Warnings: None
Notes: It's probably important you read this, otherwise you won't get the rest of the fic. . .

1. This is told from an original character's view. She's a "storyteller." She's telling this to an audience. Keep that in mind.

2. Hao found Opacho as an infant in 1996, right? Well, screw that. The storyteller decided otherwise.

3. I made Opacho girl. Opacho was supposed to be a girl anyway. . . .
Disclaimer: Don't own Shaman King. Duh.

Sunrise

Gather around. . . .

Don't jangle your bracelets, don't bother trying to find a spot to sit, don't bother with life as you listen.

Wait.

Hush.

Let her weave us a tale. . . .

You all know me, yes? I am Ansazi and you came to me for a good, daily dose of stories! Wait, let me think first. Aha! It happened eight years ago, back when some of you weren't even born. Ha! I was happily married and lived with my family just as I do now. It was summer, as the Europeans call it, July, and I was sent out to fetch water. There was a nearby waterhole that another villager had told me about yesterday and about that time of the day, all the animals would be gone. You see, this water was fresh from the rain and clean, despite the mud elephants fling into it.

With my clay jug in hand, see, this one, the one that you can make music with by bang on it with a stick. Now, with that jug, I went down to the waterhole and the ground was cool, can you believe that, and I wanted to enjoy it so I walked slowly, humming a tune grandmamma had sung to me when I was little. As I grew closer to the waterhole, I heard crying. Not cries from pain, but a baby's cries! Those cries that annoy the ears off of you, that's the kind of cries!

I broke out into a run and to my horror I found a baby bundled in rags at the edge of the waterhole. How the baby managed to survive without being trampled by zebras shocks me even to this day! The baby didn't belong to anyone, so I took her back in one arm while my other one carried my filled jug.

It's perfectly common to take home a baby, you see, it's normal to see a mother abandon her newborn child. With the times we live in, it's almost like it's every man for himself. Many of you are orphans, yes? So I took the baby home where my family welcomed the girl home. Of course, the little girl didn't understand. She wasn't even a year old yet! Some of you older ones might remember her.

I named her Opacho! Opacho! Opacho! Isn't that such a nice name? My husband roared with laughter and said it was a strange name, but I didn't care. Opacho, Opacho, Opacho.

She was a fine young girl. She learned how to walk easily and she was active. She'll probably grow up to be a fine runner someday and be delivering messages like the wind! Yes, I see some of you are starting to remember her. Her hair was strange. It grew out towards the sky and was as bushy as a lion's mane, but her eyes were as large as an ostrich's.

Opacho liked to play in the grasslands just like many of you. She'd jump, run, and tumble all around the grass, free like a bird in the sky. And she wasn't stupid as some of you; she came back when she saw a storm coming in the distance, and she never wandered further than that great, big, old rock shaped like a leopard's head. Unlike some of you.

I didn't bother sending her to school when she was three. She learned how to speak just fine, I'd say, and I was the one who taught her! But Opacho had a really odd habit, more odd than the monkeys with no tails. She spoke her name! It wasn't like, "Ansazi, how are you," or "I am shining!" It was more like, "Opacho is Opacho. Opacho is a cat!"

All of you would have laughed if she was still here!

Yes, if she was still here. . .

Opacho was dear to me, my family, and most of village. She was bright and playful! But she didn't fit, didn't belong, and not only because she was an orphan from some tribe we didn't know about.

She was four. Nice round age, don't you think? Her hair was still as big as ever and had to be held up with one of our colorful triangle headbands and her eyes were as big as. . . as a. . . an ostrich's egg! That is, if eggs are bigger than eyes. . . Hm. Well, think of the biggest round thing you can think of! Her eyes were probably as big as that.

Well, I was outside, it was a nice cool nice and I just had a nice, full dinner. I was sitting on the same, old stool passed on from my great-great-grandmamma that I'm sitting on right now. I was bouncing Opacho on my knee, she liked that a lot. Her laugh was as high as a hyena's, can you believe that? Her big head would look at the sky whenever she laughed. And her head was big, too! Her tiny little body seemed even tinier covered in a poncho and compared to her head. But a big head means a big brain, yes?

So I was entertaining Opacho, just as I am right now to all of you, when I saw a figure emerge from the outskirts of the village. Now, when I caught sight of him, I knew he was a stranger. He came into the light and I was blown away by his appearance.

He didn't look like us, but he was no European! I tell you, he was no European, I know it! He was small and short, but not as small and short as Opacho. He looked at me with what were child eyes filled with hate, determination, and compassion. His hair was long, long, long, as long as a river and just as silky. You could run your hand through his hair like you run your fingers through the rushing water. Now that hair was not yellow like Europeans or black like ours, it was brown and red. Like rust and dirt! His skin was different, too. It was that strange white or pink of Europeans or brown, unblemished like ours. His was. . . yellow, but not quite yellow! Light brown, but not quite light brown! His skin was like a mix of ours and Europeans!

