Sliding away wasn't difficult.
Really, the hardest part was getting Tsukiya to let her go alone. Moriko hated that she had to, but she also knew that this was something she had to do on her own. Supposedly, back in the day every Tsurara of sufficient skill had made this journey, though the trek was usually from Sora to the peaks rather than sneaking out of Sand itself in a low guard hour, early in the morning before the roosters were even up.
It had been many a century since a Tsurara had climbed to the peaks, now. The graveyard was much lower down, and the way to this rumoured place--an old shrine--had long since been lost. Their family was of oral tradition, after all, and when the stories were no longer told, there were no long-lost texts to draw from. Only faint rumours and myths. She would be pathfinding.
Tsukiya was going to fold into the Tsurara spy network, temporarily. He did, he said, have somewhat of a lead on his grandparents, delivered by Hanae while Moriko was training back up to snuff and beyond. But he did not see how it would help to find them. Left unsaid--since he didn't think it, really--was that Moriko's quest might prove fruitless as well.
Ever the optimist, he.
Moriko knew that it was a longshot. Still, there was little she could do on her own than walk around being a figurehead. And unlike her cousins, she could not spy. She herself was too noticeable, and it would not due to let on too easily that she had survived the poisoning. The family only let this information leak to the resistance, the government in all-but-exile, that they spied for.
Supposedly, the legend went, there was, in the mountains, a spirit who had long ago made a pact with their clan. Any Tsurara who found their way and ascended to the peak would unlock their true abilities, the purest form of ice. Whether this was an ice spirit or something else the legends did not say. Whether it was what had granted them the bloodline in the first place also remained unsaid; Moriko thought that one rather unlikely, herself. Wherever a bloodline limit came from and however it happened--surely it wasn't from some guardian spirit blessing the family ages ago...
But she had to do something. And this was not something anyone else in the city could do.
So she snuck out of the city, with some aid from people in her family who knew about patrols, alone from the moment her feet hit the sand outside the city and with a grey cloak drawn around her. The hood was large enough to conceal her face and hair, and wind chakra kept it from falling into her face. She was armed, too, with her blue bow also concealed. In fact, anything identifying was hidden.
She had supplies enough, and the knowledge of how to scrounge up her own. This, too, was supposedly part of it.
The sun was just peeking over the dunes as she cleared sight of the city,out past the guards. Funnily enough, she had been this way before. Albeit the last time, years earlier, she had instead been riding a sandrunner instead of walking...
She kept occupied in her mind. The thought of the mission had reminded her to bring out a Crystal Eye as a scout for her, sending it zipping ahead so she could have extra visual range. It was easier now to cast than it had been back then, by far.
Mostly, she was thinking about all the talking she'd done, with her cousins and other family to prepare for this, and what they had all said to her.
'We thought you'd never wake up.' That had been the dominant sentiment. Relief, certainly, that she had--but it had been months, and they'd lost hope. According to everyone, only two people hadn't.
Tsukiya was...expected. The faith he had in her was absolute, and as much as she sometimes felt she didn't deserve it, it wasn't exactly surprising. Tsukiya loved her, she knew that without question. So what if neither of them had said it out? Yes, she was the one who had difficulty with emotions, but even to her it was patently clear. When she was ready, he would say it--and she would say it back. It was a matter of time, of her emotional readiness more than the knowledge. Between this and his cleverness and boundless optimism, of course he had never lost faith she'd wake.
The other had been her mother.
Moriko had seen little of Yuri since waking up. Their relationship had never been good. The few times she had made what Moriko had later realized was an attempt at an overture had been stilted and awkward. Yet while Moriko had been suffering from the poison, not once had Yuri even pretended to listen to concerns she would not wake. Nor people suggesting perhaps they should move. Nor anything, in fact, other than suggestions on how to take care of or cure Moriko.
That meant...Moriko didn't know what it meant. She didn't even know how she felt about it, or about her mother. It was becoming more evident what their similarities and differences were, these days, and there were far more of the former than Moriko ever would have guessed.
But Yuri had, after checking Moriko over and grilling the medic (who had been frazzled after this) and Tsukiya (utterly sanguine; the storm that was Tsurara Yuri did not disconcert him in the slightest), given her daughter a perfunctory, awkward hug, and gone back to work running the family spy network.
Moriko didn't even know what she'd wanted. A less awkward hug? A talk?
She just didn't know.
