Help Wanted

I was now the acting Guardian of the village. Without Moonlight Guardian it seemed empty, almost like everyone else was a generic NPC just occupying space. That wasn't how it felt before, so I assumed some form of depression had overtaken me. It was rather pathetic; I needed to revisit my other relationships. It wasn't like the world had left me abandoned.

Now that I was only accountable to myself, there was no reason I couldn't justify spending more time with my immediate family. And a good old-fashioned one-hour union lunch break was more than justifiable—it was a union of one. All members in favor say "aye."

That was how I got into the habit of eating lunch back home, and it did much to help my spirits. That's not to say that it wasn't painfully obvious that I was still bummed out. My mother was understanding. Father, not as much.

"Really Indigo, she will be back in a year or so. The way you are going on, you would have thought she died." Leave it to Father to be a beacon of sympathy.

I also made it my mission to make sure my sister wasn't getting bullied. It wasn't just out of a sense of familial obligation, but also a way of building my relationship with Dusk. I had been neglecting this connection for pretty much her entire life. Partially because I was so far removed from childhood—even when I was in the Kite's Klub (TM Pending) I could hardly relate. The other part was because I tended to get caught up in my own things pretty readily. Well, it was time to remedy this shortsightedness and step to the plate as a big brother.

Observing the Kite's Klub's (TM Pending) social dynamics, it was evident that Dusk's situation hadn't improved much. Yes, she was mostly sticking with her friends, but they were on the younger end, and Pine didn't seem that deterred by their presence. Unfortunately, they were not well equipped to handle more sophisticated taunts from the older children. They even managed to drive one of her friends away. I hadn't considered that possibility.

I didn't want to chase them off, but I felt a little bit of indirect intimidation might be just what the doctor ordered. It worked out nicely too. I had already decided I needed to spend more time with her, and if during that time I just flexed my fox magic muscles a bit, it might give them pause.

"Hey Dusk," I called out to her from a distance while juggling several 60lb stones, while she was being accosted by Pine and co. "Your big brother is here to hang out with you." I strolled right up to her, completely ignoring the delinquents, swinging the stone around carelessly. Pine had to move to avoid taking a rock to the face. She took the hint and left. "Are these your friends?"

Dusk was a little shaken up but was recovering. "Yes, this is Raindrop." She pointed to the person on her left. "And this is Red." She gestured to her right.

"Pleasure to meet you Raindrop and Red." I made a courteous nod of the head. Raindrop was blue with a deeper shade of blue locks. He had a tired look to him. Red was... well, red. She had her pink hair pulled into many spiky ponytails. I wonder if this was where Dusk got the idea. It looked like she wanted to tie it back, but her hair wasn't long enough so she just tied it in a series of short bundles instead.

"Umm... Why are you moving those stones?" Raindrop said. He seemed the more inquisitive type.

"For fun." The mystic lake was only a short distance away, so I skipped one of the stones across the lake, clearing about 10 meters of earth to reach it; it skipped seven times.

"Ahh..." His mouth fell open.

"So you are Dusk's brother?" Red spoke up this time with a hand on her hip.

"Y-Yes..." I stammered feeling as if I was being accused of something.

"She said you said that she should stick with me so Pine wouldn't bother her." Now it definitely sounded like an accusation.

"Thank you for taking care of my sister." I made a more gracious bow this time.

"Sorry..." She scratched at a spot on her head that wasn't covered in a spiky bushel. "I couldn’t get Pine to go away." She seemed fairly mature.

"How old are you Red?"

"Me? I'm 6."

"I'm 4," Raindrop added.

"Thank you both. If you ever need anything, feel free to ask me."

"Oh. Then in that case, could you beat up Pine and her friends?" Red brazenly asked.

"Eck..." There was a broken smile on my face. "Umm... Lilac Governess would be very angry if I did that..."

"Mmm..." She looked away, disappointed.

