Megami grinned as she stepped back, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she looked over her creation with pride.
A small wood house overlooking the Kohaku River, hardly anything special, but it was enough for her. If it had a face, Kaonashi would smile as it witnessed the pride swelling in the girl's chest.
It was the same pride that she had shown when it first learned to produce a footprint. After drinking in her kindness for so long, it now had a solid mass, and now, every step it took was purposeful, watching closely in wonder as its feet sank into the ground and left trails wherever it went.
As always, every positive thing she gave it carried a bit of sadness as well. She was helping it to become real, giving it life where it had none, and yet it still could not help her in any way. It knew the limits of its body, and it had known that it could have built a much better house for her. It had the strength to lift whole trees if it needed to, this small shack would have been simple for it.
But she had rejected its attempts to help. Whenever it tried to cut wood or carry a plank, she had told it to leave. She didn't want to depend on anyone, even Kaonashi.
And it was not willing to reject her wishes. If she asked something of it, then it would obey, and so it had held back while she constructed the structure of her own accord. She had allowed it to hunt in order to feed them both, but that was a small return for all she had already given it.
She had given it a name and a form. Before, it was a nameless wanderer, and now, it was Kaonashi, her guardian spirit...A term she had coined before, and though it did not understand the significance, being given a title made it as happy as when she'd named it.
She had named many things now. Frog. Cloud. Wolf. Sun. It had learned the meaning of her name, and it truly believed her deserving of the title. Megami, "Goddess". To it, that was exactly what she was, the goddess of its world.
Now, she sat on the rock she had used to paint back when they'd first met, raising a knife made of sharpened stone and tied to a stick, holding a clump of her hair out to slice it with the blade as Kaonashi watched from her side.
It never understood when she did this. Why would she wish to get rid of her hair? It would love to have hair, and seeing her so easily remove a part of her body, even simple dead strands, like this felt wrong.
It held a hand out to her, the thin tendril pathetically small and disproportionate compared to her long arms. Her hands were large enough to carry wood and delicate enough to wield a paintbrush, and its own were too small and thin to hold the tools she carried.
It didn't understand why it could lift trees and yet couldn't hold the spoon and fork she gave it for eating. When she'd realized it could not hold the small utensils, she'd allowed it to simply swallow all the food she prepared for it whole. She never complained or even flinched when it revealed the mouth that it had learned it possessed, but it knew she feared it. Large and with giant, flat teeth spaced far apart, it could consume anything of any size. It could eat her if it became too hungry, and yet she never feared it. She should, and it knew that she should. It was a hideous creature, its mouth was disgusting compared to hers. Small, dainty, with short teeth situated close together, she could eat without making a mess. Where it always ate outside for fear of damaging the wood in her home, she could even eat in her bed despite the difficulty of washing fabric in the murky water of the Kohaku.
Now, she smiled, stopping as the knife went halfway through the clump she was cutting as she saw iits motion. "Do you like my hair?" she asked, her smile broadening as it shifted uncomfortably at the question.
"...Ah." It still could not speak, but she was never bothered by its silence.
She hummed to herself, looking up at the sky as she thought, before laughing, completing the cut and holding the locks out to her companion. "Here, you can have it." she said, her smile never fading as it accepted the gift…
The hair dropped to the ground as it touched Kaonashi's hand, as if the strands burned its shroud, and she frowned worriedly at the motion.
"Ah." it said. It couldn't accept her gifts, not until it had given her something in return. "Ah."
She blinked, before grinning. "Oh, finally growing up?" she asked. "Finally starting to come out from under Mamma Megami's wing?"
Wing? She possessed no wings. Another curious expression.
When it didn't answer, she sighed, looking out at the river. "Kaonashi, can you go get me my painting supplies?" she asked. "I want to paint the house now that it's finished."
It shifted. That was something it could do! It moved to the door, entering the tiny house to collect the supplies, left on a desk in the corner of the room, and after awkwardly stringing them over its spindly arms, moved as quickly as it could without dropping them outside.
"Ah!" it said, and she smiled as she turned, holding her hand out to accept the tools.
It reached to give her the canvas, but as she took it, it found itself off-balanced, the heavy bucket full of paint canisters swinging on irs elbow, and it accidentally dropped the brush it held in the same hand.
As it reached down to retrieve the instrument, it suddenly felt the bucket shift, and though it tried to catch it, the heavy metal container slipped from its arm, landing firmly on the brush.
The air was silent as a loud crack resounded, the bucket settling on the ground.
It stared in worry as Megami silently lifted the bucket, an unreadable expression on her face. It backed up a few paces, terrified that it had angered her...It didn't want its friend to be angry!
The air was tense as she picked up the brush, which at first appeared fine, but a little dirty...and then she held it with either end held by a hand, bending it slowly.
