Yuuo's story

The Ancient Traveler sank to his knees in desperation. Either he was dealing with the insane or with one whose development was so stunted, no attempt at reason would ever bare any fruit.  A child of five trapped in the body of a callow young man. A young man devoid of panache, showmanship or even a visual flourish to mark him out from common farmers, fishermen or stallholders. The young man stood before him in the abandoned room, straw coloured sunbeams of early spring infiltrating the decrepit tiles of the lodge that was their temporary home.

Yuuo displayed the half smile of one mixing frustration and familiarity. His brow wrinkled in slight contrition. A fawn uneasily shifting his barely substantial weight from leg to leg. Half contemplating an exit through the rotten doorway. He was well versed in this argument.

“Perhaps these gods you speak of exist on a higher plane of reality, insulated from my contact. I do not for one moment seek to disabuse you of your belief. Absence of evidence is in no way evidence of absence.”

Junzaburo's story

The frozen ground crunched beneath the weight of father and son like bones, their wooden sandals leaving odd tracks that stretched for leagues.

Wordlessly the father pointed off into the woods, a patchwork of dark trunks across a white canvas.

 “I don’t see it father.”

The father held up his hand indicating silence and slowly unslung his pack and rearranged his travelling clothes for freer movement. The son followed suit and strung his bow to fill his supporting role as hunter. However, this was no ordinary hunt. Weeks ago people talk had spread of strange happenings in the villages surround the Tameikinomori, or “Sighing Woods”. Wood collectors said that winter had come early to the deepest wood in an uninhabited valley. A sickness spread to three of the villages. The sick started to walk feverishly in their sleep into the wood, first the young and very old, then women, and finally full grown men. The father was renowned for his skills at tracking and hunting, as well as archery and swordsmanship, and was duty-bound to protect his vassals that remained.