I felt like I had failed them, but then I had an idea. "Red, you can use fox magic can't you?"

Her frown readily melted away and was replaced with a smug grin while she crossed her arms and puffed out her chest. "I could control my fox magic since I first turned 5."

"Is Pine a neat girl?" It seemed like Pine was kind of preppy to me.

"Oh yes. She is always trying to be as neat as possible." Red assured.

"Okay, so here is all you need to do, next time she bothers you. Just take a little dirt and flick it at her."

Her eyes widened as she tilted her head. "Flick dirt at her? How?"

"Like this." Using fox magic, I slung a bit of the soil underfoot into a spray of brown powder. "It will get her dirty and she won't like it."

"But then she will just go to Lilac Governess," Raindrop interjected.

"She can't because she is in the wrong. If she does, then she will get in trouble too." Not that getting into trouble with Lilac Governess amounted to much in any case.

"But won't Pine just throw dirt at us?" Dusk asked, with a finger to her mouth.

"You aren't afraid of a little dirt, are you?" She shook her head. "If she does that, just look at her like you are doing right now." If Pine really is the neat freak that I assume that she is, she probably won't retaliate in such a way, but even if she did, it's an attack that really only works if you want to stay clean. Red didn't strike me as the clean type, and Dusk and Raindrop were still too young to care.

Red was nodding her head. "Yes, we'll try that next time." She was still wearing that smug look. I got the impression that she was kind of a troublemaker. Reminded me of River Hunter.

I began to make a habit of dropping in on the three of them almost daily. Dusk informed me that Red had done that trick I taught her, and Pine had lost her shit. Red was rubbing her finger against her upper lip with a grin.

I showed them the new way I had learned to employ fox magic: flame thrower, cutting up fruit into several equal pieces, they especially liked the wraith blade. When they discovered I could change its shape, they made all kinds of requests, from a dinner bowl to Pine making weird faces. Some of their requests became very difficult as time progressed, like asking me to make a miniature tree complete with all the individual leaves—that one was beyond me.

_______________________________________________________________

I will say, between eating lunch back home and spending time with Dusk and her friends my melancholy mostly lifted, though the days still seemed empty. Now that Moonlight Guardian was absent, I had nothing to work on. I've always liked to have a project to be engaged in, and now for the first time, I was without a goal.

That was why, while checking in at the shrine of the God of Clear Skies and suddenly remembering Dawn's request, I paused and gave it serious consideration. It was true, I didn't consider myself much of a matchmaker—though somehow I had gotten Mesa and Morning-Sun Hunter together—but there was already a connection between Hailstone Priest and Lilac Governess—I assumed. Dawn had supposedly verified it on Hailstone Priest's end—don't ask me how she did that—and shared my suspicions that Lilac Governess felt the same way. If such was the case, it should be fairly easy. Just needed to get one of them to initiate the courtship.

First thing, I would confront Hailstone Priest. He kept a water skin up here to hydrate himself. He seemed to take a drink from it quite often, perhaps because the constant winds were dehydrating. As I saw him walking to the skin and had an idea. I waited for the right moment to ask him.

He lifted the skin and took a mouth full of water. "Hailstone Priest, you like Lilac Governess, don't you?" Water came spraying out of his mouth and he started coughing. I couldn't stop myself from laughing hysterically, mostly because it had gone exactly how I envisioned it.

"W-What makes you think that??" His posture slumped as he coughed a few more times.

"Because you do, right?"

"Well..." He turned away, which was very much unlike him. This couldn't have been more of a confession.

"You know she is interested in you too." I wasn't 100% on that, but Dawn seemed to think so, and I felt she had a good eye for such things.

He crossed his arms. "I don't know..." Hailstone Priest was usually outgoing and gregarious, for him to be so withdrawn with this subject...

"Isn't she here every week?"

"She is pious."

