"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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Carrying the broken pieces of circumstances within the grasp of her mind, Saki put together what she felt was a decent semblance of a plan. As Lirae and Tok seemed to finish their rations and seem more content than they had been before, Saki's fingers closed around the grip of her bow, and she rose to her feet.
'Missus Saki?' The little girl spoke up curiously as she watched Saki restring her bow taut. 'Are you going now?'
Saki didn't miss the faint glimpse of panic that had ghosted over the girl's face, but her brow had instead furrowed at the title the girl was still giving her.
'Not yet. I have to deal with the wolves, first.' She responded seriously as she redirected her gaze to the ceiling.
'Oh! Are you going to ask them to go away?' Lirae questioned.
'Not quite.' Saki muttered. 'I have to get rid of them, though.'
'Th-they are going to be okay? They are just going away?'
'If they understand warning shots right now, then yes.'
The only response Saki received was a startled gasp, right before she heard the clumsy clunking of feet on old wood floors before a tiny body had latched onto her side and pulled her wandering steps to a halt.
'Please! Don't hurt them!' Lirae whimpered as she turned her tearful gaze upon Saki, who wasn't the least bit moved by such a face. 'You can't! They have feelings!'
'If I don't they will hunt us down.' Saki reasoned. 'It's as simple as that.'
It wasn't like she actually wanted to harm them, either.
'It's not their fault they are hungry!' Lirae rebuked.
Saki stared down at the girl silently, watching the sincerity and conviction in her gaze before she let out a heavy breath.
Well yes, she knew that, she really did. But if she didn't do this the quick and efficient way, this was going to be a very difficult task. It wasn't like she could just sit down and politely ask the wolves to leave and hunt some deer in a different part of the world. Life didn't work that way.
'I can't "not" hurt them.' Saki eventually spoke.
'Yes you can!'
'Do you want to stay here, then?' The woman offered, much to the girl's obvious alarm and denying response. 'I can avoid them on my own, but if you want both that fox and you to come with me, those wolves have to go.'
'No! Just tell them to go away!'
A weary sigh eventually escaped Saki as she looked down at her hip-pack as she thought, ignoring Lirae's attempts at shaking a preferred answer out of Saki's hip instead of what was already offered.
Well fine... she wasn't so heartless as to abandon a little girl in the dying forest, but she sorely did not want to deal with two days worth of waterworks until she could hand the girl over to the castle and return to her peaceful life.
