Disclaimer: I do not own Okami – but maybe if I say please…?

I wrote something other than a oneshot! Le gasp! I figured that it could be interesting to write something about the Oina, with Oki and the others as kids, since you don't get to know a lot about their background in the game. This chapter is based on the brief mention Kai makes when you reach Ponc'tan, about her getting lost in Yoshpet and meeting Issun. I think she's a great character who gets much too little attention. But there's nothing that fan-minds can't solve!
About Tuskle being Kai and Lika's "substitute mother"? I thought she was acting a bit motherly to Lika. Might just be me.
No pairings in this one. It's focusing on friendship. But if you absolutely want to, you could interpret some OkixKai in this chapter, and OkixSamickle in the last two chapters. But that's your choice.

Whiteout

by Cassiopeie

The calm after the storm - or rather, the blizzard - the serenity after a breakdown, the smile after the tears, the comforting silence – all this, perfectly illustrated by this moment - sitting in a warm house, embraced by blankets, with a fire hut kindly offering its warmth, and another cold and harsh winter had surrendered to the rays of the sun.
Little Kai, barely ten years old, with her thin legs and messy, chestnut colored hair, felt protected, and safe. Warm, both on the outside and inside. She didn't need to worry anymore – she could trust the help of the others now. She was guarded.
The cruel and inevitable winter, that each year came to Kamui, had taken her parents in its rampage. Kai, the mere child, had been left behind with her infant sister, with no place to go.
Not that it wasn't something unusual. In this land of eternal nights and raging storms – Kamui, the place where evil is born, as the faint whispers goes – people dying early is not a rarity. Several of the now grown-up villagers became orphans in their younger days, so they all understand, and know what's to be done. The only special thing about Kai's case was that her sister still was so little – the poor little Lika would never remember her parents when she grew up…
Her own memories from this time were dark and blurry – thank the spirits of the earth and sea for that, why would she even want to remember – all she could figure out from them, was an infinite storm of grief and confusion.
But the calm had finally come. Spring. Warmth.
It had been decided that the young shaman, Tuskle, would be her and Lika's new guardian –everyone had been considerate enough to never dub her Kai and Lika's new mother, and Tuskle herself would never be foolish enough to take that role herself, and Kai was ever grateful for that. Tuskle would simply be their caretaker until Kai had grown enough to fend for herself and Lika, offering a home, a place to sleep, food on a table, and kind words.
And a fire hut.
She was staring into it, observing the dancing flames consuming the wood, while keeping her head empty – not because she found it especially fascinating, but she simply had nothing else to do.
The calm after the storm is, after all, very uneventful.
In other words, little Kai, being a simple-minded and playful child, was bored.
While she appreciated Tuskle's kind spirit and wouldn't replace her with anyone, she often got tired of the shaman's fondness of stillness. Her hut was located near the sacred mountain Ezofuji – isolated from the main village. And Tuskle herself spent a lot of her time on her own, studying old legends, praying, doing whatever shamans were supposed to do – Kai actually had no idea what all the mystical rituals were good for – and letting Kai do whatever she pleased. Lika could naturally not offer much company, and there weren't many children in the village to play with.
So even though Kai didn't want to call herself that, she was lonely.
Right now, she only had this fire hut.
And she couldn't understand its language of flames.

But why would she let it be that way? If no one was to be her friend right now, she could be her own. Everything was fine now, after all, she had a home, she had nothing to fear. A new chapter of her life had started, and she was the one to write it.
"Tuskle?" she said, carefully, without moving.
The shaman looked up from her corner in the other side of the room, and met the child's eyes. Kai let out a breath of relief inside. She had been wondering if Tuskle would get angry would she ever bother her.
"Yes, Kai?"
Kai unwrapped herself of the blankets, and exposed herself to the cold air.
"I would like to go outside."
Several heartbeats passed as Tuskle considered. The Oina tradition of wearing masks made it impossible for Kai to figure out what her guardian was thinking by seeing her expression, and neither could Tuskle see what Kai's intentions were, but they both trusted each other, so the answer was:
"Go ahead. But don't go too far."
"I won't. I'll be back soon!"
Kai skipped down on the floor, and tried her best to keep her head, and hopes, high as she walked through the hut and out of the door.

