So this chapter is long, this is the prelude continued, the first three chapters will be the trilogy to set the background of the character. If future you is reading this Chase doesnt come around till the planned chapter 4.
My, my father? I stuttered on my own thoughts. My heart was racing, my body told me to be hyper aware of this man. My instincts rolled all over my body.
But then, like a small pearl of water dripping into a pond, tranquility washed over me.
There atop the mans strong rounded shouldered, was a small sparrow. It was tweeting blissfully, without a care in the world.
He took a step towards me. In reaction I took a wide stepped stance, preparing to fight.
"Who are you!" I asked him. Why did I ask? I should have flipped my star. No, I should just kill him.
I panted out, where is my star? I was panicking, why? Just over one man? Who is this person, why do I feel so fearful?
"I just said, My name is Dashi." He chuckled a bit, it was like being before a plant, I felt no hostility from him. No fighting will, no malice. Like the opposite of my father. Is that why I feel so frightened? The thing before me should not be there, but it is.
"Listen kid, I just wanna talk to the Shogun, is he around?" He asked, he seemed more cautious. Not because he was frightened by me. I couldn't sense his heart rate increase, he wasn't sweating, nor shaking. Was he trying not to frighten me?
I swallowed, standing up out of stance. I blinked at him and pressed my lips into a tight line. I took out my star, holding it into the palm of my hand. Licking my bottom lip, it feeling unbearably dry. Heads, I will kill him. Tails. I will tell him my father is not here.
I shuddered, calming myself. Till my heart was steady, I closed my eyes as I exhaled a soothing breath.
Flick.
It twirled up, like a shining sun in the air. I caught it, and like so many times before I slapped it on the back of my hand. It was tails.
"My father, is not here." I breathed out. I felt almost relieved. Maybe now he will leave.
The mans face scrunched a bit, like he had something in his tooth. He lifted his hand and scratched is smooth head.
"Do you know when he'll be back?" He asked with a slouch.
I had already answered him? Why must he have more questions? What do Ido? Should I flip my star again? I don't know when my father will return.
I was sweating.
I reluctantly flipped it again.
Dashi must have been bewildered by me. From high alert, to flipping a small golden star in the air before, answering the simplest of questions.
Again, it landed on tails.
"I do not know. My father has been gone for a long time now." I said again, my face falling with my tone. I wanted this odd man to leave. I did not feel like talking anymore.
"Ah well. So you're his daughter huh, what's your name?" He said with a cheerful smile, as he squinted his eyes shut. The bird now fluttering up to rest on his head.
"Huh?" I shuddered out. Why does he care who I am?! Leave, leave!
Dashi had closed some more distance, my feet felt like they were stuck in a deep mud. I did not move. The sun was high and the heat smothered down around us, the dead bodies, now just charcoaled bones littered the earth.
I breathed out through my nostrils. The star, I have to flip the star, quickly.
I hurled it. It spun and spun, with each step he took. I reached to catch it.
Tails, to my shocked horror. Tails three times in a row? How?
"I-" I shuddered. He was now before me. He was tall, His bald head blocking out the sun, making it shine like a strobing star. The bird fluttered around, landing on the earth beside me.
"So, what is your name?" He smiled.
"I, do not have a name. I am only daughter, only musume." I tried not to stutter, I felt hot. My skin felt unbearable to be under. Anxious almost, something I had not been in years. I haven't been anything in years. Why now? Why does this plant like man have such an overwhelming presence?
"What?!" He yelled out in displeasure, making me jolt back, almost falling over.
"How old are you, to not have a name?"
I shook as I reached my star. But as I flicked it he snatched it out of the air.
"Wow, where did you get this?" He asked his tone a little higher.
But my brain was in shock. I didn't know what to do. Without the star how could I answer him? How would I know what to do? My father isn't here to give me orders. Without orders what will I do?
I was withering, my body was soaked now in sweat. Shaking like a dried little leaf in a strong gust.
Dashi's eyes seemed to narrow into me, and then back to the star.
