Dark Edge Village

One final time did Fukawa and Takahiro come out to the fields. Given the rather quiet nature of yesterday's gathering, and the fact that many samurai had stayed up trying to impressed the Iuchi, Fukawa wasn't sure any would come today.

Still, it was the last chance for the champion puppies to play together, and she HAD sent the invitation for both days. Perhaps some of yesterday's no-shows were planning on coming today. Or maybe she'd just spend some time with her puppy.

(Expecting someone else)

Further down in the fields, Yuki walked through the fields, hand in hand not with a puppy, but with a small boy who was busy kicking the long grass with great attentiveness while humming something to himself. Yuki contented herself with watching the boy on occasion, and glancing up on occasion to see if her guest has come riding up yet.

Riding in he is, and the thunder of Huludai's hooves can be heard from a distance. The horse and the rider approach fast, announced by melodic ululation.

Ichiro is immediately distracted from his own game by the sound of thundering hooves and he gazed in wonder at the riding horse, still as impressed this time as he had been all of the other times. Yuki smiled and waved with her free hand to Butaj.

Two await, so Butaj waves with both hands, grinning like only a man in love can. He soon takes a sharp arch to approach the perpendicularly, slowing into trot. Huludai's anthracite coat glimmers with blue tones in the sun. "Hello, my love! Hello, Ichiro!"

Ichiro, unfamiliar with the large Moto man with the strange hairdo, takes the opportunity to use Yuki as a cover as he peers behind her at Butaj. Yuki smiles broadly and bows to Butaj as he arrives. "My..." She pauses, mentally cursing propriety once more. "Butaj-san. This is Ichiro-kun." She placed a hand on Ichiro's back to encourage him. "Ichiro-kun?"

The small boy peeked a little more out from behind Yuki and bowed quickly to Butaj. "Good morning, Butaj-san." He managed, before returning to his station of observation behind Yuki. He was obviously curious, but cautious.

Yuki returned her attention to Butaj with a warm smile. "Ichiro-kun is to serve as our chaperone today, courtesy of my cousin."

Butaj dismounts. "Butaj guessed it shall be so!" He smirks, his eyes expressing the feelings lips currently don't. He then looks at the boy. "Do you want to ride, Ichiro? On Huludai? Or... on Butaj?" The smirk turns clever. The he looks up at Yuki and winks.

The boy looked between Butaj, Yuki, and the horse. "That's Hurudai? He looks even bigger than HIkazume!" He cried out. Yuki chuckled a little. "I think they are about the same size, Ichiro-kun." She responded, to which Ichiro shook his head.

"No, Hurudai is way bigger. Like..." He held out his hands to show. "This much bigger."

"He is. But how much of the world you can see from atop Huludai! A lot, all around!" Butaj keeps smiling.

Ichiro's eyes go wide at that thought, then turned to look at Yuki. "Can I?!" He looked at her, pleading with the biggest saddest eyes he could muster.

Giggling a little, Yuki waved him off and the boy went skipping towards Huludai. She looked back at Butaj with a trusting grin and didn't say anything, she just nodded to him.

Butaj makes clever face, then giggles and catches the boy for some gentle yanking and tickling while raising him high in the air and turning like a top for a little, spurting funny onomatopoeias. This is all an interlude to putting the boy on the saddle with a loud "Hoppa!", then ensuring he won't be falling.

Ichiro squeels with boyish delight at the tickling and spinning and lifting. Once on top of the saddle, Ichiro looks around, and then tries to stand up on the saddle to get an even better look at his surroundings.

"You can see everything from up here!" He exclaims. "How tall is this?" He asks, looking back at Butaj. "I saw those Otaku horses and they looked like mountains! Are they even taller? How fast is Hurudai? Hikazume was really fast, it was fun. Can we go that fast? When we go that fast it gets hard to see because of all the wind in my face, but that's ok because it's really fun." The boy begins to expel words in his excitement.

Romping toward the fields came a lamb. Sprinting, really, as fast as his fluffy little legs could carry him.



Trailing behind him but closing the pace was a Hare, quick and full of sprite.

"Nagareboshi-san! Heel! Heel, boy!" she called after the lamb as she ran, a wide grin upon her features.

Takahiro, spying the loose lamb, took after it, barking all the way.

Fukawa, for the moment, looked on in amusement.

She had seen the Unicorn horsing around with the Phoenix, but their story wasn't hers. Why a lamb was running around chased by a Hare and a puppy though, might be.

The lamb was chased by the dog, who was chased by the Hare, who ran past the horse and the boy, the Unicorn and the Phoenix both.

"Noooooo! Away with you, doggo! Do not nip at Nagareboshi-san!"