9 Chapter 9 (1/2)
”What do you mean exactly when saying I can't run away?” Laura asked, tearing her gaze from the village and all the strange beings walking its streets. Instead her eyes bore into the Tanuki's, noticing their strangeness fully for the first time, except for a slightly whiter 'pupil', both of his eyes were an even brown color.
”Ah you see, Onyu, the leader of our village, controls the seal separating us from the Human world.” The little animal spirit replied hastily, cowering before the decidedly bigger human. ”So only she can allow someone to cross back into the Human world.”
”And I assume you won't tell me why you brought me here?” She asked, visibly angered, but no longer directing all of it at the Tanuki before her.
”I don't even know why she wants you, I was just send to find a foreigner and get them to Onyu.” The little spirit responded, shying away from the angry woman.
”Well then let's meet this Onyu.” Laura declared before picking up her backpack and, after putting it on again, grabbing the little animal at the neck. ”Where do we need to go?”
”Around this hut and then just straight to the Castle.” the Tanuki explained, taking being carried like a kitten in stride. ”It's nice to finally talk to you by the way.”
”Well it would have been nice to meet you, except for this whole dragged of to a different world bit.” Laura retorted as she walked around the little wooden building, relaxing her grip on the little spirits neck somewhat to make him a tad more comfortable.
Once she finished circling the building she arrived in, the German student saw the aforementioned castle, which took up most of the plateau behind the hut, and even seemed to extend beyond it.
A clear mountain stream cut across the mountain in front of it, with only a small wooden bridge leading to a gate set into the walls allowing people to cross the water, which fell of the side of the plateau to the side of the castle walls, no doubt creating an impressive waterfall. The walls themselves were very imposing, but also quite impressive appearance wise. The stacked stones forming its foundation had no visible mortar or metal work or anything else keeping them in place, while the wooden portion above them was painted a surprisingly bright and clean white color, with red outlines tracing arrow slits and red wooden roofs at their top. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
As she walked through the open gate behind the bridge, Laura couldn't help but marvel at this sight. Once inside there were just a couple buildings in the courtyard enclosed by the walls, as well as a second set of walls near identical to the outer once, only the gate leading past these was closed.
From the sound of metal striking metal, and the bright light escaping it, Laura assumed the smaller of the buildings to be a smith's workshop. Deciding to let the one who was responsible for her kidnaping wait a bit longer, the young woman followed the path laid out by wooden disks towards the workshop.
Inside was what appeared to be a middle aged man, if not for the pair of rat like ears and the bit of a tail peeking out below the hem of his Kimono. As he struck the hot metal on his amboss again, the tied back sleeves revealed short grey fur covering his arm from the wrist up.