Yuki Shiroyuki's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

All week Yuki waited for Tuesday. She counted the days by the apples left to wash. Then word of her claws spread through the village, passed from mouth to mouth like a cold. People she had never met now knew what her gloves hid. She felt their stares in the market and heard the whispers die when she passed. Still, she held on to one thing. Chance would come again. On Monday she walked to the garden behind the manor, the one with the fountain and the gazebo. She liked it there because few people came. An old man blocked the path. He leaned on a worn cane, white beard to his chest, cap pulled low. Tobias Weatherby. She knew his face from the bread line. He had never spoken to her before. "The farmer boy," he said. "Chance." He tapped his cane on the stone. "You stay away from him." Yuki stopped. "He asked to see me." "He doesn't know what you are." The old man's eyes moved to her gloved hands. "I've seen what folks like you leave behind. Fear. Broken things. I've warned him already. Told him this morning." He shook his head. "A good lad. Don't ruin him." Her first instinct was to pull her hands behind her back and go. That was the old way. She had run from every stare her whole life. But running had only ever left her alone in an empty kitchen. So she peeled off one glove. The scales climbed her forearm. The claws came free, long and ivory in the morning light. She held her bare hand out, open, palm up. "Look at them," she said. "I carry crates no man here can lift. I wash your dishes before dawn. I have never hurt one person in this village." Her voice stayed quiet. "Chance saw these and called them beautiful. He is braver than you." Tobias stared at the claws. His cane trembled. For a long moment he said nothing. Then footsteps sounded on the garden path. Chance came through the flowers, straw hat in his hand. He had come a day early. "There you are," Chance said. He looked at the old man, then at Yuki's bare claws held out between them. His smile did not falter. He walked straight past Tobias and took her clawed hand in his. "He told me stories this morning," Chance said. "I told him he was wrong." He squeezed her fingers. "I came early to make sure you knew that." Tobias looked at their joined hands. Something in his face loosened. He gave a slow grunt, turned, and limped back up the path without another word. Yuki watched him go. She had not run. She had shown her claws to the one man warning the village against her, and Chance had still crossed the garden to hold them. The whispers would not stop. But now one villager had seen her stand her ground. And Chance had chosen her out loud.