Light Our Way

Disclaimer: I do not own Okami, or any of its characters.

Chapter 1- Alive

It began with a prayer.

I couldn't actually hear it, mind you, I didn't have ears at the time. But I imagine it only took a few choice words and a touch of magic to pluck my soul from the endless void in which it had been dormant.

I felt the call- a tugging, a gentle but insistent pull, and I yielded before I even thought about what it meant. Before I thought at all.

But when I did think, the thoughts were jumbled and confused, the predominant one being: Who am I? What am I, for that matter? I suddenly felt like I should know this. How long had I been here? Where was here? What was this pull that had jolted me out of my peaceful slumber, that had forced me to scramble for memories I just didn't seem to have?

It was too late now, though. I had missed my chance to fight the call and let myself get swept away from the only place I knew . . . yet I knew nothing about it.

As shocking and terrifying as being thrust into the physical world was, I felt the fear subside as the essence of my soul settled into its new home. This felt right, natural, though I didn't know why.

Light, vibrant and sharp, hit my retinas and travelled to my brain, where it could be registered as a picture. I was looking down, seeing my new front legs. But they didn't seem so new. I felt a strong sense that they were mine, that they had always been mine, but no real memories came to mind. Experimentally, I shook myself, from my head all the way to my tail. I felt muscles tense obediently, felt the skin stretch and spring back into place like living elastic, felt the soft, fluffy undercoat beneath coarse exterior fur shift over my skin. Oh, how good it felt! Although my soul was now encased, I felt freer than ever before. I was alive. . . again?

I began to survey my surroundings. The air was still and dark. I was standing on a pedestal, about three feet off the ground. It was only after I jumped down and landed roughly on moist earth that I noticed the presence of another being.

"Ah! Such divine white light! Such beauty and grace!" I looked up into the face of a woman. She wore a pink and green kimono, had pale skin, long shiny black hair that hung about her like a wreath, and the face of a china doll. She stared down at me intently from where she floated several feet off the ground. It could only be her; there was no one else around capable of summoning me.

There were, however, a great deal of jagged rocks flying about, a howling wind, and some kind of undulating blackness battling for dominance with a crimson sky. It was rather frightening, actually, but there seemed to be a barrier of some sort protecting the clearing we were in, so I didn't worry myself about it.

The woman was speaking again. "The only one capable of such a wondrous spectacle is none other than our mother and origin of all that is, Amaterasu!" Oh, the drama. I briefly wondered if she was talking about me, then realized she must be. We were the only ones here, after all. "How delightful to see that the savior whose brave sacrifice sealed away that evil demon so many years ago has not changed one bit."

Evil demon? What? Huh?

"Seeing you emerge after so many years spent as a statue brings happiness to my heart." She sniffed. OK, now this was starting to get tedious. I curled up on the springy ground, head tucked under paw.

For several seconds she remained silent, and I wondered if I had offended her, but then, as I had hoped, she began to explain why it was that she had brought me here.

"Amaterasu . . . gaze above you and take in the condition of the sky." Her lilting voice was grave. "Since your departure from this earth, the world has succumbed to devious and vicious beasts." She gestured around her. "They have ravaged our fine and bountiful country of Nippon… But never have the circumstances been worse than they are at this very moment." It did look pretty bad. I wondered how anything could survive out there…

"Amaterasu," she said in beseeching tones, "please use your powers"-I pricked my ears here-"to banish the darkness and punish those who would do us harm."

I had no chance to object.

"Hm?" The woman wiggled. I cocked my head at her, finally showing some interest. She frowned in confusion, looking down at her clothes. "Eh? What is this? Has . . . has something stolen its way into my robe?" She squirmed and danced, all the while still managing to keep herself afloat- quite a feat. Not that, to my recollection, I have ever tried it myself.

I could tell she was holding back laughter for the sake of dignity. But whatever was so amusing got the better of her, and she soon burst into a fit of giggles, while at the same time blushing in embarrassment and trying madly to shake the invader loose from her garments. I watched in silence, head cocked to one side.

Abruptly, something tiny and black sprang out from the low neckline of the kimono with the velocity of an arrow from a crossbow. I leapt to my paws, hackles rising. The offending object fell to the ground in front of me, and I growled a long, low warning from the back of my throat.

"Phew." The woman composed herself. "What on earth?" She squinted her eyes and got a closer look. "You again?"

I jumped uneasily when it moved. Rolling to its feet, the thing began to hop up and down in place. It had a magic about it, a green aura. I continued to growl.

