Author's Note: I give you chapter 16! It's long, and quite good, so please don't kill me for taking so long to get it out. *ducks from the flying projectiles*
I give no promises for chapter 17, but I have to say lately I've been extremely inspired by the wonderful fan art which has been coming my way for this story (hint hint). I've posted several of them on my site with the hopes to eventually incorporate them into my reformatted chapters. Personally I just love having a visual accompaniment while I'm reading, not to mention it actually makes my story feel more real (if that makes sense ^^) Here is the link, and I highly recommend you go drool over them!
www. thecompendium. org/ stories/ fanart/ index.html
P.S. The link is spaced out the way it is because ff.net has a problem with uploading objects that look like urls. And if anything in this chapter is messed up, spacing, centering, italics, etc, it's ff.net's fault again. I've given up trying to make it happy. Don't ask me why, I'm just a victim here too.
Chapter 16 - In Perfect Time
You structure, you plan it, you think it out to the detail
But it's all held back and you can't go forward -
When you really need it, and the time's right, a wise one comes:
Then the walls of your house will be fit for you to dwell in.
Sleep wasn't coming easy to Marissa.
The sounds of the night seemed too noisy, the moonlight too bright, the bed to stiff, and her pillow smelled faintly of dirty animal hair, a fact she choose not to ponder on too long. Her traveling companions had fallen asleep some time before, their perfectly rhythmic breathing a strange compliment to the sounds that floated through the partially open window, echoes of creatures which stirred only in the night. The prominent hum of crickets singing their nightly chorus was gently undercut by the occasional call of a passing bird, a shrill lingering note that tickled somewhere deep at the base of Marissa's spine, making her both at once want to fly from bed to catch a glimpse of it and scoot down even farther under the blankets. Then there were the other, manmade sounds, which were both comforting and annoying. Intermittent bouts of snoring from one of the other pallets in the room, the creaks and groans of the building as it settled with the dropping temperature, and the faint sounds of movement a floor below as late patrons stumbled their way upstairs. It was little wonder that her eyes refused to stay shut of their own accord.
Reflectively, she didn't blame herself for her lack of exhaustion. Her body might have been insistently prodding to allow itself to finally get some rest, but her mind was quite awake and determined to stay that way until some sort of resolve was reached. It felt like too much to take in all at once though, which led her running into wider circles to try and encompass everything, the center of her problems receding further and further away. They weren't going back to the house. Probably never again. With Tasuki here to add an extra opinion to all group decisions, it was decided, against Marissa's continued protests, that the duo would strike out on the road once again, this time with one more person in tow. She had tried her hardest to make them go anywhere but the capital, even resorting to threatening, albeit subtly, that they would regret going there so soon. In the end, it was her own misgivings that made the decision. Whatever was awaiting them there, they wanted to face it now rather than later.
The knot in Marissa's intestines intensified, morosely foretelling of a difficult day in the bathroom a day or two from now. This stress was doing nothing but making her feel ill, so much so that she wondered if she could successfully get the seishi to postpone their journey with a tactfully made complaint into her health. But no, in the worst case, they'd leave her behind, and then she'd be stuck in this strange world without knowing a single soul. Her heart was eager to second that assumption, the pitifully bruised thing that it was right now; it distrusted Chichiri so much that an unbearable ache had opened up, gaping wide, right where her trust in him had once lived. All her planning, all her inner pep talks, they had all been for naught when the real, living, breathing man had decided to worm his way into her life. She'd been hopeful, after the first time; with his apology she'd thought for one glorious moment that perhaps it meant he was willing, that he was ready to care for her a little bit more.
Marissa bit down hard on her lower lip to fight back the lump forming in her throat that was quickly building into an outright sob. She hadn't cried over this whole mess yet and she wasn't going to, ever. Chichiri was a man after all. Men liked to use women for their own devices. Maybe after his brush with death he'd suddenly developed a need to prove his existence, and figured the only way to do it was reassert his masculinity over another human being. Convenient, she scoffed inwardly, that I was there to assist his needs so well. And the barn incident? Her mind argued. Perhaps he really had felt sorry then. She believed that Chichiri wouldn't lie to her intentionally; he was a honest person by nature, though prone to choosing not to disclose information when he felt it appropriate. But what had happened afterwards... purely a mistake.
