Chapter six
"Father, son...locked as one, in this empty room. Spine against spine, yours against mine, 'til the warmth comes through. Remember the breakwaters, down by the waves, first found my courage...knowing daddy could save. I could hold back the tide, with my dad by my side." Peter Gabriel
Takiko gave the white muzzle of her horse a farewell pat as she removed its harness, discarding it in the bushes. She sighed and turned to Hikitsu "are we sure we can't ride the horses over the mountains?"
"They're not goats...they couldn't handle the footing. It might be possible for them to make the trip, but not without a lot of pain and damage done to them." Hikitsu told her. He was no longer grieving, not outwardly at least, he had managed to pull all of his emotions into him, and though it seared through his mind like a fear, he hid it well. Acting upset would only hinder their ability to accomplish their goals, not to mention it would be selfish...when he could already tell all the grief had gotten to Takiko as well. Hatsui seemed unaffected, though Hikitsu suspected he was doing much the same thing that he was, keeping everything inside.
Sighing, Takiko nodded. Her horse didn't scatter to the winds as she first assumed when she let it free, instead it seemed almost reluctant to go, and it nudged her shoulder questioningly. Of course they wouldn't do too well out in the forest, they were tamed horses, not wild ones, but it was better than forcing them to journey over the mountains with them. She giggled softly and stroked the horse's feather soft mane, until she got the notion that the other two were waiting for her.
Hikitsu wasn't bluffing when he said the trail was going to be rough, although there was a vague one carved into the rock from thousands of years of travel by foot, it was uneven and rough. Well, Takiko found herself thinking, at least I'm not expected to scale any rocks.
They walked in silence, and that gave Takiko time to think and steam over the way the others treated her. Not only did they treat her like a child, but they also seemed to expect by some miracle that she was able read all of these silent messages they sent her. She wasn't perfect and she wasn't helpless, and she definitely wasn't psychic, yet they must have expected all three from her.
There was a slight fork ahead in their path, the main path was easily identifiable, but there was also a weak one that seemed to veer off from the regular one. Something about that secondary path caught Takiko's interest, and she asked if they might be able to take that one instead.
"This one is the one that we're -sure- will get us where we need to go. Do you want to get us lost?"
Perhaps he hadn't meant to sound as snide as he did, but something about Hikitsu's choice of words got to her, and her face scrunched up in frustration. "Of -course- that's what I want, Hikitsu, you know my one joy is making things harder for myself"
Hikitsu's footsteps slowed and he sighed, turning around to face Takiko. Hatsui, as usual, seemed impartial and at least slightly out of it, though his eyes flickered with faint interest at the potential for conflict. "Look, Takiko, I apologize for being short with you, I just--"
"You don't have to explain, Hikitsu. It's so clear, so -perfectly- clear what you think of me and all of this. You think this is all my fault...because it -is- isn't it? Like it was my fault that the bandits attacked the Hatsui's gypsies...and like it was my fault the villagers attacked us. It was -my- fault those hitogoroshi guys decided to overthrow the palace when they did, wasn't it? Because they wanted ME, and you hate me because you're forced to leave with me instead of staying where you think you belong. You don't have me along by -choice- but because you have to! Don't think I don't know that."
Takiko huffed, and turned, storming off to follow the weaker path along a curve. Hikitsu started to follow after her, but Hatsui grabbed his shoulder and held her back. "She'll be back, she just needs some time to be alone."
"-How- can you be so calm about what she just said?" Hikitsu frowned.
"Well...she's right, isn't she? You wouldn't act so outraged unless it was the truth. Let her get over her fit, then we'll go."
Takiko stopped short after she traveled around twenty yards from that boulder that acted as a wall that separated her from Hikitsu and Hatsui. She glanced back over her shoulder, her irritation growing a bit when she realized Hikitsu -wasn't- chasing after her. In her mind the two of them found her expendable and unnecessary, just how everyone else saw her.
"I just....UGH!!!!!!" Takiko nearly screeched, unable to find any words that would do her anger justice. Here she was in a strange world that -she- didn't want to be in, seeing more in the past two days than she had experienced in her entire life...and being expected to act like nothing was wrong. Well maybe she had a problem with shutting off her emotions, but did they have to think of her as an annoyance just because she wanted to scream and cry and run and hide? Wouldn't that be the -natural- reaction to seeing so much death and pain stuffed into such a short time?
