East Facing West [UNDER EDITING]

A River Of Silver

I sat on the pillars of the gods, perched, reading a book.

"Anastasia! Off of that! That is the pillar of Luna."

I stood, not facing the voice behind me. "No."

"Ana, please. It's the god's shrine." A sweeter, younger voice.

I giggled, and jumped of the fourty foot tall pillar gracefully. "Of course, Mirana." I said, in answer to the voice. I turned around, facing a young girl, with slightly dark skin, and blue-black hair. Mira, the daughter of the midnight spirit. Next to her was a young man, in all white, with pale skin. The swan spirit, and the guard of the god's shrines.

"Now, Wono. Don't think a swan can tell a peacock what to do. Maybe grow some color, you really are a bland man." I said, touching his nose. He recoiled.

"Who are you talking to? A swan! Don't disgrace me, foolish girl." He said, holding my hand. I giggled.

"And this is why you are so bland. You don't understand the joy of the God's Forest. It holds many treasures someone like you would never see." I said, letting my tail fan out.

Peacock spirit. The only one of the forest, sadly. Normally, there is a male and female of each spirit, made for each other, to keep the line of that spirit going. But, I was touched with bad luck. The Goddess of misery had visited my home before I was born.

I was born by two Peacock spirits, but they died, like everyone.

Normally, there are many of each spirit, who all mate, and have one child, and then they die. And so on, and so on. Each spirit lives for around a thousand years.

But, somehow, all peacock spirits were killed. No one knows how.

But my parents survived.

Moso stared at my tail, feathered and wide. I was supposed to be a male spirit, as I was told, but ended up a girl, so I had the many feathers of a male.

"That's so unproper! Tails stay up." He said, crossing his arms.

I laughed, and walked by. I looked to Mirana, surrounded by a could of darkness.

"Hello, Anastasia. Mother is still hiding inside of her pillar, accepting gifts. She can get greedy."

The pillars are places where the souls of gods can be stored, while their body sits Otherwhere, the space between the pillar's world and ours.

I stared at Mira. "What are you doing here, then? A goddess' daughter should be on her throne, on the Raining Mountain."

That was where all the god's lived. It is the largest mountain, as it can stretch to the Otherwhere, where nothing exists.

She smiled, and darkness consumed her. Seconds later, the smoke-like puff opened to reveal nothing.

"So she did take my words to heart." I said.

I folded my tail to my back, and walked into a thicket of trees. I was standing at the Shrines, so there were no trees, unlike the rest of the forest.

The forest spanned the entire world, but on another level. See, the world is divided into three or four layers.

Layer one is Earth, where all humans and animals dwell.

Layer two is the Forest of the Gods, or Forest of Arden. 

Layer three, if it is actually a layer, is Otherwhere.

And the last is Raining Mountain and the Shrine world.

Lower spirits like me were only allowed on one and two, but someone like Mira was allowed on all layers.

I walked down towards a river, stopping im-between the trees, making sure no one was there.

After seeing no one, I walked to the bank, the river shining white.

I kneeled down and stared at my reflection.

I saw a pale, slightly blue-toned girl, with thick, white stripes around her eye, brown eyes, and a group of blue tufts on her head, like a peacock. She had dark black hair, which was very blue, and pulled into a braid on the side of her shoulder. She had a simple, grey dress, the same as all the animal spirits, and her tail tucked down.

Anastasia Black. That was who was in the river.

A flash of red and white, in the corner of my eye. I looked up.

Going into the trees was a large fox tail.

"A fox spirit? I haven't seen one before. Makes sense though..." I said, scooping up the water and splashing it to my face.

A small noise came from behind me. Like a baby animal.

I turned around.

A blue eyed baby fox.

He squeaked.

From behind him, a fox spirit appeared from around the trees.

That fox spirit.

He had ice blue eyes, warm skin, and red hair. He grabbed the baby, and stared at me.

Does he know what spirit I am? Maybe not... I thought.

I opened up my tail, and saw him glance over.

I curtsied. I don't know why. 

He smiled, and ran into the trees.

"What....was that?" I mumbled.

I smiled. "I don't know. But that was beautiful."

Who? My conscious said.

"Him."