Dark Edge Village

Saksaha strolls slowly through the shin-high grass of the archery field. The recent heavy rains seem to have brought a fresh wave of wildflower blooms--and unlike on the far fields, here they have remained safe from the predations of grazing yaks and sheep. She can't identify most of them, but guesses to herself about a few...

((Expecting, though obviously it's a public field!))

Yuuru walked through the field taking the fragrance of the grass and the new flowers. He smiled as Saksaha came into view and waved a greeting, "Yo! Good morning Iuchi-san. Thanks for goin' on a walk with me."

"Good morning, Soshi-san." Saksaha, too, lifts a hand in a friendly greeting across the distance and angles closer. "You seem well today."

He smiled, "Well enough. There are too few days in a life to brood over too many of them."

He motioned to the field, "Besides, it's a pretty morning, surrounded by pretty flowers, and a pretty woman to share it with. Things could be much worse."

"It is a very fair day," she agrees, shielding her eyes with a hand to survey the further distances, across the range and away from the village. "But..." the corners of her mouth twitch up, "a woman might complain at being ranked among the scenery, you know."

He smiled, "Each individual thing can be beautiful without having to be compared with anything else. Being the best thing one can be is hard enough without having to be the best of all the things."

He chuckled, "The cheesy line would be to say 'you're beyond compare'. But I take it that's not the type of cheese you like swallowing."

Saksaha tosses her head, making her beads rattle, and laughs a little. "It is not at all as nourishing as the stuff my mother makes by that name, this is true." Physical compliments of this nature--to which she is not particularly accustomed--ordinarily tend to make her feel a bit awkward, but Yuuru's are somehow diluted to relative harmlessness by their quantity and scale.

"This is not quite what I meant to say, though. I only meant that the morning waits for us to explore it, and the flowers wait quietly to be picked." Or stepped on. Or eaten by a sheep. "Not so me. Or most women, I think."

He smiled and nodded, "What fun are passive women who sit around waiting for things to happen to them? I'm lookin' for a partner in life... and for a simple walk in the morning if she'd like to go and explore some things together like we planned."

Saksaha's lips twitch. "Let us start only with the walk. I think that is enough for one day."

She gestures ahead of them with an open hand. "Since I did not hear at the stables that you came with a horse, I thought it is good to walk here, closer to the village. Of course, if someone comes to shoot, we must retreat. But at some times in life one must take risks," she says, not quite deadpan.

He chuckled, "Risk taking is not something I'm reluctant to do."

He then brushed his hand along the tops of the grass as they walked, "So you mentioned your mother a moment ago. What kind of woman is she?"

He looked up to Saksaha with a slight smile and a look of interest.

"My mother...?" Saksaha raises her eyebrows a little, then casts her gaze out ahead. "My mother... she is a woman in-between, in some ways. But she has made this her place." She shrugs. "My grandmother was matriarch of our tents while she lived. She made her last ride here in Rokugan. She was a woman of Moto blood, a strong shugenja, and of a strong character. My mother was her only child, and never crossed her."

She catches at the seed-head of a tall grass stalk with her fingertips, stripping the fuzzy green seeds as they stroll past. "Mother had no skill or inclination to study the meishodo. She is not a great warrior. But she, not my grandmother, kept our whole camp together in the dark lands. This is what I should tell you of her, I think."

He nodded thoughtfully. It appeared to be a somewhat sensitive topic so he didn't wish to pry too deeply. "How did she keep you all together if I may ask?"

Saksaha purses her lips, thinking this over. "If I knew how to explain this, I could study it. Or sell it." The corners of her mouth turn up again at this thought. "She is patient, and knows how to bend without breaking. She always has food or a word for someone. She knows many little secrets," and all of this could be occasionally infuriating for children, but these days Saksaha recognizes its value.

"She can pack up a yurt in twenty minutes. Also, one time a creature of shadows crept in to my cousin's tent while her baby was sleeping, and my mother killed it with a cooking pot. That is the kind of woman she is."

"She sounds like a great woman." Yuuru offered with a nod. His mind swirled for a moment on the story...

A creature of shadows... Could it be... She beat it with a cooking pot though... Can't be what I think it is.

"It sounds as if she has lots of practical skills even if she may not have the same type of fame as your grandmother." He smiled, "Would you say you take more from your mother or your father?"

"Um." Saksaha shrugs. "My father is as much a Moto hunter as you can imagine, though he married Iuchi. Well... or maybe you can not imagine." Her lips quirk. "I think I am also a little like him, but not in ways you would easily see. I look more like my mother does. And both of them tell me I am also like my grandmother."