[Day 9, LE] Watch Over Us

[Tonbo Misa]

"Perhaps I am more optimistic because of my blindness, perhaps it comes from my touching lightly upon the path of enlightenment, but I believe that no relationship is impossible Iuchi-san." She smiled warmly. "Even a Tonbo and a Lion can get along. Though, I doubt that anyone that does not care for Iuchi-san will choose her."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"When you marry someone, you join his family's tent. Is it enough that he likes you, if his family cannot? Or if they treat you as a curiosity?" Saksaha wonders. "Well, I hope I will not have to find this out."

[Tonbo Misa]

Misa gave a small shake of her head, long black hair shaking with it. "It can always happen. Life is not always easy after all, and tragedy can always come unbidden. It is what we do with that that sets us apart."

She paused, smiling warmly again. "I will pray, however, that your fate turns out better. No one should hate one so pious and compassionate as Iuchi-san has shown herself to be since we started talking."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"At least if someone hates me, I would wish it to be by my choice," Saksaha says wryly. "Well, I do not worry about this too much. Will you choose someone, do you think?" She has a vague notion that someone important would probably be ranked highly by the Ide organizers.

[Tonbo Misa]

"I don't imagine one of the men of your clan will be choosing me, at least." She smirked softly, words lightly playful. "There hasn't been a Unicorn man that I've met here that hasn't proven himself compassionate and skilled, so it won't be an easy choice."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Well, the boys of our Clan have not done so well in these challenges the families made as our guests have," Saksaha replies, a little ruefully. "Maybe there is one who would pick you if it were otherwise, Tonbo-sama. But often I think it is better when we women can make these decisions, anyway. It is not the men who will spend ten months carrying the children of these unions."

[Tonbo Misa]

Misa tittered quietly, nodding. "True. Though if the standard was doing well in the contests, I'd be a poor catch myself."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"No?" Saksaha's beads rattle softly as she tilts her head a little to one side. "But I think the Ide count you highly. So you have achieved something they respect."

[Tonbo Misa]

The Tonbo have a noncommittal shrug. "They value my position as an advisor, true, though that is a bit different than showing myself well, yes?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Maybe?" Saksaha shrugs. "The end is the same. Do you Dragon mind about the path in between?"

[Tonbo Misa]

Misa's small smile crept back. "I don't know if you'd call myself a typical Dragon, or if there's even such a thing. All the same, the journey is all about the path, not what's between. So no, I don't mind at all."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Mm." Saksaha doesn't quite follow that... but this is more or less what she's been told to expect about Dragon. Finding Udo's conversation to be mostly rather easy for her to track, in his own idiosyncratic way, had been one of the pleasant surprises about him. "Well, if you are not typical, Tonbo-sama, who is more so? Togashi Udo-san? Togashi Myo-en-sama? Not that I have met her," she adds hastily, lest Misa think she's being presumptuous about one of the few other Dragon whose name is well known among the Unicorn.

[Tonbo Misa]

"As I said, I am not certain there is a typical Dragon. Perhaps some of the more traditional Mirumoto would be, since they are the face of the clan... by my family is too small to typify a Dragon at all, the Togashi are each as different as the colors of a rainbow, and the Agasha... well, I've never met one." She smiled. "Still, is that so bad a thing? Everyone is born as themselves, even if we are all a part of greater things. Individuality can lead to many great things."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Oh. I see." Well, sort of. "Since there are none of these Mirumoto or Agasha here, and only one Togashi, maybe I must wait to learn more, then."

[Tonbo Misa]

"That is the way of things, yes." Misa smiled as she nodded. "All things can be learned in time, with patience and listening. I hope you get a chance to meet more Dragon certainly Iuchi-san."