Rainstorms (open)

[Augen]

Vandater let out a relieved little laugh and slowly stood back up. "Eheh... Yeah... Thanks... Thank you so much... Yeah, I probably should return home... For now," she said weakly before pulling the sealskin over herself and wobbling back torwards the lake. "Goodbye, sir... Perhaps we will meet again, someday," she said, looking back once more before disappearing into the blue abyss. For now, at least.

[recon5]

Hoshigaru watched the girl until she was out of sight. The wolves' blood had dispersed enough for the lake to regain its azure hue but the scent of the stuff would surely permeate the lake and the Youkai wondered if it would bother the water-dwellers. Still, the fact that the girl had been willing to draw blood in the lake itself meant that it wasn't as big an issue as he thought. He decided to forget about it and rest until morning.

He placed his axe beside him and stretched himself out on the ground. The stars above him had just begun to fade but many were still clear thanks to the untainted air in Gensokyo. Hoshigaru took a deep breath, closed his eyes, exhaled slowly, and soon he was asleep. His exhaustion kept all dreams away and he hardly noticed the passage of time before he awoke.

A loud crash brought him back to the waking world. Drowsily he heaved himself off the ground and stretched, yawning deeply. The sound had come from the direction of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and when he looked there he spotted a column of smoke rising from one of its numerous windows. For a moment he was confused but then he realized that it was probably one of the 'daily visits' the mansion was known for having. In other words, business as usual. He doubted that the lake's new residents would be able to change that but then again they hadn't had the opportunity to do anything.

His stomach gave him a timely reminder that he hadn't eaten anything in a while and he got up from his spot to retrieve some choice bits from the nearest wolf carcass. It wasn't something he normally ate but he didn't have a fixed diet anyway. An iron stomach was one of the benefits of being his type of Youkai.

The meat brought more of his strength back as the sleep had done. While Grand Cleaver was still out of the question he felt that he would be able to stand up to another wolf pack if one appeared. He stood up from his meal and began to walk around the area, enjoying the coolness of the morning air and the mist that still shrouded the lake. His stroll ended up taking him back to where the night's battle had been the most intense.

Just then, he spotted his first opponent and was amazed to see that it was still alive. It lay in a pool of its own blood and twitched occasionally as if it was trying to move itself. Hoshigaru picked up its faint whimpers as he drew near and when he was close enough he placed a hand on its head. For the first time he saw the blue streaks running through its mane, signs that it had been using magic for a long time despite being a lowly beast- truly one of the worthiest fighters the Lord of Desire had ever faced. It was too weak to even look at him and he decided to put it out of its misery. The Youkai wished that he could give the creature a better dying memory than the destruction of its brothers and its dreams but that was beyond his power.

He wasn't one to cry, but the tears almost came as he dropped his axe and clasped his hands together, raising them high above his head. He summoned all of his strength into those hands, resolving to utterly destroy the wolf's body to spare it from further indignities, and brought them down with enough force to form a sizable crater. The wolf seemed to turn into a red mist that disappeared in the geyser of soil and grass raised by his blow. A fitting end for such a warrior, or so Hoshigaru thought.

As the air cleared, he silently picked up his axe. He felt a little light-headed as he straightened his body and he knew that he'd set his recovery back by a fair bit, but he was satisfied with what he'd done. He slowly dragged himself to the top of hole he'd made, turned and sat with his legs dangling over the edge.