Light of Dawn

Chapter 27 - Just One Mistake Pt. 1

~*~*~*~Mitsuhide~*~*~*~

"-and then the rope snapped and Sojiro and I fell through the floor tangled up in a the net we made, while the bear strutted over to our nap sacks and helped itself to a weeks worth of food. We were caught in that thing for nearly four hours before I was able to gnaw though the ropes."

Estelle was hiding her mouth with her hand when she laughed which I personally found quite cute. "So how did you get back?"

"Lashed together a raft using a few bamboo shafts and our own clothes for the twine."

"Okay now I know you're making this up." Estelle said with a disbelieving look on her face, though despite that she was still smiling with her entire body.

"On my life and sword." I said raising my hand up to my heart.

"Are you telling the story about the bear and the raft again?" Called out the voice of my aunt Yuki who was strolling over to the both of us with my parents in toe. Yuki slide her way in beside Estelle, wrapping her arm around the young girl before opening her fan up to hide their faces. "Don't believe a word of it. Has he gotten to the part about riding a panda?"

"I was about to." I said in a somewhat cross tone before I stood up and bowed to my parents as they drew near. "Mother, Father."

Estelle looked up at the pair of them and shot up to her feet before showering them both with nervous compliments and bending almost completely over as she bowed to them. I looked from her to my parents several times noting just how closely they were looking at the young girl. Guess I wasn't the only one not in on this whole marriage proposal. It made me feel a bit better knowing that even my parents were in the dark about it, but that being said I couldn't help but wonder how they felt about it.

Father would never admit it but he rather enjoyed me having an untarnished record on the training mats. So me losing so soundly was probably a bit of a blow to his pride, but even more so considering that it'd been to a potential fiance. Whats more, how did mother feel about this pairing? She'd been the one to arrange all of the previous pairings and it was no secret that none of them really interested me. I couldn't say why really, but none of them just felt right to me. Of course that wasn't to say that Estelle felt right either but she felt more right than all the others that I'd been told to spend time with.

All children were brought up to be Shinobi but not all of them went on to be active members in the field. A lot of novices chose to learn poetry and other fine arts like music and the like, actually if I'm being quite honest it's really rather expected for them to learn it. The purpose being, so that they'd be a more desirable match for a member of the Imperial Family. Some members of the Shinobi--like my Aunt Yuki--could even devote their lives to the arts. Though most others do it in hopes of gaining favor with my family, Yuki did it simply because she was bored of all the other martial arts. Truth be told Aunt Yuki was probably a better fighter than Aunt Tai, but supposedly my mother was even better than her.

"Congratulations on your match Estelle." Said my father with the slightest of nods to her. Estelle's cheeks flared up once again as she bowed her head quickly thanking him for saying so.

"Oh my dear why are you so terrified?" Said my mother who took a step forward placing her hands on Estelle's shoulders, again making the small girl stiffen up like a board. "If you're to be a member of our family you need to learn to look at us."

"Yes ma'am! I-I mean sorry ma'am I mean-"

"Estelle," Yuki said rather sharply making her click her feet together like some sort of military salute, but my aunt's lip curled in the corner as she spoke. "Good work on trouncing my nephew. From what Kugo's told me somebody needed to kick his ass."