The Forgotten Realm’s Kami and The Reborn Child - Part 2

〘Continuing on from The Forgotten Shrine〙

The pillar of light had instantly appeared and then disappeared revealing an androgenous being standing in the dilapidated place of worship inside the barely standing shrine. It looked somewhat dishevelled with fine ambiguous features, alabaster-white skin, and lower-back length black hair. Though the garments It wore were dirty, thin, and old they gave off a feeling of prestige as they fluttered in the chill winter air.

If you were to happen upon this figure there would be an obvious odd air to it, as if seeing them through the shimmer of a desert mirage; there but unable to conclusively be stated as being there. It was a being that was not meant to be seen by those that worshipped It, unless it so chose to be seen, but here it was partially wrenched into the mortal plane against Its will and was now visible for the first time in Its long existence.

Coming to its senses it held out its right hand to its side and a sheathed sword, a Tachi with magatama strapped to the hilt, materialised into it. Clasping the seemingly ancient sword it raised its head and looked out onto the world through a mass of unkempt hair and felt despair. It had intended to fade into nothingness when it first slept all those years ago, but now it was awake it would decline rapidly and fall to impurity. Its divinity had declined to the point that if it hadn't been awakened it would have faded from the world in the very near future.

"Why had I been awakened? More to the matter, how?!" it howled in hatred.

Surveying the decaying structure it was standing in, it noticed the vague form of a child laying on the offering box in front of the shrine.

"So, you are responsible for my interrupted slumber? But how…" Its words were cut off as it got closer and noticed: it was unmoving which was not good, but it had obviously sharp pointed ears, light lavender hair, and the most striking point was it gave off an otherworldly glow before Its gaze. To the Forgotten Kami it didn't know the specifics, but it knew other higher beings were involved.

This child was not of this world!

By the time it had approached close enough to the child to reach out and touch it a sharp, glass-breaking sound resonated out through the snow swept mountain. The Forgotten Kami dropped to its knees and collapsed into unconsciousness. It had almost faded to nothing as it had, unbeknownst to it, broken through a barrier of some sort meant to protect the child. Just before the last of Its conscious mind drifted a thought popped into its mind, "That small, foreign creature must have travelled a VERY long way to be here, and must have been very loved."

Shortly after regaining its consciousness, it stood and dumbfoundedly stared at the child in front of it. It had forced the Forgotten Kami to unconsciously use power to come close to it. As it thought, "Someone who clearly loved you was also a little over protective of you it would seem…", It recognised and remembered this magick, this nostalgic and divine feeling. It dropped the Tachi which It was still clutching, it disappeared, and the child was quickly lifted up and carefully embraced in the weakened hold of the dishevelled Kami.

As it held the child, various memories appeared in its mind, things it had long tried to forget. It wept as sorrow overwhelmed its heart as it realised who this child was.

"My child…" escaped from the Forgotten Kami's mouth before letting out a roar like you have never heard before, so filled with anguish that the air surrounding them shook and It stood like this, leaking power from its anguish whilst holding the child in its weakened arms for hours.

Finally regaining some composure it placed down the haori it was wearing onto the offertory box and laid the child down again. Holding its arms out, palms facing the child and they hoarsely spoke, "I present unto thee my Shintai" to which the simple yet elegant Tachi it first clasped after being awoken came back into existence and floated between the Kami's hands and the silent defenceless baby.

"You do not belong here, my child. This will protect you on the journey I now send you on, though you have only just arrived before me. I will use what little Authority remains in me to ensure your safe passage and grant you a new life…" The Forgotten Kami became weak at the knees. It realised the remaining time It had left was now severely limited, It would fade soon.

Lowering their hands towards the child the Tachi shone a faint light-blue and descended onto and into the child's form, dissolving into its very being. The air around the child vibrated and an ever-increasing volume of sheer white light expanded and pulsed out from its body.

The Forgotten Kami was shocked and further weakened because of this phenomenon.

As it stood with difficulty in front of the now blindingly bright form of the child they barely took notice of a commotion that was happening around them. From a far-off distance the sound of creatures approaching en masse could be heard.

After a few minutes small groups of earthly messengers started to appear, most notable were a majestic white deer and fox who were first to show themselves, followed closely by an exquisite pearly white snake.

These three came forward, closer to the now barely standing Kami. "We felt your plight and understood your anguish and purpose." Spoke the fox into the mind of the Kami.

"Let us accompany this child on its hastily prepared journey, Forgotten One" came the whispered, overlapping voices of those first three messengers to appear.

Now kneeling and barely able to function the Forgotten Kami just asked "W…h…y…? Th…at…name…"

"We have watched over you these many years. Your dreams were filled with such wonders of the unknown, so many of which we could not experience even if we lived an eternity. You became our joy and our life once we found you… Umm, and we also cleaned your offertory box and made small offerings to you when we could" said the stunningly white coated fox, swaying its fluffy tail left and right as if looking for praise. It was looking at the shining child and what it was laying on.

