Major Tags: Tags Omitted. Other Tags: None Word Count: 413 words
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Legend spoke of a mountain god and his winged guardian who lived upon the highest slopes of Mt. Fuji. The mountain god moved silently through the trees, leaving no footprints behind on the crisp snow and appearing only to those whom he deemed worthy. His guardian, the winged boy with the wide eyes, sped laughingly through the roads and granted good fortune and safe journeys home to any whose paths he crossed.
Maidens prayed to the mountain god for even a whisper of his unearthly beauty and when he appeared to them, they would wander about their village, awe-struck and adoring, helpless to speak of anything except the shine of his eyes and the gleam of his hair. They made offerings of brand new hair ribbons and headbands, kisses pressed to cold snow and orange peel carefully cut into the shape of hearts. They write their prayers in their best calligraphy, etching the short pleas onto cards that they tie to trees deep in the heart of the forest. The further into the forest they go, the more likely the mountain god will be to heed their prayers, or so the legend goes.
The mountain god is mysterious but reliable. The winged guardian, however, is a more fickle creature.
Often, he appears to souls in great pain. Men who have broken their legs and are freezing to death in the cold swear that the winged guardian came to them and blew the wind away from them. Pregnant women with no family to help them would walk into the forest and set their birthing sheets up there, praying to the winged guardian for a speedy delivery and their babe’s life. They claim that to give birth in the forest makes labor far swifter and less painful than in the village.
Sickly children who they believe will not survive to adulthood or who are draining the family resources beyond bearing are often sent into the forest to find the winged guardian. Perhaps they do. Perhaps they die. All that is known is that the children do not return.
The villagers call those children ‘offerings’ instead of ‘sacrifices’ and tell themselves that the winged guardian likes to guard children.
Over time, the mountain god and winged guardian are accepted as national folklore and their tales are written in academic texts of the history of Japanese mythology.
(They call them gods, not ghosts, and do not remember the two cyclists who died in an early autumn avalanche.)
FILL: TEAM PRINCE OF TENNIS, T
Other Tags: None
Word Count: 413 words
***
Legend spoke of a mountain god and his winged guardian who lived upon the highest slopes of Mt. Fuji. The mountain god moved silently through the trees, leaving no footprints behind on the crisp snow and appearing only to those whom he deemed worthy. His guardian, the winged boy with the wide eyes, sped laughingly through the roads and granted good fortune and safe journeys home to any whose paths he crossed.
Maidens prayed to the mountain god for even a whisper of his unearthly beauty and when he appeared to them, they would wander about their village, awe-struck and adoring, helpless to speak of anything except the shine of his eyes and the gleam of his hair. They made offerings of brand new hair ribbons and headbands, kisses pressed to cold snow and orange peel carefully cut into the shape of hearts. They write their prayers in their best calligraphy, etching the short pleas onto cards that they tie to trees deep in the heart of the forest. The further into the forest they go, the more likely the mountain god will be to heed their prayers, or so the legend goes.
The mountain god is mysterious but reliable. The winged guardian, however, is a more fickle creature.
Often, he appears to souls in great pain. Men who have broken their legs and are freezing to death in the cold swear that the winged guardian came to them and blew the wind away from them. Pregnant women with no family to help them would walk into the forest and set their birthing sheets up there, praying to the winged guardian for a speedy delivery and their babe’s life. They claim that to give birth in the forest makes labor far swifter and less painful than in the village.
Sickly children who they believe will not survive to adulthood or who are draining the family resources beyond bearing are often sent into the forest to find the winged guardian. Perhaps they do. Perhaps they die. All that is known is that the children do not return.
The villagers call those children ‘offerings’ instead of ‘sacrifices’ and tell themselves that the winged guardian likes to guard children.
Over time, the mountain god and winged guardian are accepted as national folklore and their tales are written in academic texts of the history of Japanese mythology.
(They call them gods, not ghosts, and do not remember the two cyclists who died in an early autumn avalanche.)