"The forest feels different now. Do you think something's changed?
A pause. " ...it hasn't."
Mom. It's what they both think, sharing a knowing look, but neither of them dare say. For fourteen years she'd been the parent they'd known. The familiar whisper in the dead of night when one couldn't fall to sleep telling them the same story of unfamiliar faces, a jewel, a spider.
The boat they sit in suddenly careens dangerously from a flue of harsh wind. Despite the jolt they only steady themselves with a hand along the skiff, and their attentions were dragged skywards, seemingly the direction the wind had taken. A few white petals spun dizzily, slowly fell and plucked dimples along the surface of the river while they were carried down. Surprisingly with the turn of winter at the brims it hadn't been mordant, but abundant with familiarity; like a deep breath escaping a chest where you've rested your head. Warm, even. But it passed quickly; and the next breeze made up with a brutal biting.
He had returned without a word. The frosted grass didn't dare announce his approach. The girls stared in a mix of discomfort, trepidation and awe. While this had not been the first time they'd seen him so close, nor the first in so long, it was the first they'd seen him so many times and had still to accept would not vanish between a pillar of evening fogged trees for another span of weeks or months at a time. the face they'd recognize belonged to their father was not a face they knew, it was a face they hardly associated with the person in their mother's stories at all.
They shuffle inside the boat, moving to make room for him to step inside and position himself beside an oar without giving them much regard.
If the silence among them was at least a comfortable one, that would have been worth something. But it clung like a smoggy blanket, heavy and suffocating. At least to Towa, who sat watching her hands in her lap while the sister besides her seemed to take no issue crossing her arms and turning her head away from the man she'd never referred to as a father and allowed her resentment to skid off the tip of her nose. Towa glanced at her from the corner of her eye then quickly resumed to her hands, trying to keep herself from wringing them in nervousness. She didn't sneak a glance at the figure imposed across from her, though the triangle of his boots made their way into her periphery, for looking at him felt itself a wrongdoing of another caliber. She could not explain why she felt such a way, beyond the reason he felt as though he were a force of nature to not be tempered with and did not know him. Her mother had always spoken fondly.
Her words had never lined up with their version of him, though.
Towa.
Her head snapped up, not expecting the voice, and not until a full moment after she'd frozen wide - eyed did she process that she was staring directly at the golden ones of the man in front of her and that he had been the source of the voice. He didn't offer an explanation, and after another second went by his gaze shifted ahead towards the direction they were sculling. Her confusion at a second longer, brows twisting, peeling back down to her hands again.
And they were red.
She sighs, tucking them beneath her legs. She hadn't realized she'd buried so far into her thoughts she hadn't noticed her own actions and still felt disconcerted by the fact she still didn't feel like she'd gotten to the point of dissociating from her actions. Her frustrations were clear, and Setsuna could feel her tense by her shoulder even if she wasn't observing her from the corner of her sights. Sometimes the two were different enough she wondered if they were sisters, let alone twins, but still she allowed a bit of sympathy to go out although she made no attempt to comfort the other.
The boat came to a halt and Sesshomaru stood, starting up the path that'd lead to the girls' small house in the woods. Tossing a glance at each other once again first, the twins soon got on their feet and followed some distance behind.
The march wasn't a long one, if it felt it. Neither of the girls ever raised their heads from the ground. If they did they'd have been met with a cold breadth of shoulders, but looking back towa believed she could've found some reprieve in admiring the dead scenery, the specifically pale air and unnatural lukewarmth that signalled the oncoming of snow.
When they reached the house Sesshomaru maintained a distance from the door. In fact he walked in an arc around the front of it, to the next appointed direction they'd take, and said simply: "Only gather what you need."
That he had no intention of following them inside relieved the girls and they hurried in without asking why. Almost immediately Towa sank against the door and let herself slide until she was sitting. Setsuna, who was already shuffling her belongings across the table, stopped to give her a questioning brow.
"Think we can make it on our own?"
Setsuna looked more confused, and at that Towa gave a nervous laugh and rubbed her face. She might as well have sobbed. "I mean- mom taught us to fight. We can fend for ourselves, find a village or… or somewhere that's away from here. Or we can just stay here. Tell him we're not going. We've done this so long without him, we can keep going."
"You're backing out?"
"No, I just…"
She trailed off, one leg stretched out in front of her while the other was bent and she rested an arm on that knee. She'd been the one to convince Setsuna not to put up a fuss. Her sister's the one who originally argued they could do fine without him in the first place.
