Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Maze, Prologue

Mt. Hou!"
    - - - - -
    Sanshi ran as fast as she could. When she arrived at the nest of her birth--the bottom part of the  Shashinboku, she saw a young woman standing under the trunk of the tree. The woman was pointing down  towards her feet where there was a round hole giving off a white glow.
    Many nyosen had already gathered here, but Sanshi did not have the time to pay them any attention.
    She ran straight to that woman.
    The Shashinboku was on an enormous rock at the side of a cliff. The woman was standing right next to  a root on top of a rock covered in moss.
    Aside the woman's feet was a silver ring. On closer inspection, the ring wasn't a ring at all. It was a  snake. This silvery-white snake had two tails and a curved body. One of its tails was held in its mouth,  forming a circle.
    This snake gave off a shallow glow, as if rays of light were shining on it from the sky and a glow was  coming from the green moss under it.
    Sanshi stopped. The woman smiled beautifully and reached her right hand out towards Sanshi. The  other tail of the snake was wrapped around this hand.
    "You must be Sanshi."
    Sanshi looked at her and then at the glowing ring of the snake. The ring was about as wide as a circle  formed with one's arms, and inside, pale white shadows formed a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel there was  another round hole, and through that small hole, she could only see a very unusual sort of building, an area  that appeared to be a yard, and a round, golden shadow. However, for Sanshi, this was already enough.
    --Taiki!
    No matter what, there was no way she wouldn't recognize that golden shadow. It was Taiki!
    "You should go in. However, no matter what happens, you must not let go of my hand."
    Sanshi didn't recognize this woman, but right now, she didn't care.
    Sanshi held onto her hand, and stepped into the glowing ring. She felt cool air coming at her. At the  exit of the tunnel, white snowflakes were fluttering about, like the petals of the spirea.
    When she reached the beginning of the tunnel of white light, she suddenly felt her body become more  nimble, as she already didn't know where she was. The woman followed Sanshi tightly from behind.
    "Keep walking forward."
    Hearing the woman say this, Sanshi strode forward. She walked to the end of the tunnel and reached  her hand out.
    She could now see the scene more clearly. Cold snowflakes were flying everywhere, and a golden  shadow was floating in the dark air. This was what she saw.
    A closer look at the glimmering shadow would reveal that it was actually the silhouette of a small boy.
    However, in Sanshi's eyes, it was a fruit, the same one that she should have plucked from the white branch  ten years ago. This fruit had a shiny golden surface and was just big enough that she would be able to wrap  her hands around it.
    Sanshi did her best to reach out with her fingers, but she just wasn't able to touch that fruit. She  tightened her grip on the woman's hand and, holding the cold air open with her front paws, she reached out  even further and beckoned to the fruit. And then she saw the fruit begin to drift towards her.
    This was the moment she had been dreaming of for so long! Sanshi tightly grasped the fruit that had  drifted over to her hand. She pulled the fruit towards her and it fell into her embrace. When he neared to the  white hand, it didn't hesitate at all in grabbing hold of his wrist. Different from his cold skin, that hand made  him feel very warm.
    Originally, he had wanted to walk towards the hand because he wanted to find out how someone could  hide in the small crevice between the storehouse and the wall. However, when he got close, the view of his  surroundings suddenly changed in the blink of an eye. It was as if his pupil had been covered by a thin layer  of water, so everything that he saw became blurry, their outlines disappearing.
    After the hand took hold of his wrist, his body felt as if it drifted into the air, as a burst of energy pulled  him toward an unknown place.
    He went through a white space filled with a clear mist. He had no idea where he was, but his intuition  faintly told him that it was a gentle place.
    It was even warmer inside. Moreover, a warm breeze was blowing onto him from a place he didn't  know.
    His feet didn't feel like they were stepping on anything hard, but neither did he feel like they were  stepping on something soft. He thought that perhaps this was what walking on