The thought was run from her head a moment later when something she'd seen once a long time ago became evident in the distance of her Crystal Eye. In disbelief, Moriko halted in her tracks, as she had thought back then when it had become impossible to go after it that she would never see the sight again and would have to live with the frustrated mystery.
Because there was something in the distance just in the range of her Crystal Eye, a gigantic thing nearly the colour of the desert, that looked like a giant moving sand dune.
And this time, there was nothing to stop her from getting a closer look.
~
Despite her eagerness, Moriko determined being incautious when travelling alone was the height of stupidity, and stalked it more slowly than her impulses wanted to. She was at a range that the thing could not yet sense her, however it did so, and only getting gradually closer. It was moving at an angle to her current path, so she could just proceed forward and eventually intercept it.
Unless it went down, into the caverns that pockmarked some parts of the desert. She was well clear of civilization at this point, and into areas of the desert where people didn't often go. This was largely because there was nothing at all there. The dunes here weren't even how to errant cacti.
There was life underneath the sand, possibly, in old sandworm burrows. Above it, though, stretched golden-orange sand as far as the eye could see--and a moving sand dune.
Moriko was maybe four or five clicks out from the thing--which was even larger than she'd thought it was--before the thing halted. She frowned; was it preparing to dive? She had a decent look at it, but it was still largely covered by sand, and otherwise blended into it. Whatever sort of creature or spirit it may have been could possibly--
It was turning. Sand flew off in front of it. Which way was it turning? Down? Away? Was it diving like she'd feared?
The dunelike creature shifted its massive bulk, and after a split-second of figuring, the realization dawned.
It had sensed her. From nearly five kilometers out, it had sensed her. And it was turning toward her.
Moriko discarded multiple plans on how to fight it. You did not fight what looked like a massive, multi-ton animal that could easily have been a predator. You just didn't. You did what any sensible human had done with such things in Wind Country since time immemorial:
You cut and ran.
She kept the Crystal Eye on it, but she was beating a hasty retreat now, bolting in the direction of the rocky cliffs that ran the length of the north of the country. They were visible, and for a ninja that meant reachable. There weren't really many things that could keep up with someone actively plying chakra control. Her cloak streamed out behind her as she fled the massive encroaching thing.
How the hell was it gaining?
Sand was sinking down all around, now, as the thing approached. It was actually large enough she could feel the vibrations of its movement shaking the desert around her. She could not outrun this.
What about something else?
Moriko's hand was already moving in the pattern for a jutsu she'd learned in her new training. Water jutsu could be somewhat...unpredictable, when used by her family, but a harsh blizzard would slow down anything in the desert much like a water dome would.
She finished the seals as the ground nearly seemed to give way beneath her, and flung herself that extra bit forward, pushing it outward. Her boots caught, briefly, on a newly-formed sinkhole, but she flipped around instead of falling as the winter storm started to howl, and her eyes widened as the thing surfaced.
Moriko generally considered herself pretty fearless, but the gigantic maw of razor-sharp teeth lining all the way around an impossibly large opening would have made her scream if she hadn't been temporarily breathless.
As it was--she barely dropped the Crystal Eye before the creature swallowed it.
No.
That was...
That was a sandworm. There was no way it was anything else.
The maw was facing her, but it had halted, now. The blizzard did not blur her vision, but it definitely gave the sandworm pause. Moriko had absolutely no illusions she could fight and win against something this size. All the stories were true; the ninja that fought a sandworm alone would not be walking away from it.
But their weakness was water--and ice was water. Maybe she was just enough trouble to not be worth it.
It hovered there as if determining this, and Moriko had the presence of mind to do a quick Snapshot, as no one would believe her when she got back otherwise. And if sandworms were back, this was important for everyone to know.
Everyone decent, at least.
Finally, the sandworm evidently decided it did not want to swallow a giant blizzard or anything that could manifest that, and turned a little to burrow back under the sand and go another way. Moriko re-summoned the Eye to watch it go and did not budge until it was far, far away. She recast the Supreme Aqua/Blizzard Realm several times rather than risk getting up and making footsteps.
It took another infinite span of time for it to leave her Eye's sight, during which Moriko downed half a bottle of water from her supplies. She finally stood again and put it away, drawing the cloak around her and sending the Eye off in a direction more toward the mountains, toward the flatlands and out of the shifting sand of the dunes and what were definitely, unmistakably, sandworms.
One thing was for certain, though: just because something hadn't been seen or heard of in a long time didn't meant it wasn't still there.
And, despite the encounter, Moriko thought it just might bode well for her quest.
