The Knights and the Princess

Chapter 13

.I watched him leave the room and once I was certain he was gone I started to get undressed, unclipping the necklace from my neck and pulling my shirt off. A loud "P'kyuu" startled me and I shrieked, jumping a good three feet in the air before scowling at the squirrel resting on my shoulder, unimpressed. "Really, Akito? Was that really necessary?" I then shivered, already feeling thirty degrees colder. I wrapped my arms around my stomach, dropping my bloody shirt on the floor, and gave Akito a sour look. She remained unphased, letting a simple,

"Kyuu!"

We had a short staring contest, the scowl on my face gradually fading and instead being replaced with a huge smile. "Aw, I give up! You're too cute!" I picked her up off my shoulder and kissed her forehead, squealing.

"P'kyuu!"

"Daw~!" After a couple more seconds of gushing over how cute she was I finally managed to get back into the mindset of getting clean. I set Akito on the ground, about to continue getting undressed only to pause when I saw her dive headfirst into the stream. "Akito!" I hurriedly walked over and got down on my knees, trying to see through the darkness into the stream. "Akito, where are you!?" I reached a hand, trying to feel around, the room just a bit too dark to see anything despite how used I was to the blackness. "Akito!" It was getting hard to breathe and my eyes began to sting. "H-Hey!"

The stream only went up to my knees and Akito knows how to swim, doesn't she? She took baths with me before and probably Blue hundreds of times before that. B-But why isn't she answering?

I was about to step in, still in my jeans, when she surfaced and spat out some water with a smile, letting out a loud "P'kyuu". My heart just about died from relief. "Oh god, please don't do that to me again," I sighed, feeling drained. Akito gave me a confused look before splashing her tail in the water and floating about. "Jeez..." I went back to getting undressed, ignoring how my heart was still pounding in my chest. I was usually uncomfortable getting undressed in front of both people and animals, but I was used to Akito. Back at school in gym class I used to hide in one of the stalls in the girls locker room whenever we had to change into our gym uniform or back into our school clothes. Showing too much skin always made me uncomfortable.

I reached over and grabbed the bar of soap, stepping into the ice cold stream. Goosebumps automatically ran along my skin and I was unable to suppress the shivers, teeth already beginning to chatter as I knelt down. Akito kept letting out little squeaks and splashing her tail in the water. I made sure to avoid aggravating my wounds, staring at my side in concern when I saw the edges were a bright red, but went back to scrubbing. I put the bar of soap down once I was done and washed the soap buds off of me, soon scrubbing at my head. I knelt down so my hair was in the water, scratching and scrubbing as hard as I could with what nails I had. My head pounded a little, but other than a small headache it didn't hurt too bad.

Suddenly a thought hit me-something I hadn't wondered about it a while.

How is everyone taking my disappearance? It's been a couple weeks now. They surely must have had a funeral or something- regardless of whether they found my body or not. I wondered if they cried, if they were sad... or if they were happy I was gone. Would they be mourning or rejoicing?

I suddenly recalled the kid who killed himself and how everyone reacted to his death-how I reacted to his death. Would... anyone react the same way... to mine?

Lungs burning I realized I had submerged my face into the water, not breathing. I yanked my head out, gasping painfully for air and coughing. I stood, stumbling and swaying as dark spots danced in my vision. My foot slipped on the ground and I shrieked, wincing when I fell back and landed roughly on the ground, scrapping my arms a little. "Ow..." Reaching over blindly I grabbed the towel, holding it to my chest as I shakily stood. I dried off and set the towel down, grabbing the folded kimono.

One thing became clear to me. There's no juban. That was basically the undergarment for female kimonos. I watched a lot of anime and I did plan to go to Japan one day, so I did some research. I also had do quite a bit of research for my writing as well-which could be a pain at times when I was unable to find what it was I was looking for.

I heaved a sigh, setting the kimono down, and grabbed my dirty undergarments, pulling them back on. I put the bandages on around my waist, leaving my leg free of wrapping as it was just a scar at this point. I then grabbed the light brown pants and pulled them on, noting in surprise that the bottoms were torn-almost looking deliberate. I pulled on the strings, pulling the pants up to my waist so they would at least fit me, and tied them. I then grabbed the kimono, pulling it on. It wasn't torn, but was so long it stopped at mid-calf. "Huh..." I shook my head, deciding not to question it, and tied the strings. I then grabbed the green obi belt that was discarded on the ground and wrapped it around my waist, along with the obi-jime cord. Once I was satisfied I did a quick turn, making sure everything stayed in place, and stretched with a loud yawn.

Everything went blurry as I grew light-headed, all strength leaving me as I swayed. I caught my balance and knelt down, ignoring how the sleeves covered my hands completely, and folded my dirty clothes and the towel. I grabbed the necklace laying on the ground, having almost completely forgot about it, and after a moment of thought I clamped it back around my neck, hiding it underneath the kimono.

"P'kyuu!" I turned my head, only to snort and clamp a hand over my mouth when I saw Akito shake the water out of her fur. Unfortunately for her it simply caused her fur to puff out in every direction.

"Nice," I complimented, teasing her.

"Kyuu!" She retorted.

"Rude," I grinned. I knelt down, extending a hand out to her while I used my other to hold my bangs out of my face, brushing them back. I could care less about appearances at this point and how my hair looked. It had grown so much over the time I had been here-the part that had been shaved was a good two centimeters long and my bangs all but touched my shoulders. Akito scampered forward and jumped onto my hand, allowing me to stand and carrying her. "It's so nice to be clean."

"P'kyuu!" She squeaked in agreement. I nuzzled her cheek against mine (something that was beginning to be a habit) and turned around, making my way barefoot out of the cave. The ground was cold, but it didn't bother my feet any. I was only really cold if my arms were cold-which they are right now, unfortunately. I suppressed another shiver as I exited, looking both directions as I tried to remember the way back to Blue's room.

Soft, barely audible snoring hit my ears and I turned my head, looking down in surprise to see Blue leaning against the wall with his knees pulled up to his chest, his chin resting on his arms as he breathed softly.

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