"This isn't a toy ya' know?" He began, rolling the star between each knuckle like some sort of magic trick.
"This is the Star Hanabi. A magical Shen Gong wu; a tool of the gods." He put matter of fact like. "Not a coin you flip." Was he scolding me back then? I was well aware of what it was. My father had given it to me as a reward when i took my first life. I had used to to enhance the powers of fire I possessed.
I was now panting slightly again.
"I know what it is." I spoke, swallowing roughly. "I need it." I tried to move but my body refused.
Dashi just looked down at me, the bird still peacefully tweeting without a care in the world.
"Why's that?" He asked, spinning the star on one finger like it was a small ball.
"I- I, whenever. When I do not know what to do, I flip it. Yes or no, I let it decide." I shuttered out, gripping my hands together, feeling how slick they had become.
"Oh!" the tall monk laughed, he patted my back, making my eyes widen as I stared in disbelief. When was the last time someone had touched me?
"Tell you what, lets flip it!" He smiled, he flipped it high, so high I wondered if it was in the clouds.
"Now, if its heads. I'll leave, If it's tails. You have to follow your own will, follow the voice of your heart."
Everything was at a halt. I didn't think, I could only look at him. Unmoving, not breathing. The sound of the whooshing star faded back into mind, growing louder and louder. Until, he reached up, not looking away from me. Grabbing it from the air, he slapped it on the back of his palm.
"Oh would you look at that. Tails!" He smiled as he laughed.
"That's great! Isn't it?" He was beaming like a sunflower as he patted my shoulder. The force making me fall to my knees. I let out the breath I had been holding in, it came out as I almost vomited.
Sweat poured all over me. I don't understand? I have to do what the star decided. How could it be tails four times in a row? Did he use some sort of trick? I didn't see him do anything odd?
Dashi must have been watching me melt for a while. I wonder what he thought about me back then. A crumpled young girl, without a name. surrounded by the charcoaled bodies of hundreds of fallen men.
Admistst my hyperventilating. He pulled me up by my arm. Shakenly I stood up. My knees buckled from the weight of my own fragil being.
"Come on now, stand up." He chuckled at me, like a carefree gaint. I could only stare up at him. My eyes burned. I noticed the blue sky behind him, and for a second I felt lost.
It's been so long since i noticed the colour of the sky. How did he do this, what kind of magic did he use on me?
"So, you have no idea where your father is?" He asked me, I swallowed as I nodded hesitantly at him.
"Well that's a shame, I wanted to meet with him." he said with his hand on his chin, like he was thinking of something.
I tried to straighten my back. What should I say? If only I had my star. But he took it, should I take it back? I don't know what to do.
I had already lost the battle that day. He single handedly defeated me in the most simplest of ways.
Dashi had walked passed me into the castle, I tried to stop him but I didn't know what to say. I went to tackle him, but he simply ducked me out. My body was still trying to recover. I just kind of laid there on the ground. The dirt felt gritty against my cheeks.
Dammit, I cursed him. Why did you have to come here? Why did you take my star? If I was able to flip it things would have worked out!
"Dang this place looks so." he dragged his head from side to side. "Desolated." I sat up on my hands.
No life was here, no grass grew, and no plants. All the trees had withered and died. The Once bright red irimoya style sloped roofs, now trained of colour, till they were a washed out muddy colour.
The deeply stained intricate architecture, now dried and brittle.
"I was here, 15 years ago. And it was a temple of life and beauty." He said, his eyes softer as he tilted his head up to look at the sky.
15 years ago, I wonder how old I would have been then? I didn't count the days anymore. Truth be told, I wasn't sure how old I was. I don't think i was a child, no but. I am surely not an adult. I know now I was around 17 then.
My long black ebony hair pooled around my shoulders, stray hairs obscured my vision as I got up. The long sleeves of my hiyori now dirtied with dry sand.
"Are you," I began, almost timid. "A friend of my fathers?" A stupid question. My father has no friends. Only pawns, he only has subjects.
"No." He put it flatley.
