"Found something!" Issun called to Amaterasu. She trotted over to Issun, who was squatting by a hole in the wall. "Do you think you can fit though this hole? It looks like it goes somewhere important."
Amaterasu got on her belly and started to crawl through slowly and carefully. Issun followed a few moments later, not wanting to get wolf butt in his face. Amaterasu made it into the next room and stood up, waging her tail. Issun didn't know why she was so happy until he joined her.
The room was a something of a garden with fountains that sprung up from the floor and followed small, man-made streams into a pool in the center of the circular room. The grass and flowers were a healthy green color and some of the remaining structure of the ruins remained in the room. On the walls were pictographs, one of which looked like a wolf.
"Hey, that one looks like you." Issun pointed out. "I suppose you're a god and all, but that must be flattering."
Amaterasu sniffed the carving of herself.
"This place is pretty cool, but how do we get out of here?" Issun looked around. On the far edge of the wall was a door blocked off by some collapsed architecture. There were some spider webs spread over the crumbled stone.
"You think you can fix this?" Issun pointed at the collapsed doorway. Amaterasu walked over and started digging through the rubble; Issun covered his face to protect himself from bits of flying rock. When it was finally cleared away, Amaterasu lay down on the ground and began to pick at her paws with her teeth.
"What's up?" Issun knelt beside her to get a look at what was bothering her. It was hard to see because of Amaterasu's pure white fur, but her paws were caked with the spider webbing from the rocks. The webs were much thicker and sticky looking up close than they did just at a glance. Issun carefully helped her peal the webs off, but he just got them stuck on his hands too.
"This is disgusting…!" Issun grunted and tried to peal the webs off of himself.
Now free and mostly oblivious to Issun's struggles, Amaterasu walked through the newly-opened doorway and looked around the area. There was a pit in front of the walkway and an exit on the other side. The only way to get across the pit was a huge, inverted, dome-shaped web that spanned the entire chasm. Issun soon joined her, giving up on the webs stuck to his hands. Every time he pulled it off one hand, it would get stuck to the other.
"Do you think it's safe?" Issun asked, staring at the web in the pit.
Amaterasu gave it a good sniff.
"Well, whether it's safe or not, it looks like our only way forward." Issun said, taking a step forward onto the web. Amaterasu whined and followed him carefully. Every time they put a foot down, it would glue to the web's surface and they would have to pull their feet extra hard to get them loose again. Once they pulled a foot free, the web would snap back and send a twanging vibration up the walls and into the darkness above.'
Pairs of red eyes slowly opened in response to the vibrations and a low hissing sound ensued. There was a soft rustling sound that followed. Issun paused, listening to the sounds from above. He looked around indiscreetly and his hand twitched slightly towards his sword. Amaterasu was too busy unsticking two more feet from the web to notice the sound.
A dozen or so humanoid spiders descended from the darkness, hissing hungrily at the two figures caught in their web.
"What the heck are those things?" Issun shouted in horror at the ugliness of the beasts. He tried to take a step back but his feet were still glued to the webs; he couldn't move. By the sounds of Amaterasu's frustrated growling, she was experiencing the same problem as Issun.
The spider creatures walked across the web with ease. They were in no hurry; they knew that their prey would not be going anywhere. They snapped large jaws edged on either side with pincer-like fangs as drool poured out of them. All Issun could do was pull out his sword and hope that he would be lucky enough to kill a few. Chances of this dwindled as spiders began to move behind him as well. They saw him as more of a threat than Amaterasu at the time. They ganged up to take the more dangerous prey down together. One spider led the charge with an ear-splitting shriek. It pounced into the air. Issun felt a powerful mass slam into his back. He fell face-first into the web, getting stuck immediately. He knew that he wouldn't be able to get up, with or without the pack of spider creatures surrounding him.
Issun managed to turn his head slightly to see a spider creature right over top of him, its drooling mouth wide open to deliver the finishing bite. Its breath reeked of decay. Amaterasu howled in rage. The spider paused and looked up at Amaterasu, who began to charge a Powerslash. Once she let her attack go, two spider creatures were cleaved in two perfectly. Their blood splattered against the white web as their severed bodies crumpled. Amaterasu let loose a second attack, then a third. The bodies of the spiders littered the web until there was only one left; the spider creature on Issun's back.
The creature hissed angrily at Amaterasu for killing its comrades. Amaterasu simply snarled in response and charged the final Powerslash.
"Wait, Ammy!" Issun tried to warn her but it was too late. Amaterasu had begun the attack. The spider uttered a strange gurgling sound as the blow passed cleanly through its body and then to the web on the other side. This was what Issun had feared. The web detached from the wall and began to fall.
"Great work, you stupid furball!" Issun screamed as the web tilted being only supported by one side. The weight of the dead creatures, Issun, and Amaterasu combined were too much for the unbalanced web and the rest of it snapped off. A horrible second of utter terror wracked Issun's body seconds before they began to fall down the pit.
