(Expecting)

Distracted and almost dazed, Yua wanders to find a bit of air, fingers already stained with ink, trying to stop listening for the next few words to write. She brushes snow from a bench and settles, not really dressed for the cold, but not intending to be here long either.

She focuses on the cold bite of the air and the stone under her fingers. "Shh, please? No more words for just a minute?" The winter sounds of the garden are an antidote to hours of overheard conversation. Creaking branches, the flutter and call of birds...

A small squirrel runs off, five feet off to her left, working it's way along the path. Behind it, a woman in reddish-brown robes with her hood brought up to give her some reprieve from the cold walks trailing behind him. Eyes darting from him, to the surrounding area. Mention of foxes were abound but the little monster was a particular kind of beast and wouldn't eat without finding a comfortable place to do so. So, Ko trails behind walking just past the younger woman a few steps before the squirrel finds a place to stop.

Ko isn't particularly attentive to Yua yet, as she spends the better part of a minute at least scanning the surrounding area for those daring foxes.

Yua watches the squirrel and its follower, pulling her knees up to tuck the back of her sandal on the bench and wrapping arms around knees, becoming a gray lump on the bench with blue-green accents here and there. It's actually desperately hard to want to hear another voice, so for the moment, she scans the garden as well, spotting several birds, puffed against the cold, and the prints of a hare from sometime after the snow fell. But no foxes.

Ko spends some more time, making certain for herself. Wary eyes glancing about the space with more instinct than practice. After that minute, however, she turns to find herself a place she can maintain her watch. Bringing her to turn into Yua and pausing abruptly. Silently, there's a slight startle to Ko's expression but perhaps it is the paint she wears on her skin that is most notable. Collecting herself she approaches a step to be conversational, "Hello," her voice has a semi-distant quality to it, like she's uncertain.

Yua nods slowly, once, letting her feet slip to the ground once more. "Afternoon," she pauses a moment, thinking "Dragon-sama." She'd seen the woman around, particularly trailing the Dragon's princess.

"Ryoshun Yua," she offers an introduction, then holds up ink-stained hands, studying the marks a moment for possible significance. "You're writing as well. Between us all, I suppose we may get a decent accounting of all that."

"Wu Ko," she says, placing one of her hands against her chest to indicate herself. Looking to Yua she tilts her head just a little to the side as she studies her hands a moment, a small smile and a nod. Revealing her own hands, half-covered in some cloth, she flexes them a little a brief wince of discomfort as she does. Looking back up to Yua, "I believe so. Though it does hurt," she says, glancing briefly back down to her hands.

"I have not written like this before..." she says, looking up toward the sky and finding the sun. A sigh as she measures out that they have quite some hours ahead of them still.

Yua flexes her own hands before her with a puzzled look and then nods. "They hurt, yes" Nothing of that puzzlement is notable in her voice, which runs along at warm monotone. "Easy to ignore the body when immersed in the flow of words."

Tucking her hands into her sleeves, she nods toward the squirrel, "pet, random meetup, or omen to chase?" There's just enough modulation to make it a question.

Ko pauses, tilting her head just a little as she had prior- eyes opening a little wider realization washes over her expression and she turns. Looking to her little companion, "Ah- more.. not a pet, but a friend. We trust one another," she says, looking back. Digging a hand into a rather sizeable pouch which dangled out off her side she pulled out a few acorns and held them in the space between them.

Showing them off to Yua, "He cannot bury them when we travel. So, I keep them safe."

Reaching forward, Yua stirs the nuts gently with one finger before shaking her head slightly in frustration. "Head is too full of..." the finger swipes through the air between them in the graceful slashes of kanji drawn on the air. "No space for finding other meanings in the wild today."

"I'd think he could bury them, just wouldn't be back to dig them up. Smarter than average to understand that and pass the burden to you." There is a slight smile that comes up slowly with the words.

"Squirrels don't travel," she says, retracting the hand but focus staying on Yua. Without really looking she finds the pouch and dumps the nuts back into it, sealing it up a bit but not fully and then giving it a small pat for good measure. At which point the squirrel comes up behind Ko, scurries up her leg and over toward the pouch, pulls one out and then runs back to where it was eating before.

"So, this one had to be smarter," she furrows her brow, shaking her head. "No, just different. Had to be different, but he chose to be here. So, he can stay," she says with a brief smile, rising slowly and falling slowly but altogether a brief gesture.

"Here is a decent place to be, and the snows decided for us all." Yua bends to sweep more snow from the bench on her right, wetting her sleeve quite a bit. She then scoots a bit to the left and pats the open bench space. "There's room, if you'd like to sit."