That's what it was, really, she admitted, turning over onto her stomach and slipping an arm under the pillow to prop it up under her head. He just realized it before I did. I started it anyway. My fault, I thought last night actually meant something, but it didn't. People kiss all the time without it actually meaning anything, don't they? She frowned, realizing she could find no logical reason to refute that supposition. It was very much a truth, just something she had chosen to ignore all her life in favor of a beautiful fairytale in the hope that she'd be one of the few to jump from being alone to having a partner for life. But in real life things didn't work that way and she'd gotten slapped by her own ignorance. The twisted knot in her stomach loosened somewhat with that discovery, but in its place was a disappointment that she didn't bother to hide. Just great. My first kiss, and it didn't mean anything to anyone except me.
She sighed into her pillow, shutting her eyes and letting the exhaustion of her body finally register in her brain. Sleep might still be long in coming, but at least she wouldn't mind when it did, the promise of blissful oblivion with hopefully no blue haired men around to haunt her dreams. Tomorrow was another day, another few minutes to think about what she was going to do about them heading to Eiyou. They were consciously throwing off the timeline, completely aware that things hadn't happened this way before. Therein lay her true fear, and she shuddered in her cocoon with the admission of it. She wouldn't know what was going to happen after this. The future would be unpredictable and once again she would be a nobody, stuck in a strange world without any reason behind her to receive the help of anyone. She was being shoved out, denied, and left to fend for herself. More than breaking her heart, this break of trust hurt the most.
Curling into an even tighter ball, Marissa squeezed her eyes shut and silently prayed for sleep to overtake her soon.
* * * * * * *
Despite being early morning, so much so that the clouds were still fading away from the bright pink hue they had been earlier, many people were up and about in the city, including an odd band of three travelers. Two revered Suzaku seishi, with a young woman in tow who looked decidedly uncomfortable being with the men; or at least uninterested, as she constantly avoided their looks and answered in single syllables bordering on grunts. However when the trio reached a set of horses hooked up at the hitching posts alongside the inn, the girl took off at a jog and embraced her animal happily.
"I'm going to go settle the bill at the Inn no da," Chichiri announced, satisfied that their transports were safe and sound. He departed back around the side of the building, leaving Marissa and Tasuki to prepare their mounts for the journey ahead.
Smiling, Marissa stroked the mare down her neck and gave her a swift kiss on her soft pink nose. "Good morning, Hou. I missed you lots."
Tasuki's red head poked up from between his and Chichiri's horse a few feet away. "Wha'd ya say?"
"I was just telling my horse good morning. Hou likes it when people actually take the time to talk to her." As if on cue the horse bucked her head up and down enthusiastically, eliciting a sort giggle from Marissa.
Scratching the back of his head, Tasuki raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Wh' in th' worl' didja name tha' horse?"
"H o u," Marissa repeated slowly, plastering on a smile as Genrou's face contorted with the struggle of comprehension.
"Bu... tha's not a damn 'orse's name. It ain't ev'n a word! 'Ow th' hell ya come up wif sumthin so weird?" He demanded just as Chichiri returned to where the horses were tied up.
"What's weird no da?" he chirped brightly.
With a potential new adversary against Marissa's choice for a horse's name, Tasuki suddenly rounded on Chichiri. "Th' name she gave tha' 'orse! Ya dun name yer 'orses 'Hou,' ya name 'em 'Lightening' er 'Thunderbolt' er 'Racer' or sum other prop'r horse name. S'embarresin othurwise!" Tasuki made an expressive gesture towards Mari and the mare and looked at Chichiri imploringly, as though asking for the monk to talk some sense into the girl-from-another-world.
"Hou?" Chichiri echoed, scratching at the edge of his brow contemplatively. Behind the monk Genrou stood silently fuming at being dismissed so quickly. "Ano, isn't 'Hou' a type of mythological lion? I'm pretty sure I've read that somewhere na no da."