"Then you are not welcomed here." I frowned, remembering what I am. If he isn't my fathers friend. Then he is dangering the Castle. My father's orders.
The will to kill took over. I leaped at him this time with much more vigor and intensity.
"Palm of the beats!" he roared as he shot a flat palmed fist at me, In mid air I dodged. With a spiral spin, I sucked in a deep breath. The magic of fire within me pooling like a pit of lava deep in my belly.
"Breath of the fire dragon!" I bellowed at the monk, his eyes grew wide as a deep red fire bloomed in my neck, as I spewed hot molten flames out my mouth. In a cone blast fire shot, Engulfing the small area, Burning the grey walls behind him.
I looked as I planted my feet on the ground, there was no burning body. Where did he go? I Looked up, He was mid air, poised like a crane.
"Falling Monkey Strike." He shouted, pointing his sandaled foot towards me. I scowled, the fire within me turning my violet eyes a deep red.
I took a defensive stance, placing my feet roughly into the dirt below. I breathed in, just as he would have made contact with the top half of my body, I slid carefully to the side, bringing my arm up in a swooshing motion just under his extended leg. Arm hooked under his thigh, I slid him across.
"Repulse the monkey!" I shouted, letting the chi flow through my body I deflected his strike, neutralizing the energy.
He flew back, landing on his hands into a double backflip before falling perfectly back on his feet. I rose my leg preparing for another strike.
"Repulse the monkey eh? Nice move!" He smiled at me. I didn't return such a gesture. He seemed so relaxed, even though I am trying to take his life. What a carelessly carefree man.
"I've heard about you, you know." He began making me cross my eyebrows. "The Fire dragon of the East, I thought you were a master of jiu jitsu, and swordsmanship. But you're using kung-fu?." He chuckled taking a strained back posture, leg at the ready to pounce. I blocked each strike he made. He was fast, extremely fast, his physical strength matching that of my fathers.
I wont answer anything he asks. He's an anomaly, when I remove him I can return to normal.
It doesn't matter. He is just one more stone beneath my foot. How many hundreds of men have I killed? He's just one more isn't he?
I caught his fist and twisted it back, shifting my body to his left I attempted to to snap his arm bone, and shove it behind his back.
But like a slippery snake he slid his body to turn, smashing his elbow down on my hand. Slipping my grip he launched a charged kick into my abdomen, sending me flying, Impacking to the wall. It shattering like glass around me. The breath ripped from my body. How?
How did he move so quickly? Such force, When the moment comes to attract his I hesitated? Why? Why? Why? Why can't I kill him?!
I choked a bit, falling out of the wall into on my feet. My back slouched I spat out a bit of blood.
Anger seemed to flow through my veins like hot crimson.
"Now I know that's not all you got!" He laughed, with that same carefree smile. I hated it.
I fell almost forward, my back more aerodynamic I launched forward keeping my centre of gravity close to the earth. I was frustrated, my throat burned and I wanted to scream with frustration.
I watched him smile with ease, he simply sidestepped my strike. I gasped in disbelief, who?
His elbow crashed down into my spine.
"Crushing Bison."
It went black after that.
When I finally awoke it was night, I shot up from my futon in a painted gasp. There in front him sat the monk Dashi, he was in a meditative pose. He was unmoving, still as a statue, I sat up in silence. My kimono and hiyori had been removed, I only sat in my white yukata. I swallowed, my gulp probably audible as he split an eye to look at me. Again he smiled with a certain easy that made my chest tight.
"I see you've awoken." My brows crossed, I knew I took a harsh blow to my spine, but now it barely hurt.
"How long have I been out for?" I asked hesitantly, the moonlight glowing in the open doored room.
"Well lets see." He said leaning back his arms behind him kicking out his legs, making himself more comfortable.
"Like two days I suppose." He said rather planely.
"What!?" I shot up to my feet. Two days to recover? If my father found out he would kill me. To lose to this lazy looking monk? How could I be so weak?
"I see your father isn't back yet, you said he's been gone for two months now? That's a long time." Dashi said.
I gave a nod to him still feeling shaken.
