The Day of Thunder

After the party at Chouri's Norikage was feeling less certain about his next course of action, but in order to dispel his suspicion about the villagers he needed to take these steps regardless. Tracking down the dragon courtier he met at the river a few days ago, he found her taking the long way back to the camp, crossing in front of the Shrine's entrance.

"Saru-san!" He called out in the darkness of night as he caught up. "Do you have a moment?"

After the gathering, Shang took the opportunity to meander around the village rounds to work the food (and alcohol) out of her system before bed. For whatever reason, she did feel a bit braver to see more of the village and their curiosities. Supposedly, the shrine was closed and she didn't really question it. Maybe it was still sorting out its religious practices as the Kami-lead modernization swept through Rokugan. However, it was still worth a visit.

"Huh?" She turned around to face the approaching figure in the dark and gave him a nod of acknowledgment. "Bayushi-san! Good evening! A moment, yes, I have one. Perhaps more than a few, hah! How can this one help you tonight?"

"Well, I'll get the pleasantries out of the way", he said and offered a boy. "Did you enjoy the gathering tonight? I spent much of my time in the hearth room, but I saw you there through one of Chouri's windows."

"It was a fine gathering, although I'm easily pleased if the hostess does the bare minimum with hospitality. I'm honestly surprised that they could throw another gathering so soon after the festival. Some villages have trouble enough getting through the winter with their stock and here they are just splurging us, the unexpected guests! Do they not risk staving if they're using up all of this food? Not that I'm complaining if they can spare the excess hospitality but I digress..." She took a pause after her blabbering of her thoughts. "I enjoyed it, hopefully, the same for you? It was such a large gathering, I didn't get a chance to mingle with everyone."

Well, that was a lot.

"I see, I see", he nodded. "I thought their hospitality has been extended pretty far as well, one wonders how they stay so well-stocked." He shrugged. "But I'm not a farmer, not even an army's quartermaster, I don't know what it takes regardless."

He looked around the tori. "Though I guess it's like this place, isn't it? How do they live with this creepy atmosphere with so little care? Why don't they have nightmares?" He shrugged. "Seems to be this ritual. Chouri-san said this shrine is dedicated to Inari-no-kami, and as far as she knows, that may be true. I'm curious."

He looked back to her. "But I'm curious about something else as well, tell me, do you know of anyone who joined your family as a sculptor? A one Saru Horitaka?"

"I've only been here for a few days, so I confess I don't know if I'll become familiar with all aspects of the village immediately. I can only judge from my previous destinations and where I've stayed. It just feels so peculiar and I'm sure we've all gotten off on the wrong foot with this place. The forgetful river, the mysterious fog, the whispering forest, and the strange dreams," she said with an open shrug. "Maybe we just caught them in an off-season, extraordinary circumstances aside."

"Inari-no-kami would explain the great abundance of food..." she murmured curiously before blinking at the name. "A Saru Horitaka? It may be a bit difficult to get an idea since we live apart from each other. What of Horitaka-san?"

"The villagers that offered me a place to stay claim he is their son, I was looking into whether or not that was true", Norikage replied. "Not that I think they would lie, but if you can look into it with the other Dragon, I would appreciate it."

Shang blinked and tilted her head, doing her best to sober up her thoughts regarding this to concentrate on the matter. "That's...a bit peculiar. Well, not entirely so. There are many of us who come from all over the land that used to be the Empire, I know my parents were nomads before I was born into the Dragon Clan. Not from any of the earlier tribes who swore fealty but the smaller communes. This practice of assimilation and adoption will likely still continue for decades as the new Empire settles itself. Now that I think about it, yes, there is a Saru Horitaka. I suppose is a bit like me when it comes to artistic pursuits, dabbling in a large variety of them...but sculpting is really where he found his niche. I can confirm that much."

He nodded. "That helps a lot, Saru-san."

Between that and what happened at the party, and just how ridiculous Enrou finds all of this, it's safe to excuse the villagers. It's impossible for them all to keep a secret so well.

"If you're on your way back, I can come with you, or if you'd like to take in the environs around the shrine I'd be happy to join you."

"Now you've asked me, I shall ask you, how did Saru Horitaka come up? Just in passing? Do you happen to have seen some of his work here?" She asked, looking a bit curious with that name pulled from her past. "He always made such vivid animals and would be a pleasure to see them, even if he isn't here to present them."

She gestured to the other side of the gate with a careless wave of her hand. "As for here...have you been here before? Curious that they would bar all of this from us but admittedly we're the outsiders and maybe they're concerned about our level of purity, bringing outside spirits in and such. Maybe they're looking to fill us up with food before we're allowed to see Inari-no-kami. That would be something!"

