Am I awake? I think I must be because I feel something poking me in the back of my left thigh. I stretch my arms and legs. It feels as though I have been asleep for ages, and not the good kind of sleep. Still, I am awake now and it feels good to move. I take a deep breath, filling my lungs. All seems to be in working order. That's good. Okay, now for the real test, I slowly open my eyes.

Odd, I appear to be in the woods, and not my temple. Looking from side to side, I confirm it. Definitely the woods. I move my hand under my thigh and move the branch that was poking me in the leg. That explains that then, but it doesn't explain why I am in the woods. Okay, one thing at a time then.

I push up to a sitting position and look around. There are trees, but not too far away, on the right, I see what I can only assume is a path. There are vehicles on it and they are traveling very quickly. Far too quickly.

In front of me, I see buildings that look incredibly large. They look larger than the palaces I remember. They appear to have at least four levels and they do not appear to be open to the elements. None of this looks even vaguely familiar.

Almost afraid, I turn my gaze to the right. Finally, I see something I recognize, my altar stone. Resting right in the center is a piece of something round, and brightly colored. It is red. Red was my primary color.

It was all starting to come back to me.
[hr]My name is Min. I am a hero. When I was alive, I spent some time in the army while most remained in the village as farmers. An invading group of bandits thought to come into town and plunder what little we had, and I dissuaded them, though at the cost of my own life. Even in my shrine's prime, I was never very popular. This was my only shrine, and as time passed the stories were no longer passed down, and the villagers started to forget. During a great sickness which swept the land, my offerings decreased, then disappeared altogether, as did I.

That begs the question of how I am back. I felt myself fading. I look around now and I see that everything has changed. How did I come back? Maybe it has something to do with the offering on my altar. I look more closely. I notice that my altar has been cleaned, or at least the dirt and leaves were brushed off, and a napkin was put down. The offering is small and quite red. It appears to be oval. It is not a berry, or anything natural. No berry was ever that perfect. It has a marking on the top that I do not recognize. Interesting. Well, if it's on my altar, and I am here, it must be an offering. I pick it up and smell it. It smells sort of like fruit, and food was the primary offering for me, so I put it in my mouth.

Flavor exploded in my mouth. This was incredibly sweet! It was almost overwhelming! The flavor was sweet, a bit sour, and maybe even slightly acidic. It did not taste like anything I had tasted before, and yet it was incredible. I savored it as it melted slowly in my mouth. The hard texture suddenly changed to something a bit more soft, and smooth. It invited me to play with it with my tongue. I slowly teased it into different shapes and allowed it to spread through my mouth, coating it in flavor. Eventually, it dissolved completely and was gone.

Now that was a delicacy! Where did it come from? No wonder it brought me back to being. An offering like that would supercharge anyone. Who had left it though? Whoever it was hadn't waited around to be thanked. Would they come again, or would it be my fate to once again fade to oblivion? It looked as though it was a deliberate offering. I guess I would just have to hope that they would return.
[hr]I waited all that day and that night. Waiting isn't tough for a shrine hero. I mean, we live forever. And yes I mean it, even though I don't remember things for a while, you notice I'm here now! I spent the time looking around. I didn't go so far that I wouldn't see someone approach my altar, but I wanted to check out the neighborhood. Things have definitely changed!

I went to the path first. There were these metal vehicles moving incredibly quickly along what I conclude is a path. It appears to have the same basic function as a path; however, it is much wider and there are lines which the vehicles appear to set up areas each must stay within. I did see people inside the vehicles and sometimes dogs as well. Simply fascinating. Along each edge, another path appears to be just for those who are walking instead of in vehicles. Given the speed of the vehicles, this makes sense.

I spent some time in this area and listened to the passers-by speaking. It took me a little to adapt to the linguistic changes. Some words were completely new. I can see I have a lot to learn.

As the sun started to set, lights came on along the paths and I saw that the vehicles also had lights. I had expected the traffic to die down but it seemed to get heavier. As the night wore on, it did eventually slow, but it never stopped entirely. And still, no one came to attend my shrine. 

