Dogs and Butterflies
Chapter Two
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Chou hesitated as she felt the strong beat of the SOLDIER's heart, along with the steady rise and fall of the chest. The skin, while covered in muck, still felt soft and warm- almost feverishly so- beneath her hand. Her eyes looked from the sutured wound to the SOLDIER's face. Dark lashes rested on his cheeks, his eyes still beneath. He looked so relaxed, so defenseless. "It!" she reminded herself harshly. SOLDIERs were not human!
But her resolve disappeared with the revelation. The hand holding her dagger dropped to her side, but the other continued to rest on the SOLDIER's chest. "Why did you have to survive?" she whispered harshly. "If you just would've given in to the call of the Lifestream, this wouldn't have happened."
Suzu was right, however. She couldn't kill the SOLDIER, not while it was defenseless.
"I suppose I should get the dirt washed off," she sighed as she rose, replacing her dagger into the sheath. "And those wounds clean."
Ten minutes later, she returned with a shallow pan of cold mountain water from the stream that ran deep in the cavernous temple, and a couple washcloths and towels. She detached herself as she moistened the rag, and began with the man's (Its!) face. The SOLDIER grimaced as soon as the cold rag touched its skin. She froze, afraid as the head turned away from her. Would it wake? She waited for what seemed like forever until the SOLDIER relaxed again.
She had to clean it, and the cool water would help with the fever that seemed to be climbing quickly. She gathered her courage and once more pressed the rag to the SOLDIER's forehead, and continued to wash the dirt from the skin, using her other hand to keep his head from moving. Usually when she cleaned the bodies of one of the villagers that had passed, she would talk about the memories she had of them. Now she stayed silent, focusing on her task while studying the SOLDIER's features.
Chou refused to think that the SOLDIER was even pleasant to look at, though if he had been any other person her opinion would be quite the opposite. The SOLDIER was masculine, unlike the rumors she had heard of the SOLDIERs such as the infamous Sephiroth, who was described by outsiders as an androgynous man with silver hair longer than most women wore. This SOLDIER's black hair reached his shoulders, which framed the strong features of his face. She let herself wonder what color the eyes were, and if they really did glow. Did they have cat like features like the rumors said?
The priestess moved on to the broad chest, which was predictably muscular. More than a few times the SOLDIER flinched away as her washcloth not-so-gently cleaned out the multiple wounds that were scatted across the trunk. The muscles were nicely defined (not that she would admit that), not overly so like Wu and Daichi. Baba and Yuki and cleaned and sutured the major wounds, but her harsh scouring had opened up the ones that had previously stopped bleeding. There was a tinge of guilt as she watched the blood slowly ooze out before she grabbed the left over supplies and applied homemade bandages to the larger ones.
She ignored the firm skin covering the strong biceps and triceps of the arm, being a little more careful this time as she cleansed the slashes and bullet wounds. She paused at the thick leather glove that covered his hand. The knuckles of the glove had been rubbed away, allowing her to glimpse at the bloodied skin beneath. This was not going to be pleasant. She soaked her rag before placing it on the dried blood, and waited for a few moments before carefully removing the glove.
Or at least, she attempt to. As she began to tug at the glove, the SOLDIER pulled his had away stirring slightly with a grumble. Once more she froze, waiting to see if her patient would wake. Like before, the SOLDIER settled without opening its eyes. She gave a sigh of relief, before moving the hand she was working with off its abdomen and on to her lap. Chou kept one hand tightly on his wrist, took a deep breath, and began to slowly peel it off. The sight was sickening, and she wondered what in the world the SOLDIER had done to cause so much damage to his fists. Had he been punching stones?
"It is not human," she reminded herself, forcing the pity and empathy away as she picked up the bloodied rag and began clearing out the wounds. Surprisingly, her earlier thought may have been right. She found gravel in the wounds, along with sticks, dirt, and who knew what else. Occasionally the SOLDIER would try to pull its hand away, and those emotions she tried to deny would pop up as she paused and she would soothingly stoke the skin of the forearm with her thumb.
Once she wrapped its hand up in bandages she moved on to the other arm, using the same technique as before. The left hand was in better shape, but she still found herself holding the wrist almost comfortingly as she extracted the debris from the cuts.
After she was done, she sat back on her cushion and surveyed her work. The SOLDIER looked much better, the skin was pale but clean of any blood or muck. Her hand that continued to rest on the forearm told her the fever seemed to have wane thanks to the cold water and cool air. Now, it looked… normal. It would be so easy to mistake the SOLDIER for a normal man.
