She would make Fumi howl.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Fumi floundered to the edge of the hot spring, reaching out with her fingers. Fear hammered through her. She couldn't see. She fought down her panic as she touched the wet rocks. She had completely lost her bearings as the kami had fucked her, and she struggled to remember where she had left her clothes and her bow.
"How am I going to find my way off the mountain?" she whispered to herself, half-hoping the kami would answer her.
The spirit of the hot spring was silent.
"Keep calm, Fumi. You said you would pay any price to be with Kyle. It is going to be worth it."
She conjured his handsome face, clutching at the image in her mind. Tears almost came. She would never see him again. His muscular body, his dusky-brown skin, those warm eyes.
But I'll have him! It's worth it.
She focused on her lover, her panic calming. She crossed half the world and marched through the snowy night all to be with him. She was halfway to her goal. She couldn't let a little thing like losing her eyesight distract her from reaching her dream. She was going to be strong. She was adaptable. She would find a way out of the mountains. The wind was at her back on the way up, it would be in her face on the way back.
"I can do this."
She slowly crawled along the edge of the hot spring, sweeping her fingers across the stone, ignoring the rough bite on her knees. She had left her clothes in parts of the stone where the hot springs warmth kept the snow melted. She just had to keep the hot spring on her left and she'd find it. And her clothes were right by the path.
Slow and careful.
Her hands had become her eyes, feeling around textures of the rock, brushing moss and lichen, dipping onto loamy soil, brushing the lapping waters of the hot spring. Sweep. Crawl. Sweep. Over and over. It was almost Zen-like, the same repetitions she would lose herself with her archery. Pull. Aim. Release. Sweep. Crawl. Sweep.
Her fingers brushed clothes, smooth and pillowy--the down of her jacket. She crawled forward, hands sweeping around the smooth fabric, brushing the rougher weave of her sweater. She pulled it to her and something wooden scraped on the stone.
Windfeather.
She touched the magical yumi, a type of bow with an asymmetrical grip. She had practiced with the weapon since elementary school. The wood was smooth in her hand, and she could feel the air whispering to her. She gripped it and sensations overwhelmed her.
Fumi cried out, her thoughts bombarded with information, painting green across her mind's eye, rippling and wavering, almost forming something coherent. The green swirled about her in eddies and ripples, like water flowing around an obstruction and painting the solid objects in green. Thick pillars surrounded her and large lumps rose to her right.
She held out her arm, a void moved in her mind's eye, the green swirling about it as the wind blew across her arm. Windfeather gave her command of the air. And she could see the wind, witness it's path, and see where it could not touch. The pillars were trees, creaking as the wind rushed through the branches.
Fumi smiled, standing up. It was so alien from sight. She could hardly make out what she was sensing. But she was learning. She walked across the ground, watching the green eddy around divots and small rocks or roots. Her pace was slow, but her confidence grew. She turned, sensing the air rippling above the hot spring, the air acting slightly different there than on the ground, roiling as the spring's heat stirred the air.
She laughed, a sound of pure joy as cold snow fell around her naked body. Kyle's gift would guide her back to him. Fate was on her side, wishing for the young Yuki-onna to find happiness in Kyle's strong arms.
A void moved, the figure of a person outlined by rippling eddies. The air roiled about this figure with more violence than it did over the hot spring. Fumi paused, cocking her head, trying to make sense of this new pattern. It was like the figure was exuding a great heat.
"Hello," she called, frowning.
The figure stopped moving, but the air still roiled about it. Was it a person? Why weren't they answering. Fumi grew tense, wiggling her toes in the cold snow, then slipping into her archery stance. Was it was a beast?
"Is someone there?"
Or a spirit. A kami, like the one that had used her body for its pleasure and taken her sight as payment. That could explain the air roiling about it. Maybe she sensed into the spiritual world.
"You can't see?" a woman's voice asked in English, her voice rich and throaty. The figure shifted. "Your eyes are all white. Did the entity take your sight in payment, Fumi?"
Fumi went still as a calm day, the dream she had on the plane flashing through her. She had been blind and been hunted upon a snowy mountain slope. Her mind flashed to last night and Ando's strange behavior. She regretted killed the man, he had been compelled by some force to kill her. Only a victim. "You are the one that enchanted Ando."