"I'm sure she is." She was the one who started the whole God of Clear Skies' Chosen thing. "But enough to drag a bunch of rambunctious kids up here weekly?" I was also sure, I had seen her up here unaccompanied—don't ask me how she managed to get away from the children.

"..." Got'em!

"Also, who else comes here weekly?"

"Well, you, Moonlight Guardian, and..." He searched for more names to add to that list.

"You mean people who are obligated to by duty." More silence from Hailstone Priest. "Lilac Governess has no such duty." Checkmate. I grinned to myself—that's another argument win under my belt.

"You might have a point..."

"So just go ask her out... or whatever adults do when interested in someone." I realized I had no idea how this worked in this society, but it was probably something close to asking someone out.

"I don't know..." He was still hesitant.

"Come on, if you don't make your move you might live to regret it..." A sudden realization hit me. I was sounding just like Ripley. How many years had it been since he last said that to me? 9 by my count. In fact, it had been the last thing he said to me or some semblance of it. Did I mess up back then?

No, he was just asking me to roll the dice, it was a sure thing with Hailstone Priest!

"Yes... But when would I find the time?" Hailstone Priest countered.

"What, are you always here?"

"Well, not always..."

"Then go visit her when you are off duty." As with all simple problems, there was a simple solution.

"Still, It wouldn't be fair. We could scarcely meet each other." He had regained some of his posture and was standing straight again.

"Now you are just making excuses."

"The shrine needs tending to." I rolled my eyes.

"Well then, just go find an apprentice or someone to help."

"If the God of Clear Skies means for me to find an apprentice, he will send an apprentice, it's not something that one facilitates." He regained his full regality. "It is a calling."

"So if you were to get an apprentice, then you would call on Lilac Governess?" I asked wearily.

"...If such were to happen, then yes." After much haggling, all I needed to do was find an apprentice for Hailstone Priest. Despite the bother of having to undertake this mission, I at least had the satisfaction of having found my project.

And so began my quest to find a Priest. It would turn out to be an arduous task. When I had first decided to recruit one, it seemed like a simple errand. But now, I wasn't sure why I was so sanguin. It wasn't like I was associated with this line of work, though I supposed it might fall under Elder business. Still, if I was going to do this, I needed to have some form of credentials.

As much as it pained me, it looked like I had no choice but to invoke my status as "the God of Clear Skies' Chosen." At first, my plan was just to put the word out to people as I made my rounds, almost like a Yutsuukitsuu version of a help-wanted ad. And while nearly everyone agreed—we did need more Priests—none of them were interested themselves. Of course, my plan had a fatal flaw, these people already had roles by and large. What I needed was a "not child."

There were probably around 35 "not children" in the village. Unfortunately, fewer than 10 of them were what you would call "free agents" or "not children" without apprenticeships. So if I was going to recruit a Priest, it would have to be from their ranks.

The problem with this was how do you recruit a "not child?" It felt like a direct approach was not a viable option. The best way would be to have some kind of promo, where you made the role look awesome. But there were a couple problems with this. First, there wasn’t any media; the best I could do would be to tell a story, and I didn't consider myself much of a bard. Second, from what I've seen, being a Priest was probably one of the least awesome roles. In fact, you might go as far as to say it wasn't awesome at all. Hailstone Priest just stood up there all day at the shrine and... prayed? Polished the shrines? Unless you liked to meditate all day, it seemed like an incredibly boring profession. Thinking about it, why did we even need a Priest in the first place? He was highly respected, so I assumed there must be a reason. As an Elder apprentice, you would think I would know.

I decided to take a more conservative approach to recruiting. I would subtly bring up the topic and gauge the "not children's" feelings on the matter. Then I might try and sow the seeds of interest... Somehow.

"Hey, do you ever hang out at the shrine of the God of Clear Skies?" I asked a "not child" I had known while still in the Kite's Klub (TM Pending).

"No, not really," he said as he threw a small stone off the platform and pulled it back with fox magic. He had a pretty good range for a "not child."

