Miyuki sat at the slightly ajar window, breathing in the crisp smell of the approaching winter with wonder.

It smelt good.

With a rush of power, she pushed the window open further, her arm falling into the sun's gaze to shimmer with an iridescent shine.

"You look like your dad," her mum whispered, moving into the room with an unearthly elegance.

Miyu scoffed, rolling her eyes at the unsatisfactory comparison with a father figure she had barely spoken two words too.

"He is not my dad."

"Miyu!" Her mother grabbed her shoulders, pushing Miyu to face her scolding expression. "You can't say such a thing."

"And why not? What has that creature ever done -"

Her mother slapped her, hard. The pain flared with rage before fading to a soft, humming bruise.

Lifting her chin so it lay inches before her own, her mother's crying face begged her to see reason.

"My love please, please stop treating him this way. I know you dislike him and his children but he is our God... and your father."

Father? As if.

Miyu paused, basking in her mother's love for a second before she jumped out of the open window.

"Miyu!" Her mother screamed, her body half out the window in a vain attempt at catching her slippery daughter.

"I'll be home at dusk!"

She yelled it as she ran, her fur boots crunching the snow and leaves as she pushed herself through the forest. Miyu could have taken the cobbled path into the city... but that meant fighting through the undulating crowds. Not to mention being watched and pointed at by the hordes of shoppers.

No, the forest was always better.