Going Home

When Kuma awakened, they felt as if they had slept forever. Their body was heavy and still taken by the exhaustion they had felt previously. Yet it wasn't unpleasant. They sat up, trying to be gentle so as not to put too much pressure on Sitria. Yet they stumbled slightly. They hadn't realized, but she was moving quite fast. They gently leaned forward, holding onto her fur tightly. 

"Why are we going so fast..?" They asked, slipping slightly after she jumped over a rather large log. 

"Good, you are finally awake! Can you sit up properly? We are being chased and I can't keep running like this." Sitria huffed, swerving through the trees. Kumako took a moment to glance behind the two of them, only to shiver. Kumako stumbled to get the axe off of their back so they could sit up properly. 

"What are those?!" They squeaked out, glancing back once more and grimacing. Sitria stumbled over some branches as she tried to answer. 

"Those are leshii. We can't keep running. They will go after us until we are dead. Can you fight?" She asked, glancing back for a moment. 

"Fight?! Do I have a choice? Will this axe work against them?" They asked, trying to conjure up as much courage as they could. It seemed as if they would have little choice but to fight. The leshii were running towards them, and fast. Their flesh was rough and scarred, broken up like a rotting tree. They were long and thin, sickly green veins pulsed in what could be described as arms and legs. They were more alike to the branches of a tree, but sharp and jagged. Their eyes were deeply set into their bodies and seemed to be nothing more than little beads of black. If they hadn't paid close attention, the leshii would have just seemed like the trees moving in the wind. They blended in so well with the trees around them, and they were deadly silent. The other problem Kuma currently was stressing over was the fact that these things were massive. They were tall like trees, and though lanky, their bases were thick and covered in what seemed to be hard bark like skin. The old and rather small axe of Sitria seemed like it would not do much to bite these beasts of chaos. 

"Of course it will work. I am going to stop about ten paces from now. Be prepared to jump up and fight. Take them out at their base and then aim for their eyes. Got that?" Sitria yelled, swerving around a cluster of trees into an opening. She stopped and Kumako had little choice but to jump off of her back. They landed hard on their feet, but they stayed firm. The axe felt light in their hands, the bony handle almost molding itself to their hold. Sitria growled behind them as the Leshii. They were more horrific up close. They smelled rotten, like flesh that had long since expired. Their movements were broken and stiff, as if it hurt for them to move and yet they did so anyway. Now that Kuma was facing them directly, they realized there were only two of these monsters. They waited until they could properly see the eyes of the first leshii, swinging the axe as hard as they possibly could. The leshii swung its limbs at them, but missed as it began to fall. It reached for the trees around it to stabilize itself, but Kumako swung again. And again. Sticky green blood splattered from the wound on its base, and after three swings it was barely attached to what seemed to be its feet. It bled a lot, and in it's attempts to stand and get to Kumako, it hit one of its companions. The other Leshii reacted violently, stomping on the face of the downed Leshii repeatedly until it was nothing more than mush in the ground. As much as they wanted to run away at that point, they used the distraction to target the other one, swinging once and knocking the second one down. It fell loudly against the trees, crushing everything in its wake. Kumako jumped onto its body, ignoring how oddly warm it was as they ran to its face, dodging its razor-like limbs as best as possible. They raised the axe over their head, hitting it right between the eyes. Without hesitation they pulled the axe out, breathing heavily. The edge of the axe dripped with green sickness, and once they realized they nearly threw up. They slid off of the corpse, breaking its skin as they went down until they landed in a pool of that green blood. They stood for a moment before they turned to the side and threw up whatever had been left inside of their stomach. 

"Kumako, come here now!" Sitria yelled, standing in a fresh patch of snow. Kuma picked the axe up once more and stumbled over to her, their eyes empty as they tried to keep themself from passing out. Sitria raised her paw and suddenly they felt like they were floating in water. A bubble of sorts encapsulated them, swirling around and removing the poisonous blood from their clothes and body. After a few seconds, the water drained completely. Kumako blinked, shaking their hair out and shivering from the cold that now clung to their wet clothes. 

"W-why--" Kumako began to ask, however Sitria breathed on them, and the water from their hair and clothes turned to water droplets behind them and fell to the ground. 

"Apologies. Perhaps I should have prepared you better for that.. Those were Leshii. Tree spirits that have given themselves to chaos. They are bitter and angry creatures, mad at humanity for cutting down their brethren, and in turn mad at me for allowing humanity to do that." Sitria walked over to the two corpses and placed her paw upon them. The first one burst into stars, floating up towards the sky. The second one soon followed suit. "You did wonderful fighting them. I would have no idea that you have not fought previous to this, if you hadn't told me." She smiled in her own bear-like way. She then walked over to them and nuzzled her head against their hand. "Good job, Kumako. Let's get you away from here and then something to eat. I am starving." She said, bowing slightly so Kumako could climb on her again. "Oh, and sorry for the sudden bath. Their blood is poisonous, and it will corrode your skin and make you bleed from the inside if you don't immediately wash it off. " Sitria began to trot away from the scene, once again getting them back on track to escape the woods. 

"Well… I do feel better now that it's off of me. I didn't realize I had that in me at all." Kumako puffed out their cheeks, looking over their clothes carefully. They looked good as new. It was just a simple robe, since that is what they left in. It was covered enough that they felt comfortable at least. Plus when they were close to Sitria, it felt warm and comfortable. They didn't really feel that they needed their jacket. "How much longer until we get out of these woods?" 

