Hey! It's me! I was determined I was going to get this out before midnight on Tuesday and try to keep to my schedule…a whole week late, but…
What can I say, Real Life jumped up and bit me in the but, in the form of my Grandmother moving three provinces away and coming home to a burst hot water tank, then working like a mad thing to build a cat room for my girl kitten Subaru who will be six months old in three weeks and could go into her first heat anytime after that. Don't want to be an irresponsible mommy and have her having babies too soon! Anyway, you don't want to read the trials of my life, you want to read the story! So here you are!
Chapter 8:
The Quest
Preparations for the journey to Sairo-koku were undertaken quickly, and by the next morning they were ready to set out. A large party was gathered to see the six seishi, Suzaku no Mi, and Suzaku no Mune off. Many of the imperial advisors were there, as well as Hotohori, Houki, and Boushin.
"This scene seems somehow too familiar to me," Hotohori said, "please take care of yourselves, and we will pray for your safe and swift return."
Houki came forward and pressed packages into Elwing and Iris's hands. "Don't open them until you're alone," she cautioned them conspiratorially, "I also will pray for your safety and happiness."
"Thank you." They said in unison, then looked at each other and laughed.
"We're doing it again!" Elwing said triumphantly.
Boushin tugged at her jeans. 'Hey! Pay attention to me!' he reminded her.
She picked him up and gave him a hug. "I'll be back soon, little prince, don't worry." she said out loud. In her mind she added, 'You mind your Mommy and Papa 'til then, eh? And would you give Iris a big hug, she's been feeling a little sad lately.'
'Okay.' Boushin held out his arms to Iris, and, when she took him from Elwing, wrapped his little arms around her neck.
She hugged him back and kissed his cheek. "I know, I'll miss you too," Iris reassured him.
Elwing happened to glance over at Tasuki during this and managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of raw longing flash across his face before it was buried again.
They mounted up, and Tamahome led the convoy out the western gate of the palace and through the streets of Eiyo.
Once they were past the gates of the city, Elwing and Iris threw back the hoods on their traveling cloaks and grinned at each other.
"On the road again!" Elwing sang, and Iris gave her a withering look. "What? It's true!" Elwing said innocently, but she shut up anyway. Iris's mood, which presently seemed to be good, could probably turn sad again with very little warning, so it was best not to test her.
Chichiri reigned in slightly until he was riding alongside Nuriko, who was presently acting as rearguard. "So, I was wondering something, no da."
"Yes, what was that?"
"What's it like to be dead, no da?"
Nuriko seemed startled by the question, but then he thought about it. "Do you know, I can't really remember anymore. It's like trying to remember a dream, you know? Some of the scenes are as clear as crystal, but the rest of it… " he trailed off, "Just thinking about it is giving me a headache."
"That makes sense, no da. If you could remember, it would probably make you not concerned enough about dieing again, and you might not take enough care of yourself. It's an interesting situation, na no da." Chichiri mused.
"The only thing I am sure of is that I don't want to go back there any time soon."
"Well, we don't want you to either, no da." Chichiri assured him.
Iris, riding near the middle of the group, found herself glancing over at Tasuki when he wasn't looking and pondering over what Tamahome had told her the day before. 'Could it be that he actually does like me?' she thought, 'I'd like to believe that, but somehow I just can't see it.' She looked over at Tasuki, trying to memorize the little things, like the way he every so often had to brush his hair out of his eyes, or the way he shifted his shoulders to settle the Tessen more comfortably. He frowned and looked over at her, and she looked away quickly. 'When Tamahome first met Miaka, he said, he was protective even though it went against his nature to do so without being paid for it. He told me he saw similarities to the way Tasuki is now, but what are they? I wish I could see these things that Tamahome and Nuriko seem to see. Maybe they're just trying to encourage me not to give up, I don't know.' she mused sadly.
Meanwhile, Tasuki's thoughts were no less confused. 'Nuriko can't have known what he was talking about when he said Iris was in love with me… can he?' He felt eyes burning into him and looked around frowning, but he couldn't catch anyone looking at him. He gazed at Iris for a minute, turning the question over in his head. As he watched her, Tasuki couldn't help noticing the way the sun caught the deep reddish-violet highlights in her hair, and he swore silently to himself. 'Dammit, how the Hell am I supposed to figure out Iris's feelings if I can't even unravel the knots in my own heart? Every time I look at her lately it stirs these damned weird and confusing feelings. I wish sometimes that she had never shown up, but… that thought hurts somehow. Almost as much as the thought that she might be in love with Nuriko… Dammit, where did that come from?! If she loves Nuriko I should be happy for both of them, they seem to get along so well.' Tasuki felt sharp knife twist in his heart at this last thought. 'Shit!' he thought, 'I thought I knew every way a woman could hurt me, but I seem to have discovered another one.'
