar to her; a faun. So she only has to worry about her legs and ears changing for now. She still wants all that the forest is willing to give her. If she overflows she has ways of dealing with the excess, after all: that's the other reason she wanted Miyuki near.
It's easy, perhaps too easy, as Niamh feels her body easily change. Toes merge into hooves, ears grow out, her face lengthens slightly, lips thinning, nose twitching. Even her eyes spread just a little.
But more importantly she feels alive again, for the first time since leaving home. No longer fading away! She waves a hand and watches the ectoplasm leave a trailing afterimage. She feels nearly drunk.
"Having fun?" Miyuki comments, grinning. She's leaning on the post, tail flicking slowly.
"Not yet," Niamh purrs. She's not moving from the spot until the flow of energy stops. She has the thirst of a man lost in the desert.
The energy keeps flowing for a minute, then just ... tapers off. She's left as she is, and surprisingly not over or under-charged. Well, that was ... lucky?
She still feels energized though, and wobbles up to her.. hooves. The forest fauns always made it look easy.
"I do not understand the fascination with having hooves. I like having toes. Easier to walk on, and run on," Miyuki comments as she watches, amused. "And probably not used to shifting, either. Are you planning to go for a run...?"
"Of a sort," Niamh says, and staggers towards Miyuki. "Hold me up," she requests.
Miyuki arches her eyebrows a little, then shrugs. She saunters over and slips an arm around Niamh to help hold her up.
Once supported, Niamh tries to separate and store the Yokai energy from her legs, so she isn't teetering. If that works, she'll try her face next.. but will leave the ears alone.
Well, that goes easily enough! The energy flows out of those legs and right back into her butt! Er, well, tail. "Aww, don't like being one of us?" Miyuki teases and bites on of those ears.
In response, Niamh bites (well, kisses) the side of Miyuki's neck, putting a bit of her own energy into it as well.
Miyuki's ears shoot up and her tail frizzes out! "Oh no, did the forest turn you into a vampire?!?!" she blurts out in shock. "I'll call Noboru!"
"No, I'm just... cooling down," Niamh claims. "Are your clothes real, or just illusion?"
"Erm, illusion," Miyuki remarks and sticks out her tongue. "Are you trying to go where I think you are...?" she asks.
"That depends," Niamh claims, and nuzzles at Miyuki's neck.
"Depends on...?" Miyuki prompts, and now grinning with a fangy, predatory, sort of grin.
"Well.. nothing really," Niamh says. "You can stop me, but.. I would prefer you did not." She presses the fingers of one hand to the small of Miyuki's back, just above her tail, and pushes her ectoplasm out of the tips, like little silver flames, to see how the Kitsune reacts to it.
This makes Miyuki go up on her toes! To that goo, the kitsune probably feels rather strange, a mix of young, and the sort of sewn in binding of one much older; the sacrifice and stitching Noboru had to do. "You do realize what you're asking," she purrs as her clothing breaks slowly apart, sliding and fading away into firey little motes of light. She counters by running claws right up Niamh's back.
"Am I asking?" Niamh replies a bit coyly, and begins to brush her fingers upwards along Miyuki's spine. "I'm just exploring a little. Flexing muscles that had nearly atrophied."
It's odd how Miyuki feels real and not at the same time. It's like a flexible shell wrapped around a ball of pure spirit. That skin twitches, rolls, and even ripples under those fingers. "I can tell you're exploring," she coos, "But will you regret it in the morning?"
"Regret?" Niamh asks. She slides her fingers to the side, crossing Miyuki's shoulder blade and down along her ribs, before swinging down to her hip.
"Yeah, you're drunk, sort of," Miyuki explains and shrugs a bit, though she's also not stopping it either. "And we're both girls. And I'm an animal, on top of that."
"A divine animal though," Niamh claims. "That makes us similar, doesn't it?" She strokes Miyuki's belly, and then asks, "Should I stop?"
Zahnrad laughs. "Well, we might be somewhat similar," Miyuki concedes. "Are you sure you won't regret it? I know I've made some jokes, but ... I wouldn't do something if you weren't in your right mind."
Miyuki laughs. "Well, we might be somewhat similar," Miyuki concedes. "Are you sure you won't regret it? I know I've made some jokes, but ... I wouldn't do something if you weren't in your right mind."
"Well, I'm here, so by human standards I haven't been in my right mind for some time," Niamh jokes. She moves to cup the Kitsune's vulva, spreading the ectoplasm to her entire palm now to push a bit past the skin, and starts stroking a bit with her fingers. "I want to hear you bark though. I don't know what else to call the sound foxes make."
