Snowforest Taiga broken boy

the strange woman fusses over him. pokes and prods, which makes him retract into himself with a nervous smile. eyes flighty as she unceremoniously begins to shove the decapitated hare in his face. he flounders, completely beside himself—she is a madwoman!

"i—i'm okay, really!" he manages weakly. the last thing he wants to ingest is whatever weird sacrifice that hare is, but she's so insistent and the people-pleaser within him stirs with a vengeance. 

and so, he nearly complies with a lurch of nausea in his bird-like chest. until the reaper—masa, he reminds himself—steps in. harsh words, no different than last time. but still, he's trying to stop the madwoman from forcing that hare down ro's throat. 

there's a pathetic thump of his skinny tail against the ground. he wouldn't say he's excited to see masa again; that would be foolish, wouldn't it? 

"you! you're here!" he exhaled in relief. sliding away from the woman and her hare, closer to the samurai with a look that said please save me from this crazy woman. "i mean—what are you doing here?" a skittish inquiry. it was a decent trek from where they last met. and, truthfully, he did not want to seem like the stalker he'd subconsciously become.