A warm breeze caressed my skin, gently waking me up from a far too deep sleep. I felt comfortable, as if I had just fallen asleep in the midsummer sun, though the truth couldn’t be much further from that. I should feel cold and drenched, my whole body should be shaking. Yet I felt calm, calmer than I ever had.

The ground under me, too, felt dry and warmed up by the sun. It was too uncomfortable for one to fall asleep on, as I felt both stones and dirt, but it somehow had a strange allure to it. It was inviting me to rest some more. I certainly would, if only there weren’t these questions burning in my mind.

“What happened to me? Where am I?”

My eyelids felt heavy as I tried to open them. They demanded more sleep, yet I couldn’t accept that invitation. And as I had finally pried them open, I couldn’t even think of resting anyway.

The sky had a perfect azure. There was no sun setting or moon shining down on me. Instead I saw a perfect azure blue sky. Not even a single cloud tried blocking the light of the sun from reaching me. It was midday, maybe even afternoon, but clearly not late in the evening. And it was clearly not october.

“How long did I sleep?“

Still a little drowsy I raised up and looked around to find something or someone to clear my confusion. At least I tried to. Instead, I found myself frozen in place. I couldn’t even waste a single thought on Mira or my way back to the village.

“Where am I…?”

What should have been a shabby shrine with a crumbling roof now presented itself in a pristine condition. It wasn’t simply repaired. No, that would never be enough to reach this state. This shrine looked like it had been rebuilt from scratch or at least restored by some masterful carpenter that clearly deserved a raise. There was no moss, no mold, no holes, nothing that could point at the real age of this building. It was as if somebody had turned back time!

“What the…? It just came crashing down! It was destroyed! Why does it look so neat?”

“Oh, the little missy is awake!” A serene voice exclaimed.

Hearing the foreign voice I immediately turned around only to become petrified yet again. A stunning beauty stood in front of me with only as much as five steps separating the two of us. She was older than me by a large margin, making her around twenty-five or maybe thirty years old, but I could only describe her appearance as breathtaking.

Not only did she wear a noble looking, long, pale green and white dress that exposed just enough of her fair skin to neither appear too alluring nor to prude, but she also had snow-white, slightly wavy hair to boot! She looked like a priestess somebody had stolen from a book, or a goddess that had fallen to earth. I could only stare, which, somehow, filled her bright, reddish eyes with joy.

“... beautiful.”

The breathtaking appearance of the woman alone could easily have held me captive for more than just a moment but there were also cat-like ears to be found on the top of her head. When my gaze wandered down her body, I even found a tail that was attached to her back. It was happily waving from one side to the other, leaving me mesmerized.

“A catgirl?! Is she cosplaying?”

A bright chuckle could be heard coming from the woman, increasing her cuteness by a ten-fold.

“I’m not a cat, little missy~” She revealed.
“Little Missy?” I heard myself ask. “I’m not a girl? I’m a man!”

The beauty’s gaze wandered down my body. After staring at it for a few uncomfortable seconds she slightly tilted her head and shrugged her shoulders before revealing a smile that looked rather mischievous.

“Are you sure about that?”
I couldn’t help but look down at my body. “What are you talking abou-”

“Nothing!! There is nothing!!”

I was naked, without as much as a single piece of cloth covering my skin. There was a dense white mist hovering around my nether regions which somewhat protected my dignity, but the girl could easily see my butt and the rest of my body. Hot blood immediately rushed into my face.

“She called me miss!”

A cold shiver went over my skin as a far too cruel idea sprouted in my head. I immediately reached out to search for my member, but my fingers found nothing that couldn’t be described as smooth, hairless skin. It was gone, with not even as much as a hole remaining at the spot where it should have been. It looked like a dolls’ private parts!