"I am hoping we can get out of here within a few hours. There is no good food here, after all. Plus we need to get you back to your tribe as promised." The wind blew through the trees. It was sunny out, thankfully. The clouds seemed bright and fluffy, and the air felt clear and clean. For the first time since things had started to happen, Kumako took a moment to look themself over. They looked at their hands and noticed the golden swirls glowing softly by their wrist. Hastily they lifted their sleeve and saw the design going up. It looked almost like a river, swirling and branching off organically.

"What is this? This definitely was not on me before." Kumako asked, leaning forward to show Sitria the marks by outstretching their arm. "It looks like what the priestess has but way more gold…. Is this some sort of weird spirit thing?" 

"Oh, did you really just take note of that? That is the sign that we are bound together. Generally there is a big ceremony and the like to indicate a spiritual bond. But we didn't really have time for that. The moment we walked out of that tomb together, we became connected spiritually. I don't know if you noticed, but on my normal body I have very similar marks." Sitria didn't even bother looking at Kumako's outstretched arm. 

"Is there more you are just not telling me? You know it is really stressful to have to figure this all out on my own." They huffed, sitting back up and crossing their legs. Their own hunger was starting to get to them, especially after puking up most of the contents of their stomach. Plus fighting those Leshii had taken a lot out of the poor hero. 

"Of course I am not telling you everything. We could sit here for a century talking and It would not cover half of it. As things come up, I will answer to the best of my ability. Honestly I am mildly appalled at how little you know.." The goddess snorted as she lumbered forward through the endless trees. They seemed to bend away from her, and where she stepped no footprints were left. Even after so much travel her fur was still perfectly white and clean, and almost impossibly soft. 

"I grew up as a spinner. You cannot expect me to know much when my whole world was just traveling and spinning sheow wool." The truth was that they had never paid much mind to the history that their sister had tried to teach, nor the words of their mother when she had told them bedtime stories about the great deeds of the goddess. Even during festivals and prayer, they only followed along so as not to get yelled at. Spiritual matters never seemed important to them, since they had little aspiration to follow the priestess's footsteps. "I do remember a few stories though. My sister, she knows a lot. She once told me this story about a frozen lake to the high north, where a great beast guards a mighty kingdom. Do you know anything about that?" 

"A frozen lake to the north.. I have some vague ideas, but honestly I am not confident I have any clue as to what you are referring to. If anything, last time I was actively walking around, the entire north was a frozen wasteland, taken by chaos." She said shortly, as if angry to even remember that land had been taken from her. 

"I see.. I like the idea of a northern kingdom. Actually, I have always wanted to travel to one of the bigger kingdoms. We always avoid them since they don't like us, apparently. The one time we got close to an actual village we got chased away and called witches. Rude, isn't it?" 

"That is rather appalling. Though you mentioned that your tribe is nomadic. Does your tribe have a name?" 

"Of course it does. Hourounobuzoku. Hourou for short. It means--" 

"The wandering tribe. How accurate. And your people, what land do you originally come from?" 

"An eastern land. It got taken by chaos long before I was born. Our tribe broke away from the bigger kingdom and escaped. From what I remember the shogunate was taken by the chaos and there was a lot of fighting.. Though it seems we never really escaped from that. I don't know much else about our history though." 

"Oh! I am well aware of the place you speak. I had friends there. Oh what was the name…" Sitria stopped walking to think. Yet it seemed as if she could not recall the name. "I will have to think about that. It will come to me eventually. History is important to recall. I used to have everything written down. Perhaps we should have someone write our story down, so it is not forgotten and construed in ways that are incorrect." Sitria mused, her voice once again sounding like bell chimes in the wind. 

"How can you do that?" 

"Do what? You will have to be more specific than that." 

"Talk like… like you have a different voice. Its almost like bells, or the wind." Kumako laid her back against Sitria's fur, rocking slightly with each step the great white bear took.

"I am not human. My actual voice sounds nothing like this. I simply have chosen it because I thought it would be most comforting for you. It is a simple matter of changing the shape of my vocal cords. Do you forget that I am a goddess and not just some random spirit you came across?" She almost sounded offended. As if it was a bad thing to just be a spirit. 

"Right, sorry sorry. Hard to take you seriously when you look like a fluff ball, though. Plus is it really that weird to think it may be hard to believe that the goddess is allowing me to ride around her back wielding her bones as a weapon?" Kumako laughed. "It is ridiculous! No one will believe me. Even my sister is going to think I am crazy… unless others can hear you talk too. Then maybe they will think they are going crazy as well~ Wouldn't that be funny." They allowed their head to fall to the side, their hair falling into their face. They didn't bother to move it, laying like that. Kaeruko… no doubt she was a wreck. It was their own fault too. They had gotten up and just left without a word.. Poor Himeko, Chihiro, and even Renatsu, were likely worried sick. That is if they didn't think that they were dead. "Do you think.. Do you think that everyone thinks I am dead?" 

"It is likely. I am not sure how long you were gone for, but if chaos is coming it is easy to imagine you getting scooped up and killed." She answered honestly which stung. They would have preferred to hear a happier truth. Images of Kaeru crying and being alone began to plague the young hero. Their poor sister.. She had been through far too much, and they had simply made it worse.

 How long had they been gone for?