Marissa shrugged, avoiding Chichiri's gaze as she continued adjusting the packs on her horse's flanks. "I don't know. It just came to me last night, and she seems to like the name fine." Blinking, Chichiri could have sworn the girl and horse exchanged knowing looks, but summarily dismissed it in the next moment. Horses weren't that intelligent. Chichiri shook his head and walked over to the stallion he had taken for his own.
It was true though, she had thought up the name on a whim last night while settling in for bed. A lot of things had passed through her mind the night before, while staring at the ceiling and listening to the sounds of her two male companions sleeping soundly through the thin paper screen which separated their spaces. Wondering just what she was getting herself into by allowing the two remaining seishi to set out on a journey that shouldn't happen yet. Briefly this morning, she'd entertained the thought of flat-out revealing everything that was going to happen. What harm could it do now that they were messing everything up? She'd had a hard time squashing that idea. In the end everything always turned out OK in Fushigi Yuugi, despite the horrible struggles and life changing ordeals the characters had to go through. It was a fact she was constantly reminding herself of to stay the words that threatened to spill from her lips more and more often.
And then there was the matter with Chichiri. Her conclusions last night hadn't prepared her for this morning, or the feelings she would endure while having to stand in the same room with him and pretend he was nothing more than someone slightly more than a stranger. He was an unexpected friend who she hadn't realized she needed until now. The disappearance of his companionship left her feeling very much alone, like she really was watching this through a television screen, a spectator with no bearing on the storyline whatsoever. Then again, it wasn't exactly like she'd wanted to become part of the story. This world existed inside a book written by a cult of girl-sacrificing fanatics that believed in magic and the spilling of innocent blood to make their wishes come true. Everything existing here was a terrible perversion of what real Chinese mythology dictated. So many other gods and lands had been left out, creating this tiny sphere with too little imagination to support it. It was quite pathetic, bland, and disappointing.
Shaking her head, Marissa smoothed out the blanket over Hou's back. Alright, where had those thoughts come from?
From her place beside the mare, Marissa snuck another look at Chichiri, eyes narrowed as though trying to pierce through all the protective laying he had wrapped around himself and see through to the man underneath. In the early morning light the scene of their imminent departure had the taste of a dream about it, where time seemed to slow down, revealing details otherwise unnoticed. The man a few yards away slowly came into sharper focus, the rest of the world slowly falling away until his stature was the only thing filling her vision. The golden light playing off his hair and the shadow his arm cast on the saddle as he secured the traveling packs to the horse seemed to acutely define each of his movements. I want to touch him, she thought, the tightening in her chest inflating like a balloon. I can't even look at him for long without feeling guilty, like I've tainted him somehow, ruined everything he was before. My fault...
Marissa tore her eyes away and let out a heavy whoosh of air, shoving those guilty feelings away to a deep recess that would only surface at night when she could ponder them in peace. Time enough to think about her guilt between traveling and puzzling out what she was going to do about this shift in the timeline. She was slightly reassured by the imaginary safety-net she knew existed, that intermittent span of time before any decision became critical. Until Miaka and Taka arrived, she had all the time she needed to solve this mess and make sure Tenkou got defeated without so much suffering and bloodshed.
Cinching down the last strap she glanced around the small holding area, taking in Tasuki and Chichiri finishing up their own preparations. Straightening her shoulders she walked towards the two seishi. "Do we have everything?" she called out.
Chichiri took a moment to silently survey the insides of his packs before turning to the redhead. "Tasuki-kun, did you remember to get those loaves of bread no da?"
A muttered, "Kuso!" floated back through the row of horses after a moment.
Marissa quickly held up her hand as Chichiri turned to reach into a saddlebag. "Don't worry, I got it." She rattled the small coin purse tied at her waist and took off at a brisk walk. Normally she would never jump on the opportunity to take a walk through an unfamiliar city, but right now being alone with Chichiri while Tasuki performed his errand was nothing something she was dying to experience. Rounding the corner of the inn she kept walking past the two story structure, relying on her memory of the city to guide her towards the market place a few streets over. The stalls were always open early in the morning, which might unfortunately land her in the morning buyers' rush hour. She picked up her pace.
