Bearclaw Valley asa no mori

Keiko reigned in her youthful cheer with a formal morning salutation. “Ohayo Gozaimasu, Hokkyokusei-sama,” she said to him, though her excitement bled through in her word’s quick cadence. The great forest spirit set his prize to the side and drew near with a questioning look. In weeks past, Keiko would have fallen to the ground in a subservient, full-body bow… but she had grown more familiar, more confident, before the spirit; nurtured by his calm and assured demeanor.

Keiko often wondered… did all shrine maidens feel affinity like this for the Kami they worshipped? Her heart beat a little faster like a small bird.

=“I have made a wonderful discovery,”= she explained to him. =“I have found an Akai Ki, the most holy of trees, in your garden.”=

But first, she should not ignore the great blessing of food the Kami had brought to the temple. =“Your hunting prowess knows no bounds,”= she admired. =“May I dress them for you?”= she asked and extended one pale foreleg towards them.