[Bronze Woods] A Haunting We Will Go (Fubuki)

[Alabast]

Bronze Woods 29th of Spring, 8th of Bell, 513 AV

"Gotcha, tasty little rabbit. Ooh you're gonna be so juicy aren't ya? Fat little rabbit in my stew. Oh yeah." Alabast didn't have a malicious bone in his body, but when it came to hunting small game, he had little love reserved for the morsels. It was a clear spring day in the woods, perfect to do a little tracking and bagging. He'd set up two small snares he'd check on later, but his snaring skills weren't what he needed to work on. He was an aspiring knight, and he desperately needed to hone his knightly skills. Riding, swordsmanship, and all the like. He had barely scratched the surface of what he needed to do with those skills, but archery was a different story. He could shoot. Not a great shot, mind you, but he could definitely shoot. The squire couldn't think of a better way to hone that skill than practicing on lunch- er...rabbits.

He breathed in, focused his eyes and kept his sight on the bunny. He notched the arrow and took a deep breath. The string pulled taught, and he took the shot. "Shoot!" He said, as springy shaft of wood imbedded itself in the ground barely an inch from the creature. It squealed and hopped away, and Alabast tumbled over himself jumping after it. An upward root caught his foot and the naturally occurring snare dragged him to the ground face first. He smacked in the dirt pretty hard, but his pride was hurt the most. He slammed the ground with a fist and cursed his luck before rising to his feet again. He dusted himself off and muttered. "Stupid rabbit...stupid forest. Dumb bunny..." He was more mad at himself than anything else, but he continued his minced oaths and muttered curses. "And the dumb root..." It seemed like it had come out of no where.

[Fubuki Kouri]

Fubuki Kouri "Ueeeeeeeeh~" Kouri stretched her ethereal body and let out a rather cute, but haunting and eerie long yawn. She was lying on top of her favorite tall tree branch. "I... couldn't sleep..." In her ghostly state, Kouri couldn't feel periodic drowsiness like living beings. The only way she could sleep is to exert her Soulmist to the point of exhaustion, but of course doing that is painful and Kouri would not do it willingly. I wish I could sleep again... For a moment, the memories of her life came to her. She missed being a human again, sure the human body required much more complex maintenance than her current ethereal body. In her current state, she doesn't need to eat, drink, sleep, take a bath, dump bodily waste, or trim her very long hair anymore. She just needs to rest by not doing anything exhausting for a couple of bells and she's good to go. But... it all seemed so... unnatural, so wrong, she felt that she was becoming more and more inhuman with every passing day. "............" Kouri directly looked up to the morning sun, the sunlight immediately engulfed her vision. Unlike normal humans who would immediately go blind by looking directly at the sun, nothing happened to her but filling her vision with intense light. "Kih..." Huffing a sad sigh, she lowered her head and looked at her own knees. Even though she didn't realize it, Kouri's mind never really recovered since the tiger's attack on her family. An observant person could see that the little ghost girl was in the early stages of insanity. It's subtle, but there. The frequent mood swings, the occasional need to inflict suffering upon people, and the unhealthy attachments she developed to people who merely showed her simple affection. Shaking her head, Kouri cleared her mind and decided to have fun, she wanted to forget all of this. Kouri jumped down from the branch and slowly floated down to the ground. Stopping just a few inches above the ground, Kouri began wandering through the forest once again. Who knows, maybe she would meet Akilia, her wolf Kelvic friend she met in the very same forest. She knew that Akilia lives in the woods. After fifteen chimes of wandering through the woods, phasing through trees and objects without care, she heard voices... male voices. He? Kouri's ear perked up at the voice and focused herself to listen. Huh? tasty rabbit? stew? Kouri made a thoughtful expression, processing the few words she heard rather clearly. Oooooh! He's a hunter! Hehehe... a hunter eh? Hmmm... I think I'll have some fun~ Kouri rubbed her hands and flashed a mischievous grin. Then she 'dove' to the ground, her body buried underground except for her eyes and the upper part of her head, engaging her 'stealth mode'. Moments later, she could see a boy, perhaps older than she was, sprawled on the ground and throwing curses. He kinda looked cute and adorable in a way. Ehehe~ Kouri couldn't help but giggle in her mind. Then her eyes wandered to the fleeing rabbit. Oh... so he wanted to catch that one... maybe I will help him, ehehe~ Kouri quickly rose herself from the ground and did blinking burst to catch up to the rabbit. "Hello, little one~" Once the rabbit was within her Soulmist projection range, she shot up an ethereal black tendril from her back and it grabbed the rabbit by its right hind leg. The rabbit squealed in confusion and panic on how in the gods name its feet could dangle in the air seemingly without anything holding it. With her actions just now, the boy will most likely saw her, this foiled her plans but Kouri didn't care, looking at him sprawled out like that; she wanted to help him. With a giggle, Kouri turned back and happily floated to the boy while holding the rabbit with her tendril. "Hello~ Here's your rabbit! Careful though, it trashes around..." With a happy grin, she offered the rabbit to the older boy.

