The night sky shone brightly with stars. A cold wind sauntered through the valley and over to the clans of the Mews. Ichigo, bonded to a wildcat of sorts, was looking out at it. She turned away and looked at her sister.
Kira's animal was the phoenix, which was very rare. It happened only every five-hundred years. Many men had sought her for a wife, but she had refused them all.
Kira and Ichigo were currently staying with a nice man called Keiichiero. He had no interest in either of themlike that and they was just fine and dandy with that. He even cooked well, which was good because Kira would often share the food with her friends in the clans while Ichigo couldn't cook worth beans.
One of their more common suitors was Masaya Aoyama. He just refused to give up. He wasn't even part of the Mew Clans. Kira could always count on Masaya being at her dwelling minutes before dawn. Waking her up from a peaceful sleep with high pitched screeching noises he called sining only to have sharp objects thrown at himself which Kira collected purely for that purpose. Ichigo would throw them though, seeing as Kira couldn't aim. or hit a target. Then the stalker would hide in the bushes and watch her sleep until she threw more shap objects at him, at which point he would run around to the dining room bushes and watch her eat breakfast, then, he would run around to the trees by the door and jump down at her, landing with one knee bended and propose to her with a diamond ring. Kira didn't know where he got the diamond.
Keiichiero didn't know anything about this, he just thought Masaya was a nice guy who wanted to marry her, like most of the other clan men. The voodoo master had killed off all the mean and impertinent ones who were too aggressive because he . . . well . . . let's just say he liked to be amused.
Kira and Ichigo woke upone morning to find that the whole village was up and Masaya wasn't at thier door. They quickly dressed, Kira in the orange deerskin and Ichigo in black leather. They joind thier village friends, Mint, dressed in blue feathrs, Purin, in deerskin, and Retasu, in fish scales. Zakuro was at the head, talking to everyone. "What's going on?" Kira asked. Mint filled them in.
"There's rumors of a sea monster! It has deep black scales and eats young men!" Retasu shuddered. "It's gobbled up five arriors already, plus any number of early morning fisher men," Retasu said and shuddered once more. "The man who vanquishes the monster will get to marry the girl of his choice from this clan," Purin chimed in. "What!" Ichigo and Kira exclaimed. Mint placed a hand on thier shoulders. "Don't worry. That monster won't be going down anytime soon,you have time to run."
"But I don't wanna go," Ichigo whined. "Yeah, you guys are our friends. Maybe you could go with us?" Kira asked hopefully. "No, we must stay here, we are not from outside as you are," Retasu explained. "And besides, these people need us," Mint said haughtily as she sipped a cup of tea.
The girls turned thier attention back to Zakuro. "Any volunteers?" They heard her ask. Many men glanced back at Ichigo and Kira's group and raised thier voices. But the very first ones to do it were Masaya and Ryou. Ryou was sort of the "rich kid" of the village. He was well provided for although he had no parents. His animal was a water dragon. No one knew how this had happened.
Ichigo and Kira froze as Masaya looked back at them. He smiled and waved and headed for the firstcanoe he spotted. Ryou did not follow. Instead, he took a sturdy canoe which had been around for a very long time. Ichigo felt a pang of guilt shared with Kira. Masaya might die. Sure he was an annoying stalker, but, in an inexplicable way, they felt that they would be responsible if he died.
They watched him as he paddled out to sea with Ryou and any other number of men. The sky burst into bright colors as the sun rose. Ichigo, Kira, Mint, Retasu, and Purin watched in silence.