Prologue - 2

My body is sleeping, she thought.

Her body was numb and unfeeling, lethargic. She could feel the heaviness of her limbs weighing down, keeping her still. All she was physically aware of was the flow of her breathing getting stronger and stronger. All else was unimportant.

Her mind had been awoken by the slight, faraway change in the air: warmth. Strange. Her thoughts never slept. And yet she had blacked out for a moment, where not only her being was detached from her body but also from her thoughts. She never remembered not thinking.

Hence the warmth was the first thing she was aware of. Everywhere else was cold, but around her there was warmth.

Then the sounds made their way into her mind, first the steady beating against a roof. Rain. Outside it was cold and rainy but over her there was a roof and under the roof it was warm. And soft. The air tasted of burnt wood and fire and dampness. At the back of her throat there was the slight bitterness of plants. She never ate plants.

Then finally came the dull, pulsating sensation in her stomach. The feeling her mind had numbed out, and put a lock on her body. Only now could she move, but did not bother to. She had regained the sense of her limbs.

Only when the rain on the roof and the coldness outside shifted did she move. Heat touched her face as the sun moved the clouds, and she opened her eyes. Colours illustrated the sounds and sensation: the straw roof over her head, the blankets around her and the sunlight drying the wetness left behind by the rain.

A small hut filled with plants and pots and strange smells, now that the air was less damp. Sounds of birds and nature outside, and laughter right outside the door. At the sound of human talk all her instincts came back and she snapped into sitting position as the door rattled, mind and body now at full capacity.

The wolf was awake.

-

Sora opened the door and found himself suddenly staring directly into the eyes of his patient. Totally taken by surprise and rather bewildered, he almost dropped the bundle he held. He hadn’t expected her to be awake, even less sitting up, and for a moment the breath caught in his lungs and he froze with his mouth hanging open. It took a few seconds for him to find his voice.

"H... how are you feeling ?"

No answer. She just stared. He hadn’t expected much anyways. A few more seconds passed before he realised he had been standing in the entranceway, staring with his mouth slightly open. He hastily shut the door, then went to sit down next to the fireplace. When he looked up again he noticed what was so unsettling about her stare, besides the fact she glared and followed every one of his movements like a cat on edge. Her eyes - her eyes were inhuman. He had gotten used to her white mane, but her eyes drew the breath out of you. She had no whites, just two black pupils surrounded by golden, yellowish brown. They bore out of the paleness of her features, pinning you down. Gone was the frail, wounded woman he had found under the bushes.

Having overcome his first shock, Sora stared squarely back into her gaze. Sitting on the sickbed across the room from him was a wary cat, looking about to defend herself at any notice (which he rather understood - he would be rather on edge if he woke up in some stranger’s house after having almost bled to death) and however unusual her appearance she had somehow survived, when everything Sora knew told him she should have died. Now to somehow figure out how she had landed in the bushes like that.

"You’ve been sleeping for almost a week now," he started. She continued to stare without much changed of expression.

"I found you near here, you were losing all your blood. I wasn’t even expecting you to survive, but you’re sitting there as if nothing when at the very least you should be bedridden for the next few months."

She blinked. Sora took it as an acknowledgement.

"I haven’t told anyone you’re here. I won’t ask questions if you don’t want me to, but you literally appeared in my back yard dying. And I’m guessing you’re not from around here, not even from the plains, ‘cuz I’ve never seen anything like those before." He gestured with a jerk of his chin towards the pile of neatly folded tunics that were definitely not made for field work and the sword lying on top. He now wondered if it was a good idea to have left it within her reach. Who knew.

After a small moment, she finally spoke

"Where are we ?"

"Ves. A village in the south-eastern plains, in the rice field district of Miesto."

"You are ?"

"The herbalist’s son. D’you have a name ? I’m Sora."

"Satsuki"

Sora hadn’t expected an answer to that question. He’d never heard that name before, either.

"Okay then, Satsuki. Now I have no idea by what miracle you’re still sitting up, by if you would please lay back down it would make the miracle less likely to transform into tragedy."

She stared at him a little more, her features having eased, looking actually slightly amused, then laid back down and closed her eyes. Sora picked up his bundle and stepped out of the main room of the hut.