Apparently it wasn't here.
She shivered and pulled Hikitsu's coat tighter around her body, a few pebbles rolling off the rock and over her shoe. There was a faint rumble overhead, and Takiko lifted her eyes to see an avalanche of rocks cascading like a waterfall over the cliff above. She turned and began to run, but her legs moved impossibly slow, and the rocks loamed dangerously overhead, falling closer...closer...
It was not the unforgiving force of a rock that knocked the wind out of her, rather it was the force of another body against her own, shoving her to the ground. She could still hear the rocks falling, and she refused to open her eyes until the sounds of the crashing avalanche stopped.
When she finally did crack an eye open, she saw a man hovering over her, obviously he had kept the rocks from crashing into her. He pulled back and winced, his face sweaty, strings of chin-length blonde hair stuck to his face. Takiko scooted back a bit, he wasn't a -huge- man, but he was big enough to be intimidating, taller and a bit more buff than Hikitsu and Hatsui. Still, there was no malice to his face, and if he had just -saved- her, there was no need to run from him, was there?
"Where did you...?"
"Are you all right, priestess?" The man breathed, his emerald eyes wide with concern as his hand massaged into his left shoulder, moving it a bit and wincing in the process. When she nodded slowly, his straight face turned into a tentative grin. "Good...I was afraid I accidentally hurt you."
"Where did you come from? And who are you?" Takiko blinked and crawled over to him, her knees getting scraped up by sharp shards of rock. She noted the careful way in which he moved his shoulder "are -you- hurt?"
"My name's Urumiya...I've been following you ever since you got on the mountain, I sensed danger...so I kept close."
"Yes...your subterfuge even fooled me." Someone behind them sneered, and Takiko turned to see a cloaked figure emerge from behind the rocks. "Quite a cute trick you managed, congratulations...you've succeeded in making my job just -that- much more difficult."
Unlike with Urumiya, there was definitely an aura of evil that surrounded this newcomer. Takiko cringed almost reflexively when she saw a flash of an azure eye from the shadows the hood of the cloak provided. What monster hid itself beneath it?
"And just who are you?" Urumiya narrowed his eyes and rose slowly to his feet, his clothes now slightly torn from his quick rescue, but other than his shoulder he seemed absent of any major injuries, and he still stood strong.
"You can call me...Kumori." He informed them, and a human hand appeared from inside the cloak. That was as shocking as anything to Takiko; she had expected some sort of grotesque claw or paws to be hidden inside. He snapped his fingers and from the rock wall beside them, two shadows crawled out of stone and slunk to them, looking like the after-image of some hellish demon. "Now, give me the Genbu priestess and I'll call off my minions, otherwise you can look forward to a quick death of being ripped apart by these remnants of the underworld."
Urumiya smirked and ushered for Takiko to stay behind him, which she did with little argument. For shadows, the two demons seemed rather realistic; she could make out their drooling mouths and beady eyes easily. "So is that it, -Kumori- or whoever you are...you can't fight me man to man?"
"He can't fight you man to man because he's a -monster-, a hideous monster!" Takiko couldn't shut herself up before she found herself shouting, "Why else would he hide underneath that cloak?"
Kumori sneered, and long fingers curled around the edge of his hood to push it backward and reveal his face. What stood before them was -not- some disfigured monster, but perhaps as perfect a specimen for a man as Takiko had ever come across, save for the scars that ran from the bridge of his nose to his jaw on one side of his face. Three scars, like a cat had dug its claws too deep into his face. He had a well groomed mane of dark brown hair that almost worked as well as his hood did to cover his face, and his eyes were a bright, insane amber. "I suggest you rethink your words, -girl-...I can find ways to make your death much more torturous."
With a swish from his ebony cloak, Kumori turned away. "Kill them." He ordered the shadows, his voice holding an air of indifference. As he walked away the demon shadows reared back on their haunches and sprang at them, but Takiko had just enough time to see the man fade easily into nothing before she was knocked to the ground by one of the shadows.
"Agh! Urumiya, help!" Takiko pleaded, throwing her hands in front of her face to fend off vicious attacks from the demon's jagged teeth. It cut into her skin, the wounds stinging as if they had been poisoned, but every time she tried to crawl away it would pounce her again as a cat would a mouse it was playing with. Kicking and screaming, she finally felt the demon relent, and when she opened her eyes she saw Urumiya pulling back and dropping a sharp piece of rock, the demon dissolving into the air.