Two left turns and one right turn later Marissa found herself facing a dismal alley that looked decidedly not like the way to the market place. Chewing on her lower lip and casting a glance around for any suspicious figures (she'd seen the anime enough times to be wary) she quickly backtracked out of the narrow street and on to one that she hoped looked more familiar. She had just passed by a dark niche recessed in the right wall when a weathered voice floated to her ears.
"Ojou-sama. Izanau ne, onegaishimasu?"
Startled, Marissa turned to the sound of the voice and discovered an old woman crouched in the alcove she had just passed. Tentatively she approached the cloaked figure, noticing the low crate in front of her which held a single candle upon its splintered surface, along with a square patch of fabric that might have once been a deep maroon color, but was now frayed and spotted with moth eaten holes. Glancing to the left and right Marissa paused a few feet in front of the crate, casually flattening her arm against the small coin purse to hide it from wandering eyes. "Hai, obaa-san?"
The woman sat up a little straighter, locking a pair of clouded green eyes with Marisa's own brown ones. A tattered cloak was draped over her hunched shoulders, the white end of a braid just visible over her left arm, which looked to be layered in an abundant collection of discarded pieces of mismatched clothing. The woman's face was marked heavily by age, the wrinkles on her neck deepening as they stretched over her chin and upper lip, so heavily furrowed that they seemed to disappear together without any lips in the middle. Her cheeks were sallow and thin, the bags under her eyes appearing as though they had slowly bunched up the skin from her face underneath, while her forehead was spotted with dark brown dots that reached to her white hairline. The tightly pulled back white hair then disappeared immediately under the hood of her cloak.
The stranger took Marissa's scrutinizing indifferently for a moment before splitting her face into a smile that revealed crooked yellow teeth. "Ah, I thought it was you. I have been waiting a long time for you ojou-sama."
Marissa blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"
"Hai," the old woman chuckled happily, spreading her boney fingers over the worn cover on the crate. "You are searching, child. I was told to give you a message."
Marissa arched up an eyebrow before taking a long step backwards. "No thank you. I need to get going." She had just turned on her heel when the old woman's voice lashed out with a surprising ferocity.
"You will never go home!"
Feeling as though she'd been slapped, Marissa turned slowly back to the crouched figure with wide eyes. "Wh... what did you say?"
Raising one gnarled hand the woman beckoned Marissa to come closer. Dazed, but wary, she stepped up the battered box and looked down to see sympathy etched across the woman's wizened face. "I am sorry, child. But the path you are taking will not lead you home. You have been searching for so long and are now coming closer, but beware! This path is not the way!"
Blinking after a moment, Marissa shook her head and unconsciously stamped her heel against the ground. "No, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't even know me! Here, take what you want." Pulling her right arm away she fished into the bag at her side and plucked out two coins without looking, preparing to throw them down on the crate, when a dry hand suddenly latched onto her wrist with surprising speed.
"Foolish girl! I do not say this for the price of a coin." The old woman thrust Marissa's hand back towards herself and moved slowly to stand up.
Thoroughly frightened by this time, Marissa backed up quickly and began to jog down the road away from the woman, clutching the coins tightly in her right fist.
"Don't be foolish! Beware!" The dry voice followed Marissa down the alley until she turned at an intersection and found herself looking out over Market Street. Taking a few deep breaths to calm her pounding heart she slipped the money back into her purse, glancing around the stalls for one that looked promising to complete her errand. When one finally caught her eye she strode towards it, at the same time struggling to shake off the goose bumps that wanted to rise on the back of her neck in response to the woman's words. Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, the shock had worn off to be replaced by genuine fear. Will I ever get home...?
* * * * * * *
The clip-clopping of the horses' hooves pounding against the dirt road were slowly lulling Marissa into a daze that bordered on sleep simply by the boring monotony of the sound. Her throat was dry, her arms felt like pudding, her thighs ached, and her butt was so sore it had gone numb. The brisk canter they had been taking for the last hour was taking a nasty toll on all of her lower body's nerve endings. How could she have been so naive as to think that a few short rides on a horse in her childhood would prepare her for this?
