Feathers

Chapter One

It started with a winter's storm. Candles were lit for light and a fire was held in the middle of Kyuo's living space. He rubbed his hands together to generate more heat for his body as a gust of wind brought snow through the cracks of his windows. Kyuo could never afford the glass windows that were sold by an older man in the Kogarashi* Marketplace. The glass was beautiful to the naked eye, light that went through the masterpiece will instantly change color according to what the glass was dyed, the picture on the glass would reflect onto the cold ground perfectly. It was marvelous, Kyuo thought it was a blessing to have such fine art sold in the village to the right.

How often he thought about the glassworks took hours day. Kyuo wished to be able to make such fine pieces of art himself, even if his rough hands were cut more than the usual day. His wood works were thought to be his children, something he has been proud of since he moved out of his family's house.

That is, if his family still had a house.

Lost in thought, Kyuo was brought back to the reality of a cold winter's night when a loud noise stuck his hand-carved door. He sat silently to see if it would repeat, not knowing if a bird accidentally flew into the door or an animal dropped dead from the storm while trying to find warmth. When the knock came again Kyuo stood up and tried his best to balance himself to walk to his door. Kyuo's hand brushed in his against the chilling handle and opened the door, battleing the hard wind and snow as he thrusted it open.

"Konbanha*? Anyone there, are you hurt?" Kyuo called out. He squinted to see past the swirls of winter in hope to find the source of the noise. When calling out again, louder, and no one answered, he shut the door with no effort.

Going back to his fire, the knock started back up. Kyuo sighed in disbelief while he jumped back up to get the door.

A fragile maiden was standing on his aplintered porch, wrapped in the finest fabric and shivering from the cold. Her eyes were wide and bright as the fire that laid in Kyuo's main room. Kyuo took a while to speak to the maiden as she gave a light giggle to his reaction to seeing her face.

"C-Come in, come in," he took her by the shoulders and rushed her to the open fire. "You must be so cold, why would someone stand in the snow like that?"

The maiden gave a gentle laugh from the sudden heat before her. Kyuo took her innocent actions as a thanks for giving her a shelter for the night. As some time past Kyuo placed the fabric from his make-shift bed around her and made a hot soup to warm her insides.

"All better?" He asked.

She nodded in response and took a sip of the soup, scrunching up her face when realizing the steam had something to do with the temperature.

"I am so sorry to ask; but this is my home and you appeared at my doorstep in the dark of night. May I start off by asking your name and how you got here?"

Umeko was all she said, for it was all she knew.

And that was the day they met.

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*Kogarashi, a word referring to the cold breeze that tells one winter has arrived.

*Konbanha, "good evening"