"And you have no idea where he went?"
"Even if I did know, why the hell should I tell you?" I spat at him. A tense pause, he sat up a bit. His eyes laying flat and unfaltering on me. I clenched my fists down, ready to fight again.
"At first, I didn't think you could be the Dragon of the West. Your frame is so small. A shame such a pretty face is the child of a monster. Why did you hesitate when we fought? I know what you're capable of. Only one of us should have walked away."
I swallowed at his words, my face fell into distress.
"Did you want to fight me?" He asked me his words soaked with some sort of censerity? No it must have been pitty.
"I?" My brain began to meltdown, I wanted too, I know that I did. I wanted you to leave and never return. But I didn't ask the star.
I looked down at the ground. I didn't particularly want to fight him, i didn't want to really fight anyone. But i had to, i have to follow my father's orders. Every whim he has. I must follow, kill and kill. Turn every creation into ashes. That is the duty of the dragon.
"Nothing to say for yourself hah?" He asked me again.
Say for myself? I never really thought so far. No one's asked me so many questions before, it was overwhelming to say the least. I wanted to shut down, I want this man to leave.
"He." I choked. The monks brow arched. "He said, he was going west, to see someone named WuYa." It was the first time I saw him become unsettled. His eyes widened and his lower lip curled into a frown. I bit the inside of my cheek.
"Who is, Wuya."
"Ah," He sighed out loud. "She's a witch, a user of Heylin evil magic."
"Heylin?" I asked him quizzingly.
Again he huffed out. He sat more propper, legs crossed his face fell serious.
"Sit, lets talk."
If I think back, I heard crickets, chirping at the pale moonlight. I'd heard them before, while wondering on a mission for my father, but never within the palace walls. Why had they returned now?
"I'm going to be more forward with you now. You are deeply laden with sin, that much is true. It doesn't matter if you're a child. I don't even want to think of all those you've killed while following your father's will."
I didn't waver at his words, I tried to be like a stone, matching his plant like aura in my own way.
"I want to enlist your help-." he began.
"I will stop you right there." I cut him off. "I swore my loyalty to my father." He grew flat and repressed a snarl. "You don't have to serve him. Tell me what does your heart want?" He asked tenderly.
My heart?
"It wants to beat?" I didn't understand the question. My heart within my chest? Organs do not want things?
"No." He sighed. He rose to one knee, and held his hand towards me. Inside is outstretched palm. The Star Hanabi, glowing in the moonlight. I never noticed how red the jewel in the center was. It glew with a kaleidoscope of embers.
"Huh?" I whispered, not sure what he was saying.
"When you look at this Wu, what does your heart say?" He asked tenderly.
My heart again? It doesn't speak. I looked away from him back at the star.
"Who, are you?" I breathed out. Feeling my chest tighten. I had to know, not his name but who he really was. He certainly isn't some ordinary monk. To have the gull to waltz in this castle demanding to see my father is certain suicide.
But it's not just that. How is it he has made my chest feel like its overflowing with emotions, that I can't even remember having.
He must have cast some sort of spell when he flipped the star. When it landed on tails I became cursed. That much was certain to me.
"I've come to stop your father's 10 year rain of ashes." His tone much stronger, his words sent a sharp tinge through me. He brought the star back to himself, fiddling with in between his fingers.
"My father will kill you." I said with certainty.
"Your father is nothing." He put it flatley. I felt insulted by his curt words. My father is the dragon of darkness, he poisons the sky with black flames. He chokes the air out your lungs just with the pressure of his being. He is unbeatable.
I started to laugh, shaking my head side to side.
"I've never heard such foolishness." My lip quivered for a second, I turned back to look him in the eyes this time. It seemed rather bright for nighttime. The moon has never glew so brightly. He had this serious looking face, but yet I didn't feel threatened by him. "Why is that?" He asked me.
"You're much stronger than your father." He told me. I am nothing compared to my father.
"I couldn't beat you, how could I beat my father? He is unbeatable." I told him with a bit of bite.