During the extent of their travels they'd passed through woods, villages, towns, and crossed streams and bridges, all within the span of a morning and mid-afternoon. The world was starting to look a lot larger to her.
Really, Mari, she thought with an inward roll of her eyes. Did you really think that you could know everything about this place just from watching tv?
It seemed like they were entering another village as the familiar wisps of fireplace smoke appeared in the distance. The last forest they'd been traveling through had dropped away behind them a few minutes before, depositing them on a high hill overlooking a broad open plain that simply beckoned to have human life plop itself down and make a home out of it. It was lush and enclosed, with a small river meandering through the narrow valley that disappeared into a patch of forest in the distance. In the settlement itself trees were sparse and far between, with square patches of brown and yellow fields peeking into view with each rise and dip of the road. Low brown hills rose at the opposite end, creating a convenient natural enclosure to the small valley. To the worrisome traveler though, they posed an interesting question of how one was to get to the other side without spending hours trying to climb them.
Giving Hou a gentle nudge with her heels and tugging the reins to her left, Marissa cantered up alongside Chichiri. "Where are we now?"
Chichiri scrunched his line drawn eyebrows together in thought. "Lian, I believe no da. I passed through this same area before stopping outside of Shoyu. I meant to stay there for only a few days before..." Chichiri trailed off quietly, realizing that he had said too much too late.
Marissa battered down the rising feelings of guilt at his slip and focused on the next question that was bothering her. "How are we going to get over those hills?" She pointed at the broad vista in the distance, the three of them having come to a high rise on the road, with the small valley below them spread out like a painting filled with dark lines and brown patches. Despite being moderately populated, the village also looked bland and weathered, like how any other low class settlement would appear in the beginning of winter. Trees were either stripped bare of their leaves or nearly there and the fields were long since cleared of their harvests. Everyone seemed to be nesting down for the cold season to come.
"There is a road through the hills no da. It's a bit rocky and gets narrow at times, but it's used a lot, since this path is one of the better ones between Shoyu and southern Konan no da."
"Better ones?" Marissa echoed curiously.
"Valleys like this one are few and far between in this area no da. All the hills make it hard for settlements and traveling, which is why the cities that are up this north are usually smaller, but that doesn't mean there aren't more than one ways to get to them. Depending on the season, some are better than others no da."
Marissa nodded, understanding dawning. Traveling by dirt roads and on horse was a far cry from the transportation she was accustomed to; paved roads and freeways that led you hundreds of miles in any direction you desired, neither hills nor mountains nor deserts able to stand in the way of the automobile and a concrete road. It was amazing now to reflect on, realizing how far human advancement had come in just a millennia, making the world so much smaller; first by the train, then car, then airplane, and now the internet. Distances in a modern human's mind were just numbers that denoted a few hours of their life used for traveling, while to a resident of this time, distances were measured in days and weeks spent on foot or the back of a horse. It was staggering to realize the differences that existed. But even more potent was the strong feeling of helplessness that came with the knowledge - to be aware of a future so different, yet unable to even speak of it.
Staring out over the valley, Marissa felt a chasm snake its way through her heart, a sense of loss and displacement that was hard to describe but easy to name the reason for. Everything here was so different, so strange, nothing except the two people on horses around her seemed even remotely familiar. She could have been in her own time for all she knew, looking out on a broad vista of brown hills and a light blue sky, with thin white clouds creating a haze that chilled the air and a pale yellow sun that looked so small and cold. But once her eyes fell to the wooden rooftops below, the truth hit home, and she felt that divide widen even further. This place was her planet, but it wasn't where she belonged. The old woman's words echoed ominously in her ear and she shivered. You will never get home!... A place she could call her own was somewhere far away she couldn't reach, the ghost of a memory that refused to surface in her mind.