Urumiya leaned against the cliff and ran his hand over his forehead, wiping off beads of sweat that dribbled down his face. He could barely breathe he was so exhausted, and yet he felt energized at the same time...the threat was gone, those shadows or demons were gone and the priestess was safe. If it weren't for the spiked pain in his shoulder he probably would have laughed.
"Are you okay?" Takiko looked at him, brushing off bits of dirt and rock from the coat Hikitsu had let her borrow. He nodded vaguely, but Takiko could tell by his slightly pallid skin that he wasn't doing too great. She walked over to him and gingerly touched the shoulder he didn't seem to be favoring, and smiled.
"...Thank you."
Urumiya chuckled softly and shook his head "Think nothing of it, priestess..."
"You can call me Takiko." She smiled brightly, and took his hand to lead him back down the path that she had taken, away from Hikitsu "come on, I'm sure Hikitsu and Hatsui will love to meet you!"
Hatsui covered his mouth to hide a yawn as he looked up, and saw Takiko rounding that boulder leading a tired looking man. He felt a grin marking his face, but he kept in any of the perverse jokes that popped into his head. While he certainly didn't recognize this man, he didn't react alarmed like Hikitsu did.
"Takiko, who is that man?!"
"Urumiya...he saved me from some falling rocks but I think he's hurt..."
Hikitsu blinked in surprise and looked from Takiko to the newcomer, eyeing him skeptically, but finally relenting and accepting that Urumiya was no killer out to harm the priestess. When he stepped closer, Urumiya allowed him to inspect his wound...which seemed painful but it didn't look too awfully serious.
"Come on, then...the next town shouldn't be too far away, and you can get that cared for there."
"-And-...." Hatsui pressed for him to continue.
"...And we can go ahead and stop at an inn for the night before we continue on to Secaar."
Hatsui grinned and nodded in acknowledgement that those were the words he wanted to hear, tearing himself away from the rocky wall and making his way over to the group.
"-So-...Urumiya, right? Kinda odd that you just happened to be there to save her from those rocks, now isn't it?"
"Father, son...locked as one, in this empty room. Spine against spine, yours against mine, 'til the warmth comes through. Remember the breakwaters, down by the waves, first found my courage...knowing daddy could save. I could hold back the tide, with my dad by my side." Peter Gabriel
Takiko gave the white muzzle of her horse a farewell pat as she removed its harness, discarding it in the bushes. She sighed and turned to Hikitsu "are we sure we can't ride the horses over the mountains?"
"They're not goats...they couldn't handle the footing. It might be possible for them to make the trip, but not without a lot of pain and damage done to them." Hikitsu told her. He was no longer grieving, not outwardly at least, he had managed to pull all of his emotions into him, and though it seared through his mind like a fear, he hid it well. Acting upset would only hinder their ability to accomplish their goals, not to mention it would be selfish...when he could already tell all the grief had gotten to Takiko as well. Hatsui seemed unaffected, though Hikitsu suspected he was doing much the same thing that he was, keeping everything inside.
Sighing, Takiko nodded. Her horse didn't scatter to the winds as she first assumed when she let it free, instead it seemed almost reluctant to go, and it nudged her shoulder questioningly. Of course they wouldn't do too well out in the forest, they were tamed horses, not wild ones, but it was better than forcing them to journey over the mountains with them. She giggled softly and stroked the horse's feather soft mane, until she got the notion that the other two were waiting for her.
Hikitsu wasn't bluffing when he said the trail was going to be rough, although there was a vague one carved into the rock from thousands of years of travel by foot, it was uneven and rough. Well, Takiko found herself thinking, at least I'm not expected to scale any rocks.
They walked in silence, and that gave Takiko time to think and steam over the way the others treated her. Not only did they treat her like a child, but they also seemed to expect by some miracle that she was able read all of these silent messages they sent her. She wasn't perfect and she wasn't helpless, and she definitely wasn't psychic, yet they must have expected all three from her.
There was a slight fork ahead in their path, the main path was easily identifiable, but there was also a weak one that seemed to veer off from the regular one. Something about that secondary path caught Takiko's interest, and she asked if they might be able to take that one instead.
"This one is the one that we're -sure- will get us where we need to go. Do you want to get us lost?"