This had always been one of her favorite times of the year. Tiny bits of the spring in the form of green grass and maybe even a flower here and there were showing up through the snow, revealing with a proud laughter that look, they had survived this year too! Kai wanted to laugh herself as she observed this mockery of theirs. Look, Kai, here we are, did you miss us, we were just hiding here all along!
As she walked down the Ezofuji path, with the enigmatic scenery of the Ark of Yamato stuck in the never-melting ice of Laochi Lake just in the edges of her sights, she got so sucked into the youthful voices of these stubborn plants, that she, without thinking much, made the usual flip in the air, and took her appearance of a pale brown wolf puppy.
This strange ability wasn't something that the Oina reflected much upon. The half-beast, half-human people were, after all, isolated from the rest of Nippon, and therefore, none of them, not even the wise and experienced elders, had ever met a human without this ability. They took it completely for granted. Of course, there were dozens of fairytales and legends that told of the origin of it, but they were nursery rhymes, nothing more than silly stories to tell a child with nightmares at night. The Oina could transform into wolves. It was as simple as that. There was no point in even asking about it.
Most of them cherished it, saw it as an advantage in battle and for moving, and so did Kai. There was nothing she treasured higher than being able to take in all the scents, voices and feelings of the nature, something she couldn't do as a human. Every Oina was the nature's friend and worshipper, and because of that, every Oina was more than welcome to explore it and observe it as they pleased.
Yes, Kai loved her wolf form – while still small and young, it was so strong and agile and swift –traits that appealed very much to her. After all, the reason why her personal mask resembled a caribou was that she could almost run as fast as one. She had often challenged the villagers in races and many were the times when she stood as the winner, even when her opponents had been remarkably older than herself. It was her talent, her pride…
Of course, that was before…
She lifted her nose from a snow drop she had been investigating, and just kept walking down the path, without stopping to greet the cheerful plants.
She wasn't sure where to go.

Kai passed through the village, now in human form, and tried her best to perk up a bit. She hadn't decided to finally go outside just to get all gloomy again, right?
Right.
She was alright now, after all, she was fine, she had Tuskle, she was fine, she was fine…
Where were everyone? What time of the day was it?
Long before noon, she figured after a quick glance at the sun. Chief Kemu and many of the others might still be sleeping. Tuskle always got up before the sun even begun to rise, and by the time Kai woke up, she was always behaving like if she had been up all day, so it was a bit hard to keep track of time in Tuskle's warm hut. And those who were not sleeping must be away on their morning hunting, Kai concluded.
Bad luck.
Should she go back to Tuskle? No, she would only be disappointed over herself if she did. She had been so determined to have a nice day out, only to be back staring into the fire hut all day again? Of course not. She could have fun on her own, and sooner or later, people would start waking up, and then everything would be as she had planned.
So she held her head high, straightened her back, and skipped her way down the long stairs – not even the merchant had begun his business, could it really be that early? – and noticed that the ice surrounding the owl totem poles was starting to melt – a thin layer of water covered it. She squatted down, and put her pale hand on it. Stinging chills spread through it and up her arm as bare skin met frozen water, but it sank a little – very little, but still, it sank – under her weight, showing her that it was on the brink of its death. It was just a matter of time before it would be gone for this year.
She smiled a little over finding another sign of the spring, and started to play around with the water – an act of taunt directed to the ice – making it produce tiny waves, before standing up again and walking the final steps leading out of the village.

