"Whoa up, Princess! Good girl!"

Riding around the otori corral was all very well for practice, but it got old quickly. Atsumori wasn't quite foolhardy enough to ride straight into the wilderness on a couple of hours' training, but the guidebook on his densai assured him that the road from Yoake city to Mori no Reiou was reasonably safe and well-trafficked; he guessed he and Princess weren't likely to encounter anything along the way that could too seriously spook 'his' sweet-tempered otori. His little drone trailed before and behind the pair as they trotted (with occasional galumphing gallops) down the road; now he summoned it back with a whistle and tucked it into his backpack. "Huh. Bit spooky, isn't it, girl?"

Temples were like that sometimes, though. He cast about for the designated spot to leave his mount for a little while, then went to cleanse his hands and mouth before going into the shrine. A glance downhill at the waters of the aptly named Murkwater Lake filled him with the sudden hope that the shrine's keepers filtered the water in their purification fountain...