Tsubame sat on the floor, her back against the wall of her room in the dojo. She listened to the thunder of rain against the roof. Her whitewashed walls were covered with velum maps from around the world. Her wooden floor was bare except for a dresser and a mattress in the corner of the room. The wooden training sword she always used during lessons with Miss Kaoru, the woman who owned the dojo and taught the sword lessons, was in her hand. The hilt rested on her shoulder, like a guard's when he is on duty. Miss Kaoru was also the one who rented out rooms to two of her three students, Tsubame and Yahiko. The room was shadowed and gloomy because of the absence of any candles or oil lamps in the room.

It's raining again! She thought. The prophets say that soon seven years will have passed since the sun goddess smiled on Anora. With this thought held in her mind, she fell asleep. Her back slid from the wall, and she curled into a ball, still holding the sword.

It was true. The gods had cursed Anora, a country that had seen peace in the last 15 centuries, for the last seven years. Only Anora had been affected, the rain abruptly stopping at its borders. At first, the rain had been a blessing after a two-year drought. But now…

Outside, on the porch, a boy tiptoed towards her door. His hair was a flaxen blonde and his eyes were bluer than the sky. His body was slim, and there was not an inch of fat on his body; instead it was covered with toned muscle. He silently slid open the door and peeked inside. He let out a sigh of relief and went in. The boy knelt by Tsubame's sleeping body and smiled.

By human standards (as both gods and beasts have standards of beauty, but no one ever seems to care for their opinion), Tsubame was not that beautiful, but to him she shone like the sun. In a feral pageant, Tsubame would have been a shoe in for "beauty queen" or "little miss," as her beauty had a feral quality about it. Of course, in the immortal realm, her beauty was laughable, yet she resembled the sun goddess. Yahiko looked at her silky midnight colored hair. Her eyes, which were closed right now, consisted of every shade of green, from new grass to the needles of firs in dark forests. Her slim nose and stubborn chin gave her an arrogant look, as though she knew she should be in a better place. When she struck a fighting pose, her stance and the determined glow in her eyes might mislead you to think she was a haughty person, which was what she wanted you to think. Of course, when no one was looking, she sang with birds and cut roses for a vase on her dresser.

The boy talked to Tsubame's slumbering body; he had done this since she had arrived, stirred by some unknown force. "Hello. I read your notes to go to the shrine of the sun goddess. Your packing details are extremely precise. I'm coming with you, I've decided." This wasn't what he always said, but he had deemed it an appropriate topic for today.

Tsubame had been thrown out of the realm of sleep when Yahiko, the boy, had started talking. She turned to look at him, hiding a smile. She opened her eyes and stuck out her tongue at him. She frowned as he broke into a comical grin. "Why are you in my room and why were you reading my travel logs?" She sat up slowly and gracefully and stretched in a very feline way (you see what I mean by feral).

"I knew you were up to something. You were slipping during sword practice and during meals you always had a blank look on your face. That's not a real reason though, since it is pretty constant- Ow! Hey that hurt!" Yahiko rubbed his arm where Tsubame had slapped him. "Miss Kaoru and the 'boyfriend' noticed it too."

Tsubame smiled at Yahiko's last remark. The "boyfriend" was the Wizard Kenshin. He had gained Master status, as a swordsman, at the age of 22 and Wizard at 28. Many statuette shops had statues of the god of war based on Kenshin's figure: tall, buff, and flame headed. Miss Kaoru was their sword teacher. She was slender, curvaceous, and had fawn colored hair that glowed. Miss Kaoru and Kenshin both loved each other, but would never admit it to each other.

Tsubame yawned, " That still doesn't explain why you're in my room." She put her sword on Yahiko's shoulder and stood up. They walked outside and stood looked at the center courtyard.

Tsubame took a breath and sighed. She looked at the tulip tree by the outhouse and the courtyard with a koi pond and maple tree. She looked at the other side of the dojo where the kitchen was. During sword practice, you had to be careful not to back up to either the egawa, which was two feet above the ground, or the koi pond. Training was strenuous, but that was what she liked.

"Let's go get some food." Yahiko told her. He started walking towards the kitchen wondering what she was thinking.