Discworld and Member Articles
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Written by Mynona
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Friday, 26 August 2005 |
”Alexis!” Father’s voice startled me out of the conversation I was currently partaking in. Amandus and Caspar sat in my study and we had been discussing something that had occurred between a vampire and one of the shifters. I was working in my designation as Ryttir trying to figure out who was to blame, if any. And if that was the case, what to do about it. There’s always at least two sides of every story and this one had promised to have even more.
”Alexis!” Father’s voice startled me out of the conversation I was currently partaking in. Amandus and Caspar sat in my study and we had been discussing something that had occurred between a vampire and one of the shifters. I was working in my designation as Ryttir trying to figure out who was to blame, if any. And if that was the case, what to do about it. There’s always at least two sides of every story and this one had promised to have even more.
“Yes father?” To be honest I was glad for the interruption and I rose to greet him.
“Do you remember the Himamotos?”
”Yes, of course.” The Himamotos were a couple who’d negotiated with father half a year earlier. They lived in a small village in Japan, a village that had suffered from a famine, they’d offered blood for food and other resources.
“Good, I want you to go their village. There’s something going on and I want to know what. You don’t need to leave immediately but I want you there by the end of the week.”
“I understand, it will be as you’ve ordered my lord.”
“You may return to whatever you were doing.” I bowed as he took his leave, as did the two weres. I could also sense that he’d tried to appear ignorant for the sake of the weres but he didn’t fool me, he knew everything that happened in the coven. It was his job. It was also the reason I feared his death, that’d mean that I’d have to take over. Oh cruel fate. I returned my attention to the still standing weres.
“Amandus would you please fetch Camilla here?” I had gone back to being Ryttir, I had been procrastinating this long enough, time to get some answers. There hadn’t been a Ryttir in more than 2 000 years which had left me lost and I’d fought many children deceases trying to figure out that to, and what not to, do. Some of it had been fun but most of it was just boring and tedious. So far no other coven had been allowed to take on weres, mostly because I had to have a stable ground to stand on before even attempting to rule over, not just our own but others’ weres too. I also needed to find the balance between vampire and were, find the line that shouldn’t be crossed. I was getting better but I was still not ready to face a bigger audience.
While I had been caught in my own thoughts Amandus had returned with the vampire, Camilla, behind him.
“Camilla to see you, Ryttir.” I had to pay more attentions to my surroundings, that was the second time, today, that someone had managed to sneak up on me. And they weren’t even trying.
“You know why you are here, Camilla, so why don’t you start with telling me about what happened yesterday?”
“I don’t know what you are speaking about. Nothing out of the ordinary happened yesterday, lady.”
“Don’t even try it, Camilla.” She stared at me but I could outstare most people, except my father of course, and Emilio. That Emilio could withstand my glare was annoying, what else could I use to threaten him with? When I tried it he usually ended up on the floor laughing. Maybe I’d tell him that if he didn’t behave I’d make him laugh himself to death?
“I’m sorry but I still don’t know what you are talking about lady.” Camilla was one of the vampires who’d seen father’s promotion of me to Ryttir, solely as nepotism. I knew that it wasn’t, father was above that kind of thing and if I hadn’t been vampire I’d have the scars to prove it. She wouldn’t openly criticise father or his decisions but she could, and would, discredit me and whatever I did. So, yes, I was younger than her, and honestly most of the other vampires in the sect, but I had been schooled to do this kind of thing. Father would never have chosen me if he didn’t consider me worthy.
“Stop it Camilla. Even I heard your ‘argument’ with Robin.” She was unfettered by me revealing her lie. She didn’t respect me so I wasn’t really surprised. Robin, on the other hand, was one of the sweetest, gentlest persons I’d ever met. His deep-brown eyes and hair matched his small frame and his whole person literally screamed about how he wanted to please everyone. Robin was, in short, on of the last weres I’d ever thought would be yelled at, and later beaten.
“Oh that, the little were refused to obey so I saw it as my duty to correct his behaviour.” Overly correct as always… sometimes I really hated the way the older vampires patronised me.
