Chapter Five: In Genbu's Highlands

Starlit Reflections: Dark Quarter

by Raye Johnsen

Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics, Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment, Viz Communications and other interested parties. The characters and situation are used without permission for personal entertainment only, and no copyright infringements are intended. No profit is being made from this fic; if there was, Tasuki and Tamahome would lighten me of it, as soon as they could.

Chapter Five: In Genbu's Highlands ~ Tomite

Tomite was ever a soul of action, and could always be relied upon to be hunting dinner, scouting our path or just riding. His skill in the saddle was only matched by his impatience out of it.

He took it upon himself to teach me how to ride properly. One morning, when we were far from the others, I was thrown by my horse. It was not the first time, nor the last; but this particular time I was specifically unhappy with the situation, and I told him so, at length.

When I had wound down, he lifted an eyebrow at me and said, "Uruki, if you give up now, how will you ever make it to the end?"

I got back on the horse.

I had awoken under Hikitsu's care in the late afternoon, and while he allowed me to sit up, he didn't let me get up. To be fair, I didn't argue very hard. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that he kept up a light banter and insisted that I respond to him while he chopped roots and measured herbs, you would be hard-pressed to tell that I actually was awake.

He admitted that he was the one who had broken the mare's headlong gallop, and that he had created the wall of ice that I'd seen as I fell.

"That's a relief," I told him.

"Why?" he asked me.

"It means I wasn't hallucinating," I told him.

"Also that your memory is working just fine," he replied with satisfaction, as he set aside the wild carrots and began to trim the beans. He looked up from time to time, scanning the area visible through the door of the tent.

"Are you waiting for someone?" I enquired.

He smiled gently. "Yes," he told me with a broad smile. "My... best friend. You will be happy to meet each other," he said, with certainty.

I wasn't quite so sure. My first meetings with people lately had definitely not been the most positive experiences of my life. However, Hikitsu was a nice person and his friend would probably be too. At least, I hoped so.

To pass the time, I asked him what his talent was.

"Oh, I make impenetrable barriers out of ice," he told me. "Nothing can get through my ice walls, and I make snakes of ice that can deflect any blow."

"But you're a healer," I objected. For some obscure reason, I felt that the two abilities could not coexist.

"What better gift for a healer, than protection from everything?" Hikitsu said, with a wry twist of his lips.

I could not disagree.

"I'm back! - a new patient?" a new voice broke in. I turned my head to see a young man at the tent flap. He was intensely masculine and not handsome, his face too stern and features too sharp for beauty.

I did not swoon. I did not collapse in a puddle of femininity. The fact that I fell flat on my face in front of him is simply and solely because I got my feet tangled in the rug Hikitsu had covered me with when I tried to stand up.

Hikitsu, kindly, did not laugh; instead, he helped me to my feet and straightened the rug out. "Not quite," he said calmly, with only the faintest tremor in his voice.

The young man lifted a sculpted eyebrow over his piercing dark eyes. "Then..." he said, impatiently.

Hikitsu made a 'phrump'ing noise in his throat. "Are you numb?" he demanded. "Can't you feel her?"

It hit me and I suddenly realized why Hikitsu had been so certain I would like his mysterious friend. I giggled into the moment, and sat down again, scrabbling at my sock.

"What are you doing?" the stranger asked me.

I flashed him a grin, and my ankle, which was burning. "Establishing my credentials," I told him cheerfully. "I'm Uruki! Which of my star-brothers are you?"

He glared at Hikitsu, who was paying a lot of attention to the fire in the porcelain stove, and whose shoulders were shaking. Then he looked at me, a smouldering look that made every part of me sit up and pay attention. "I," he said with dignity, "am Tam Chamka, Genbu Shichiseishi Tomite."

Hikitsu, at this point, slammed the stove door. We still heard the chuckle.

Tomite had gone hunting earlier in the day, which was why Hikitsu had not bothered to prepare any meats, or to start the actual cooking of dinner; the meat was still on the way.

