Yumi had finally finished supper which lasted twice as long as usual because her mother felt that all of the clan should celebrate with them. Her relatives were still piled into the dining area telling stories of their latest missions. A year ago she would have joined the rest of the children and enjoy listing to the story because she knew one day she was going to go on missions like that. Now that she’s a ninja the stories seemed to worry her over how dangerous they are and how cunning other ninjas could be. In some ways it had now gave her the motivation she needed. Sure she might not know what types of new things she should teach herself but at least she could improve her skills on what she already knew. These thoughts now rested in her mind but she put them aside knowing she had more important things to worry about than just herself.
She pressed her cheek up against the icy window seal while looking out at the monstrous storm outside wondering where her grandmother might be. Her warm cheek slowly began to cool from the touch and she let out a soft sigh which began to fog the window. Quickly she wiped it clean like she was afraid she would miss something when her vision was momentarily obscured. Each time she hopped that when the window was clean she would see her beloved grandmother trailing up the pathway coming home. It hadn’t happen yet but surely sometime she would come home. It wasn’t like anything should be keeping her since the whole clan was now in the house so she couldn’t have been visiting them. Yumi knew her grandmother could handle herself and she shouldn’t worry so she gave up and laid back letting her body sink into the couch. The chattering in the background began to fade as her eyelids got heavy and fell asleep.
In the middle of one of her peaceful dreams her cousin began to shake her and wouldn’t stop. Before she could object her eyes flew open to find her grandmother’s face a few feet away. “Common. Get up. You have to go.” Her grandmother cooed to her continuing to pull her up to prevent her from falling back to sleep. Yumi let a soft smile appear on her lips from knowing her grandmother made it home safely. “nnn. Go?” Still half asleep she grumbled the words trying to figure out what exactly was going on. She allowed her body to be tugged into a standing position and slowly followed the pull which was leading her. “Yes, go. I heard what happened and now you need to grow your bond. Normally you should have been sent out to spend a night alone but seeing how it’s almost midnight half of the time you had was gone. Earlier I had forgotten vials of white spider poison in the pathway leading to the mountains and I was just going to go out early tomorrow to find it. Instead go and bring the vial back by morning or I will have to take the spider container back till you can spend a night alone with them.”
Nothing her grandmother said had clicked in her brain and before it could she felt the cylinder spider nest being given to her. Groggily she stared at her mother and grandmother but before she could speak once again they started to move her. She was awakened from her daze when the brisk moist breeze hit her causing shivers to course down her spine. “w-hat?!” Yumi definitely wasn’t expecting a greeting like this. She quickly turned away from the house and watched the rain whip wildly wetting her even though she was standing under the house’s over hang. It couldn’t be that they actually wanted her to go out in a hurricane! She knew that white spider venom was important because if their enemies found it they could create antidotes to the Koizumi clan poison. Yumi didn’t really have a choice. She would have to at least try since her grandmother wouldn’t let her back till morning either way.
With extreme caution Yumi eased her foot off the porch letting it get soaked almost like she was testing the temperature. Her leg tingled feeling as it got drenched in the icy water. Her breath hitched as she forced her body to follow. In her opinion the feeling was probably similar to running around completely exposed in a blizzard. Though she had never tried it and hoped she never would. Taking in a deep breath she forced her body to move further and further into the darkness. The rain was obscuring her line of sight so she followed the coble stone path completely from memory. How was she going to find vials of poison if she couldn’t even make out anything farther than arms distance from her? Yumi’s drenched hair clung to her clothing and her bangs fluttered as the wind speed past her. She continued to walk forward now looking up at the sky which continued to be illuminated with sparks of light which were followed by cracking sounds as they crashed to earth. It really did look like the bolts were coming from the sky even though they were rising from the ground and merely following a path into the sky. Yumi bit her lip now afraid she would attract lightning and get hit. She had to get these vials fast there was no time to dawdle.
After another lightning bolt rose from the ground she began to sprint towards the mountain hopping her grandmother left it at the base so she wouldn’t have to climb it. Running at full speed she wasn’t paying attention to anything bellow eye level and ran straight into a pile of rocks which connected to the mountain. Something definitely was off. Her family cared for her safety so why would they force her to do something like this..? “Ah.” Her voice was drowned out by the drumming of the rain and the roaring thunder. She had figured it out! She had been partially asleep at the time making her not notice what her grandmother had said. She was doing this to build a stronger bond with her spiders. Clearly this meant they had some ability that would assist her. She stopped in her tracks and danced her fingers on the lid of slowly pushing it aside. It amazed her how she didn’t think about it earlier and even if it was understandable she felt deeply bothered by her own stupidity.
With the lid opened three baby white spiders crawled out, onto her arm, and into her sleeve for protection from the rain. “Hmmm… I hope you can h-elp me. I a-m looking for vials of po-ison my grandmothe-r left behind here…” Humans were a lot scarier to talk to than spiders perhaps because she knew they wouldn’t talk back and maybe wouldn’t even understand what she was saying. It did feel very awkward though maybe because she was just talking to herself and if anyone saw she would probably be considered even more of a weirdo. If everyone around her just wasn’t so intimidating she wouldn’t mind being considered strange. “…” Now that her thought process ended she looked back towards the sleeve of her shirt to find it empty. Slowly she trailed her eyes across her body searching for the spiders and finally found one sticking onto the bottom of her leg. Once she met its gaze the spider continued to trail down her leg till it made it to the ground and started to scurry quickly into the rain.
“Wait!?” Yumi dashed after the spiders, straining her eyes trying to see in the darkness but it was surprisingly becoming easier. She became worried she had wasted too much time getting to the mountain and morning had already come. She was wrong though, it was just as dark as when they started but now she was able to see. Yumi’s eyes were doing more than adjusting to the darkness she was practically able to see everything now. The only thing blocking her vision now was the rain but it wasn’t too bad. She moved gracefully threw the mountain side as she followed the spider which didn’t seem to even know where they were going. It didn’t bother her too much though. She had already checked the main path so the only thing left to do was check the unmarked trails. Finally she had caught up to the white spiders and bent down. This time they didn’t run, they obediently climbed her arm and took shelter under her sleeve. Just when she was about to turn back and find another path she noticed the poison vials just a few feet off. “Oh! T-hank-you…” Yumi wasn’t sure if the spiders had known they were guiding her to the vials but she owed it to them for helping her chose this path.
It wasn’t even dawn by the time Yumi returned home with the vials. The way back she had an easier time navigating thanks to her eyes. She wasn’t fully sure how she was able to see but understood that it was the reason she was forced to go out on such a horrific night. When she arrived home she got the same treatment from her mother that she had gotten earlier in the day. “Congratulations! Darling!” Yumi was pulled into another familiar hug except this time her grandmother joined in. Nervously she hugged them back and then noticed in the surroundings all of her relatives decided to sleep over and were piled up on the floor and couch. It was a good thing she was able to bring the vials back successfully or else she would have had a room of disappointed and angry relatives passing comments during breakfast. Yumi was spent and once she made it to her bedroom collapsed on the bed falling into a long restful undisturbed sleep.
( Level 2 Word Count - - - 1671 / 700 )
Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:51 pm by 
