In The Wind [Serin/Kayamio]

[Serin]

Serin was rapidly coming to realize that Elibe was a very big place.

She had been walking for two and a half days now and was still apparently NOWHERE close to Arcadia, or civilization, or actually much of anything. Well, that wasn't quite true. There were lots of rocks. Because she was still IN THE FUCKING MOUNTAINS god dammit she had left the valley for wild adventures and world-saving heroism, not... more rocks. She had seen the god damn mountains for 17 years, blocking the horizon and encircling her world, the last thing she wanted to see was MORE of the stupid things. It wasn't that she hated them or anything, mountains were cool and stuff, she just wanted to see NOT-mountains for once. Wasn't that what adventure was supposed to be about anyways? Seeing strange new worlds, meeting exotic new people, and doing awesome new things?

And hiking, apparently, the fox added morosely as an afterthought. Lots and lots of hiking.

Still, despite her frustrations, it WAS still pretty exciting to be out on her own. Ok, yeah, the initial buzz of excitement had died down a little, been replaced by crushing terror at the realization that she could never go home or dad would possibly-literally talk her to death, and then finally been replaced with excitement again when she realized she didn't HAVE to go home anymore. So overall she was in a pretty good mood. It was just hard not to think when she was alone and bored out of her mind. She didn't like thinking. It tended to lead to Things(tm), bad things, like introspection and self-improvement and realizing that idea that had sounded like a great idea at the time was actually really fuckin' stupid in retrospect.

So thought the great Serin, runaway shrine maiden from bumfuck nowhere, as she thoughtlessly traipsed down the battered and poorly used road on her trek to parts unknown. Well, in theory it was Arcadia, that was what the people at the village last night had said, but that was apparently REALLY far away, like half the continent or something. Serin wasn't really sure how big a continent was, but apparently it was bigger than two days of walking, which meant she still had more walking to do. Not the worst fate in the world for a glorified farmgirl of sorts, but she hadn't exactly been the type to do everything by hand unless her parents were actually watching the entire time, so... she wasn't exactly the most physically fit person in the history of ever.

[Kayamio]

Kayamio had decided to stay behind when the remaining villagers packed up and headed north, he studied a map and decided he would travel west to the more populated areas. He spent his days tending to his wounds as well as resting, the only thing he knew to expect was traveling through the mountains and wasn't exactly sure how he would go about doing so.

After a little over a week he knew it was now or never, what remaining food supplies that were left wasn't going to last too much longer and he had almost no survival skills. He knew he needed to travel light so he crammed as much food as he could into his back pack as well as a couple changes of clothes, he decided to wear his armor to help boost his stamina as well as be ready for anything. He began his pilgrimage without hesitation, walking what was ages he took a few breaks before looking back. In retrospect he didn't make it too far, in the distance he could still see his village, it was a speck on the horizon but still kinda in view, letting out a sigh he knew it was going to be a long journey.

Finally a few days later he made it the foot of the mountains, luckily he found a path but it was going to be dark soon. Kayamio knew it was against he better judgement to begin the hike in the dark but he did it anyways, it was into the wee hours of the morning when he set up camp and went to sleep. He slept like a baby, waking up sometime in the afternoon. He didn't travel horribly far when he spotted something... odd? He stopped in his tracks staring at it for a few moments with his mouth wide open before slowly bringing his hands to his eyes rubbing them. Yup, it was still there so he pinched himself. If his eyes weren't playing a trick on him clearly his was sleep walking, nope still felt that. What he saw was a girl, what stood out the most was the dog like ears and tail. Normal girls didn't have either of those, clearly it had to be some kind of costume. He walked up to her without saying a word and poked one of the ears on top of her head and tried to move it, but not too much because he was worried it was some kind of thing in her hair and the girls he knew hated it when somebody messed up their hair. He reached out and touched her tail, it felt like REAL fur so he gave it a light tug. It had seemed to be attached as well. "A-are those real?"

[Serin]

The great and terrible Serin let out a... disappointingly non-ferocious squeak when an unseen being fondled her ears, her attention having been completely set to other tasks. Like yawning, and staying awake, and being bored, and trying to double numbers in her head until she lost track of the digits. It just wasn't something she was used to on a regular basis, in the valley EVERYONE knew to ask first which gave her time to prepare herself. Complicating matters was the fact that her ears were very, very sensitive, and it was a sudden rush of overwhelming sensation that she simply wasn't prepared for in the least that momentarily stole reason and reaction from her, probably for the best or she might have reflexively lashed out.

By the time her assailant (of sorts) moved down to her tail, the weakness in her knees was starting to dissipate and conscious thought was returning in full force. Serin didn't have enough of a sense of danger to actually be afraid yet, but it was.... kind of hard to be mad at a guy who made her feel that good, either. Wow, wording. At least it wasn't a giant horde of smelly bandits or anything, she could deal with one kinda cute guy. Turning up the charm a bit, despite the, er, minor inconvenience of having her tail in his grip, Serin gave him a once over and smiled semi-genuinely at the guy as she spoke. Huh, not bad. She didn't really know what kind of armor it was supposed to be, she'd never seen anything like it before, but the red went ok with the blue in his outfit.