By the time they reached the first of the "post inns" which were planted along the highway in one day's riding intervals, everyone was tired. Elwing and Iris, despite all the riding that they had been doing in the last two weeks, were beginning to feel very stiff. They pulled their horses to a halt inside the inn's dooryard and the two girls waited, concealed in their cloaks, until the seishi had arranged for their night's lodging. Leaving Chiriko and Mitsukake to hold the horses; Tamahome, Nuriko, Chichiri, and Tasuki went over and rang the gong to call the innkeeper. When the man arrived, half at a run out of the inn and saw the size of their party, he began to wring his hands in distress.
"Honoured sirs… " he panted, "Honoured sirs, I regret to inform you that I have only four rooms left. Although I can stable all your horses, this close to Eiyo there is always an abundance of traffic, and I fear a large merchant deputation arrived earlier today on their way to trade woolens from Hokkan-koku, and they have filled all but four of our rooms."
Tasuki glared at the frightened, roly-poly man. Nuriko, seeing the fire in Tasuki's eyes and fearful that due to his obvious frustration in dealing with his feelings, it might translate into real fire at any minute, laid a comradely hand on Tasuki's shoulder.
"We can understand your dilemma, good sir, but you must see ours. If it were only us, we would have little difficulty sharing rooms. We are comrades in arms, and have spent many nights in places where there was only one room and all had to share the floor; or even camped around a fire at night, but we have women with us. Surely you must see that their comfort is our only concern?" Nuriko smoothtalked the innkeeper.
"Well, I do indeed see your dilemma more clearly now," the innkeeper allowed, "let me reassure you that the four rooms I mentioned are the best at my inn, and the women will not suffer for comfort. Also, for only a small extra charge, I will supply you with four extra futons."
The seishi backed off to discuss it among themselves.
"We really have no other choice, no da. There are no other inns anywhere closer than a two hours ride at the pace we're keeping, and if Elwing and Iris have to sleep on the ground, they probably won't be able to move at all tomorrow, na no da." Chichiri pointed out.
Tamahome looked back at the girls sitting rather stiffly in their saddles and nodded in agreement. "You're probably right. We can always draw straws to see who sleeps where."
They turned back to the innkeeper.
"We've agreed. We'll take your offer of the four rooms and four extra futons. We also want tubs of hot water for bathing." Nuriko specified.
"Alright then, I'll prepare the rooms and send a boy out to stable your horses and another to carry your bags."
The four seishi returned to where Mitsukake and Chiriko were holding the horses, and Elwing and Iris were still mounted on theirs.
They explained the situation about the rooms, and Elwing and Iris shot a vaguely ironic look at each other.
When they got to the bit about the hot water, both girls let out a weak cheer.
"I'm sure I've never been so stiff in my whole life!" Elwing groaned, "I think I've forgotten how to get off this thing!" In agonizingly slow motion she swung herself around in the saddle and slipped down to the ground, where her knees buckled and she would have fallen had Chichiri not caught her.
"I thought this might happen, no da." He smiled gently at her, "Your legs aren't used to being wrapped around a horse all day, they need some time to rest, no da."
Nuriko walked over to Iris's horse. "Do you need a hand?" he asked her.
"I'll do that," Tasuki growled at him, "it's supposed to be my job, right?"
Tasuki reached up and caught Iris as she dismounted, holding her steady until she got her weak but still semi-functional legs under her.
"Thanks." Iris smiled.
"Hey, I'm just doin' my job." Tasuki half-smiled back, but refused to meet her eyes.
"What are we doing about sleeping arrangements?" Chiriko asked.
"I thought we could draw straws." Tamahome suggested.
"You're welcome to share my room if you want." Elwing hesitantly offered to Chichiri.
"Daaa!" he said, a little surprised at her boldness, then he grinned, "I would be honoured to guard you all night, no da." he said and kissed her forehead.
"Any other volunteers?" Nuriko asked, looking around.
No one said anything. Although Iris was looking almost pleadingly at Tasuki, he was looking the other way and didn't notice. 'At least,' she thought to herself, 'he still has one arm around me for support. Probably only because he forgot to let go, though.'
