A/n: Be afraid…be very afraid…I just got back from a trip to Hershey yesterday, along with a group of friends (including Randowyn and The Manticore, two of the funniest authors on FF! Visit them!!! Their fics are HISTERICAL!) and now I'm hyper…. Hahaha, the nutcases travelling with me were dumb enough to NOT finish off the six boxes of Nerds and bagful of Jolly Rancher lollipops…now they're all miiiinne…Gwahaha!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Imakkai:

Chapter Seven

           The grass waved lazily under the sun, which beat down harshly onto the figure that sat under it drinking deeply from a water skin. Kaya scanned the area with a critical eye, looking for the landmarks that had been listed to her by her brother. Not for the first time since she'd left, Kaya doubted the sanity of this trip, and her own sanity for undertaking it, but she pushed the thought aside with a weary It's for Ashitaka; and I get to see more than merely Emishi land, like I've always wanted.

           Only two days of travelling so far, she thought sadly, and yet I'm already tired. She closed her fingers on the grass and ripped up a green handful, holding it in the palm of her hand for a minute before rising to a kneel and leaning forward, throwing it to the wind.

           It caught the grass and carried it forward, flying delicately down the hill like some swarm of warped insects. At the base it let a good majority go, and yet held onto a few select strands of greenery, carrying them further along in a mad dance of nature while the rest fell slowly to the ground and settled hidden among the rooted grass.

           She sighed and stood still, watching the few strands' progress until she could no longer see any of them. Heaving another weary sigh, she allowed the same wind to catch and play tricks with her dark hair, wondering at all that had happened in recent years. It didn't seem so very long ago that Ashitaka had been cursed and left; and yet, when it had happened she was a child, which she was no longer.

           Her elk nuzzled her hair and made a throaty noise that made Kaya look up in surprise. She scrambled to her feet and stumbled backwards, fleetingly wondering if she should hide—but where? Feeling uncomfortably trapped, she realized at last how terribly unprepared she actually was. She'd never even left Emishi land before—

           By the time her thoughts had settled coherently the travelling party was nearly abreast of her, close enough at the very least for them to spot her. She made as if to run, but froze at the sound of someone calling to her in loud greeting, looking warily at the figure out of the corner of her eye. Settling stiffly into a vaguely protective stance, one hand on Marou, her elk, and the other resting lightly, delicately upon her only weapon, a sword not meant for fighting but for farming, but which she had brought along as a protection even so.

           The person again greeted her and bowed, now very close and apparently oblivious to her nervous hostility. "Kon'nichi wa. We are a trading caravan headed for a place known as Tatara Ba," and at that he gestured vaguely towards the west, "but we are lost. Do you know which road we should take?"

           Kaya calmed somewhat, realizing with some relief that they thought her to be a local, and suspected nothing suspicious about her—but why should he? Perhaps her looking suspicious was merely a wild figment of her imagination after all, and all she appeared to be was a polite member of Japanese society. "I'm not very familiar with the roads," she confessed politely.

           "Well, where are you headed, then?"

           She shifted uneasily, but replied in a steady voice, "Also west."

           The man looked dimly surprised. "You are not just heading home, then?"

           Kaya pressed her brows together and responded in a slightly indignant voice, "No! I'm a traveller, just as you are." Just because I am a girl does not mean I cannot travel was the obvious implied ending.

           The man coughed and shifted uneasily under her dark-eyed glare, finally inquiring, "Where west?"

           She hesitated, unsure of whether or not she could tell him; but, as he did not appear to be a short, ugly monk nor particularly malevolent, and since it would seem rather suspicious if she refused to give this information, she answered dully, "Iron Town."

           The man clapped his hands together once in a gesture of gladness and the edges of his mouth turned up as if to suggest a smile, though he appeared to be incapable of the actual thing. "Well, then! The same place as we are!" He ignored her dimly confused expression and went on excitedly, "Why don't we strike a deal? Point a, we are obviously going to the same place. Point b, it is not very safe for anyone," though, Kaya realized, a girl was the implied word, "to travel on their own on these roads. And point c, we are lost while you obviously have some idea of the way. So I propose that you come along with us and give us directions; in return, you will have safety and a dry place to sleep at night."

           Kaya thought about this quickly, drawn in very much by the last statement as she ruefully remembered the past nights of sleeping on uneven, wet ground. And, she knew, she'd be more likely to gain easy entrance if it were with a trading caravan; alone she would be subject to individual suspicion and scrutiny, while in a large group she could slip in anonymously and maybe unchallenged. Of course, she wasn't about to say this out loud, and she certainly wasn't going to tell anyone her business, but at last she agreed, "Fine. I'll come. My name is Kaya, by the way."

           If the man were curious about the absence of a family name he didn't say as much, but instead returned in a cheerful voice, "Matukawa Taru."

           He turned back to those in his small caravan and called out, interrupting the already beginning rushed business of break-taking; quick swigs of water and otherwise, one or two taking advantage of the moment to go out into the nearby foliage to relieve themselves, people patting down their tired, sweating animals, and others talking amongst themselves inside the unexpected lapse in work. Taru clapped his hands twice, briskly, and they simultaneously snapped to attention, giving Kaya a pretty good idea already of who ran this caravan and how; it was Taru, and Taru alone, and he ruled over the small group like a singularly powerful emperor.

           "Which way?" he asked her, quietly, out of the corner of his mouth.

           She pointed her finger towards a road, frowning slightly, and

           It didn't occur to Kaya until that night, sleeping under the protective shield of a tent, to wonder why traders would be going into an area infected with the plague.

***

a/n: Finally!!! A new chappy! Yay! Welp, more to come. I have no idea for how much longer this is going to drag on…definitely more than a few chapters. But, alas, finals this week, and graduation next week (yay!!! I'm finally getting out of my hellhole of a school!! I'm moving on!!!). And a belt test. Errrgghh. But then I'll have a whole free week to meself before my sister and brother get out of school, so I'll have LOTSA time to write. And remember: Randowyn and The Manticore!!!!!!