"As I said before, two of the villagers here claim him as their son, he left to serve your clan and took that name", Norikage replied. "Some of his older work is in the house of Daisuke and Toshie, his parents." A slight bow. "As the this place, yes...the guards were kind enough tot turn me away, and I must say it is a strange place, like much of this village. Said to be enshrined with Inari's blessing, but this does not seem like the manner of welcome I feel from the fortune of rice's temples."

He looked around. "It feels like something else, something far less welcoming. It makes me think they are not worried about us bringing foreign spirits, but perhaps the spirits of this place affecting us, at least before the purification ritual is complete."

"Daisuke and Toshie, I'll try to remember that. I haven't really been pestering the villages all that much unless they happened to cross my path. With the whole festival and the defence coordination, I've already assumed that some of the Imperial camp have already talked to them already. And that includes individuals such as yourself," she gestured at him on that point. "Thank you very much for sharing, by the way."

"No, this place is different from other Fortune shrines I've come across. It's not enough to be a cause of concern or suspicion," she said, but her tone indicated that she didn't exactly believe that benefit of the doubt, despite wanting to be diplomatic about it all. "There are places where they've kind of adopted their own interpretation of the Kami and the Fortunes, assimilating some bits from their own gods or tribal practices from beyond the reaches of the known Empire. In a way, it allows them to properly accept our teachings but obviously creates some rifts with those who know better, so to speak. This secrecy and exclusion could be a symptom of that. Seeing as the circumstances are dire, they could be more accommodating! It's a very inconvenient time to go about your practices as normal when nothing is normal. Of course, further made abnormal when your methods are even more peculiar. We need to be on the same page, most certainly!"

How does she do that?

"Well, yes", was all he could say at first. "That is...assuming you're right, we'll say...they should be a little more forthcoming, it causes suspicion, which only causes conflict."

"Yes...It's a strange disconnect and I'm sure a cause for concern in the few parts of our relationship as guests and them as a host," she said before narrowing her eyes, looking a bit more frustrated. "I'm not entirely sure if we're even guests here. Either way, it does seem like they're proceeding normally with their affairs, as if there isn't danger around the corner. I welcome the hospitality but feel myself pulled in two places at once, so to speak. Do you have some insight you could share on what's happening here exactly?"

"Well, they don't have nightmares, and we definitely do", he offered with a nod at her. "They know nothing, at large, but some of them must, but they are mostly carefree. Their healer, Enrou, is especially annoyed at their lack of sense. Whatever it is about this place that protects them, however, it clearly doesn't extend to us. Chouri-san knows something, or at least has an idea, but she doesn't seem keen to share her thoughts."

A shrug. "At the very least the unveiling of princess Kumori at the party seemed to cause enough of a stir with the villagers that they realized something important was happening...maybe." He chuckled. "I doubt it. Have you spoken to Chouri-san, the village head?"

"The villagers aren't suffering what the camp has been suffering through?" she murmured, looking clearly perplexed on the matter. "That's rather suspicious and I wouldn't even know where to begin with that implication. You can either blame destiny for our interesting times or there is something afoot! Not that I have much to go on, I'm a creature of theory and whimsy, so I fear I might conjure rather outlandish possibilities if such an investigation was dropped on my lap," she said with a wistful sigh and a shake of her head. "I can't I've had the pleasure of speaking to Chouri-san directly. I recall the monk mentioning something texts being found in the village too. Has anyone checked up on that?"

"I haven't looked through them, but they have them."

"Well, I suppose I should consider interacting more directly with one of the locals eventually. At the very least, it would give me some context to their founding and some background history!" She shook her head, tsking at herself for forgetting that point of detail she didn't consider earlier. "It might have been looked at earlier, I'm sure, but it hasn't become common information around the camp yet. Not as common as the wolf attack or the princess's appearance."

"Yeah, the princess' appearance", he grumbled slightly. "I escorted her up here without knowing who she was." he scratched his chin. "I wonder if I should apologize for all my rudeness."

"I'm not so sure...I haven't spoken to her at all. Did an Imperial army suddenly show up with her? Did her honour guard also emerge from the shadows?" She said she quickly thought to herself and how she would react to such a reveal. "I imagine that if she indeed kept her identity hidden for such a long time, she just wanted to be treated normally as anyone else. The role working as intended. It would be hard for you to have known, that would require some sort of clairvoyance of the future on your part!"

She frowned quizzically. "Then again...what is she doing all the way here? This place is hardly a royal palace or even an honoured Winter Court. Not in the slightest."