village. You won’t be disturbed, I assure you.” He gave me a shaky smile, as his two daughters hovered outside the door looking in, wide-eyed and...fearful? “Please, follow me.”
We left the house via the back door, but on the other side of the bamboo fence, a small crowd had gathered. As we stepped through, a young woman came forward, smiling and holding a bundle of white daikon radishes. With a bow, she thrust the vegetables into my hands and stepped back before I could say anything.
“Um...thank you.” The words were barely out of my mouth when another villager approached and handed me an entire head of cabbage. Yet a third placed a trio of cucumbers atop the growing pile of vegetables; I grabbed them before they could roll off into the dirt. Both women bowed and quickly backed away, ignoring my protests.
I glanced at Okame, and found him beset by villagers, as well. A white-bearded man put a sake gourd around his neck, grinning, while an old woman, possibly his wife, thrust a reed basket of dried fish into his hands. The headman did nothing to stop or discourage this, and more food was added to the pile with smiles and bows, like they were genuinely happy to be giving away their livelihoods.
Tatsumi, I noticed, remained unmolested, probably because you could almost see the hostile aura around him, the do not touch me look in his cold purple eyes. However, when a tiny girl in a ragged kimono tottered up and lifted a slightly squashed persimmon to him, he accepted the gift with a solemn bow of his head, before the girl’s mother snatched her away with hasty apologies.
By the time we got past the crowd, Okame and I were laden with food, and I was barely able to see past my own offerings. I hoped this guesthouse wasn’t far. We followed the headman down a narrow dirt road, passing more fields and storehouses for the rice, heavy wooden buildings sitting on stilts to keep them out of the wet. Around the village, the mountains loomed into the air, black silhouettes against a sky dusted with stars. A nightbird called, a mournful cry in the darkness, crickets sang from the long grass and fireflies winked like a miniature galaxy over the fields. It should have felt peaceful out here.
So why did I feel so...exposed?
I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the villagers had disappeared.
Except for one.
The monk was back, standing like a statue at the side of the road. His black robes blended into the darkness, but his staff and wide-brimmed hat glimmered in the faint light of the moon. Beneath the hat, his face was hidden in shadow, but I could sense he was watching us, and me in particular.
I turned back, and nearly ran into Okame, as both he and the headman had stopped in the middle of the road. With a hasty “Gomen” I veered away and nearly crashed into Tatsumi, who smoothly stepped aside to avoid the collision and even caught the cucumber that tumbled free of the rest.
“As I was saying.” The headman gave me a mildly annoyed look and pointed a thick finger down the path. “You can see the guesthouse from here. Just keep following the road.”
I peered over cabbage leaves and could just make out a squat, isolated house sitting at the edge of the fields. It looked like every other village house we’d seen, with wooden walls and a pointed thatched roof. Soft orange light spilled through the window bars and the open doorway, and I could see the flicker of a fire pit through the frame. The road curved past the hut and continued down a slope until it disappeared from view.
“Everything has been prepared for you,” the headman continued, speaking to Okame and ignoring me. “The fire has been lit, and fresh bedding has been laid out. There is a stream behind the house if you need water, and a cooking pot over the fire pit, should you get hungry in the middle of the night.”
I didn’t see how that was possible; I didn’t even want to think about food until tomorrow morning. But Okame thanked the headman, who gave a somewhat brittle smile and bowed low.
“You honor us with your presence,” he said, still staring at the ground. “I hope you have enjoyed your stay in Yamatori. Oyasuminasai.”
“Good night,” I repeated, and the headman hurried away, striding back toward the village at a near jog. As his