It was like if someone had drawn a border right there, isolating the village from the rest of the white landscape of Kamui; fewer feet had walked on this snow, thus allowing it to deny the warmth of the sun a bit longer. It was such a small difference that Kai was surprised over that she even noticed it, but it still existed, and marked that this is where the village ends and where the wasteland begins, anything out here is not a part of us.
A flash of pity fluttered through her compassionate child heart for a moment – but for whom?
A few steps later, she got the answer to that question.
Not far from where she was standing, a small hut, humble and not in a very good shape, was hidden in a corner, like if it was trying its best to stay unnoticed. It looked like it was on its way of falling apart as well, as the roof had several holes and at least three of the pieces of wood were sticking out.
The owner of the house seemed to be very well aware of this fact, as he was trying to climb up the roof with some straw in his hand – and by the looks of it, it wasn't going too well. After all, trying to climb up a ramshackle hut without breaking it in the process isn't an easy task. Especially if the climber is an eleven-year old boy without anyone or anything to help him.
A boy with spiky red-and-black hair, and a mask made to give the impression of glowing red eyes, as a symbol of his somewhat feisty demeanor he sometimes displayed as a young child.
Oki. Kai had forgotten him today. Everybody did.
But how could she? She should feel an affinity with him, she should have searched for support in him long ago. He would have understood her, as he was the other orphan in this village.
Oki was one year older than her, and he had lost his parents three years ago, in a similar way as in Kai's case. But for some reason that Kai would never know, he hadn't gained the same support from the other villagers. He was left behind to fend for himself at such a young age. He wasn't isolated from the village and was very welcome to come there for a meal or two, but no new guardian had been offered for him. Gradually, his visits to the village had become less and less frequent, gradually, he had become, at the age of eleven, a confirmed recluse.
It was all a mystery to Kai, and she wasn't even a part of it, but as she now watched the little boy Oki struggling with repairing his hut, an infinite wave of guilt and pity drowned her as if she was a seashell on a beach. How could she only been thinking about herself and her own troubles all this time, when Oki was going through much worse things than her? He was so alone… how could she… poor Oki…
The kind little soul that was Kai had it clear before her how she would spend her time.
He didn't notice her until she opened her mouth:
"Hi", and she was smiling, "Do you need help?"
He stopped his hand mid-air, and quickly turned his head. Stared at her. Blinked his eyes.
And fell down.
She's Kai, swift as a caribou, and she was there to catch him – her arms weren't strong enough to carry him, but she could make sure that he didn't get hurt by acting as a soft landing ground. She let go of him immediately, and they were both on feet again in a few seconds.
She leaned towards him, just a little bit: "You okay?"
He looked at her, his blue mask hiding any traces of what he was thinking. Little Kai couldn't help but thinking that it was unfitting, but hopelessly cute, that this lonely boy who had to take on the world all by himself, and seemed to consider himself capable of it, had a mask in the shape of some kind of cuddly, harmless animal. If it hadn't been for the intense red eyes, he would have looked awfully pitiful. Kai wondered what his parents had been thinking when they made it for him. Or perhaps he had such a side to himself? Maybe even his withdrawal from the world was based on shyness?
As Kai's mind was working hard with all of this, Oki still watched her silently, before letting out a "…Yeah."
And then, he turned her back at her.
"Hey!" she called out.
She thought to herself that it wasn't very weird that he did, and that she should be considerate and patient with him, the poor boy had been alone for such a long time…
Though it couldn't hurt to try teaching him some manners.
"You usually would at least say thank you!"
He stopped, without turning around, and without saying anything.
She waited.
He was silent.
She waited.
He was still silent.
She lost her patience.
"Well…?" she said, trying to push him forward.
Kai wasn't very used to this kind of person, no matter what she tried to tell herself.
He murmured something, and Kai decided it to be a "thank you", just for the sake of her own impatience.
Then, she ran up to him, and not even his mask could hide his surprise.
"Hey, do you want to play with me?" she asked cheerfully, and smiled to him.
The answer she was used to hear, and now was expecting to hear, was a "sure" or at the very least a "later". Not many of the villagers had the heart to turn down the kind little child that was Kai.
But then again, Oki couldn't really be considered a villager.
"No."
Just a simple as that.
Kai frowned. What was this now? She thought the boy would be thirsting after company. What did he mean "no"?
How dared he?
"Why?" she prompted.
Oki just started walking towards his hut to continue with the reparations, without any intention to answer her whatsoever, but she wouldn't let him; she grabbed his shoulder.
"Are you mute or what? I asked you a question!"
"… I don't want to."
Kai, who had lived a happy life with dozens of persons to choose from whenever she wanted someone to spend the day with just up to three months ago, was not amused by the stoic and, in her opinion, highly rude Oki. She didn't notice how every promise she just made to herself about consideration and patience flew right out of her mind, nor how they started to be replaced with the first tiny flames of fury, nor how their smoke gradually started to cover up her mind, along with her judgment.
"Don't be so rude!" she yelled at him, yelled at him, thirty seconds ago she had been smiling, and now she yelled at him. "It's not like you have anything better to do. You won't get anywhere with repairing your hut anyway!"
"I will" he murmured, but louder this time, so that she would hear it.
"No, you won't!"
And then, her mind completely burning with anger, her ears deaf from hearing her conscience's warnings, she dropped the bomb.
"No wonder no one likes you!"
For a short moment, and it was over in the blink of an eye, his head tilted just a fraction to her direction, like if he wanted to give her an answer burning with fury. But he stopped himself, and bit his lip, and then:
"Get away."
His voice was drenched in new-awoken disdain, and the drops of it fell down on the ground, corroding it - and suddenly a thousand miles lied between him and Kai.
"You don't know anything about me", he continued. "Leave me alone! Don't speak to me! Get lost!"
And he didn't even look at her.
Left behind was Kai, pierced with the arrows of harsh words, a hurt child, her lips trembling. She reacted as any other immature child would do when humiliated - eyes filled with tears of anger, a cry of "You idiot!" to his back, and two swift legs running away without any idea of where to run.

