RABBIT SEASON || Chiyo's Intro.

‘ One rabbit, two rabbit, three rabbit, four! ‘ Laughter echoed along with the clacking of wooden shoes against the cobbled path. An admirable chase was in progress. One short, white haired female against four, fluffy, white rabbits. Arms reached forth, followed by a mighty leap, to catch the unsuspecting creature, ‘ I’ve gotcha now! ‘  Or so she had thought, the small animal spotted her coming faster than she could react, gaining her a face full of dirt and stone rather than soft fur. The rabbit had evaded her initial attack but that only fueled Chiyo’s conquest even more! Clambering to her feet quickly, the mage pushed forth to continue her mission along the mountains path.

Hours passed and the path had grown steeper and more treacherous. This was the first time Chiyo had ever adventured up a mountain. Layers of snow had covered the path awhile ago and she was just going off the rabbits footprints but It was getting hard to keep track of them now especially as the snow got deeper. Hands pressed against her knees as she panted, taking a couple of deep breathes. It was cold. She could feel the bitter breeze nipping at her bare skin. Her porcelain colored skin had never been so red before. Wooden sandals on snow meant there was no friction, so it was extremely slippy. She could hardly move but this was the first time she had ever seen so much snow, this was a valuable experience that alone fuelled her determination to push forwards.  ‘ Must keep going! ‘ To where? Is the question she never asked but she had come too far to just turn back now.

Eventually she lost sight of the rabbits and now she was stuck in the middle of a vast field of white. Being only 5’4, the snow has reached her height of her knees now. Arms were wrapped tight around her frame, sandals clinging to her fingers now. The snow was too much for them she couldn’t move with them on her feet.  The wind had picked up speed and was beginning to push her around like a playground bully which tested her patience. ‘ Geez, leave me alone you silly win --.’ Her voice trailed off, as her eyes clocked onto something in the distance. Batting her eyelashes a few times, she took a few steps forward trying to make out what it was. It was a giant shadow of an animal. ‘ Doggy? ‘ Chiyo muttered to herself, with a held tilt. It was looking directly at her. This perked her interest and she began to shuffled forward through the snow. As she moved forward the shadow began to turn around and walk away which struck a little panic in her.  ‘ Please wait doggy! ‘

A smile soon appeared on Chiyo’s face once more, as the shadow seemingly paused on the spot.  It was waiting for her, that made her happy. Picking up her pace, she trailed after the giant shadow, eager to get a better view of it. All she could make out was the tail, right now,  swaying side to side.

The closer she followed the animal, the snow seemed to flatten out giving her more freedom of movement. The wind also had died down a little.  ‘ Was they leading me out of the snow? ‘ Chiyo pondered to herself, rubbing her arms for warmth. On further investigation around the area, she saw no sign of the shadowy figure but there was a cave.  At this point she was running out of energy, her feet were really sore and cold too. Her entire legs were numb followed by her fingers and arms. Chiyo still pursued forward, tip toeing forward, towards the steam. Maybe she could rest there for a bit and get out of the wind entirely.

Upon entering the cave, she felt a difference in temperatures. It was a lot warmer than outside. A sigh of relief emitted from the female as she walked forward. She could probably rest here for now but she wanted to see what was on the other side of this cave. There was light emitting from the back of it so she went to go take a look.

To her surprise there was another entrance and the cave acted more as a tunnel. Chiyo found herself on a small overhang. She was the top of a large pile of boulders and rocks. Streams of water running and the sound of trees rustling filled the air.  ‘ What is this?! ‘ Eyes widened in utter surprise. There were bodies of water below her, steam raising up from them. She could see several streams of water running into them from the rocks below.  It seemed to be the source of heat and behind them was a building. It didn’t look incredibly big from her position, although she was looking at it from an awkward angle ‘ The dark wood is very pretty..’ A head tilt was given as she glanced over at the building. Several stories and windows. ‘ Maybe I can stay there for the night but I don’t know how to get down there.. ‘ Stepping closer to the edge, Chiyo glanced side to side of the overhang looking for some kind of the way to get down.  

All of a sudden her body jolted forward, as if she was pushed straight off the ledge she was on, pupils dilating with fear. Her voice raised several octaves, letting out a blood curdling screech, as she plummeted down from the air into one of the hot springs below.

Luckily it wasn’t too high so the impact of her hitting the water wasn’t too harsh, her eyes snapping closed as she sunk into the water. It was warm, really, really warm. Compared to the harsh weather she just came out. Once she had stopped moving, she pushed herself up from the bottom, to emerge on the surface quickly gasping for air. ‘ W-what the hell?! ‘ Chiyo immediately looked upwards towards the ledge she was on. The only thing she saw was a fluffy tail slowly disappearing into the tunnel she came from.  Her lips parted to say something but nothing came out as all she could feel was the blood rushing to her head. Going to extremely cold to extremely hot in a matter of seconds, sent tingles through her body and knocked her sense of balance way off. The world had began to spin. It didn’t take long for her eyes to roll back, body falling back into the spring, leaving her like a corpse floating in water. ‘ Why did you push me into the water giant doggy? ‘ Chiyo babbled, fighting to keep her conscience but she lost that battle pretty quickly.