"You could beat me if you really wanted to, it's that you didn't want to. If you actually wanted to kill me. You would have come at me the moment you woke up, but you didn't. Now you are here listening to some monk whom you do not know, in the palace you were ordered to keep safe."
With that I launched at him. I pinned his arms above his head, my eyes were burning with so much fire a dull red reflected on his skin. I could feel my face coil with an intense anger.
I began to pant, the rage in me building threatening to erupt.
"Look at you, what are you like 18?" he asked, his face rather plain. I could feel his heart, fluttering softly. He wasn't afraid. Calm like a gentle river.
I just grit my teeth at him, hell if I should know how old I am!
"Such a pretty girl, it's such a shame you were born to darkness."
With a quick motion he slid out his hand, like a lighting bolt he pinned my arms bind my back, pulling my forearms back making my spine arch up. He sat up, me still sitting on his lap.
"Again, still not going for the kill." He laughed a bit. I was angry, I felt humiliated. Why can't I kill this guy?
"I'm gonna ask you questions, yes or no ones. You just answer them." He smiled cheekily.
I swallowed turning my face from him. I could headbut him? Break his nose, slip through his grasp, and strangle the life out of him.
"Do you love your father?" I turned to him in disbelief, what kind of question is that?
"My father is-" He yanked my arms down popping my shoulder joints making me wince.
"Yes or no." He said flatly.
"Yes." I breathed.
"Liar. Be honest with me. He's not even here." He toyed with me.
"Then you already know the answer." I spat. Pulling myself to fall backwards, I kicked up throwing my thighs around his neck, attempting to twist and snap it. Trying to stop his barrage stupid questions.
He dropped an arm, slamming my hips down, my legs falling to the side of his hip.
"Stop being difficult, the fate of the world is at stake here!" He shouted at me. Pinning my arm above my head. I started to flail in defiance. I sucked in a breath, boiling the fire in my belly. When he dropped a pounding fist into my gut, making me let out a belt of smoke from my lungs.
I began to cough a spot of blood.
"Bastard!" I growled with a shocked wheeze.
Him and I were at a standstill for a while, arguing back and forth. I didn't get what he was playing at. We had eventually kicked our way outside. My robe hanging openly in the wind. Bandages blocking my bare chest from view.
"I know there's a heart in there kid! You just have to see it!" He shouted launching at me.
I know I have a heart, if I place my hand on my chest I can feel it beating. Why does this man want my help. I would never betray my father, not to mention for the greater good. A pipe fantasy, my father cannot be stopped, he should just accept this and leave.
He launched forward nonetheless, grabbing my long black hair pulling it back.
"Crystal Glasses!" He shouted, A bright light engulfed my eyes. A pattern of colours, mazes of images, in a crystal of shimmering stars.
It was showing me something. The sky was black and purple, like acid swirling at midnight. I could hear people screaming in the distance. A thunderous boom alerting my attention behind me. The ground had cracked in a long tear. The smell of sulphur filled the air as a deep haze poured out from the black charcoaled earth.
There ahead, was me? I was wearing a long red kimono, the sleeves seemed to be onfire, my hair was whipping violently in the wind. I watched myself, I was walking towards where i was standing. I started to feel like I was suffocating. And then my vision shifted to the side. There the older me was, standing before my father. He was older. His once striking black hair now filled with streaks of white. His many layers of fine silken robes, now dusted and torn. His eyes like canyons, filled with long drawn age.
Impact. His fist broke into my chest. I watched myself spit blood over his face, the look in my eyes of horror. Then he ripped me open. Breaking me as he tore into his dragon form, swallowing me in a bloody carnage. I watched him swallow my corps as his black eyes rolled back into his skull.
"Finally, the seal is complete! Now I will never age again! I WILL LIVE FOR ETERNITY!" HE roared, the wind became so violent it wisped me away. I fell back, into blackness. I screamed out, horrified at what I just saw.
Light burst into my eyes, I was sweating and panting. Dashi had removed the glasses from my face. For the first time, since I can ever remember. A single tear streaked down from my violet orbs, it burned like as it ran down my face.
