#a leash

first posted in facebook may 15, 2021

paolo uccello -- "saint george and the dragon" (ca. 1470)

"what a delightful thing this perspective is!" ... paolo uccello

"so comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings" ... j.r.r. tolkien

"fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. what fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. the baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. what the fairy tale provides for him is a st. george to kill the dragon" ... g.k. chesterton

"it is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view" ... george eliot,

"i have little doubt that when st. george had killed the dragon he was heartily afraid of the princess" ... g.k. chesterton

“Katsumi-chan,” Rin called out, part of her new habit of always making sure the younger girl was enaged in her surroundings rather than engaged in planning how to wander off at the next opportunity. “Come tell me what’s in this burn salve. Do you remember what the primary ingredient is?”

Katsumi stopped peering precariously over the edge of the pier into the water. She looked up innocently and clutched her rabbit tightly. “Um, it’s raw honey and beeswax and…” she bit her lip in thought. “Aloe vera, right?”

“One more,” quizzed Rin cheerfully, pulling away from her teammate’s wincing face.

“Some type of oil?” Katsumi picked up the jar and looked at the cream curiously.

“Coconut oil.” Rin wiped her hands clean on her apron. “That’s what accelerates skin regeneration—“

A loud, red-ish gust of air swept by the genin and Katsumi was gone.

Obito gaped at the suddenly empty space. “Seriously?”

Rin blew air out between her teeth and bent over to pack up her cream and the remnants of their lunch.

“That’s like, the fifth time in two weeks!” Obito straightened, running a hand through his dark hair in vivid agitation.

“I’ve got our D ranks,” said Kakashi, appearing suddenly in a shunshin.  His head bobbled to and fro as he looked flatly at their surroundings. “Where is the girl?”

Obito gave a dramatic groan and fell onto his back, kicking his feet against the ground.

Rin shrugged and gave a sheepish, helpless grin.

“I was gone for fifteen minutes,” bit out the youngest boy, clearly unimpressed. He eyed Obito’s burn marks speculatively.

“Three guesses,” moaned Obito. “And they all have red hair.”

Kakashi put away the scroll with their afternoon assignments without so much as a twitch of an eye. He sliced his finger and summoned Pakkun.

“Do we have to go through this?” Obito rolled over on his stomach and pounded the dirt with his fist. “We know where she is.”

That made Kakashi’s eye twitch.

“Oh, yes, Hokage-sama,” muttered Kakashi sarcastically. “Our client vanished before our eyes and we did nothing because we think we know who took her. We decided it’d be more expedient to see if she showed up for dinner rather than spend any effort tracking her down. That certainly won’t increase our reputation as the team who’s failed the same mission most times in a row.”

Obito sniffed.

Kakashi’s pug announced his presence with a sneeze.

Rin’s eyes widened owlishly in wonder. “Did you just make a joke?”

The chūnin ignored her and knelt down to pick up Katsumi’s toy rabbit, holding it out to the pug with practiced movements.

The pug looked nonplussed. “You lose lots of baby.”