Dark Edge Village

As dawn began for the village, Hotaru found herself among the many visitors who found themselves arriving just in time for the miai and their first chance encounter with the Unicorn. Her first time out of the Scorpion lands and after many weeks on the road, she scarcely could picture that she had arrived at her intended destination. While hauling herself through the field, it was rather easy to get lost in the village, given so much open ground had been allocated to the Unicorn and few permanent buildings on the land.

"Ehhheeehh!"

She did eventually find one landmark to speak of, at least, a rather quaint little collection of animals. An adorable fluffy white sheep called out to her, as if hoping to catch her attention. "I was told many things about our host but I don't think you fit the description, as cute as you are!" she giggled before she extended out a hand to pet the animal affectionately.

Seeing as the Scorpion got closer, the sheep made a move to chomp down on her straw cloak that was hanging by her side.

"Hey. Hey! No. No. No," she stressed in command at the sheep as she fought to tug away the garment. "Let go!"

Iuchi Saksaha wends her way through the flocks, one hand shielding her eyes from the slanting morning sun, pursing her lips to make a low whistling noise. She peers around at the sea of fluffy white, brown, and gray backs.

"Eh. Eh! You can't hide from me, little nuisance. Come here, you--" but she leaves off her search as she hears somebody in what sounds like distress. Well, annoyance, anyway.

She jogs toward the source of the repeated "no"s, easily sussing out the cause of the trouble. "Ah, not again!"

Tomoe hadn't really felt like sticking around to inspect her... quarters... if they could be called that. Less time spent around dead animal skins, the better.

Wearing her wide-brimmed straw hat, and carrying her tortoise in one hand, she strolled pleasantly along to see what the place was like. And the area with animals seemed rather intriguing. Especially the really fluffy ones roaming around and making those baa-noises.

Though the baa-noises were interrupted by the sounds of a damsel in distress!

Looking around and moving towards the noise, she saw the Scorpion maiden being... devoured by a fluffy lamb?

What... the...?

"Errr... is everything alright?"

Hotaru could barely sense the others who were gathering around her at her distress, as she was rather intent on pulling herself free from the little sheep that used its cute looks to trick a Scorpion! It wasn't an embarrassment she wasn't going to allow to slip so easily. Of course, she could cry for help, but that would be rather undignified of a samurai to do so. So instead, she did what any proper samurai would have done in such a situation. She stubbornly stood her ground and kept on fighting!

She had little idea that the lamb would have proven to be such a match in this physical bout. Tilting back, she used the whole weight of her body to pull back the cloak. Both parties were equally stubborn and it was the cloak that gave way first, the lamb got to keep the portion in his mouth and Hotaru got to keep the remainder of her cloak. She staggered back and nearly lost her footing, seeing the other two women who were own the field, looking at them with wide eyes as she held her partially-chewed cloak.

"...everything is alright now..." She tried her best to awkwardly laugh it off, nearly out of breath.

Tomoe stifled a laugh, but still smiled widely. "Seems the lamb thought you looked so sweet, it had to have a taste," she teased with a hint of a laughter in her voice.

The sheep didn't seem like they wanted to have a bite of the Hare's straw hat. Thankfully.

"Here you, drop that!" The sturdy Unicorn girl pounces on the lamb, casually prying its mouth open with her small hands. The little creature bleats in annoyance but submits!

The battle won, Saksaha turns back to the other two women, the lamb held in one arm with its muddy little hooves dangling against her wool skirts. In the other hand she rather uselessly holds the tattered piece of Hotaru's cloak, chewed and damp, out toward its owner.

"...I am sorry about that."

She giggled at the comment from the Usagi with a hand to her lips after she caught her breath back. "If that were actually the case, I think I would have accepted exchanging a few letters first. Ultimately, I think I would have still declined. We aren't made for each other."

She shook her head as she looked at her cloak once more, then looked upwards as the missing piece was presented before her. Her eyes looked up to see the Unicorn with the tamed lamb around her arm. She looked a little hesitant on what to say first, considering there was a soppy piece of cloak presented to her and she was the first Unicorn she met here.

Mustering a smile, she took the morsel of cloak in her hand, doing her best not to grimace at the gross sensation she felt on her palm. Ew, gross! "...That's quite fine, Unicorn-san. Thank you for your aid. It was perhaps my fault of wandering in without knowing who this creature belongs to first. I should have probably thought twice."

Dipping down to a deep bow, she introduced herself. "This one is Bayushi Hotaru, honoured shrine maiden of Tengoku's Path. Pleased to meet you both! And thank you for the concern. I know everything is well now, at least." She gave a short laugh to brush off the dismal she endured earlier.

