【めったに許さない人】
The wind was howling outside. The walls shook, again and again, under the sheer force of the gusts, sending violent waves through the fabric placed over the window.
The dark room resembled a bear's den hidden somewhere deep inside a mountain. A small lantern, a solitary source of light, was placed by his side, sending strange shadows across the walls as the light collided with other objects in the room.
He felt something cold on his forehead.
Where could they be?
Crouching, he slowly poked his head out of the shelter, enough to see a large part of the snowy forest surrounding it. His footprints, ending at the shoji, were the only ones left in the snow.
The other two could be just about anywhere, hiding behind a tree, watching him, waiting.
Having felt something move behind him, he turned around to face the inside of the hut. The woodcutter's shelter, occupied only during the warm seasons, was now dim and gloomy and his eyes needed a moment to adjust.
Other than the cold irori set in the floorboards and a few tools hanging on the walls, he didn't see anything suspicious.
Still, there was this uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
A load roar made him jump where he was standing. He turned towards the half-opened shoji and just then a snowball hit him square in the face before he had a chance to react.
It was a hard hit. He cried out in pain and fell to his knees, disoriented, while everything around him turned black for a moment. He could feel blood trickling down his temple and brough his fingers to it, covering them in the oddly warm feeling.
With his ears ringing, he searched around the floor to find the snowball still in one piece. Ryuzo had to hold it for some time for it to be this icy. He heard his cackle in the forest, the sound rapidly receding, but it could have been just a figment of his imagination.
He wanted to follow him, yet at this point he could only sit there and try to blink away the dizziness. He was cold, but staying in the hut was better than being out in the open, especially with a maniac of a friend running around.
Rubbing the side of his face, he barely noticed someone else enter the house.
A sharp gasp filled the air.
"Jin! What happened to you?"
Squinting against the brightness coming from the outside, he saw two round eyes looking down at him.
She was shorter than the two of them and had to lean in to get to his eye level. There was worry written all over her face. Her eyes shot up to the cut above his eyebrow and her hand followed, brushing a strand of hair away.
He just sat there, looking at her looking at him.
She blinked multiple times trying to read his expression before her sight settled on the snowball melting on the floor. Her soft eyes turned into ones seething with rage.
"I will get him for this!" she hissed through her teeth, clenching her small hands into fists. She glanced at his wound again and knelt down, realizing he hasn't said anything yet.
Ryuzo definitely went too far this time, she thought.
Jin didn't move. For some reason he couldn't stop thinking about what his father would say when he'd see him later.
ŞİMDİ OKUDUĞUN
Of Arrows and Men (Ghost of Tsushima prequel)
Tarihi Kurgu"I can hunt." He followed her line of sight and once again took the bow into his hands. His face was void of all emotion when he came forward. "I don't need a hunter. I need a killer." With fingers gripping the weapon on both ends, he leaned in and...
