Sanosuke left in the middle of winter.
He wove a pair of wide, flat snow shoes, threw a bear skin over his shoulders, filled a bag with food, and said goodbye.
"It's too much for me, Missy," he told Kaoru.
She glanced up at him with wide eyes and nodded her understanding.
She would sit up and weave during the day. Every day snow lay on the ground, she had to fight to stay awake, stay aware. Her body burned with fever. She would choke down broth and gruel, growing thinner, but still alive, still fighting.
Shinta watched her, burning inside with his own outrage. He could do nothing for her. Kaoru would look at him and smile, as if, somehow, she weren't the only one fighting. As if he helped her somehow. Shinta appreciated the lie.
At night her body lay cool and still, and he lay still beside her, waiting... Every night expecting the cold touch, the endless darkness, an icy kiss.
It never came.
The old woman muttered prayers under her breath every morning and every evening.
Katsuhiro and Mirine entertained the children with songs and stories.
Somehow, the long nights began to grow shorter.
Somehow, the snow began to melt.
Somehow, spring arrived.
Underneath the snow and ice - green.
Life had crept in while they had endured the long, cold nights.
.
Even frighteningly thin and prone to dizzy spells, Kaoru was eager to travel. She smiled brilliantly while the birds sang and Shinta prepared their belongings. Visitors had started coming to the shrine again, and they were able to barter some of Kaoru's weaving and a statuette Shinta had carved for a small cart Kaoru could ride.
Mirine was not happy at their leaving so soon. Shinta, while he wanted to put this mountain far behind them, also worried that the strain might be too much.
But Kaoru dismissed their concerns with a shake of her head. "I'm not going to wait anymore," she said.
"We're alive," she told him. "You and I are alive. Even if we only have a short time, it's worth more than..." and then she smiled and shook her head and put her hands around his face.
Better to lose you than never to have had you, she meant. Shinta couldn't argue, though he felt himself already going mad at the thought of living without her.
Kaoru wanted to go.
So.
They would go.
.