Chapter 21 preview

Author’s note: Small preview (still needs polishing!), but one of my favorite scenes. Next chapter coming soon!

They had seen the necklace on a trip through a forgettable village. It was at the edge of a table set up at the doorstep of a vendor, who was just then tipped back in his chair, head down, dozing under a threadbare old straw hat.

The stone glinting away happily in the sunlight.

Sakura had just turned her head to see it as they passed.

“How pretty,” she said, touching the rectangular stone pendant.

Katsuro saw the pendant she was touching. It did have an unusual quality about it. As if lit from within. The sun brought out a rich glossy green, depths of emerald, with a few little streaks of celadon striating across it. It was amazing. He turned to smile at Sakura when he saw it. Her eyes. It was the same color as her eyes. The same depth, the lit from within quality. Deep greens below emeralds, clouds and reflected light sparkling the corners. She smiled and urged him on. She had obviously just liked the color. But his breath was taken away. He moved a little, watching her silhouetted form moving up the road in the sunlight, taking in more village sights.

A grumbling cough brought him round. Katsuro had forgotten about the old man.

“You gonna buy it or what?” he bristled. He peered up at him through the holes in the hat, not bothering to lift his head.

“What?” Katsuro said, a little embarrassed, rubbing back of his head self conciously.

“The one there. The jade one,” he grumbled. He made a big show of letting his chair fall back on it’s two front legs. He creaked a wrinkled arm out over the rest of the glittering stones, caught the green one up and let it dangle from his fingers in the sunlight. He lowered his voice and added conspiratorially, “the one that looks like her eyes.”

“I…uh….” Katsuro stammered. A quick glance up the road showed Sakura still engaged with another townsmen. Sly old man, he thought, he’s hoping for a sale. He thought about the necklace again. Or maybe he’s just pointing out the obvious, he thought, sizing up that it truly was the color of her eyes..

“How much is it again?” Katsuro asked. The man waved his other saggy arm to a sign in the middle of the table. Katsuro coughed at the price written there. That’s the end of that, he thought.

He was given enough for missions, never more. And he was almost out of what he had. If he wanted it, he’d have to go several missions without meals to save up money for it.

“Sorry, no money,” Katsuro said.

“I can do better on that price, especially for you two,” he threw in.

This ploy only made Katsuro feel worse.

“Nah, really, I don’t have any money,” he said truthfully.

He peered sharply back up through the tattered straw brim.

“You mean to tell me you’ve got a pretty thing like that, and you don’t have a single coin on you?”

“Yeah,” Katsuro said laughing, looking up the road involuntarily. It made him a little delirious to think that this must be how people saw them, as a couple. Just then, she turned and looked back for him. He gave her a staccato wave. “I’m pretty lucky,” he said smiling.

“I’ll say you are,” the old man grumbled. “You better hold on to her tight.”

He laid the necklace back into it’s spot, and tipped himself back in the chair to lean against the wall again. He looked like he was sleeping, but the angle of his hat let him look right down at the table through the tattered straw without being detected. Pretty crafty, thought Katsuro. Even he had thought the man was dozing.

“If I get some money in, maybe I’ll come back and get it. Are you always here in this village?” Katsuro said smiling.

“Always right here,” he muffled from under the hat.

Katsuro trotted up the road to rejoin Sakura.