[Alabast]

Alabast heard little bunny squeals near him all of a sudden. Odd he thought to himself. he looked up and saw it there, floating. "Sylir preserve me." he whispered to himself and then let his mouth slack open, agape in astonishment. He dropped his bow and put his hands together in prayer. "Oh Gods! Protect me! I didn't know it was a magical rabbit okay!? I mean, when I called it a tasty morsel earlier I was just kidding...okay I wasn't but please! Don't have your rabbit harbinger eat my soul!" Alabast was sincerely afraid, uninitiated as he was to the supernatural and magical. Then his eyes caught the refracted light. It was like something made of almost invisible glass was standing there holding the poor forest creature. As he focused on it, the invisible being gained resolution. Finally, he could make out a waif-ish young lady, younger that he was. Or, maybe she was older, as the realization dawned on him that he might be seeing a ghost. He stuttered out a question. "A-a-are y-you a... g-g." He swallowed hard then reached quickly for his bow, snagging it from the ground.

Just as quickly, he drew out an arrow, and shakily notched it on his bow. He took aim at the specter and finding a calmness in all his fear finished his inquiry. "Your a ghost? You are aren't you? St-stay there. Don't move another inch or I'll... I'll....shoot you..." He realized that indeed the idea was as stupid as it sounded in his head. He heard the phantom offer him up the critter and he put his bow down. "Uh...well, thank you." He took the thrashing creature from her. As it wriggled in his hands he frowned a bit, not enjoying the idea of all the sportsmanship being taken out of it. He set the creature down and let it go. He looked back at the girl. "Well...thank you, very much. I uh...apologize? For pulling out on you, with my bow." He was still very full of trepidation, never having interacted with a spirit. "Are you a friendly ghost?"

[Fubuki Kouri]

Fubuki Kouri "Ehehe~ Huuuuuh???" Kouri cocked her right eyebrows and tilted her head to the left. The boy's reaction to her generous offer was... strange. He dropped his weapon, clasped his hand, and goes into a praying frenzy. His voice filled with fear of divine judgement. "Eeeeeh?" Kouri got even more confused when the boy mentioned magical harbinger bunny or something. Kouri looked at the dangling rabbit, it still struggled in vain. "Are you a magical harbinger bunny, bunny?" She asked in a child-like curious tone. Returning her attention back to the boy, she saw he was still praying. I wonder what if I pray to Queen Morwen like that... ehehe~ Ah! I'm sorry, My Queen... She lightly giggled at the thought. He then narrowed his eyes at her, like he was trying to focus on her. His dark eyes examining her form, then he stuttered, questioning her. "Oh yes~" Kouri was used to stuttered questions like this, it's like people need to confirm her race everytime they saw her. Oh well, she guessed it couldn't be helped. "I'm a gho- fueh?!" She let out a rather cute surprised gasp when the boy pointed his bow aim against her. Is he looking for a fight? Ehm... He can't possibly hit me with that... Kouri didn't feel fear as she knew the bow couldn't possibly hurt her unless she materialized herself. It didn't last long though as when he realized Kouri's rabbit offering, he immediately put his bow down. Ehehe~ He just misunderstood me... "Oh heeeeeeeeeeey!" Kouri put her hands to her hips and pouted, puffing her cheeks. What are you doing?! I gone through all the trouble of catching it for you! Can't you just accept it? Kouri viewed the older boy's act of releasing the bunny to be refusing her offering. The terrified bunny immediately scampering for its life. When the boy apologized to her. "Hmph!" She looked away in childish annoyance, her cheeks still puffed out. He then asked her if she's a friendly ghost. "Hmph! Of course I am! You're not a friendly though, you refused my help... and I gone through the trouble of helping you..." Returning her cheeks to normal, she then slowly turned her back to look him in the eyes. Oh... he's... handsome His features reminded her of the younger-version of Sir Kise, the squire. "Ehehe... ehehehe~" Seeing that his age couldn't be far from her own, Kouri let out a mischievous giggle. Back in Avanthal, some of the boys were fascinated by her voice and beauty. Her mother Sora, being a singer and artist herself, always told Kouri to care for her appearance and demeanor. She's the one who taught Kouri to keep her impressive hair length and how to care for it. Combined with her beautiful singing voice, she was rather popular among the boys. Half-closing her eyes, Kouri approached the older boy, materialized herself, and extended her right hand to caress his left cheek. "My name is Fubuki Kouri..." She introduced herself and leaned in close, their face merely inches from each other. Crimson red facing off with dark ones. "What's your name?" Her soft haunting whisper echoed in the area.

