Disclaimer: I don't own any Fushigi Yuugi characters, but Tara is my character.
Entering Hokkan
The Suzaku seishi all got off the boat and looked at their surroundings. The sun was shining, but it was freezing outside. Tara and Nuriko walked over to Tasuki.
"Tasuki-kun! make a fire with the tessen! Please?" Tara asked, Nuriko tugged on his shirt, which felt like he was being pulled down to Tasuki.
"I ain't using my powers for that, you'll just have to deal with the cold." He said, shrugging after getting Nuriko to let go of him. They looked at him as if they were gonna murder him and he set a little fire with the tessen, smiles back on their faces. Tamahome and Chichiri were trying to figure out where they had to go, and just randomly picked a direction.
"Okay then, it's settled, we'll go... is that North, or South?" Tamahome asked. Chichiri looked in the direction.
"I believe that would be West. No da." Chichiri replied looking at his surroundings again. Tara looked at the path ahead of them.
"This place almost seems familiar to me, but I'm probably just imagining it." She finished, but felt a shiver go down her spine.
"What's the matter Tara?" Nuriko asked, looking concerned.
"This feeling... more then nostalgia, it's more like deja a vu to me. Like something bad is gonna happen." Tasuki smacked her on the back.
"Aw, nothin's gonna happen to any of us here! we're gonna get the Shinzaho and go on our way to summonin' Suzaku!" He said to the group. They replied with nods of their heads.
"We're so close to the Shinzaho, let's continue." Miaka said as her stomach growled. Everyone looked at her as she looked down at her stomach and laughed.
"I guess I'm hungry again..."
"Maybe we should find a place to stay first." Nuriko said, still putting his hands near the heat of Tasuki's tessen.
The group of warriors and their priestess walked down the path and saw a village up ahead. It wasn't a very big village, but it seemed to function well enough on it's own. One of the male villagers walked up to the group and smiled.
"You travellers must be exhausted and hungry, please stay here as long as you need to."
"Why thank you. We appreciate it." Miaka said as the man led them to the village leaders house. The house was bigger then all the others, but not by much. When they walked inside of the house it was much bigger than it had been when they were outside. At the back of the house they saw a chair and a man was sitting in it, he was old, but not very elderly, maybe he was in his early to mid fifties. He scanned the room looking at the Suzaku group and smiled.
"You travellers are welcome here for as long as you like, it is our pleasure to help you out, Suzaku seishi and priestess.
"Thank you so much. We were wondering if you knew the tale of the Shinzaho." Tamahome said.
"You all might as well take a seat, this may take awhile." The leader said, sighing. They all took a seat on the floor around a nearby wood table.
"Long ago, a girl decended down from the skies and became the priestess of Genbu. She gathered together her celestial warriors and prepared to summon the beast god Genbu. After summoning the beast god she soon returned to her world, while being devoured by Genbu. This is the tale of Genbu. But before she left, she gave up an item, which became the Shinzaho that you seek. I cannot tell you the whereabouts of this mythical item for we here at the village do not know, but you amy find the answer in the city near the mountains, now go and rest." They all sat there for a moment before quietly getting up and splitting ways around the village.
Tara walked in the direction of a patch of trees and noticed the old gnarled roots of hte biggest tree there. It's branches spread out like the rays of the sun in many directions. She thought back to a memory of her childhood of which she was climbing trees and decided to climb this one. She jumped and grabbed onto a lower branch and hoisted herself onto it. She then reached for another branch a little higher up than the first. she pulled herself up higher and was about half way up to the top when Tasuki saw her in the corner of his eye.
"What're you doing up there?" He asked, standing under the tree now.
"I'm trying to get to the top, what else? I remember when I was little I used to climb trees with my brother, and he'd help me, but I wanna see if I can do it on my own now." Tara replied inbetween taking breaths. Tasuki just looked at her sideways and started laughing.
"What's so funny? Why are you laughing?" Tara asked and she pointed down at him but lost her footing on the branch she was on and fell. She came cascading down the huge tree smacking into a branch every once in a while yelling the whole way down. Tasuki caught notice of this right away and stationed himself in a spot that he could catch her. She smacked her arm on another branch and felt blood rushing to the area as she continued to fall. She grabbed onto a branch on her way down but couldn't keep her grip on it and her hand slipped from the branch, causing her to continue her journey to the ground. She felt something grab hold of her as she came close to the ground. She opened her eyes to see Tasuki looking down at her.
"You okay?" He asked her as she started to blush.
"Y-yeah, I think I'm okay...ouch!" She yelped as she tried to move her left arm. Tasuki set her down on the ground and she noticed he was blushing too.
"I'll go get some bandages, you stay here." He said while starting to head off in the direction of the village.
'Was he...blushing?' Tara asked herself as she poked her left arm and winced. She saw Chichiri walking by and waved with her right arm.
"Hey, Chichiri!" He turned and smiled and waved back.
"What're doing? No da." He asked kneeling down beside her.
"Just waiting for Tasuki to get back with the bandages, I fell out of that tree." She pointed to the tree in question.
"How bad are the wounds?"
"Well, i think I might've broken my left arm, and i have a few cuts and bruises, but nothing worse than those." She replied, smiling.
"I should be okay by tomorrow."
"Probably, but that broken arm might wil take a little longer, so if we get in a battle, Mitsukake can fix it. No da." Chichiri said.
"I'll wait with you until Tasuki gets back." He added, sitting down of the grass and setting his staff down.
"Thanks Chichiri." She said.
"When I get better, I'm gonna climb a high tree and make it tothe top on my own, it's something I need to accomplish for someone." They heard footsteps behind them and turned to see Tasuki with the bandages.
"Chichiri, do you know how these work, I've never used 'em beofre." Tasuki said, setting them down.
"I can try, but I can't promise anything. No da." He replied, picking up some the bandages and wrappng them around Tara's arm and afterwards she stood up.
"This should do, thanks Chichiri, Tasuki, now if you'll excuse me I'm gona go bug Nuriko."
"She doesn't seem very hurt to me." Tasuki said.
"Maybe not, but she's probably hurt emotionally and just doesn't want to show it. No da." Chichiri said, standing up.
"Come on, everyone is heading back now, it's dinnertime, that's what I came to tell you guys." Tasuki stood up and walked towards the village follwed by Chichiri.
Dinner was quite eventful, everyone was talking about what they had done that day and everybody was asking what had happened to Tara so she told her story of the adventure of climbing the tree. Miaka poked her arm and recieved a smack to the head for doing so.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"Well, one, it's reflexes, and two, I thought you might like to know painful it is when someone pkes my arm." Tara replied. Miaka looked at the girl beside her.
"I feel sorry for you, I wouldn't be able to handle that kind of pain. It'd be too, well, painful." Miaka said, beginning to eat her food again. After dinner everyone thanked the cook and headed off to their rooms for the night. Tara and Miaka headed off to theirs talking about the day again on their way after saying good night to the others. Tasuki and Tamahome fought on their way to theirs. Hotohori and Nuriko talked on their way to their room and Chiriko had fallen asleep so Mitsukake carried him to their room.
Okay! Yay! Another chapter finished, sorry I didn't update sooner, was really busy! And once again, thank you to every one who has reviewed my story so far (you know who you are) and I hope you all enjoy this chapter!