"Ow ow ow ow ow! Are you nuts?!" And it could talk. Great. "Boy, for a little thing, you sure make a big fuss! I was just tryin' to make the conversation a bit more interesting, that's all."

"Were you napping in my clothes again, bug?" snapped the woman.

"Bug?" The voice rose indignantly into a high-pitched squeal. "I told you a thousand times not to call me that! I'm a wandering artist. The name's Issun!" it raged. I bared my teeth at it, but it wasn't looking at me.

"I'll show you just how great I am, and it won't be long till you're bowing before my great brush!" Issun produced a scroll that was four times the length of his body and flung it in my direction. I flinched away, but it still landed open on my face.

It was an ink painting of a woman in elaborate attire, with a crescent moon behind her. The style was ancient, but beautiful in its antiquity. I realized the face was that of the woman before us, the woman who had just summoned me. But the body was comparatively more . . . how do I put this . . . curvy? Issun snatched the scroll away before I could shake it off into the dirt.

"Well, whaddya think? Even cuter than the real thing, no?" Issun proceeded to hop towards me, and when I jerked away, he only hopped closer until he landed on my nose and was looking down my snout, into my agitated eyes.

"What's with you, furball? You look kinda down in the dumps." He was close enough that I could just make out a tiny head under a hat fashioned out of what looked like the exoskeleton of a june bug, antennae and everything. "Actually . . ." he continued, "You look kinda familiar. . . I got it! You look just like that statue of Shiranui!"

I'm sure he would have chattered on, perfectly content there on my nose, but I was growing ever more impatient. Maybe it was because I had no idea what was going on here, or possibly because this woman expected me to perform some kind of miracle. Or maybe Issun was just looking rather tasty . . .

At any rate, I silenced him the fastest way I knew how. And it turns out Issun wasn't tasty. I spit him out, disgusted by the remnant tastes of ink, raw salmon, and plant fibers left on my tongue. He landed with a faint plop.

"Blech!" I watched his aura turn red with anger. Whether it insulted him more that I'd tried to eat him or that I hadn't swallowed, I can't be sure. "Whaddya think you're doin'?!" I stared at his furiously bouncing form blankly. "Are you crazy?? A handsome guy like me should never be covered in wolf slobber! You'll regret messin' with the great Issun!"He stopped bouncing long enough to draw from his hip what appeared to be a toothpick.

"Don't make me use my prized sword, Denkomaru against you!"

It was in that moment that an earth-shattering roar distilled the air around us. I flattened my ears against my head. Issun, rattled, leapt up to plant himself on my nose again where, apparently, he felt safest.

"Wh-wh-what's that growling sound?" he cried. "And why's it so dark, anyway?"

The woman took this opportunity to call upon my assistance one last time. "O, great god Amaterasu . . ." a swirling light the color of rose petals began to gather around her, illuminating her sorrowful eyes. "I've used all the power I have to protect Kamiki Village. The village lives on. Their spirits lie encased in my fruit. Cut it free and the village will be reborn!"

The light left here and rushed past me. I turned in time to see it grow solid until it was a mighty tree, thick, sturdy, and bare. Except for a luscious pink peach hanging down from one of the taller branches. At the tree's roots was a glowing circular portal. It seemed to beckon me forward. I turned back to the woman, amazed and confused.

She nodded her head towards the portal. "I trust in you." she said. "I know that you will lead us down the right path." I wanted to ask her, 'How do you know? Who am I?' But I couldn't.

"Only your awesome power can restore light to the world." She was fading away now; dissipating, like a fog. In that moment, I wanted to be who she thought I was. But what if she had made a mistake? What if she had plucked out the wrong soul and put it in this majestic body? I was fairly certain that I wasn't a god. The only problem was, I didn't have any alternative identities to assume. Someone could just as easily have called me forth into the body of a milking cow or a crippled up old washer woman and I would have gone along with it. Still, I couldn't just sit here. Especially if I was the only hope for this Kamiki Village.

When the woman was gone, Issun piped up from atop my muzzle, "So the tree's returned to normal, huh? That Sakuya girl sure said some weird stuff. But, ya know, if you don't use some kind of special power there's no way you're gonna reach the fruit." It was true. I could never jump that high. And if I climbed, it would be too awkward a position to gnaw threw the stem.

"This darkness is really getting to me, too." He complained. "A lot can happen while you're taking a nap."

I walked over to the portal, glanced around, and sighed. Leap first, ask questions later, right?

Wrong. Never do that. It's stupid. But what did I really have to lose?

Nothing. No memories, no loved ones, very fuzzy sense of self.

So I leaped.