Fruits

.

Natsuko and Koji were unusual children.

Natsuko did not like to be held and she did not speak her first word until she had seen seven years. She never played the way other children did.

Every summer they had terrible storms, and Natsuko could always be found outside, getting drenched, staring at the sky as it lit up with lightening and crashed with thunder.

Shinta worried for her, but sometimes Kaoru would sit outside with her, silent as her daughter, still amidst the wind and rain, smoothing Natsuko's hair.

Koji was the opposite of his sister. He would tear through their home and through the fields, laughing. He grew up to be strong and fast. Even as a child, he had a fierce pride and a fierce sense of dignity.

The only times he lay still were in the winter, when his mother was sick. Then he would curl up next to her while Natsuko and Shinta took care of the chores. When he wasn't working, Shinta would sit up next to his wife and sleeping son, worried and watching.

.

Raising their children in lands protected by the monastery, Shinta and Kaoru only sometimes heard stories of the north.

The farms that used to feed the Koshimizu and the Mibu now all fell under the name of Makimachi. The border wars were at an end. For the first time in generations, children were born and grew strong in an era of peace. Because the Makimachi daimyo and her lord were frugal rulers, demanding few riches, prosperity also began to grow among the people.

The Makimachi never touched the lands that had belonged to the Kiyosato. That valley was known as a fearful place, haunted by a powerful fox demon and the ghosts of warriors. All the samurai clans between the mountains and the sea learned to leave it well alone.

Freed from the threat of wars and raids, the peasants who remained in the Kiyosato valley began to grow rich in their own right. Some went into trade where they were feared and respected. Rumors clung to them - rumors that anyone born in that valley had powerful magic at his or her command.

.

In the hills around the monastery, where stories and travelers only rarely visited, mild winter followed violent summer, one after another, for twelve years.

.