A Walk

You killed him.
You killed him, monster.
That’s all you are, from the moment you were born, I knew.
I should have strangled you from the womb.
Murderer.
Monster.
You killed him. And you killed me.

Yurei sat motionless, staring at the ceiling made of pitched tarp. The fire beside him crackled, cinders and flame gnawing at the logs above them. Dreams, no nightmares had taken their hold again. They did not frighten him. In fact, he was surprised they’d lingered, these distant memories. He felt no particularly strong emotion towards them, but every night they’d summoned him from sleep. Or perhaps he’d been apt and deceiving himself into thinking he no longer cared. He could feel the circles beneath his eyelids. His already pale skin was translucent, the growth of purple veins surrounding his gray, sunken eyes.

He blinked, rising from his pillow. The sheets draped over his legs, billowing outward as he rose. He could feel his back strain from the rocky earth beneath the thin layer of blankets. He lifted his arms, stretching the muscles as they worked to lift him. The Uchiha stood, parting the thick tent. 

Twilight loomed over the sky. It was not yet morning, but Yurei could not remember the last time he’d slept more than five hours. Sleep came in increments, not necessarily when all others slept, either. His spirit and mind remained determined, but he could feel his body slipping from lack of rest. Combat, whenever necessary, was keen. Yurei could see with utmost clarity. But without the adrenaline coursing through his veins, the Uchiha often felt separate from himself, as if viewing himself as a puppeteer rather than the vessel. 

Damon had often scolded him for such, but no amount of strain, nor closure, nor willingness to surrender himself amounted to any rest.

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The crunch of snow beneath Yurei’s feet melded with the wintry winds that had swept across Forest Country. Another day’s worth of travel and he’d be at the border. The weather was not a hindrance, but simply scenery. The storm that brought the snow was light; it fell like powder rather than ice. Even after numerous hours of snowfall, it was nothing a man could not make short work of, let alone a shinobi.

Yurei sighed, fog flowing from his mask’s mouth. It dispersed into the air and dissipated as Yurei continued forward. The area was white, Forest Country’s plains leaving behind an untextured, blank scene in what was generally a sweeping sea of green grass - plains stretching miles wide.

It seemed since Yurei and Damon had left that the snow had become more common, replacing that freezing rain that had erupted onto them the night they extinguished Irobuchi’s life. A mark of the changing seasons, but not one Yurei was particularly upset about. In fact, something he was open about enjoying was the snow, though this amounted to little more than a simple statement of such. It had been rare, if ever, in Haven country, that he’d seen it, and it did often spark a thread of artistry in the Uchiha.

A raven cawed overhead, swirling in the blue-gray sky above Yurei. The Uchiha watched the black contrast circle in a pattern. He imagined himself up there, with the crow. The crow himself, staring out with those eyes in search of his next meal, if there was to be one. Those sharp eyes twitched, and amidst the white ocean there was nothing. Not even a perch to rest upon.

Yurei looked down at his feet and the trail of footprints proceeding him. Even the light snow had begun its work at erasing him. Such was the fact of time - of life. 

All things fade.

Why did they have to?

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WC: 623 
Claims: 6 stats = 73 Vigor. 871/1500 for Mass Pull B Rank
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