Samurai in the Time Rift 5.2

5.2

The place was named Tito Palace; a series of four large caverns with their individual entrances, but the four caverns are now interlinked while a strong wall lined outside the entrances to protect the inhabitants of the caverns. In the tradition of their forefathers, they discovered more caverns elsewhere with underground compartments to stored their eggs guarded by the serpents. There are five of such caverns with one already destroyed by the 'slave raiding' party.

"Make way!" Tut had jumped aside for the calvary formation of twenty dragons riders on their mounts. The dragon riders are the elite warriors of Crema.. He envied them as they were given a lot of privileges and led by the Lord's youngest, Senior Leader Micten; an arrogant creature that was as mad as the father.

"Senior Leader Tut, we need to confer." Senior Leader Tut turned to looked at the one who called him. He smiled and walked into dark shadow of the cavern.

"Tell me what you know of the new 'raiders'. Follow me close. " Tut followed the one in the dark shadow.

On the river, Tairi may had sailed far and wide on the open seas, but never had he ever sailed on a river with strong undercurrents. The current pulled the raft down river as they tried to control the crude boat but they were no match for the river.

"Hold off from the rocks!" Tairi shouted as the raft was dragged further down the river. The land lubbers are all huddled close in the middle with their face drawn white by the event. They do not know what they can do in this event except to pray for safety. During the turbulent journey, the men saw many unseen before creatures.

Long elongated creatures with flippers for their feet but these are large sized ones; ten times the size of theirs. Then they saw the scaled leather backs creatures with a long tails and a head with long sprout for its jaws filled with jagged teeth. These creatures are found on the lying on the river banks; basking in the sunlight.

"There is a wide river bank over there." Tairi told the others and worked hard on pushing the raft towards it. He was afraid if they go on, they may crashed on one of the river's obstacles. The raft was managed and beached on the wide river bank. The land lubbers did not wait for the raft to be dragged up but they ran up to the river bank and prayed for their safety.

"Aargh!" Iza jumped up with a small serpent with four legs on its belly that bit into his left hand. He flung the hand several times but the serpent was relentless on holding to the hand it bit. It was Edo who came to his aid with the swing of the naginata that killed the serpent. Iza pulled at the serpent head off his left hand but the wound was bleeding blood. Its scent caught the other river dwellers and was headed to the wide river bank.

"Move inland!" Taisa gave the command and the men all grabbed the supplies to move off the river. Gunso held off the predators as the men all went inland. Gunso caught up with them at the clearing some distance from the river. He joined the rest there but noticed Iza was holding his left hand which had turned purple and swollen in size.

"Edo, the serpent had poison. Kill me as the pain is unbearable." Iza screamed out as the pain spread to his body. Edo approached and consoled his friend. It was Gunso and Taisa who did the needed work on Iza. Taisa held out the left arm and Gunso used his katana to severed it at the elbow. Iza screamed out and then fell into a state of unconsciousness.

"Why did you do that? You could had asked me first?" Edo confronted the samurai but Taisa had ignored the farmer while he tended to the wounded man. Gunso pulled Edo back.

"We done it many times in battle. Let him be." Gunso held the man back. Edo turned away in shame that he could not helped his friend. Meanwhile Taisa had a fire lighted up and burned some woods over it. Then he applied a pressure bandage on the wound. He also prepared some potion in his personal supplies but most of it was made up of using any plants he can lay his hand. When the fire place was ready, he took up the burning wood and applied it on the wound. The unconscious man came back with a scream before slipping back into unconsciousness. Taisa took to apply the herbs when he was kicked over. He looked up and saw an older man was there to attend to Iza but he was unknown to them.

"Who are you?" Taisa Mori asked but the older man was not alone. He had two others with him; strangers wrapped in rags and wielding the katana and yari. The strangers turned out to be ladies, with one of them holding a yari as the older man took out some potion after cleaning the wound of the unconscious farmer.

"Held them back. These idiots are killing their friend." The older man shouted out. Taisa Mori got up and reached for his katana, but Edo stopped him.

"Let the man try. I can see that he is doing a better task than you." Edo motioned to the older man who was putting a stop to the still bleeding ends. "More to it, these warriors are not men, but ladies. They could be Shinobi."

At the mention of Shinobi, the rest of the group had taken extra care but laughed when told that they are ladies. Shinobi are covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan who specialized in unorthodox warfare. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, and open combat in certain situations. Their covert methods of waging war contrasted them with the samurai, who observed strict rules about honor and combat. Shinobi are also known as Ninja.

"Yai! Shinobi are assassins." Gunso Mita spat out the name like it was a distaste in his mouth. "I killed some in my days, and anytime is a good time to kill one."

"Hold back, my friend. We would see what their master do for Iza first?" Taisa Mori cautioned back the Gunso. He was intrigued by the ladies as there were tales of them being one with the Shinobi like the ladies of the court are also trained as samurai. The one on the left with the yari looked older and more confident in her stance, but the other one with the katana was unsure on her feet although she was prettier.

The older man stood up and turned to looked at Taisa Mori.

"Samurai! You are all fools." The older man shouted out. "Your method would had killed the man. Those herbs you pounded are dangerous to an open wound. If not for me, he would had been dead."

"Are you the leader?" The older man asked of Taisa from his dressing. Taisa Mori nodded.

"I thought so. I remembered your face well. Taisa Juno Mori. You were there to fetch me at the beach. I am Lord Tano Noriake, who once visited your Lord on the island."

Taisa Mori then recalled the entourage that came to see the Lord when he was just posted to the island. He remembered standing by the jetty watching the three boats approaching it. Lord Tano Noriake was sent by the Shogun to oversee the development of the island. The Lord came with a hundred and fifty samurais, a hundred over slaves and with his personal family including his two daughters Kimi-ko and Ayu-se Noriake. He recalled the girls were just over twelve and ten winters, and were giggling most times. It was four winters ago when he saw them back for Edo but there was reports that they did not arrived by boat. They were thought to had died in sea by either the winds or pirates.

Taisa Mori went on his knees and prostrated before the Lord. Gunso and the rest of the men followed suit.

"Forgive me, Lord Noriake as since we came here, I have not expected to see you here." Taisa Mori kept his head down as he await the orders from the elder samurai.

"There is much to explain but this is not the place. You need to seek shelter and above all, safety in the trees." Lord Noriake led the way with the group following.