"Was that his name? Such a waste. If I knew you were a succubus, I would have killed you myself instead of wasting so much time with him."
"I'm a Yuki-onna," Fumi corrected, lifting her bow and aiming at the figure. "Who are you?"
"You seem to be missing your quiver with all your arrows," the woman purred, no fear in her voice. "You can call me Zaritha." The figure raised her hands, the air boiling between them like she was creating a ball of turbulent energy.
Fumi reacted without thought, drawing back the bowstring, Windfeather creating an arrow of green air, and released. It sped true. Zaritha hurled the ball of energy and it met the arrow. Searing wind exploded, whipping past Fumi and painting the area in clear greens in Fumi's mind. Zaritha was tall and willowy, dressed in light clothing, her arms bare save for metal bracelets about her wrist. She could even see the surprise on the woman's face before the intense wind died.
"Lucky shot," Zaritha muttered.
Fumi already drew her second arrow and released in one smooth motion. It knifed through the air, leaving behind a rippling wake. Zaritha dived to the right. Fumi tracked the woman and fired a third arrow. She didn't have to waste time pulling out a new arrow and knocking it, she merely had to draw back her bowstring.
Zaritha screamed as the third arrow caught her in the shoulder as she dove, spinning the woman about. She crashed into the ground behind a thick tree. Fumi drew a fourth time, aiming at the tree. A strong gust whipped by, providing Fumi with a clear vision of the terrain.
"You little bitch!" hissed the Ifrit. "How did you do that? You can't see."
"I can see as clear as an eagle," Fumi bluffed.
A dark shape peaked out of the tree. She released. The shape pulled back, her arrow whizzing by, Zaritha cursing. "Is it the bow? It's a Sil'at weapon. I can smell the stink of those cowardly whores about it. You can see the wind."
Fumi didn't answer, realizing Zaritha stalled. She fired another arrow, aimed at the base of the tree. This one was different. When it struck, a great wind exploded. Branches snapped and cracked, torn free of the tree as the hurricane force winds erupted. Her attacker gasped, hurtled from behind the tree. Fumi was ready, tracking Zaritha's tumbling body, and fired.
Zaritha stopped being a solid form and became roiling air whirling like a mini-tornado, consuming Fumi's arrow. Heat painted Fumi's face like she stared into a bonfire.
She's transformed into flames.
The whirlwind of fire zipped across the sky and slammed into the snow in an explosion of flames, the heat distorting the air. Fumi peered into the disturbance, trying to see past heat-warped air. Fire crackled and sap popped, flames dancing on the nearby pine trees.
She's camouflaging herself with the fire.
Fumi's eyes widened and she followed her instincts, diving towards the snow, clutching hard to Windfeather. She couldn't lose the bow. Boiling air hurtled out of the disturbance straight towards her. She landed in cool snow, her skin burning as the fireball hissed over her, missing her by centimeters. Fumi screamed, her back aching like she had spilled boiling water down it, the fireball may have missed, but it's heat had burned her as it passed over. Fire erupted, a pine tree roaring and popping as Zaritha's greedy fire consumed it.
Fumi rolled on to her back, the snow cool on her burning back, and fired an arrow into the flames. A great wind blew the heat away and snuffing out the flames. The wind streaked out, illuminating the landscape and--
Zaritha was to Fumi's right.
She had moved. Air roiled towards her, fire burning, and Fumi scrambled to her feet. Pain consumed her right leg, the air sizzling. She stepped on her leg, it folded beneath her and she crashed to the snow. The pain was intense. It was hard to think. Her entire right side felt seared and she could smell her flesh burning. She rolled in the snow, sobbing.
Zaritha laughed, gathering another blast in her upheld hand.
I can't die like this. Not when I can be with Kyle!
Fumi couldn't run, but that didn't mean she couldn't fight. She grit her teeth, ignoring the agony consuming her body. She drew her bow only half-way and tried to aim.
"You should see yourself," Zaritha taunted. "I'm doing you a favor. You'd be a scarred, hideous thing if you live. That's not good for a succubus."