This had to be the worst day ever.
Deep inside she knew very well that this was absolutely nothing compared to the day when she lost her precious parents, but her highest wish right now was to sulk, and to be pitied. So to her, her day was ruined.
She ran and ran – this was her own element, after all, one that she could find comfort in – and she didn't even know where she was. She could make out blurry figures of trees with the corners of her eyes, and her brain registered that it was becoming darker for every step, but to be honest, she couldn't care less.
She ran and ran and ran.
She got lost without even noticing.

Kai was surrounded by wilted trees and a terrible, but inevitable, feeling running up her veins.
How in the name of the spirits of the earth and sea could she be so stupid?
She had run right into Yoshpet. She was lost in Yoshpet.
Ever since she was an infant she had heard stories of the consuming forest, and no matter if they were fairytales or simple warnings, they all carried the same message:
Never ever get lost in Yoshpet. Never ever even enter Yoshpet. Oina can't survive more than a few minutes in it. If you do enter it, it's your end.
She would die…
It was like her heart was desperately trying to get out of her chest, her limbs as numb as if she would have been a rag doll, and her head was one big hole with panic bouncing around in it. ShewaslostinYoshpetlostlostlostinYoshpetshewoulddiediediedie…
The trees seemed to mock her, taunt her, laugh at her. Look, Kai, there you are, lost! Look what you've gotten yourself into! Has there ever been a greater fool? And the winds were cold and sharp as knives, no warmth broke through, no flowers grew her.
Spring never came to Yoshpet.
And all of Kai's hope left her in a second. She fell down on the cold ground, her legs too despaired to bear her, and wept.