“What happened to it!? Tell me!!”
“What are you talking about?” The girl asked, seemingly barely able to hold back her laughter. “Did you lose something?”
“I mean my-”
“Can I help you search? I am good at searching!”
“Did- did you do this to me?!”
“The fog?” She asked innocently. “Of course I did. How can you expect a maiden to look at all that gory mess?”
“Gory ...”
“Yes!” She confirmed before using both of her hands to describe what had happened. “When you punched that pillar, the whole roof came falling down! Even the shrine collapsed! Your body was buried under all that rubble! It was such a pain to get you out of there!”
“... it collapsed …”
“I patched you up quite well, didn’t I?!”
“But my...”
“You will be fine without it~”
“You- you Bitch!”
“I’m a fox, you know?” She revealed just another bright smile. “That aside, I am a maiden - I wouldn’t let anybody touch me just like that! Especially not a mortal!”
“Who cares about that!?”
“Oh, right. You wouldn’t be able to ‘touch’ me anyway~”
“Stop joking with me! I never did anything to offend you!!”
“You did!” She answered in a bright voice. „You were being mean, you know?!“

I felt my fingers tearing into the flesh of my palms. My hands burned in pain as I struggled to force words to pass my lips which were quivering in anger.

“What. Have. I. Ever. Done. To. You!?” I asked, one word at a time.
“Oh? So you don’t remember destroying my shrine? And you even gave me such a puny offering! How is that going to make up for it?!”
“Your shrine? Offering?”

Only now did I realize my grave mistake. This girl had not only fixed my body, at least most of it, but even the shrine! She had stolen my member, that much was true, but that didn’t make it any less of a feat. If anything, it made it even more unbelievable!

Even if she hadn’t performed all of these miracles I would still have heard of her if she was a mere human living in the small village at the foot of the mountain. With a stunning beauty like hers she would have been at the center of the attention anywhere she went but yet not a single word about her had ever reached my ears.

A beauty like her couldn’t possibly be living in a bumpkin town with some random bumpkin neighbors without anyone ever finding out. And seeing how she had appeared next to this shrine build in the middle of nothing, it was even more unlikely. There was only one possibility left, though it sounded as ridiculous as the idea of her turning back time.

“A goddess?”
“Do you feel sorry now? Apologize!”
“So you really stole my... thing just because I was a little bit disrespectful?!”

She quickly avoided my gaze. Not quick enough for me to miss the smile that grew on her lips, though. 

“It is not like I wanted to steal it or anything.“ She said mischievously.
“Aren’t you enjoying this a little bit too much!? What are you going to do about it? It is gone! It is totally gone!”
“I’m sorry, you know?”

Deep inside of her, hidden extremely well, the goddess probably felt bad about what had happened to me, but that feeling clearly paled against the enjoyment she was gaining out of our one-sided conversation. She was having fun, even though she wasn’t admitting it.

“You feeling sorry is worth nothing! Give it back!”
Her answer came instantly: “Cannot do.”
“You are a goddess. Of course you can!”
“Those guys probably buried you by now, little missy.”
“They buried- I AM NOT YOUR LITTLE MISSY!”
“That poor girl was crying so bitterly.”
“What? Mira was?”
“Who would have thought the boy she liked would die while praying for his confession to go well!”
“She liked me!?”
“I don’t know~”
“WHAT?! Stop making fun of me!”

A small giggle slipped her lips that soon after formed yet another smile.

“Give me back my thing! You can do it, right?! So please! I need to go back and confess to her!”
“No way.”
“Please! I will bring you all the offerings you want! And I will come to pray each week- no, each day! I swear!”

The goddess' expression changed one last time, but she did not start laughing nor did she show me one of her mischievous smiles. Instead, she looked downcast, depressed even.

“You are dead, missy.” She explained with a voice that had lost all of its colors. “There is no way for you to return.”
“De- dead...”
“I’m sorry.”
“What am I supposed to do now?! I can’t die just like this! Please! Do something! You can, right?! You are a goddess! I beg you! Anything is fine! Just give me a chance!”
“Anything...”
“Yes!”

The goddess seemed to think about it for a second while her eyes were wandering up and down my somewhat genderless body. When she finally came up with an idea, her tail began wagging, clearly showing that she had thought of something that was easily funny enough to cheer her up again. Within a heartbeat, I could already see a new smile being born on her cherry-red lips.

“There is one thing I can do~”