There are villagers gathered around the base of the stairs, Erich discovers as soon as he rounds the last bend. He immediately freezes, searching for an escape, for a way around the gathering that wouldn’t draw attention, but—

“Oh! Ammy, are these two yours?” one of the villagers asks as she looks up and spots Erich and Alexis, giving them a warm smile. “Come on, don’t be shy. Any friend of Ammy’s is welcome here.”

Erich exchanges a wary look with Alexis and reluctantly slinks down the stairs towards the group, ears back and body tensed to flee at the first sign of fear or anger; this is not the welcome he expected to receive when the white wolf — Ammy? — insisted that they follow it down.

“Is this why you’re here a day early, Ammy?” the villager addresses the white wolf with amusement, then laughs when Ammy barks happily. “Well, whatever the case, welcome to Kamiki Village, you two. Issai should arrive in a few hours so we can talk properly, but until then, how about having some food with us?”

Talk properly? Erich wishes he could ask, having no idea what the woman means by that; as far as he’s aware, no one can actually speak with animals, just understand their body language better than other people can. Still, the offer of food is a welcome one given that he hasn’t had anything to eat since the previous day.

A quick check to make sure Alexis is fine with the idea and he turns back to the villager and dips his muzzle in a rough approximation of a nod.

The villager smiles at him again, then turns to the others and makes a shooing gesture as she says, “Go on now, Amaterasu will still be here later for you to talk to. There are still chores to be done before the festival tomorrow!”

There’s a bit of good-natured grumbling at her words, but the small crowd slowly disperses until there’s only four people left — the woman who greeted them, a little old lady with a plum balanced atop her head, a little old man also with a plum atop his head, and a person with the weirdest sword strapped to their back that he’s ever seen in his life.

(Is there a flower sprouting from it?)

(No, he really doesn’t want to know.)

“I should probably introduce everyone, even if you can’t tell us your names yet until Issai gets here,” the woman says with a laugh as she gestures for Erich and Alexis to come closer. “This is Mr. and Mrs. Plum,” she says as she gestures to the two elders. “They’re our village elders. And this is Ren, my future spouse and our village’s protector, and I’m Mami, the village brewer. It’s nice to meet you!”

Erich cocks his head and looks between them, then lets his tail wag briefly in greeting; they seem like nice enough people no matter how odd this whole thing is.

“Come on then, dears,” Mrs. Plum says with a kind smile that reaches her eyes and deepens the laugh-lines across her face. “I have some lovely cherry cakes in the oven—”

Ammy barks with excitement and takes off towards one of the houses, practically bowling Mami over in the process.

Ren catches Mami and steadies her, amusement gleaming in their eyes as they say, “Careful there, you know what Snowball’s like when Granny’s cherry cakes are on offer.”

Mami laughs and leans in to press a kiss to Ren’s chin, then straightens up and flashes a grin at Erich and Alexis. “We should hurry before Ammy eats all the cakes,” she tells them cheerfully, gesturing for them to follow.

Mr. and Mrs. Plum are already halfway towards their home, moving quite swiftly for how elderly they appear, and Ren just arches an eyebrow at Erich and Alexis before turning and falling into step with Mami, clearly willing to let them make their own decision.

Erich exchanges a look with Alexis, absolutely baffled by everything going on around them, then glances up at the moonless sky and heaves a sigh. Nothing makes sense and no one is explaining anything, but something to eat sounds good — sounds more than good if he’s being honest — so he has no problem playing along for a bit longer.

Alexis seems to have the same opinion, since she steps forward to bump shoulders with him and then trots after Mami and Ren, leaving him behind.

With an exasperated bark, Erich darts after them, unwilling to be left behind. He ducks into the house after Alexis and pauses to look around, taking in the place in interest: it looks old, with oil lamps and a wood-burning stove and everything — everything — is made of wood or stone, well worn and absolutely soaked with kind-protective-ancient reishi, blossom-bright and fire-warm. The only truly modern thing that stands out is an old radio, perched on a shelf high up on the wall.

“Come in, come in,” Mrs. Plum says in welcome. “Take a seat at the table while I get these ready— no, Snowball, you can wait to eat with the rest of us,” she chides, holding the plate of stacked treats over her head and ignoring the pitiful whine coming from Ammy’s throat. She holds out for a moment, two, even as Ammy’s eyes grow wider and her ears droop more and more, until with a great sigh she says, “Oh alright,” and takes one of the brightly colored treats off the plate and offers it.

Ammy gently takes it from her hand, then drops to the floor and sets it between her paws, tail wagging furiously as she scrapes off the leaf wrapping it and gulps it down.

Mrs. Plum chuckles and carries the plate over to the table where her husband, Ren, and Mami are already sitting, then nods towards the open side of the table. “Come join us, you two,” she invites as she sets the plate of treats in the center and turns to fish out a stack of small plates to pass around.

Alexis hesitates for a moment before stepping over to the low table and settling down. She watches the ‘cherry cakes’ being passed around, her head cocked and her ears perked in interest, and barks a thanks as one is set in front of her.

Erich steps forward to join her—

Only to yip in surprise as Ammy appears at his side and practically shoves him forward, as if exasperated by how slow he’s being.

Alexis turns to stare at them, mouth opening in a canine grin as Erich is herded to the table by Ammy, then leans over and thumps their shoulders together the minute Erich reaches her side. Amusement-love-concern brushes against his senses as she checks in with him, and he brushes exasperation-love-acceptance back.

(Ammy feels more like an excitable pup than anything else.)

(He doesn’t mind her energy, just the oddness of recent events.)

He heaves a sigh and sits down, casting an annoyed look at Ammy as he does, then nods politely to Mrs. Plum and examines the ‘cherry cake’ set on his plate. It doesn’t look like any cherry cake he’s seen before, but that’s probably a result of him translating it weirdly in his head: there hasn’t been much time for him to familiarize himself with Japanese culture yet, so mistakes are to be expected.

At his side, Ammy snatches up another cake from her plate and sets about removing the leaf and scarfing it down with every sign of enjoyment. She’s already eyeing the second one on her plate, and Erich has the sneaking suspicion that she’s going to go after his next if he doesn’t try it soon.

Erich leans in to sniff at the cake left on his plate, then looks up and watches the way Ren, Mami, and Mr. and Mrs. Plum eat it: unlike Ammy, they seem to eat the whole thing, leaf and all. Deciding to simply go for it, he gently takes it in his mouth and bites down.

It’s sweet, but not overbearingly so, and the leaf is salty — pickled, if he has to guess — and… it’s pretty good if he’s being honest: warm and moist and just the right amount of chewy to please his canine senses.

He can see why Ammy likes them so much.

“There’s plenty more where those came from,” Mrs. Plum tells them warmly, leaning forward to set another on both Erich’s and Alexis’ plates. “Go on, eat up, eat up. You both look like you could use a few treats.”

Erich huffs in amusement at her words but still wags his tail in thanks as goes to eat the second.

If she’s offering, he might as well accept.

(Besides, it is rather delicious.)

(He approves.)