"Hey there, kid, what'cha crying for?"
A small part of Kai's mind, the only one not fully concentrated on the thought that she had only a few more minutes to live, noticed a small, squeaky voice, barely even hearable. Her eyes were too tear-filled to see, but if she could, she would have been met with the sight of a tiny ball of green light bouncing toward her. But as it was now, she didn't even acknowledge it.
"Hey!" the voice shouted, louder this time, so that Kai had no choice but to notice it. "You're an Oina, right? What the heck are you doing here?"
She searched with her eyes in confusion, but no one was to be seen. Was she hallucinating?
"Over here!"
She widened her eyes. By her feet, the tiny green light bounced up and down, calling to her attention.
"A Poncle?" she said, and could not hide her surprise.
The Poncles and the Oina were two tribes in alliance. There were several old legends telling of teamwork situations between them, and some of the villagers could even brag about meeting one of the peculiar bug-sized creatures, but Kai had never even seen one. She remembered how she used to be so fascinated with them when she was younger. A whole village small enough to fit in a tree stump! What would it be like to be so small? And here she was meeting one, in the middle of Yoshpet, with her life on the line.
"No, a dragon, what does it look like?" the Poncle answered sarcastically. "That aside, you have to get out of here pronto!"
Her lip started trembling a little again by the Poncle's reminder of her situation, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Let's see…" he said and started bouncing back and forth. "It might be a bit dangerous to go all the way back to Wep'Keer, but… I got it! Follow me! Come on!"

Kai's legs stayed numb for a couple of empty seconds, before they realized that she had her ticket to escape here. She blinked, before finally standing up, doing the forward flip in the air in order to transform into wolf form, and following her pint-sized savior.
It was hard to see the tiny green light in the dark forest, but he was patient with her, constantly spouting off cries of "Over here!" and "Come on!" whenever she was about to lose track of him. Everything was a blur to her: she jumped, ducked and ran, ran, ran without having any time to wonder what actually was going on around her. She turned left and right in this seemingly infinite maze of confusion, and put all of her trust in the miniature boy.
And somehow, she almost thought it was fun. In all that it was, it wasn't very different from the races she had with the villagers in her younger days, with laughter and ever-lasting happiness – the ones that she always won.
So why would she lose now?
Never.
So Kai ran, faster than the most ferocious wind, faster than fear, Kai, swift as a caribou, and forgot all about loneliness, boredom, and rude hermit boys.