“And what transgression would be large enough to warrant him almost getting beaten to death?” It’s notoriously hard to kill a were by simply beating them, Camilla had almost succeeded. It had to do with the fact that father had passed laws that gave the humans rights as food. No abusing them. The older vampires, who had lived in eras which had a more liberal look on abuse of ones property, ie servants, had taken to beating my weres… our weres. Because the vampires thought of them as inferior and therefore had a punishment due just because they dared to live. Hadn’t any of the vampires been servants?
“I told him to fetch a book for me, he wouldn’t.” I carefully didn’t mention her living next too the library. I do have tact… occasionally.
“Did he give a reason for denying?”
“He said that he was already on an errand and therefore couldn’t fetch my book. I could see trough his lies though, servants always lie to get away from working.”
“Didn’t it ever cross your mind that maybe he wasn’t lying?”
“No, servants lie, it’s what they do. All these weres hate me, they do anything to get away from serving me despite everyone knowing that they are public property.” I didn’t deny them hating her, on the other hand, I couldn’t really blame them. There was also another part to this. Since the arrival of the weres we’d realised that there were two types of vampires, weremaster or not. About half the sect was weremasters, a vampire that the weres would follow and obey naturally, but the weres would obey the none masters too. Camilla wasn’t a weremaster and she definitely didn’t like not being it. I sighed before turning to Camilla again.
“Camilla, I know that Robin was on an errand, in fact, he’d been sent to find me. I also know that this is the third time that something like this have happened between you and a were. I’ve been lenient this far but even my patience has its limits. I’ve been talking to my father and we both agree; you’re to suffer the same punishment you’ve given the weres, three times. One for each occasion, with time in-between to recuperate. You’ll report to our lord’s office tomorrow morning for the first session. Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes lady, you have.” When she left she was fuming, almost enough for me to see the smoke rising from her ears. She’d hate me for that but it needed doing. My first obligation, at the moment, was to the weres and I had to follow up on that.
As I’d predicted I’d become even more unpopular in the sect after the punishment of Camilla. News travels fast, too fast in most cases. I couldn’t have not ruled in the favour of the were this time, though, I was Ryttir and I had to do my job, no matter what others thought about it. Also, father required it. I’d been lucky that father had calmed down since his youth. I did not fancy to meet the person who’d earned the description ‘the impaler’. The vampires who’d been around since then claimed that he’d mellowed a lot but he was still able to be scary as hell. The part of him that had allowed him to be the impaler was still there, in hiding perhaps, but still there.
I was heading back to my rooms, although I should perhaps say ‘our’ rooms because Emilio had moved in on a semi-permanent basis. I wanted to get things settled before leaving for Japan, of all places… it’s on the other side of the world for god’s sake. Father had said to leave before the end of the week but I knew that the sooner I left the better. Father was very good at giving hidden orders and you didn’t survive long if you didn’t learn to decipher them. I wondered if I was allowed to bring Emilio along, I sure wanted to.
“Emilio!” I called as soon as I entered the rooms, ‘our’ rooms, and surprisingly enough he was there. Before being my teacher Emilio had been a teacher for the humans and those amongst the vampire who wished to learn something new. Lately he’d gone back to teaching part-time because I didn’t need him, or wanted him, to hang over my shoulder 24 hours a day. I still needed him sometimes which was why this worked out. Needed him in both the boyfriend sense and the teacher sense. Allowing him to go back to his previous job only meant that I didn’t have to feel bad for leaving him to do ‘my’ job.
I stopped dead, no pun intended, when I laid my eyes on him. He was sitting in a chair, whish in itself wasn’t very incriminating, but the way his eyes twinkled were.
“You already know!” I accused him and I knew I’d find him guilty. It was also very obvious that I was allowed to bring him, er; he was allowed to come with me., though I had to ask anyways. “Father is allowing you to join me?” I can be a bit more gracious out loud than in my head. That’s why we have the ‘in your head’ voices. They say all the things we want to but don’t dare.
“Yes, Lord Dracula came and spoke to me a couple of hours ago.” I did some quick math in my head and realised something.
“He told you before he told me!”
“So it would seem.” Emilio’s voice was full of humour and I think I loved him even more because of that. Someone once said that the most important trait in her partner was the ability to talk to, and understand, her. For me it has always been humour since so much of what am me has been made up out of the scratching warped thing called wit. And the fact that I got irritated at people who wouldn’t get my jokes because mostly it’d mean that I insulted them. That did not bode well for a relationship. Emilio did have a sense of humour, though, and he wasn’t easily offended. I still don’t know what I’d done to deserve him. His humour wasn’t as dark as mine but he could mostly understand why I sometimes said things that shouldn’t have been said.
