11: Newfound Title

Lightly shooing the air with the back of his knuckles, "Now, go on," stormy eyes send one last, lightning wink. 

Sliding the door shut between them, he leaves Umeko in the tower with only her thoughts.

"...What?!" her voice ECHOES around her, carrying tan feet off the ground in a panicked jump from the boom of her own vocal chords bouncing off the cylindrical walls imprisoning.

"A king AND a servant," she whispers to herself, puzzled.

What kind of madman wants to take orders instead of dishing them out?! …Mmm, it smells really good here. 

Closing her eyes, she inhales and savors a fresh and fruity aroma before reopening her eyes with a peaceful sigh. Surveying the spiraling stairwell with even spaced torches in metal cuffs, gray stone surrounds her on all sides except for the wooden and rice paper door painted with red blossoms on black branches overlooking a waterfall. 

Inquisitive fingertips trace the grayscale brushstrokes with pops of red before she turns to make her way to a handrail rising above her hip. Touching smooth, carved stone to peer over the edge, the girl's impressed whistle echoes throughout the tower. 

Rolling her eyes with a fluttering gall, she throws a quiet temper tantrum where she stands, Why is it such a long way down?! 

Brown eyes water in frustration when Umeko finds the newest hurdle facing her is a daunting staircase with an unknown end. 

 I'm too tired for this... 

Sniffling hopelessly, she fans her eyes with her hands as if they have the power to dry tears.

 ...but I have to go down anyways...

Looking at the rocky cavern above, she breathes deep before looking back down into the tower.

Drinking in a mesmerizing view, the top of a large tree with healthy foliage hides the truth of how deep into the mountain this staircase goes. 

Golden apricots brighten the center with a soft glow that merges with torchlight lining the rest of the way up to the landing where she resides.

Sanemaru, you stupid, lazy dung beetle! You couldn't carry me down?! I've seen how fast you move!

Holding in a whine the tower has surely never heard, she sighs instead, "I guess it's not so bad since the bath healed me."

Nothing on me's hurt this whole time.

Caressing the rail, she unenthusiastically descends before touching down on a golden pink, stone floor with an exhausted huff. 

Two thousand, one hundred, and nine. 

Groaning and wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, "This place is -clearly- not human friendly. If that's the only way out, I'm never leaving. I couldn't be given riches to climb those!" 

Marveling her way around the tree and its unnatural beauty, she jumps to barely graze the lowest piece.

Not as healed as I thought! …horrible jump. Are these safe to eat? 

Tilting her head and focusing in on the fuzzy flesh, she suddenly gasps and covers her mouth. Eyes wide in a mystified horror, "Dad told me a story once, about fruit like a tiny sun in a faraway land." 

Honing in until the skin around her eyes wrinkle, "Could these be…?" 

Why would a yokai lair have fruit that grants humans immortality? 

Shaking her head and laughing it off, "Can't be." 

You sound like a loon. 

Stopping to reflect on the short time since she crossed paths with Tsukiyomi, she blinks hard before drifting off into space.

They…could be… These might be useful... 

Looking up at the fruit and preparing herself for a more calculated jump, she hesitates. 

Lowering her arm to her side, "Why would anyone want to live forever…? Losing anyone they start to care about…knowing you'll never see them again because you can't go into the afterlife."

Wiping invisible tears from her lower lids, she sucks in a sharp breath, "There's too much pain…and danger. It would be a never-ending battle."

Her sight lowers from the unusual fruit to an opening in the gold-speckled floor housing the tree's base; luscious, fragrant soil is protected by black, metal spikes that curve to touch the bark.

She frowns. 

Mom always said, "It's better to be in the pot than in the fire." 

Shrugging away her sympathy for a tree confined to a windowless tower, she hears the sound of her mother's voice in her ear. Fanning her eyes with her hands to keep from crying, knowing the sound of her mother's voice lives on only in her memory, she drags her suddenly fatigued limbs to the door. 

Its width fills the wall not occupied by the staircase with a colossal door and dragon's-head handle. Hovering her fingers above the dragon's silver teeth, it moves from under her hand and she jumps with a gasping shriek. 

The wood parts to reveal the armor-clad Tsukiyomi, his silver blue stare stealing her ability to move until his voice breaks the silence.

"Have you chosen this room to dwell?"

Baffled by his emotionless speech, she is unsure how to respond.

He thinks I want to sleep in -here-?

