Samurai in the Time Rift 5.3

5.3

Lord Noriake have his hideout inside the deep forest; the terrain here was different from the across the river with more dense forest like back home at the island. Here the trees grew high and even the base trunk stood man's height with the roots twinged from that height to the ground as it was pulling up to reached the skies. The trunk rose up like a bastion to the strengthen its bid for the sunlight, but that was not all; its upper branches spread out to create a space between the trunks with canopy of leaves acting like the front lines army to push the others off. In that battle, the canopy formed a shield blocking the sunlight from seeping through. Its with this the undergrowth thrive to climbed up the trunks to get their own replenishment. In that works, the undergrowth spread out thick to climbed on more than one trunk, and thus creating a flooring of cover for another group; the ground creeping predators. They lurked beneath the undergrowth but they never seen the more dangerous predator of all times; the human being. The ones that have extincted even those bigger than their size. The reason was simple; the humans do not fight alone, but hunk in packs. More to it, they never fight the same way twice. Or the same numbers. 

Lord Noriake was not alone like the others; he also fight with extra numbers and superior weapons. He removed these threats from his boundary, and held his own retainers; nineteen samurai and fifty four servants with his two 'daughters'. They have been here for over ten winters time, as told by the Lord to the Taisa, clearing the land of its predators, so they can lived comfortably. Humans like to create their own boundaries even if its means removing others. 

"Lord Noriake, we lost you four winters ago. But maybe time line here runs faster." Taisa Mori explained to the Lord.

Lord Noriake continued his tale; they did get lost at sea, there was the mist as described by many and then they found themselves in the forest. Lord Noriake discovered that they are no more on the island or anywhere on Nippon, he organized the people he had with him. He had built a camp then but it was destroyed by their enemy here; the creatures that resembled the baboons back on the island but these ones are as tall as man, and more ferocious. The creature were named Nihonzaru Yomi; the last meaning Hell as these are Hell born baboons. They have overrun and destroyed the last campsites in their tenure here.

"Many have died in this war, Taisa Mori." Lord Noriake sighed in the final statement. "I came with two hundred over warriors and slaves. I was joined at sea with another Lord; Lord Deki who was going my way. All in we had about four hundred of us. But since we arrived here, we are now down to under two hundred. Lord Deki had died in the earlier wars. We have rescued some thirty over slaves but the losses we incurred was higher."

Lord Noriake apologized for his hospitality. He invited his guests to eat their fill on the makeshift hall on the treehouse.

"Taisa, your sacrifice paled to mine. I have lost my family except my daughter, and she is deaf due to these Nihonzaru. They had tortured her for days." Lord Noriake pointed to the one who sat on his right. It was the younger one as Taisa Mori could see.

"Ayu-se was captured while protecting her sister, but Kimi-ko died that day." Young Ayu-se excused herself from the hall and retreated to her corner in the treehouse.

"She may not hear but she can tell we talked about her. She learned the samurai art by motion than by instructions." Lord Noriake shook his head. "I shall see her avenged before I leave for Yomi. Now tell me in details of your trip here."

Taisa Mori spent the whole long night to tell the tale of his adventures. Meanwhile Gunso Mita went around talking to the others and learning about the land. Edo did not get involved but chose to attend to his friend, Iza. It was the young who decided to go wooing, and that was none other than Bento who approached the young deaf lady. Bento made her a flute and taught her to blow it the chords that others could hear. That way they could communicate when they are together.

The next few days, Taisa Mori was soon to learned on the new land he was to spent some time. The inner land on across this river was filled with forest of trees, and lowland bushes with its distinguishable breeds of trees like oaks and cherry, with many flowery plants of the home island. But he was cautioned that the similarity stopped at the appearance. Some of these plants are poisonous compared to their namesake. According to Lord Noriake, the disparity could had been caused by the soil or the plants have evolved with the 'Yomi' nature of the place.

The creatures that roamed here are more then serpents; they are also the larger predators on four limbs with large jaws or long talons. The samurai of Lord Noriake spoke of the fleet footed two man height creature that runs on two lower limbs, while its upper limbs are lined with the three talons on the end of it. They named it; Ryu for dragon.

Besides that there are the eight legged deadly spiders the size of a grown man, with its deadly sting that numbs a man within seconds. They named it Kori-kumo ( Ice Spider ). The serpents or named by them as 'orichi'; the serpent what was killed by Susano', are not far behind in size and length but like the other serpents, they all have tiny legs below their neck.

"Its the Nihonzaru you should fear." The samurai spoke in unison. "They fought in packs, and carried these small daggers in their hands. Once they clasped onto your body, they are relentless in their stabbing and would not stopped until you are dead. They would break open your skull while you are still living to get at your brain."