“Do you know who else has been ordered?” I knew that I wasn’t allowed to travel without guards and, despite being a good fighter, Emilio wasn’t one.
“Clay, Steven, Walter. Perhaps Grace. A couple of others. Our lord would never leave you with less than six guards, and you know it. And sometimes I think that Clay and Steven sees more of you than I do. It’s almost enough to make a man jealous.”
“You know it isn’t that way!” Or at least I hoped he did. Steven and Clay were guards, friends, but nothing more. I got depressed the few times I realised that I was indeed, seeing more of them than of Emilio.
“Hush Alexis, I was only teasing. I know.” He rose from the chair and came closer to hug me. I let him, why waste a good opportunity to snuggle?
Four days it took to prepare for the journey and before the light of dawn on the fifth we were sitting on a plane, still, heading for the islands outside of China’s east coast. I’d never been in Japan before and I’d probably enjoy it… as soon as my knees stopped hurting because they’d been cramped up in sitting position for too long.
No one came and greeted us at the airport, or even to guide us. After several hours of arguing with people, gas station attendants, car rental clerks, the works, we’d found this one man who acknowledged the existence of the village. Most of the people we’d asked went politely ‘huh?’ at the mention of Ritsui and got angry when we insisted that there were, indeed, a village called that. I was starting to get really angry with people believing that we were trying to joke with them when we finally met this old man who apparently knew the way.
Four hours later, and a trip on a close to non existent road, found us on what went as the main street. The word ‘deserted’ flew trough all of our minds. Most of us, however could feel the presence of life forms hiding behind thin walls. They had to do better than this if they wanted to hide from us. Perhaps it was a good thing they didn’t know a lot about vampires. If the rest of the stay would be as agreeable as the first part, maybe it was good that they didn’t know how to kill us.
The sun was slowly setting as Mr Himamoto came walking down the street. He was nervous and frightened, not that it showed but we could smell it, fear is a bitter scent that clings to a person for all it’s worth. He bowed to greet me, us, but I took it at face value, everyone bows in Japan. He did, however, bow 45 degrees, which is the greatest sign of respect. Someone respected me even if, by the looks of it, the rest of the village didn’t.
“Mr. Himamoto, I trust we find you well?”
“Yes, yes. Of course. I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding your way.”
“Not at all.” I answered, and I could feel amusement and irritation from the others. I think that the amusement came mostly from Clay and Steven. Of the other guards only one, Lena, had ever guarded me before, for any longer period of time, and knew me well enough not to be offended by some of the things I said. Stan and Harry walked around me as if on eggshells, I think that had something to do with Clay and Steven refereeing Nathan’s punishment on the flight over. Grace was a bit jealous at first, I think. But I would be too, if I had to compete with someone else about Emilio’s time and attention. She’d calmed down considerably since she noticed in what way Emilio and I noticed each other. What little time I’d spent with her she’d come across as a very nice person.
“If you please follow me I’ll get you out of the sunlight.” He had been nervous but now he was dripping with it. They had thought we couldn’t walk in daylight. Bummer for them. I almost felt like smiling, and I don’t mean the nice kind of smile.
”Don’t hurry on our account.” I could taste the tension in the air, one of their defences had suddenly disappeared. The people hiding could cover their bodies but their presences stood out as white moose in the forest.
Himamoto showed us to a small house on the very edges of what was considered the village. If they hadn’t hidden themselves I would have seen it as consideration but now I was convinced that it was fear that placed us. The house was small but this was Japan, they have a lot of people but almost no ground suitable for building houses. It was cosy, though, if you didn’t mind the paper walls and tatmi mats. Sleeping in floor height was a new experience, and not an entirely comfortable one. I somehow felt more exposed this close to the ground. I’d ordered the guards to do it in shifts of three, because I really didn’t trust them. Our company was seven in total so almost half of us would be awake. It’d increase the chances of survival, if anything went pear shaped, drastically. It’d also mean that while two of them guarded me, one was watching the others. The guards would probably get tired, working 12 hour shifts, but they needed only to compensate with blood.
