Kurusu

"Father?"

"Yes, Little Cherry Tree?"

Little paws shuffled through golden grass.  The shade of the forest canopy was refreshing, dizzying.  Red eyes watched her with patience and anticipation, but she was persistent in staring off into the denser trees to their left.

"Am..... I going to become part of the Wood too?  Will I have to go to the Other and never come back?"

Red eyes softened at vulnerable words and little paws began to tremble.  He lowered to the ground and curled his form around her.  She turned to nuzzle under his chin, her favorite place since birth.

"We don't never return, Kurusu," Fubuki began after a long pause.  "We leave this place, we rest and dance in the Other, play games and rest in eternal glow....  And one day, we return.  One day we wake, in this place, in the Earth Mother's arms.  And we start again."

"Will you?"

He curled tighter around his daughter.

"For you, Little Cherry Tree, and no one else."

---

Kurusu, Goddess of Wood, Custodian of the Earth. Daughter of Fubuki, Mother of Ginkgo.

Brash, aloof, and a deadly-accurate hunter, she is also the quickest to laugh and the first to lick your wounds.  Her Altar is always abuzz with drink and dance, creatures of all kinds gathering to enjoy sanctuary.  She never leaves her wife Nori's side, and her son follows close with love apparent in his wagging tail.

Everything she knows, and everything she aspires to be, is linked to her father.  In her veins his blood runs warm, and in her bones his strength becomes her marrow.

Her heart, however, is split into four chambers within which she holds her most dearest.  One chamber for the Earth Mother, her home.  One chamber for her father, her strength.  One chamber for her wife, her temperance.  And one chamber for her son, her legacy.