Okay, it took a really long time to just get this up- but hey, it's up! So read it, you lazybums!
PS: Review, 'kay?
Singing to the Wind
Chapter5
Ignorance
Four hundred and eighty-five years later, she was but a legend. A storytold by mothers to teach their children of good will. And they were well embellished, except for one village in a wooded valley.
This village was the same that Hikari had started, and they alone knew the truth. They knew that her palace still stood on the mountain, albeit cloaked with invisibility. It had been pounded into them from birth that they were not to reveal that she still lived. Or that she was still only thirteen in appearance.
Hikari, while looking thirteen, sometimes acted as though she were seven instead. Always smiling, ever hungry, and almost scary in her level of daily cheer. She would insist that the ones who came over would play with her. The children always would, but the adults and any who realized the strangeness of the situation would politely decline. She never went through the village anymore, for obvious reasons.
There was the occasional outing however, with a disguise. She would often dress as a middle class worker, and she would always cover her hair completely. People tended to get suspicious of difference nowadays, with youkai roaming free, wild, and dangerous. If you had one distinguishing characteristic unlike anyone else, you were practically up for trial. Among these were included very light eyes, strangely colored hair, and curiously shaped birthmarks.
The particular town that Hikari was traveling to was more than seven leagues away from her forest. It had been ravaged by demons and bandits alike, and still the natives tried to persevere. Their number was extremely low, and they'd lost their monk and village healer in the last raid. Sick ones were dropping like flies in the intense summer heat. They were almost desperate for someone to come and help, but most other villages were too far away, and the prospect of trusting anyone but a miko left many of the residents more cautious than most. Though other villages did not know it, and the town itself would not acknowledge it, the place was paranoid.
Hikari, with some mild knowledge of herbs and healing remedies, told the leader that wounds should be covered with rock moss, and pointed out the chammomile growing in the grassy alleys of the town. There were few other things she could do for them but recommend.
On her way out, a horse that was eating oats decided that her head covering must have been hay, and figured it might as well eat that too. Her hair fell about her shoulders like a mahogany curtain. The townspeople stared, and a fatal word was uttered as digits pointed.
"Demon! We must kill the evildoer!"
She simply cocked her head. "Will you not tell me what crime I have committed? I don't like mystery," Was her apathetically posed answer.
The village leader stepped up. "You, with your hair the color of fire, cannot be human. It is clearly posted on the road into this town that no one of tainted blood may enter. You have violated this sacred law."
Hikari chuckled slightly. "If the taint of which you speak is hate, then I fear that you have broken your own rules."
The leader was speechless, so she continued, with a sigh. "I pity you, who have minds so narrow that you cannot discern between those who help and those who hinder. I suppose I shall leave now, seeing as neither I nor my advice is wanted here." She turned to leave, but a few men grabbed her. She was dragged up to the platform in the middle of the square, but she didn't fight. They stood her in front of the leader, who, for all his might, could barely stand up to this girl. And, if you've been reading, not surprisingly so. She does manage to become intimidating when the time calls for it.
"Of what type of beast are you," he asked. The shake in his voice was more than evident, it was downright obvious, and he was quickly losing authority, in the villagers' eyes.
Hikari gave a sly smirk. "I'm afraid that I can give you but one word, and at that, you may not know of the legends."
"Well?" The people were becoming increasingly impatient. They wanted to know if she was of any of the same type of demon as had attacked them.
"Wings," She spoke, and suddenly, they appeared out of her back. The wings nearly glowed in the light of day with their sheer white brilliance.
The villagers were all slack-jawed with awe, for her wingspan was easily twenty feet. They had never seen a being sprout such white, feathery wings, much less an evil one. Some dropped to their feet. The leader fell over backwards, scared out of his puny wits. Not hard very hard to, might I add.
"W-wh-what are you," he stuttered.
"I am light, and I must depart." Hikari then transformed into her phoenix form, and sped off into the sun.
She returned to her palace to find several of the children playing tag outside her doors. They seemed to be having so much fun, but they stopped when they saw her and were quick to embrace their matriarch (of sorts). She played with them until the sun hung low in the sky and told them to run along home.
After the children disappeared, Hikari made her way to the top of her mountain, where her mother's shrine stood. She sat on the stone bench in front of it, bowing her head.
"Hi mommy," she said. "I still miss you a lot. But you're here, and you'll always be. I love you."
Hikari looked towards the golden orb that was setting in the west, and then sighed. "It's getting harder, mommy. The world is turning cold. Even the summer is icy now. I'm scared. What if it never warms up? Every single person in the world will know nothing but apathy. That's why I'm afraid.
It almost happened today, mommy. They used to revere me, but now they do not know anything. Ignorance is never bliss. It was bad... when they insisted on making up false tales, but... I think that this might be... worse. I don't want to have to hide anymore, but with suspicions everywhere... they don't even consider if you're good! If you look different from them, they'd just as soon accuse you of something bad as if you actually were.
I want it to stop, mommy. I want to help them learn to know the difference between good and evil, and that there is so much gray. In fact, it shouldn't be called gray. Gray is so dull... let's use white and red! Then everything is pink! Or red and blue, 'cause then it's all purple!" Hikari's venting was helping, and her mind began to wander far off-course.
"Bye, mommy, I have to go and eat dinner now! I'll visit soon, I promise!" And she left, not noticing the large sapphire begin to glow, then chuckle softly.
"My dear girl... may you always be happy."
Hikari: I'm afraid I have no guest to entertain you, and I am sorry. So I will tell you about someone who isn't allowed on here beacuse he's too busy taking care of Saikyou. His name is Kensuke, and he is her older brother. The reason he can't come on is because Sai-sai and her younger sister are... let's just call them 'high maintenance'. Plus, he's like a housewife. A gay, male, housewife, who tends to crossdress while cooking. And he can't bear for his sisters to be unhappy on his watch. At school, they can be as depressed as tehy want, but the second they get home, it's both torture and bliss.
Pause
Hikari: I would also like to thank my only reviewer, Mr. ozma914. Thank you, Mark, for without you, I would be slightly less cheerful. I'd still be PMSing, though, so don't think you can cure that.
