"The Bird Woman of Shajento" is actually about a woman who speaks to birds, not a woman who becomes a bird. Sorry for the confusing title!
---------------
Here is the opening:
Many years ago, in the mountain valley of Shajento, there lived a woman who spoke with birds. Her name was Ah Ying, and she lived alone by the edge of the forest in a small and comfortable house. She had a vegetable garden, an herb garden, and flowering vines that climbed the rails of her wide wooden porch.
The villagers feared her because she didn't fear the forest. They called her witch and muttered darkly behind her back, but they came secretly to her for spells and scryings. Ah Ying sprinkled water on her glass mirror and found what was lost. She mixed pinches of herbs in heated wine and stirred potions into stews and teas. She wove charms to banish dreams and demons. But she cast no curses, told no futures, and would not summon the dead.
It was, perhaps, both unsafe and unwise to live in the forest's shadow, but she ringed her house with feather charms to keep unkindness away and filled thimbles with wine for passing ghosts. Birds visited her, bringing gossip and warnings as she tended her gardens and flowers. Now and again she had tea with the village priest. And so she passed her days.
---------------
And here is a bit from later on, when the plot has kicked in:
When Ah Ying approached the shrines, Jonen was raking the garden. He straightened at the sound of her footsteps and tipped back his wide-brimmed straw hat. "I hadn't expected you until the new moon, Ah Ying," he said. "Have you found signs of misfortune?"
"Possibly," Ah Ying said. "A fox visited me this morning. He claims that a sorcerer has wrapped the land beyond the mountains under his spells, and now turns his attention toward the Emperor. He's sent part of his army through the passes in disguise, and now he's traveling east himself. According to the fox, the sorcerer will come through our valley."
Jonen leaned on his rake and studied the gravel at his feet. "Foxes are devious," he said after a long moment.
"His reflection in my mirror was single, not doubled, and the tea didn't scald his lips," Ah Ying said. "I'm fairly sure he spoke only truth, though he may have set those truths in a skewed frame."
Jonen sighed, but he nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll gather everyone and begin moving food to the caves. If you let Grandfather Lu's ghost out of his bottle, the sorcerer will think that we fled a malevolent spirit and won't bother to hunt for us."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Bird Woman of Shajento
Date: 2011-02-25 06:59 am (UTC)---------------
Here is the opening:
Many years ago, in the mountain valley of Shajento, there lived a woman who spoke with birds. Her name was Ah Ying, and she lived alone by the edge of the forest in a small and comfortable house. She had a vegetable garden, an herb garden, and flowering vines that climbed the rails of her wide wooden porch.
The villagers feared her because she didn't fear the forest. They called her witch and muttered darkly behind her back, but they came secretly to her for spells and scryings. Ah Ying sprinkled water on her glass mirror and found what was lost. She mixed pinches of herbs in heated wine and stirred potions into stews and teas. She wove charms to banish dreams and demons. But she cast no curses, told no futures, and would not summon the dead.
It was, perhaps, both unsafe and unwise to live in the forest's shadow, but she ringed her house with feather charms to keep unkindness away and filled thimbles with wine for passing ghosts. Birds visited her, bringing gossip and warnings as she tended her gardens and flowers. Now and again she had tea with the village priest. And so she passed her days.
---------------
And here is a bit from later on, when the plot has kicked in:
When Ah Ying approached the shrines, Jonen was raking the garden. He straightened at the sound of her footsteps and tipped back his wide-brimmed straw hat. "I hadn't expected you until the new moon, Ah Ying," he said. "Have you found signs of misfortune?"
"Possibly," Ah Ying said. "A fox visited me this morning. He claims that a sorcerer has wrapped the land beyond the mountains under his spells, and now turns his attention toward the Emperor. He's sent part of his army through the passes in disguise, and now he's traveling east himself. According to the fox, the sorcerer will come through our valley."
Jonen leaned on his rake and studied the gravel at his feet. "Foxes are devious," he said after a long moment.
"His reflection in my mirror was single, not doubled, and the tea didn't scald his lips," Ah Ying said. "I'm fairly sure he spoke only truth, though he may have set those truths in a skewed frame."
Jonen sighed, but he nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll gather everyone and begin moving food to the caves. If you let Grandfather Lu's ghost out of his bottle, the sorcerer will think that we fled a malevolent spirit and won't bother to hunt for us."