The Southern kingdom of Feudal Japan was burning. It was bristling with crimson flames licking at the sky, the heat making the city melt in a wave of wrath. It was deserted prior to this infernal destruction, but it was still horrid. Burning, dying, all of it. It was all dying. The bronze skinned denizens of the village could only watch the fire eat away at their huts, could only watch the flames become full, and start to spread towards the forest. They had nowhere to run; no person in the village was powerful enough to quell the anger of the gods. Young children were quivering in fear, large eyes bulging open with the realization that their homes were to never be played in again; that they could not ever play with their homemade hay-dolls in their front yards. The older ones of the village saw their hard-pressed homes falling to the earth in ashen heaps. Thunder and lightning started to snuggle into the empty space, further bringing the village into destruction.
What had happened here? The villagers hadn't known what happened. It was presumably after their princess had fled the village. Sakiiki Zetsubou was rightly being trained as a priestess, but was more adept in calling upon demonic powers to gather her visions. Being a Yuki-Onna, it was easier for her to use her deeper demon in order to make her visions become a reality. Being a priestess; using the gods to help her predict everything, was not her prerogative. She much rather liked her own powers, and her visions were usually right. Staring into a ball of ice, she could predict the uprising or the downfall of her father's kingdom.
Needless to say, this use of demonic prowess deeply disturbed the Elder of the village, whom was Sakiiki's supervisor. He knew that she was a Yuki-Onna, and that her demonic prowess was strong as well as very influential. She had ties to branches of royalty and military personnel throughout Feudal Japan, such as her people were very politically inclined and intelligent. They were usually supervisors, Emperor's assistants. The more physically adept were lieutenants, Generals, captains, and/or guardians to the Emperor. Sakiiki had come from out of nowhere, seemingly, quickly taking root in the village and masquerading as a prophet. The Elder, Chief Kenmei Tetsujin, had hesitantly initiated Sakiiki to be in the tribe. Her influence had already spread to the people, and Kenmei had no intention of displeasing his people.
As it was, Sakiiki was to divulge her story. Why she had wandered, why she was here now. She said onto Chief Kenmei and his council, that she was in fact a Yuki-Onna, a snow woman that had migrated from the mountains to the small village in need of food, shelter, and funds. She was disheveled when she first appeared, with her dark hair curled upwards to her shoulders, knots and kinks and fly-away threads of tinted dark purple making a sort of furry halo around her head. Her dark skin betrayed her species, as did her eyes. Her kimono was also made with darker colors, and the Chieftains could not understand. Their village was already poor, so why would she not go to another village or, even better, a castle city with an Emperor and stalls and foods and things as such as fair?
Sakiiki didn't divulge her purpose for stopping in the small village, but she sat in a small hut in the center of the village, near the well, giving prophecies and wisdom to whomever wanted them. Kenmei and the Elders wanted to drive Sakiiki away, since her presence was making the people codependent on her wisdom and visions. The village needed to be fiercely independent, or it would be trampled over by larger tribes and cities. Kenmei and the Elders needed Sakiiki to go.
As the years played their course, Sakiiki would usually go into a deep hiding during the summer, where no predictions were made, no visions were spoken, and no destinies were prophesied. It was due to Sakiiki's extreme fear of fire, and because of the dry grass, random fires would spontaneously burst, and threaten to eat the small village up. Sometimes, when the sun would beat down a bit gently upon the red earth, Sakiiki would emerge; tossing her silken veil away from her eyes and watching the earth become more cracked, and less fertile for harvest. That summer was the predecessor to the catastrophe that would ravage the village.
Sakiiki fled a year later from the village, that day in summer. When the village awoke, nobody knew of where she was…or why she left. She had run towards the north, some people presumed. She was a Yuki-Onna after all. It was cold there; perfect for her to gain new food, funds, and shelter. Others said that if it was material things she was feigning for, she would have gone to the west. That sphere of Japan had the greatest influence, and, in turn, the most material possessions. Others said that as she ran, her body got too hot to support itself, and she melted and made the earth dark, thick, and fertile. Nobody knew. Nobody.
Kenmei Tetsujin burst into flames that night in summer. His cries of agony ran through the village and through the blood of his people. His skin was bubbling, and melting away from his brittle bones, which were cracking open like the claws of a lobster due to the heat. The elders could only watch as the fire gathered into a large dome shape, and it washed over the village. There was nothing left of green there. It was all so lifeless. The people could only watch as the village burned, alive, the elders left to bubble, crack open, and die. The fire enveloped the blood of the foolish men, and the villagers only wished they hadn't driven Sakiiki away.
A/N: This was my very first chapter and story for this sight! I hope you all continue reading; bye-bye~