6/18/2026, 2:39 PM
❁
Izumi had tried to drift back off into sleep then, attempting to seek comfort in her dreams even though they’d always managed to turn into nightmares. Even if she wasn’t real, even if Yukimi had only been a figment of her imagination. The cranebird sought out the spirit with a strong maternal instinct she didn’t know she had in her. Heavy eyes, puffy from the swell of stray tears, willed themselves to shut again. To put Izumi back to sleep – to save her child from whatever terrible fate her nightmares sought for her. Yet just as quickly as the woman drifted back to sleep–
–she woke back up.
Jolted out from her soon-to-be slumber by the thundering of pawsteps within the woods. Izumi looked around wildly, ears swiveling and eyes widened. Though her camp in the woods may not have been the most discreet, it was good enough to where she didn’t have to worry about others wandering too close. Though whoever this was had found her – and was heading straight towards her. The woman immediately shot up and assumed a defensive stance, one that had been taught to her many times before. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end, and her icy lilac gaze locked onto the arrival of the stranger that had just entered her make-shift home.
Except……it was no stranger at all.
A cast of moonlight illuminated the tall man’s features almost too perfectly, his grizzled features stark and as handsome as they were since the last time she’d saw him. Her defenses slowly lowered, and her eyes slowly widened as recognition began to set in. Izumi knew better than to think it was a dream, too. Not when the cool midnight air that fell upon and graced her skin felt too real to dismiss. This man that entered her domain was no stranger, nor a figment of her imagination. It was her Getsugin . The one she had yearned to return to for so long.
And she ran to him.
Ears pinned to her head, a smile gracing her lips, and tears burning her eyes once again, she ran to him. Lunging, not caring if she crashed into him in the process either.
![[Image: 54890335_EWIrkUwAqghUjLP.png]](https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/54890335_EWIrkUwAqghUjLP.png)
