Atsuki glanced at the hour glass and loosed a breath. The girl were late. He could usually depend on Izayoi to keep Kagome in line, but sometimes she let herself be dragged away into Kagome's foolishness. Thunder boomed outside and the hare decide he could not blame them. This was the kind of day best spent in bed with a scroll and warm drinks, not bent over low tables studying histories and maths.
Another sigh and he fiddled with the quill.
Fuiasu-sama would probably have something to say if he kept letting the girls escape their lessons but Atsuki found he didn't have it in him today to fret. Besides, the Lady was not in residence and hadn't been for some days now.
Still, he couldn't allow the girls to think he was going soft and they were developing some more than annoying habits of skipping lessons. He eyed the stack of bedpans waiting to be cleaned at the front of the infirmary. Perhaps a little cleaning would make them more eager to attend in the future.
Pleased with that idea, he heaved his hulking frame up from the floor and stretched. Even if he could not blame them for skipping on a day like this, he was still responsible for their learning. Examples needed to be set, occasionally. And the only thing that would hurt would be their noses from the awful stench.
Chuckling, he strolled out of the infirmary and towards the family wing. There were only so many places for them to hide on a day like this one.
Atsuki was not a warrior, though he was well trained by now with a slew of weapons. He did not consider himself a warrior, did not have that sixth sense most warriors had to sense danger. What he did have was an instinct recognition of silence, and the warning that quiet could provide to creature like him who was often taken for prey.
So when silence rippled out along the corridor and he finally noticed the emptiness of the halls he strolled through, he stopped. His nose twitched as he scented the area. He spread his yōki out as far as it would go, but it was not enough to give him any answers.
All that mattered was that he scented the silence and the danger it implied. And the girls were not where they should be—namely, with him.
He heard a crash behind him from the infirmary and did not pause to see what it was. Instead, he broke into a run and dashed through the halls of the palace, his long legs eating up smooth marble floors as he ran for the family wing. As he moved through the palace, he started to come across the bodies. They lay still and pale on the floors but he dared not stop to check for life. If this was an attack, the children were his first priotity, especially with the rest of the pack out of the residence.
The smell hit him when he finally reached the stairs to the family wing—a strong woody scent thick with the scent of some kind of berry, sweet and aromatic, and strong enough to lull even the most energetic of youkai to sleep. Atsuki grit his teeth and held his sleeve up over his face but the damage had already been done as he started to climb the stairs. His legs were cumbersome logs he couldn't remember how to move and he stumbled.
And darkness took him.
o.O.o
Word Count - 588