[Alabast]

Once Bast caught on that he'd offended her, he quickly set about making himself clear. "Oh no, Miss, it wasn't that I'm not thankful. I am very grateful. It's just that, well, I'm a hunter. I've always been taught that the whole purpose of hunting was, well, to hunt." He offered a genuine smile. "I hope I didn't offend you with that, er, bow incident. Or letting the rabbit go. Or at all." Her tendency to laugh and her general attitude put Alabast at ease more than anything. He was standing here, in the Bronze Woods, talking to a ghost. He didn't know much about ghosts except that they existed, which was apparent, and that there were good ones and bad ones. Luckily, she seemed to be of the former variety. Still, even if she was friendly, she was still a ghost. Something not easily ignored. Alabast was captivated by her translucence. She was like light cast onto a cloud of mist, a projection, and yet very real. Right in front of him. He'd never seen anything like.

To say nothing of the girl herself. She was about his age, younger perhaps. Although, he supposed it would've been hard to tell either way just how old she was given her condition. He couldn't help but letting out a sorrowful sigh. How dismal it was that such a sweet person would've had their life ended so prematurely, he thought. In any event, she was still quite lovely, like a flower that might easily wilt. All of a sudden he felt something oh his cheek. If he had any hair on his neck, they'd be standing on end. Alabast huffed a bit at the young lady's ghostly touch. It wasn't that she was a ghost. It was that she was a she. He always could feel the tips of his ears get hot when ever a girl, especially one so lovely, put their hands on him. Slyly and subtly he back away a half step, and he smiled gently at her as he nodded his head down respectfully. "Alabast Hartbane, at your service. A pleasure to meet you Miss Kouri." He let out a chuckle. "Well, we know what I was doing roaming around the Bronze Woods, but what's a young lady like you floating around someplace like this for?"

[Fubuki Kouri]

Fubuki Kouri "Eh? Oh, I see! You don't want the rabbit, but you wanted to hunt the rabbit? Like a competition, right? You get a prize for a successful hunt that is the rabbit itself, me giving you the rabbit was like cheating for the hunting, right?" She showered him with questions, giving her opinion on the matter and hoped she understood him correctly. "Mhm~ I can understand that, ehehe~" She flashed him a happy grin. "Awww..." Kouri let out a disappointed sigh when Alabast backed away from her, releasing himself from her touch. She craved for his body warmth... she wanted more. Kouri tilted her head slightly and smiled at him as if asking 'Can I touch you more?' with her expression. Alabast's method of introduction scored major points within Kouri, he was a gentleman. Kouri was taught in nobility etiquette by her mother and how to act like a proper lady so of course, she would really appreciate it if someone acted with elegant and decorum towards her. She returned his introduction by lifting the hem of dress and bowed slightly "It's an honor to meet you, Sir Hartbane". She acted as polite and elegant as she could, though with her child-like voice, it came out rather cute. Kouri was happy and proud being called a 'young lady', that means her mother's lessons paid off. "O ho ho ho~" She put the back of her right hand near her lips and laughed a noblewoman's laugh. Again, it came out cute rather than elegant or haughty because of her voice. "Why, it's because I live her, Sir Hartbane, o ho ho ho~ the Woods is so amazing, I never thought the wilderness would be so welcoming... rather than the... city. People... don't like me" Her cheerful tone dimmed down at the mention of Syliras and the general population's reaction to her. She used to be a singer, an artist of the voice. Back in Avanthal, her friends and people would flock to her whenever she sang. She was used to be a center of attention, now... people paid her attention alright, but with fear and scorn. "You know, Sir Hartbane... I like you... you don't run away from me... people often do that... and you don't curse me..." Her tone was rather slurred and she approached Alabast with her eyes half open, she wanted his body warmth... she wanted more. "Can I..." She was in front of him now and lifted both of her hands to caress Alabast's cheeks, both of them. She then leaned her head, touching her forehead with his. "...touch you more?" On the outside, Kouri looked like a cheerful, extroverted, and gentle girl. But behind that veil lies a tortured soul longing for everything she had in life; her parents, company of friends, and warmth being the highest priority.

