A New Beginning

Illusions

Iguro felt the fresh clean air of the outside after finally escaping his hellhole of a prison for the past twelve years of his miserable life.

His feet touched the cold wood tiles as if he had stepped on ice, his hangs clinging to the pillars of wood that held the house as he passed through the rooms from the outside, his teeth shaking as the cold winds passed by him again.

It certainly was hard for him to not look down at the height between him and the other roofs or the ground, the goosebumps in his body stressing him knowing that a wrong step could potentially kill him.

The only way he could go down through each floor was the fact that the rooftops had been designed in a triangular shape, so he just had to find the less slippery path with Kaburamaru's help.

"HE'S GONE!" The scream came with the sound of something shattering from the inside.

Iguro felt a shiver run down his spine, before taking a deep breath before carrying off to his escape, ignoring the nausea that was building up by his thoughts.

Did they get her? He hoped that woman hadn't.

"Remember to run away as soon as midnight strikes."

Obanai shook his head, getting rid of the thoughts and focusing on Kaburamaru's trail instead.

After reaching the second rooftop, a sudden trembling came from the inside, the impact of whatever it was had destroyed the third floor completely.

Iguro did his best clinging to the roof, never letting go of the tiles even with all of the winds, concrete and wooden planks that fell from the third and fourth floor.

Until he saw his serpent standing so close to the edge, his eyes widening as a piece of wood hit him.

"Kaburamaru!" Obani shouted, grabbing his snake in mid-air and protecting him as they both fell to the rooftop of the first floor, the loud bang being enough to alarm the others.

His white haori got dirty as they rolled down with a few more things. One of his arms was not able to move like he wished, to grab something so that he doesn't fall and never recovers.

In the end, the friction of his body stopped him from sliding off the roof, instead it left him just at the edge, with most of his body dangling off in the air.

He took one deep breath, then coughed on another as the wound of that fall stung on his ribs and arms.

With trembling hands, Obanai tried to get up again, his snake slithering up his arm, wishing to help him get up faster but it was no use, he had never felt pain just as he had never felt love. Everything was new to him, his skin was probably just like that of a newborn baby, with no experience and no way to resist the tears from falling out after falling at such height. Yet he wasn't going to let a broken rib get on his way from letting him live.

If this was what came from the outside, he would take it, this and a hundred times more.

I just want to live.

To see the world.

He limped to see what was at the edge.

The night, the endless stars in the sky like a million of white dots shining brighter than the jewels their mothers and grandmothers and sisters wore. No, nothing was certainly as majestic as the moon shining in the sky like a bright lantern of hope for him.

But as he passed the endless sea of stars and the pathways of the gigantic mountains that surrounded them, he found the forest, the hundreds upon hundreds of trees that were taller than the mountains, and that seemed to never end as the darkness creeps in surrounding those far away trees and shadow, not letting him see the rest of the path to the freedom he had wanted for so long.