The night wore on and eventually, the sun made his appearance in the sky once again. Dawn was a good time for shrine offerings. Maybe my devotee would arrive soon. Once again time passed. I was getting a bit bored and I could see traffic, both the vehicles, and the pedestrians, picking up again. I was about to go explore again when I saw a small child tromping through the woods in my direction. I decided not to make myself visible so as not to scare it. 

It came closer and made its way to the altar. I was unsure of its gender as the clothing and hairstyles were both odd to me. The hair was cut short, to just below the chin. It wore what looked to be a shirt and possibly a skirt, but the skirt was far too short. I could see its tights and shoes! Not that this was much different than the people I had seen on the walking pathways, but still.

The child approached the altar. It sat down. On my altar! How rude! It started talking and straightening the napkin. It, and I think from the voice it is a she, she said, "Good morning. Did you like your skittle? I wasn't sure if it was okay to leave that. Mommy says you should only leave the highest quality offerings at a shrine. I know it wasn't a fancy cake, but it was the best I had to offer. I have another one, a different flavor for today." She put down a green oval that looked like yesterday's but was green in color. My mouth started watering. "It seems like no one has come here in a long time, and mommy says we should show respect, so I did my best to clean up and stuff. I like it here. It's quiet and no one is yelling or bullying. I wish I could stay here instead of going to school. I guess I'd better go though. Soon they will be taking attendance and I don't want to get in trouble. See you tomorrow, honored one!" she said and turned and trotted off.

I was torn. I really wanted to try that, what did she call it? A skittle? At the same time, I needed to learn more about my new priestess and how she was spending her day. In the end, I followed here. I could aways come back for the treat since I could always find my altar, but if I let her leave, I wouldn't know where she had gotten off to at all. 

We wound our way back to the pathway for walking. She wasn't running but she was moving with purpose. Shortly I began to see other children her size moving along the same walkway and they they turned into a courtyard in front of a large building. She greeted a few others as she entered and joined them as they headed into the building. Since none could see me if I didn't want the to, I continued to keep my eye on her. She was apparently learning to fit into society. This was great! I could pick up knowledge about the time, and learn the new dialect as she was being taught! 

I learned that I was attending classes with her and I learned a great deal about the modern world just from observing. Later in the day they were allowed outside for lunch. She found her group of friends and they sat under a tree. About five minutes later, three bigger children approached. Rather than being respectful and acting as senpai, these children demanded the treats from their younger classmates. Voilence seemed to fill the air and the younger children gave up their treats with downcast eyes. My girl handed over her skittles, and was grabbed by the arm and asked why the bag was open and was told to not make that mistake again tomorrow. 

That was this older child's mistake. My girl, my High Priestess, had opened those skittles for me! How dare that speak to her that way, and how dare they touch her! I reached out and took them back, handed them to her, then turned to the older child, and gave them a shove. I had forgotten that they could not see me. The older child appeared to assume that the my High Priestess had done the shoving and they started to come back at her! I had to stop this. 

I allowed myself to become visible and stood between my High Priestess and the thug. "Leave her be!" I thundered. The older child stopped, shivered, looked at my High Priestess, and said, "You're not worth my time." and left. 

She looked at me with wide eyes, and turned to her friends. They all seemed shocked. I allowed myself to fade again and took up watch on her for the rest of the day. When school let out, I followed her. She returned to my shrine. She took an orange skittle and carefully put in on my altar next to the green one.                           
"Thank you," she said bowing three times. I allowed myself to appear. 

"You are most welcome, my Priestess." 

She giggled. "I'm not a priestess!" she said. 

"You have cleaned my altar, and left me offerings. You are my High Priestess." I said decisively.

"Are you sure? I'm just a little girl. Don't you want someone bigger?"

"I want a Priestess who cares for me and brings me skittles." I said.

She started giggling again. "I guess I can do that."

"Wonderful! In exchange I will watch over you and keep those bigger kids from picking on you anymore."

"You won't hurt them, will you?"

"Of course not. I do not hurt children. I will just make sure they do not hurt you."

"Or my friends?"

"Or your friends, my High Priestess."

"Okay. If they give you treats will they be able to see you too?"

It turns out that when I thought I had shown myself, only she had seen me. We agreed to give it a shot and she had her friends come to my altar and leave me offerings. And yep, they could see me after that. 

And that is how I came to protect Rose and her fellow kindergarteners, my worshipers.