As I lay down on my bed, futon I reminded myself, I was making plans for tomorrow. I needed to see more of the village and the people. I could see the problem as it was but I wanted, and needed, an explanation and probably a solution as well. If possible I’d talk to some children. The parents would fear but I couldn’t feed on someone that young, I do have standards, but children often knew a lot more than their parents knew they knew. Or even wanted them to know. They also had a different perspective on things. I dislike children in groups because they remind me too much of a heard of panicking wilder beast, but one or two I could handle. And I hadn’t seen a child since I came to the coven.
When morning came, and we finally made it outside, Grace really wasn’t a morning vampire, the village was almost as deserted as it had been the evening before. The only person I could see was Mr Himamoto and, by the look of it, he’d been staying outside our house for the entire night.
“It’s a lovely morning don’t you think Mr Himamoto?” And indeed it was, the sun was shining from an unobstructed sky and our shadows were cast in sharp relief upon the ground. The light was too harsh for my eyes, really, but this wasn’t the time or the place to show any weakness. Sure, I’d get one hell of a migraine but I’d survive.
”Yes, but it is our curse. The ground needs rain but always the sun is shining.”
“Ah, yes, that is true. May I enquire about your wife?” I knew I was threading on thin ice, even though their marriage had been arranged, they were very devoted to each other. What had happened to make him leave his wife for the entire night and not even meet with her now? Surely he knew that we wouldn’t hurt them?
“She’s… she’s not here.” Himamoto was stuttering, and wringing his hands, and inspecting the ground in a serious manner. Something was definitely wrong.
“Why not?” I was careful to just sound curious and nothing else.
“Em, she went to her sister’s.” He sounded far too relieved for it to be true.
“Please don’t lie to me, Mr Himamoto. I would not hurt you and neither will any of the others. Why are you so scared of us?”
“They took her.” He whispered the words but my hearing was good enough to catch it. He’d also gone back to his dirt study.
“Who ‘they?”
“The others.”
“Why?”
“So that they could force me to talk to you.” By now his voice was so low that it almost didn’t carry over the sound of the wind travelling between the houses.
“Why wouldn’t you have talked to us by your own free will?” I was asking some not-so-innocent questions but it was better than focusing on my anger. Anger at ‘them’, who I believed was the other villagers, anger at him for not standing up to them and just tome traditional anger thrown in just because it didn’t want to be left alone.
“The others are afraid of you, of what you will do to them. They fear you will enslave them, hurt them and kill them. Please understand, we, that is, my wife and I, went to your father without the consent, or eve knowledge, of the others. They shun us now. They put me out here so that you might eat me first and give them time to escape.” Isn’t it nice to hear such things about oneself? Usually you have to listen in to conversations to hear that kind of stuff. What a nice and refreshing change… not.
“So that was why you didn’t honour our agreement. The other villages think that death by lack of food is preferable to the so-called slavery. Didn’t you speak with them of how you were treated, didn’t your opinion count?”
“No.” Or at least I think it was a ‘no’. It wasn’t loud enough to really be picked up, even by vampiric hearing.
“Where do they keep your wife?” I sighed, I wanted to teach them a lesson but that would only make them more averse to us than before. This would have to be a delicate dance. Mr Himamoto described the house, and the way to it, where his wife was held. I was planning on doing something about it but I was also planning on doing it later, much later. First I wanted some more information and I was going to get it. From children, because no matter what the parents said children will always be curious, and they know several ways out of any house, some of them shouldn’t be used but children will always be kids.
“Alright Mr Himamoto. I bid you a good day and hope we’ll see each other later. I want to do some exploring.”
“You can’t leave without me! I have to follow you around.”
“Me, personally, or us, as a group?”
“Eh, you as a group, I think.”
“Lena and Grace, why don’t you two take a walk in the forest and be so nice to bring Mr Himamoto.”
I, together with the rest of the group, started walking rather aimlessly trough the little village. It wasn’t a total coincident that we went past the house Mr Himamoto had described to us earlier but we made no move to enter it, or any other house. It was first by noon we heard the first sounds of children playing. Laughter rang in the air and I so did not want to know what they were laughing at, or perhaps it was a ‘who’. We neared them in a circular kind of motion. If we were to close in on them fast, and in a straight line, someone would have become suspicious, and we didn’t want that.