The longer she was away from her own time - the future, her present - the more it seemed to be fading as if it had all simply been a dream she'd awoken from that afternoon in Chichiri's bed. Most unnerving of all was that it didn't feel unusual to consider that possibility. She'd had those dreams before on her own flower quilted mattress, visions of being another person living an entirely foreign existence. In the span of a few minutes she was completely that person; their personality, their memories, and their habits. The dreams differed in gender, language, theme, and mood, everything that could make them as different from her real life as possible. It was only after waking, when it took a moment for her brain realize just who she was, that the strangeness of the dreams hit her. They'd always felt remarkably real.
In fact she was sure she'd had a dream like that last night, now that she thought of it. However as she tried to think back on it, only the vague memory of being a small animal came to mind, something that ran fast and had a quick heartbeat always pounding in her sensitive ears. She couldn't remember much more except for an intense feeling of fear, but not in concern for herself. The dream had ended with a pair of jaws snapping her neck in two, causing her to suddenly awaken in the darkened room while Chichiri and Tasuki continued to sleep on peacefully. Strange, now that she thought back on the experience, she hadn't woken up feeling frightened, but relieved that something had been saved through her sacrifice. Trust her subconscious to start having animal dreams instead of the ones she was accustomed to. What was next, dreaming of being bacteria?
Inwardly, Marissa sighed, leaning back in her saddle as Hou jogged down the gentle decline towards the village at the bottom of the hill. It was little wonder she found so much time for free thinking on this trip. Genrou had nodded off several times on his horse, needing Marissa or Chichiri to fall back and give him a gentle nudge to right him on his saddle again, which always earned them a slurred outburst for surprising him. Chichiri, the quiet, stoic monk as always, wasn't much for conversation either. That man went from hot to cold faster than a woman going through menopause.
Traitorously her mind conjured up a few temperature raising images that sought to contradict her allusion to him being a woman. Honestly! she complained to herself. For once can we stop with the sexual innuendoes? As usual, any answer to her question was slow coming. Gritting her back teeth together she quickly dammed the flow of those thoughts and dredged up a horribly addicting song from memory. This is the song that never ends... yes it goes on and on my friend...
* * * * * * *
It felt like old times, being on the road again, letting nothing but the whims of nature determine where his feet would take him next. Sometimes a horse was thrown into the mix, but usually it was by the power of his legs that he came to one town after the other, not searching for anything tangible but still traveling on nonetheless. Rain or shine, sleet or snow, though preferably not in hail, he continued on. He told stories at every chance he got, accepting the hospitality of a home or inn in exchange for a night or two of storytelling, recounting his days with the seishi for both the children and adults of the village. Everyone had heard the stories of course, but how many had actually heard it from the mouth of someone who'd been there, and not a traveling peddler who claimed to know a friend of a cousin that had seen it all happen?
Of course he never told the stories exactly how they had truly happened. Most obviously, he omitted the part about all of them existing within the pages of a book in another world, perhaps being read by someone at this very moment. And of course when children were present he left out the scarier details of blood and rape and painful deaths. No need to frighten the kiddies; after all, he had to maintain that image of Holy Warrior invulnerability, except when the death of one of his comrades needed to be painted in the glory it deserved... self sacrificing, honorable, for the good of the people. They were all words he'd repeated many times. And yet each time he moved on, he couldn't help but feel like somehow he was spilling out lies everywhere he went. Not that he didn't believe lessons needed to be learned to prevent other wars in the future. But what was the use of making the effort when in the end, it might all be for naught?
More than once since the last battle, when Miaka had returned to her world for good, Chichiri had contemplated the knowledge he'd come into possession of about the truth to their world. What does one do when he finds out he's a character written on paper? Keep on livin, is what Tasuki had said shortly before they parted ways many months ago. The fire seishi had obviously stuck to his own advice, but Chichiri doubted he even remembered giving it. He, on the other hand, had already sinned enough in this world, committed crimes so heinous that he barely deserved the title of being a warrior of Suzaku. It was an inner struggle he had dealt with many times during his travels, the urge to just end it all tempered by his vow to serve his god until the end. He wondered if one day he would ever come to a decision, or if he was forever destined to wander and tell the tales of his life, knowing that somewhere his words showed up as characters on a piece of paper.
