Another night of nightmares passed. Takurou wandered through the freezing garden and chose one of the small tea alcoves and sat down inside.

He began to empty his mind and reflect on the previous night. Perhaps there was something he had overlooked.

---
[D2, LM] Meditation/Void TN20: 5d10o10k4 30 Recovered 1 VP

Well, there are worse places to try to meditate...

Sora didn't interrupt the Dragon- he found his own meditation difficult at the best of times, and being cooped up ina castle full of relative strangers probably wasn't making the Dragon's effort any easier.

Saru Takurou wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:25 pm

Another night of nightmares passed. Takurou wandered through the freezing garden and chose one of the small tea alcoves and sat down inside.

He began to empty his mind and reflect on the previous night. Perhaps there was something he had overlooked.

---
[D2, LM] Meditation/Void TN20: 5d10o10k4 30 Recovered 1 VP

He remembers a dream of drowning. The water seemed to pull him under, deeper, with hands of its own. Despite everything, he had managed to hold his breath for this long. When he had looked down, there were hands - human hands, pale and waxy. As soon as he saw them they began crawling up his legs, revealing a person in the darkness. When they pull up face to face with him, he can see their eyes are black. It spreads over their whole body, seeming to liquefy them. They lose cohesion, and then the substance begins pouring into his mouth, stealing the breath from his lungs and feeling like liquid fire - like the fire that had burned his home was pouring into him.

Then he woke up.

Takourou began to tremble, whether from the memory or the cold was not clear, but he suddenly, breathing heavily, tore open his eyes.

He noticed the old man standing nearby, he had seen him here a few times and had the impression that he was quite important.

"G-Good morning, um, samurai-sa.... -sama" he said, remembering to bow briefly. "Oh! Um, I'm Saru Takurou, nice to meet you?"

"Jiyo Sora. The pleasure is mine, Saru-san, especially where a follower of my old friend Saruko is concerned."

He nodded to the Dragon.

"That looked like a bit of a rude awakening from your meditation."

"It is a pleasure to get to know you! Especially if you are an old friend of my savior!"
he said honestly and smiling broadly, before his gaze became somewhat dark again.
"I have been reflecting on my dreams, it is very hard to gain wisdom from them, however, some of them do come true. I think that part of my path is to confront them and help those who are affected by them,.... I think?"

"Dreams?"

Sora's tone became more... pointed.

"What sorts of dreams?"

Takurou looked a little somber. "Ever since I was a child, I've been haunted by nightmares. But these nightmares are not always just nightmares. Sometimes they contain messages, or images of things that will or could happen." He looked sad again, took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders. "I've learned to live with it."

"Do you have dreams like that too?" asked Takurou with interest.

"Not exactly. But this eye..." he tapped the cheekbone nearest the discolored organ in question. "Sometimes it shows me the future. Generally not the good stuff, unfortunately. What sort of nightmares have you been having since coming here?"

Takurou pondered. "It probably won't hurt to share the dream with someone who has similar experience to mine." And so Takurou began to recount his dream to Sora in as much detail as possible:

He remembers a dream of drowning. The water seemed to pull him under, deeper, with hands of its own. Despite everything, he had managed to hold his breath for this long. When he had looked down, there were hands - human hands, pale and waxy. As soon as he saw them they began crawling up his legs, revealing a person in the darkness. When they pull up face to face with him, he can see their eyes are black. It spreads over their whole body, seeming to liquefy them. They lose cohesion, and then the substance begins pouring into his mouth, stealing the breath from his lungs and feeling like liquid fire - like the fire that had burned his home was pouring into him.

" I am still unsure if it is prophetic or not. That is why I came here to meditate about it. What do you think?"

"I think you've gotten a warning. Tell me. Do any others among the Dragon have troubled dreams of late? Any oracular warnings that you know of?"

Sora glanced about.

"There may be trouble coming. Here. While we're snowed in."

And damn it, I wish Saruko or Nadere were here, because they might know without my having to spell it out.

"Yatsufusa,.... might, um Yatsufusa-san i mean." Takurou stood up.
"I could ask him when i see him, Jiyo-sa,.. ma, maybe get a small meeting done?"

"Just call me Sora. If he's been having similar... experiences, yes, I think a meeting might be in order."

"Then I'll try to arrange one Sora." Takouru said and nodded. "I'll try to contact you when it's due"

"It's appreciated, Saru-san."

He smiled.

"Ordinarily, I'd suggest a remedy a friend of mine swears by for bad dreams, but I think inflicting a hangover on you would be a bit cruel, and unbecoming a host."

"I appreciate the gesture, but I prefer to use the sake for cooking" he smirked

"Oh, i wasn't talking about sake."

He grinned.

"In the Spine of the World, we used to make a beer a fair bit stronger. My old friend Koyama still keeps me supplied."

Takurou's interest was aroused. "Ohhhh, that sounds interesting. In Great Falls, I had only encountered sake so far. Is this beer as bitter as sake? Or how can I imagine that?"

"Well, it's... less sweet. I could let you try some at some point- it's something of an acquired taste, so I won't be offended if you aren't too keen on it."

"Oh I would love to try it!" he said with a big smile "The worst that can happen is that I don't like it" he chuckled