The Forgotten Kami hadn't realised but offerings were indeed being made at this shrine, without interruption, of items the earthly messengers that flocked to it found important and worthy.

The brilliantly white Sika deer now stood forward and spoke, "We witnessed your anguish from afar and were shaken. We felt your anguish from near and were saddened. We have been affected by your memories and your emotions." The deer looked now at the child, "We love this child as you loved that woman, and as much as we love you. He is now our joy and our life. Please rest now, like you had hoped for, and let us care for your child and send it on it's way. We know your will, Ōkami." The three messengers who stepped forward bowed their heads to the Kami in sincere worship.

They could feel there was little time left.

"Thank… you… Now… child… on… way…" the Forgotten Kami squeezed out with great trouble its final gratitude and collapsed. Its body began to crumble into faint motes of light which gathered and flocked to the shining child's form where it was assimilated into its very being, becoming a part of the child. It was one last act of parental love that they could give to their beloved child, an act that would not be known to the child for quite some time.

An animalistic cry from the many hundreds of creatures that had gathered in the surrounding forest roared out, becoming deafening in the still winter mountain air. The only three who did not seem to grieve were the deer, fox, and snake. They were busily moving around the shrine complex gathering the materials they would need and completing the tasks they had to do to keep the promise they had just made, to protect the child and to send him to his proper home.

"Quickly, we haven't long before this child's light will fade. If it fades before we are ready we won't be able to protect him properly!" said the snake as it gently wrapped itself around the offertory box and pulled it, child included, into an open space well clear of the main shrine building.

After making sure nothing was disturbed whilst moving, it frantically began to collect dropped wood that had started to be shed from the trees growing on the shrine grounds.

"These fellows wish to help too, which makes things easier."

The wood was collected in small bunches by the snake, coiling its lower body around a bunch and then slithering to a short distance away from the child, eventually making a small circle of piled up wood surrounding the offertory box. Once done with the smaller circle it then started on making a larger one five metres away.

While the snake finished its job, the fox was busy scratching symbols and geometric patterns into the ground in the space left between the inner and outer circles of wood. These symbols were unknown to this world to the degree of being strange to look at. Intermingled with these were interconnected lines and circles creating a spiderweb of furrows in the dirt.

Immediately surrounding the glowing child's resting place, the fox scribed a pattern with a little more regularity to it: Two closely concentric circles make up the outer area of the pattern, with an intersecting square passing diagonally through the inner of those circles. Inside that square is another square, at right angles to it and having circles at its points, touching on the inside of the outer circle and the outside of the diagonal square.

It was drawn so the child and offertory box were at its centre, with the feet and head of the child pointing to one of the smaller circles each, and with every other geometric pattern connecting to it and both circles of wood. When it finished it went into the main shrine building and returned dragging a large wooden bowl holding a multifaceted glinting crystal in it to the centre of one of the smaller circles.

As the snake and fox worked on their respective jobs the deer raced up to the top of the mountain at a mind-boggling speed. Its destination was the sacred spring that was at the very top of the mountain which was once regularly used for ritual purification by the priests of years past.

It arrived at the mountain peak after some time and what it saw was a large pool of turquoise clear water with a pitch-black centre, menacingly looking back at the deer as if it were bottomless.

After pausing in awe slightly the brilliant white Sika deer hesitantly entered the water, stepping into the shallow outer waters tentatively before moving towards the ominous dark deeper centre so it could fully submerge its body.

Once far enough into the menacing black centre it submerged itself and sank deeper and deeper into the darkness until there was but a small ring of moonlight far above its head when it looked up.

With its eyes closed it steeled itself and opened its mouth to inhale copious amounts of this sacred and pure water. The water entered first the lungs and stomach of the deer before being absorbed into its very cells, bloating it into a somewhat strange scene.

The process didn't take long to finish, nor did it take long to ascend the mountain, but it's return journey down the mountain took twice as long because of how strained the deer's body was now.

The now horrendous looking deer arrived well after the other two had completed their work and what awaited it was the other two staring at it with shocked and reproachful eyes.

They had been idle longer than they had anticipated and what finally came into their view after a long while of waiting was a strange looking Sika deer. They both looked at each other and were confused.

Before they could ask their questions the deer had slowly walked past them and to the edge of the large circle of wood before kneeling with its front legs, bowing its head to the centre, towards the child and closing its eyes.

Its swollen form began to shine much like the child's body before the astounded eyes of its two companions. Shock and pity took over them as they now knew what the deer had intended to do.

"I know we asked it to find a strong spiritual force, but I had no idea it would do it this way!", the snake spoke with great difficulty to its friend the fox.

What astounded first the snake, and then a few seconds later the fox, was that the deer was consciously converting its very life force, along with another fierce and powerful Spiritual Force, into the energy they had needed. The most shocking being that it was doing it in a way that once completed it couldn't come back from it.

Its very being, right down to it's soul, was being used as the catalyst to start the process.