The wood splintered as it bent, and Kaonashi didn't need to be very observant to know that it wouldn't be reparable...It had broken the most necessary part of her hobby.
"Ah-" It cut itself off, turning away in shame. All the gifts she'd given it, and it had repaid her by breaking her brush...What a useless creature it was.
It jolted as it felt a hand on its shroud, approximately where its shoulder would be had it had a more complete form. It didn't want to turn. It didn't want to see the rage in her eyes. It didn't want to be rejected. It didn't want to be lonely-
"Kaonashi." Her voice lacked any of the anger it had expected, and it slowly obeyed, turning to face her.
She was smiling, but it could see it wasn't genuine. She was sad that she had lost her tool, it knew that even without being able to read her body movement. So why was she smiling? She should be shouting at it, pushing it away for its crime against her livelihood…
It didn't want to be alone, but the fact that she wasn't punishing it for its transgression felt even worse. Why wouldn't she raise her voice?
"It's okay." she said, her voice low, and her tone was calming...Why was she trying to calm it? She was the one who should be worked up, not Kaonashi!
"Ah?" it questioned, and she chuckled, patting its body a few times before standing straight, looking at the broken brush and sighing, before tossing it into the river.
"It's useless now." she said, shrugging and sitting on the rock, holding her chin up with her fists as she hummed in thought. "I brought that with me from my homeworld when I came here, I have no clue how to make a brush. Surprised it lasted this long though, it's been, what, 20 years since I first came here?"
Years. The word meant nothing to Kaonashi, but according to her, they were a unit of time, something that it had no concern over. Time meant little to a being not built to die, after all.
She laughed. "That reminds me, you've been with me for almost a decade now." she said. "So...thanks for being with me for so long, it was pretty lonely before you showed up." She smiled, and it backed up in surprise.
This was a genuine smile. Why was she suddenly praising it, after it had broken her brush? If she could not replace it, then why was she so unconcerned?
The brush made her happy. Kaonashi had gotten in the way of that happiness...It hated the thought that it brought its friend misfortune.
Its hands came together as it concentrated, and she tilted her head in interest as it concentrated its energy.
The wood was thin but strong, and the fur at the tip was densely packed but softer than the skins that she wore. It knew every detail of her brush, it had had ten years to study it and now it knew everything inside and out about the tool.
In its hands, it now held a perfect replica, and from her eyes widening, it knew Megami was as surprised as it was.
"You…" she said, her voice breathless. "You remade it…"
"Ah." it said, holding its hands out, presenting the brush like it was giving a sword to a soldier. It was such a small gift compared to everything she had given it, but it hoped that this at least could offset its breaking the previous one.
She smiled, accepting it, rolling it in her fingers as she studied it. "It's perfect…" she said, laughing and jumping up from the rock, gripping the brush tightly in her hand as she ran toward the house. "Come here, Kaonashi! I have something for you too!"
It was happy as it followed her. Here was the excitement it enjoyed seeing in her, the boundless energy that so perfectly countered its own lethargy.
It stood in the entrance to the shack as she rummaged through a wood crate underneath the bed, staring uncertainly as she pulled out an oddly shaped object.
A white ceramic mask, the flat surface broken by two oval-shaped eyeholes and a small mouth. It watched her as she ran past it again, digging through her paint bucket and dipping the brush it gave her into a canister.
It watched curiously from the door as she painted a quick design onto the mask. Stripes going across the eyes and a spot below the mouth. A design she'd used before, when she once experimented with drawing faces, something she couldn't use a reference for here, with no one around that looked like her.
She grinned, holding up the mask, and stood up again, setting her brush on the rock and walking to the being at her door, her face split by her smile.
"Here." she said. "Bend over a little."
It didn't know what she was planning, but it obeyed, shifting to bend the top of its body so she could hold the mask up, fixing it to its body.
Assuming anything was always dangerous, for fear that it would make her angry, but now, it accepted what it believed to be her intentions, and the mask became stuck to its body, glued to the shroud.
She smiled, stepping back. "There we go. Stand up now!" she said, and as it obeyed, she giggled, holding her hands to her hips. "Perfect, now I know what to look at when I'm talking to you!" she said excitedly. "Well, how does it feel, Kaonashi? Now you have a face!"
It stared in surprise. Oh, how it wished it could thank her! "Ah!" it said, hoping that it could get its point across, and she laughed.
"Hey, Kaonashi." she said, her voice lowering, and it tilted the top of its body, using its new "face" to express its curiosity. This gift was so useful! Now, it, like her, had both a name and a face!
She giggled again at the expression, poking where its chest would be with a finger, the digit sinking slightly into the gelatinous body. "Don't ever feel ashamed for making a mistake again. Got it?"
"Ah?" it asked, surprised, and she frowned.
"I mean it. It isn't your fault, so don't blame yourself. Everyone makes mistakes, even freaky shadow creatures who can manipulate matter."