Dark Edge Village

It was late in the afternoon when Moto Butaj would hear a timid knock on the tent pole next to the entrance to his yurt.

Butaj is just lounging and thinking of Yuki. Maybe not just lounging so he needs a moment before he can rise from the furs and open the flap, his features still flushed a little but hey, darker complexion. "Lella Yukarin? Come in please." She has expected another woman but this one is nice too to receive, most likely for other purposes though. "How Butaj can help you?" He gestures inside.

Yukarin gives a few bows as she enters, "Good afternoon to you as well Butaj-san. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything?"

She looked around with a soft smile, not trying to be nosey but having a little bit of a curious streak.

"Butaj has been daydreaming about making love to a special someone under the stars but it's all right. It's not hard for Butaj to return to that mindset a bit later." He steps into his tent and nods back. Dispersed furs confirm his story. "Butaj has some roasted meat if you like." And there is a plate with lamb strips near the hearth, along a skin of kumis.

Yukarin blushes deeply, "Well... I was not here for your meat... but I WAS told you had multiple skins of kumis. I came wondering if I could trade for one... but if you do not wish to we could always share some over that meat then?"

"We can share and you can have one. Butaj won't take your money, lella. Trade we can do with others but within the Clan no. Butaj will just give lella Yukarin what she needs." He moves to the corner to retrieve a skin and then pulls some furst closer to the hearth to comfortably sit on for two. Placing the bulging sack by her, he reaches for the meat on the plate and puts it in her hands once she has sat. "It's lamb roasted by Butaj himself."

Yukarin sat down with a smile, cheeks still lightly pink, "Well, I wasn't thinking money... I was thinking to perhaps trade some of the sweet potato shochu my family makes. Still, we can always share some sometime, no?"

She sniffed, "Mmmm... it's been AGES since I've had lamb it feels like..."

"It's a special lamb, Butaj has spiced it up deep inside and it's all aromatic and tender." The man is proud of his camp cooking. He reaches for cups and pours kumis for both. "If lella Yukarin wants Butaj drunk to sing a lot and do other funny things, she can serve him that shochu." He chuckles. "But for now maybe just kumis. Goes well down the throat with spicy meat."

"Hai; Kumis goes better with spiced meats for certain," Yukarin said with a sharp nod as she watched him finished pouring. Bowing her head a bit, she picks up the cup, cheeks reddening again, "So... from what it sounds like, as to what you said, you have found a woman from another Clan you wish to end up with after the miai?"

"Yes, Butaj thought everybody knows that by now. Butaj sang his heart out to her two days ago after all, and she to him. What else needs to be said if two hearts are honest with each other?" He muses and sips. "Lella Yukarin didn't sing so her heart must be in confusion."

She frowned a little, nodding almost imperceptibly after sipping the kumis, "That is a fairly accurate statement, yes; Both my heart and my head are still very confused. Between so many men singing for me, and the ones who confessed in more private ways... there is just so much to consider..."

"Maybe lella overthinks it? If love is strong, else will work out. Butaj considered three women but only one had the courage and honesty to sing out her feelings for him, and then confessed it in straight, direct words, passionately. Butaj has had no doubts ever since. And it is wonderful to not have them." He chews on the lamb. "Has anyone had the courage to tell lella Yukarin that he loves her, just like that?"

"Well, three people sang for me, if that is what you mean. But... hm. I... suppose if you mean someone saying those words to me directly... no, no one has done that."

She shakes her head.

"Pity that. Men that can't make their minds up like that after lella has been wonderful throughout this pairing kurultai might not make them up ever." Butaj thinks, chewing the meat. "If Butaj was the one courting lella, he would have done it or would not have courted her by now. And if Butaj was lella, he would have demanded a simple answer like that by now. Especially that lella has a choice and can just shun men without honesty and courage and strength." He bites off a morsel of the lamp strip and presents it to her. "One can ask: where does this lamb end? At the wool, at the flock, at all the livestock we have? Butaj says: it ends here, because Butaj has bitten it off. And it ends in his stomach. Thinking doesn't conclude anything. Only acting does."

She looked at the example meat before nodding a little, "You are right of course; Thinking without acting is useless. As is thinking without deciding. Most do not have your sureness or bravery though, in or out of the Unicorn; There are many people like myself who are afraid to act or speak out, to be the one responsible for what follows a decision or action when other decisions could have been made or different actions taken... Afraid of committing to possibly being wrong or making an uninformed decision."

Yukarin found herself blushing slightly as she looked down at her cup, "...but I suppose that way of thinking must be very weak sounding to you."