21 There’s Always a First

{NOISY. The whole place, it's starting to get---human's they're here again.}

Kahaku opened his eyes from his meditation. Every time the peace of the forest and the river gets disturbed, there were only two things that come into his mind.

Humans. And a Deity named Dandy.

And when he opened his eyes, waiting for humans to appear in his river, he saw nothing. No one.

Then he heard a giggle that turned into a laugh. It was different from Dandy's playful. It sounds wicked. Haunting.

"What's this girl up to now?" Kahaku then stood up and flew from the water to land. He summoned all the water in his body to dry himself up and turn the water into his clothes.

He didn't finish dressing when humans can be heard screaming and running from the inside of the forest. Then from there, they emerged at one side of the forest to the river. Following the humans was a silhouette of a black longhaired woman.

Her hair was too long that it hinders him to see her face. The different kind of gloom and darkness, with that kind of appearance, anyone would be frightened.

"Get out of this forest this instance or I will hunt you down and eat your soul." Said the eerie voice of the woman.

The humans screamed 'ghost' as they started to run away again. Kahaku then waved his hand to give the right way out of the forest to the humans.

The 'ghost' then turned to him. It disappeared from where it was and appeared in front of him.

"You…aren't you going out of this forest, too? Aren't you afraid of me?"

A simple human will surely be afraid of how Dandy looked. But not him. He knew who it was. And the façade was too phony for him.

"Should I scream, too?" Kahaku asked nonchalantly.

The ghost then screeched in response as a few of his gooey saliva were thrown at his face.

And that annoyed him. No—he didn't get annoyed by the noise and disturbance at is an everyday happening. No—he didn't get annoyed by her plays and mischievousness. It's natural as she was a child.

What he cannot take is these kinds of disgusting things!

With a swift move of his hands, water was poured into Dandy's disguise as a few droplets washed the dirt in his face.

"Ah, Lord Kahaku, you ruined my disguise," Dandy complained as she parted her now yellow hair. Washed all the mud and dirt that she used as a disguise.

"What are you doing, kid?"

Dandy then jumped off from Yoshiko and started removing the other vines that she used as her hair. Surely, she looked scary. Whatever she was doing, she really succeeded in it. But looks like she doesn't know what impact it did on the spirit and small shrines of old Gods, old deities, and spirits in the forest.

"Dandy…" he called again adding the authority in it and the child understood without further adieu.

"Yes, Lord Kahaku," she bowed her head. "I'm sorry, my Lord."

Kahaku sighed as he looked at the girl. She was too innocent to get angry at her. But this foolishness must stop.

"Dandy, what you were doing is not more of a help but harm to the spirits living in the forest," he started which made Dandy's head lowered some more. " You know why is that?"

Dandy shook her head. Her shoulders started to shake as a sign of her crying. Kahaku's heart started to warm up to her and just forgive what she had done but he must stand his ground.

"You see, Dandy, these small spirits, they need humans' presence to live. And what you were doing is pushing them away."

Hearing that, Dandy started to cry.

And this is one of the things he hates. His heart is melting from her crying and the noise of it.

*******

Dandy didn't stop crying for a long time And kahaku just sat there beside there. Waiting for her to stop. But every time that she would look at Kahaku, she got frightened. Frightened that he would scold her and throw her away.

"Lord Kahaku, please forgive me," she wailed as she clutched to his clothes. "I didn't mean to. I just want them to stay away from me."

It was then Kahaku looked at Dandy. "Stay away from you? Why?"

"Because Shina and Naru said that they might disappear and went somewhere dark. And dark is lonely. I don't want them to go to dark because of me."

The confusion was now visible in Kahaku's face. He just looked at Dandy before something dawned on him and smile at her a bit.

"They have already told you, huh? Well, then..." With a sigh, Kahaku carried Dandy in his arms and they flew. Dandy closed her eyes and clutched onto his robes to hide her face from the wind.

Dandy felt that they have already landed but she still ought to hide her face. It was when he called to her that she got out from hiding. They were back in her flower bed where stood one of the oldest trees of the forest.

