River wanders out before one scroll is finished, but Cedar doesn’t falter as he speaks out the island’s history.

The island formed from a volcano that has long since gone still and silent deep beneath the greenery, caves lined with crystals and gems from the heat and pressure of the ore-rich island’s deposits. Master Naga, looking for a quiet place to settle away from his siblings, found a home on this island, shrouded away from the eyes of the mainland in mist. A few millennia later, a group of human fisherman came upon it, and to flee their tyrannical lord’s taxes, they took their families and stole away into the night.

They were unaware that their new home was a god’s abode, but they were not a disrespectful people, so Master Naga kept away. Over the years, the founders aged and passed and new leaders emerged. They avoided contact with the mainland and fed and clothed themselves with what they foraged on the island. The spirits didn’t mind them either, at first.

Still, over time, they forgot that they had settled there after fleeing and began seeing themselves as conquerors. They thought that the land was theirs merely because they were born on it and acted accordingly. They cut down groves of established trees when clearing a few young ones would suffice, over harvested berries and mushrooms carelessly, and stopped paying their respects to the island spirits. Naturally, the spirits took offense to this, and informed Master Naga, who was still yet to meet them.

“It was awful,” Cedar huffs, rolling the scroll closed, tying it off carefully before dropping his chin into one hand. “I was hardly a sprout, but I remember how worked up everyone was. In the end, the village didn’t change their ways even after being warned, and instead prepared a sacrifice to Master Naga like that would change anything.”

I hum thoughtfully. A sacrifice, huh? From what I know about Master Naga, unnecessary sacrifices make him most displeased.

“There is no more village,” I note.

Cedar grins, all his teeth on display and mirth crinkling violet eyes.

“No,” he agrees, twisting out of the chair and to his feet. “But I’m sure you’ll hear more about that when your teacher gets here. Or maybe not, who knows.”

He laughs, bright and careless as he dances back, eyes locked on mine until he launches himself through the waterfall.

It doesn’t crush him under its force, no doubt only because River is accustomed to his antics.

I breathe. Blink. Wait. After all, there is nothing for me to do without someone to read for me.

Mia arrives before the silence can deafen me, a floating droplet of water morphing into the stern-looking woman I've come to respect, River and Cedar trailing back in dociley behind her.

"I hear we're having a festival?"

I nod.

Striding over to the shelves, she plucks three scrolls off the walls and sits at the little table in the middle of the room, beckoning me over when I just stand there dumbly for too long. Snapping out of my daze, I sit awkwardly on the stool, keeping myself unnaturally still as I wait for her to start reading.

"I swear." She mutters, just loud enough for me to hear. "He just had to get into a pissing contest with that flaming cockatoo."

I have to swallow down a strangled laugh at the blatant blasphemy. A flaming cockatoo. I have to admit, with all his preening, it's an incredibly accurate comparison.

"Who was he?" I ask after a moment.

Mia purses her lips, pushing back a strand of hair that had fallen free from its updo. "A western interpretation of the Phoenix. A divine beast raised to divinity due to people seeking protection from wildfires and volcanic activity, similar to Naga. As they’re both raised gods rather than born ones, he sees them as in competition, and believes that he's above Naga because he has dozens of temples and hundreds of priests around this continent and the North Western one while Naga only has altars or small shrines and you.”

I bristle at that. He thinks he's better than my master because he has more workers? What a fool. Our festival will be better than his have ever been. That should get it through his head that water will always rule over fire.

"Cedar and River said we've never held a festival before." I begin softly, gazing at the faded lettering on the parchment. "How will the scrolls help us if we don't have a precedent to follow?"

She looks up at me, dark eyes widening in surprise. "Well Naga isn't the only one of his kind, and they have festivals, so we can just find the common traditions then pick and choose other parts of each festival that we like and merge them into our own."

She hums, tapping a thin finger against her chin as she spreads the parchments across the table, waving the two spirits who had been cuddled in the corner quietly over to the table.

She begins reading aloud, describing a Naga that lives far from the water — one of Master Naga’s siblings, no doubt, this one female, who receives painted clay from children and miniature statues from women who seek a fertility blessing along with offerings of milk and pastries.

The painted clay from children sounds sweet, as do the milk and pastry offerings, but I can't see Master Naga receiving prayers from women with baby-fever. The image has something warm and amused bubbling in my chest before I forcefully push it down, focusing on the next festival Cedar's reading about.