As they tumbled downwards, the bottom of the pit came into view. There was a small but deep pool of water directly below them. Oh no… Was all that Issun could think as they plummeted. Amaterasu howled at the top of her lungs before they plunged into the water.
Issun opened his eyes blearily, unaware of his surroundings for a moment. As his vision cleared, he could see that he was lying on a patch of grass beside a broken bridge that led to an elevated platform of land.
"…Am I dead…?" Issun asked aloud.
A low moan answered him. Amaterasu, who had been lying beside him, stood up and shook herself off. The spray of water that followed woke Issun up more. He sat up and looked around. The crumbling structures in the grass and plants told him that they were still in the Tsuta Ruins.
"How did we survive…?" Issun hoisted himself to his feet.
When he looked around, they were faced with the same problem they had experienced in every different part of the ruins; there was only one way out but no obvious way to get there. The bridge was obvious, but it was also obviously broken with the middle part of it completely gone.
"What in the world do we do now?" Issun sighed.
Amaterasu ran over to the bridge and sniffed around it, she knew there was something familiar about it. While she ran, she kicked up some dust. Issun noticed something on the floor, another pictograph perhaps? Issun knelt down to the floor and brushed some of the dust away. The picture carved into the ground was a large, coiled, serpentine dragon. Amaterasu paused for a moment and looked down at the picture. She cocked her head once and then the outlines started to glow.
The form of the dragon rose out of the pictograph, fully three-dimensional and very real. It was pure white with wisps of fur along its back and crimson markings along its body. Part of its tail turned into a scroll where its tail was drawn in and then came out the other side. The dragon was very large and took up a good portion of the space on the bottom of the pit. It looked very old and wise and spoke with a deep voice.
"Greetings, Amaterasu, origin and mother to us all. I am Yomigami, the god of rejuvenation. Long ago, we were one being, but your fateful battle with the darkness left you too weak to reserve my power. I was forced to hide in this place where a dark spirit from your past has kept me prisoner. Now that you have returned, I can rest easily knowing that the darkness will not persist forever. I will lend you my power and I hope that it will aid you on your quest." Yomigami spoke. He inclined his head to the broken bridge. "Beyond this bridge lies a powerful enemy. Rebuilding this bridge may also rebuild some of your broken past and your fragmented memories. Take heart that all of them may not be pleasing for you to see. A link to the past will be formed with every step you take from here on out, you would do well not to forget them again."
With that, Yomigami formed into a ball of light that shot straight into Amaterasu. Issun marveled at how much more powerful Amaterasu looked with the addition of Yomigami's power… but what he had said disturbed him. Did Amaterasu have a dark past? What had happened to her? One thing that he had never really bothered to think about was how she came to the human world. What had happened that night 100 years ago when she fell from the sky?
Amaterasu looked much less concerned. In fact, she looked quite content. She wagged her tail lazily while staring at Issun. She was oblivious to most things around her. Issun couldn't help but wonder if anything that Yomigami had said registered in her head at all. Just as he thought this, Amaterasu walked over to the bridge and placed a paw on some of the splintered wood. The bridge began to glow with a heavenly white light. The light spread all the way over to the other side of the bridge. When the light faded, a new and fully repaired bridge took the place of the broken one.
"You can fix stuff? Dang, you are handy!" Issun commented before climbing up on her back.
Amaterasu barked a response.
"Well, Yomigami told us that there's something wicked evil this way so let's psyche ourselves up for the worst and hope for the best!" Issun said confidently. Amaterasu seemed just as determined as Issun.
They crossed over the bridge into the next room. There was a walkway that lead to a large circular platform surrounded by a pool far below that was fed by small spouts of water that poured out of equally spaced holes in the wall. The room was relatively dark but a dirty pink flower of epic proportions was situated in the middle of the room. Instead of the pollen that a normal flower exhibited, it had ten or so eyestalks in the center with unmoving red eyes.
"Get a load of that nasty thing!" Issun said loudly, his voice echoing against the walls of the chamber. He climbed off of Amaterasu's back and walked over to the flower. Without a moment's hesitation, he climbed onto one of the petals and walked over to the middle of the great plant to look in. On the inside of the flower, he saw a dog curled up.
"Hey, it looks like this thing ATE a dog!" Issun said, completely fascinated. Plants didn't eat dogs where he came from.
Amaterasu cocked her head at a sudden movement from the shadows. Eight shadow heads reared up on serpent-like necks and swayed back and forth. An instant fear and anger washed through her body and she charged at the flower. Amaterasu took a flying leap and grabbed Issun by the shirt to pull him out of the way just as the flower snapped shut. The shadowed heads faded back into the darkness as the flower stood up to reveal a revolting sight beyond anything that Issun had ever seen in his life.