“Lookit! Gajin!*” One of the younger children had spotted us. They were three in total, ranging from five-ish to ten-ish. Probably siblings at that.
“Hello to you to.” I wasn’t put off, really. I was thinking of that old saying ‘from children and fools you’ll hear the truth’. Children who aren’t edited by adults speaks the truth, and as we all knows, the truth is often ugly.
“Are you a monster?” It was the seven-ish old who asked this.
“Er, no. At least I don’t think I am.” I answered.
“So you’re a demon.” The youngest stated rather calmly.
“I’m not a demon either.”
“Oh.” All three said, sounding rather disappointed. I’ll never understand anyone below the age of 20.
“Why would I be?”
“Well, all the grownups said that there were monsters and demons coming to town and we had to stay inside or they’d kill us!” This time it was the eldest. He regarded me with a little more suspicion but they were three to one. I’d left my guard behind. And I really didn’t look like a monster, or at least I hoped I didn’t.
“What are you doing out here then?”
“We wanted to see the monsters!”
“Yeah, monsters are cool!”
“And what would you do if you met one?” Yes I was curious, but everyone knows that already.
“We’d throw soap on him!” They all brandished fierce looking soap.
“I bet that scare him.” I did use sarcasm, unfortunately it doesn’t work on children.
“Everyone knows that monsters disappears if you throw soap at them.” The oldest said. Well, it appeared that everyone except me knew that. I had to ask some of the others about the soap thing, as far as I knew it only worked on witches. I heard, or felt I’m not quite sure which, an adult closing in and while the children turned around I took the opportunity to ‘disappear’ without the aid of soap, mind you.
I was walking through the village thinking about soap when a voice suddenly jarred me.
“Alexis!” I turned around quickly because that voice was not Japanese and it didn’t belong to any of my guards, but all the same I recognised it. I knew the speaker. He was older-ish, about my height and came forth and hugged me. I was startled and didn’t react at first but I was sure that he didn’t mean any harm to me. As was my guards because none of them came forwards to ‘save’ me either.
“Tomas?” It hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks, hard, fast and painful. This was my adoptive father. I hadn’t recognised him at first because he was older, and as I’d spent over twenty years in the company of vampires who didn’t. It took some time to see him for who he was trough twenty years worth of hair loss, white hair and wrinkles. “What are you doing here?” I knew it wasn’t the best of questions but he’d, I’d, been missing for more than twenty years, what should I say? Sorry? It wasn’t my fault? Nice to see you? I knew I had been kept away from my adoptive family, and indeed, most everything from my life as human, because father thought it’d make the transition easier. Also, he was a teeny-weeny bit jealous, and he feared, at least at first, that I wouldn’t like him if I had my adoptive dad as comparison. And of course, I was held apart from humans because they’d notice something was off.
“I wanted to see you. I’ve missed you. You’ve been gone for a long time.”
“Yes, well, I understand that but how did you know I was going to be here? Even I didn’t know until five days ago.” And that had really, really puzzled me after the first seconds of shock and the surreal feeling that surrounded me. I mean, if he couldn’t find me in the coven, how could he find me in this remote place?
“Amandus told me.” Dad had backed off, sensing my uneasiness, I think. I wasn’t uneasy just because of him, it was just that this whole situation was freaking me out. And I was probably going to be punished when I got back home. As I would have to punish Amandus. I did not need this now, not ever. This thing with the villagers thinking us being monsters, was quite enough, thank you very much. Dad backed up even more, I’m afraid I came across as rather cold but I didn’t know what to do. This wasn’t in any of the handbooks.
“I see, how’s things been, then?” I really needed that handbook.
“We’ve missed you.” His voice was really sad, I was too. But it was kind of a dirty trick saying ‘We’ve missed you’.
“Alexis?” Oops, I’d completely zoned out. The others had apparently decided that they wanted to know what was going on and sent in Emilio. I couldn’t decide if I thought it was a very good thing or a very bad thing.
“Hello Emilio.” I answered, not really sure how to act around my father, what Emilio, and the rest of them, thought acceptable.
