"What is it, Taiga?"
His parents have stopped their horses in the middle of the road, looking back at him and waiting. Taiga hesitates and signals his own pony to move again. It's been a long day of traveling and her gait is lazy. Taiga likes to see his grandparents from his mother’s side, but it would be nice if they lived closer to his home.
"There's a storm coming," he says when he reaches them.
His parents look up at the sky, then at each other, and Taiga squirms in his saddle. He knows what it sounds like. The sky is bright blue and the late afternoon sun warms their faces from the western sky. Sure, the air has been hot and heavy for days and there isn’t even a hint of wind to dry their sweaty faces, but nothing indicates a storm coming anytime soon.
"I know it is," he insists.
"Darling-" his mother starts, but his father frowns.
"What makes you think so?"
Taiga swallows, fiddling with the reins. "I feel it."
They don't believe him. It's clear on their gently troubled expressions. They think it's one of his weird things again, like the way he sees people’s colors - not their skin, but by their nature. His father, for example, is dark crimson with shades of purple in it; vibrantly elegant and sensitive. It looks good together with his mother's clear, grayish blue. She's colored like ice, strong and brittle at the same time, depending on the situation.
Outward, Taiga knows he looks more like his mother, but his own color is closer to his father's. His red is lighter though, not so deep. Not yet, he likes to add.
Taiga was probably seven or eight years old when it dawned to him that nobody else saw the colors like he did. At first his parents found him talking about it sweet and played along, but as years passed, at some point it stopped being funny to them. Eventually they told him to be a big boy and stop talking nonsense. Not in such harsh words of course, but he understood the underlying message.
And then this other thing. He's sometimes felt storms approaching before, but not this strongly, and not this far ahead. Usually it's clear to everyone else as well by the time he catches it. That has always been easier to explain, too. There are plenty of old ladies in the Midorigawa Village who claim to feel upcoming storms in their joints.
"Can we ride a bit faster?" he asks, trying to change the topic, "I just want to get home."
"Alright, darling," his mother says and smiles. "I get it. I'm tired and hungry, too."
"Yeah," Taiga says, smiling back at her, though doesn't feel like smiling at all. They are close to home already, but they won't make it before the storm. He knows they won’t.
If he wasn’t so exhausted, he would feel victorious an hour later when a dark, billowing veil of clouds suddenly covers the sky. He shivers, grimacing at the sight. He isn't afraid of the storm, but he doesn't want to get wet and cold. And the looks on his parents' faces when they realize a storm really is coming upon them - they're incredulous, unsettled. Afraid.
His parents are unsettled because of him, for what he feels and sees. And that in turn unsettles him.
Big wet drops of water fall on Taiga's hands and leave dark spots on the fabric of his sleeves. The rain gets heavier by the moment and they all cheer their steeds to gallop, even though it's no use: they get soaked right away. At the same time It's getting darker yet, like new layers of clouds were gathering above the former ones. The first rumbles of thunder are far behind them, but quickly approaching.
Soon, the rain is so dense it’s hard to see ahead, and the streams of rainwater make the road muddy. They are only about half an hour’s ride from home when Taiga’s mother's horse stumbles in the steeply sloping road. For a moment it looks bad, until the mare finds its footing again.
"It's too dangerous to gallop downhill like this, " Taiga’s mother gasps when she's in control again. "It’s slippery and the horses are too tired! Someone could get hurt."
"Let's stop at the shrine," his father yells back. "They'll let us stay until the storm passes."
The shrine is located on a mountainside northeast from Midorigawa. Taiga has visited the shrine several times for annual events such as new year and other festivals, but he's never stayed overnight. There are three old priests working for the shrine who also live in one of the buildings. Taiga has never talked with them as they're usually performing ceremonies whenever he visits, but they have always seemed friendly enough to him.
The road is steep but well-kept, and the horses tough it out despite the rain. The first lightning strikes at the same moment they arrive at the shrine, and the flooding yard looks more like a pond in the short flash of light. Taiga and his parents dismount their horses, a booming thunder following them.
"Come in, quickly," someone cries out to them, and Taiga's skin raises on goose bumps when he spots an old man holding a lantern at the porch of the priests’ living quarters. How did he know they were coming?
"We can't leave the horses out!" Taiga screams through the roar of the rain when his parents start to tie the reins to a pole under the eave of the roof. "The storm will get worse still!"
