Oo0oO
Life's Little Changes
Chapter 1
Oo0oO
Prologue
Oo0oO
When the arrival of a small skyship heralded the return of the great Okami Amaterasu, word raced across the world as though her own divine winds carried it, and each village that had known her spoke and wondered. Why had the goddess come? Was there some new evil to battle? Was there some godly task yet to be completed upon their lowly mortal ground?
Of course, when her celestial friend, the Moon-Tribesman Waka, announced that she was making the divine equivalent of a social call, no one knew quite what to think.
They had landed, ironically, on the shore of the very lake whose ice was yet melting, two years after it had been broken. After a brief and somewhat whimsical explanation to those present by Waka, the two celestial beings vanished into a particular forest, and returned a day later with a very particular Poncle. Issun was, to say the least, ecstatic at his old friend's social call.
Their next order of business, apparently, was to visit the Oina village, where Oki had been settled in for nearly a year.
And that, at its most simple, was the account of the events leading up to this.
Oki stared at the white wolf who had unceremoniously invited herself into his home. She had, somehow, managed to avoid both Issun and Waka by distracting them in the village and then vanishing, no doubt by the use of her celestial-brush techniques.
She looked a lot more like a god since he had last seen her. The red markings had elaborated, weaving like fire through her fur, and a white glow around her form granted complexity to her divine instrument on her back, and mimicked the affects of snowblindness in his eyes.
"...Amaterasu." He greeted finally. "I'm pleased to see you well." The wolf cocked her head, and shuffled, almost impatiently. All the respect in the world could not prevent Oki's mind from subconsciously comparing her to an excited child. "...What brings you here?" He inquired, since she was clearly waiting for the question.
At his words, her golden-eyed stare gained intensity, and burned into his eyes. It was as though she were expecting him to read her mind, because she didn't offer even a bark to interpret, and the great goddess remained as incapable of speech as ever. When his telepathic abilities were clearly not responding, Amaterasu pawed the ground and whined, as though she were irritated with him for his inability to translate silence.
Feeling thoroughly perplexed by the goddess, he reached into his pocket and offered her an apple. Perhaps she was hungry?
Amaterasu eyed the fruit, and snapped it down. However, this didn't stop her stare.
Finally, the white wolf released a canine sigh, sounding remarkably put-out, and she then proceeded to make a very poor attempt at standing on her hind legs. She fell back down to all fours a moment later, of course.
This inexplicable action did not help his confusion.
A harrumph was the next sound to question his intelligence. The goddess turned her back to him and began rummaging through his things. He had half a mind to stop her, but was entirely too puzzled by her actions. What did the mother Goddess want from him?
She emerged from the dishevelled pile of belongings she had disordered inside one of his cloaks, a forepaw tucked awkwardly into its left sleeve, and the material hanging around her lupine frame. She stared up at him expectantly.
Oki wondered why her instrument wasn't burning his cloak, but decided not to complain. "I'm sorry, Amaterasu, but I don't know what you're trying to say."
Finally, with a light growl, the wolf slipped from his clothing and tackled him. By instinct more than anything else, he immediately shifted to his own wolf form, shocked by her unexpected hostility. He was preparing to clear some ground, in case of a fight, but was interrupted by the somewhat unnerving excited yips of the sun goddess as she stared at him.
What had he done? Obviously, something had made her think that he'd finally understood what she was trying to say...perhaps she wanted to fight with him, in his wolf form? But then why the pointless staring beforehand?
As though to offer him some guidance, Amaterasu reared up to balance briefly on two legs again. Then she came back down. She nudged back into his clothes and stared at him, eyes gleaming.
And he understood. "My transformation?" Oki questioned. "What about it?"
The wolf blinked, then reared up. When she came back down again, she threw her head downwards, as though to indicate herself. She barked, and suddenly her expectant gaze made more sense.
"...You want me to teach you to transform?" He guessed at last, flabbergasted. When she dipped her head in a lupine nod, ears cocked towards him with excitement, he knew he'd finally gotten it right. "I suppose you want to get the human form, as you are already a wolf..." And he also supposed that the mother goddess of all things would be capable of it. "Well, I'm not sure if the Oina technique will work for you, but it can't hurt to try."
How wrong he was.
Oo0oO
When Waka saw the explosions occurring in the Oina cave (used by warriors for training and small children for making snowballs) he knew that such things happened when Amaterasu was around, and as such, he did not feel overly worried, though he resolved to check up on the situation in a few minutes. Issun took much the same attitude. He was currently reminiscing with Kai, and did not care for the interruption.
However, when Kai (who had been demonstrating the new scar on the paw of her wolf form) angled her ears towards the cave and immediately turned her head, things changed.
"Don't mind that, it's just Ammy blowing things up." He dismissed, and then became curious when she denied it.
"No, it's not that. Well, I knew that there were explosions happening, but Oki just shrieked. Oki doesn't usually shriek...he's a calm man." She cocked her head in wonder.
"...Hmm..." The little Poncle mused for a moment, then began bouncing at full speed towards the cave. "I'll go see what furball's up to. Seeya."