Mom's last wish. Towa sighed. She wanted to believe they could do fine on their own, but they'd both seen how the woods were unforgiving following their mother's death and hadn't waited to throw all manner of foe at them. Types of demons she'd never seen while their mother had been alive.
It felt terribly sick to her stomach.
She pushed herself back on her feet, gathered her sword, a change of clothes and…
A white feather hairpin sat at the corner of the nightstand by her mother's bed. A small washed out pearl gleaming sadly at the end of it. The pin should have been a pair and opening the drawer of the stand she found the second. "Setsuna, come here."
As soon as the girl was by her side she motioned for her to turn, fastening the pin to her ponytail. Setsuna turned back to find her fastening the second to her shirt, and decided not to comment on it. The rest of their belongings were gathered in silence, a melancholic one, but more comfortable than the one awaiting them outside. So they went unhurried, until they could no longer find a reason to linger inside the house.
They both expected to be greeted by the impact of slamming into a wall of cold air and that alone, but for a time they had lost count of Sesshomaru stood exactly where he'd been earlier and only acknowledged their presence with a glance before falling into step. And for what must have been for the hundred and eleventh time that day, the girls shared a look and promptly followed him.
Towa looked over her shoulder to look at the house again. She didn't know when she'd see the house she grew up in next or if ever, and while the past few days it had become a cage and a deathbed a sense of longing was quick to tug at her. And she snapped each of the strings, turned forwards with a new sense of courage that took Setsuna by surprised, and jogged up so she stood not far behind her father's side. "Where are we going?"
Setsuna watched, almost with a sense of pity for the way that Towa looked up at the man. She'd taken a new shape of hope but not one without an underlying desperation in it, and Setsuna counted the seconds waiting for the shatter.
"Your mother taught you to hunt."
They both stop. Towa's mouth open. Sesshomaru didn't offer them the chance to process further, not waiting a moment for them to regain their footing to continue in his direction. Returning her pace Towa shot Setsuna another glance before looking at her father and answered as if he'd asked a question and not made a statement. "She did-"
"That's where you're going."
The comfort she'd found in the weather earlier had smited her. Four hours had passed since tailing a deer to find no comfort curled by a rotting log. She hugged her hands against her chest, hoping for some semblance of warmth to come to them, so painfully stiff and numb she believed if she smashed them down on the wood her fingers would crack off cleanly and not spill blood.
Her eyes look up at the animal skinned over the fire. She knew it was a deer only because she had been there to see it killed, not even the one to bring it's end. Setsuna had been its undoing. Towa had shot the arrow to topple it and missed the first time, which had solicited the first of emotions to show from her father. A frown that'd been loud with unspoken disappointment. He said nothing but that had been enough to ignite the nerves Towa had barely come down from and procuring the deer had gone from a mundane task to a skittish entrance exam where she knew she'd already failed the first fifty questions. Left her fumbling and wanting to explain herself; she had no talent for a bow, and used it strictly to aid in hunting. Eventually she'd given up, worn out by nervousness and defeat was what at last allowed her to sneak up on the deer and angle a shot that proved enough to incapacitate it, but not quick enough in the task of killing it.
That part their mother had always done, if they needed to. Sesshomaru hadn't made a single attempt to help during the hunt, and she'd been foolish to think he might have stepped in then and she was close enough to asking when Setsuna had squared him a nasty look and taken her naginata cleanly into its heart.
Now it cooked entirely unrecognizable. They'd carried, skinned and cleaned it on their own as well. Started the fire and found a clean river for water. If not for the looming presence at their shoulder the day would have been ordinary. Towa could use the sliver of confidence she had left from earlier only to say it'd been easily the worst since four days prior.
"We can do it on our own."
Her head shot up. Setsuna sat on the log next to her. Flecks of snow starkly clung to her hair like she had rolled around on the rags collecting over the dirt. She didn't shiver and neither were her cheeks reddened from the cold and Towa would have guessed she'd done exactly that hadn't she known better. Darting her eyes around to see if any reaction had come from Sesshomaru at those words, her shoulders fell when she realized he was nowhere around them. Explains the boldness of Setsuna's tongue, but she suspects that reason for that also had to do with her sake.
"Man… talk about useless."
At that, Setsuna did laugh, which took her completely by surprise.
"He could be hearing us."
"Ah, let him. Probably why he's not around anyways."