"Here we are, then! Welcome to Ponc'tan!"
It was a sanctuary, standing out as a sore thumb to the gloomy forest. Not a single snowflake could be seen, instead, there were what seemed like hundreds of flowers and loads of vivid green grass. There was light in the air, like if the oasis was its own light source, but if she gazed to the sky, she could clearly see the sun smiling to her, and blessing this place with its warm rays.
Spring had already come to this place.
Kai unconsciously turned back into her human form, and sat down helplessly on the ground.
"You tired?" the Poncle asked. "No wonder. Never thought an Oina could run so fast in that forest! 'Cause it drains your energy as if you were a wringed-out rag, you know. How the heck did you get in there, by the way?"
Kai smiled a little when he complimented her speed.
"I was just stupid…" she then said. "I didn't know where I was going, and before I knew it, I was lost…"
"Uh-huh…" he replied, as if into the distance. "Well, you should watch where you're going from here on, then. You can stay here for a while. Then, we can try head back to Wep'Keer."
He bounced two steps, towards her, and if she had squinted, she would have seen him doing a quick greeting bow.
"Name's Issun!" he told her proudly. "The strongest, most handsome, and overall best Poncle in all of Nippon! Glad to give you a hand!"
She giggled, with her hand over her mouth, the one that otherwise was so small, but was gigantic in comparison to the over-confident Issun.
"I'm Kai." she told him.
"Okay. Bet'cha got a lot of the villagers worried for you. They must be looking like crazy for you!"
"…No one knows I'm gone."
She put her arms around her knees.
"Everybody's asleep or out hunting… and the last thing I did was saying some awful things to that boy…"
She was speaking more to herself than to Issun. Now she remembered, and she wished she hadn't. Crawling, heavy feelings of guilt and regret filled up her stomach – how could she have been so mean to him? He actually hadn't done anything bad. She had been stupid and stubborn and mean and lots of other terrible adjectives, and she had no excuse. All out of boredom – she was a silly child, silly and immature, and she deserved getting lost in the consuming forest.
Didn't she?
Shedidshedidshedid…
"… What?" said the small, squeaky voice of Issun, not understanding what she meant.
Kai woke up from her thoughts, looked at him, one-two-three-four-five seconds…
And then, she wept.
"H-Hey!" Issun shouted, bouncing more nervously. "Don't start crying again! Did I say something or what?
"N-N-Noooo…" the child tried to say over her crying, but the tears and her aching throat wouldn't let her.
She did… she did deserve it… she was such a terrible person…. Each tear rolling down her cheek carried a new knife of harsh words to herself, each one cutting a new wound, because she did deserve it, she really did, she really did…
"Cut it off already"
A high-pitched and squeaky, but nonetheless frightening, cry interrupted her tear-drenched thoughts. She opened her wet eyes in surprise, and saw a bright red – not green – light ball bouncing furiously bouncing a few inches to her face.
"Would you just stop?!" Issun continued in the same pitch and tone. "I don't know what happened, but nothing's going to get better if you just sit here and blubber like another idiot! Kid or not, there's nothing that annoys me more than crybabies! So just get a grip and stop it!"
Kai couldn't do anything else than just sit there and blink.
The tears stopped falling immediately out of pure surprise.
Issun's words had been the closest she had gotten to a scolding in a long time, and she was absolutely astonished by them.
His fiery red color faded a little and he bounced down on the ground, standing by her knees.
"Look", he said, as if he was speaking to a three-year-old, "I don't know what you said to whoever it was, but just go and say sorry if you're feeling bad about it! It's nothing more than that! Geez! I mean, how hard can it... be…"
All the rest of his red color disappeared in the middle of the sentence, and he took on his usual green, but it was more pale than before. If Kai had been his size, she would have seen his eyes wander away to some point at her right side and grow, but as it was now, she only saw his tiny body tilt a little bit to the right, as if he looked at something behind her – so she turned around to see what caught his attention.
And her jaw dropped.
A wolf puppy, panting of exhaustion, covered in dark blue fur, crowned with a red mane, and with almost glowing red eyes – unmistakably familiar features, even though she had never seen the wolf before.
Oki.
How could it be?
And behind him, walking up to them, slowly and dignified: another puppy, but seemingly a few years older, with pale blue coat and a snow white mane – and behind him, an adult wolf, also blue, but a more icy shade – and in the distance, more wolves of different ages and colors.
Everyone. They had all come for her.
She recognized the pale blue puppy as the silent apprentice of chief Kemu, Samickle, who was a couple of years older than her – why was he in the front row?
But the ice blue one was all the more familiar: Tuskle. Tuskle, Tuskle, Tuskle. She had come too. She had come.
The whole village had come. To look for her. To look for her.
And Oki…
"Kai?" he said, still in wolf form, so tired that his legs and his voice were both shaking. "I… I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, Kai, for being… rude… and making you run all the way here…"
I'm sorry.
He said that. Even thought he shouldn't. He had no obligations whatsoever to say it, and yet he did. She could do nothing but stare at him in confusion. Why did he say sorry? She couldn't understand it, no matter how hard she tried.
"Kai!"
And then everything was one big blur of hugs, teary-eyed shamans, telling-offs that trembled of relief and affection, more hugs, grateful words to the Poncle who was more than glad to hear them, hair ruffles and laughs – and in the middle of everything: an apology that wasn't needed – and outside it all: a little boy silently watching her.
And warm rays of sunlight, and flowers, and happy little insects, and small buds on the trees…
Calm. Light. Spring.
And now she was standing right in front of him, with an exposed and completely honest face, the kind that only children seemed to possess.
"Oki", she said, "I'm the one who should say sorry. I was really stupid, and I really do understand if you never want to speak to me again, but I just want to say-"
"It's okay."
"What?"
"It's okay. Really."
He was holding up his hand to silent her.
And he smiled.
Smiled.
It's okay. Really.
Friend.

And spring came.