Plus they were pretty much the same height, give or take, so it was a lot less intimidating than some 7 foot hulk of man-meat towering over her. "Y-yes," Serin started, her voice still quivering a tiny bit for a second before she regained full control of her faculties. "That or I jammed a broom up my ass. Who knows?" Yeah, that was the normal Serin back in action, away from the watchful eyes and chiding tongues of her parents. She chuckled, then continued in a somewhat more conversational tone. "It's, um, nice to meet you, Mr...?" She trailed off, actually enough out of her depth that she didn't know what to follow up with. Something about having your tail held hostage by someone had that effect. The kitsune had her magical prowess sure, but her body and especially her extremities were FAR from invincible, and she didn't have the strength to wrest free from a tight grip in the first place, much less a good grip on her tail. At least it wasn't anywhere near as sensitive as her ears so it didn't interfere with her ability to function.

[Kayamio]

Kayamio had stood there for a second with his jaw slowly dropping as the girl had began to make noises as he touched her ears, staring at her with a mixture of confusion and disbelief, even while still holding onto her tail. Without exactly realizing he let go of the tail, but kept his hand there for a few moments till his subconscious began to poke the rest of his mind to respond to her.

Shooting his hand back to his side, his mouth hastily closed as he blinked a few times. "I'm so so so so so so sorry!" he said in one very quick breath while he held both hands to his side as he bowed a few times. Keeping his head lowered he began to talk, this time more slowly. "I-I just never saw anyone with ears like that or a tail. I thought I was still dreaming at first, then maybe those were some kind of fashion things." Kayamio could feel his knees trembling now, without spending a nanosecond thinking about it he dropped to his knees and placed his forehead onto the ground and his hands next to his head.

"My n-name is Kayamio, and I humbly request for you to forgive my rude and unwarranted actions." The boy plead to the girl, even if she didn't seem upset about his actions. If anything she had seemed just as caught off guard as he was when he had first spotted her, but not to attempt to apologize would have been dishonorable. "Is there anything I could do to make up for that?" An offer he wasn't sure if he was going to regret or not.

[Serin]

Uh, wow. Mom and pops never quite prepared her for this. Yeah, there were snafus and silliness abounded at times, but everyone in the valley knew who the vulpine guardians of the Sanzu were. She could deal with awkwardness... but having her ears petted like that had been pretty disorienting. Nnnnnot that he needed to know that. She DID know better than to tell people about weaknesses, at least.

Also, it was kinda hard to be mad at him. Which, itself, annoyed her a bit, but Serin had to admit to herself that his apology sure seemed heartfelt, and she didn't get a sense that he was lying when he said he'd never seen a kitsune... or maybe even a youkai... before. It was strange to her of course. She'd grown up surrounded by two of them after all; NOT seeing ears on people had been a little weird at first. But she had learned to try to see things from the perspectives of others, and she had been, er, somewhat prepared for... not exactly this, but something along these lines. But... fashion things? Yeesh, talk about putting your foot in your mouth and then jamming it in 'til you were shitting toes.

The shrine maiden took a deep breath to center herself and regain her self-control in the wake of the human's sudden desire to make out with the ground. It didn't work perfectly, she was still a bit frazzled, but it did help her find her pace again. At least somewhat. His desperate need to make this as awkward as possible was having its effect on her as well; Serin almost felt as bad for him as he felt for her. ...Almost. While she didn't know anything about his customs, and she did get the feeling this was some kind of custom, the teenage fox DID know a thing or two about respecting tradition, even if she usually whined about it endlessly. And for better or for worse, he definitely seemed to be expecting something from her.

Well, no harm in winging it, right? She wasn't home now, she didn't have to be a perfect untouchable fox goddess anymore. Oh god, she could even go to bed ANYTIME SHE WANTED now, and say all kinds of things! ...Not that she could think of any expletives that really seemed appropriate here. So instead, she fell back into her role a little bit, the usually laid back fox assuming somewhat more of a priestly air as she measured her words more carefully. "All is forgiven, Kayamio." Her voice carried less of the irreverent teenager of a moment before and more of a surprisingly serene tone, almost in character for the shrinemaiden her parents had always wanted her to be.

"...As long as you carry my satchel to the next village for me," she finished after a pregnant pause, her lips curled into a small and somehow slightly aggravating smile. Hey, big girl or no, it wasn't illegal to be crazy, and her shoulder WAS kinda sore.

Behind her, though, a second pristinely white tail was peeking out from behind her to the right, on the opposite side of the one Kayamio had grabbed, which now waved upright to her left. She always tried to keep most of her tails hidden for various reasons, from pure pragmatism (damn things got in the way) to the fact that a kitsune with more than one tail was usually feared by those familiar with them - and Serin was NOT a fan of revealing the fact she had more than that. Mother had been very, VERY thorough about beating that into her head. The foxgirl still didn't think it warranted hiding herself that much, but she begrudgingly accepted that it helped keep things simple and herself looking unassuming, and more importantly unthreatening.

[Kayamio]

The fox girl? had asked him to carry her satchel to the next village. He had absolutely no idea there were villages up in the mountains or if it would put him in the direction he was hoping to go. But, it was an offer he had made that he couldn't refuse. Taking a second to stand up, he brushed off any dirt from his knees and forehead from the position he was in moments again. "Consider it done" The boy had said, almost too cheerfully.

Kayamio stuck his hands out, inviting the girl's satchel into his possession. "So, where are we going Miss... I'm sorry but I think I had missed your name."