The Whipping Boy || Kokuzan/Michizan Vers. ||

The chase.

A thoroughbred of streets, Michikatsu acted on instinct. He didn't wait to be nabbed.

In a burst of straw, he shot up and made a leap for the door. Genya, startled, lost the merest breath of time. But it was enough.

Michikatsu flung open the door and ran.

His long arms outstretched, Genya lurched after him.

And Muzan followed.

Michikatsu vanished into a wild green tangle. He jumped a great fallen log, ducked under low-hanging branches, and, like a rabbit, made sudden changes in direction.

He could hear Genya close behind, breathing like a bellows. "I'm on your tracks! Stop before I get aggravexed with you, Prince!"

Michikatsu covered the ground at full tilt. Leaves cracked under his feet. Gosh! he thought. He might as well be leading a confounded parade, for all the noise he was making.

He reached a small clearing---and half jumped out of his skin. Sniffing near the skeleton-white roots of an upturned hollow stree stood a while beast.

A bear!

Michikatsu would have preferred Genya's own company. But before he could find his legs, the hair beast took flight.

It went crashing away to Michikatsu's left.

Michikatsu got his breath back. Then, almost without thinking, he dove into the hollow of the dead tree and snugged himself in.

Moments later he caught the merest glimpse of Genya cupping an ear. Turning on his heals, the rattleboned man gave a shout. "Practically got you by the hind leg, pesky Prince!"

Michikatsu let out a small of relief. Genya would have a mighty surprise if he caught that bear by the hind leg.

As the sounds of the chase grew fainter, Michikatsu crawled out of the hollow root. The sun was now high enough to send down smoky rays of light through tree treetops. Which way was the river?

And then he saw Muzan, his face red from running, at the edge of the clearing.

"Unfaithful servant!" he protested, glaring hard at Michikatsu.

Until this moment, Michikatsu hadn't had a moment's pause for anger. But now fury shot into eyes. Curse this blabber-tongued, hateful prince!

"You betrayed me!"

"You'd have deserted me without a care!"

Michikatsu bristled. "Isn't me they think is the prince? If you hadn't pointed me out under the straw, Genya would have flown off to pick up my tracks. And we could have crept away dead easy. I wouldn't be running my lungs out!"

Muzan pondered this for a moment. He nodded. "Then I forgive you."

Michikatsu was speechless for a moment. "Forgive me? Don't trouble yourself, my good and loyal Prince. And get yourself another whipping boy,"

"But I have not dismissed you from my service," said Muzan calmly.

"I dismiss myself," Michikatsu fired back. "I'll get where I'm going, and you can find your own way back to the castle."

"I'll go with you."

"Not likely!"

Michikatsu turned to the right and beat his way back into the foliage.

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Whipping Boy: A person to serve the punishment for a prince, since it is illegal to hit a prince.
There's the definition in which I was given-