Chapter 11: Hide-And-Go-Seek
The miko appeared to be avoiding him.
Over his last two visits to Edo village, Sesshoumaru had yet to see hide nor hair of her, despite being able to scent her nearby, and he was intrigued as to why. As he recalled, their last encounter, whilst filled with delightful blustering and intense flushes by the miko, had been entirely innocent and congenial. Had he said something to upset her, then? He could not seem to recall.
Very well, then; he was always the most accomplished of hunters.
Following her most recent trail with his youki pulled tightly around him in stealth, his nose led him past the Bone Eater's Well and towards what he had begun to refer to as 'their' clearing, if only to himself. Now, when he had begun this fanciful moniker, he could also not seem to recall.
He found her once again haphazardly sprawled over the lush and verdant ground, idly picking petals off the tiny white flowers and muttering incoherently to herself. Sesshoumaru paused just beyond the clearing's edge to study the scene before him, hidden by the forest's foliage and standing in a patch of shadows created by the dense canopy above.
Though his canine hearing was exceedingly impeccable for even those of his own species, he could still not quite make out what she was saying, but it sounded fairly repetitive, almost like a chant or a prayer of some kind. And whatever she said, she would pluck a petal in time with her words.
Golden eyes raked over her prone form, taking in the way she lay on her belly, legs idly kicking in the air behind her, hakama indecently pooling down her toned calves. Something about seeing her in this way made her seem almost innocent and childlike in this moment, and he couldn't help but wonder when the last time that he, himself, had indulged himself in such a manner. Centuries past, no doubt.
Allowing his youki loose at last to explode into the clearing, he stepped forward into the dappled sunlight created beneath Goshinboku's boughs.