A Fox's Whisper

10: |几卂尺|

Pain.

Searing white-hot pain.

It burned on my head, and on my face, and in my throat. I felt so disconnected from the world that I couldn't feel my hands scrabbling at the yokai attacking me. My vision blurred and someone was yelling. I couldn't tell if it was the yokai or me or Kazuha. The pure fear that wrapped its cold claws around my lungs scorched my insides with nonexistent frost.

The creature's claws dug into my scalp and its teeth latched onto one of my fox ears. I fell to the ground, feeling blood trickle into my eyes, my nose, my mouth.

Then there was a sickening squelch...and the creature's grip loosened. It fell to the ground, and I scrambled away from it. Someone grabbed my arm, and I turned to find Kazuha, hauling me to my feet. Looking back at the yokai, I saw a single arrow plunged straight through its head. It gave a sickening gurgle, and one more strangled exclamation of, "Okami...Inari..." And then it died, simple as that.

Funny how we all get so caught up in the intricacies of living that we forget how simplistic death truly is, even for hideous yokai. 

But the arrow concerned me...someone had to have shot it. It wasn't us. It wasn't Haru or Legion. Yet we weren't alone. Kazuha's arm was wrapped tightly around my waist as if he was afraid I might lose consciousness again and fall. I didn't have time to feel indignant and flustered that I'd fainted in front of him, even if it had only been for a few seconds. Even if it had been because of the voice.

I tell you this: Yamabiko Dorobo's voice isn't one you soon forget. It tears you up from the inside out, chilling the blood in your veins and freezing the heart in your chest. Those made of etched marble would be warmer than Dorobo's voice. No, I could never forget the way he sounded. Nobody could.

"Inari, stay close to me," Kazuha murmured. His sword was still drawn and he was scanning the trees in the direction of the arrow.

I was growing lightheaded from the amount of blood I was losing. Head wounds tend to bleed more, no matter how shallow. Great flashes of white light jabbed into my eyes as I grew dizzier and dizzier. I looked at the ground, and I saw drops of blood drip from my chin to the dirt, getting absorbed into the cold earth.

"I can't see you," Kazuha called. He sounded so distant despite the fact that I was right next to him. "But I know you're there. I don't believe you wish to harm us since you saved Inari. Show yourself."

Someone in the trees above sighed loudly, perhaps at the mere mention of the "inconvenience" of revealing themselves. I despise pretentious humans. They almost above anyone else deserve to suffer for all the airs they put on.

There was a rustling amongst the branches, and a girl alighted from the tree directly to our right. She was an unsightly thing, no older than eighteen. She was very tall and very thin. Her face was nothing remarkable. A little too pinched. A little too pointed. Her eyes held some of the normal Inazuman slant, but their color was a pale icy blue, too pale for the rest of her face.

A birthmark colored sickly shades of pink and lavender stretched from her left eye up to her forehead. She was dressed in a simple tunic and leggings, bow in hand, and a quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder. She wore a brown leather glove on her right hand, set into which was a Geo Vision.

Her hair was the only lovely thing about her, a lustrous shade of gold held back in a long braid that reached her waist.

She tilted her pointed chin up with an air of distaste.

"I've been watching you two. Not even three hours into the fog, and you almost get yourselves killed." She spat contemptuously on the ground. "I've been here three days and haven't received so much as a scratch!"