Alone - Where memories of the lost and abandoned drift wearily across white flower fields as far as the eye sees. It neared only an hour after the stroke of noon when the samurai came to rest and to lose herself beneath the sun's warmth. There were few better places to be alone, she felt, that one could simply approach on two feet. She sat with her legs neatly folded beneath the skirt of her robe, her eyes half-lidded and concealed under woven straw. Although the encroaching afternoon sun nourished her like a warm embrace, she found the light catching her eyes to be too distracting. The straw jingasa she had made only days before left little to be seen of her face, save the flute protruding between her thin lips.
Just as her head piece appeared woven around her head, the lilies appeared as if they were woven around her lower body; nearly coiling across his impression within the valley. The notes drawn from her delicate fingers and the wind through her lips carried across the air. The sound lingered as it ran through the valley far and wide, following the wind as it swept across the lily field like a gentle hand across a head of hair.
There was a time when Meira would never have ventured to this cruel, broken place. She was already well versed in the old stories of the deadly beauties lining the ground; the lily's fruit was deathly poisonous, despite their bright red color. Unwanted children would be left here - abandoned by their parents who either could not take care of them or were simply unwilling to take the responsibility. It was assured that the poisoned berries would kill them, who were too young to resist such beautiful bits. The samurai reminisced over these tales, finding a sort of twisted connection with the hill: She too was unwanted - rejected by her father.
Three months had past since this change had come over her, she was steadily learning these strange and new abilities she gained. But her goals had hardly changed, she still keenly remembered the shrine maiden who humiliated her nearly two years ago. Meira desired, no, craved redemption and the chance to regain the honor that was taken from her. Yet even as her thoughts return to the Hakurai girl, she doesn't miss a note, nor sully the subtle flow played atop the sunbathed hilltop.