[Alabast]

He still wasn't sure what to make of her. She was cute, if a bit young for him. And, he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that either, because she very well could have been much older than him. On top of that, she was touchy, as much as he guessed a ghost could be. But, he couldn't help feeling for her. When she mentioned that she stayed out here Alabast's brows furrowed, and he looked about the woodlands. "Wait, you mean you live- er...stay, out here? Alone?" He found it hard to believe, but then her comments about her treatment in the city made things clear. It upset him greatly inside. Here was a person who needed compassion the most, and people were so quick to turn her down that she was forced to live out here in the woods. Or, whatever it was she did in the woods that wasn't exactly living. She began moving closer to him now, filling the distance between them. He still didn't want to insult her and so he was at a loss for how to handle this. Suddenly she was right in front of him, cupping his face between her hands. Her cold was cold and hard, despite her having the appearance of a soft warm young lady. It was immediately uncomfortable but Alabast couldn't bring himself to tear away. Through her ghastly fingers he could feel her sorrow and anguish, and he could see the empty melancholy in her eyes that her girlish laughter had tired to conceal. He was captivated by her sorrow, it was on a level he'd never experienced himself before. She touched her forehead to his and spoke gently to him, begging him to let her touch him again. He wanted to say yes, for some reason he didn't understand. Quickly, though, he was brought back to reality. The chilling coolness of her touch soon began to sting and he pulled himself away with a yelp of pain. "Yeow!" He said as he hopped out of her grasp. He rubbed his cheeks nursing the cold burns of her caress. He looked at her and realized the damage he'd done to her feelings probably was worse than what was done to his cheeks. "I'm sorry." He said. "It just...surprised me."

[Fubuki Kouri]

Fubuki Kouri "!?" Kouri's eyes widen in shock and she immediately released her hold on Alabast's cheeks when he yelped in pain. "......." She stared brokenheartedly when Alabast rubbed his cheeks, his face showed that his face was hurt, hurt from her touch. His apology eased Kouri's somewhat, but she knew that he was not surprised; Kouri was aware that her touch was quite uncomfortable and chilling to the living, but she couldn't help it. The lack of her body warmth tortured her mind and knowing she would feel this way possibly for all eternity was one of the main reasons her sanity grew thinner by every single day. She looked at him again, examining him from head to toe. An idea came to her mind, this young man seemed honorable and would not break on his promise and Kouri would exploit that to get more warmth. "Alright then, Sir Alabast... Wanna have a spar? If I win... hehehe... you will let me hug you for... fifteen chimes... and if I lose... well, hehehe... I'll get you a rabbit or two, think of it as a prize..." Her voice was rather jagged, she couldn't wait for his answer much longer, she needed his body warmth badly. "S-so... what do you say? D-don't worry, ehehe... I will materialize myself so you can hit me..." If he accepted, Kouri would pick up her daggers from her treasure hole.

[Alabast]

"Spar huh?'' Alabast had to consider the ghost girl's offer carefully. Things might not be pretty if he lost. He'd just have to win then. He could hear the pain in Kouri's voice as she spoke and he reconsidered his stance. Hrm...things might not be pretty if I win, either. He sighed and shook his head and then replied. "Alright Miss Fubuki, we can spar." He grinned as he pulled his bow string taught with a notched arrow. "I'd say I wouldn't go easy on you, but heh, I probably need you to go easy on me." Alabast didn't take aim quite yet, instead, he breathed slowly and tried to get his bearings on the forest, to see what was around him, and in order to keep track of a way to escape if it was needed. He spoke. "Alright. First one to give up loses. I win you give a rabbit, you win, and you get your hug." He grinned. "Ready. Steady. Go!" Like lighting he took aim a loosed his arrow, though he could tell already it might be a bit off. Quickly following that Alabast was sprinting away from Kouri, towards a tall tree. As he ran he slung his bow over his shoulder and withdrew a length of hemp rope, which he began to tie to an arrow.