From Kingdom to Village

*YAWN*

"What time is it?" Ichina woke up on a hard stone floor, "This is worse than the boat." Ichina rose from her place of slumber and looked at Shi. He had fallen asleep sitting upward in a pose resembling meditation. Ichina smiles at him and walks toward the door of the Chief hut at which she slept overnight at. She stretches out her whole body, especially her back and neck. She opens the door and walks out, she is greeted with a bright ray of sun. It blinded her, but after a second she could see the prosperous village.

She yawns again, looking at all of her surroundings she thinks of where to go to start her day. As she thinks this, her stomach growls, "I should go eat first." She walks for what seemed like seconds until almost everyone she passed by, greeted her in a friendly manner. She almost knew everyone's name as well, but some she was just not able to remember.

It's already morning, but it feels like I've been here for years. Last night after Chief suggested me to go find Azuka, I respectfully disagreed. Instead I reassured him that he would be back on his own. I trusted that Azuka wouldn't leave without me, I just hope that I am right in my trust. The Chief and I meditated for the rest of the night, it was so peaceful. I never truly appreciated meditation until now, Azuka was always doing it on the boat, that I told him that it was useless one time. He never retaliated when he was meditating, only smirked. It was the only time he never retaliated from one of my comments.

Ichina had reached her destination with all of her reminiscing of the previous night. It was a house on the far side of the village closest to the beach, she knocked on the door a few times. From the door an elderly lady opened it, smiling at the arrival of Ichina. "Good Morning," the lady said. Ichina smiled as well, "Good Morning Mrs. Kasai. Are the children wake yet?" Mrs. Kasai puts her hand to her own cheek, resting on it slightly, "They are still tuckered out from you playing with them last night. But come in, come in, a conversation shouldn't be had like this." Ichina smiles and walks into the home.

It was a bit bigger than the regular houses, but not as big as the Chief Hut. Mrs. Kasai was already cooking food, Ichina assumed by the smell of the house. "Oh dear, I'm sorry about the smell, I was cooking eggs and fish." Mrs. Kasai rushes toward the kitchen, which was a room over from the entrance of the home. In the kitchen there were standard Kitchen furniture. A table, chairs, cupboards, but there was an absence of a stove and a refrigerator. Instead in place of a stove was a contraption of strings and sticks that held a pan suspended in the air.

Mrs. Kasai summons fire and lights the bottom of her pan with fire. Which heats the eggs and fish inside of the pan, causing the aroma in the room to be filled with a mixture of fried fish and eggs. "I see you got your eggs," Ichina says taking a seat on one of the chairs in the kitchen. The smell had attracted her to the kitchen, like a moth to a lamp. Mrs. Kasai laughs, "It is all thanks to you, if you couldn't help me out with the kids, I would still be feeding them only fish for the 14th time this month. If you are here then that means that you will be eating with us."

Ichina's eyes ogle the eggs and fish, "Yes, I will," Ichina's mouth started watering, "Finally some good fu- freaking food. I've been eating bread for almost 4 days now!" Mrs. Kasai laughs, "I'm glad that you are excited for my cooking." Ichina covers her mouth with both of her hands with a surprised look in her eyes, I can't believe I let that slip, Ichina thinks. "Don't be so tense, it is bad for the skin at such a young age. Honestly at such a young age you are amazingly impressive. Helping so many people last night."

That's right, last night while I was meditating so many people came in asking for favors or help from Chief. Apparently the recent demon attack affected them all, some houses were ruined, farms destroyed, people emotionally were down by the attack. It was so much that I thought that I could not even handle it, but I never seen someone calm them down with talks of Gods and perseverance. I think I became religious because of all his talks of Izu the Fire God.

I don't even think my father could help our people like Chief was able to his own. Chief opens his 'castle' to his people, while my father closes himself off and allows others to take care of them. Even during war, all my father did was stay cooped up inside his personal chambers letting off orders left and right. I was treated like an outsider at first, but becuase of my magic and Giant strength I was able to help many. All my training with social practices actually helped in the end. Everyone was able to band together to help each other out, much more efficiently than a Kingdom.

Taking care of the children were my last and tiring job of the night. I had to take care of them while Mrs. Kasai went out to acquire eggs from the dead Wanagoses.

(Which are chicken like animals that give birth to live young and produce eggs as a byproduct of consumption of food. If the eggs of Wanagose are not properly refrigerated or cooked after acquiring them, they will rot within a week.)

There were only 3 children, a young boy and two other twin sisters. I played with the twin sisters who had to be around the age of 6 for a while, while the young boy just sat by a window looking out, waiting for somebody. I never asked him any questions, he seemed too young for him to understand what I would be asking him. His sisters told me that his name was Ghi, and that they have an older brother named Khi, who went out training shortly after returning. I assumed that he was waiting for Khi. By the time Mrs. Kasai came back, the children were fast asleep and I was free to go.

"Here you go darling, eat as much as you want, I can make more." Ichina greedily digs into the eggs and fried fish, with a fork and a knife, they were delicious, so much in fact that Ichina was already asking for seconds. Mrs. Kasai opens the window, letting out the smell of a fresh breakfast early in the morning. Attracting some nearby nosy neighbors, some offer assitance with fetching more food or even taking care of the children for certain days. Mrs. Kasai would usually laugh it off and say, "I'm trying to catch a much bigger fish to bring home."

I always wondered what she meant by this, but she said it throughout half of the morning, until the children woke up.

"Morning grandma," one of the twins said. "Is that eggs I smell, finally grandma," the other said. Mrs. Kasai chuckles, handing both of them plates with half of the fried fish and eggs that Ichina got. "Thank you grandma," they simultaneously say. They both gleefully skip to the table, almost dropping their plates on the ground, but luckily kept their balance and placed it on the table. They dragged a single chair to the table, and shared the chair with each other, eating their food in unison.

They seemed to ignore Ichina and she was fine with that, she smiled as she watched them eat. However she stops as she hears a constant scream from outside the window. "Grandma, is that food I smell," Ghi says as he walks into the kitchen rubbing his eyes. "What do we have for breakf-" Before Ghi could finish his sentence, two men drop kicks their way into the house through the window. Everyone is shocked, except for Mrs. Kasai.

"Oh, Khi, I haven't seen you this active in a while," Mrs. Kasai says smiling.

The two men who had come into the house were a sweaty, exhausted, shirtless, and badly damaged Azuka and a sweaty, exhausted, shirtless, and slightly damaged Khi.