Kahaku then sat on one of the roots of the tree. "Dandy, look where we are."

"Mister Oakie!" She pointed at the tree and smiled.

Under the old oak tree is where she sleeps. It gave her comfort and protection. She got down from Kahaku's lap and run to the trunk of the tree and hug it.

"Dandy, come here. I want to explain to you why I want you to stop what you are doing."

Dandy hesitated to come to Kahaku as she was still afraid. But his calm voice says otherwise. Afraid she may, she walked back to Kahaku.

With a sigh, Kahuku looked up and pointed at the branches. "Did you see that, dandy? There are withered parts of the tree. Most of them, due to old age, and some of them are because of the other reason. You know what is it?"

Dandy shook her head as she watched a big patch of branches were absent of leaves. Tears started to gather in her eyes.

Was it because of her? Was it because she loved mister Oakie so much? "Will he go to the dark?"

Kahaku didn't answer for a while. Before sighing again. "He may or may not go, Dandy. But I assure you it is not because of what Shina and Naru told you. It was because of what you were doing this past few days and weeks."

"W-why? Will mister Oakie leave me?" she asked as sobs escaped her lips.

Kahaku avoided his eyes from Dandy. And Dandy thought that she really did something bad. And looked like it will take time before she was forgiven.

"This Oaktree said to have protected the lands of the mountain since the life in the lands started," Kahaku said as he roamed his eyes to the tree. "The people even believed that some God resides in this tree. And you know what, they aren't mistaken."

"You see, Mister Oakie is real, Dandy." He continued as she tapped her nose. "He's real and he's still there. But he's so old and weak that he cannot manifest a body like us."

"Mister Oakie is here?"

"Yes, kid," Kahaku then tussled her hair gently. "Can't you feel him when you are here? When you are sleeping? He's here and protecting you. And to continue doing that, he needed the faith of the humans. He needed someone who would still believe that he exists."

Dandy looked at Kahaku. Processing and understanding what he said. She then sat back down and tried to think it to herself.

{Mister Oakie needs humans. But humans are afraid of the forest. Now humans aren't coming back. If they don't come back, they would forget mister Oakie. If they forgot about mister Oakie…}

"Ahhhh!" Dandy shouted and ran back to the Oaktree'ss trunk. "Mister Oakie, I'm sorry. What should I do now? How would they come back now?"

Dandy then stopped and looked at Kahaku. With all those realizations, she thought about the other spirits and, "Will you disappear, too?"

Kahaku shaked his head. "No. I won't die. I won't disappear but I might not be able to stay in this land anymore and go back to Takamagahara if this continues."

Dandy felt sadder than before. She controlled not to cry that her lips started moving on their own. Frowning and frowning. Quivering just not to cry.

"I won't cry," Dandy said more to herself. "I won't cry because it is my fault." She sniffed and wiped the tears and so her snot.

Kahaku looked at her and chuckled. He carried Dandy again and cradled her in his arms. "It's okay to cry, kid. But as you cry, why don't you start cleaning the forest to let Amaterasu's sun rays come in. You don't want your mama to get angry at you."

"Um," Dandy nodded as she let her tears flow. She looked up at the sky. "I'm sorry, mama." And as if she heard her, the sun shone more brighter.

"Now, stand up and clean it now. I will borrow Tamotsu and Yoshiko for a while. We just needed to weed something in the far plane."

Dandy thought about the far plane that Kahuku was talking about. It was a plain green field. No trees or anything. It was bear. It was just full of different flowerbeds and grass. Butterflies are abundant there. Most of the spirits and animals went there early in the morning to get the blessing from Amaterasu.

Dandy thought that Kahaku was bringing her two guardians so she could burden her punishment alone. After all, it was her idea.

She just agreed to what Kahaku said. And before they went on their ways, Kahaku called to her again.

"After you're done. Go back to your flowerbed. Whatever you hear or see, don't leave this flower bed. Understand, Dandy?"

Dandy just nodded at Kahaku. The urgency and seriousness in his voice indicated that there were no rooms for mischievous play.

****END OF CHAPTER****

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Sankyu~~