When Issun opened the door and entered the cave, he found an...unusual spectacle.
Oki, who was in human form, was staring very determinedly at the snowy wall with his back turned to the other half of the spectacle. His face, or at least what could be seen beyond the mask, was an uncommon shade of red, and noting the as yet unseen angle to his personality, Issun resolved to paint Oki With A Blush at a later date, and sell it to the Oina. He'd make a fortune. Cheered by the thought, he turned to the centre of the room, expecting to find Amaterasu in one of her situations, and instead found a woman. A very unusual looking woman, of course, but definitely a woman.
And, to note a minor detail, a very naked woman.
Issun, who had something of an autopilot setting when it came to attractive women, immediately committed to memory the exact proportions of her privates, granting internal praise to her bosom, before he noted several oddities on her. For one, there was the white shade of her long hair. For another, there was the red markings along her skin.
Then the woman turned her face towards him, and he knew immediately exactly who it was he was looking at. The oh-so-familiar golden eyes and the spark of recognition in them guaranteed it. The red markings on the pale skin of her face didn't hurt, either.
"A-Ammy?" Issun questioned, shocked out of his mind.
The woman—Amaterasu—tilted her head to the side, opened her mouth-
The sound that came out resembled a dog trying to bark when it had the flu. The sound came out half formed, then broke, and she coughed, surprise etched on her features. Clearly, Amaterasu wasn't used to producing human sounds, and had just discovered how unsuitable the human voicebox was for barking.
Issun really didn't know what to do (though the view was good).
It was then that Waka entered. When his eyes set on the new form of Amaterasu, Issun felt like breaking him when all he did was gape a little. The only true reaction was the widening of his eyes, and maybe the sharp intake of breath! What gave that half-baked prophet the right to be so calm?
"Well, well, this is certainly unexpected." Waka managed a smile. "Even I couldn't have forseen this!"
"She wanted me to teach her how to change form." Oki offered an explanation from his wall, still under the influence of his gentlemanly 'look away' instincts.
Issun nodded, somewhat dazedly. "I think it worked."
Amaterasu was, at the present, trying out her new legs. She stumbled a little at first, but got the hang of it quickly, and her expression grew delighted as she tested out her new body with a series of jumps and manoeuvres, all aided by the divine power that she still wielded. No matter how much of a friend he was, Issun couldn't help but note what those movements did to her cleavage. He really wasn't used to what was easily his best friend being a busty babe.
"I believe we should find her some clothes." Waka announced, his eyes politely averted. A moment later he plucked Issun from the ground and put his hand in the way of his view. "You know, my little bouncing friend, it isn't polite to stare, especially at a goddess."
Issun muttered something resembling 'definitely a goddess' before shouting to Oki "Hey! Go get a kimono or something from the village, will ya?" His words seemed to break the mortified warrior's trance, and he tripped over himself as he left, seeing as how he had his eyes clamped shut to avoid peeking. He stumbled and fell over several times as he left the cave, and Issun had to wonder how much of that clumsiness was due to shock.
A moment later, Amaterasu came to a halt in front of them, being completely oblivious to the stir she had created. A wolf couldn't be expected to understand human propriety, after all. She seemed to struggle with something for a moment, an odd whining sound passing from her throat.
Waka, amused, seemed to get her problem. "You can find your voice a little higher in your throat, Amaterasu. Like this: Aaaa."
The goddess tried it. "AAAAaaaAaaa." She beamed at the unstable sound she'd produced, and ran off again, looking for all the world like a hyperactive child in a woman's body. She bounced off the walls, performed Holy Eagle jumps all over the place, and even utilised the icy rosary around her neck to attack a lump of snow until it died. For a while, she stood still in the two peoples' bemused sight, staring at her right index finger, from which dripped black ink. Thoughtfully, she extended the right arm forwards, index finger held apart from the others, and brought her hand from left to right in a quick, straight line.
A snowball split cleanly in half, and a line of ink faded from the air.
Apparently finished with her experimentation, Amaterasu ran at them, flowers growing in her footprints, and skidded to a halt in front of them. "Isshoon! Waahkah! Aiym hooman!"
"Yes, ma chérie, it seems that you are." Waka agreed.
A moment later, the curious form of Kai entered, a plain white kimono folded in her arms. When her eyes fell on Amaterasu, her mouth fell slightly open. "...You make a very good woman, Amaterasu." She murmured, and approached with the kimono, offering it to the inquisitive goddess. "I suppose I'll have to help you into this."
"Clohving?" Amaterasu mispronounced, eyes fixed onto the kimono. Her left hand, which was not dripping ink, came up to feel the silk of the kimono. Pleased at the new sensation of touch, she ran her hands over the material, delighted.
"Issun, Waka, please leave while Amaterasu dresses." Kai requested, though the hard note in her voice ensured obedience.
Waka, looking supremely unconcerned, strode out to the village with Issun on the palm of his hand. Once the door had closed and they were both standing in relative silence, the Poncle broke it. "Ammy turned into a babe." He stated, as though reality had betrayed him.
Waka nodded cheerfully. "Yes, she did."
Oo0oO