A/N: Enjoy! I'm kind of stuck on ideas tho (already!). I want the atmosphere of calm travelling in this story... a little like Mushishi. It's hard of think of what to write about when there's not a solid plot or plan. ^^
AN INCURABLE HOMESICKNESS FOR THE ROAD
Natsume paused in his step. 'Sensei... it feels a little different here.'
Madara contiued walking. 'Just a little? This place is practically brimming with energy. Come.' He said, glancing behind.
'So we are in the yokai forest now? When did we enter? I didn't notice.' Natsume asked as he hurried back to walk next to Madara, and doing his beat to keep up with the beast's long strides.
'It's a little more complicated than a boundary separating the mundane and the yokai forests. There are certain paths, hard to find, which lead you to it. Sometimes a human may accidentally wander onto one of these paths, but no matter how long they walk, they'll get lost and end up at the same place they started. The paths themselves are part of the yokai forest, and the deeper you go, the stronger your feeling gets. You'll get more sensitive to it over time.'
'I see.'
'Put your mask on now.'
They had made the usual thin paper mask, with Madara's blood mixed with the ink this time. It only loosely covered the top of his face to just under his eyes, with the kanji for eye on it. It was ironic, given the kanji used for Natsume's name.
Tying the string around his head, Natsume blindly grabbed onto his sensei's fur as they walked.
'Sensei, why do yokai cover their faces with masks when they take on human forms?'
'Hmm. It's no so much the face, but the eyes. Yokai nature is different. You see, eyes are important to yokai. They represent us more than any body: even those yokai that cannot see know this. The masks are just a natural part of it. And not all yokai have the power to transform into their human forms, and even less have the power to remain in it for even a short period of time. The mask obscure the real self, that is, the eyes, and so gives us the power to become someone different in form.'
'You wear a mask when you transform into a human form sometimes too, right? Like that time you made a neko mask to cover Reiko-san's eyes.'
'Yes. I don't need a mask... it's a sense of aesthetics. Mingling with yokai in a human form without a mask... just feels wrong.'
'...But isn't it uncomfortable walking around unable to see? Most of the masks I've seen don't have any eye-holes in them at all: they just have eyes painted onto them. With this paper one, at least I can see the ground on which I'm walking.'
Madara stopped abruptly at that and turned to face Natsume, for the first time noticing how Natsume's head was angled downwards, and the incredibly tight grip the boy had on his fur.
After a few seconds of incredulous silence, Madara burst out laughing, causing all the small yokai in the vicinity to disperse in fear.
'Sensei, what-'
Natsume's words were drowned out easily, so he took to just waiting out the bout of laughter with confusion and annoyance both apparent on his face.
After Madara's roars quietened down a little, he continued walking again, pulling Nasume along with him. Still chucking randomly to himself, he slid himself closer to the boy, supporting him easily with the side of his body as they walked, and noting how the death grip in his fur loosened considerably in response.
After a while of Natsume fuming silently in confused embarrassment, he finally mumbled. 'You could at least tell me what part of what I said was so amusing.'
Another stray chuckle escaped before Madara just shook his head. 'You've got a long way to go, kit.'