“Who’s this?” Emilio glanced at my father, measuring him. He didn’t come across as a threat but I knew they’d seen me become more and more distressed.
“This is Tomas, my adoptive dad. Dad, this is Emilio, my boyfriend.” I’d said it, I really did. Now I was just hoping that Emilio wouldn’t react badly. Or hate me forever after. And it wasn’t’ really the kind of surprise I wanted to spring after not having seen dad for twenty years. Though, I suppose that not having anyone to show after that amount of time would be even more disturbing. I felt Emilio freeze as I mentioned my ‘adoptive dad’ he saw the problem as I did, or at least similar.
“Nice to meet you.” Dad offered along with his hand. “I guess you’re one of them, too.”
“Yes I am.” Emilio replied as he carefully shook dad’s hand. He was being very careful.
“It is nice to meet you dad, it’s just… it’s unexpected.”
“I understand.” I seriously doubted it. Yes it was unexpected but it was also forbidden. I couldn’t very well run screaming from him so I had to make the best of the situation at hand. Just as dad’s finished speaking Lena wandered down the road we were standing on. She looked agitated. I wondered what’d happened to Grace and Mr Himamoto.
“Lady, you’re needed, something happened.” She’d picked up on dad being human so she didn’t reveal more than that. Point for her.
“I’m sorry dad but I need to go.”
“I understand. It was nice meeting you anyways.”
“You too dad.” I slung over my shoulder as the three of us moved out. I think that dad got a bit confused when we were followed by four people he hadn’t seen before.
“What’s happening Lena?” I asked as we hurried down a side street. We held a certain speed but it wasn’t running per se, just.
“Something happened to Mrs Himamoto, we were walking by that house and just as we did we heard screaming from within. I’m not sure about what because I don’t speak Japanese but Mr Himamoto seemed really upset.”
“I’m assuming that you left him and Grace by that house?”
“Yes, it wasn’t worth all three of us going after you, was it?” Most of the guards had been walking on eggshells around me since the incident where I ripped Nathan’s throat out. I couldn’t understand why…
“No, you did all right.” Nothing more was said as we crossed the village that had seemed so small when not in a hurry. It’s the law of nature; everything is at least twice as long when you need to get there in a hurry.
When we finally arrived, after what felt like a year or two but was in real life just five minutes. Strange that, not only does everything get longer but the time-space continuum seems to become upset too. That’s why I’ve never liked physics; the scientists say that there are no exceptions in physics. They are wrong, dead wrong.
Grace stood near the house trying to calm down an a very distraught looking Mr Himamoto.
“What’s happening Mr Himamoto?” He looked relieved to see me. Which is something I dislike. Why can’t people take care of their own problems? They look up to me and expects me to fix their problems. Who had I to turn to when I didn’t feel like taking enough interest in things to solve them? No one. So why should they? I won’t say that I’m all alone in the word, and neither that I don’t get support, it’s just that I can’t hand my problems over to someone else.
“They are hurting her!” Both ‘they’ and ‘her’ were clear in this situation. I turned to the house.
“Are they still in there?” I asked. Yes, it was a stupid question, since the answer was obvious. Of course they were still in there, if they weren’t they wouldn’t have been standing here. And as to asking obvious questions, it isn’t just a human trait.
“Yes, they are hurting her, please help me!”
“I can, and will try, but I can’t promise anything. They consider us monsters and demons, as you very well know.”
“I’m so sorry. Please help her!” He was down on his knees, begging. It made me feel rather uncomfortable. I’ve been living as the heir to the Camrille throne for 20 years and I’d still not gotten used to people grovelling. It kind of upset me that someone could put that much faith in one other being. When I thought about it, I put quite a lot of trust in my father but at the same time, I was bound to him several times around, so I’d blame that for now. And I’ll deny it whenever anyone asks. Just because I can.
“Emilio, Clay, Steven, Lena. You’re coming with me.” I’d always wanted to say that. But I felt really silly after doing it. I almost started looking for hidden, and not so hidden, cameras.
We entered the house silently, is there any other way, really? Though by the placements of the windows we all knew that they’d already seen us. Hopefully they’d attack us with soap. Emilio went first and all of us managed to get trough the door without getting jumped. Well inside the thin paper screens that worked double as walls were more confusing than helping. It was hard to judge distance and direction of the faint sounds that were heard. Since we’d arrived there had been no more screaming.