This one is a male, worshipped for bringing virility to men and praised with wrestling competitions in his honor. Snake charmers put on shows and snakes of dough are buried and at the end of the festival, curds are offered as a parting gift.

The dough seems to be a common theme so far, though they go about the festivities and the Nagas' purposes differ in that one provides fertility to women and one to men, but I don't believe either of the festivities of women offering prayers for babies or men wrestling to prove their worthiness of a blessing would fit Master Naga.

River's scroll contains a much more violent figure, rise to godhood drenched in a bloody victory for an army that was staring down defeat. There aren't any mentions of festivals except that his temple resides on a 'hill of snakes', whatever that entails.

Returning the last scroll to the wall of the tomes, we spread the other two scrolls between us as Mia pulls a sheet of parchment, quill and a corked bottle of ink from the table drawer, unstopping the bottle with a small pop as she prepares to write.

"Well, Head Priest? What should we keep?"

All eyes turn to me and I frown.

"Master Naga is a protector rather than a fertility giver. I mean, yes, it's in his ability, but it's not his focus. We should do something with fire too. Maybe hold the important festival activities in the evening and light it with torches. Just to rub it in that arrogant deity's face that Master Naga is superior to him." I scowl at the table, thinking about aggressive words and hyperconfident posturing.

Mia chuckles and Cedar giggles eagerly at my dark expression.

"Master Naga likes sweets, so offerings of milk and pastries should work, plus it's a common theme, so I think we would have to include it even if he was less fond of them."

I hum consideringly, thinking back on what they read about the other festivals. "Children giving him painted clay snakes would be easy for them, and it would help hone their craftsmanship skills early. I can always grind them down later and reuse the clay dust if they don't fire it."

Cedar looks vaguely horrified at the prospect of grinding up a child's gift, but River and Mia are nodding along as Mia jots my comments down. "Milk and pastries from adults, clay snakes from children..." She murmurs.

I pause, thinking. "Can..." I begin before pausing and trying again. "Do you know if actions can be taken as an offering?"

Mia whips her head up to stare at me like I've said something groundbreaking. "They can." She nods to herself. "Marcus and I are the local phiban of the island — the first couple to settle in an area. Naga was even more secluded back then than he is now, and this cave was his temple. The villagers didn't even know he was here when we settled, so they only worshipped Marcus and I as their protectors. I found him first, or rather, he found me first, and even then, only after we had passed and become phiban. It wasn’t until the very end that they found out about Naga’s existence here in addition to our own. Marcus and I..." the cave is silent save for the soft rumble of the waterfall behind us as I watch her ponder her words. "Marcus and I lived apart from the village because I haven't always looked like this."

I blink.

Looked like what?

Taking my blank stare as the confusion it is, she grimaces and explains further. "I was born a man."

Oh.

"Why did you have to live apart from the village?"

She furrows dark brows at my question, as though I have just said something unfathomable.

"Because I only got this form when Naga granted me his blessing after we died and became the spirits of the land?"

I blink again, still confused.

"But why did it matter what form you had?"

The 'you have just said something unfathomable' stare increases. Now even River and Cedar are staring at me.

"You weren't a noble if you lived in a village, so there was no obligation for you to have children, so what did it matter what form you had?"

Her eyes well up, tears spilling down golden cheeks as she stared.

Oh gods, why is she crying?

"You..."

Catching herself, she closed her eyes for a long moment, drawing in and blowing out a long, slow breath as she wiped her cheeks dry.

"Anyway." She says firmly, though her voice trembles — just a bit. "I know it would work because after we became the phiban, we would receive small offerings that eventually allowed us to take our water form."

I nod. "So, if people can't afford to bring Master Naga offerings, it should be enough if they did something for the environment, say, plant a garden or a tree to replace a tree they cut down while thinking of Master Naga. And they could do this at any point, not just during festival time."

Mia's face splits into a beaming smile, scrawling that down quickly and ushering us all to our feet and out of the cave.

"Okay, well that covers what the mortals will do and bring, once we clear this with Naga, I'll help you think of some festival activities we can do here."

Cedar bounds alongside me as we head back through the forest, bustling with eagerness. "Will we be helping with the festival, Shiori? Will we, will we?"

I nod mildly. "I think if you want to it would be nice. After all, it's the spirits who helped Master Naga for so long before I arrived. It would only be fair for you to have a place in the festival."

His happy squeal is buried in my shoulder as he tackles me in a hug.

As much as I avoid touch, I must admit that this touch doesn't hurt, and is soft and warm.