"How's the pause here been for you so far? I think your trip home is only a little less than ours, but the delay... Not sure either of us can make it back into the mountains before spring at this rate."

Looking between His and the seat, Ko smiles that brief smile. Stepping forward she turns fully, taking the seat as she scans about for her squirrel companion. Finding him there's a tension that grew in that brief moment which washes away. Looking then to His, "Thank you," she says.

"It has been-" she furrows her brow, remembering. "I have been unwell. Only recently I have ventured from my chambers. So, it has not been.." she furrows her brow again, "notable," she smiles a brief smile. "Traveling when it is warmer does not sound so bad at least," she looks back out toward her companion scurrying about at that.

"I am glad that these days see your health improved. For myself, I am unused to," she makes a slow wave back toward the castle. "so many people with so little focus. I can bargain in the market or talk craft for days. But flitting about court and feasts?" Her level tone lifts just enough to make the last a question. "But hearing that Shinsei had come to the court today like this? Unlike so many of the folks here, I didn't grow up beside the Kami and playing with their children." A small smile creeps up. "I couldn't resist coming to see someone out of those tales today. Having a fair hand just means maybe I'm also here for a useful purpose as well."

"Being useful is good," she intones a little, a nod. Looking to Yua she leans in a little, her hand coming up to her chin, and for maybe ten seconds just regards her for a moment. A smile that appeared to be brief but regrew in strength and remained, "I- before, when I said I was unwell. That was not all," she puts her hand on her chest. "I am also not used to many people," she says, a brief nod and the return of the previous smile.

"At least, at home I only need to worry about keeping after Satsuki when there is need. Otherwise I am free to study.. or prepare," she glances down, furrowing her brows. Recapturing where the point was she looks back to Yua, "Have you met many so far? Perhaps Satsuki would like to meet you," she says, that brief smile playing across once more.

Yua simply regards her, blinking a bit, as the Dragon leans in and smiles. She offers her own slow nod. "I came to help with some trade, since we were sending people to the wedding anyway, with Lady Rei a cousin and all. So...I met many people in the time prior, but I've been a bit reclusive since, so I've met relatively few of those staying here due to the snowfall."

There is a pause as she processes the rest. "Meet. Togashi-sama? Isn't she the Kami's daughter?" There is a good bit more animation to her voice, caught by surprise. "But of course, if she wished it, I would be," she pauses to consider her words, "honored to meet her."

Ko smiles, a nod, "I will suggest it to her then," another smile as she looks out toward where her little squirrel friend was. Finding him approaching back toward her and rushing up to where they sat. Investigating Yua a moment the squirrel pauses, cautiously approaches, and then rushes toward Ko in a flash. Scurrying up the bench and then working it's way almost forcefully a pouch inside her robes. Perhaps even made exclusively for this purpose.

The whole endeavor inspires a chuckle from Ko herself, "Careful," she reminds in a soft and warm tone, directed toward the very pouch the squirrel hid inside.

Yua watches the squirrel, surprise in her expression fading back to a careful neutrality, everything else quite still. "Sensibly cautious little one," she says toward the pocket. "Are you much bothered by hunters of such?" is directed at Ko. "How did you come to travel together?"

"Not.. terribly," she says, a brief smile as she regards the pouch for a moment before looking properly back to Yua. Hands crossing in her lap as she settles in. "I grew up in the forest. Most creatures accept me as their own," she briefly smiles, "so, when I influence them to stop. They do, or at least- they are not faster than I am," she says, looking out over the garden itself.

"We came together when I found him injured. Hunted, but not successfully. I healed him. I spoke with him and he would listen, I think he liked my stories of my day," she smiles, brief once more.

"Handy to have that kind of affinity. Were your folks Ayakashi before the fall then?" There's a slight lean into the question. "It seems like the sort of thing that was common among them. Still is, among the remnants, I imagine."

"Never have had a pet, myself." There's a small frown. "Well, maybe. I kind of remember there maybe being this lizard when I was very small? But I think it was my older...brother's pet. Maybe."

"I have never had a pet," she says, regarding Yua with a brief smile with a sense of kinship attached. Regarding her for a moment in the wake of it, she remembers the previous question, "I do not know. If my people were Ayakashi. I was young when-" she drifts a moment, looking down and placing her hand over her heart.

Looking back up to Yua, "I was young when I went to the forest. When I found my mentor. I do not remember what my mothers people called themselves when I was little. Only that when I returned, they claimed we were Wu. They did not trust I was Wu too," she shakes her head, a brief smile. "Togashi Saruko, she helped me then. Now, I am accepted as Wu," she glances away, "mostly," she adds.