"They'll be just fine under here," his father tries to reason, but another priest has already rushed across the yard to show them way towards an old stable behind the main buildings. There are no animals now, and even in a lantern’s light it's obviously been a while since there were any. But it's dry and safe, and Taiga is satisfied.
The lightings strike more frequently, and the thunders follow sooner and sooner after the flashes.
Inside, the three friendly priests seem to have had their dinner disturbed by Taiga's family arriving, as Taiga and his parents are promptly given dry clothes and sat around a low square table where an evening meal is clearly halfway through already. The room is only lit up with a couple oil lanterns, but it is quite warm and cozy despite the storm raging outside.
"We are very sorry to intrude so suddenly," Taiga's father says, following with a deep bow. Taiga and his mother repeat the gesture, but the three old men smile warmly and dismiss the thanks by waving their hands.
"Do not worry about that, Lord Kyomoto. I believe the last time this shrine was renewed, it was mostly done with your generous contribution."
Taiga’s father tilts his head shortly to the side but he says nothing. Taiga grins behind his back. He's proud of his father who, despite being the richest person in Midorigawa, has always been open-handed like that. One of the priests notices Taiga's smile and winks an eye, mimicking with his hands that Taiga should eat more without hesitating.
Lightings flash outside as they all eat, eerily visible through the thin-papered sliding doors. Thunders following even closer until the loud, booming noises follow the flashes so soon, it's impossible to tell which sound belongs to which lightning.
The adults are worried, Taiga can see that, but for some reason he himself feels fascination rather than fright. He'd love to go to the porch and watch the storm, but his mother would never let him.
An especially bright light flashes, and suddenly Taiga hears the horses neighing in the old stable. They are scared, and their need makes Taiga leap to his feet.
"I'll go to the horses," he says and dashes out. Someone yells after him but he won't stop. His sandals are wet when he slips them on, and he's going to get the borrowed clothes soaked, but he must see that his pony and his parents’ horses are alright.
He he opens the sliding door just enough to get through it and leaps across the wooden porch to the flooding yard. Clear, sharp lightnings flash across the sky in a way he has never seen before. He stops in the middle of the yard-size puddle of water, staring at the sky with wide eyes. It should scare him. The sensible part of his mind tells he should rush to the safety of the stable. But he can't.
His skin raises in goose bumps again, though not from the cold. The ends of his hair tickle his cheeks like they sometimes do in winter when frost makes them static. He feels weird tension both in the air and in himself, like the moment before a sneeze.
A lightning strikes a tall tree near the gates of the shrine. The bright flash, reflected by the water, illuminates the whole yard like daylight. A long, deafening crackle of thunder follows, but Taiga barely notices it.
The water on the ground sparks with static. His hands spark with it. The veins in his hands and arms shine blueish-purple, like small, thin lightnings under his skin. His heartbeat aligns itself with the thunder, loud and strong. He feels charged somehow. Energetic. Powerful, even. It feels so good, he laughs aloud, and his hands spark brighter.
A pitch black darkness falls on him. The sparks disappear, and for a moment there is only a loud ringing in his ears. A cold touch of worry trickles into his mind. Did he die? Is this how it feels like? Only when his eyes start to get used to the lesser amount of light again he realizes it's dark because the lightnings are not flashing anymore.
The roar of the rain reaches his ears again, at the same time with the screams of his parents. They grab him into their arms, the water splashing all around them when their knees hit the ground. Taiga blinks. When did he sit down?
It's hard to follow the events after that.
His parents carry him inside. He gets dry clothes (again) and food (again). There is nothing wrong with him, but somehow he doesn't feel like talking despite his parents’ fussing around him. He sits by the table wrapped into a blanket and mechanically pokes at the meal he left unfinished. Was it really just a moment ago? It somehow feels like hours had passed.
The three priests keep giving him long looks, like they see through him somehow. He isn’t so sure he likes that.
Things are said around him that he doesn't quite understand the point of. Did he really survive a lightning strike, even an undirect one? Could they all have been hallucinating? No, the priests seem quite sure it was real. Yes, he is twelve years old. Why does it matter? Yes, he knew the storm would rise hours before any sign of it, and yes, there are other strange things about him, too. How do they know to ask about it? He should have a good night's sleep now and go home tomorrow, but he should come right back the next day. Why, though? What do they mean by it being for his own good?
And what exactly is a Guardian?