A/N ;; So, I gave my prologue a nice little makeover, because honestly, it really, really needed one.
I tried the style of writing I am using in one of my other on-going stories, though it's really only this one and one other one that I'm focusing on. I think I nailed it, but I've just started using it, so I'm still not sure.
A great load of thanks goes out to NeonGreenSheep for giving me the information she found about the period Okami takes place in. Without her, this story would still be in the planning stages and incredibly incorrect as for history.
Update: I removed the time and teleportation sections in chapters two and three. Reason being is that I found another story in another section that had parts that were a bit too similar to my own for my liking. This story is also older than mine. Therefore, to remove the risk of being accused of plagiarizing, those said sections have been removed. I might repost them sometime, rewritten of course, but for now, they're out.
The fox stood by himself on the slope of the mountain, half hidden in the shadows that the outcropping stones cast on him. A small wooden sign stood in front of him, the words "Welcome to Sei'an City!" scrawled across its surface in messy, childish writing. It looked weathered in a way that made it seem a part of the natural surroundings, as if it had grown up out of the earth and belonged there as much as any part of the mountain would.
The scene was like a plein air painting, soft and impressionistic: the golden trail of stones, the dark grass, the mountains that dotted the background, and the midnight-blue sky still lingering with long, thin, pink-tinted clouds. On the other side of the mountains the sun was just finishing its descent towards the ocean. The day seemed to have paused to admire its perfection. Nothing moved. Stillness held the landscape enraptured.
Nothing gave away the thoughts that circled in the fox's head.
The path that led into the city was a mix of dirt and small pebbles with grass and weeds springing up from the ground. A thick gate stood at the entrance of the city, flanked by a wall surrounding the entire commoners' quarter, aging quickly, as the passage of time since its creation had not been kind to it.
A single vintage guard, well past his glory days, was parked in a strict stance in front of the gate. An old decaying wooden bucket had been abandoned near the bottom of the slope with a pale white rabbit sitting in it, watching her young ones play hide-and-seek among the tall grass.
The city was silent.
The empress of the city, Himiko, lay in her bed chamber, her hair spreading out around her head like a dark cloud. Her skin was the color of milk. Her soft pink lips lay partially open, breathing slowly.
She lay discarded like a life-size doll – torn up and cast aside, her brown eyes cloudy and near lifeless.
A large gash had been made across her shoulder, ripping into her kimono, leaving the soft fabric damp with blood.
Her hand hung over the edge of her bed, lightly touching the floor, stenciled with bloody fingerprints. The last words that had been spoken in the room was a whispering still hanging in the air: "I hope you remember this, my queen..."
A/N ;; Tell me what you guys think?