"What?" Oki exclaimed, the shock evident in his face. "You never told me Chibi was my son!"
Issun was silent, his mouth opened in surprise.
Amaterasu sat up (with some difficulty due to the ache in her back) and wrapped herself up in the blanket. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner, but Waka had the Crystal Pool guarded so there was nothing I could do."
Oki just shook his head. He got up, put his mask back on and left the hut, the three left just watching in silence as he exited. Amaterasu's eyes were filled with sorrow. She sighed.
"He'll come back. He just needs some time to comprehend it," Chibi said reassuringly.
"You never told me that thick-headed warrior was Chibi's dad!" Issun exclaimed, somewhat getting over the shock.
Amaterasu sighed again, and then raised an eyebrow. "Issun, I never got the chance to tell Oki. What makes you think I'd have the chance to tell you, too?"
Issun looked like he was about to make a comeback, but he didn't. "That's a pretty darn good point," he finally said.
The day passed quickly and night soon fell over the land. Oki still had not returned. Amaterasu and Chibi snuggled up together, and Issun had fallen asleep halfway under Oki's rug. It really made the expression "like a bug in a rug" become literal. The three had fallen asleep to the fire's calming crackling and popping sounds.
Amaterasu woke up to nothing in particular, just the faint sunlight coming in from under the cloth in the doorway. Chibi and Issun were still snoozing away. She stood up, careful not to wake the two, and walked out into the cold. The wind whipped at her blanket, her hair being blown into her face. She tied the blanket around her neck like a cape and transformed into a wolf, noticing that the pain did not show up in her back. Seems a good night's sleep always heals something, eh? She thought to herself as she followed Oki's tracks, which were now almost covered by the snow. Somewhere along the way he had transformed into a wolf, she noticed this when she stepped in one of his prints that dwarfed her own.
She continued walking, the tracks leading to the forest of Yoshpet. Of all the places he could've gone, he decided to walk right into Yoshpet, the name literally meaning "consuming forest". She thought to herself, shaking her head and sighing. She padded into the forest casually, as if there was nothing there that could hurt her. Which there wasn't, apart from the fact that she could get lost. The trees offered some protection from the snow and wind, and Amaterasu could see Oki's tracks more clearly.
She followed them deeper and deeper into the forest, across ice, and through deep snow that reached her chest. The tracks continued across a frozen lake, where the snow was only a quarter of an inch deep. She walked across cautiously, making sure not to slip. Suddenly, her hackles rose and her pace increased slightly as a feeling of being watched settled on her. She heard the ice groan and creak a little ways behind her.
Instinct took over, and her fleetfoot dojo technique activated as a claw sliced through the air where she had been standing not a moment ago. A demon appeared, the one that was like an igloo with a tail that burned when it was knocked out. She didn't care to remember what it was called as she lowered herself into attack position.
The demon was incredibly fast, faster than Amaterasu remembered. She only had time to take defense, other than the attacks she flung at it under veil of mist. Suddenly a strike from behind startled her, and she slipped on the ice, causing her to look up at the demon's accomplice as it poised its claws over her face. She regained her wits and power slashed it, but only after it had raked its claws down her side.
Though she was facing two demons and now bleeding immensely, Amaterasu showed no signs of giving up. And then the rest came. Two more of the same demons appeared on her left, and three more came up on her right. They surrounded her. She was managing to knock them out, but they flew back and the rest of the demons formed a barrier so she couldn't finish her job. She used an exorcism slip, but it didn't seem to be enough to knock them out. It was her only remaining defense, that exorcism slip, and now she was out of ideas.
She tried double-jumping over them, but they only moved the circle around her as she landed. She couldn't use veil of mist anymore, because it sucked up her ink and the ink didn't refill unless you waited long enough, but only after veil of mist's time ran out.
Well, looks like I'm done for. Better to go down fighting. I'm sorry, everyone. I'm going to die and your sun is going to disappear and you'll all die, too, she thought as the demons closed in on her. Finally exhausted and losing too much blood, the last thing she saw was a flash of silver before she went unconscious.
Yes, very short chapter. I apologize for that, but it only seemed right to end it here. Hope you enjoyed it anyway.