Samurai; In the Time Rift 2.2

2.2

Bento, the Hohei checked his bow everyday without fail. To him, the yumi ( bow ) was his weapon of choice. It stands over over two meters, and surpassing the samurai holder by half a head. His Yumi was made from a combination of laminating bamboo, wood and leather, using techniques learned his father and his father before that. The upper and lower curves also differ, as the center of the Yumi was two third below the upper tip. A bamboo yumi requires careful attention. Left unattended, the yumi can become out-of-shape and may eventually become unusable. The shape of a yumi will change through normal use and can be re-formed when needed through manual application of pressure, through shaping blocks, or by leaving it strung or unstrung when not in use. The tsuru or bowstring of a yumi is traditionally made of hemp. The nocking point on the string is built up through the application of hemp and glue to protect the string and to provide a thickness which helps hold the nock of the arrow in place while drawing the yumi.

The arrows ( no ) are made from bamboo strips and can have different shapes; straight, or tapering, depending on the use of the arrow. The arrows are also balanced for trajectory that arcs more. These are also countered measured in the aesthetic balance of length and thickness determines the diameter of the arrow. The proper length is measured from the archer's throat to five centimetres beyond the tip of the outstretched left hand. The feathers should be about fifteen centimetres in length and can be the most expensive part of the arrow. Bento uses only the finest; the Sea Eagle. On his bow the nock ( hazu )was made from deer horn, while his arrowheads are mostly with conical iron tip but there are a few which are made for special targets. Those are kept in the personal baggage carried by the slaves.

Bento counted the arrows in the quiver. He had lost ten arrows from the thirty he had there, and felt the loss more than the others. He treasured all of it; even retrieved it when he shot it. But this place had taken ten of his arrows. He had tried to retrieved it but they are all damaged.

"Bento, here have these arrows." Sun passed to his friend the arrows given by the others. He knew Bento treasured the arrows but there are no materials here to make new ones.

"Arigato-mo, Sun-san. I am glad to retrieved them." Bento examined the arrows. They are some imperfection in them and he would rectified them when they rested. He kept them on his obi. They would not be mixed with his arrows until they are perfected.

"Bento, come forth." That was the Taisa Mori who gave him the order. Bento ran forth on his best of speed to the head of the column.

"Bento, I want you to scout the path ahead while the group rest here. Edo-san have assigned another to assist you. He is called Fudo." Taisa Mori pointed to the farmer standing next to him. The farmer held a pitchfork in his hand, and a sickle was on his waist line belt.

"Fudo-san, that's my name." He was also a man of the Taisa' height, but was packed with the fats than muscles. "I may be older but I have a keen smell on my nose. I can picked out any scent."

A dog place was in the yard of the house, and not in patrol with a samurai; those were the thoughts of Bento. He looked to his Taisa.

"Taisa, that task can be performed by myself. I am a samurai." Bento was irritated that he was paired to a farmer but the Taisa was adamant on the joint patrol. So he reluctantly followed the order and proceeded to ventured ahead. The path ahead was not much different from the earlier ones but they soon discovered something new.

"Do you smell it?" Fudo asked the samurai who was walking ahead with the bow in the left arm but the samurai was not responding to his question. The farmer bend down to the ground and took a sample of the dirt there. He smelled and tasted it on his tongue.

"Its bat guano." Fudo muttered to himself. Then he proceeded on to take more dirts, and did not noticed the samurai was rounding the corner ahead.

"But I also smell dead carcasses." Fudo spoke to himself. He looked for the samurai and saw the lighted torch carried by the samurai was fading. Fudo rushed forth to catch up but he missed the samurai.

"Where did he turned?" The farmer had passed through a narrow path with high walls of rocks on both sides and now came to a small clearing with three paths of high rocks walls. He was himself alone on his own path. He knelt down to see the tracks on the ground. It was how he tracked his animals on the farm when they are lost in the hills. He saw the marks of the sandals heading to the path on the left, so he choose that one.

He walked on and then he saw what may be some lights in front. He moved on as he does want to see what was there. He came onto a small ledge and leaned down to watch was over there. He had to stifle his own voice from shouting. It was not a sight that the others would even dared to see. He then felt the hand clasped over his mouth. It was Bento who also doused the lighted torch.

"Do not be alarmed." Bento whispered to him.

The sight was a clearing below not far down, with hanging from the ceiling of the cavern on vines with human corpses decayed on it. It could had been there for over a period of time and it was hanging over two dozen over large eyes; the sized on a cat-like creatures.

There was one egg which have cracked which its occupant had emerged and was feeding on one of the corpses. The newly born creature was with furred body of human like limbs, but the head was larger with its expression more serpent designs on it.

"Are they ....like us or are they..." Fudo asked.

"Hibagon, it could be them. I heard of them. Dweller of the mountains and killers. So we are still in land of Shogun." Bento replied but they noticed the young creature had stopped it gnawing at the body. It was picking its nose up and trying to track the scent.

"We need to get back." Bento pulled at the farmer but the later was looking at the young creature. It bared its young growing fang and spring towards the duo.

"The creature coming." Fudo called out and such was the creature swift in movement even at that early stage, it came leaping over the un-hatch eggs and rocks to jumped onto the path leading to them. Bento on reaction learned in the years of training, turned his body as he drew on his bow. The arrow notched there was pulled to its length on the taut bow string was released towards the small creature as he stood up to leaned the body downwards on the side facing the creature. It struck the creature in its left eye and pierced to the back of the head. It dropped down dead in mid stride while the other two men ran back to the safety of their numbers. Their run was on the semi darkness condition but they had acclimatized their sights by now the contour of the path.

It was Bento who suffered the first casualty of fall, when his leg tripped on a wrong footing and ended falling over a ledge. It was not any ledge but one that dropped into a deep narrow crevasse after it. Bento was quick to grabbed hold of the small outcrop of rock with his bow and avoided falling through.

"Samurai, where are you?" Fudo had stopped to searched for the missing samurai.

"I am over here. Look over the ledge." Bento hanging on by the bow replied his predicament. "I need some help to get up."

Fudo was soon seen staring over the edge and the dark recess below scared him. He tried to looked for anything to pulled the samurai up but there was none. He then remembered his pitchfork and lowered that down.

"Grab this and we would be fine." Fudo braced himself for the pull with his body stretched on the ledge. He was the mule in the farm when the ox was taken by some bandits. He plowed the land with his shoulders and limbs acting like a ox. Now his strength was to pulled the samurai up who had held onto his pitchfork with one hand and holding the bow with the other.

"Released the bow and use that hand to find some hold that can help you. I would pulled from my side." Fudo pulled his body back with the pitchfork held firm with both hands. He pulled and pulled while the samurai struggled to pushed up. Soon he had the samurai up but the later was adamant on fishing his bow out.

"Lent me your pitchfork." The samurai may had asked but he did not wait for the reply. He took the pitchfork and used it to reached for the bow still hanging on the rock. He got it hooked and dragged it up.

"Arigato-mo, farmer. I am in your debts." Bento bowed to the farmer.

"Fudo, my name. We were all in debt to each other. You killed the small creature and I saved you. We are equal." Fudo replied as he checked his pitchfork for damages.

"I think its best we relight the torches. This place is too dangerous to wandered in the dark." Fudo spoke out as he held out the torch he had used. Bento complied and re-lit the torches including his. He then heard the shouts and scream.

"The campsite. We need to rush back." Both of them rushed back to the campsite.