[x] You will pay them a visit today, after you finish eating.
Securing a food source is a good priority, if even for yourself. You're not going to have an army overnight, after all. You finish up the cooked meat and get up, leaving your sword and dagger behind this time. You head away from your camp, heading downstream this time. It's a farther walk than it took you to reach Goddess Hina's, but along the way you see more local wildlife, which will make for good hunting in the days to come.
The woods get thicker the farther downstream you go, though you find another house a distance from the riverside, in a sizable clearing, and a rather sizable dirt road leading away into the forest opposite the direction you approach from. It's clear that there is indeed more civilization nearby if there are roads. The space provided by the clearing hosts a large patch of tilled land, with a great variety of plants growing upon it. You assume that these sisters are outlaying farmers, though why they're not set up in a plain is questionable.
You see a young woman outside, tending to the plants closest to the house. Short blonde hair, and a long red dress, again something that looks out of place in the mountain woods. She appears to be wearing leaves in her hair as well. You circle around the field to approach the house, and the woman notices you. She seems a little confused at your presence.
“You're coming from an unusual direction,” she says, “did you circle around the house or something?”
“No, I came from further up the mountain,” you reply, gesturing back the way you came. This confounds her even more.
“A human coming down from the mountain? That's a new one,” she says, wiping her hands on a rag looped through a sash at the waist of her dress. “So, is there some reason you came down here?”
“I was told that the Aki sisters downstream could help me if I needed food,” you admit, “I've recently found myself here from another world it would seem, and I've set up a camp. I've decided that getting what help I could would be wise.”
“Uh huh,” the woman says, now sounding a little annoyed, “if it's food then, you'll want to talk to my little sister Minoriko.” The woman thumbs towards the house. “She's in there screwing around as usual while I'm busy outside.” You look towards the house, then back to the woman.
“Why would I need to speak with your younger sibling? Aren't you the elder?” you ask. This only seems to annoy her even more.
“Look, just go talk to her. She's the Harvest Goddess, I'm just nothing in comparison,” she grumbles, turning away from you and going back to work on the plants at the far side of the field. Harvest Goddess, she said? This is quite something, possibly the most important person you could meet. You make your way over to the house and head around to the front side, knocking on the door. A short time later, a younger girl answers. Not quite as grown as her sister, but not far from adulthood either. She wears a much more plain looking dress with an apron, though her hat seems to have grapes growing from it.
“Was that you making Shizuha mad?” she asks first thing, before even a greeting.
“I suppose it was, though I don't know what I said,” you say, a little confused yourself now. The girl chuckles.
“She's just always upset when people come to look for me, no one ever needs her,” Minoriko muses.
“Is she also a Goddess?” you ask. The girl gives you a weird look in exchange.
“Well, yes, but she is only in charge of turning the leaves for autumn and causing them to fall. Compared to the harvest, she's hardly as important,” she sister boasts. You, however, are not quite as amused as she seems to be, which serves to sober up her joking fairly quickly. “What?”
“While I would admit that the falling of leaves is not quite as important as a good harvest, it's still an important thing for the people of the lands. Fallen leaves can be used to provide shelter for those in the wild, as a covering to protect against the weather, and an easy fuel source for fires. Even farmers can make use of them, gathering the leaves to create fertilizer for their fields. I would say it's unfair to look down upon your own sister for this, since her ability compliments your own so well,” you say. Minoriko seems quite surprised by your defense of the elder sister Shizuha, and perhaps a little ashamed.
“You're actually pretty knowledgeable, aren't you? I guess I had you figured wrong since you look so gruff,” Minoriko says. “So, I'm guessing you're here for some help, right?”
“Yes. I was told about you two by the Goddess Hina,” you state, with Minoriko taking an amused expression over the 'Goddess Hina' part. “I'm to understand that you're the Harvest Goddess?”
“That's right,” Minoriko says proudly, “I'm the one that oversees the health and growth of the farmers crops every year, and the Harvest Festival is held in my honour.”
“That's quite an important role you have,” you say, “you must be a well respected and much-worshiped deity.” You can see Minoriko's pride swelling a bit more.