Down the hill they trotted, coming closer and closer to the village. Presently they reached ground level, cantering along the main road of the settlement, which meandered gently through the rows of buildings in a constant southeasterly direction. The road was mostly bare and devoid of life, and for a moment Chichiri paused to wonder if anyone was still living in town, or if something unpleasant had happened. But no, there out of the corner of his eye he saw a shutter creak open. It seemed folks on the outskirts were a little skittish of strangers riding up unexpectedly.
Chichiri heard Marissa made a concerned noise off to his left and knew just what was bothering her. "Where are all the people?" she asked softly after a moment, though loud enough for him to hear.
"They're here," Chichiri answered, raising his voice purposely. "We're strangers to them, so they're keeping to themselves. Completely understandable no da." He hoped the extra emphasis on the 'no da' might coax a few people away from their fears. There weren't many blue haired, masked monks in the world with his speech pattern, and he was sure his reputation preceded him.
They were nearing the center of town and Chichiri could hear the louder sounds of a village performing its daily grind. He had been right thankfully; it was only on the outskirts that people were wary. In the next minute he slowed his horse, turning in his saddle as a familiar wave of emotion swept over him. To his right a commotion seemed to trickle out of a small house with a run down fence, and in the next moment its front door swung open, a young woman and a boy no older than 8 years both emerging out of dwelling. The boy took off running at high speed down the road away from the group while the woman remained standing in the door way, her hands twisting nervously together in front of her apron. Drawing up closer the woman turned at the sound of the horses, and Chichiri saw that her eyes were red-rimmed and her hair was a mess, the black circles under her eyes revealing several nights of little or no sleep.
At the sight of the travelers the woman's eyes widened and she ran down the walkway, coming up to the gate beside the road. "Please!" she shouted, which caused Chichiri to pull his reigns up short, Marissa and Tasuki doing the same behind him.
"Are any of you a healer? Please! My little baby, she's so sick, I just sent my son to fetch the doctor but I don't think she'll make it!" The woman was nearly crying openly now, her stance looking as though she was ready to collapse from the strain of caring for her sick child.
"I'm sorry, but..."
"Wait," Marissa interrupted hastily.
Chichiri turned in his seat and raised his eyebrows at her, and for the first time that morning she met his gaze levelly. We know some medicine, she implored in his mind, somewhat startling him with the sudden use of telepathy.
Not enough, he countered. You know as much as I do, I don't think we can help this woman no da.
Marissa shook her head and slid of her horse, grabbing Hou by the reigns as she looked back up at Chichiri. We have to at least try! At least do something until the doctor comes.
Realizing Marissa wasn't going to be swayed on the matter, Chichiri gave a silent nod and dismounted from his horse as well. Marissa was already walking through the gate when Tasuki broke in with his usual tactfulness. "Wh' th' hell she doin Chiri? We ain't stoppin r we?"
"Hai," he replied, searching in his pack for anything that might prove useful. "Marissa wants to help until the doctor comes no da."
Tasuki jumped down from his house and struggled with the reigns a bit before the horse complied to walk closer to where Chichiri stood. "Wha th' fuck? She ain't no Mitsukake. Th' girl's gone mad Chiri, I tell ya."
Chichiri sighed and walked towards the house. "Take care of the horses, Tasuki-kun no da. We'll be out in a little while."
Inside the dwelling Chichiri found Marissa crouched down beside a low bed in one of the adjoining rooms. The room was fairly dark, the shutters having been drawn closed and a single candle sitting on a wooden chest sputtered with the incoming breeze. Looking over Marissa's shoulder, Chichiri saw a little girl laying bundled up in the bed, her dark hair limply plastered to her forehead, and her complexion a waxy yellow that didn't forebode well of a recovery being made. He could hear Marissa speaking very softly, and the small girl's lips were moving, but no sound reached his ears.
Marissa smiled when they finished talking a gave the girl's small hand and gentle pat, then raised her head to look up at Chichiri and the girl's mother who stood nervously by the door. "I'm pretty sure she has jaundice. She hasn't been able to keep anything down, right?" this she directed to the mother, who nodded worriedly. "I'm going to need a pot of hot water boiled immediately, but for now do you have any gooseberry juice, or syrup?"
