Xiwangmu
the Queen Mother of the West
aetherXiwangmu keeps the orchard where the peaches of immortality ripen once in three thousand years; to dream of her is to feel time on a scale that turns urgency foolish, and to be offered the fruit that only patience earns.
In the oldest carvings she has a leopard's tail and a tiger's teeth, and only later became the serene queen; even goddesses mellow over the ages.
She keeps also the plagues and the long punishments, for the hand that times the fruit times everything else besides.
Her peaches ripen once in three thousand years and the banquet lasts a single night; heaven's whole calendar is built around her orchard.
The monkey stole her entire harvest once, biting each peach and tossing it aside; the gods still speak of the losses in lowered voices.