You and Me After All
Chapter 34: Stand By
The forest hugged the perimeter of Inuyama Castle, the seat of the Lord of the Western Lands, on three sides. At some point, many years ago, one of the Lords had built a wall — tall enough that ten grown males stacked on top of each other still could not reach the top — to surround the estate and protect its inhabitants from rampaging beasts coming from the woods in search of food.
In front of this wall, on the appointed day, the inuyōkai Lord and Lady, along with their retinue, waited for the arrival of their cousin.
"Big day," the Lord said to his sister, nudging her ribs in the precise way he knew she despised. "Are you excited?"
She scowled at him, but she did not speak for long moments. Her eyes remained on the sea of trees that lay before them, swaying and groaning under the weight of the passing breeze.
"The feeling—" she finally said. "— is somewhere between taking a trip to a strange faraway land and having to perform something extremely foul. Like having to lance a boil or drain pustules from a male organ. Take from that what you will."
Just when her brother began to chuckle, a guard rushed over and knelt before them.
"Lord Rinnosuke. Lady Seirin." His forehead touched the ground. "We checked the perimeter of the forest twice, but there are no signs of Lord Sesshōmaru."
The siblings looked at each other, their mouths pinched with worry.
"The sun is going down," she said. And, just as she had pointed out, the last vestiges of the sun burned in the western horizon. Now, they would be racing against the dying sun.
"Go one hundred paces into the forest and reassess the perimeter," Rinnosuke instructed the guard. "And look for any traces of Lord Sesshōmaru's yōki."
The atmosphere was charged with urgency as they waited some more, pacing back and forth at the border of their lands.
But said Lord — and his bride — never showed up.