The woman shook her head. "We're not well off. My husband died two years ago and we've been struggling ever since. I don't have much here, but I can make the hot water."
Marissa nodded to the woman. "Please do that then, we'll take care of the rest." Now she looked up directly at Chichiri. "If we could get the gooseberry it would help her symptoms right away, and we need to get a bag of snakeguard leaves to make an infusion for her to drink. It should cure the jaundice in a few days, at most a week."
Chichiri nodded and pressed his lips together, resisting the urge to ask Marissa how she knew all of this. It might be a waste of time though, she could have only known because it was something common in her world, a place he really knew nothing about. It would be best not to argue and simply trust her judgment. He nodded and turned to leave the room when Marissa called him back. "Wait, she wants to know who you are."
Chichiri returned to the beside and knelt down, his shoulder nearly brushing that of Marissa's. "Ainuan, this is Chichiri. He's going to help you get better," she explained softly, gently brushing back a few locks of hair off the girl's forehead. The girl turned wide brown eyes on Chichiri, their whites a sickly color of pale yellow that made his heart ache in sympathy. She nodded imperceptibly after a moment and turned her head slowly to say something to Marissa, her lips again barely moving, leaving Chichiri clueless as to what was said.
Marissa, smiling, turned to Chichiri when she had finished. "She says you're a nice man and wants to know if you'll marry her mommy."
Chichiri visibly sweat dropped and rose from the floor. "Iie no da. I'm a monk, so I can't do that, but I will make sure you get better no da." And with a nod in Marissa's direction he left to perform his errands.
Several hours later, with the doctor checking on a slowly recuperating patient, Marissa and Chichiri stood outside the house dissuading all the gifts and favors the girl's mother was trying to bestow upon them for saving her child's life. It took awhile, but eventually the woman conceding, thanking them profusely again for assisting and promising them anything if they were to only ask it of her at a later time. It was nearly dark by the time Chichiri and Marissa walked out the gate and back to their horses, where Tasuki sat dozing on the grass, his own horse's reigns securely looped around his wrist several times over.
"Mari-chan?" Chichiri asked, stilling her just before she made to mount her horse.
She turned face the seishi. "Yes?"
"Have you ever done that before no da? You seemed to know what you were doing in there."
Unexpectedly Marissa laughed, her voice echoing into the fading twilight, and Chichiri had a sudden feeling that nothing had sounded quite as carefree as that, and it was a sound he hadn't heard from her in a long time. "Of course not!" she exclaimed, still chuckling, and he was taken aback.
"But then how...?"
"Well, you of course," she replied, turning serious. "Remember those memories I got from you? It was right there in my head. I looked at her, asked her what was wrong, and I knew what it was and how to cure it. It wasn't that hard or anything," she mumbled at the end, and Chichiri wondered if she was blushing behind the length of hair that had fallen over her face, though in the encroaching dark he couldn't tell.
"She was a sweet girl," she continued softly after a moment. "I'm glad we stopped in. She may not have died if we didn't help, but I feel better that we did. Someone like her shouldn't have to suffer." Marissa pulled back her hair and smiled at Chichiri. "She kept saying the funniest thing too. I told her my name, but she kept calling me Kuan. Weird huh?"
Not expecting an answer, as Chichiri didn't have one, she mounted her horse and gave Hou a hug around her neck once she was on her back. Chichiri watched the exchange, again reminded of the amazing bond the girl and horse seemed to have formed in such a short time. Something tickled the back of his mind, but whatever it was refused to surface. It was probably nothing, just the stress of the day piled on by the events unfolding before them and the paths they had decided to take. He was fully aware of Marissa's misgivings about this trip to Eiyou, but he felt it was for the best, and that if they were truly not destined to follow this route a higher power was sure to intervene. Until that time though, he would follow his instincts, and that was to head to the capital.
Mounting his horse as well, Chichiri got comfortable in his saddle while watching Marissa nudged Tasuki awake out of the corner of his eye. She was happy right now, and that's all that really mattered. A nagging guilt persisted though. He couldn't bring himself to tell her that he'd never known of jaundice, or the cure for it.