The Wind Moveth
a Munto fanfiction by Tripleguess
Genre: Drama/Flashfic
Rated PG
October 29, 2007
Summary: They never did find the umbrella.

It was the strangest thing.

They were walking and chatting on their way to school, just as they'd done every day for years -- Suzume dancing through puddles, Yumemi shielding her face beneath a pink umbrella.

Other students thought she carried it to protect her fair skin. Ichiko knew better.

Then Yumemi paused, her face going blank as she looked up and around, as through trying to place an odd sound.

Ichiko cocked her head, too. She heard nothing. "What's wrong, Yumemi? ...Yumemi..."

Yumemi came to, blinking. She smiled. "Oh -- nothing..." she started to say.

But she flinched and cried out in midsentence, throwing her arms up in such alarm that her schoolmates flinched too. The umbrella -- the umbrella disappeared. Ichiko, midflinch, didn't quite see how or where.

Yumemi lifted her head, then stared at an empty patch of asphalt with frightened eyes and clutched her schoolbag as though trying to hide behind it. "Wh-what is this?" she managed, her voice trembling.

Ichiko looked. There was nothing there. "Yumemi!"

Yumemi flinched again, recoiling as though from a gust of hot wind.

"Yumemi!" Suzume chimed in.

"What?" Yumemi quavered again. But she wasn't talking to them.

She couldn't hear them. Call as they might, it wasn't until Ichiko took her by the shoulders and yanked her backwards that she snapped out of her trance.

"Yumemi!"

Yumemi blinked, then focused on them with obvious difficulty. "What was that?"

"'What,' she says," Ichiko snapped worriedly. "What happened to you?"

"Ichiko, you didn't see that?"

"See what?" Ichiko retorted. There was nothing there!

But the umbrella was gone. They ran up and down the street looking for it, without success. Suzume thought she had seen it blow away, but Ichiko pointed out that there was no breeze. Eventually they had to give up or be late for class.

They trotted the rest of the way to make up for lost time. Yumemi shaded her eyes with one hand as she told them what she'd seen, but she kept stealing furtive glances at the sky between her fingers, then darting quick looks around as though expecting to be jumped.

And in a lifeless desert not so very far away, a pink umbrella wilted beneath a scorching sun -- and the withering glare of a golden-eyed king.

The End

DISCLAIMER: You know what's coming. This story not created, acknowledged or endorsed by Kyoto Animation or Yoshiji Kigami, to whom all relevant characters and trademarks belong. No infringement is intended. The Wind Moveth itself is fan domain and may be freely recopied and archived.