Though he was a child, he was still beautiful. I know he'll grow up to be a beautiful person someday, just like the rest of you. He wore funny-looking clothes that were mostly red and blue. His body was covered in a poncho as well, so thick that he must have been sweating underneath it. Embroidered into it were shapes with five points. Stars, I think they were, and from his ears hung large star earrings, though not as big as some of ours.

Opacho thought he was pretty, too. She said to me, "She's really pretty." Haha! If only Opacho knew that it was a boy!

He came up to me and stopped, looking at Opacho. All of you were probably wondering what was so interesting about Opacho, and here it is!

The boy opened his mouth and though he was a foreigner, he spoke our language! He said to me, "It's nice to meet you." His voice was as sweet as fruit and he could sing any of you to sleep. I wouldn't mind hearing him sing lullabies.

I kept bouncing Opacho and said, "It's nice to meet you, too. Who are you?"

He laughed, those round earrings shaking. "You don't need to know and I won't ask yours."

Amazing, yes? He spoke like an adult who read books every day.

"Fine," I said. "Why are you here?"

He came here for a reason, there was no doubt about it. Any of you could have guessed that as well. I didn't know what it was yet, but the way he looked curiously at Opacho told me that it had something to do with her. Did he want to take her away? Sure, fine! I had no objections! I couldn't take care of Opacho forever! Besides, something about his presence reassured me that Opacho would be fine with him. His eyes held so much wisdom that it seemed the amount would overfill the world.

He didn't answer, so I said, "If you want Opacho, you can have her."

"Opacho?" he looked at me, confused. Ah, so he wasn't as smart as I thought he was. Did he not know a name when he was told one? I laughed the same laugh my husband uses. "Opacho, this girl right here."

"Oh, so that's her name," he said. "Who is she to you?"

"Who is she to me?" I laughed again. When would he ask to take her away? Haha! "Opacho is the infant I saved and am raising. To you she will be a companion you trust!"

"How do you know?" He raised an eyebrow. He could have been questioning my sanity, but I can't read minds, now can I?

"Well, that's why you came here." I smiled and stopped bouncing Opacho. "Am I right?"

He nodded and held out his arms from underneath the poncho just as I expected him to and I gave him Opacho. That girl, she didn't even cry when being handed to a stranger!

"She's a shaman," he said.

"She can heal people already at such a young age?" I asked.

What he told me next stumped me and will make all of you pondered for the rest of your lives! He said, "No, she can see ghosts."

I then said, "I always knew in my bones that she would leave eventually." It was true, I tell you! My strong bones always give me a feeling that I am never wrong about.

He said, "Then you have wise bones."

"So you will be taking her?" I asked. Opacho looked content, sleepy in the boy's arms, though he looked a little bit uncomfortable with the girl's weight. She wasn't the skinniest person in the world!

He nodded and I said, "I don't know who you are, but I trust you." He smiled and I continued, "Before you can leave, however, I need to know whether Opacho trusts you or not."

Now he was the one stumped! He asked me, "How do I do that?"

Now, Opacho always had her bright moments and here came another one! She looked up at the boy with her big eyes and said, "The stars are bright." The boy looked surprised and he took a quick glance at the sky and said, "They are." Opacho's small hands then went up into the boy's long hair and tugged on one of those earrings and said again, "The stars are bright."

I laughed. That was all I need to hear. It was like destiny had made sure the two ended up finding each other. "You can keep Opacho now."

He looked at me surprised. "Just like that, huh?"

Huh? What was huh? It was a funny sound I had never heard in our language, but I didn't ask him about it. Here, say it with me: 'huh.' Funny, yes?

"Yes, just like that," I said, slapping my thigh. Opacho always talked about stars to people she liked. She was so strange. I guessed Opacho must really like the boy already. Destiny is a funny and odd thing, but powerful, too.

"Thank you," he said and bowed. He bowed again and smiled at me and though that smile reminded me of a cat's smile after it has finished hunting, it didn't make me fear for Opacho. I knew that Opacho would be safe and well-cared with the boy. And whatever a shaman was to the boy, apparently Opacho was one too and it's always wise to stick to your own kind. That's why the lion and his lionesses are always together.

He was turning around to leave when I said, "Wait, will I see Opacho again?"

He shook his head, that pretty, brown hair dancing in the wind. He said, "Don't worry. I'll take care of Opacho forever," before smiling and continuing on his journey. Yes, he was on a journey. You can always tell whether a person was or was not on a journey. I hoped that the boy finished his journey, don't you? Along with Opacho, that is. I never did see Opacho again after that. He and Opacho disappeared into the sky that was lit up by a red glow. I still don't know what that red light was, but it was the same color as blood and his star earrings.

They say that if you look into the west during the middle of night, you can see a red glowing star.

Sometimes they call it the king of all stars because it's so beautiful.

But that's another story for her to tell. . . .

The end. Yay.
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