Excerpt:
Tenshio was standing inside the classroom doorway, conversing with a parent from the village, when Gilly returned with the children. Though they had been instructed to go to the sink and wash their hands, Gilly forgot all about this. She stopped in her tracks.
The daitoku was wearing dark blue hakama over a grey kimono. This change of outfit threw Gilly off, though it was more than the clothing that made him appear different to her. After only a few days, he had become a distant figure.
It seemed to her that while in her world he had been reduced to a distorted picture in colored pencils, in reality, he had returned to the world of adults. He had become a distant authority figure, dressed in somber colors and speaking calmly with another adult.
Furthermore, Gilly was struck all over again by the clearly visible fact that he was not human. His curved and sharpened claws, his fierce eyes with their slit pupils and even the jade that encased the rims of his ears marked him as something strange and apart from her.
When he saw her, his eyes lit up and he smiled. Gilly took in a little breath of relief and waved shyly at him from across the room.
Remembering the instructions, Gilly hurried after the little group of children and took her turn washing her hands and face, vibrating with excited energy. Gilly hung her towel back upon its hook and then turned and went skimming on tiptoes to the daemon. Tenshio bent and swung her up into his arms.
“Hello, Gilly,” he said, in his quiet voice. “You see that I have come, as I said I would.”
“I love you,” Gilly confessed, throwing her arms around his neck.
“I love you, Gillian,” he said, in wonder. He patted her back gently. “Is there something you should take with you? Your lunch box? Your shoes?”
“She worked on these today,” said Umeko, handing him the papers with names on them. He took them with one hand and looked closely at the artwork.
“It’s not so good,” Gilly said, embarrassed to have her artwork put on the spot just then.
“I like them,” Tenshio said simply.
“What have you been doing?” Gilly asked, as they made their way along the path back to the house.
“Keeping watch. What have you been doing?”
Gilly spread her arms wide. “Oh, just... everything,” she declared.
“These are very nice,” Tenshio said, looking through the papers. “I see that you have assigned an appropriate theme to each person’s name.”
“Well…” said Gilly, inordinately pleased by his comment but too shy to acknowledge it. “I tried the painting, but it didn’t work.”
“What about it didn’t work?”
“It was messy.”
“Yes, I see that you like to be neat about things. It’s much harder to be careful with paint, I would imagine.”
“It got everywhere. Did you like art, when you were little?”
Tenshio cast his mind back, trying to remember. “I don’t think so,” he admitted. “I don’t think I paid it much attention.”
“Because you were studying martial arts,” Gilly said, pleased to have remembered.
“Yes. That did take up most of my time and attention. Did you have any nightmares while I was away?”
“No, but I dreamed. I dreamed my parents were stuck in the house; it was too small for them. They couldn’t get out.”
“What do you think that means?”
“I don’t know. They wanted me to help them?”
“Could you?”
“I woke up.” Gilly paused and looked up at the bright blue sky above her. “Maybe I couldn’t help them.”
“Maybe not in the way you wanted to.”
“Mm.”
“Gillian, very shortly you will be turning six.”
“Yes,” said Gilly, with private delight.
“At six, you may start in the regular class. That class has desks and uniforms. Would you prefer to stay in your current class, or be moved to the next class up?”
“I like Sister Umeko.”
“She does have a pleasant personality.”
“Who’s the teacher in the other class?”
“I do not know. But if you wish, when I bring you to the school tomorrow, we can make inquiries. You and the school year have both just started, so I believe it would be a simple thing to move you.”
“I should be moved?”
“Not necessarily,” said Tenshio slowly. “I believe you could easily handle the work load in the first grade, but you could also learn a great deal in your current classroom. The choice is yours."
“First grade!” Gilly exclaimed, eyes wide. The vaunted first grade! She hadn’t realized that’s what they had been discussing. “I like first grade.”
“Do you?” asked Tenshio, smiling.
“First grade is real school,” she informed him. “Are you going to come every two days?”
“I don’t know. It depends on you.”
“If it depended on me,” she retorted crisply, “you would be living here.”
Tenshio laughed. “You are full of opinions lately, Gilly.”
“What are those?” she asked suspiciously.
