"Blessings of the Main God! The divine might of the ocean and thunder guards the great Chishima tribe of the north! Friends of the Yoichi Tribes, we are your brothers lost for many years. We bear no malice at all... We are a northern tribe from distant Chishima, come here for trade and supplies!..."
At the prow of the longship, Chishima Shell cried out at the top of her voice, translating her husband Zuwaro's greeting. Then she quickly stepped out from among the crowd of samurai and hunters.
At that moment, she wore the solemn "finery" of an Ainu People tribal rite. On her head was tied a "round-pattern band" symbolizing tribal identity, and around her neck hung a string of bright "shell beads." The bead strand was extraordinarily heavy, and at the lowest section where the shells crossed, there was also a golden Main God Amulet strung onto it. And the hummingbird engraved on the surface of the amulet was the guardian divine might that symbolized inheritance!
When this attire of hers entered the eyes of the Cold Swamp Tribe, the atmosphere that had been locked in hostile confrontation, ready for slaughter, abruptly froze. Quite a few sharp-eyed tribal hunters showed doubt on their faces, looked carefully again and again, and some even seemed unable to believe it.
"Ah! A young 'storyteller,' the most important 'bonfire inheritor' who carries a tribe's inheritance?!..."
"What is the divine-might pattern on her chest? It seems like ours, the Fishing Owl Spirit first sent down to the human world by the Sky God?..."
"Mm? How could that be? These round patterns and divine might... They're not the vicious Ishikari Tribe, nor the distant Nishihara or Higashihara Tribes... They're actually so closely tied to us, the same Yoichi inheritance?..."
"How could that be! Aside