It was Lord Noriake who reveal the most starling information.

"The Nihonzaru are enemies of the Hibagon across the river. They been battling for over sometime now, and we are to escalate the war." Lord Noriake told the Taisa. "Once we do that, they would annihilate each other, and then this war would be over."

"Lord Noriake, you have few men but they are in the thousands." Taisa spoke out in bewilderment. This man was more crazy than Commander Kito.

"Yes, but I have something they don't have." Lord Noriake invited the samurai to followed him. He led the samurai to the ground and then to a clearing. He pulled at the vine that was hanging over the clearing to reveal a hidden doorway leading inside the ground. There was a staircase that lead down. It led to a small cave that housed some glittering metallic boxes with many more lighted sparks that traveled across the metal surface.

"This was given to me by a stranger like us. One with long hair and speak our language. He claimed he was from the future and was a Lord. The lord of a ship he claimed housed a few sailors was it needed, and it was a warship. He had parts of his ship brought here. He assembled it here and told me about it. He called it a bomb. One that could annihilate all the Hibagon and Nihonzaru. Even the serpents and all." Lord Noriake smiled. "Even us."

Taisa Mori was taken aback. This man threatens the enemy with something that even he may perished by it. What was the logic to that. We are all warriors; death was nothing new but to purposely inviting death was unheard of. Much as he was shock, he also wants to know more.

"Taisa Mori, you looked morbid with that expression." Lord Noriake laughed. "It would an honor to cleanse this land of this foul creatures so that the new breed would be more accommodating and preserved the sanctuary."

"I am surprised at you new samurai; so concerned and protective." Lord Noriake commented back."That would be the ultimate weapon but the one I would had preferred to use would be this."

Lord Noriake unveiled the cloth that covered the item behind it. It was a samurai armor with all the plating but this one was larger, taller and more intimidating. The armor was more complete with no surface uncovered by the plating. It face piece was a resemblance of Hachiman. It was all covered in the silvery metallic plate and there was the extra thick and long yari next to the armor.

"The Lord gave this to me for the fight with the Nihonzaru. He told himself, one of these was a thousand of my samurai. I believed him as I have used it in the last war. It worked and I was the Lord of the land then." Lord Noriake laughed out. "But the armor is only good for one fight and needs many sunrise to rest. That stopped me from using it unless I have to."

“Hai! Lord Noriake, you are a good strategist.” Taisa Mori played to the fiddle on the Lord.

“Yes, I am the strategist, but one like me need more than strategy. I needed power and this stranger gave me that,. He gave me named bomb, and the armor. He also told me a secret.” Lord Noriake paused to stared at the samurai. “A secret that none knew in this land,except myself. The secret of the land. It was his people who created the God that brought us here. He told me he was from the future; to be exact it was the year 2236. He was from our land of Nippon, that he wanted to bring forth our ancestors to his time. It was like having living history for the generation, but he did not know that he opened a gateway to Yomi.”

“This is Yomi. Another world within ours; yet different but we are still in the same place on our land.” Lord Noriake smiled at the stunned samurai. “Do not look stunned, samurai.”

“This Yomi as we named it, was to him; an inter-dimensional level. Something which sounded like the tales of the Hibagon, and yet we see them here." Lord Noriake sighed and then continued on. "The gateway went wrong, it sent the people to the wrong dimension. The stranger cleared the gateway with the warship of his, and ended up here. He was trying to correct the gateway, when he was attacked by the Nihonzaru. Most of his sailors died leaving him alone. He moved the so called bomb here, but by then he met me. We spoke and offered me passage back to the land of my origin. I declined as my family died here and I would die here too. I told him I would activate the bomb but only on ensuring all the Hibagon and Nihonzaru are dealt with. He left me here but I have not carried out his request."

"How do we get home, Lord Noriake?" Taisa asked the Lord.

"The stranger gave me the amulet." Lord Noriake showed him the amulet from inside his armor. "It would opened a new gateway."

The Lord looked at the samurai.

"You feared this land and wished to go back. Are you such a coward for a samurai? We are warriors. We would fight out justice and peace. Death meant nothing to us. Only honor." Lord Noriake placed the amulet into his armor. "Speak no more of the amulet until we done the task."

"As I have said, I would escalate war between the two. I have a plan which they would fight over. I would attack the Nihonzaru and leave evidence of the Hibagon doing it." Lord Noriake laughed out louder. Soon there was the cries for Lord Noriake from above ground. Both the Lord and Taisa left the underground cave and approached the scout who was most agitated.

"Lord Noriake, I have seen the Hibagon cross the river. I counted three hundred or more of these creatures led by the Senior Leader Tut and then there were the riders of their elites, Leader Micten."