[Topic Entered/Left]
Really, the hardest part was getting Tsukiya to let her go alone. Moriko hated that she had to, but she also knew that this was something she had to do on her own. Supposedly, back in the day every Tsurara of sufficient skill had made this journey, though the trek was usually from Sora to the peaks rather than sneaking out of Sand itself in a low guard hour, early in the morning before the roosters were even up.
It had been many a century since a Tsurara had climbed to the peaks, now. The graveyard was much lower down, and the way to this rumoured place--an old shrine--had long since been lost. Their family was of oral tradition, after all, and when the stories were no longer told, there were no long-lost texts to draw from. Only faint rumours and myths. She would be pathfinding.
Tsukiya was going to fold into the Tsurara spy network, temporarily. He did, he said, have somewhat of a lead on his grandparents, delivered by Hanae while Moriko was training back up to snuff and beyond. But he did not see how it would help to find them. Left unsaid--since he didn't think it, really--was that Moriko's quest might prove fruitless as well.
Ever the optimist, he.
Moriko knew that it was a longshot. Still, there was little she could do on her own than walk around being a figurehead. And unlike her cousins, she could not spy. She herself was too noticeable, and it would not due to let on too easily that she had survived the poisoning. The family only let this information leak to the resistance, the government in all-but-exile, that they spied for.
Supposedly, the legend went, there was, in the mountains, a spirit who had long ago made a pact with their clan. Any Tsurara who found their way and ascended to the peak would unlock their true abilities, the purest form of ice. Whether this was an ice spirit or something else the legends did not say. Whether it was what had granted them the bloodline in the first place also remained unsaid; Moriko thought that one rather unlikely, herself. Wherever a bloodline limit came from and however it happened--surely it wasn't from some guardian spirit blessing the family ages ago...
But she had to do something. And this was not something anyone else in the city could do.
So she snuck out of the city, with some aid from people in her family who knew about patrols, alone from the moment her feet hit the sand outside the city and with a grey cloak drawn around her. The hood was large enough to conceal her face and hair, and wind chakra kept it from falling into her face. She was armed, too, with her blue bow also concealed. In fact, anything identifying was hidden.
She had supplies enough, and the knowledge of how to scrounge up her own. This, too, was supposedly part of it.
The sun was just peeking over the dunes as she cleared sight of the city,out past the guards. Funnily enough, she had been this way before. Albeit the last time, years earlier, she had instead been riding a sandrunner instead of walking...
She kept occupied in her mind. The thought of the mission had reminded her to bring out a Crystal Eye as a scout for her, sending it zipping ahead so she could have extra visual range. It was easier now to cast than it had been back then, by far.
Mostly, she was thinking about all the talking she'd done, with her cousins and other family to prepare for this, and what they had all said to her.
'We thought you'd never wake up.' That had been the dominant sentiment. Relief, certainly, that she had--but it had been months, and they'd lost hope. According to everyone, only two people hadn't.
Tsukiya was...expected. The faith he had in her was absolute, and as much as she sometimes felt she didn't deserve it, it wasn't exactly surprising. Tsukiya loved her, she knew that without question. So what if neither of them had said it out? Yes, she was the one who had difficulty with emotions, but even to her it was patently clear. When she was ready, he would say it--and she would say it back. It was a matter of time, of her emotional readiness more than the knowledge. Between this and his cleverness and boundless optimism, of course he had never lost faith she'd wake.
The other had been her mother.
Moriko had seen little of Yuri since waking up. Their relationship had never been good. The few times she had made what Moriko had later realized was an attempt at an overture had been stilted and awkward. Yet while Moriko had been suffering from the poison, not once had Yuri even pretended to listen to concerns she would not wake. Nor people suggesting perhaps they should move. Nor anything, in fact, other than suggestions on how to take care of or cure Moriko.
That meant...Moriko didn't know what it meant. She didn't even know how she felt about it, or about her mother. It was becoming more evident what their similarities and differences were, these days, and there were far more of the former than Moriko ever would have guessed.
But Yuri had, after checking Moriko over and grilling the medic (who had been frazzled after this) and Tsukiya (utterly sanguine; the storm that was Tsurara Yuri did not disconcert him in the slightest), given her daughter a perfunctory, awkward hug, and gone back to work running the family spy network.
Moriko didn't even know what she'd wanted. A less awkward hug? A talk?
She just didn't know.
