prey to a safe place before it started feasting on it.
“I don’t even care whether you’re a Hawk or a Dove!” Mei yelled. “Our Dendera has been attacked! This thing decimated our food supplies, killed four of our number, and dragged Sasaka’s remains into the Mountain! So who will step forward? Who has the courage to lay their life on the line? Raise your hands!”
Kayu Saitoh’s hand was the first to shoot up, causing quite a stir.
It might have been only her fourth day in Dendera, but she had already acquired quite a reputation for herself—and not in a good way—as a complainer, unhappy with the very existence of Dendera. The other old women were understandably surprised, then, when Kayu Saitoh was the first to volunteer for a mission that was potentially suicidal. Hono looked at Kayu Saitoh as though she were being betrayed.
“This has nothing to do with Hawks or Doves, right?” Kayu Saitoh said, defiantly meeting Hono’s gaze, then looking up at Mei.
“I’d like to volunteer too,” said Kyu, jumping forward. She smiled at Kayu Saitoh, and her face, as sun-blackened as the chief’s, possessed such intensity that Kayu Saitoh could hardly believe this was a woman seventeen years her senior.
The expeditionary squad ended up consisting of Mei, Kayu, Kyu, Makura, Somo, Hatsu, Kotei, Ate, Chinu, Hikari, Soh, Tai, Koto, Naki, Nokobi, Itsuru, Kaga, Guri, Tsugu, Tsuina, Tahi, Ume, Kan, Mitsugi, Shima, Usuma, Hyoh, Tema, Mumi, Tamishi, and Tsusa, numbering thirty-one in total. Hawks and Doves alike were welcomed, and members of both volunteered, but the final numbers were skewed toward the Hawks. Hono held out till the end, flatly refusing to volunteer.
As the series of steely-eyed, determined women stepped forward one by one to coalesce into the expeditionary squad, Kayu Saitoh noticed one woman out on a limb, going against the flow. This woman had long white hair that hung over her face, obscuring her features. The woman stood straight and was dressed well enough, by Dendera’s standards, but the way her hair just fell over her face was incongruous to Kayu Saitoh—it made her look weird, unnatural. As Kayu Saitoh thought this, a sudden burst of fresh air blew through the clearing, lifting the woman’s fringe up so that Kayu Saitoh managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of the face underneath.
It was Masari Shiina.
Masari Shiina, who had lost her left eye in that ugly Moutain Barring affair, seemed equally as unconcerned by her thick fringe as she did the expeditionary squad, and she simply walked back toward her house.
Once the expeditionary squad was satisfied that the sun had risen far enough in the east, they made their way into the Mountain. It was Mountain Climbing season, of course, but the actual Climbing always took place between noon and evening, so the chance of accidentally running into a Villager was minimal, and the hastily taken straw-poll consensus of the old women was that this slim chance was a risk worth taking given that time was of the essence, and that a sudden flurry of snow could cover up the bloody tracks at any time to make pursuit impossible, and that furthermore it was already a race against time if they wanted to recover Sasaka’s corpse while it was still in a semblance of good shape. And so it came to pass that the expeditionary squad charged eagerly up the Mountain without the women even taking the time to partake of their morning gruel, without even taking the time to stop for water. It was hardly surprising, then, that the pathless climb was quick to take its toll on the even-more-than-usually-famished Kayu Saitoh, whose breathing became ragged and uneven. She used her wooden spear as a walking stick as she pushed herself along through the white mountainscape following the red blood tracks, but that could last only so long, and soon she found that her legs would no longer carry her, and her feet slipped away beneath her, landing her on the soft snow. As Kayu Saitoh
“I don’t even care whether you’re a Hawk or a Dove!” Mei yelled. “Our Dendera has been attacked! This thing decimated our food supplies, killed four of our number, and dragged Sasaka’s remains into the Mountain! So who will step forward? Who has the courage to lay their life on the line? Raise your hands!”
Kayu Saitoh’s hand was the first to shoot up, causing quite a stir.
It might have been only her fourth day in Dendera, but she had already acquired quite a reputation for herself—and not in a good way—as a complainer, unhappy with the very existence of Dendera. The other old women were understandably surprised, then, when Kayu Saitoh was the first to volunteer for a mission that was potentially suicidal. Hono looked at Kayu Saitoh as though she were being betrayed.
“This has nothing to do with Hawks or Doves, right?” Kayu Saitoh said, defiantly meeting Hono’s gaze, then looking up at Mei.
“I’d like to volunteer too,” said Kyu, jumping forward. She smiled at Kayu Saitoh, and her face, as sun-blackened as the chief’s, possessed such intensity that Kayu Saitoh could hardly believe this was a woman seventeen years her senior.
The expeditionary squad ended up consisting of Mei, Kayu, Kyu, Makura, Somo, Hatsu, Kotei, Ate, Chinu, Hikari, Soh, Tai, Koto, Naki, Nokobi, Itsuru, Kaga, Guri, Tsugu, Tsuina, Tahi, Ume, Kan, Mitsugi, Shima, Usuma, Hyoh, Tema, Mumi, Tamishi, and Tsusa, numbering thirty-one in total. Hawks and Doves alike were welcomed, and members of both volunteered, but the final numbers were skewed toward the Hawks. Hono held out till the end, flatly refusing to volunteer.
As the series of steely-eyed, determined women stepped forward one by one to coalesce into the expeditionary squad, Kayu Saitoh noticed one woman out on a limb, going against the flow. This woman had long white hair that hung over her face, obscuring her features. The woman stood straight and was dressed well enough, by Dendera’s standards, but the way her hair just fell over her face was incongruous to Kayu Saitoh—it made her look weird, unnatural. As Kayu Saitoh thought this, a sudden burst of fresh air blew through the clearing, lifting the woman’s fringe up so that Kayu Saitoh managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of the face underneath.
It was Masari Shiina.
Masari Shiina, who had lost her left eye in that ugly Moutain Barring affair, seemed equally as unconcerned by her thick fringe as she did the expeditionary squad, and she simply walked back toward her house.
Once the expeditionary squad was satisfied that the sun had risen far enough in the east, they made their way into the Mountain. It was Mountain Climbing season, of course, but the actual Climbing always took place between noon and evening, so the chance of accidentally running into a Villager was minimal, and the hastily taken straw-poll consensus of the old women was that this slim chance was a risk worth taking given that time was of the essence, and that a sudden flurry of snow could cover up the bloody tracks at any time to make pursuit impossible, and that furthermore it was already a race against time if they wanted to recover Sasaka’s corpse while it was still in a semblance of good shape. And so it came to pass that the expeditionary squad charged eagerly up the Mountain without the women even taking the time to partake of their morning gruel, without even taking the time to stop for water. It was hardly surprising, then, that the pathless climb was quick to take its toll on the even-more-than-usually-famished Kayu Saitoh, whose breathing became ragged and uneven. She used her wooden spear as a walking stick as she pushed herself along through the white mountainscape following the red blood tracks, but that could last only so long, and soon she found that her legs would no longer carry her, and her feet slipped away beneath her, landing her on the soft snow. As Kayu Saitoh
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