Here is Chapter Five (or Part Six) of Dark Quarter.

If you like it, PLEASE comment.  If you find a
problem, PLEASE criticise.  And if you don't like it,
well... please delete it.  But you would've done that
anyway, right?

Raye

--------------------------------------

Starlit Reflections: Dark Quarter 

by Raye Johnsen
raye_j@yahoo.com

*****
	Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics,
Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment, Viz
Communications and other interested parties.  The
characters and situation are used without permission
for personal entertainment only, and no copyright
infringements are intended.  No profit is being made
from this fic; if there was, Tasuki and Tamahome would
lighten me of it, as soon as they could.
*****

Chapter Five: In Genbu's Highlands - Tomite


	Tomite was ever a soul of action, and could always be
relied upon to be hunting dinner, scouting our path or
just riding.  His skill in the saddle was only matched
by his impatience out of it.

	He took it upon himself to teach me how to ride
properly.  One morning, when we were far from the
others, I was thrown by my horse.  It was not the
first time, nor the last; but this particular time I
was specifically unhappy with the situation, and I
told him so, at length.

	When I had wound down, he lifted an eyebrow at me and
said, "Uruki, if you give up now, how will you ever
make it to the end?"

	I got back on the horse.

*****

	I had awoken under Hikitsu's care in the late
afternoon, and while he allowed me to sit up, he
didn't let me get up.  To be fair, I didn't argue very
hard.  In fact, if it weren't for the fact that he
kept up a light banter and insisted that I respond to
him while he chopped roots and measured herbs, you
would be hard-pressed to tell that I actually *was*
awake.

	He admitted that he was the one who had broken the
mare's headlong gallop, and that he had created the
wall of ice that I'd seen as I fell.

	"That's a relief," I told him.

	"Why?" he asked me.

	"It means I wasn't hallucinating," I told him.

	"Also that your memory is working just fine," he
replied with satisfaction, as he set aside the wild
carrots and began to trim the beans.  He looked up
from time to time, scanning the area visible through
the door of the tent.

	"Are you waiting for someone?" I enquired.

	He smiled gently.  "Yes," he told me with a broad
smile.  "My... best friend.  You will be happy to meet
each other," he said, with certainty.

	I wasn't quite so sure.  My first meetings with
people lately had definitely not been the most
positive experiences of my life.  However, Hikitsu was
a nice person and his friend would probably be too. 
At least, I hoped so.

	To pass the time, I asked him what his talent was.

	"Oh, I make impenetrable barriers out of ice," he
told me.  "Nothing can get through my ice walls, and I
make snakes of ice that can deflect any blow."

	"But you're a healer," I objected.  For some obscure
reason, I felt that the two abilities could not
coexist.

	"What better gift for a healer, than protection from
everything?" Hikitsu said, with a wry twist of his
lips.

	I could not disagree.

	"I'm back! - a *new* patient?" a new voice broke in. 
I turned my head to see a young man at the tent flap. 
He was intensely masculine and not handsome, his face
too stern and features too sharp for beauty.

	I did *not* swoon.  I did *not* collapse in a puddle
of femininity.  The fact that I fell flat on my face
in front of him is simply and solely because I got my
feet tangled in the rug Hikitsu had covered me with
when I tried to stand up.

	Hikitsu, kindly, did not laugh; instead, he helped me
to my feet and straightened the rug out.  "Not quite,"
he said calmly, with only the faintest tremor in his
voice.

	The young man lifted a sculpted eyebrow over his
piercing dark eyes.  "Then..." he said, impatiently.

	Hikitsu made a 'phrump'ing noise in his throat.  "Are
you *numb*?" he demanded.  "Can't you *feel* her?"

	It hit me and I suddenly realized why Hikitsu had
been so certain I would like his mysterious friend.  I
giggled into the moment, and sat down again,
scrabbling at my sock.

	"What *are* you doing?" the stranger asked me.

	I flashed him a grin, and my ankle, which was
burning.  "Establishing my credentials," I told him
cheerfully.  "I'm Uruki!  Which of my star-brothers
are you?"

	He glared at Hikitsu, who was paying a lot of
attention to the fire in the porcelain stove, and
whose shoulders were shaking.  Then he looked at me, a
smouldering look that made every part of me sit up and
pay attention.  "I," he said with dignity, "am Tam
Chamka, Genbu Shichiseishi Tomite."

	Hikitsu, at this point, slammed the stove door.  We
still heard the chuckle.

*****

	Tomite had gone hunting earlier in the day, which was
why Hikitsu had not bothered to prepare any meats, or
to start the actual cooking of dinner; the meat was
still on the way.

	Today he had brought back a brace of wild rabbit,
skinning and cleaning them before he had entered the
tent.  Hikitsu calmly took possession of the meat, and
less than an hour later we were eating a savoury stew
that easily surpassed all the fine meals I had eaten
in my father's house.

	Hikitsu, however, denied my compliments.  "I am a
healer, and thus versed in the ways of herbs," was all
he would say.

	When I told them that I had been travelling with the
Priestess of Genbu and two other Shichiseishi, they
traded odd glances.  But "So it has begun," was all
that Tomite said.

	Remembering, I wonder if Lord Genbu managed to
communicate what would happen to them.  But, then
again, neither Tomite nor Hikitsu were optimists.

