The muttering of Saki's voice as she trudged through the post-storm forests was an eerie tone against the raising winds, mixing like ethereal glimpses in a mundane world. The letter which Shirayuki had given her on Garak's behalf was held crumpled within her grip, and Saki wasn't the least bit bothered with the lack of care she was giving the woman's letter.

'I can't believe this...' Saki seethed for what felt like the hundredth time since she had opened up the letter, which was a summons, just as Shirayuki had implied. 'Dress appropriately and be at the Herbalist Office by Six Sharp? This is absolutely ridiculous!'

Needless to say, even though Saki had done as instructed and donned a more well-maintained outfit of pants, tunic, gloves and boots, that didn't mean that she was particularly pleased about being told to dress up for a visit. She still had her rucksack and her scarf secured around her neck, though the absence of her quiver of arrows and bow was an unpleasant change she had to deal with.

Thankfully, daggers were a wonderful thing that could be hidden within ones sleeves, if necessary.

Saki's feet led her through the gates of Wistal, past the very two guards who held her at spear-point just days beforehand and a poor-mannered elderly blacksmiths wife outside washing the windows.

All in all, everything felt rather normal once more, though she certainly hadn't missed the rather uncomfortable looks the two guards wore at the sight of her passing them by.

Most of the leaves had been stripped from the trees since the storm had struck, blanketing the cobblestone streets in carpets of fall hues. Saki pitied the fools who would be assigned to clean the many tons of leaf-matter from Wistal in its entirety. But for the most part, it was a pleasant view for Saki as she made her slow and unwanted trip towards the castle for that meeting.

Whatever this meeting was for, Saki was still determined to wring Garak's neck for going back on her word about sending someone else to her house. While coincidence was simply that when it came to Shirayuki and that storm, Saki was still bitter about multiple people learning of her very residence. She liked living out in the middle of nowhere simply because it was nowhere people would see it.

And yes, perhaps she was unnecessarily bitter because somebody she didn't like or trust was now fully aware of where she lived, but giving ones word shouldn't be such a small thing!

Upon Saki's arrival at the castle gates, there were two guards there whom didn't speak a word or fix her with curious stares. In fact, upon Saki's motion to lift her identity tag from beneath her tunic shirt, the guards themselves cast her a dismissive wave as they pulled the gates open for her.

She vaguely recognized them to be on duty whenever she left the castle at the conclusion of her shift as a maid, but never upon her arrival. With nothing more than a brief nod in thanks, Saki slipped her tag back under her clothes and wandered along to the Herbalists Office like she had been instructed.

Upon arrival just before six, Saki was greeted by a male whom she had only ever glimpsed on the rare occasion. A tall man with what looked to be a bandanna wrapped around the top half of his head opened the door, and even without asking Saki what business she had, he allowed her inside and briefly mentioned that she was to wait upstairs, as Garak was out of the office at that moment.

Needless to say, Saki was quite perturbed by the situation at hand, and reluctantly decided to do as she was instructed.

It was out of the ordinary for Garak to summon her like this, even more so for Garak to not even be here at all at the aforementioned time. With the narrowing of Saki's gaze, she wandered over to the lone window overlooking the outside world and prepared to while away the time.

What on earth could this be about?

Saki wondered to herself as she stared down at the paving that lead right up towards the door into the castle closest to the court herbalist office. Surely her return to the border of Tanbarun in two days would not require her to turn up under such instructions, especially with such short time of notice, too.

But then, why else would Garak need her to come to the castle?

Unless there was some other reason for it...

The smallest glimpse of movement down in the courtyards drew Saki's attention within an instance, bringing her to take note of four forms currently approaching from what looked to be another part of the castle. Garak lead the way with an undeniably bemused look written across her face, with three forms Saki recognized, if only because of her maid duties for what was the larger part of four years. The Second Prince, Zen Wistaria, and his two closest retainers, Kiki and Mitsuhide.

And as Saki managed to catch Garak's gaze, the woman's bemused look became a rather apologetic smile.

No-- This wasn't the reason for her sudden presence at the castle, was it?! It couldn't be because one of the royals wanted to actually speak with her! There was absolutely no way!

However, as approaching voices began to echo through the Herbalist office, Saki was convinced that this was the case.