Chou tore her gaze from it with a deep blush across her cheeks as she looked down at the dark brown water. She would finish the lower regions later, when she had meditated and regained her composure. Besides, it had been a while since she last saw Suzu, and she needed to make sure her little sister didn't need help. She picked up the basin and tossed the soiled washcloths and towels inside before standing up and leaving, pausing in the doorway just to make sure that she forgot nothing (not to take one last glance at the SOLDIER) before leaving.
Twilight found Chou waiting on a stump-seat outside the mountain temple, the paper lantern hanging from the carved hook from the remains of the tree that the seat had been carved from. She could see the funeral pyre burning down in the village. Strictly speaking, she should've done the service, but she didn't dare leave the SOLDIER alone in the temple, even if it showed no signs of waking. So she had left her sister to do the rites, and hoped that it had been the right choice.
Either way, the fire had been lit, burning the bodies of their loved ones as their spirits returned to the Lifestream where Leviathan would see them to their next lives.
Her eyes trailed upwards, looking to the stars visible from the small clearing. For what seemed like the millionth time, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. Multiple times she had peered into Suzu's room, fingers wrapped around her dagger, debating whether or not to kill the SOLDIER. She never went any further than that. Just seeing how human it looked dwindled her determination for a few hours. Killing monsters was in self-defense, killing animals was for food. But so far the SOLDIER hadn't made no move to hurt anyone, let alone wake.
The other part of her mind pointed out it had already hurt people. How many of the twenty-seven fallen Wutai soldiers had it killed? How many before that? How many in the future? How many of her countrymen would die because they had let this one SOLDIER live?
The war had always been just rumors in Yezo. Tales and horror stories told by travelers fleeing from the battles farther north. Finally, after four years of war, it had come to the small mountain village. Hopefully, this would be the last time violence found them, though she had a growing worry it wasn't.
Lost in thought, Chou jumped when she heard the crunch of feet against the dead foliage. She quickly jumped to her feet, dagger in hand prepared to strike when she recognized Suzu trudging along the path. Usually her sister was able to bound up the trail like a deer with limitless energy, but now she dragged her feet as if she was as old as Baba. "Suzu?" she questioned, worried. The younger priestess looked up, and by the light of the lantern Chou could see tears rolling down her face. Her lip quivered before she suddenly rushed to Chou's open arms. The sisters fell to the ground in a heap, and Chou was able to sit up, and held Suzu in her lap as if she was a little girl again.
"Why?" Suzu cried. "All-all of them! Aiko, Jurou, Keiko, Kotone, Mayu! Why did they have to die? And-and all those warriors! We don't even know their names! What about their families? Who- who'll tell them they're all dead?"
Chou couldn't answer any of her questions, simply because she didn't know. At least when she had to do her first funeral ceremony, with her own aunt Mao, their father had been there to offer her support and answers. And even then, her death had been expected.
She regretted letting Suzu do this. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she smoothed her sisters short hair, rocking her back and forth slightly like a child. "I'm sorry," she repeated over and over, letting her own emotional control go and tears of frustration, fear, and sorrow fell.
There was no way to tell how much time passed as the sisters sat in the dirt and cried with one another until it seemed like there was no more tears left, which was long after the candle in the lantern burnt itself out. Chou brushed the salty remnants of her tears off her face as Suzu kept hiccupping into her shoulder. "Come," she said quietly, helping her little sister to her feet. "Let's get inside. You'll feel better after some tea and sleep."
Despite being exhausted, Chou found herself unable to sleep. She blamed it partly on nerves and the fact there was a SOLDIER sleeping just across the hall. Many times her fingers reached over to her dagger laying on the stone floor next to the futon, just to be assured it was there.
"Ngggggh," Suzu snored as she rolled over yet again, her sharp knee jamming itself into Chou's back. She was the other part why Chou couldn't sleep. She loved her sister, truly she did. But she swore that when they shared a room before their father was killed, Suzu wasn't nearly this annoying. She never knew anyone who snore that loud, or toss and turned so much.
Suddenly Suzu grabbed a handful of Chou's long hair and pulled. Chou bit back a scream and quickly rolled off the futon. Okay, this was definitely not going to work. She grabbed her dagger, pillow, and an extra blanket before she left her bedroom. She only went a few feet down the hall before dropping down on the cold stone floor, pulling her blanket tight beneath her chin. If it wasn't the fact they both had a hard day, she wouldn't have given in. But the fact was the day went horribly, and her sister needed all the sleep she could get.
The hall was barely lit by a few lanterns hanging on the wall, but it was enough to see the sheer blue curtains of Suzu's room, and the shadow of the SOLDIER inside. The whole source of their problems. She fingered her knife, still sorely tempted. But, for today, there had been enough death.
However, tomorrow was another day.