Today he had brought back a brace of wild rabbit, skinning and cleaning them before he had entered the tent. Hikitsu calmly took possession of the meat, and less than an hour later we were eating a savoury stew that easily surpassed all the fine meals I had eaten in my father's house.

Hikitsu, however, denied my compliments. "I am a healer, and thus versed in the ways of herbs," was all he would say.

When I told them that I had been travelling with the Priestess of Genbu and two other Shichiseishi, they traded odd glances. But "So it has begun," was all that Tomite said.

Remembering, I wonder if Lord Genbu managed to communicate what would happen to them. But, then again, neither Tomite nor Hikitsu were optimists.

"I really should be looking for Takiko and the others," I said apologetically, as we finished the meal. I probably ate too much of it - not that I regret it. That stew was one of the finest meals I ever had in my life.

"In the morning," Tomite told me. "It's full dark now. Wait until you can see where you're going."

"That's sensible," I conceded, and retired to the bed where I had spent the afternoon.

Tomite and Hikitsu were up long before I was. At the time, I was still of the opinion that sunrise was scheduled far too early in the day.

The mare that had run away with me was long since gone, so I was preparing to walk when Tomite caught my hand and brought me over to where a beautiful fawn-coloured mare was coralled.

"This is Mei-Mei," he told me quietly. "I think she'll suit you."

I admired the proud arch of her neck and the black of her mane and tail as she pranced and curvetted in the dawnlight. However, that itself gave me pause.

"Are you sure? I'm a rank beginner, you know. I didn't even know how to ride a month ago."

He smiled at me. "Don't worry. She won't run away with you."

I smiled back. Oh, he was fine, with that dark hair pulled back by his round furred hat - it was enough to make a girl murderous when she saw the way he and Hikitsu looked at each other.

He turned away to pick up the tack, and I sighed, wishing that somewhere, there was someone for me. Then I shook my head swiftly. Honestly, being surrounded by romantic couples was going to my head.

We had been riding south for an hour when Hikitsu pointed ahead and announced, "Looks like we'll have company."

I squinted at the dots on the horizon. "Three of them," I observed laconically.

"You're picking up good habits, Uruki," Tomite complimented me.

I glanced over at him, but he wasn't looking at me. I shrugged and turned back to the task at hand - staying on the horse.

Of course, it takes time to catch up to people you see in the distance, especially as we weren't crowding the horses. Tomite had given me a strong lecture about it.

Tomite seemed to have almost a different personality in the saddle. On his own two feet he was impatient, hostile and inclined to attack, but in the saddle he was calm, peaceful and even - dare I say it? - nice.

He had picked well for me. Mei-Mei was spirited, true, but she was much more inclined to stay close to her herdmates than to go racing off over the plains. I made a point of not touching her with my heels - I had learnt my lesson about kicking horses - and she didn't do more than toss her head at me.

Eventually we drew close enough to distinguish the identities of the three riding furiously towards us, and I gently tugged on Mei-Mei's reins, enough to make her slow and fall back into line with the others. "You knew," I accused them.

"I suspected," Hikitsu replied.

"They're actually a bit slower than I expected," Tomite said consideringly. "The mare that brought you must have been galloping longer than you thought."

The three riders were Hatsui, Namame and Takiko, of course. I loosened the reins and Mei-Mei virtually leapt forward. Takiko touched the sides of her horse with her heels, and the two of us met ahead of everyone else.

We just hugged, as the young men came riding up around us.

"Oh, Takiko," I said brightly, "let me introduce you. This is Hikitsu -"

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"- and this is Tomite."

"Hello."

"Tomite, Hikitsu, this is Takiko, the Priestess of Genbu -"

"I'm so glad to meet you both. Thank you for helping Uruki!"

"- this is Hatsui -"

"Yo."

I glanced at Hatsui. He seemed to be very quiet, and almost glaring at Hikitsu? I shook my head and finished up.

"And this is Namame."

"It's good to finally find you." Namame said brightly.