Staring at her lord like a monkey is sitting on his face, she stonewalls to hide her shock.

Was he waiting there this whole time?!

Clenches her jaw and swallowing nervously, ...to be fair, THAT was -A LOT- of stairs...

Fighting the urge to bite her lip and cross her arms in his presence, she squeezes her dress and bows, "Forgive me, my lord, for keeping you waiting." 

I hope I don't sound stupid. I have no idea what I'm doing!

Straightening with a fretfully wrinkled forehead, she accidentally locks eyes with her master.

A long stare prevails, striking vulnerability within her as platinum blue irises inspect her very soul.

The swell of her breasts tighten under the fabric of her dress with every inhale, her mind growing aware of her inappropriately sensitive nipples at an inappropriate time.

He must have a power that makes people heat up... Or I have a stupid, filthy body! 

Walking away from the half-open door without another word, she stumbles to follow him into a breath-takingly open hall.

Sighing dreamily beyond the initial stun of open space and unimaginable beauty, she remembers her place here and turns around to close the door. Sucking her lips into her mouth and bunching her eyebrows together, she watches the door move of its own accord. 

Shaken by the useful yet startling magic of his palace, she slowly bumbles closer to Tsukiyomi, unaware of his peripheral examination.

"You are my chambermaid to do with as I please," Umeko's face runs hot at the cool sound of such bold words, her mind flooding with the kinds of sexual predicaments that will occupy her from her grief. 

Sane you jerk! Why am I thinking like that?! That is -NOT- like me. 

Walking and talking invariantly, "Sanemaru and Mizuki will educate you of your duties."

As they come to a brief stop, he motions to the first wooden door set in gray stone on their left, "Your dwelling."

I get my own room?! 

He directs her attention across the hall, "Your meals," the words fall from his mouth at a steady pace.

"Lord Tsukiyomi?" she calls to him quietly, gawking at the back of his head as he remains soundless.

Tapping her index fingers together, "Will I cook for you, too?"

He stops in his tracks look at her from over his shoulder, Umeko following his gaze and looking back behind her own shoulder before quickly returning to face him. 

Realizing his turn was deliberately directed at her, she places her hand on her chest then bows.

 What'd I say to make him look at me like that?! 

Looking up in time to see long, ivory digits fingering abundant, blue strands, "Have you unlearned this Tsukiyomi?" 

His ponytail falls from over his shoulder and hangs down the middle of his patterned, flowing jacket.

WHAT is he talking about?... I don't know what he means... 

He shifts his gaze forward and continues his gait, "I do not eat human food." 

Trembling uncontrollably, …then what -do- you eat?... 

Trying not to reflect too long on his statement to keep her imagination in check, Oh, grandma's gods, please don't let me wake up missing body parts… 

As they come upon the next set of doors, "My study," he gestures left.

"Knock and announce yourself before entering," she watches the back of his head turn until his right cheek is visible through renegade strands, his eyelids too low to discern what his sight lays on, "The same for my dwelling." 

She strains to remain apathetic, a grin clawing at the inside of her mouth to free itself with the conflicting feeling toppling over themselves inside her. 

I wonder what it looks like where something like him sleeps. …I just realized… If I don't sleep with him…this'll be my first night ever sleeping alone… 

Umeko's eyebrows bunch until his hollow tone snatches her back to the present, the girl finding they've arrived between the next set of doors.

"This," he directs to the far right, gracefully pointing at the door, "Is my personal bath." 

Extending his fingers so his palm faces the wood enmeshed in stone, "When you must use it, place something of yours on the handle for privacy." 

Lowering his hand to his side, "I will do the same."

I get a royal bath to myself!? Does everyone that serve him get all this?! Sane and Mizuki must have the most amazing stuff! 

Not even acknowledging the door to their far left, he leads her casually past a long stretch hall holding the next set of doors.

Umeko spaces out, staring at the teal carpet lined with silver thread and shimmering scales under her socked feet. 

Putting one foot in front of the other, the room around her grows darker. Shaking from her toes up into her core, blades of grass spring up from the fabric around her. A heavy thump hits her eardrums, and another, until a calm strum becomes the thunderous beat that catches a hold of her breath and tightens her lungs. 

Cold sweat flashes to her temples and down her back as she raggedly forces herself to breathe, a distant ring climbing into her ears when her feet are suddenly bare and she finds out she is still running for her life in the woods. 

