gildedgoldwords:
The billowing call of the wind instrument woke him from a pleasant night, the imagined noise of water sloshing around his feet, now lost with the end of his dream. Smooth stones were now the wooden floors beneath him, and the waterfall was apparently the running water he’d left in the personal bathroom.. Perhaps his host wouldn’t notice the extra charge of water left on for six hours in the sink. Following the music,treading lightly as the morning he’d came, Mondatta found him again, entrancing the birds. His extensive study of the world, brought him to the memory of the Pied Piper, a story he’d nearly forgotten, if not for the implicit grief of the ending. But birds were more free than the young man playing. He swallowed down the supposed premonition, letting himself into the room as he had the night before, lacking only the fear from before. “Good morning. You are looking even more bright than before, Shimada-san.” To say he was never bright may have been taken as a slight to the trained ear. His words were careful now, testing the territory, though the smile was hardly perceptible now.
‘Good morning.’ Hanzo replied evenly, watching as his feathery companions flew off in fear of the stranger in the room. Such a pity... they were sure to meet again come the next morning. ‘It seems my music does not only attract the birds. Pray tell, do you enjoy music, sir monk?’ He asked after a sigh, standing up from the koto to slip both his hands into the sleeves of his kimono and present the monk with his undivided attention.
Surely, their meeting was planned for later on that day, but it couldn’t hurt to start breakfast earlier. Hanzo knew the cook to wake up first, for the castle was also home to aristocrats of the underworld, who often came to pay the Shimada Clan a friendly visit.