I felt violently ill. To see myself being eaten by own father. I could hear my own bones crunching in his jaws.
"Now you see, why i really came." Dashi stood above me, his face stern. But then, it settled into a half cocked smile. He reached his hand down to me, gently I took it in mine. With a quick slip of his arm I was jumped brought to my own two feet. Wide eyes I started at the earth.
Truth be told I didn't know how to feel. To put things flatley, I have never thought of my own life, let alone my own death. Not that I thought I was some sort of God. I could die. But I guess it didn't matter to me if I lived or not. Burying all emotions so deep down to survive that I had lost the will to change.
"Please, understand that you must be the one to stop your father." He tried to assure me. But I turned away from him. My chest was pounding, like small punctures littered my lungs, deflating any breath U tried to take.
"You, should leave. If my father returns, he will not spare you." I breathed out, a hot tear streaking down my cheek.
Dashi was stern at first, but then he simply turned and walked away without putting up a fight. I was almost shocked, turning sharply. I was sure he would protest, and speak more about the greater good of the world to me.
Dashi didn't return. The first man in years other than my father who I even held some form a conversation with. The first man I've ever lost to. My father also did not return. At night I would relive the vision I was shown by the mysterious Shen Gon Wu.
Each night id relive, watching myself, a future version of me. And with each night I would watch my own death. Over and over, i'd wake up in a cold sweat, launching forward deep in a panic. I covered my face with my hands and leaned forward, a shaky exhale left my lungs.
I fell backwards on to my single rounded pillow. My coal coloured hair fluttering back with me. "Now I will live for eternity." I quoted my father's words from dream. What does that mean. I closed my eyes, thinking about what that could possible symbolize. Dashi said it showed the future, those weird glasses, with crystals for eyes. I sighed slightly, could I confront my father when he returns? Would he even answer me? Not likely, it would probably infuriate him to even ask anything. He is used to me being his perfect daughter. Nameless, without a will of my own. A soldier at his disposal.
"Do you love your father?" Dashi's question chimed like a bell in my mind. I closed my eyes, I remembered being a child, so long ago it seemed. Back then I think I did love him. He was so kind, he stood as tall as a tree, lifting me onto his shoulders. Whizzing around like a dragonfly, my arms out like wings I would laugh under that cherry blossom tree.
I rolled out of bed sluggishly, the night was still in deep. It was cloudy, the moon now a crescent barely illuminated the dirt below. With a single lanturn, I snapped my fingers, lighting the small candle in the center with a sizzle. With it infront of me, I walked like some sort of midnight guard of a castle.
The wood did not creek from my light and airy steps. I was walking towards what seemed to be my origin spot. The dead cherry tree. I did not know why, but something inside me wished to gaze at it.
And there it was standing tall, so I hopped over the dry wooden railing. Landing effortly on the dirt below. With a quiet huff, I wandered up too it.
The tree was tall and cryptic looking. All the branches spiked off into a tumbleweed web of dead branches. The wood once a deep brown, now bland and grey. In my brain I can remember the memory, overlapped in an opacity of better times.
I held my breath in a moment of silence for what used to be within these old dead walls.
"Masume." My eyes snapped open as I turned with a gasp. Before my wide eyes, was my father. He had returned without my notice!
I dropped to a knee immodestly, the lantern snuffing out in the sudden action.
"Father, you have returned." I spoke out, trying to sound what I think I used to. Stoic and calm, nothing like what I feel in my heart. How I was before the monk came.
"I see the castle is unharmed. Other than the charred bones outside. I trust it was a small trifle to you." He purred, his sickening voice sliding into my ears. As he spoke the dream ran circuits through my mind.
"It, was nothing worth mentioning father." I spoke, my eyes staring at his feet. Now dark the mood snuffed out by black clouds. "Rise, I have a new assignment for you Masume."
Masume, it means daughter. My father has never called me by another name, if he did I can no longer remember what is was.
