Eitsu's Nine Lives (永津の九生) [yuri/GL yokai reincarnation story]

30 - Soraki

A/N: We're back!

***

Soraki lay peaceful under a pure blue sky. Even in the height of summer, the temperatures remained cool and fresh. Sitting in a north-facing bay, it was the last large town and final port before the two islands that formed the isolated, snowy kingdom of Chup-tuk.

The trip had taken less than a week, but not much less; they had managed to hitch some rides from Kinhama, but the further north that they travelled, the fewer travellers they met. They had walked for the last few days, and now, they had finally reached the top of the hills surrounding the town.

A breeze from the distant ocean carried the scent of flowers, slightly spicy and slightly sweet, and a host of memories that slammed into Eitsu with the force of a typhoon.

Tsubaki watched her changing expressions wordlessly.

"Let's go down," Eitsu heard herself say, distantly. She drifted down the hill with the others following her, into her memories.

*

She had arrived at Soraki... when, exactly? From where? She had an impression of unending cold, winter for miles, red blossoms against white snow. A grey ocean.

Soraki had been little more than a few buildings, back then. Fisher-people suffering the cold for the abundance of seafood that lived there. Wooden houses, wooden boats, wooden faces. The people needed all the luck they could get.

A young village woman cleaning clothes saw her first. The sea breeze blew her hair into her eyes and she straightened up, pushing the strands away with wet hands, to find a figure watching her.

A tall woman, with high cheekbones and long white hair, golden tips brushing the ground. A woman tanned from years outdoors, clad in thick, embroidered red and white robes, fur collar buffering her from the cold wind. A beautiful woman with gold glittering at her ears and fingers, with narrow golden eyes and red markings on her face, with a wide mouth and sharp teeth.

The village girl knew immediately that this woman was not human. She bowed hurriedly, her heart beating fearfully in her throat.

A slim hand with long red nails lifted her face. A scarlet tongue licked her lips. The strange woman spoke in the language of the people across the small sea to the north, the language of Chup-tuk, the Sunrise. Her golden eyes pierced the young woman like a cat spying a mouse. The girl felt fear and desire battle each other, but in the end, she led the cat-eyed woman into her house.

From that day on, her family always had great luck. If their fishing boat got caught in a storm, they always made it safely back. On days when others could not catch any fish, their family always managed to haul a full net.

They raised a small shrine for the goddess, apologising for its size. The goddess transformed into a cat, a large one with golden fur and bright red markings, and hopped inside.

"Perfect size."

And as the years rolled on, and the young woman who had first seen her became a wife and mother, and then a grandmother, and then died, and the village grew in size to a small town, and the shrine was made a little bigger, repainted, furnished with fabrics brought from the southern reaches of the country, the cat goddess brought luck to those who found her favour, but mostly spent her time happily sleeping in the gentle sunlight.

Mostly.

*

Eitsu, Tsubaki and Ayame entered the town. The air was alive with the sweet trills of small, fluttering birds, the short bright quacks of a group of mandarin ducks, the calls of stall-keepers in the market. Tsubaki paused to watch a woman expertly chopping the heads of fish in preparation for cleaning until Ayame pulled her sleeve and brought her out of her trance.