“Yeah, I am a pretty much universally loved person,” Minoriko says, clasping her hands together at her waist.
“A good harvest is an important thing after all. I'm quite well aware how important it is to have ample food for a people, how easily it can effect the well-being of a village, city, or even a nation,” you recite, the praise only serving to make Minoriko more and more pleased with herself, as you are planning. “Which is why you shouldn't discredit your sister's importance. You should support her, much like her purpose supports yours.”
“I suppose you're right,” Minoriko says, still beaming with pride, but obviously accepting of your words. “You know, I was just going to give you a basket of vegetables, but I have something a little better for you,” she says, and reaches up to her hat, plucking off one of the grapes. “Eat this,” she instructs you, and you comply, taking the grape and putting it in your mouth. It is surprisingly flavourful and juicy, despite having come from her hat, no doubt remains that she is truly a Goddess as well. As you eat the grape, Minoriko reaches into a pouch on her apron and removes her hand in a fist. “Here,” she says, holding her hand towards you. You open one of yours to accept what she has, and she pours several seeds into your hand.
“Just seeds?” you ask.
“Not quite 'just seeds',” Minoriko says, dropping the last of them into your hand. “with my blessing passed to you through the grape, these seeds will grow into exceptional plants very quickly, and the fruits and vegetables produced will themselves will carry a diluted form of the blessing in their seeds. You could grow quite a lot of food quickly, and it will all be very high quality. You can plant them whenever you want, my blessing lasts until winter.”
“Thank you for your blessing,” you say, bowing slightly.
“Think nothing of it!” Minoriko says, stepping back inside. “Take care now!” With that, she closes the door. You place the seeds into one of your own pockets, and head back around the house to say goodbye to Shizuha as well, though you find her standing just around the corner, out of sight from the front of the house. She seems particularly happy as well.
“That was a nice thing you said,” she says.
“It's the truth,” you respond.
“I never thought of it how you said it though. I was always trying to make the case that the beauty of the turning leaves was worth it, and that it was the beauty of autumn that made it important,” she says.
“I hope you do your part to assist your sister,” you say, “you two are halves of a greater whole.”
“Thank you,” Shizuha responds quietly, “and now I have something I can hold over her head if she ever tries to get condescending with me,” she continues with a small grin.
“Take care, Goddess Shizuha,” you say, bowing slightly to her too before continuing on your way. Quite an important discovery, two Goddesses of autumn, and the Harvest Goddess as well. They could be very important allies in the future, the groundwork for which was already laid through your flattery and simple wisdom. If all the Gods of the land turn out to be so simple to appease, you could very well take control of this land with very little effort. It would take a lot of careful work, however, as no doubt making even one God an enemy would likely provide an insurmountable obstacle. You can rule over men, and you may yet rule over monsters, but you very much doubt your ability to challenge the very Gods.
You return to your camp, as you had left it. The day is slipping into evening, and you will only have a few more hours of sunlight before night falls. You clear out a small spot of land and till the soil with your dagger, planting a few of the seeds, holding the rest for a later time. You consider building a fire and simply relaxing for the rest of the day, so that you will be rested for the morning and can dedicate the day to exploring more of the land around you, though you may still yet find something with the remaining daylight.
[] No harm in exploring a little more today.
[] Stay at camp for the night...
-[] It's getting chilly.
-[] The wind is picking up.
-[] Rainclouds seem to be gathering.
-[] A fog is setting in.
---
>>133768 I kind of regret not taking the chance to try to rewrite a bit more of the intro before posting. I lowered the number of spectators in the arena and changed a line, but I didn't really add anything. The main thing I was intending to add was a short exchange where Khanon (yeah, I like that name) commented about how many men were deserting the southern lands, peasants, military and even a few nobles, and coming to his kingdom so that they don't suffer in the apparently impending overrun of their land. This was to show that there were quite a number of people coming in from the land, and make it easier to assume that there is a fairly large number of potential agents among the people coming in that simply posed as refugees, to infiltrate the society at all levels.
Of course, people can still get what happened regardless, but I feel it could have been made clearer just how truly ingrained the subversion agents were.