Tamahome rummaged around in his saddlebags until he came up with a handful of Mah Jong tally sticks. Picking three matching pairs, he put the rest of them away, then held the remaining six in his hand.
"Everybody pick one, and whoever gets the same number of dots has to share a room."
They all reached out and plucked the long slivers of marked ivory from Tamahome's hand, leaving him only one. While this was going on, Elwing noticed a tingling sensation on the back of her neck, and realized that Chichiri was casting a spell.
"What did you do?" she whispered in his ear.
"I made sure Iris and Tasuki spend the night together, no da." Chichiri whispered back.
The other six looked at their tally sticks. Mitsukake and Chiriko both had ones, Tamahome and Nuriko had sixes, and Tasuki and Iris had twelves.
"Well, it seems the fates were kind to you, Tasuki, no da." Chichiri grinned.
"If you say so," Tasuki said sounding honestly puzzled. 'Why does the thought of being able to watch over Iris all night while she sleeps feel so good?' he wondered.
Nuriko patted his shoulder. "See, now you have nothing to be jealous about." He reassured Tasuki.
"Who the Hell said I was jealous?! I'm not fuckin' jealous!"
Iris was too exhausted to connect this with Tamahome's very similar statement, and Nuriko's, all she could think was that at least Tasuki would be spending the night with her.
The innkeeper's two young sons came out to take their horses away and show them to their rooms. Because they were traveling incognito, Nuriko didn't want to make a scene by carrying in all the baggage, so they all carried their own things (except for Chichiri and Elwing, since he was carrying her). The rooms they were led to were hidden away at the back of the inn and were all in a block, two on either side. Chichiri carried Elwing into one of the two which were at the very end of the hall, and Tasuki helped Iris into the room right across from them. Nuriko and Tamahome chose the room next to Tasuki and Iris, so Chiriko and Mitsukake carried their things into the last room.
Tubs were brought into the rooms and filled with hot water, one in each of the girls' rooms, and three in each of the other two rooms, with screens to separate them, and then the servants departed.
"Will you be alright, no da?" Chichiri asked Elwing, who was sitting with her legs stretched out on the bed trying to massage the life back into them.
"I think I can make it as far as the tub, and the hot water should help my legs. If I have any problems, I'll call Iris." Elwing said.
"I'll see you at dinner then, no da." Chichiri bent to brush his lips across her forehead, then left her to her privacy.
Although it was difficult, Elwing forced her sore, tired legs to carry her to the tub, which beckoned so invitingly from the middle of her floor.
As soon as Tasuki left their room, Iris got into her tub. She wanted as much time to soak as she could possibly get before dinner. Even if she wasn't sure how he felt about her, she was determined that if she was going to be in close quarters with Tasuki, she should try to make a good impression on him.
She had no idea how good an impression she was about to make.
Tasuki strolled back down the corridor, having forgotten, in his previous haste, that one of their bags had been left in the stables. He was carrying it over one shoulder as he opened the door to his and Iris's room.
When Iris heard the door creak open, she quickly curled her knees up against her chest, sloshing water onto the floor, and shouted, "Hey! What the Hell do you think you're doing?!"
Tasuki quickly shut the door and leaned against it. "Sorry! I didn't think you were in the tub yet!" he called through the door, willing his madly beating heart to slow.
Mitsukake peeked his head out from across the hall. "Is anything wrong?" he asked.
"N… nothing." Tasuki stammered, blushing bright red.
Mitsukake chuckled and closed the door again.
"Dammit!" Tasuki swore, "I hate women!" but he wasn't able to put his usual conviction into the statement, and the whole time he was bathing, he couldn't seem to get that one, brief glimpse of translucent skin out of his head.
Once Iris felt she had soaked long enough, she toweled herself off, put on a robe and grabbed her package from Houki, and stealthily crept across the hall.
"Come on in Iris." Elwing called before she had a chance to knock.
"How did you know it was me?" Iris asked as she slipped in the door, "Come to think of it, how did you even know I was there? I thought I was walking pretty quietly."
"I figured out that if I loosely hold onto my power, I can tell who's outside my door." Elwing explained. She was lying on her bed wrapped in a robe. "I was just about to call you, actually. My legs are still so stiff I can hardly move them, and I was hoping maybe you could… "
"Use magick on them? Sure!" Iris agreed. Kneeling beside Elwing's bed, she drew a circle, then called turquoise light between her hands and sent it into her coven sister's aching legs, pulling out the blackish-red energy of the stiffness and pain and grounding it.
