Japan - Past - Part 3

1762 A.D.  - Japan - Near Kyoto

Time seem to slip easily through the gaps of the fingers. Time as a master of craft slipped even faster than normal civilian. The energy poured into crafting the finest blade was time consuming and could easily make a person forget about time. Itsuya Miyamoto lived on such life. He would get up in the morning to prey toward the Gods before he headed into the workshop to craft the finest blades as each  blade took him half of the year to complete.

Itsuya always felt a light ping of mystery around his life. He wasn't sure how to pin point it down. There was always something tugging the back of his mind. He felt his life was never quite complete, yet he felt complete. Various lordships had approach Itsuya over the years to propose of a marriage, yet Itsuya hesitated to reply. He always felt he was already in love with someone else. Maybe it was the fact he always felt someone was around him, someone so secretly loving him that pooled into his dreams at night.

Yes. His dreams. Itsuya still recalled that vivid dream of being loved by man. Over the years that feeling of shock had slowly mellow down as he embraced that dream. A dream that gave him a glimpse of a man that could lead him to see the stars above in the sky. A dream that knew how to mutter sweet nothing into his ears that would claim every aching soul that was among him. He wasn't sure how to describe it anymore as words were lost among those images.

At times Itsuya wondered if there was really that man from his dreams. He wondered if it was possible to meet that man. Other times during the long winter, Itsuya would cursed lightly in the cold air that puffed witch smoke up as he felt foolish to love a man that he would never meet. His apprentices had expressed over the years that Itsuya should really considered forming a family, after all it is what made the family legacy last in the blacksmith life. Itsuya simply puffed in annoyance each time as he waved the idea off from his apprentice's mind.

It was midnight again as the moon hung high from the clear night sky, it was so white and pure as it shine down onto the white snow. It reflected like a clear mirror that could only reflect to one's deepest desire. Itsuya stood on the wood plank hallway gazing up into the moon light. His fingers wrapped around the blanket as he felt the chilling wind blowing in. His focus was locked onto the beauty of the moonlight as the color seem to remind him of the crystal color of the katana blade. 

Itsuya barely noticed the faint squeaking sound on the wood plank. He only turned when he finally notice another shadow among the white snow. His own dark brown orbs met one light brown orbs. Itsuya stood there in silence observing the other man for a moment, never once he questioned how this man appeared out of thin air. 

"The man in my dream or am I in my dreams?" It was all Itsuya asked in the end.