𝙆𝙊𝙃𝘼𝙆𝙐┊𝙈𝙮 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙤 𝘼𝙘𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙖

. 𝘽𝙐𝙍𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂

━━━━
chapter one

burning
━━━━

normal, story

italic, thoughts

bold, flashbacks

・

the sun burned upon contact with her skin. her thinned pale cheeks absorbing the summer heat. the warmth, the way her long raven tresses, a mess - cascaded down her small frame, and the song of the vehement breeze upon her ears.

far from her aunt's abode was the young girl, a bucket of dried corn in her arms.
handling it with care as her little bare feet carried her step upon step by the scorching stones.

there was no possibility of resting that day, 'there was too much work to do' - was what her aunt had told her this morning. waking her up at the birth of dawn to hand her the list of chores she was to do.

she didn't mind, it wasn't too hard. today's tasks were rather simple, to clean the feed the chickens, clean the henhouse, and collect the eggs at the shack near the forest.

it does seem a bit boring yes? perhaps to the likes of you at least, however in the sombre eyes of the child - despite the repetition of this one of many work cycles, she found entertainment in the frail little fowl. she, above all adored the tiny chicks among the flock. their high-pitched chirps and clumsy waddling.

there she was curled up in a little ball, eyes following the feathery yellows.

*creak...!*

her train of thought went about interrupted, her view trailing away to the sound's direction.

her gaze landed unto a mother hen that fell under the floorboards' laths. thankfully, it hadn't gotten hurt. without thinking, she'd grabbed the feathered fellow from under, securing it as she put her back with the rest.

"hey you!"

vermillion eyes wandered towards the voice, landing on a familiar - much smaller pink haired boy.

ya...taro? what is he doing so far from the inn?

the younger looked down at the girl with disgust, his stomach had churned by the sight of his older cousin draped in a browned and sullied hand-me-down shirt, hair tangled and face flushed without color- cheeks thinned nearly to the bone. yataro gritted his teeth,

"woahh! that's so cool yacchan! did he really say that?"

it wasn't too long ago, summer had just begun, the 4 boys had been walking home from their friends house. licking at their ice creams to fight the peaking heat.

"of course he did! he told me he'd bring me back to Tokyo once he's finished with his workload! he said he'd let me bring one more person too!"

"whattt?! yacchan you've got to take me, i wanna see the city!"

"no way, he's obviously gonna take me! im his best friend after all!"

"noooo! that's so unfair!"

the boys 3 friends bickered playfully, singing praises in his ears.

"awe guys! as much as id love to take you, im gonna take my mom! she always takes care of me so its the least i could do!" was his reply, a warm friendly smile plastered unto the pink haired boy's ears.