Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Maze, Chapter 7

Palace."
    "Yeah..."
    Taiki nodded and looked around. He spotted something and yanked on Youka's hand.
    "Youka, look! That dog has wings!"
    Not far from the tents, a huge dog had been tied up among the horses. At the moment, a few men and  women were tending to this mount.
    "That is a tenba. Would you like to go over and look at it?"
    "Can I?"
    "No problem." Youka held Taiki's hand and lead him closer to the tent that the dog had been tied to.
    The dog's shape was enormous with a white body and a black head, not to mention a pair of wings  folded against its back. It was beautiful.
    "Isn't this...Mt. Hou Kou? I wish you the best of health." Among the men and women who were  caring for the tenba, a tall and strong woman recognized Taiki and hurried to pay him her respects.
    "Is this tenba your mount?"
    "Yes."
    "Would you let the Kou see him for a moment?"
    "It would be my honor."
    The woman smiled and encouraged Taiki to get closer to the tenba. Under Youka's protection, Taiki  moved slowly towards it with apprehension and realized that in reality, the tenba was much bigger than he  had first thought it to be.
    "He's so big..." Taiki mumbled.
    "He's actually relatively smaller compared to most tenba," replied the woman who had kneeled down.
    It looked as if out of all the people who were taking care of it, she was his master.
    "Please get up. May I pet him?"
    "Thank you, Mt. Hou Kou. Of course you may pet him. His behavior is quite docile."
    After he heard her say this, he hesitated a moment and then cautiously reached his hand out. The fur  of the tenba looked shiny, but it felt much harder than it looked. Taiki rubbed its neck, and the tenba closed  its eyes with a comfortable look on its face.

    "He's really tame... Does he have a name?"
    "He is called Hien."
    "Hien," repeated Taiki. With its eyes still closed, Hien nuzzled against Taiki's hand as he stroked it
    under the ears.
    "Does he bite?"
    "Don't worry. He doesn't randomly bite people. Tenba are already a relatively docile kind of youju.
    Moreover, Hien's personality is especially gentle. It's very clear to him that there are people whom he should  not bite."
    "How smart."
    Taiki talked with the woman about tenba for a good stretch of time. He was very interested in how  she caught the tenba, how she takes care of it, and what it feels like to ride upon its back.
    The woman's answers were very easy to understand. In addition, her tone was kind, her words polite,  and her voice was very clear. It all gave Taiki the sense that she was a strong person.
    To be honest, Taiki could still not determine an adult's age by looking at them. He could only guess  from her appearance that she was probably older than Youka and Teiei by a lot.
    Though, this could possibly just be due to the impressions she held. It was very hard to compare the  impressions of the nyosen to regular people, so he also felt like the woman's age was very far from a  nyosen's.
    Nyosen in general are all very pretty. They always wore beautiful clothes and ornate hairpins, each  one more extraordinary than the next.
    Opposite to that, this woman wore deep-colored men's clothing and had not even one accessory upon  her body. Her dark brown hair had also not been arranged into a knot, but instead, it hung freely down to her  shoulders. She was tall and her movements were graceful and gentle. She was pretty, but it was completely  different than the beauty of Gyokuyou and the nyosen. It was very obvious that she was a different type of  person.
    "Thank you for letting me look at Hien." Taiki was reluctant to take his hand off of Hien's body.
    "It was nothing. I believe Hien was also very happy."
    "Where are you from?"
    "I am from Jou Province. I am a General of the Jou Provincial Army, called Risai. My name is  Ryushi."
    A glimmer entered Taiki's eyes.
    Every kingdom has nine provinces, each of which is ruled by a Shukou, a provincial governor. The military that the Kou controls is called the Army of the Provincial Kou, which is shortened to simply the  Provincial Army. The size of this military varies in each province from two armies to four, depending on  how big the province is. Thus, it follows that for each province, there are anywhere from two to four people  holding the rank of general.
    "So you are a general." No wonder she felt so different from the nyosen.
    "Yes, to the best of my ability."
    Since Taiki got along so exceptionally well with her, he couldn't bear to