Samurai; Lost in the Time Rift 1.3

1.3  

"What did you mean you do not know where are we?" The loud voice of the Teishin could be heard as he rant on telling the Shogun of this ridicule that he was subjected to. He had woken soon after the fight with the serpent but it was the fight that woke up. It was the heat inside his pallenquin and also his thick covers. His first reaction was to kicked at the slaves and then confront the Taisa. Soon Taisa Mori had enough of his lunatic raving, and grabbed hold of the Teishin.

 "Buke, I heard more then enough." The Taisa shouted back. "We are not in our land and we just killed a serpent that have never been seen in our land. More to that, I lost four good warriors while you slept in that box of yours. In addition to that, I have fourteen farmers here who would like barter with your worthless life for their lost ones."

The heavily caked face of the Teishin glared at the Taisa.

"Taisa Mori, I am the Teishin. You are to served me. How dare you let these yelps confront me with their barter ploys?" Teishin Buke barked back, in which the Taisa threw him across the flooring towards the farmers.

"Then confront them, Teishin." Taisa Mori looked to his Gunso. "Fetched him his daisho. He's a samurai and let him fight like one."

Taisa looked to the Hohei.

"Anyone who assisted the Teishin would have to fight me first." He cautioned them as the daisho of the Teishin was brought out from the pallenquin.

"Come on, Teishin. Show us your skills. Just like how you did with our landlord. You had him killed for refusing to pay you the extra load of wheat." Edo spite the official who was a samurai by rank that had picked himself up. Teishin picked up his daisho and withdrew his katana.

"I am still above all of you yelps when its comes to skill. Who dares to fight me, stepped forth?" The cake coated man spoke up as he held his katana firmly in the hands. He did not get one or two of them but all fourteen of them approached him with weapons drawn. The Teishin stepped back before he barked at them.

"You yelps are not warriors. Fight me like one." Teishin Buke challenged them.

"We are not warriors. We are yelps like you called us. We fight in a pack." Edo remarked back but Teishin had approached the Taisa.

"Taisa Mori, its your responsibility to protect me. Do your duty." But Taisa shook his head and replied.

"We are not in the land of the Shogun. Here we seek our own fortunes and you are entitled to the same purpose."

Teishin turned around and faced the farmers. They are just a few feet from him. He raised up his katana and threatened them once more but they keep on coming. He raised up his katana over his head and shrieked out the call of the bushido but he found his hands locked behind him. It was not the farmers but Gunso himself. The pressure on his arms caused him to dropped the katana.

"That's enough killing for the day. We are all tired and would like to rest now." Gunso picked up the katana and threw it at the pallenquin. "Your place is there. Do not come out unless you need to peed. Or lose your head perhaps not by me, but by them."

Edo turned to his men and asked them to rest on the other side of the cavern. There they have build their own fireplaces, and all of them rested that day.

It was hours later when Taisa woke up to the smell of tea boiled over the fire. He saw the Gunso had made the tea for everyone including the slaves. He did a headcount and found the Teishin missing. He asked Gunso.

"He left an hour ago, took with him a yari from one of the dead ones." Gunso told him. "No farmers followed him as I been watching them. They were busy at the dead serpent. Never understand them and their ways."

Taisa Mori thought of sending out the Hohei to looked for the Teishin but then he decided not to. Perhaps they are still at the land of the Shogun and the Teishin could be in safer hands now. He would returned later with the warriors and then the Taisa would do the needed. After all, he was tired of his duty and responsibility. All he ever does was fight the unworthy brigands or farmers and no skilled samurai would challenged him. Even the ronin feared him, but he found Edo to be a formidable foe. His skills with the naginata was good to give him a challenge. He doubts that Edo was what he claimed to be. He could be a samurai especially the way he speaks to the Taisa.

Taisa Mori then saw Edo walking over. In the leader's hand was a white bone piece on a piece of wood.

"We fashioned this for you." Edo passed him the piece. "Its the main fangs of the serpent which we fashioned over the stick like a pick."

Edo then turned to walk back to his people but Taisa Mori stopped him.

"Are you a samurai, Edo?" That stopped the man from taking another step. He turned back to see the Taisa.

"I was a ronin. But for the last three years, I was a farmer." Edo smiled the Taisa. " I teach them how to fight like true samurai but forget the fanfare of being one. Survival counts on your skills not your ranking."

"Are we still in the land of the Shogun?" Taisa Mori changed the subject.

"I doubt so. The mist took us here and we got to find our way out." Edo replied. "Or we may die of starvation."

"What is the mist? I have been here for over five years and never seen anything like it. Do you know? Please tell." Taisa Mori asked.

"I heard of the rumors from the fisherman of these mysterious mist that comes every ten winter or so. It would enveloped their boats and soon they who were caught were missing." Edo sighed in this words. "Forever and never to be seen but there was one who came back after five years. He was an old man who told of his adventure to the realms of the unknown, or it could had been Yomi but he won't declared so."

"How did he come back?" Taisa Mori was getting irritated by this long weaving of the tale. He just want the conclusion, as like many of his own kind; swift and decisive action.

"He claimed he followed a light that shone in the dark, but the journey was treacherous with many traps and dangers. He faced monster that he could never imagined..."

"Bah! A fisherman's tale may be the sound of it. I am surprised that you ever believed him." Taisa Mori turned away in disgust.

"It would had been but the sight of the serpent tells me differently. The old man drew the serpent in his tale. That was why I believed we are in the same realm as he was." Edo spoke up. "More to it, that so called fisherman as you called him, was my father. A samurai sent by the old Lord to checked on the rumors. He may had been from a barbarian tribe as all of you called us in the palace but he was a brave samurai, and leader. I found him here after searching for six years after his disappearance. He was ridiculed by the villagers as senile or crazy, but I knew my father. I nurtured him on hi failing health until his death a year later. Since then I have been searching for this mist to understand what made my father feared so much in his life. I am here now, and I think it was a foolish move on my side."

"Edo-san, a samurai does not feared death. He fights with no fear of it. You are a disgraced to the oath taken as a samurai." Taisa Mori rebuked at the man who had earlier fought him to standstill now cowering like an idiot.

"I am no more a samurai but a farmer with a young wife and child. I know not what you meant by the code of Bushido anymore. I am just a farmer now. I was vengeful but I had placate my anger for the comfort of a peaceful life. I only raised my arm on those who threatened my family. Your Teishin did that. He killed my landlord and thus making us landless. Without land, we are wanderers of the earth. We may die of starvation. I only wanted to scare your Teishin for the repayment of gold for us to worked the land. I harbor no more desire to fight like a samurai." Edo spoke out in pain.

"Yet you attacked a mist like your father. Are you not that samurai inside you?"

"I did it out of my father's memory. I did not expect to see the mist ever in my life although I had searched it once before. But not anymore. When it came, it triggered off my previous self." Edo sighed. "Now I am drawn to the same fate as my father did."

Taisa Mori reached out for the farmer and asked him to calmed down.

"If your father found a way to leave so shall we." Taisa Mori announced to the farmer. "We are samurai's and none have we feared. Failure is only upon our death. As long as we breathe, we would search."