Perhaps he hadn't meant to sound as snide as he did, but something about Hikitsu's choice of words got to her, and her face scrunched up in frustration. "Of -course- that's what I want, Hikitsu, you know my one joy is making things harder for myself"
Hikitsu's footsteps slowed and he sighed, turning around to face Takiko. Hatsui, as usual, seemed impartial and at least slightly out of it, though his eyes flickered with faint interest at the potential for conflict. "Look, Takiko, I apologize for being short with you, I just--"
"You don't have to explain, Hikitsu. It's so clear, so -perfectly- clear what you think of me and all of this. You think this is all my fault...because it -is- isn't it? Like it was my fault that the bandits attacked the Hatsui's gypsies...and like it was my fault the villagers attacked us. It was -my- fault those hitogoroshi guys decided to overthrow the palace when they did, wasn't it? Because they wanted ME, and you hate me because you're forced to leave with me instead of staying where you think you belong. You don't have me along by -choice- but because you have to! Don't think I don't know that."
Takiko huffed, and turned, storming off to follow the weaker path along a curve. Hikitsu started to follow after her, but Hatsui grabbed his shoulder and held her back. "She'll be back, she just needs some time to be alone."
"-How- can you be so calm about what she just said?" Hikitsu frowned.
"Well...she's right, isn't she? You wouldn't act so outraged unless it was the truth. Let her get over her fit, then we'll go."
Takiko stopped short after she traveled around twenty yards from that boulder that acted as a wall that separated her from Hikitsu and Hatsui. She glanced back over her shoulder, her irritation growing a bit when she realized Hikitsu -wasn't- chasing after her. In her mind the two of them found her expendable and unnecessary, just how everyone else saw her.
"I just....UGH!!!!!!" Takiko nearly screeched, unable to find any words that would do her anger justice. Here she was in a strange world that -she- didn't want to be in, seeing more in the past two days than she had experienced in her entire life...and being expected to act like nothing was wrong. Well maybe she had a problem with shutting off her emotions, but did they have to think of her as an annoyance just because she wanted to scream and cry and run and hide? Wouldn't that be the -natural- reaction to seeing so much death and pain stuffed into such a short time?
Apparently it wasn't here.
She shivered and pulled Hikitsu's coat tighter around her body, a few pebbles rolling off the rock and over her shoe. There was a faint rumble overhead, and Takiko lifted her eyes to see an avalanche of rocks cascading like a waterfall over the cliff above. She turned and began to run, but her legs moved impossibly slow, and the rocks loamed dangerously overhead, falling closer...closer...
It was not the unforgiving force of a rock that knocked the wind out of her, rather it was the force of another body against her own, shoving her to the ground. She could still hear the rocks falling, and she refused to open her eyes until the sounds of the crashing avalanche stopped.
When she finally did crack an eye open, she saw a man hovering over her, obviously he had kept the rocks from crashing into her. He pulled back and winced, his face sweaty, strings of chin-length blonde hair stuck to his face. Takiko scooted back a bit, he wasn't a -huge- man, but he was big enough to be intimidating, taller and a bit more buff than Hikitsu and Hatsui. Still, there was no malice to his face, and if he had just -saved- her, there was no need to run from him, was there?
"Where did you...?"
"Are you all right, priestess?" The man breathed, his emerald eyes wide with concern as his hand massaged into his left shoulder, moving it a bit and wincing in the process. When she nodded slowly, his straight face turned into a tentative grin. "Good...I was afraid I accidentally hurt you."
"Where did you come from? And who are you?" Takiko blinked and crawled over to him, her knees getting scraped up by sharp shards of rock. She noted the careful way in which he moved his shoulder "are -you- hurt?"
"My name's Urumiya...I've been following you ever since you got on the mountain, I sensed danger...so I kept close."
"Yes...your subterfuge even fooled me." Someone behind them sneered, and Takiko turned to see a cloaked figure emerge from behind the rocks. "Quite a cute trick you managed, congratulations...you've succeeded in making my job just -that- much more difficult."
Unlike with Urumiya, there was definitely an aura of evil that surrounded this newcomer. Takiko cringed almost reflexively when she saw a flash of an azure eye from the shadows the hood of the cloak provided. What monster hid itself beneath it?