That gets Miyuki. She seems to just sort of freeze up for a moment, and also trigger a few things given her facial expressions. "Well," she hisses out between her teeth, "We don't bark, we sort of scream. In nightmarish ways." Then she's pushing Niamh down and onto her back, then straddling right over her to pin her down. "Just remember, you asked for it.." she growls.
"Oh, did you want to do things to me then?" Niamh asks with a grin. She pushes deeper in with her ectoplasm, trying to saturate whatever she can. After all, she gets to feel what Miyuki does this way.
"Why does it have to be one sided," Miyuki coos, "We both have tongues and mouths." She waggles her brow, too.
"Because I wanted to make you squirm as an act of dominance," Niamh says plainly, but grins as she does it. "Flex my power, I suppose," she adds, and sort of swirls the ectoplasm coming off of her hand. It's not like a tongue, even if it's supposed to be.
"I'm older than you," Miyuki points out and then playfully flicks Niamh's forehead! She's also breathing a little funny, and rolls to the side! "But fiiine, if you want to do stuff ... I'll just have to suffer it!"
"And I'm young, so I have to practice more," Niamh claims, and rolls to her side as well to push up against Miyuki to kiss her. Although it's a normal kiss this time. But since they're on their sides she can use one of her legs (the real reason she wanted it human?) to rub along Miyuki's, and use her other hand to feel her up as well.
My, what sharp and long canines Miyuki has. And the thought of wolves biting through a femur might come to mind! She does rumble, though, and drape her arm over to do some feeling up of her own, including sliding her hand down to cup Niamh in much the same way (minus ectoplasm).
This probably gives Miyuki an advantage, since that's a bit more one-sided. It causes Niamh to squirm a bit, and that causes her ectoplasm to push and pull a bit more erratically.
Miyuki also has claws. And uses them. On sensitive parts.
"Yeep!" Niamh squeaks, and those bits get a bit more ectoplasm internally flowing to them. Which helps with the pain.. but also makes them more sensitive at the same time! It also makes her bite one of Miyuki's ears!
Zahnrad sort of bark-screams! It sounds like a child being strangled! "Sorry, i did warn you!" she blurts out soon after. She quits clawing and does more, well, inserting, then a whole lot of internal rolling.
Miyuki sort of bark-screams! It sounds like a child being strangled! "Sorry, i did warn you!" she blurts out soon after. She quits clawing and does more, well, inserting, then a whole lot of internal rolling.
Niamh eases her bite, and seems momentarily stunned by the scream. Noboru probably heard that, but that's not a problem for the moment. "I can't make that noise, so you'll just have to.. trust my other ones!" she claims, and makes a bit more of an effort down below to try and get Miyuki to scream again before she makes Niamh do likewise (although it'll happen to her anyway due to the feedback if she succeeds).
There's a lot of squirming from Miyuki now. The more Niamh tries to invade, the more she feels just how not-human Miyuki really is. She can feel the more animalistic side, the instincts, the urges. How it feels to bite a rabbit's head off, and other such predator-memories that well up within her. Also, touching on seven decades of memories, little flashes; including the one of a fox watching the first ships blockading the ports that finally forced Japan to open its harbors. It's a weird sensory feedback, along with the surges of actual pleasure, too, it's definitely not human-feeling either, More wild and hormonal, driving. In the bushes and tail up as it were.
To Niamh, this comes across as.. fae. A nature spirit that has a bit of humanity to it, like so many of her friends back home. But not like a Sidhe, which came from humans originally. She wonders about the part that ties Miyuki to Inari, but isn't about to go looking for that. The animal part is the important one now, just as it's the animal part in her that needs to be sated.
So the girl focuses on petting that part, literally and figuratively.
The feedback gets more erratic and frenzied as the rubbing and teasing continues. Miyuki's tail thumps against the ground as she does so. HEr own running and finger-rolling is quite a bit more erratic, as if she has problems focusing. There's a lot of power in the young kitsune, in all spirits really, that most never see, but through the link Niamh is at least aware of it.
It causes a little burst of adrenaline in Niamh. Possibly fear, or just excitement. She squirms and rubs against Miyuki, and bites her own lip. She has to see it through, because if she loses the race it won't be as much fun for both of them. Instead of pushing deeper, she tries to extend more around the curve towards the fox's tail again, thinking that's probably a sensitive spot. She's just focusing on sensation now rather than trying to taste the kitsune's spirit more.
The tail it is, apparently. The tail bones happen to be quite close to where the nerves tend to run for, ah, sexual pleasures. So extending to those places and stimulating is akin to doubling the stimulation. THAT gets Miyuki squirming, and making silly yip noises.
