A Tale of Two Strongholds

Lily excepts the girl's urging and follows. 'A dream' She looks around herself and then down at the slender girl, coming into womanhood. "I would like to meet such a generous man," she smiles as she walks the path beside Kiou.

"Then you should." Kiou looks back and flashes her a smile as she makes her way towards the house and opens the door. Slipping off her sandals inside, she steps up into the house. The whole first floor is actually elevated off the ground by about a foot to limit the amount of filth in the home. "Um... You don't have shoes... um.. Hold on." Taking off down the hall, she comes back quickly with her house slippers. "You can use these inside for now."

Smiling, Lily accepts with an awkward bow, "Is there some place I can wash, so I can present myself in a more fitting way to your family?"

"Yes. This way." Kiou motions eagerly for her to come with her down the hall. As they walk, Kiou hums softly before looking back at her. "Oh I forgot to do introductions. I'm Kunishi Kiou. And you are?" She took a few more steps before stopping before the bathroom.

"My name is Lily Lass," Lily bites her lip, mentally cursing herself for the slip. "I'm happy to meet you."

"Lily? Sounds familiar..." Her voice tapered off as she slid open the bathroom door to reveal that bathroom where Liv had taken her dive. The older Kiou lay screaming on the floor being held in a lock full nelson by Lily. "What... Is..." Kiou looked to Lily confused and looking for guidance.

Lily, stunned, pulls Kiou behind her, reflexively.

'too soon, too soon'

"I think that washing should be put on lower priority," she frown, sliding the door shut. "Your mother and grandfather should be here when I talk with you."

"Alright...." Kiou stares at the bathroom a little confused but turns regardless. "This way." Shuffling a bit, she leads her to the main room. "Mother, I found a guest outside. She says she is lost."

Her mother looks up from her place at the table blinks a bit in surprise as she looks to Lily. "Oh my. Come, come. Sit." Standing, she motions to where she was seated before. "I have yet to begin eating so it is all clean. Please, help yourself."

Her grandfather clears his throat and bobs his head towards Kiou and she instantly moves towards the table and takes her own seat. To his left his wife smiles into her food as she delicately eats her rice with her chopsticks.

Lily looks around the table, spying the hilt of Kiou's blade beside her grandfather's seat, before bowing and accepting the offered seat. "Thank you, Mrs. Kunishi," she says, looking at Kiou for a moment. "I'm apologize for my appearance at your table."

Her grandfather took a few slow bites of his meal before looking to Lily. "So what brings you our way? It is not often that we get visitors this far from town."

"I was walking," Lily looks at him carefully, "I was troubled and though to find an answer in the fields of this place."

"Walking? We are a long walk from town as well." Her grandfather said matter of factly. "What was troubling you so?"

"A friend," she looks around the table, pausing at Kiou a moment longer, then turns back, "Is lost to anger, and she will do thing she'll regret if I can't find a way to bring her back to her right mind; I want to help her, but she doesn't even know friend from enemy, and trusts no one that would help her."

Her grandfather stopped eating and looked at Lily. "Then you are from town." There was a glint in his eye as he knew full well the two of them were speaking in codes. "I'm afraid the only help we can hope to give you is to have Kiou walk you back to town. If that is to your liking of course."

"I would seek the wisdom or an elder in this matter, grandfather." Lily bows her head to him. "I'm sure this is not the first time she has been angry this way; her emotions became tangled when she was younger, and I want to give her back control of her life, rather then letting the negative destroy her, as I believe it will in time."

Her grandfather watched Lily a moment. "It is admirable to want to wish your friend to be better. However, you cannot force your ways on another. The ways we have been using have proved to be well enough for now."

"She is in a new place, and the laws are no longer what they were. She may well live out her days, but she may never be so sweet and gentle as when I first meet her. The anger has no reason to depart." Lily stares down at the food before her. "I will bow to your wisdom, but if I do so, I will be forced to abandon my friend. I can't trust her as she is now."

He shifted there beside the table and sighed. "What... would you have us do?"

"Can't she know how she changes? Wouldn't that give her power over that part of her that destroys?" Lily pauses as the elder turns sharply on her. "Know yourself and the your enemy and you will always be victorious, but if you fail to know the enemy or yourself, all your campaigns will end in sorrow, will they not, master samurai?"

Her grandfather moved a hand to his sword and gripped it tight. For a moment, he held it tightly as he glared the woman down.

"Oh let her have it. We've had a long time here that has been happy enough. You're just being a stubborn old man. Who's to say we would go anywhere anyways?" Her grandmother said strongly as she looked to the elderly man.

He sighed and undid the sword before handing it across the table to Kiou. "Take that with you to town. You know the basic forms and those in town know the blade. You'll be fine. no matter what, you'll be fine."

Kiou took the blade hesitantly and nodded as she affixed it to her waist.

Lily looks to the elder. "You will not come with her?"

He shook his head. "no, that blade will more than suffice. Besides, I can no longer make it all the way to town anymore. Only she can go; as well as you of course."

"I mean no disrespect to you," Lily smiles and bows, "But I would be happy to return to my own place."

That glint returned and twinkled in his eye. "You will be. In town. Go now before your friend becomes too enraged that she hurts herself."

Lily turns to Kiou. "You will come with me and show me the way?"