Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [1]

☾ Stone of Gelel - 2 ☽

That night was the full moon, and Tsukiko curled up under the blankets as the moon reached its highest point, peeking through the gap in the tent's ceiling. She didn't want to deal with the constant pain. However, thankfully, the exhaustion of her healing body lulled her to sleep quick.

Naruto was snoring loudly already to her right, deep asleep, but their new unwelcome companion, Temujin was wide awake, staring at the moon above them intently with his blood red eyes.

Frustrated by the blond's snores, Temujin glanced over at him in annoyance but instead caught sight of the face of the girl sleeping between them. Strangely still, her expression was pained somehow.

It made no sense because just a while ago, she had been fine, and her friend had said she healed quicker than most people. Temujin continued to eye her, wondering exactly what was up with her.

As strange as the girl was, Temujin admitted that she was quite pretty. He couldn't imagine why someone would continuously say 'Usa' but it seemed to suit her quite well, it made her look cute.

There were horns on top of her head that Temujin had never seen before, and her long hair was out-worldly white, and wavy like the ocean. Another peculiarity about her was the six black Magatama on her collarbones. But none of them were as intriguing to look at as was her actual face.

Temujin almost jumped when Tsukiko grunted in pain suddenly, and he pursed his lips – was she also having a nightmare? He kept his eyes narrowed and slowly reached out to touch her face –

No!

It would be a problem if he touched her face and she woke up. Temujin quickly halted his hand mid-air and pulled it back quickly. He looked away quickly and noticed Nerugui looking at him curiously.

"It wasn't anything," Temujin told the strange ferret of his innocence but Nerugui didn't reply.

Morning came by quickly, and although she was feeling a bit weak, Tsukiko gladly joined the caravan on the back of an ostrich as they travelled through the mountainous terrain. She was offered to sit on the back of a wagon with Temujin but she wasn't sure he would like that very much.

It was always the good-looking people who were this cold, huh?

"Say, say, say, say!" Naruto exclaimed from where he had been travelling right next to Tsukiko on another ostrich. "Has this caravan always been traveling?"

"That's right," replied the lady who had taken care of their bandages, Emina, who was also Kahiko's granddaughter. "We've been on the road ever since our country was destroyed,"

"Ever since your country was destroyed?" Tsukiko inquired. "Your country was destroyed?"

"It's a legend that has been passed down by our clan from long ago," Emina informed the two children. "It says that we had a country, but it was destroyed,"

"What happened?" Tsukiko asked in a kind tone, not wanting to sound insensitive.

"It seems that, long ago, there was a great catastrophe," Emina explained. "We lost our country and our clan was scattered. We became wandering people..."

"And it seems that some of us crossed the sea," Kahiko added.

"The sea?" Naruto asked, and Tsukiko looked over in interest as well – the last time they had crossed the sea was to get to the Land of Snow.

"That's right," Kahiko replied. "Nerugui-Chan is a ferret that was kept at our ancestors' palace... He's living proof that we had a country long ago," He patted the ferret sitting on his shoulder.