Willow

First off everyone knows that these characters are not mine. They belong to Watase Yu and whoever else. If you have enough money to go around suing people just for writing fanfic, send that money to me, and we'll both be a lot happier for it.

I don't know where the idea for this story came. I remember mentioning it to Miome awhile back, and figuring that would be the end. Only it kept sitting there in the back of my head annoying me until I wrote it down. Whatever. Hope you enjoy it. Comments, questions, and even flames via email are appreciated.

Tasuki waded through the icy slush pulling the reins of his horse. The animal snorted and tossed its head in protest at being forced to travel in the cold, but Tasuki ignored the horse's antics. He was not happy about being out in the snow either, but he hadn't visited Nuriko's grave in over ten years and he felt it was time to again pay his respects to the other seishi.

This had already been a miserable trip. Tasuki would have been to Mt. Black and back a month ago but a sudden blizzard had prevented the journey. So he'd stayed in the town at the base of the mountain trying to keep from going crazy out of sheer boredom while snow fell in thick sheets to cover everything. Then Tasuki had had to wait while it melted enough so he could get out of the inn. Then came the wait while it melted enough so he could get up the mountain. Waiting had never been one of the bandit's strong points.

Of course Tasuki had paid for all the damages he'd caused in town. It had damn near taken all his money, but he'd paid complaining all the while. It was during this time when he was getting drunk and causing property damage that he had heard the stories about how Mt. Black was haunted. At the time, Tasuki had dismissed the stories as just that, stories, But the more he thought about it and the farther up Mt. Black's slopes he got the more he wondered if they were really just stories.

He was just about to round the out crop of rock where Nuriko's grave was when the horse stopped and refused to go any further. Annoyed Tasuki turned back towards the horse and tugged. The animal snorted, head held high and ears laid flat against its skull. Then an eerie wolf howl echoed down the mountain and the horse pranced in fear.

Tasuki was fighting to keep the horse with all his supplies from bolting, when he noticed a shadow up on the rocks. He looked up to see a huge gray wolf snarling down at him. The wolf was had a huge jagged scar where one eye should have been. As the wolf stared at him Tasuki realized he couldn't go for his tessen and keep the horse under control at the same time.

Suddenly the wolf leapt. The horse screamed in terror and reared, sending Tasuki flying into a nearby snow drift. It pounded back down the trail, and the wolf followed close behind the horse for a little ways. Then it turned back around and padded towards the bandit who was busy picking himself out of the cold, wet snow. The wolf froze when Tasuki got to his feet.

"Now, you're going to regret that," Tasuki yelled as he pulled the tessen out. He was just about to let loose a blast of flames, when he realized something. The wolf left no tracks in the white snow. He stared at the gray wolf and before his eyes, it slowly disappeared into nothing. Tasuki stared stupidly at the place where the wolf had stood for a while. Then, with shaking hands, he replaced the tessen and turned to go towards Nuriko's grave.

The sun glinted brightly off the snow, temporarily blinding Tasuki as he rounded the outcropping of rocks. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light. Then blinked again while staring in disbelief. Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that now greeted his eyes. Nothing. For standing on the icy slope of Mt. Black in the middle of winter was a towering willow tree still covered will green leaves.

Hesitantly, Tasuki walked towards the willow tree. A stray breeze brought the smell of warm air and growing things, and the leaves rustled in happy laughter. The snow went right up to the edge of the tree, but stopped where ever the trees roots touched. Instead a uneven circle of dark soil took its place. The snow that crunched beneath his boots seemed loud and out of place.

The bandit hesitated at the edge of the black soil ring, but continued on any ways. Inside the circle the air was noticeably warmer, and Tasuki began to sweat beneath his heavy fur coat. He walked up to the tree and laid his hands on the bark. It was rough and comforting. Just above where his hand rested, the character for willow was carved deep into the trunk. Willow. Nuriko?s symbol.

Tears streamed down the bandit?s face unchecked. Tasuki wrapped his arms around the trunk of the willow tree and cried like when he?d watched his friends die one by one. The breeze wrapped around him as if in comfort, and he could almost hear Nuriko?s voice gently chiding him for still grieving.

Finally, the tears stopped and Tasuki stepped back from the willow. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and looked up at the green leaves. ?Goodbye Nuriko,? he said softly then turned to leave. Tasuki could almost hear Nuriko calling goodbye after him as he began the long cold journey back down the mountain.

Is good, ne? Unlike most of my stories it really doesn't have much of a plot, but I still think it's rather neat. I so proud of myself. This only took me a few hours to start and complete because I'm on one of my massive writing sprees. Again. One of these days I'm actually going to do my homework instead of writing. Naaaahhhh.