"The damage is infectious, and all that can be done is purge it all and start from scratch."
If life is a series of choices, then perhaps that just means that life is a game? To Akazawa Saki, that's all life really is. She refutes the existence of G...
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In the dull, limited light of the shambled forest cabin, Saki's thoughts were running down a dangerous tangent.
The acrid, unpleasant concoction of wolf repellent hung like an unpleasant smog in the air, making the otherwise sickening haze of death worse to stomach. The paws of starved, ravenous wolves sounded their faint retreat back to the line of trees surrounding the cabin, though beyond that, Saki knew they weren't about to leave when an untainted food source was just on the other side of a large sheet of wood.
Saki held her breath as she foraged through her hip pack for two of the small jars of pressed tallow she kept on hand, with her gaze shifting briefly back to the nameless girl who had let her inside to safety from the wolves. She swiped the necessary items from her packed reserves, pouring a generous helping of rosemary oil into the jars and lit the twisted wicks of twine within to set them aflame.
It was there, that the presence of another living form within the cabin came to Saki's notice.
Wriggling out from within the closest wad of bedding was the telltale, ginger hue of fur belonging to a red fox kit, scarcely old enough to be away from its mother by the look of it. Its large eyes promptly fell upon Saki's unfamiliar form, with its ears flicking backwards apprehensively within an instance. Before Saki had even blinked, it then buried itself back within the blankets quickly to escape her gaze.
'So it's just you and the fox?' Saki questioned as she turned her head back towards the nameless girl, who had closed up the canteen of wolf repellent with a little difficulty, and was in the process of setting it down next to the door.
'Grandpa is here, too...' The girl mumbled.
Who was likely quite a few days past his expiry, if the smell was anything to go by.
Saki was honestly surprised the smell alone hadn't bumped either the girl or her furry companion off, yet.
The tallow candles gleamed to life, catching merrily as the faint wisps of rosemary began to slowly permeate through the suffocating stench of death. Saki merely set one of the candles down on the floor next to the door, straightening up as she turned her attention upon the sheets of material forming the makeshift walls of the two meter space.
There was no point in putting it off. The pungent stench wouldn't allow it, even if Saki were adamant about ignoring it.
'Where is your grandpa?' Saki asked as she deposited her rucksack and bow down on the grimy floor, earning a startled look from the nameless girl as she dragged her gaze away from the tallow candle.
Saki could see the tears beginning to brim, the way the girl's bottom lip seemed to tremble as she pulled herself to her legs and began to edge towards one of the hanging sheets in particular. It brought Saki to piece together a few things.
The girl didn't really believe her grandfather was just "sleeping", and she likely understood what death actually was. It was all denial, a facade to likely make being trapped in the house with her grandfather's corpse at least a tiny more tolerable. And even if the girl's father was alive, Saki doubted the girl even expected him to come back.
