"Mom, what was the story you used to tell me when I was young?"
"You mean the one about the Goddess and the mortal man? Oh, I remember that. It was so long ago."
"Yeah, could you tell it to me?"
The story starts out in the palace village with a poor man trying to sell his harvest. He lived in a surrounding village in a family house although he did not have a family to take care of he worked hard. He prayed to the Dragon God everyday for a good harvest and for things to turn around. Then one night he hears a sound coming from outside in his work field. He rushes outside thinking it was an animal but when he opens the door he stops dead in his tracks. Before him is the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and he instantly feel in love.
After that night the two would meet in secret and the love between him and her grew deeper and deeper. At night she would give his crops a magical touch that would help the crops grow and become delicious. But the happiness was short lived when one night someone caught a glimpse of the goddess working on his field and speaking to the man. The next morning rumors started about him speaking to a witch and selling his soul to the Dark Dragon in order to have a good harvest.
Days went by and he knew that the other villagers were getting restless and were bound to do something drastic. When night came and he met with the goddess he told her his tale and that his time was coming. The goddess was saddened that she would live on forever without him. So she gave him a gift that would last him all eternity.
The next day the villagers burst into the man's house and dragged him out into the streets. The jealous villagers beat him to death asking him where his god was now. He told them on the verge of death that she lived in him and she would always have a place in his heart and that he could see no other woman. Those were his dying words and his body was burned down with his house.
Later that night, he rose from the ashes perfectly fine. It was the gift the goddess gave him. She had given him her immortality and rebirth. She gave him her powers and everything she had to give. The man had a new face a new body and new powers. And in his place the goddess had died.
The man thought that he would never see her again, but he didn't know that the goddess still had a few tricks up her sleeve. She would be reborn and continue to be reborn with her memories suppressed until they were needed. After that started the Priestess of the Dragon God because she is supposedly the goddess who moralized herself yet still has connections with the Gods which is why the Dragon God makes a connection with her.
With that, the story ends and I now envy Akane even more. She was beautiful, had a title and status, and a compelling story to back it all up. No wonder everyone loved her. I asked my mom what the guardians were supposed to represent and she answered me by telling me that the guardians are chosen by the Dragon God to protect the goddess until she took back her powers from the from the man she took them from.
Boring, I thought to myself. She gets all the attention. I wished that things made sense in my life for once. Soon after, I went to sleep and had that dream again where that silly man was giving a woman a flower. Maybe it was the man giving the goddess her power back. Yeah right, not likely.