Okachan-sama's Rock

The next morning, in the dim early hours before the sun had even shown its face over the horizon.

On the chilly slopes of Mount Nanga, a party could be seen advancing in a line toward the summit.

The people of Yamaok Village.

Leading the way was Village Chief Megatonkohsuke.

Though he leaned on a cane, he led the villagers forward at a pace unimaginable for someone of his elderly appearance.

With every step, the bell attached to his cane rang shan shan.

Walking next was the hunter, Gonpeter.

Together with his best friend, Sabrown, he was carrying a palanquin.

It was a roofed palanquin, enclosed on all four sides by doors.

Inside the closed doors slept Emi, the wandering cursed child chosen as the sacrifice.

Having gotten to sleep somewhere with a roof and walls for the first time in ages, Emi was sleeping like a log, and how.

Usually, she would spread 【Magic Sensing Threads】 around her, staying ready for an enemy attack even while asleep, but, conveniently for the villagers, today she had neglected that precaution.

Far from waking when they lifted her into the palanquin, she was only lured deeper into dreams by its swaying.

And, behind the palanquin, several women.

Carrying flowers to offer Okachan, they followed the line in silence, climbing the slope.

After they had climbed a while, the tall trees gradually thinned out, and low shrubs crawling along the ground appeared.

Standing out more than those were the big rocks.

Jagged rocks about 4 or 5 meters high stood erect like thorns, stretching upward in countless numbers toward the sky.

Beyond here lay Okachan-sama's Rock.

The dragon's domain.

A sacred place where the villagers rarely ventured.

Shan, shan, shan, shan......

With not even a bird's song to be heard, only the sound of the bell echoed, absorbed and vanishing into the cloudless sky.

The light of the sun, slowly showing its face, fell on Gonpeter's back as he carried the palanquin.

“............”

Backlit, his expression was blotted out in black, unreadable.

He had been thinking.

Thinking and thinking, all this while.

“......Now, here we are!”

From there, they walked a few minutes more.

Megatonkohsuke, who had been leading the way, called out and stopped.

Before them, ringed by the towering rocks, lay a flat rock like a stage.

Gonpeter and the others set the palanquin down before the rock, and the women decorated the rock with the flowers they had brought.

This was the place of audience.

Whenever the villagers had dealings with Okachan, it was always here.

So it had been laid down by tradition since long, long ago.

“OKACHAN-SAMA! WE, THE PEOPLE OF YAMAOK VILLAGE, IN ANSWER TO YOUR SUMMONS, HAVE HASTENED HEEEEERE!!!”

Once the decorations were finished and the villagers had dropped to one knee and bowed their heads, Megatonkohsuke shouted loudly while ringing his bell, shan.

Then he, too, dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

For a while after that, only the sound of the wind echoed, but gradually, basari, basari, the sound of something beating its wings came from above their heads.

The sound grew louder and louder, finally ending with a heavy zushin that echoed through the air.

At that signal, the villagers all raised their heads at once.

And there, upon the stone stage where nothing had been just moments ago, was the figure of a great dragon.

Divine.

Every villager who saw the dragon for the first time felt that, without fail.

The pale pink scales sparkled brilliantly in the morning sun, and the white mane growing on her long neck fluttered softly in the wind.

That body, bigger than a hut, overflowed with powerful vitality, and the claws extending from the tips of her limbs were sharper than any blade.

This, was Okachan.

The dragon who had guarded Yamaok Village since long, long ago.

“Fushuu!!”

As if clearing her throat, Okachan puffed a little pale pink mist from her mouth, then moved her long neck to peer at the faces of the villagers one by one as they crouched on one knee beneath the rock.

Then, with a basari, she beat the great wings on her back once and settled herself, and Okachan spoke to the villagers through 【Telepathy】.

<<<Human-sans, good morniing! It's Oka-chaan!!>>>

A surprisingly childish voice rang out in the villagers' heads.

Short!