Binding the rapidly encroaching quietness with his emotionless, authoritative charm, "Shun them."

Following the sound of his striking voice and the glimpse of blue hair through a narrow tunnel of light, she finds herself free in the grand hall behind him. 

Muttering in bewilderment, "What?" she looks around to check if she heard him correctly.

Stumbling a few steps back at realizing she is inches from Tsukiyomi's back and all up in his personal space, she hopes he leaves her strange behavior unmentioned. 

"The four doors with gem plates." 

Oh. Right...the doors... Shun the doors with gem plates.

Looking back, she sees a white stone plaque on the door across from their bathroom before facing forward to learn there is a black embellished door to her right and red ornamentation filling the one to her left.

You won't catch me messin' with doors a demon lord is telling me to shun in his house.

As they finally reach the last set of doors, she is hypnotized by a sparkling throne filling the entire back wall. 

"Sanctuary," Tsukiyomi physically turns to face the door to their left, his movement pulling Umeko's focus before she copies him. 

Raising her eyebrows with childlike wonder, she takes in the swirling, black and white stone alcove surrounding a door.

Light wood carved in the shape of a three dimensional tree centering a spiraling arch made of roots fascinates her.

Fighting the urge to move closer to the door for a better look at the detail, she notices a silver orb handle on its left side. 

Glancing up at Tsukiyomi's cheek when he speaks, "My garden." 

I never would've thought yokai cared about gardens...

A silver blue iris shifts to the corner of his eye to meet her gaze, "Only those who have entered here can see the door. You will never get lost from the other side." 

Repeating his words in her mind while staring at the door, he turns to face his throne. 

Gazing upon the symbol of his own wealth, status, and power, "Or be found." 

…I can't believe this is my new home... For the sake of human's everywhere: don't make humans look bad, Umeko!

Snapping from her anti-peppy, pep talk at the sound of Tsukiyomi's metal shoes, she witnesses him ascend deceptively carved, liquid stairs. Timidly facing the gold and silver curves surrounding a gloriously lush, green cushion bench, it dawns on her that she is staring at the jewel encrusted, silver and gold dipped, pointed skull of an enormous, ten horned monster.

With enough rows of teeth in its jaw to have been broken and filled with platinum stairs as smooth as mercury, she examines from floor to ceiling the treacherous, spiny skull. Eye sockets holding two massive rocks burn with a smoldering flame high above the open mouth where Tsukiyomi will soon reside comfortably in an oversized throne. 

Tusks rise up around the hauntingly deep stairs, but Tsukiyomi steps upon them without sinking. The faintest 'clink' of his shoes reach Umeko's ears despite a ripple in its surface as he moves.

Perching at the top, sitting with stately poise in his glimmering armor, her lord shines under the amber light of scattered, open flames. 

What kind of monster has a head that big? …And what'd it take to kill it? …AND HOW DID HE GET IT IN HERE?! 

Peering down at Umeko, "Never ascend the stairs unless summoned," his voice fills the air around her as though he speaks from just beside her.

"Remain out of sight when there are guests. Do not leave this level without an escort. Do you understand?" 

Firelight dances over alabaster skin from gold stands with silver vines growing up three tier candle holders on opposite sides of the bench. Filling the inside of the skull's mouth with light, the longer she looks, the more she sees the back wall is curved like a massive cave inside the grand hall. 

You really think I'd walk up something so scary?... Wait! Do I bow every time he's talks to me? 

His stoic inflection reminds her to be mindful of her own demeanor.

"Yes, Lord Tsukiyomi, I understand," she bows her head to err on the side of caution.

Trapping the fabric over her thighs between her fingertips and palms, she recalls the conversation she had with herself during her bath. Hesitantly raising her eyes to see him, unexpectedly making eye contact, she bends at the hip to deepen her humble bow.

"My lord, may I ask you for something?" nervousness fills every crevice of her abdomen, the skin on her spine crawling when his voice fills the space around her from his distant position.

"What do you need so soon?" His steady tone grants her the floor as she swallows down anxiety and embraces the remnants of shattered confidence. 

"May I leave the mountain? It would be for a day to--!"

Metal shoes collide with the platform of his elevated station, disrupting her request.

His rapid descent shrinks her window of opportunity before her very eyes, blood boiling into the trumpeting heartbeat filling her ears until his words quell her senses.

"Leaving is not an option. It is in your best interest to remember what you are told the first time," he brushes past her, terminating the conversation.