Italics will indicate sirei or Kirin in their beast form.

Hooves of Glass, The Hawk Arises

"Oh, I think I can tell you about this one," Risai offered, carefully reading kanji that was shaky at times, from both sleep and nerves. It was a few days later from when the young woman had awoken to find herself missing her arm and reunited with her Taiho. And every day, that sweet young man got brighter and happier as they talked to one another and her shoulder healed, the last of the scent of blood fading away. Kaname had not told her everything about his life, but the little she had managed to wheedle out of the young Ki had her worried and angry. Worried because she knew that as a holy beast, he was not supposed to eat any sort of flesh, including eggs or milk. (soy milk would have been fine, but Kaname's mother refused to buy it, finding his sudden changes in food preferences abnormal.) And angry at his mother, for making him have to hide what he was, what he was seeing every night in his dreams, for slowly poisoning him with the meats and fried foods that were tainting his aura.

'No matter right now,' she thought, telling the young man about his first meeting with Hi'en. 'I grow stronger daily, and soon I will find my own way to bring him home,' she vowed. Already she had been testing her rate of healing, much faster than the doctors would have liked her too. As a rule, soldiers tended to be bad patients, wanting to leave before they were ready.

"And this one?" Kaname asked, pointing at another entry as he broke through her musing.

But she could only frown at this entry. It was the one dream that he was yet to fully see in any way. It was the dream that wasn't a dream so much as a collection of emotions. Something about it made her frown as she pored over the shaky kanji. If it was only the pain mentioned, she might think it was when he tamed the Toutetsu. But something made her very suspicious of this one. 'I wonder, is this the last memory he has of Tai...?' she thought. 'Maybe, this has to do with why he fell back through.' "Sorry Taiho, but I don't know this one."

The young man looked disappointed, but nodded his acceptance before turning to another page. This was the first day he had remembered to bring the journal with him, so he was going to try and get as much information out of Risai as he could. "How about this? The man named Kenrou with the large, red winged creature?"

"Hmm, well Kenrou is the God of the Yellow Sea, and a protector of those who go on pilgrimages." A flash of a dirty thought flicked across her mind. If she ever found out that he was the reason she fell into Wa, there would be words. Oh, so many words. "The beast you saw with him, was a Tenken named Rokuta, and I believe he's been with Kenrou for a very long time."

"And this one?" This was an interesting dream, of the young man being surrounded by seven other people, all blondes, if in different shades, from pale to bright gold to bronze and many shades in between. Of arguing like siblings, of Perfume acting very defensive of her country, insisting that nothing was wrong. Risai recognized Perfume, the name of the country of Hou. Curious, she counted the years off on her fingers, trying to figure out how long Taiki had been back in Wa when compared to how long the other Border Country had fallen. She blinked. If she was correct, then he was talking to Hourin a year before her country had fallen and the people had risen up against her king. That had been almost six years ago.

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind; he would learn eventually, but better to learn about that back in the Twelve Kingdoms. "Well, I didn't know that you had met so many of the other Kirin," she offered, reaching up to ruffle his hair. "I remember you mentioning En-taiho and Kei-taiho, but this is describing most of the other Kirin of the kingdoms." She pointed at the descriptions he had put in the margins, fingers trailing over the tightly-packed symbols. "I'm pretty sure that Kei-taiho and En-taiho are these too," she offered, pointing at 'small, bright-gold hair' and 'tall, stern face, palest silver-gold hair.' "And if I remember correctly, this one," Bronze hair, thick build, "is the Kyou-taiho. I'm sorry to say that I never got to see or hear about any of the others. I only remember him because he is considered strikingly different compared to the other Kirin."

Before the young man could ask anything else, there was a sudden groan from the corner. The bed Risai was using was in the long-term ward, if only because there had just been a large bus accident right before she was brought in and there were no other beds she could have taken. But that was fine to Kaname, if only because it meant that even while talking to Lady Risai, he could stay near the Stranger that was starting to awaken.

And he seemed to truly be waking up. Steel eyes went bright as the man moved, arms flailing weakly as he seemed to struggle into consciousness, and Kaname dived off of his perch on Risai's bed to practically fly to his side, the young general struggling to untangle her legs from her sheets in order to join him. Taiki had informed her that the man was important, but she had never gotten a good look at him. Her eyes widened at how familiar the man was as she got closer though, and even if he was a lot paler and thinner than before, he was a dead ringer for her missing King.