'I must apologize ahead of time, Prince Zen.' Garak's voice eventually filtered through the room, bringing Saki to cast her sharp gaze towards the stairs. 'Akazawa Saki is naturally a very guarded person, and she probably won't take kindly to the sudden summons without warning.'

'I understand that, but I'd like to at least get an opportunity to gauge the person who you want me to leave this task to.' Came the voice of who Saki presumed was the Second Prince of Clarines, and she was inwardly screaming a wonderful variety of curses inside her head. 'Rumours aside, I'm not comfortable to leave Shirayuki's safety to someone I've never met.'

Then, she heard the door at the foot of the staircase open, and she made a split-second decision that probably wasn't in her best interests.

'Nope!' She gasped out as she slammed the window of Garak's office open and threw herself out for an immediate escape. 'Do not want!'

This was not happening if she had anything to do with it!

During her spontaneous jump out of a second-floor window, Saki caught just the tiniest glimpse of an annoying form reclined in a nearby tree, with a thoroughly amused glint in his gaze as he watched her descent.

He certainly made no move to stop her from escaping, and she didn't doubt he'd seen her arrive just ten minutes earlier, either.

Whether it was to her benefit or not, she wasn't going to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

As soon as she'd landed neatly on her feet without so much as stumbling, she marched her way out of the castle grounds and all the way back home with no distractions holding her up.

Upon arriving back at the island inlet of her house just shy of sundown, however, Saki found herself noticing a few things that were rather odd. First was that the stack of cleaned branch lumber those two teenagers had stolen from her was back, albeit stacked unceremoniously in a tattered pile next to the other, and there was a lot of clucking noises coming from somewhere nearby.

It took her a few moments to notice that there was a fair amount of movement right at the smithy of her house, bringing her to step along the makeshift bridge and investigate.

She found herself soon realizing that the lone chicken she had somehow acquired during the storm, had multiplied to twelve full-grown chickens, and they had succeeded in tearing open the bag of wheat she had purchased mere days earlier to feast upon the grains.

They did not shy away from her form as she stopped just over them and watched, nor did they pause in their wheat-devouring actions.

With the chickens in the same air of ease as the first, Saki let out a weary breath as she realized she'd somehow managed to acquire a flock of fowl pantry-raiders overnight. If they stayed for too long a span of time, Saki very well might have to build a hutch for them just so the foxes don't eat them during the night.

And with that, she left them to their devices and proceeded to lock the house up and organize herself for bed. She lifted one of the many jars containing a viridian liquid within as she kicked off her boots at the door, downing its contents before swiping one of the boiled cream treats Shirayuki had brought her, and wandered upstairs.

A faint meow echoed from within the room as Saki dropped herself carelessly onto the hammock, alerting her to another stowaway who'd taken residence in her house since the storm. The small stray cat who'd hid beneath her table slinked out from behind a small cupboard, its black coat blending it in with the darkness of the house, leaving just its emerald eyes visible through the shadow. Much like the chickens, the cat didn't exhibit any true apprehension of her, for it casually sauntered up to her legs hanging over the edge of the hammock, and rubbed its face against her toes.

Animals taking a liking to her wasn't necessarily a strange thing for Saki, though it was strange for so many creatures at once to do as such. She half contemplated that it was the natural, earth scent that clung to her instead of the city odours that was common for city folk that brought the animals to like her quickly.

But then again, perhaps it was because she didn't discriminate between rodents living in her house, or the insects that took residence in the thatching of her roof. Perhaps, it was because in every sense of the world, she was just as leery of the human world as they were.

Saki paid no care or consideration for the pretences and thoughts of the masses, and she wanted nothing to do with the Royals and the hierarchy that extended from such an existence. Those deemed by humans to be more important than the rest tended to live out of touch with the world, unfamiliar to the pain and suffering humanity placed upon the world. And while Saki herself was biologically "human", that didn't mean she identified herself as such.

Like the little stray who had finished wandering loops around her feet to leap up onto her lap, she may be born as a human, but she was just as stray as the lives humans deemed unwanted or unneeded. And if a Royal wanted to meet her and decide if she was "trustable" enough to be trusted with a job, then she didn't want any bar of it.

Favour to Garak be damned, she had more pride in her stray life than to stoop and bow before a person of higher, blooded esteem.

--=[Submitted May 11th 2018]=--