"Ah, you're a priestess? So am I!" Saksaha's dark eyes light up a bit. Then, remembering herself, she bows to the other two, if somewhat awkwardly since she still has the lamb in her arms. At least it keeps her from reflexively offering them her hand to shake. "I am Iuchi Saksaha, shugenja of the Unicorn."

Now that she has something more to say, the others might notice the almost archaic-seeming accent that shapes the sounds of her speech.

Kami-damnit, two shugenja?! *grumble*

"I'm Usagi Tomoe, historian of the Hare Clan." Not a shugenja. *grumble* She bowed and gave a rather curious look to the lamb in Saksaha's arms.

"Is it customary for the Unicorn to learn to handle these fluffy ones as well as you do, Iuchi-sama?"

The Unicorn was a priestess too? This was twice the opportunity now, almost worth having a lamb making a snack out of your outfit.

"So pleased to make your acquaintance, Iuchi-san. I hadn't thought that I would get the chance to meet one of the shugenja of the Unicorn so soon. I know there's much we can exchange between each other when it comes to tales and knowledge. You're probably still resting up to have me bombard you with questions so soon." She chuckled, her eyes trying to avoid eye-contact with the lamb that almost ate her. "We must talk sometime."

"And it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance too, Usagi-san. Home does feel so much closer when we have someone from the Hare close by, as a good neighbour." She smiled sweetly at Tomoe and finally looked to the lamb. "Good question. I do appreciate the help, but no need to dirty your outfit on my behalf. I doubt he'll bother me now, especially with three of us here."

Subconsciously, she pulled her cloak around herself, as if securing it away from a lamb's reach.

"I am pleased to know you, Bayushi-san and Usagi-san," Saksaha says with a solemn nod. "I would like very much to speak with you both about tales, and history, and knowledge..." Impatient to rejoin its fellows, the lamb starts to struggle a bit against her grip, its little hooves thumping ineffectually against the thick wool of her robes.

"Oh, and, well... yes, it is not uncommon. Many of us know our way around the herds." She gives the lamb a final pat on the head and sets it down, giving it a light thump on the rear to encourage it to hurry away elsewhere. "We have been on the move many years, you see. At such times everyone must do what she can where she is needed. Or, um, he." Something of a laugh enters her light, slightly husky voice as she adds, "For example, today I am apologizing to you for the bad behavior of an Ide lamb--she had the three ear notches, not four. But I shall apologize as if she were my own tribe's." She spreads one hand over her heart and bows a little.

Hotaru gave a small shake of her head at the mention of notches on a lamb, it wasn't something she understood but she knew there was an apology nevertheless. "If you insist with your apology, then I think I will have to accept it. There's at least a lesson I learned in all of this and I shall think twice before going around petting other people's animals. Now that you've returned however and no longer on the move, are you still expected to care for other people's duties? There will probably be heimen for that, ne?"

It was apparent before, though Hotaru only picked it up now as Saksaha continued to speak, tilting her head in curiosity and adopting a pensive expression. Her accent wasn't the sort she heard common, but not something she wasn't familiar with when it came to plays that took place in centuries past or when someone was trying to be overtly fancy, sometimes in a sarcastic manner. Could it be possible that such a language could stay intact, despite being out of the setting of origin? "Also, if I may say, you speak Rokugani pretty well, Iuchi-san. Perhaps, too well even."

"He's so cute, so it's easy to forgive such a fluffy adorable face," the Hare chuckled and watched the lamb rejoin its kind.

"Hm, yes... Bayushi-san has a point. I am pleasantly surprised at how well you speak. The Unicorn have done an excellent job of preserving their native tongue."

Saksaha seems to bristle somewhat at the suggestion that anybody might expect some sort of problem with her speech, but she draws herself up, smooths her (figurative) ruffled feathers by brushing away a bit of mud from her sleeve, and manages to pretty much keep her composure--enough to get credit for trying to conceal the reaction, if not for actually succeeding.

"It is our native tongue, after all. We could be just as full of wonder that you all have not forgotten it while we were gone." Realizing that could sound more combative than she intended, she belatedly appends a small smile to this comment. "Besides, it is useful for a traveling people to have some way of speaking which other people do not understand. Many of us know other languages, but we speak Rokugani because we are Rokugani."

"As for these," she shrugs and waves a hand at the flocks milling about, "in time the common people of this land will learn to care for them, I suppose. It's not my task now, really--I was only here looking for Fiyanggu." In case that's not clear enough, she adds, "My milch goat. She wanders in here sometimes."

"Oh," the Hare was a little flustered, perhaps sensing the feeling of insult. "I meant no ill, Iuchi-san, and I'm sure it wasn't Bayushi-san's intention either."

"Perhaps it was a failing on our part to be so surprised at something like that."

Hearing mention of a goat, Tomoe looked around to see if she could spot it.

"A goat? You keep one as a pet?" She asked with some curiosity.