Dark Edge Village

At lunch, Moto Baatar found himself at the cooking area near the northern yurts. Some of the sausage-and-cheese dumplings the cooks had made had proved unpopular among the Rokugani guests, and so the young Unicorn managed to snag some of the leftovers; some for himself, some to use as treats to help train his puppy.



"Jump, girl!" Baatar said in an encouraging tone, holding a puppy treat high in the air. "Jump! That's a good girl."

A bit of sausage vanished down Gölöghime's throat after a successful high jump. She barked happily, eager for more.

Along came Tsukimi, with Taiyō in tow. While the puppy had not listened well in the morning, things were looking up and the dark furred shiba inu was listening to some of the Hare's commands, responding well to her praise.
"Good boy! Good little Taiyō! Come here, sunshine!" the pup chased after the Hare.
She spotted a Unicorn she had not had the chance to speak to yet, but had seen here at there at events and the like.
"Ohayo! This one is Usagi Tsukimi," she bowed to him, "-and this is Taiyō. Have you had your rice today?"
The pup sniffed inquisitively, smelling the dumpling treats, and yipped.

"Hello! I'm Moto Baatar," the young Unicorn replied. Seeing Tsukimi's puppy sniffing at the sausages, he flipped one expertly into Taiyō's mouth, causing his own puppy to grumble angrily at her human until he fed her one too.

"You must be training a puppy too?" he asked, though the answer seemed obvious. "I'm calling mine Gölöghime. She's good at jumping!"

Her puppy set to work gobbling the treat, and Tsukimi smiled hesitantly. "I am training him. He listens when he wants to. He is good at hunting... but little else. He is a good dog, though. Sweet and kind." Tsukimi shifted her stance.
"How are you enjoying the miai, Moto-san?" she tried to remember if she'd seen him sing, and who he might have sung to.

"It's been all right... I guess," Baatar replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "Some of the games have been fun, and puppy training is definitely fun. I've never been to one before, though, so I'm always worried I'll end up saying the wrong thing."

"What about you? What do you think about it so far?" he asked, looking back at Tsukimi.

"I think I will not get to choose my husband; I will have to rely on being chosen by a good man, or ...go home." She gave a small shrug, but then let a smile touch her cheeks. "But I hope to believe I have made a few friends since being here. So I will not be alone."

"Oh really? To be honest, I doubt I will get much of a choice, either," Baatar admitted. "I dunno if anyone is likely to pick me, even. Maybe that's for the best? Eh, I don't know." He shrugged helplessly.

"At least Gölöghime likes me!" Baatar said, brightening at the thought. The young Unicorn petted the puppy happily, but from her expression the puppy seemed much more interested in the treats in Baatar's hand.

"Do you think you'd prefer to be chosen, and stay here in Unicorn lands?" he asked Tsukimi curiously. "Over going home, I mean."

"No? I thought the whole point was to marry the Unicorn off... I'm sure you'll get to pick a wife, and she will make you very happy."
Tsukimi smiled to Baatar and his doggo. "She's very cute, also. And such a sweetheart."

"Hmm? I would be happy wherever I end up. I like exploring, and I like learning new things. I think I could be very happy with the Unicorn, but I also want a husband who would take me travelling across the Empire, to places unseen, so we would see them together for the first time, and make many memories."

"Traveling across the Empire sounds like great fun," Baatar agreed, patting Gölöghime to keep her from fussing. "I've seen a lot of things out west, in the wastelands and the Burning Sands... but haven't seen much of Rokugan outside of the provinces that have been returned to the Unicorn."

"But, someday I will definitely go see the rest of the Empire!" he enthused. "Which places do you think are especially worth a visit?"

"Those sound incredible. Tell me about them?" She tilted her head a little to the side, and pet her pup, who looked sleepy, and let out a biiiiig yawn.
"I want to see the ocean. That much water, as far as the eye can see, to the horizon and surpassing it. I cannot fathom its scope. It calls me.
But also the mountains in the Dragon lands. I would very much like to go there, to stand above the clouds, to see everything beneath me."

"To the west there are dark, barren lands full of evil spirits that trick men with illusions and lure them to their deaths," Baatar recounted. "Beyond those wastelands, a vast, burning desert filled with sand dunes and nomad tribes that'll trade with you if you're strong, or kill you if you're not. Set in the middle of the desert is a huge city made all of brass where a hundred different peoples throng in the marketplaces, and there's guilds for everything you can imagine there: merchants, dancers, swordsmen, even beggars."

"Even further west there are supposed to be jungles with elephants and monkeys, and people who train them both. I haven't seen them myself, but I've met merchants who said they were from there," he admitted. "And beyond that... there's said to be a western ocean. The legends of my people say that we reached it once. But it must be very far away."

Her eyebrows rose so far they might fly off her face!
"What? That sounds incredible!"

"It's a big world out there," Baatar said. "Wanting to travel and learn new things sounds like a fine goal. You'll see a lot that way."

"I hope so," she smiled a little, "And I hope to find a husband who shares the same sense of adventure. I do a bit of cartography, too, so I'd like to explore and map out new navigations and whatnot, really trek around."
She watched the pups suss each other out.
Taiyō dipped into a play bow for Gölöghime.

Gölöghime sat and licked her fur as she regally accepted Taiyō's obeisance.

Usagi Tsukimi wrote:"I hope so," she smiled a little, "And I hope to find a husband who shares the same sense of adventure. I do a bit of cartography, too, so I'd like to explore and map out new navigations and whatnot, really trek around."

"That sounds fun!" Baatar said. "So you make maps? Maps are great! I think they're like books, only... more useful because they show real places you can go."

"What kinds of places have you mapped so far? Have you made a map with Dark Edge Village?"