(dave's POV)
***, how much family did she have? I swear I havent seen this many people in one small area since the day they decided evac half the school and stick them in the boys locker room. Trust me, close to 1,000 boys in a space about the size of the mens room, when some of them smell like they could use some deoderant, is not pretty. I watched her play with some of her little cousins. Now she had them sitting down in a semi-circle, all twenyt-three of the little kids ranging from ages three to ten, telling them a story. From what I heard from Joe, she had a natural ability to tell amazing stories from her mind when ever she needs to. Joe nudged Dave in the ribs. Some of the older kids were sitting on the swings behind her. Dave and Joe joined Brad and Rob on the slide. Soon Chester and Mike had joined the crowd.
"Now for this next part of the story I'm going to need to helpers, who wants to help?"
A bunch of little kids jumped up from the grass and raised their hand.
"Hmmm, lets see. hey, come here Daniel."
Her little blond-haired freckeled cousin jumped up.
"And Dave!"
She said as she grabbed my hand and brought me into the circle.
"And so the Big scary dragon.... that's you Dave. go ahead and act like a dragon."
feeling like a fool, I gave a roar and stomped around a little.
"The fairy prince, beat his wings flying high, and circeled around the dragon. Then raising his gleaming sword which was dripping with blood, and plunged it into the dragon's heart!"
Daniel pounced on me knocking me to the grass.
"And then the princess gave the handsome prince a kiss, rewarding him for his great work."
The kids cheered.
"Do the one about the Sun goddess and the warrior!"
They chanted as she helped me up off of the ground.
"Dave help me tell this story please?"
"ok I guess."
I said standing with her.
"Kenji wait. dosent Joe normaly help you with this one?"
an eight year old with brown hair said. She put her hand on his head and looked down on her.
"Joe's busy stuffing his face, so Dave's gonna help me with this one."
She came back over to me.
"One day a long time ago when the gods and goddesses had thought they were finished with the land, the minute they had gotten back into the clouds, they realized that they had left the goddess of the sun back in the mortal earth."
I looked from the kids to Kenji, she really had their attention.
"But, unfourtunantly, being Gods and Goddesses, they could not set foot on earth without loosing their powers. So they watched saddly from above as the little goddess of the sun, who was no older then you, Hitome, grew. Now you see durring the time she was gone, the other gods and goddesses had found a new sun goddess, Atsumoui. She held a great dislike of the young ex-goddess. Because the little girl had grown up to be the most beautiful girl in all of Edo. One day, a young samurai lord was riding through Edo, he was with his army of only five other men and the bandit demons from the north were riding and comming after them."
There was a gasp from the little kids.
"So the warrior and his five men were hid in a barn by the family that raised the little goddess. At night when no one was looking, she snuck out to the barn where she approached the lord. Bowing, she said, 'lord forgive me butI have a really good feeling.' The lord looked on her with a kind eye, thats you dave and said, 'kind girl, tell me what you know.' So the goddess told the lord what she knew. Then the day came for the six warriors to fight the evil cat demons. After doing exactly what the goddess said, they defeated all 500 of the demons. When the lord returned to the farm where he had stayed durring the night, The goddess went out to meet him, overjoied that her plan had worked. She said, 'my lord,I am yours. I will work for you, it is my parents wish.' she said as her parents that raised her nodded. 'my lady I could not bear to have someone as beautiful as you to be a servent. you have saved me and my men. join me as my bride.' With that, the two rode off into the sun set with the cherry blossems swirling and dancing."
(general POV)
"Wow Kenji, that was an amazing story."
Dave said as he sat down with her on the tree swing.
"that one is always a favorite story for me to tell when I visit."
They held hands as they swung back and forth on the swing. There was a little tug on Kenji's shirt. It was he little three year old cousin Brian.
"Yeah brian?"
"Are you and him the goddess and warrior?"
Dave and Kenji laughed.
"I dont know do you want us to be?"
"yeah!"
Brian squealed as he ran off.