The thought was run from her head a moment later when something she'd seen once a long time ago became evident in the distance of her Crystal Eye. In disbelief, Moriko halted in her tracks, as she had thought back then when it had become impossible to go after it that she would never see the sight again and would have to live with the frustrated mystery.
Because there was something in the distance just in the range of her Crystal Eye, a gigantic thing nearly the colour of the desert, that looked like a giant moving sand dune.
And this time, there was nothing to stop her from getting a closer look.
~
Despite her eagerness, Moriko determined being incautious when travelling alone was the height of stupidity, and stalked it more slowly than her impulses wanted to. She was at a range that the thing could not yet sense her, however it did so, and only getting gradually closer. It was moving at an angle to her current path, so she could just proceed forward and eventually intercept it.
Unless it went down, into the caverns that pockmarked some parts of the desert. She was well clear of civilization at this point, and into areas of the desert where people didn't often go. This was largely because there was nothing at all there. The dunes here weren't even how to errant cacti.
There was life underneath the sand, possibly, in old sandworm burrows. Above it, though, stretched golden-orange sand as far as the eye could see--and a moving sand dune.
Moriko was maybe four or five clicks out from the thing--which was even larger than she'd thought it was--before the thing halted. She frowned; was it preparing to dive? She had a decent look at it, but it was still largely covered by sand, and otherwise blended into it. Whatever sort of creature or spirit it may have been could possibly--
It was turning. Sand flew off in front of it. Which way was it turning? Down? Away? Was it diving like she'd feared?
The dunelike creature shifted its massive bulk, and after a split-second of figuring, the realization dawned.
It had sensed her. From nearly five kilometers out, it had sensed her. And it was turning toward her.
Moriko discarded multiple plans on how to fight it. You did not fight what looked like a massive, multi-ton animal that could easily have been a predator. You just didn't. You did what any sensible human had done with such things in Wind Country since time immemorial:
You cut and ran.
She kept the Crystal Eye on it, but she was beating a hasty retreat now, bolting in the direction of the rocky cliffs that ran the length of the north of the country. They were visible, and for a ninja that meant reachable. There weren't really many things that could keep up with someone actively plying chakra control. Her cloak streamed out behind her as she fled the massive encroaching thing.
How the hell was it gaining?
Sand was sinking down all around, now, as the thing approached. It was actually large enough she could feel the vibrations of its movement shaking the desert around her. She could not outrun this.
What about something else?
Moriko's hand was already moving in the pattern for a jutsu she'd learned in her new training. Water jutsu could be somewhat...unpredictable, when used by her family, but a harsh blizzard would slow down anything in the desert much like a water dome would.
She finished the seals as the ground nearly seemed to give way beneath her, and flung herself that extra bit forward, pushing it outward. Her boots caught, briefly, on a newly-formed sinkhole, but she flipped around instead of falling as the winter storm started to howl, and her eyes widened as the thing surfaced.
Moriko generally considered herself pretty fearless, but the gigantic maw of razor-sharp teeth lining all the way around an impossibly large opening would have made her scream if she hadn't been temporarily breathless.
As it was--she barely dropped the Crystal Eye before the creature swallowed it.
No.
That was...
That was a sandworm. There was no way it was anything else.
The maw was facing her, but it had halted, now. The blizzard did not blur her vision, but it definitely gave the sandworm pause. Moriko had absolutely no illusions she could fight and win against something this size. All the stories were true; the ninja that fought a sandworm alone would not be walking away from it.
But their weakness was water--and ice was water. Maybe she was just enough trouble to not be worth it.
It hovered there as if determining this, and Moriko had the presence of mind to do a quick Snapshot, as no one would believe her when she got back otherwise. And if sandworms were back, this was important for everyone to know.
Everyone decent, at least.
Finally, the sandworm evidently decided it did not want to swallow a giant blizzard or anything that could manifest that, and turned a little to burrow back under the sand and go another way. Moriko re-summoned the Eye to watch it go and did not budge until it was far, far away. She recast the Supreme Aqua/Blizzard Realm several times rather than risk getting up and making footsteps.
It took another infinite span of time for it to leave her Eye's sight, during which Moriko downed half a bottle of water from her supplies. She finally stood again and put it away, drawing the cloak around her and sending the Eye off in a direction more toward the mountains, toward the flatlands and out of the shifting sand of the dunes and what were definitely, unmistakably, sandworms.
One thing was for certain, though: just because something hadn't been seen or heard of in a long time didn't meant it wasn't still there.
And, despite the encounter, Moriko thought it just might bode well for her quest.
[Topic Entered/Left]