#toph 01

Light doesn’t dislike puzzles. They are a wondrous test of one’s reasoning skills, and he does enjoy putting his knowledge to the test. But after being trapped in life threatening situations full of puzzles twice now, he must admit, they do leave a bad taste in his mouth.

Regardless, it is but an unsavory memory. He has already tackled a quest with Aoi, and in doing so has found that this strange event is the perfect way to stave his boredom.

And so, that is how Light finds himself at the beginning of a hedge maze.

At first, he thinks he is alone, but sound near him alerts him to the presence of another - a partner for this trial, perhaps?

He turns to face them, eyes lidded as always, a polite smile on his face. 

"It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“This tree always has such a grand presence, but when it blossoms at the start of spring.. that’s always my favourite time to come and visit.” As Watanuki approached the eternal tree, he spoke to a young, barefooted girl seemingly staring up the great trunk’s height; taking in her surroundings as the petals from its blossoms fell all around them. Though the glossiness to her eyes through her mess of black hair did not go unnoticed to him, with the way her hands were outstretched, her feet planted into the roots of Ophiuchus.. Watanuki would think himself naive if he did not believe she was seeing it in her own way.

A group of humans had started to gather around her in what they referred to as a ‘park’. For some, she could smell the nervous sweat on them, but others appeared merely curious. Sif assumed she was creating quite a spectacle of herself, not that she cared. Humans, it seemed, didn’t know much about proper hunting techniques. Even if they did, they certainly couldn’t smell the rabbits in the burrows beneath her paws.

Jumping into the air, she slammed her huge body into the ground a few more times, causing it to shake. A lot of effort to go through for some small rabbits, but she found lately that she needed more food than ever before and had actually resorted to hunting again. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was no longer sustained by the souls she would normally consume from graverobbers after she defeated them. Still, that was a question for another time.