So Niamh pumps a bit more energy into her effort, trying to get things to pop, as much for her own pleasure as Miyuki's at this point! She even growls a bit.
Oh it pops. It pops with a cacophony of scream-barks, yipping, and a whole lot of squirming! Even the village ways of can probably hear THAT. So if pitchforks and torches show up...
Niamh doesn't register the noise at first, since she's send reeling by the pop as well, or at least the bit that flowed back. She actually goes a bit limp afterwards before she can think again. She doesn't scream though, as that would require taking a breath first.
And of course since Miyuki is a female, the surge lasts a really long time. When it does finally pass, the poor fox is laying there, panting like mad too. "You kids having fun?" Noboru asks from a perch on top of this tori gate. He's resting his chin on his paws and looking down at the pair.
"Yes," Niamh gasps a bit hoarsely. "Why do you ask?"
"Just wondering," Noboru remarks. "If two vixens want to get at each other like it's breeding season, who am I to argue. It's a fun show."
"Noboru," Miyuki wheezes, "Just shut your fuzzy yap."
"Miyuki isn't in season?" Niamh asks, after taking deep breaths. "I guess everything is in season for a moon rabbit though.."
"Oh she is. Full moons make her hump the pillows," Noboru remarks.
"Noboru, SHUT UP!" Miyki barks. "You don't tell people that!"
"I have a different reaction to full moons," Niamh says. She turns to Miyuki and asks, "What difference does it make if I know?"
"You'll take advantage," Miyuki comments and rolls on her side. "It's harder to resist my feral instincts during it."
"You mean I can't take advantage of you every night?" Niamh asks teasingly, and pinches Miyuki!
This makes Miyuki bark and there's sort of an explosion of fluff everywhere, leaving behind a fox covered in swirling patters and glaring. "It's not funny," she growls. "It's when the beast is close to the skin, and takes only a little nudge to come out." Her tail is a bottlebrush of twitch, to. Then she just turns and runs into the forest, disappearing.
"Wait!" Niamh calls, sitting up. "Come back! There might be randy foxes out there, or rabbits!"
"She won't be back until morning," Noboru comments, "And no, don't go after her. You won't find her. Just ... let her go. It was during one of those periods she was mauled, Niamh. She's afraid of losing control because of that."
"She could have told me," Niamh says, feeling flustered. "We could have gone back to her room.. despite the screaming."
"Would you tell someone about when you almost died and why if you were ashamed of it?" Noboru points out. "She'll be fine. Just let her run it off for the night. I usually always know where she is, since she carries a part of myself. I'll know if she gets in trouble. Well, most of the time."
"Is there anything out there that could hurt her though when she's like this?" Niamh asks, sounding concerned.
"Plenty of things. It's a dangerous world," Noboru says and shrugs. "She'll be fine, though. She's older and good at concealment and mirage magic."
Niamh purses her lips. "She'd better be back in one piece come morning," she says. And then glares at Noboru. "It's your fault she ran off you know."
"Why is it my fault? You're the one that did it?" Noboru points out. One ear flicks.
"But you brought it up and made her upset," Niamh accuses.
"You teased her," Noboru counters. "I stated a fact. You used the fact."
"But if you hadn't said it I wouldn't have teased her," Niamh claims. "I was trying to be flirty. I never tried that before."
"You can explain that to her in the morning," Noboru points out.
Niamh gets to her feet and brushes herself off, and pinches herself as well in the moonlight. "No longer skin and bones," she says. "That's good!"
"Right," Noboru says, all smiles, "You just hurt the one person that helped you fix that! All good!"
"Hrrrr!" Niamh grumps at Noboru, and actually wags a finger at him. Then she wags it again.
"You're going to get gray hairs if you get so frustrated," Noboru, the white fox, comments.
"I'm still blaming you!" Niamh huffs. "Everything was going great before you came to.. do whatever you came to do! Embarrass us or something! That's your favorite thing!"
"Well, guilty on that part," Noboru admits and shrugs. "So ... since you have all your energy back ... want to know what it's like to have amale kitsune mount you?" he asks without even blinking.
The girl's mouth drops open. "What about Kasumi?" she finally asks.
"Well, if you want her to join," Noboru opines, "I think I could talk her into letting you lick her."
Niamh picks up her folded tabard, and starts up the stairs for the shrine. "You'll have to actually woo me," she challenges. "I'm not your pet."
"Your tail says otherwise," Noboru comments, sticking out his tongue too. "Wag that tail!"
"No!" Niamh says, and hurries along. "It doesn't speak for me!"