NekoMentals!

Chapter Twelve

As Damion carried Yurika back into Lady Tama's cottage, he caught Sachiko's sorrowful eye. It really did seem like she was sorry, but since Damion didn't know her very well yet, he couldn't decide whether to forgive her yet or not.

Yurika was still asleep in Damion's arms. He found the nearest couch and set her down gently, covering her with a couple of blankets afterwards.

"I really am sorry," Sachiko snuck up behind Damion and made him jump a little.

He gave her a half smile. "It's fine, Sachiko. You'll have to apologize to Yurika personally when she wakes up though. She was hurt more than I was."

Sachiko nodded and glanced at the sleeping Yurika. "Okay," she walked away.

Damion sat on the edge of the couch, next to Yurika's legs. He didn't want to startle her when she woke up. What he did do, however, was stroke her legs (it's not weird, shush).

Yurika made a noise and began to stir. Damion paused his petting and didn't even dare to breathe. Instead of waking up, she rolled over onto her side.

Lady Tama was alone in the kitchen, just sitting at the one stool she had for herself at the island, which was in between the kitchen and the dining table. She didn't know what to do with the children living in her house right now. Sachiko was caught talking about them (even though it was Lady Tama who brought the subject up), when it was Tama herself who should get the cold shoulder.

Yurika kept running away and wanting to be alone. She was also the one who was most in danger; she was more reckless than the other two. Another thing about Yurika: she sleeps a lot. She can never go more than a few hours without a nap. Lady Tama figured it was what she was going through at the moment.

Damion hadn't found his powers yet, even though he was beginning to make progress with his katana that he received. Nonetheless, Tama expected him to have at least figured out what his powers were, like the others. Maybe she set the bar too high, but that's how you mastered things, in her opinion.

She sat in silence, trying to think of all the ways she could help the children. They could survive on their own, sure, but definitely defend themselves yet. In Lady Tama's vocabulary, defending meant being able to defeat whatever was put in front of you. Whatever obstacle you come across, whether alive or not, you should be able push through the challenges that come your way.

Strangely, there was no noise coming from anywhere inside the house, except for the cat and ferret purring and squeaking. Yurika was sleeping, but were Sachiko and Damion doing? Lady Tama wondered this over and over. She had heard Damion and Sachiko converse once after he had brought Yurika back. No more, no less.

Lady Tama wanted to apologize for everything she had done so far, to hurt them all physically and emotionally. She wanted to tell them that it might not be okay, but they were together. She didn't know how to express to the three of them that they need to stick together no matter what.

~

When Lady Tama was a little girl, her name was Tama Nakano. She was born in Toyama, where her family had lived for more than three generations. She had three sisters, but the oldest unfortunately passed away from a bad case of the flu back in 1903. Tama didn't know how to be devastated; she was only two years old and was just learning to talk. Her two other sisters cared for her deeply, because, while the parents were away, there was no one else to look after her.

Like her eldest sister, however, her parents perished. Unlike the eldest sister, they died in a boat ride, where there was a terrible storm. They passed when Tama was about five, so she had some sense of what had happened, but not much.