	"I really should be looking for Takiko and the
others," I said apologetically, as we finished the
meal.  I probably ate too much of it - not that I
regret it.  That stew was one of the finest meals I
ever had in my life.

	"In the morning," Tomite told me.  "It's full dark
now.  Wait until you can see where you're going."

	"That's sensible," I conceded, and retired to the bed
where I had spent the afternoon.

*****

	Tomite and Hikitsu were up long before I was.  At the
time, I was still of the opinion that sunrise was
scheduled far too early in the day.

	The mare that had run away with me was long since
gone, so I was preparing to walk when Tomite caught my
hand and brought me over to where a beautiful
fawn-coloured mare was coralled.

	"This is Mei-Mei," he told me quietly.  "I think
she'll suit you."

	I admired the proud arch of her neck and the black of
her mane and tail as she pranced and curvetted in the
dawnlight.  However, that itself gave me pause.

	"Are you sure?  I'm a rank beginner, you know.  I
didn't even know how to ride a month ago."

	He smiled at me.  "Don't worry.  She won't run away
with you."

	I smiled back.  Oh, he was fine, with that dark hair
pulled back by his round furred hat - it was enough to
make a girl murderous when she saw the way he and
Hikitsu looked at each other.

	He turned away to pick up the tack, and I sighed. 
/Somewhere, is there someone for me?/  I shook my head
swiftly.  Honestly, being surrounded by romantic
couples was going to my head.

*****

	We had been riding south for an hour when Hikitsu
pointed ahead and announced, "Looks like we'll have
company."

	I squinted at the dots on the horizon.  "Three of
them," I observed laconically.

	"You're picking up good habits, Uruki," Tomite
complimented me. 

	I glanced over at him, but he wasn't looking at me. 
I shrugged and turned back to the task at hand -
staying on the horse. 

	Of course, it takes time to catch up to people you
see in the distance, especially as we weren't crowding
the horses.  Tomite had given me a strong lecture
about it.

	Tomite seemed to have almost a different personality
in the saddle.  On his own two feet he was impatient,
hostile and inclined to attack, but in the saddle he
was calm, peaceful and even - dare I say it? - nice.

	He had picked well for me.  Mei-Mei was spirited,
true, but she was much more inclined to stay close to
her herdmates than to go racing off over the plains. 
I made a point of not touching her with my heels - I
had learnt my lesson about kicking horses - and she
didn't do more than toss her head at me.

	Eventually we drew close enough to distinguish the
identities of the three riding furiously towards us,
and I gently tugged on Mei-Mei's reins, enough to make
her slow and fall back into line with the others. 
"You knew," I accused them.

	"I suspected," Hikitsu replied.

	"They're actually a bit slower than I expected,"
Tomite said consideringly.  "The mare that brought you
must have been galloping longer than you thought."

	The three riders were Hatsui, Namame and Takiko, of
course.  I loosened the reins and Mei-Mei virtually
leapt forward.  Takiko touched the sides of her horse
with her heels, and the two of us met ahead of
everyone else.

	We just hugged, as the young men came riding up
around us.

	"Oh, Takiko," I said brightly, "let me introduce you.
 This is Hikitsu -"

	"It's a pleasure to meet you."

	"- and this is Tomite."

	"Hello."

	"Tomite, Hikitsu, this is Takiko, the Priestess of
Genbu -"

	"I'm so glad to meet you both.  Thank you for helping
Uruki!"

	"- this is Hatsui -"

	"Yo."

	I glanced at Hatsui.  He seemed to be very quiet, and
almost *glaring* at Hikitsu?  I shook my head and
finished up.

	"And this is Namame."

	"It's good to finally find you." Namame said
brightly.

	"No problem," Tomite said.

	"We Shichiseishi have to stick together," Hikitsu
added.

	"Now that we *are* together," I said brightly,
"there's only two to go!  I wonder what Iname and
Urumiya are like?"

	Takiko smiled at me.  "Well, we won't find out
standing here.  Let's go... this way!"

	So we all set off for the southeast, towards the
mountains.

*****

Author's Notes:

	1. I've always been of the opinion that Tomite looks
*incredibly* like the young Sean Connery.  Who
actually wasn't that handsome.  Just *very* sexy.  ^_~

	2. I've mentioned this in passing in mainstream
Starlit Reflections, but homosexuality in Imperial
China does not appear to have been considered an
unusual or perjorative choice.  Several Emperors are
recorded as being openly bi- or homosexual, only going
to their wives for the necessary son(s) to inherit the
throne, and in classic novels (romance and otherwise)
of the Ming and Qing periods, several supporting
characters are homosexual.  Literature also records
that among the stylized "shrewish wife's complaints"
(the Imperial Chinese version of the famous "Men
Bashing" lists) is the fact that men often courted and
formed relationships with each other rather than
women, on occasion neglecting their wives for their
male lover.  ("I have that part too; all you have to
do is ask!" an ignored wife complains in one such
list.)  In every example, when a negative impression
is drawn, it is based on the fact that a faithful wife
is being ignored, not that the homosexual relationship
itself is wrong.

	3. Mei-Mei: in Hanyu (Mandarin), which was the
language the Manchu spoke, was in the Qing and remains
today the tongue of the Chinese government, this means
"Little Sister".

=====
raye_j@yahoo.com
http://www.thejohnsens.com/index.html

"It went away? 'I dwell in darkness without you'
and it WENT AWAY?!"
   - Sorcha, 'Willow'

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