とつくにの少女

Shiva, a small human girl, lives at the forest's edge in the care of a horned, shadow-bodied figure she calls Teacher. He is one of the Outsiders, creatures whose touch carries a curse that turns any human into one of them, so he tends to Shiva without ever laying a hand on her. Beyond a great wall, the remaining humans live in fear of that curse, while inside the forest the two pass quiet days that the world outside would never allow.