Interlue: The Hound (3)

The Hound had swiftly ascended Mt. Ochiru after his encounter with the trio just outside the edge of the Secluded Shrine. His shroud, a magical item that had been gifted directly from Kagura’s treasury to him, grabbed at the slightest holds on the mountain’s face as he rushed back to his perch at the mountaintop shrine.

The dog-masked shadow had been stripped of his enigmatic aura, having lashed out at the three teenagers on the slope. Hearing that Kagura herself had contacted Kaede, instead of her former guardian, stung his cursed immortal soul to no end, but the fact he had lost his composure frustrated him even more.

The Hound landed roughly on the cliff just below the shrine, his gaze turning back down towards the damaged slope as the echo of the emergency bells from the village could be heard. “That girl, Kaede…” His mind flashed back to the defiant glare she had given him, when protecting the bells. Then, his mind went further back, to a younger version of the princess doing the same, protecting a tiny winged serpent.

“...is that why you gave her the bells?”

He turned his gaze up towards the mountaintop shrine, its grounds much more barren than both of Tsuiraku’s other shrines, even the trees that dotted the front having started to wither in recent days.

“Are you trying to tell me there’s not much time left?”

The Hound brought his hand up to the dog-shaped mask, removing it from his face, still shrouded by the hood and pressed his other hand across face, almost pained. “Am I really so useless to you, Kagura-sama?” He gripped the mask tightly in his hand, holding it against his thigh gazing back down at the gouged path, his unseen eyes deep in thought.

“It’s quite odd though.” He brought his hand with the mask back up. He stared directly at the dog’s hollow eyes, almost as if engaging in a conversation with the mask itself.

“Why was that part of the mountain’s path still so wet?”