At that instant the snake and fox knew that this was the resolve they also needed. They wouldn't be able to accompany the child on his future journeys or see him grow into himself, but they could be sure that he arrives safe and sound to where he's being sent.

They became resolute in that instance.

Once the form of the deer had vanished and was replaced by a convulsing mass of what looked like sparkling water, it encroached into the wooden enclosed area and floated above the intricate designs scratched into the earth before gently running into those shallow marks the fox had made.

"Shall we?" the snake asked the fox.

They then stepped and slithered into the circle, carefully avoiding the water and walked over to the centre and approached the wooden bowl with the crystal in it.

First the snake coiled around and bit into its tail dropping it's blood over the crystal making it change to a light red-pink hue from its initial tranquil turquoise. Quickly after, surprising the both of them, a sliver of red surfaced from the closest surrounding water that had once been the deer and streamed into the bowl, clearly it's last visage of will. Last was the fox who bit deep into its front leg and drizzled the copious amount of blood over the crystal changing it into a gleaming red.

After making their offerings their wounds sealed immediately and they each went to one of the remaining circles drawn at the centre and sat at their middles, closing their eyes as they waited.

Shortly after the blood that had just been collected was vigorously absorbed into the crystal which had by then turned a deeper red-black colour before a light shot out of its tip, shooting up five meters into the air before seemingly hitting something invisible and cascading down to the outer circle of wood, creating a shining hemisphere, like a glistening bubble. The spring water filling the geometric lines and symbols began to glow even more brightly, almost intelligently, in response.

What you may not know, but now will, is that these three creatures were the originals to have come to the Forgotten Kami's side soon after it fell into slumber.

They were attracted, as were many others, by the strange divinity it exuded as it slept. These three creatures had stayed by its side and watched as it slept and dreamed. During which time they slowly accumulated a certain amount of knowledge on the workings of otherworldly magick through the dreams the Forgotten One had unwittingly shared with them.

As such they knew what needed to be done to breach through this reality and into a space beyond, as this was what the Forgotten Kami dreamed about the most. They knew not of what lay on the other side once this reality is left behind, these memories and dreams were sheltered within the mind of the Kami, but they knew this is what the Forgotten One had done to reach the otherworld.

Preparations complete, the snake was the first to suddenly open its eyes and enlarged its body to six times its original size. It immediately slipped under the child's body and began to wrap around it until nothing but the pearly white, iridescent snake scales could be seen, obscuring the child's figure.

Next was the fox. Eyes snapping open, it also enlarged itself and proceeded to abruptly begin breathing deep. Once reaching its limit the fox expelled the inhaled air, but instead of a torrent of wind a blaze of fire appeared, flowing like a river towards the outer wooden circle and igniting it.

The strangely pleasant sound of crackling timber filled the surrounding air, as did the smell of a smouldering bonfire, but oddly enough no smoke could be seen.

However, the once pure white fox had now turned black, ashy, and was now much smaller than it had been only moments ago, though it was indeed still an absurdly large size for a fox. It looked haggard and tired, struggling for breath as it climbed on top of the white and scaly cocoon the snake had previously made. The fox raised its fur to stand on end and by doing so it's now black cloak spread and engulfed the cocoon, creating a spiked black ellipsoid around it.

As soon as the black outer cocoon had formed the brightly sparkling water suddenly began to flow towards the inner ring of stacked timber, waves forming from the outer limits and rippling into the centre.

The pile of wood surrounding the now encased child's body jerked to life after the final drop of water that was once the white deer had been absorbed. The now throbbing branches put down thick, pulsating roots in an attempt to create a stable foundation to cradle and support what was to come.

At the same time as the roots were being put down new and strong branches were being formed and directed up to cradle the cocoon above. Layer upon layer, like clinging ivy vines, the sprouting branches engulfed and encased the cocooned child until nothing of the spiked black fox fur could be seen.

At which point things slowed down. Not just the growing of branches but the very fabric of time.

Inside the soap bubble-like hemisphere, the previously raging fire seemed to stand still and the pulsating roots and branches surrounding the now entombed child froze in place.

Suddenly out of the stillness the pedestal of entwined branches shot up to the apex of the glowing, protective hemisphere, coming to a stop as soon as it touched. A split second after the previously frozen fire streamed up the inside of the hemisphere, colliding with the floating three-layer cocoon, engulfing it in fierce flames.

At the exact moment the flames sealed the cocoon, the previously dormant offertory box began to sparkle brightly through the remaining web of roots. Mere seconds after the current events started, the now blazing cocoon fell extraordinarily fast towards the shining box, forcefully crushing it and the roots, setting it ablaze.

"BOOM"

There came a reverberating and deafening sound after the collision and a pillar of white light could once again be seen shining in the night sky for a split second.

Everything in the protected inner hemisphere was blown away, as if a tornado had set down, leaving behind a massive five-meter-wide crater.

But the cocooned child had disappeared, not to be seen in this world again.