[L5R/S7] In their season;
“In Their Season”
L5R, Alternate Universe
Includes original characters. L5R belongs to Wizards of the Coast, S7 belongs to GONZO.
Prompts: secrets, debt;
Tales from the Firefly House: A Homecoming
He arrived short of dawn, when the sky was still dark and the moon sleepy overhead as clouds lingered close to the mountainside. They were far off in the distance, as if preparing themselves for the ascent of the sun.
He had snuck over the wall, its mechanical guardian still broken and in need of repair. He wondered how long had it been since he’d left this place, with its streets alive well into the early morning, the music filling people’s ears with the noise of merriment. The streets were silent as he walked through them, and lamps that stood like thin sentries on either side were either dim or broken, casting a host of shadows that made the village seem like a ghost town.
He had traveled from Kanna mostly on foot, stopping only when fellow travelers asked him to join them for a meal. Apparently, in the short time since their defeat of the Nobuseri, people from all over the nation had heard word of seven noble samurai who stood up for the villagers of a tiny village suffering under the bandit’s cruelty. All samurai were now viewed in a new light - not as wayward strays from a previous era, but as men and women deserving of consideration and kindness.
He stood now before his intended destination, the windows dark from lack of life within. The signboard that normally glared a bright fuchsia was slumbering. The character for the establishment’s name dark, its inner light shut as if it were an eye closed now from exhaustion. He eased his footsteps up the wooden steps, each seemingly in time with the quiet beating of his heart.
They had sat here on numerous nights, speaking to each other of fireflies and debts, or staying but never of going. They had sat, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, the perfume on her neck whispering his secrets and desires to the breeze.
“Welcome home.” The voice came from the darkness and he stopped, his stance shifting briefly to allow him enough room to defend himself if the need arose. What time he had spent away had roused his warrior's instincts from their slumber, causing him to once again treat the unknown as a guarded man might.
He spotted her figure in the far end of the receiving room, the solidness of her form darker in contrast to the space around her. The line of her hand melted into the shadowed form of her koto, unifying two separate pieces into once.
Her face was shrouded, but he didn’t need to see this to know that she would not stop him from entering. Shichiroji relaxed, his body straightening as he walked towards the young woman who he had once known briefly, as a lost, little girl. “It is far too early for you to be awake, Kotori-chan.”
“Yukino-san is sleeping still within.” She smiled up at him, her sightless gaze focused onto the space beyond his shoulder.
She had ignored his statement as if it mattered little. When her head bent to bow, her long lashes were like twin butterflies, folding half-moons right above the apples of her cheeks. “She will be glad that Shichiroji-sama has returned safely.”
In the east, the sun had begun to rise, the tip of it peering lazily over the wall of mountains, spilling excess light into a gradually brightening sky.
“Thank you, Kotori-chan.” The samurai smiled as the first notes of a new piece begun to lift into the air. He turned then, the house still dark, though not unwelcoming, for the wanderer had now returned home.
L5R, Alternate Universe
Includes original characters. L5R belongs to Wizards of the Coast, S7 belongs to GONZO.
Prompts: secrets, debt;
Tales from the Firefly House: A Homecoming
He arrived short of dawn, when the sky was still dark and the moon sleepy overhead as clouds lingered close to the mountainside. They were far off in the distance, as if preparing themselves for the ascent of the sun.
He had snuck over the wall, its mechanical guardian still broken and in need of repair. He wondered how long had it been since he’d left this place, with its streets alive well into the early morning, the music filling people’s ears with the noise of merriment. The streets were silent as he walked through them, and lamps that stood like thin sentries on either side were either dim or broken, casting a host of shadows that made the village seem like a ghost town.
He had traveled from Kanna mostly on foot, stopping only when fellow travelers asked him to join them for a meal. Apparently, in the short time since their defeat of the Nobuseri, people from all over the nation had heard word of seven noble samurai who stood up for the villagers of a tiny village suffering under the bandit’s cruelty. All samurai were now viewed in a new light - not as wayward strays from a previous era, but as men and women deserving of consideration and kindness.
He stood now before his intended destination, the windows dark from lack of life within. The signboard that normally glared a bright fuchsia was slumbering. The character for the establishment’s name dark, its inner light shut as if it were an eye closed now from exhaustion. He eased his footsteps up the wooden steps, each seemingly in time with the quiet beating of his heart.
They had sat here on numerous nights, speaking to each other of fireflies and debts, or staying but never of going. They had sat, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, the perfume on her neck whispering his secrets and desires to the breeze.
“Welcome home.” The voice came from the darkness and he stopped, his stance shifting briefly to allow him enough room to defend himself if the need arose. What time he had spent away had roused his warrior's instincts from their slumber, causing him to once again treat the unknown as a guarded man might.
He spotted her figure in the far end of the receiving room, the solidness of her form darker in contrast to the space around her. The line of her hand melted into the shadowed form of her koto, unifying two separate pieces into once.
Her face was shrouded, but he didn’t need to see this to know that she would not stop him from entering. Shichiroji relaxed, his body straightening as he walked towards the young woman who he had once known briefly, as a lost, little girl. “It is far too early for you to be awake, Kotori-chan.”
“Yukino-san is sleeping still within.” She smiled up at him, her sightless gaze focused onto the space beyond his shoulder.
She had ignored his statement as if it mattered little. When her head bent to bow, her long lashes were like twin butterflies, folding half-moons right above the apples of her cheeks. “She will be glad that Shichiroji-sama has returned safely.”
In the east, the sun had begun to rise, the tip of it peering lazily over the wall of mountains, spilling excess light into a gradually brightening sky.
“Thank you, Kotori-chan.” The samurai smiled as the first notes of a new piece begun to lift into the air. He turned then, the house still dark, though not unwelcoming, for the wanderer had now returned home.