"Thanks so much." Elwing said as Iris broke the circle and she flexed her legs once more.
"It'll get better as you get used to long days of riding." Iris assured her.
"Let's see what Houki gave us." Elwing suggested.
"Good idea, I love surprises!"
They both took their packages and undid the cord binding them closed. Inside each one were bolts of silk which, when unrolled, turned out in fact, to be dresses in the style which was common in Konan. Elwing's varied from forest green to the lightest sunshine yellow and Iris's from blood red crimson to sunset orange.
"Oh, gorgeous!" Elwing breathed.
"But how do they go on?" Iris asked.
By trying to remember those dresses they had seen, the two girls managed to figure out which were the underthings and had donned them and were puzzling over the outer robes when Elwing felt a presence outside the door and grinned.
"I think I might have a solution to our confusion," she said to Iris as they heard a knocking.
"Are you ready for dinner?" Nuriko asked.
"Um, not quite," Elwing said, "do you think you could come in and give us a hand?"
"Are you crazy?" Iris grated under her breath.
"Think about it," Elwing whispered back, "he used to dress as a woman."
Iris's eyes brightened. "Do come in, Nuriko." she invited.
Nuriko slipped through the door and immediately saw their dilemma. "I think I can help you," he laughed.
"Awesome!" Elwing cheered.
Nuriko quickly helped them into their accoutrements. "Looks great, but we really need to do something with your hair." he mused.
In among the wrappings there were ribbons and hairsticks, and Nuriko was more than pleased to put their hair up. He decided as he was running Iris's hair through his fingers that he would play a little trick on the others. Iris looked enough like Miaka that Nuriko figured if he did her hair in Miaka's familiar buns, he might just fool the others, at least for a short time. Once he had fixed Iris's hair, he did Elwing's hair up into a complicated double bun on top of her head, trailing a thin braid down over each shoulder.
"Perfect!" he exalted, "C'mon, let's go eat."
Nuriko preceded the two women down the stairs and sat himself at the table.
"Are they ready, no da?" Chichiri asked.
Nuriko giggled. "Here they come!" he smiled as Elwing and Iris descended the stairs.
"M… M… Miaka?" Tamahome stuttered against the sudden silence.
"No ahou, it's Iris." Tasuki corrected him after only a brief moment of confusion.
"Daaa!" Chichiri said and walked over to escort Elwing to the table, "You look beautiful, no da!"
"So, you can look like a woman." Tasuki said to Iris, an odd note in his voice.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Iris growled.
"N… nothin'." he stammered, and they sat down to eat.
The girls were both yawning by the end of the meal, so Mitsukake suggested they go to bed while the seishi made plans for the quest into Sairo-koku.
When Tasuki trundled up the stairs to go to bed about half an hour later, he was somewhat apprehensive. This time, he knocked on the door first, but there was no answer, so he let himself in. Iris had laid her beautiful dress across a chair and gone to bed, and for a moment Tasuki couldn't believe she was actually asleep, since she was lying half-off the bed and upside down. He felt another of those pangs in his heart as he looked at her and, hoping she was a heavy sleeper, Tasuki carefully and gently lifted Iris back onto the bed and brushed a tiny strand of hair away from her cheek. In her sleep, Iris instinctively reacted to this by grabbing his hand between hers and clasping it to her. Images flashed through Tasuki's head: Her arrival, his fear when she was sick, helping her learn to saddle and take care of her horse, the stifled sob from the day before that had made him think his heart might break...
He swore internally. 'Dammit, I think I'm in love with her!' he thought to himself, utterly stunned.
Gently he pulled his hand loose from hers and tucked the covers around her and readied himself for bed, shucking jacket, boots and tunic, then sat down on his pallet against the wall and continued to stare at her, puzzling through his feelings.
Across the hall, Chichiri was about to knock on the door of his and Elwing's room when she softly told him to come in.
"Aren't you asleep yet, no da?" he asked, "I thought you would be so tired from all the riding that you'd be asleep as soon as you hit the pillow, no da."
Elwing laughed ruefully. "I wish I could do that. It usually takes me about an hour or two to get to sleep."
Chichiri got ready for bed, unwrapping his kesa and bundling it by his pillow, then slipping his shoes and tunic off as well, and laying his mask down on the kesa. He went and kneeled by Elwing's bed and began rubbing her back.
"I think I understand now why you're always so reluctant to get up in the mornings. Would it help if I held you until you fell asleep, no da?"
"It might." Elwing smiled, wondering if this was some kind of incredible waking dream.