Slowly, those mysterious eyes fluttered open for the first time in years, crimson orbs cloudy with pain and confusion. The pair leaned over him as one, Risai hanging on to the IV stand that Taiki had told her was important, and the young Kirin smiling widely for the first time in years. "Tai-ou, Lord Gyousou, can you hear me?" Risai asked, her maroon hair falling over her shoulder as she leaned in.

The man twisted his head back and forth between the two, Risai only now noticing the death grip Taiki had on the man's hand. This had to be her missing King, Taiki would cling to no one else. The gods had heard her prayers! "I, I can hear you," rumbled quietly from his throat: It was a voice neither of the attentative pair had heard in years. It was the sound of Gyousou.

Taiki's shoulders were shaking, his head ducked down as he held onto Gyousou's hand like a lifeline. His lips were moving, and Risai was curious, until she started to make out what he was babbling fervently. "-to be always faithful, to never leave my post at your side. This is my most solemn vow." She was surprised that he remembered the vow, but with everything else she had seen in that dream journal, she suspected that he had reclaimed the words in his sleep.

Gyousou smiled sleepily, his body already shutting back down to help his mind recover faster. But he was still aware enough to pull his hand gently from Taiki's grasp and rest it on top of his head, thin fingers twining through the soft mane. "now and always, I accept," murmured, eyes slipping shut.

...~~~...~~~...

Youko growled with frusteration as she lunged at her instructor, practice sword flashing in the bright sunlight. The blades crossed, flashed apart, a swift jab at his ribs, only to flow up and towards his head.

The young queen was groaning in pain a few minutes later, her practice blade on the ground, and nursing a hand of bruised knuckles. Kantai laughed as he lowered his own weapon. The practice swords were little more than blunt metal sticks, but it was better for them to use those instead of live steel, especially when the Taiho could come around at any time and be stricken by the smell of blood. "that was a nice try my lady, but still not quite good enough," he offered.

Off to the side, Suzu laughed as she hopped down from her perch, carrying over cups of water for the pair as Youko scolded the man, "we have broken bread together and fought together. As long as we are outside of the court, it's just Youko," was drifting through the air as the kaikyaku walked up. "You are getting better at fighting without your Hinman," she offered, passing the water to the pair of fighters.

"Though I still do not understand why you wish to learn how to fight without him," Kantai offered.

Youko smiled at the pair, part of her laughing at the grumblings in her ears coming from Joyu about her trying to make him useless. "The longer I am on the throne, the less Youma will appear, but I have seen the kinds that eat other Youma. Also," and here she grinned, flicking her sweat-soaked pony tail out of her face. "it's just something to learn."

"Never stop learning!" The trio glanced in the direction of the new voice, another young woman coming up to join them. Shoukei was smiling at the trio, and Youko and Suzu traded glances, the pair trying to hide their grins. They were pretty sure that Shoukei had a crush on the General of the Royal Army, and were trying to help set them up at times so they could talk to one another. But as Shoukei got closer, they could see that she was shadowed by the tall pale form of Keiki. Youko truly couldn't help the sigh that escaped from her frame, but she passed her practice sword to Kantai, offering him a quick bow in thanks before jogging up to her Kirin. If he was out in the courtyard while there was a chance of blood being spilt (accidentally of course) then it must be something important that he needed.

"What do you need Keiki-san?" she asked, heading for her rooms in order to get a little cleaned up.

"We have a visitor. An envoy from Tai." The pale Kirin was stoic as his queen looked back at him in surprise, which was understandable considering that the last Tai ship had been completely destroyed not a week ago. "He says it is urgent that you should meet with him."

Youko nodded after a second. "Alright, please ask someone to bring him some tea, it will give me a chance to get cleaned up," she ordered. Her brow furrowed after a second as a thought came to her. "I don't remember seeing anyone from Tai on the agenda for today. Where did this man come from?"

You could never tell by looking at his mouth, but Keiki's eyes were dancing with suppressed laughter at this. "He wasn't on the agenda. He managed to bully his way in on the back of a kiyuu as wounded and stubborn as him. Both kiyuu and rider had been taken care of," he assured, correctly interpreting the look of horror on the young queen's face. "The tenba is resting comfortably in the stables at the moment, and the palace physician has already seen to the man." And the blood hopefully, seeing as while Keiki looked much older than Youko, they were actually closer in age than anyone would have guessed, and as such, the holy beast was still much more sensitive to the smell of blood compared to the older Kirin in some of the other kingdoms.

"Do you have any idea why he came here?"

The Kirin's eyes were haunted now as he stopped outside of Youko's bed chambers. "He claims that the Hakuchi of Tai never cried in its' second voice. He claims that Taiki and the Tai-ou still live."