After about an hour more of less interesting conversation, I left the door where I had been perched for more than that hour, and climbed back into bed.
As I lay awake, I found that I couldn't get the girl's face out of my head.
"Hikari..."
I said to myself, silently mouthing the name and repeating myself just to see how it felt on my lips for the second time.
"Bah! What's wrong with me?"
I thought to myself.
"It's just a girl! She ain't so special..."
Strangely, as I lay awake, I found that I couldn't for all the world convince myself of just that. There was something about her.
Something big.
I vowed to myself right then and there that I'd find out what it was. As the minutes slowly trickled by, I began to drift off to sleep.
"Finally..."
Was the last word that appeared in my head, then all was black.
-----
The sun's first rays shot across the land and announced to the world the coming of a new day. In the bright, early morning light, tiny drops of dew could be seen hiding among the leaves, then falling like rain onto the heads of unsuspecting civilians.
Today was a harvest day.
Hundreds of traders and farmers would line the paths along the Drodogen's wood to sell their items and surplus fruits, vegetables, and things of the sort.
High above the crowd, in a tall, strong oak tree, sat Hikari.
Her arms crossed, and a rather scolding look upon her face.
In truth, she wasn't too happy, and one could tell just by that look, for it was a look that declared death to any who would dare touch her bad side this day.
As she sat in the tree, her mind wandered.
At first, it seemed to drift from topic to topic, not caring to dwell in any one area for too long.
Her sword collection.
Interesting herbs.
Attacks she had learned.
Bastion...
The scold suddenly became a wide-eyed look of shock as she found herself thinking more and more about the strange boy.
Hundreds of questions seemed to flood into her head, and she couldn't bring herself to bring any single one to the top of her "find out" list.
"Auugh!"
She shouted in frustration as she checked that her sword was still tied tightly at her left side and nimbly took to her feet. The branch swayed dangerously from side to side, but no fear lived in her.
"Why the hell am I thinking of him so much?!?"
She yelled aloud to no one in particular.
It was only typical of her, such an emotional outburst, and she had to quickly shrink back into the shadows once she realized that half of the entire population below was looking up into the trees in her general direction.
"Stupid monkey-boy!"
She silently whispered to herself.
"I should have kicked him twice."
As the crowd lost interest and continued its business below, Hikari also leaped into action.
Her mission was to find lunch "suitable for their guest," as the Herbalist had put it.
A task that Hikari was not too happy with having to undergo.
"Stupid boy..."
She thought to herself as she easily leaped from tree to tree, steadily growing closer to her destination.
"I'm sure they are perfectly capable of finding their own damned lunch!"
Of course, she was right.
As she always was...
But the Herbalist had sent her anyway just so that she could "calm down".
"Leave here for the day."
She had said to Hikari that morning, as the two foreign boys had begun to stir.
"You need the alone time to calm down. You need to lose your attitude toward the boy. You can't help that you are only half of what he is, and nor can he, so you have no right to blame him."
The thought of being naturally bested by the "Monkey boy" only made Hikari that much madder.
"Whatever."
She said to herself as she reached her normal hunting ground and settled into a tree to wait.
"Stupid full-bloods!"
She spat towards the ground.
"He can keep his stupid green eyes, his stupid spear, and his stupid tail!"
But at the last part, she stopped and considered her choice of words, instead resorting to:
"STUPID BOY!"
The hunt was as usual.
Hikari would find the tracks of her usual victim, which was usually a small boar, and wait for it to reveal itself from amongst the thicket before she would slip into hiding.
She would place a hunk of dried bread in the clearing and moisten it with sugared vinegar, a trick that her aunt had shown her many years ago.
"The vinegar attracts them rather well."
She recalled her herbalist aunt's lesson.
"But once it's in their system, they are out cold soon enough, saving you the chase and the fight."
Hikari also remembered her own retort of:
"Where's the fun in that!?"
Which -as usual- resulted in a swift and stinging slap to the face...
As Hikari waited in the tree that she always chose, which was about three yards from the clearing, she could hear something moving about in the shrubs below.
"It has to be a boar..."
She thought to herself.
"It always is...so predictable."
And as she had predicted, within seconds, a small, furry, brown, hornless head poked its snout out of the bushes and began to sniff curiously at the moist lump of bread.
"GOTCHA!"
Hikari thought aloud, though she whispered so as not to reveal her location.
"Breakfast is served!"
But something was wrong.
Although the boar was alone, and as planned, it began to eat the bread, Hikari could sense a second presence nearby.
Its body heat was immense, telling her that it was either a fairly large boar or a person.
She braced her sword in the case that it was either.
"SHOW YOURSELF!"
She demanded openly.
It was obvious that the little boar had heard, for it stopped eating immediately and was off at top speed. But little did Hikari worry, for she knew that within a few yards the boar would be deeply unconscious. At the moment, though, the boar was the last thing she was interested in.
If all was good -as she hoped- she'd soon have a large mother boar, and the honor and fun of taking its life in battle.
"Finally, some action."
She thought aloud.
"But even in that, this will be over way to fast."
"Doubtful."
Said a mysterious voice from somewhere to Hikari's rear, and with split-second timing, she turned and brought her sword up to her face, fending off several small blades that were oddly shaped into a star-like design.
Where they had come from was outside of her knowledge, but she did recognize the blades immediately; they were shuriken.
"A...Shinobi!?"
She thought aloud.
"I-Impossible! Shinobi have been outlawed for years! Since...since the Assassins Bill was passed...this has to be a joke."
Hikari could feel her muscles tense up, and her grip increased on her sword greatly. She knew that if it was a true Shinobi, she was in for one hell of a fight.