the next few days were hard but good work as the smoker took shape and the rest of the straw was finally dry enough to be moved in doors to finish drying, as Sampson said rain was coming. Kyu fell in to deep denial about Vie ‘had she even marked me why would she even do that. Sampson was just upset.” 

they still slept out doors Kyu finished the smoker and covered it with the canvas to keep most the rain off when it came. then Kyu took to reading for some rest. Cleaning the the house for real was the next job the rafters and first room so stuffed with odds and ins that it was a real chore to clean out. in a pleasant turn of events a small loft was above the first room. the house wasn’t big but did have a main room two small side rooms. The first was open maybe once being a kitchen but so piled with junk it was hard to tell and a small loft over it that had been used to pile everything up as well.  

Kyu made three piles; useful things now, things that could be useful and a pile of thing to be recycled into something useful later.

The house filled with a hundred years of dust disturbed for the first time, so Kyu  vacated the dust  and looked up soap making centering back indoors to  dig around only finding one bucket without holes and two with. Kyu packed the bottom of one the buckets with a slow leek with a thin layer of sand then a layer of straw. then packed in firm layer after layer of ash from their fire. hanging it in a tree just over the bucket with out holes and slowly added boring water from the kettle the water took it’s sweet time to filter through and drip out the bottom. Kyu was carful to keep the hanging bucket just over the good bucket so it wouldn’t splash the now lye water. the next day Kyu with all the agility and carful thought in action poured the lye water back over the ashes and set the bucket down to collect the twice socked lye water. this time the water wasn’t a pail yellow but a dark amber brown and ready for some fat. so taking all the trimmed fat from the deer they had been smoking, melted the tallow in the kettle and with a flat shingle of wood like a spatula steered the melted tallow in for what felt like hours but jugging by handspans of the suns movement it had only been about one. Kyu was happy that they could read wail string so that helped pass some time till the whole thing came together as a past like texture so Kyu having no mold set a flat flag stone as a bace with two split logs as sids and river rocks as ends. it wouldn’t hold in anything liquid but as the soap was setting up it held the slush just fine till it solidified.    

 in the evenings Kyu help unload the wood when Sampson came back then finally asked “why doesn’t this wood have much of any bark?” as for the last week all of the wood had been properly dry and most had little bark.

Sampson pointed his thumb over his shoulder grabbed his axe and waked to the tree line Kyu fallowed curious what new trick Sampson knew.

Sampson with care looked for just the right tree then cut a bark deep ring around it then another about 6” above then striped the bark between. “In a year or two the wood will be dry the animals will have left.” 

Kyus mouth popped open it was like having stacks of seasoned wood just waiting for you and it gave plenty of time for the little trees around it to grow up and take it’s place. “thats Brilliant!” 

then Sampson rubbed his neck and and slapped the tree  “mark them so you don’t forget and take too many.” Sampson went to the fire to eat dinner. he looked up at the rising moon, when Kyu had sat and been eating for a time Sampson “full moon in two days”

“Yuki always told me that was superstition. Mom was almost always busily those nights but she did say thing were more fun in the moon light…”

Sampson finally more curious than stoic “how old are you?” werewolf matured slowly they were an investment so only the richest people could afford them 40 was a true adult but many started working as young a 20. breeding was held off till at lest 30 as most parents couldn’t live though a litter any younger then that, and batas never quite reach full sexual maturity. and vampire it would be centuries. according to what little Sampson had known so this kid could be any age. 

“Oh um, lets see, I think I turn around 30 this spring, Yuki hated my birthdays she said it made her feel old so we never celebrated Yuki hated time…do you think she is dead too…” 

“Think the only thing that could actually kill Vie was Yukis death, they were bonded young it’s a life thing when they are so young.”

You think so too? everyone says Vampires can’t love but in Yukis twisted way I think she loved mom. i think that is why mom had so much freedom why she was able to keep me, in that sort of way I think I had two moms because with out there love I wouldn’t exist.”

Sampson adjusted uncomfortably “could Yuki be you father?”

Kyu burst out laughing so hard their stomach hurt but when their eyes cleared enough to see, Sampson was still waiting for an answer.  “that can’t happen?” 

Sampson looked down at the fire and clearly said “I’ve seen it, we had a job straight from the top. shut down some agitators that were fighting agist the rule of vampires. they were spreading rumors that they ‘had proof that all peoples were equal.’ there were too many of us put on it. most times one to two of us can clean up any kind of mess. this time they sent over 20 of us, to an old tenant house with abut 15 humans a very young vampire and werewolf cupel holding a baby Yokai. 

Some of the Werewolfs went mad with the sight of it, the mix blood, the lies they had been raise to fallow. it was a blood bath. me and Moses were the only ones to make it out of there. we never spoke of it. the small family were dead the building was burnt down so there was no point in saying or doing anything about it. once I got Cypher Very drunk and he told me it’s a once in a thousand year thing, there was more to it and that if he told me I’d be dead in a month. Cypher only survives this long because all of the secrets he holds, he has them cashed away, to all come out when he dies. so he lives a good life, wants for nothing, that’s how he met Vie and how they met up so often.” 

“wouldn’t I know? wouldn’t you know! can’t you smell it if I was?”

“Maybe, if I knew what to look for but you have been covered by Vies mark for so long. she must have marked you young and reinforce physic touch often. I couldn’t figure out why she would do that other than protecting a bata but that would be something else entirely.”

Kyu laughed awkwardly thinking that Vie was always lovingly petting and snuggling at every chance. they were always together if she was home “Okay but the odds right? Runt Werewolfs almost don’t happen and I would have had two of the most alfa parents that ever lived, young and healthy wouldn’t i have to be an alfa too. also why do you call the Yokai?

Sampson looked at the moon feeling a bit intoxicated by it’s light “ were Yuki is from and she raised us for a time a Yokai is often a demon or spirit. I have come to know other legends that say we are all forms of the Yokai spirits, not evil just different from the fearful humans. did you ever meet Master Yoshi?”

“no, he hatted mom so we would go away if he was ever around. I think Yuki hatted him too both would go on about how awful he was and that is why Yuki was raised by her mothers family… do you think they were hiding me from him?”

“Yes. most likely because he hated our kind Yukis mothers side were great breeders that is how Yuki got the pick of the litter as her own, she was the sole air on her mothers side and third on her fathers so she stayed with her moms family. Master Yoshi was abundantly clear about his distain for everything werewolf so they did not get on at all and never needed to till his sons started dying I don’t know how many are left but it looks like his line is ending. 

“that’s a lot to think over but wouldn’t they tell me?” 

“I will never be able to understand or explain those two, for now I find it easer to believe you have a human father thus your weak demeanor” 

“I miss mom she was always so close, even if it was marking me it was her loving me, now I’m out here it’s so empty out here, out with out her i feel like part of me is dead.”

Sampson settled in to sleep “that’s ‘the clam’ life bond of  matted pairs, if one dies the other fallows when it’s both ways. we can only do it with one. its similar to how the vampires rule but they can have legions if they are strong enough, Vie was Yukis first so it was a strong bond and no one would ever take her from Yuki but Vie must have really wanted to protect you to do a one way bond to you.”

“Will I die?”

“no. one way clam hurts but doesn’t kill.”