These are not-quite-drabbles at 250 words each.

*****

Spices

Of late, you have begun adding rosemary to nearly everything you cook.

It has been a long time since you begun this journey and over that time you have forgotten things. Small things, like how to dust properly (when you stay at a different inn every day, there is no need for cleaning) or where to go for the lowest prices in the market (with Sanzo's card and Sanzo's admonitions to hurry there is neither need nor time for penny-pinching) or what kind of rice Gojyo likes best (you can cook only rarely and the rice here is different anyway). Large things, like what it feels like to sleep in without fear or how it is to stay in one place for more than a few days or what Gojyo's house looks like.

Just things.

The other day, you tried to remember the colour of her eyes and all that you could think of was red. The red of Gojyo's hair and the red of the setting sun and above all the red of blood - because many things may be red, but blood is as well and you have seen ever so much blood lately, spilt on your hands and splashed on your clothes and pooling in the footsteps you leave behind.

You are reasonably certain her eyes were not red.

So you have started adding rosemary to your cooking. Because rosemary is for remembrance, and although it is not much it is the only thing you can do.

*****

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