"Really? There is a pretty good view from up there. Great… Umm… Stone throwing platform." This was my first attempt to begin sewing the seeds of interest.

"Yeah, but it's a lot of work to get up there; it's not worth it." He continued pelting the stone.

"You have a point. I wonder what Hailstone Priest thinks about making that climb every day?" He shrugged. "Well, I guess that is one of the reasons he is well respected." I might have been reaching a little with that comment.

"You go up there every day. Are you well respected?" This was a more thoughtful question than I would have expected.

"Well actually..." I was about to say yes—what with me being considered the God of Clear Skies' Chosen—but then reconsidered. Not only because I didn't want to sound arrogant, but also because I didn't need to give any credence to that moniker. "Climbing those steps every day gives me respect for the Priests that need to make that climb." I decided to turn the conversation back to glorifying the role.

"Yeah, I guess so." He couldn't have sounded less interested in this conversation. Perhaps I should have taken the hint, but I decided to go for broke. "You know, Hailstone Priest is looking for an apprentice. Ever considered that line of work?" His stone escaped his fox magic and tumbled into the forest. He craned his neck and looked at me like my head had become a lemon.

My recruiting efforts with the rest of the "not children" didn’t go any better. Some did seem to be more sympathetic to Hailstone Priest's plight, but none had even the slightest interest in taking up the mantle. I was so desperate that I even attempted to recruit my old nemesis Dusty, who, no surprise, had yet to find an apprenticeship.

"Hey Dusty, have you ever considered becoming a Priest?" I felt the direct approach would be most effective on someone of Dusty's refinement.

"Why would I want to become a Priest?" He asked. Whenever he asked a question it was always a serious inquiry.

"Because it's awesome!" Awesome is in the eye of the beholder.

"Why?"

"Well... you get to wear..."

Dust cut in, "You can fly, right Indigo?" He did have a short attention span, however.

"Umm... Yes..." Dust reached out and attempted to push me off the platform.

(Simple Redirect)

Well, at least he had the courtesy to make sure I wouldn't fall to my death.

Having expended all my other options, it was time to consult my betters, and by betters, I meant a man who wore a mask with eyebrows and a goatee.

"Priest is an interesting role, one usually feels called to it, rather than choosing it," the Elder said over tea. Hailstone Priest had said the same thing. "Most find a role that interests them in their ‘not child’ cycles. For Priests, it's more like the role is interested in them, and who can refuse when divinity calls?" He took a sip.

"Okay, so what makes people feel called?" Perhaps there was some way I could facilitate it.

Snowcap Elder shrugged. "The voice of the Deity I would suspect." Great, I'll just dial up the God of Clear Skies and ask him to do me a solid.

"Is that the only way it happens?" Come on, give me something!

"Well, I've also heard that harrowing events can inspire people to it as well."

"Like almost dying?"

"Yes, that kind of thing." He took another sip. So if I can find someone who almost died, or better yet, save someone about to die, then perhaps in that moment I could convince them to join the Priesthood! Now I just needed to find someone on the brink of death...

Fortunately, as a Guardian trainee, I was perfectly positioned to play the hero. Unfortunately, I couldn't just construct a near-death situation. It goes without saying that it would be amoral, and if it went wrong...

The main issue with this "coming to save the day" scenario was that it was relatively safe here: no monsters, no particularly dangerous environmental factors, no unsavory characters even. For the most part, the only thing anyone had to worry about was their own stupidity.

Months went by and I couldn't find a single person needing to be directly rescued. There were always people who tried foolhardy endeavors, like Bucket Head on one of his retrieval missions, but unfortunately, they were caught well before they could get themselves into trouble.

I even briefly contemplated letting some less reputable creatures roam about unmolested, but thought better of it; Moonlight Guardian would never forgive me. I lamented my powerlessness. It seemed the world did not need a hero...