Iori
Legacy Name: Iori

A leaf is ripped from the tree by the wind, and fall is settling in well. The local highschool has just let out, and the chatter of school students reach pointed ears. From atop his shrine, a kitsune listens to the world move mutely around him. This little town - situated near the bottom of his mountain - is younger than him, yet older than any of the mortals within it. He watched the first ones that settled here, and knew he would watch the last to leave someday too.

The chime of a bell reached his ears, and for the first time that day he lifted his head from his paws. A second chime and he stretched to move into a sitting position. It seemed someone had come to visit the shrine.

Originally he hadn't been a shrine guardian. He was just a wild fox roaming the mountain side. For all he remembered...Iori couldn't remember how he'd gone from normal fox to...this.

Suddenly, two women - one young and one older - appeared along the pathway. The similarities were too strong for them to be anything other than mother and daughter. They approached the shrine slowly, looking around at the curiously clean surroundings.

Kneeling at the offering box, the women prayed to the Shrine's protector to answer their requests. Iori's ears twitched as their wishes reached his ears. Ah - it seemed the younger woman was expecting her first child. She and her mother had traveled here to wish for their good health and a safe pregnancy. A simple request in the fox's mind.

As the ladies dropped their offerings into the box and turned to make their way back down the path, the bell upon Iori's neck rung soundlessly. Though they wouldn't know it for some months, he knew the baby would be born strong and healthy. Allowing himself to lay back down atop his shrine, Iori settled back in to sleep until the chiming of his bells awoke him again to his next rare visitor.

It would be 15 years later that he'd awake to his bell ringing on the first day of spring. Iori would sit up, awaiting the hopeful human who had made the trek up the mountain path to his little shrine with a wish. However...it would be moments later he'd feel something that would make him descend from his perch. And as he eagerly approached the gate at the entrance to his Shrine - SHE'D walk in.

"Did you miss me, Iori-sama?" she'd say with a smile.

His miko was back.

Credits

Story by Vixien
Profile by Paula
Overlay by Tricksparrow
Bg by 7thavenuedesigns @ etsy