My father led me to his private quarters. I could smell what smelled like stomach acid and blood emanating from him. He was walking heavier than I remember. I furrowed my brows as I studied him. Something's changed.
As we walked I took a small step back. Putting a minor distance between us. My father like a cat paused to turn. "What?" He hissed curtly, even the slightest change in me went noticed is his all seeing eyes.
I cleared my throat feeling uneasy. "You have been gone for a long time." I began.
"What were you worried?" He laughed mockingly. "Of course not, my father is unconquerable. I know there is nothing to fear." Words that did not waver as I spoke. Like the old me crawling back into my body.
"I know being gone for 4 months must have been lonely for you. But do not worry, soon you and I will be closer than ever before." He turned away, his words choking me as I tried not to gag.
He is talking about eating me. I knew it for certain. That is my father's goal, this person Wuya he spoke of. He must have met with them in order to find this "eternity" he spoke of, somehow eating me is the final key. Instinctively I knew this somehow.
Is that was Dashi was leading too? What he is trying to tell me, that my fathers end goal is some kind of immortality, and my body is the key? But I have to remain calm. I forcibly breathed irregularly, even the beat of my heart. I continued to follow him, I would never question him. So why would I now?
My father and I sat, alone in the dark room. I burned fire behind my eyes, they bloomed a dull red, allowing me to see better in the black of night.
"I will need you to take out someone in particular. A feat nothing to you." He began with a curl of his tongue. I did not speak, he was used to my compliant silence.
"A rather troublesome monk, you see the Witch Wuya is willing to help me with something, but wants something in return." He spoke, almost a whisper, his breathing rather raspy.
"You are to kill him, and return his head. Only then will she, well give me something in particular."
"Name them." I spoke out. The dream I had again replaying in my head, like I was putting his words to it.
"A monk, rather tall. Medium olive-golden skin toned. Dark brown eyes, bald-" My heart began to pound. "He is dressed in Chinese style clothing, a bamboo hat. He goes by the name. Dashi, the grandmaster."
My blood ran cold, like the fire in my body replace with liquid ice. I began to sweat. My father wants me to kill that man? How? How could this be possible, could I even kill him? That man easily overtook me, how?
"I trust you will have it done, leave immediately, do not return till you have his head." He flicked his hand at me dismissively.
I bowed deep on the ground. "With fire, and with blood, It will be done." With that I left his chambers rather quickly. My hastily paced steps turn into a desperate sprint back to my room. I slid the door shut in a panicked slam. Running my fingers through my black hair I began to pant as I thought.
Calm down and think. The dream, my father made it clear that eating me is the final part to his plan for immortality. So that means, that in order for that to have happened i would have had to kill Dashi.
I exhaled. I dropped my arms and looked at the ceiling. So Dashi came here to talk to my father? He must have not known that I was to kill him.
What if, Dashi did not know he was the key. What if somehow with those glasses he changed fate? The star what if he didn't take it from me. And I killed Dashi on the spot that day? Somehow, just maybe fate had changed?
What should I do? Find Dashi and kill him, following my father's orders? My father, did he raise me like this, all for the purpose of devouring me for immortality. I swallowed, did I care? Again the question on my mind. Do I even want to live?
I left that night to as my father's orders. A catalyst of feelings that i have never felt before flooded my body, like the damn had started to break.
I slid on my combat kimono, a short dressed, long sleeve, black with red snapdragons embroidered all over it, a black obi, with a red bow over it. Long white socks and tabi sandals. I wrapped my right arm in cloth like a strappy glove. And lastly, before I departed. I grabbed my Kantana off the wall, Its name Enbu no Hono. A dance of fire. Named by my mother, my father once told me that it belonged to her, when she would perform a kagura for the fire gods.
And I walked away, standing now outside the castle gates, they closed entirely behind me. The night was black, no stars glistened in the sky. The moon overcasted with deep swirling clouds. My father's return quickly smothering out all the life in the world. And eventually my own?
Next chapter will end the 3 part prelude and move on to the main story, this is pretty much a self indulgence fic so it's cool if no one sticks around.