"And just who are you?" Urumiya narrowed his eyes and rose slowly to his feet, his clothes now slightly torn from his quick rescue, but other than his shoulder he seemed absent of any major injuries, and he still stood strong.
"You can call me...Kumori." He informed them, and a human hand appeared from inside the cloak. That was as shocking as anything to Takiko; she had expected some sort of grotesque claw or paws to be hidden inside. He snapped his fingers and from the rock wall beside them, two shadows crawled out of stone and slunk to them, looking like the after-image of some hellish demon. "Now, give me the Genbu priestess and I'll call off my minions, otherwise you can look forward to a quick death of being ripped apart by these remnants of the underworld."
Urumiya smirked and ushered for Takiko to stay behind him, which she did with little argument. For shadows, the two demons seemed rather realistic; she could make out their drooling mouths and beady eyes easily. "So is that it, -Kumori- or whoever you are...you can't fight me man to man?"
"He can't fight you man to man because he's a -monster-, a hideous monster!" Takiko couldn't shut herself up before she found herself shouting, "Why else would he hide underneath that cloak?"
Kumori sneered, and long fingers curled around the edge of his hood to push it backward and reveal his face. What stood before them was -not- some disfigured monster, but perhaps as perfect a specimen for a man as Takiko had ever come across, save for the scars that ran from the bridge of his nose to his jaw on one side of his face. Three scars, like a cat had dug its claws too deep into his face. He had a well groomed mane of dark brown hair that almost worked as well as his hood did to cover his face, and his eyes were a bright, insane amber. "I suggest you rethink your words, -girl-...I can find ways to make your death much more torturous."
With a swish from his ebony cloak, Kumori turned away. "Kill them." He ordered the shadows, his voice holding an air of indifference. As he walked away the demon shadows reared back on their haunches and sprang at them, but Takiko had just enough time to see the man fade easily into nothing before she was knocked to the ground by one of the shadows.
"Agh! Urumiya, help!" Takiko pleaded, throwing her hands in front of her face to fend off vicious attacks from the demon's jagged teeth. It cut into her skin, the wounds stinging as if they had been poisoned, but every time she tried to crawl away it would pounce her again as a cat would a mouse it was playing with. Kicking and screaming, she finally felt the demon relent, and when she opened her eyes she saw Urumiya pulling back and dropping a sharp piece of rock, the demon dissolving into the air.
Urumiya leaned against the cliff and ran his hand over his forehead, wiping off beads of sweat that dribbled down his face. He could barely breathe he was so exhausted, and yet he felt energized at the same time...the threat was gone, those shadows or demons were gone and the priestess was safe. If it weren't for the spiked pain in his shoulder he probably would have laughed.
"Are you okay?" Takiko looked at him, brushing off bits of dirt and rock from the coat Hikitsu had let her borrow. He nodded vaguely, but Takiko could tell by his slightly pallid skin that he wasn't doing too great. She walked over to him and gingerly touched the shoulder he didn't seem to be favoring, and smiled.
"...Thank you."
Urumiya chuckled softly and shook his head "Think nothing of it, priestess..."
"You can call me Takiko." She smiled brightly, and took his hand to lead him back down the path that she had taken, away from Hikitsu "come on, I'm sure Hikitsu and Hatsui will love to meet you!"
Hatsui covered his mouth to hide a yawn as he looked up, and saw Takiko rounding that boulder leading a tired looking man. He felt a grin marking his face, but he kept in any of the perverse jokes that popped into his head. While he certainly didn't recognize this man, he didn't react alarmed like Hikitsu did.
"Takiko, who is that man?!"
"Urumiya...he saved me from some falling rocks but I think he's hurt..."
Hikitsu blinked in surprise and looked from Takiko to the newcomer, eyeing him skeptically, but finally relenting and accepting that Urumiya was no killer out to harm the priestess. When he stepped closer, Urumiya allowed him to inspect his wound...which seemed painful but it didn't look too awfully serious.
"Come on, then...the next town shouldn't be too far away, and you can get that cared for there."
"-And-...." Hatsui pressed for him to continue.
"...And we can go ahead and stop at an inn for the night before we continue on to Secaar."
Hatsui grinned and nodded in acknowledgement that those were the words he wanted to hear, tearing himself away from the rocky wall and making his way over to the group.
"-So-...Urumiya, right? Kinda odd that you just happened to be there to save her from those rocks, now isn't it?"