Chichiri pulled back the coverlet, although not the sheet, and slipped into the bed, wrapping his arms around Elwing, who spooned herself against him, pinning the sheet between them, and sighed.
"Good night, no da." he whispered to her and kissed the pulse of her neck as he whispered a soft spell of sleeping.
"'Night." she said as her eyes closed.
He had intended to hold her for only a few minutes, reveling in the freedom she allowed him, then to go back to his own bed, but Chichiri was also very tired, and he fell asleep soon after Elwing did, with her head snuggled under his chin.
Tasuki had fallen asleep sitting against the wall, and when Iris woke up, sometime after midnight, she could see him bathed in the moonlight which was shining in through the window. 'He looks cold,' she thought and quietly snuck out of bed. Finding that he was sitting firmly on his own blanket, she got the one off the foot of her bed and wrapped it around him, glorying in the brief touches of his smooth skin against her hands. She took one last look, then went back to sleep, and continued the scene in her dreams.
As was usual for her, Elwing half-woke around dawn, and rolled over to go back to sleep, only semi-aware that she was still sharing the bed. 'Mmm… lovely dream.' she thought to herself as she pillowed her head on Chichiri's shoulder and went back to sleep.
The first thing Iris saw when she opened her eyes in the morning was Tasuki, still sitting against the wall, wrapped in the blanket. She smiled happily. 'Oh, he's so cute! So it wasn't a dream… at least, not all of it.' she thought to herself. She slipped quietly out of bed and tiptoed across the floor to kneel in front of him. 'Why can't you love me?' she asked in her head as she examined the perfection of her sleeping guardian, 'I love you, why can't you return my feelings?' As if in response to this last thought, Tasuki sighed and opened his eyes.
"Good morning." Iris said, "Isn't it a bit uncomfortable to sleep sitting up?"
"About the same as sleeping upside-down," Tasuki said as he grabbed his tunic and put it back on. "I'll go see if they can start makin' us some breakfast while you change. You should wear that pretty dress again sometime," he added as an afterthought.
"Not during the day, with all that road dust!" Iris objected, but she blushed.
"Whatever." Tasuki said as he left the room, with only one thing nagging at him: where had that blanket come from anyway?
A couple of hours after dawn, Chichiri woke up and realized where he was. Elwing's soft breathing was almost ticklish as it ruffled the tassels on his prayer beads, so with a wicked little grin he decided to return the favour. He caught up a lock of her hair and flicked it across her face and down to brush about her collarbones. Elwing reached out with her hand to stop the tickling, catching Chichiri's hand in hers. Slowly Elwing's eyes fluttered open.
"I thought it was a dream!" she said, surprised but happy as she sat up and stretched.
"Good morning, no da." Chichiri said, also sitting up, "I didn't realize how tired I was last night, I hope you don't mind, no da."
"Mind? You've got to be kidding! I can think of no sight I'd rather see first thing in the morning than your face near to mine." Elwing said and kissed him.
"I'll go get breakfast while you change, no da." He said, running his fingers through her sleep-tousled hair.
" 'It took them the whole rest of a week to reach the Sairo border, and by that time Elwing and Iris, although still not entirely comfortable on horseback, were much more competent riders.' " Pithya read, "Boy, Elwing's been busy!" she grinned, then continued, " 'The Suzaku seishi Tasuki kept his desperate secret hidden, even from his fellow shichiseishi.' " Pithya sighed. "Poor Iris. That Tasuki doesn't seem worth it. Why doesn't she go for Nuriko? He seems much cooler."
Suddenly Catherine let out a cry. "Oh, so that's him!" she exclaimed.
"What's who?" Pithya asked.
"Chichiri! He's introduced in episode nine, see!"
"Cool! I want to see this episode, K?" Pithya requested.
Catherine obligingly rewound a short way back to the beginning of the episode, and they both watched as Chichiri was introduced.
"Well, okay, I think I can see now part of why Elwing sees in him," Pithya allowed, "he certainly seems both powerful and wise, but also funny. In a way, he does kinda remind me of Elwing a bit."
She picked up the book and resumed reading.
And off they go hippity-hop down the trail to Sairou! And Tasuki's FINALLY clued in! Hasn't done anything about things, but it's only a matter of time now!
And for those of you (OtakuPitcher) who were wondering, Chapters are written up to half of 15 and need some editing before they are post-worthy, but I'm working on it, although I haven't had much time lately to write much.
Back on track for next week! Chapter Nine in all its glory! One crazy kitsune girl signing out!