Clay and me took a left in the next split in the path while the other when right. It was amazing how this house, that had looked so small from outside, could be so big inside. A sudden scream tore through the relative quiet of the house and I suddenly ran out of patience. The hate, the distrust, dad showing up and now this. It was long overdue I think. I thought ‘screw this’ and ignored everything even remotely connected to Japanese culture and opted to go straight through the screens instead of trying to find my way through the rooms. This saved both Clay and my lives.
We floundered into the room about three screens from the door, where a young man swung a sharp looking sword in neck height. Eeep. I’m not very good throwing knives, and in a fight you want your weapons close to you, not stuck in the far wall or the ceiling, but he wasn’t that far away so I took the chance. It hit solidly in his gut, I’d never admit to aiming for the chest. Whatever works, right?
The moment of surprise was up and the room exploded into motion. Three men standing just beside where we’d come trough turned and aimed two swords one dagger and one gun at us. At the same time four others in the other end of the room aimed a similar arsenal in our direction. One of them fell to the floor with a knife stuck in his back, not one of mine, nor one of Clay’s by the look of it. When Lena cut away the paper from the wooden frame of the screen it suddenly became clear. Again the room froze and once again it went back to frenetic motion. I killed one more guy and I think Clay killed two but I really had no idea. It’d all gone too fast to really notice. And, lets face it, when someone is trying to kill you; you better concentrate on him rather than keeping scores.
In the middle of the room, tied to a study chair, sat Mrs Himamoto, three more villagers were standing around her caught in surprise. Mrs Himamoto had been tortured, rather amateurishly to he honest, and her clothes hung in bloody tatters around her cut up body. Her hair, once long and surprisingly black for her age, were partially yanked off. At my signal the three remaining men were killed. Mrs Himamoto was untied and someone offered her a jacket. I stood apart from it all, thinking about the silliness of man and how much damage ignorance can do. I didn’t like killing and even if this was a fight I felt bad for causing the death of these people. If we hadn’t gone here this wouldn’t have happened.
Clay was carrying Mrs Himamoto while we made our way outside, it took a bit longer because we opted to use the doors this time. Well outside he kept close to Grace, I think that I wasn’t the only one unnerved by the killing. Or he was just sad to let that much food go to waste.
The something happened that I would never forget. I miscalculated and suddenly the air was full of arrows. Arrows for gods sake! I picked up Mr Himamoto and pulled on Clay’s sleeve until he turned around and ran alongside me. We turned the first corner we came to, thinking ourselves safe but apparently they had people on more than one roof. I could hear footsteps following us but they weren’t enough of them to allow for the five guards and Grace. I didn’t have time to pause and think, though, and neither had anyone else as we sped up even more and headed straight to the forest edging the village.
What felt as the longest spring ever we reached deep enough into the woods for the trees to cover us. When I stopped Clay was just behind me. Ten to fifteen steps back was Steven and Meza. They came closer as I turned around and put Mr Himamoto down. Lena, Grace and Killroy were still missing. I ignore the pained look on Clay’s face as I ordered a shelter built. We wouldn’t stay long enough to make use of it but the Himamotos would.
Half an hour later Killroy staggered into camp, he’d been hit in the shoulder and in the gut but he’d be okay as soon as we’d get the arrows out and he’d gotten a drink of blood. Steven took care of him while Meza continued building. An hour and a half later Lena arrived clutching her chest from which another of the now hated arrows. She’d also got two more in her right thigh. Her condition was worse and I realised that we needed to move soon.
“Did anyone see what happened to Grace?” I asked, partly for my sake and partly for Clay’s.
“She went down. I got the arrow in my chest trying to get back to her. I’m sorry I failed.” She started crying, my big, bad guard was crying. Probably mostly from pain and from being exhausted but it was strange all the same. Clay stood pale and tense by me.
“Hush Lena, you didn’t do anything wrong. Everything’s going to be ok soon.” I almost hated myself for saying it but she didn’t need to hear bad news. And they trusted me, shame to them all. I turned to Clay. “We can’t go back and we need to move as soon as possible.” He nodded and looked forlornly towards where the village was situated.
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