And laughter erupted from both of them that time, though there'd hardly been a joke. The first real laughter in four days and the reason had not even been for something funny or amusing, because Towa was sure that while she'd never admit it Setsuna wanted to cry as much as she did. Towa would bet she'd wanted to more than she did, but she'd never pry.
The deer had finally cooked enough and Towa had pulled it off the fire, split it between the two of them with enough to save, stashing the rest in her bag. She hesitated before fully storing it. "You think he'd want any? I haven't seen him eat anything."
"He'll get his own."
The answer was so blunt that Towa only nodded and put it away. Setsuna had been mad, then. She'd assumed that'd much when she'd finished off the hunt, and despite her sister's silent demeanor the one she'd taken after had been particularly telling. She cleared her throat and tucked her hands at her sides. "You have any idea where he went?"
"No."
Towa got up and brushed the snow off her legs. Setsuna's expression went from distaste to confusion. "I'm going to look for him."
"I'll go."
"One of us should stay and-"
"I'll go."
Towa blinked. "No."
"What?"
"I want to go."
At that Setsuna didn't protest beyond looking displeased, but shuffled her legs and took attentively to the fire. Wherever Sesshomaru was wasn't far off; Towa would make it safe.
The faded footsteps ditched across the snow were less than necessary to find him, but given she could Towa had opted to trail by them, idly stomping her own bootprints into the one's left by Sesshomaru. Few animals skittered, small hares hopping around the base of oak trees and squirrels jumping around the branches. There were birds. You'd be surprised by the lot of them, small, brindled and downy, stamping webbed bifurcates in the snow. Their numbers grew less as the hour went and they were soon replaced with a more malevolent hoot. The eyes in the trees grew in numbers, beady and yellow. Now and then she'd catch the sight of a tattered black wing flying in and out the branches, some lopsided.
She had wandered farther than what'd felt the distance Sesshomaru had been, and at some point she'd noted that if she could sense him then he also knew she was following him and she questioned if he moved further intentionally. A sick joke. Evening pulled closer and the first few stars poked the sky and a great fire had taken on the horizon, the sun elliptic and descending into blood reefs. A twig snapped loudly beneath her and she jolted, letting out a sound of frustration. Bit her tongue. Just how much longer until she'd lose the grip on her frustration. She clenched her jaw and took in a deep breath.
Her head snapped at the sight of something green lighting up at the corner of her left eye & found something writhing at the floor of a familiar boot, dissipating before she truly processed what had happened. Towering over it was Sesshomaru, who's attention was not on Towa but behind her. She had taken it as a hint, though Sesshomaru had considered it no such thing and had his sword arm outstretched, and whipped around fast enough to draw her sword down on the hand of a demon inches from her face. It stumbled back with an agonizing cry that sent a flock migrating from the trees and slammers it shoulder against the bark. The demon composed itself quickly having just lost a hand and charged forwards again and Towa had to stumble out it's path. For a thing that looked starved to have it's ribs poking with prominence and with skin motley from decay it pushed passed with absurd force that even though it missed her Towa almost fell back and had a second less to stop her feet from slipping before a blue flash of sword ripped through it's middle and at the same time another through its neck.
The demon fell. The collapsing onto its knees felt too slow, the head crashing in the snow rolling a few times over and then disappeared in a wealth of green smoke. The body eventually did too. Towa was panting, winded by surprise rather than exertion. The headless body limp at her feet was difficult to stomach with the deer from earlier. She'd be damned if she let herself fall sick now, though.
"You were thrown off balance too easily."
"...what?"
"Your balance. And that demon should not have been able to sneak up on you."
Great. She'd placed both hands on her knees to catch her breath and as she straightened up Setsuna broke through the trees with her naginata in hand, her gaze darting from Towa to Sesshomaru, Towa to Sesshomaru before finally resting on Towa.
"I smelled a demon's blood."
"It's not mine."
"I know it isn't."
Towa waved her off. "Two demon's showed up, we took care of it."
Setsuna looked over at Sesshomaru again, eyed him from head to toe. He seemed to be observing them and had yet to take off as he usually would. She decided not to think much of it.
"We should head back then."
"Yeah."
stopping here or else i fear the chapter will end up too long! i'll work to update it asap. just to elaborate a bit more; i think sesshomaru's absence it important to the girl's character, and i also think it'd take time for them to properly open up after that, which is definitely something i'm looking to explore.
