Samurai in the Time Rift 5.4

5.4

Lord Noriake and Taisa Mori hidden behind the bushes on the small hill top, counted the enemies that had landed on the beach. They came over in boats that resembled the Han junks with its numerous trip to and fro. There was three hundred of the creatures with another fifty of the riders on the four limbed creature with tails.

"Those are not hebi ( snake in Japanese ) but kana-hebi ( lizard in Japanese. )" Taisa Mori commented on the creature named as foul creatures by Captain Rodriquez, but the older Lord corrected him.

"Kana-hebi can be squashed with our sandal, but these are larger. I called them Yomi Kana-hebi, adding in the reference of Hell to the name." Lord Noriake replied. "We may have a show for our viewing. The last war caused them many losses, and a long respite for us. I used that period of time to secured more supplies and added onto their misery."

It was then we saw the arrival of the Nihonzaru; a column of twenty but with their diminutive frame, they looked like a column of children parading to see the Hibagon. But these 'children' are wearing leather armor from neck down to their knees, and having the belts of daggers which they are famed for. They have thick fur with dog like muzzles, jagged teeth in their powerful jaws, equally powerful limbs and close-set eyes, and short tails. They weight about 100lbs with a height of three feet high.

"That's Keo, of the Nihonzaru. Its the leader of the column that cover this area. Its related to the Lord of the Nihonzaru." Lord Noriake pointed to the Taisa. "That one is a smart one. He needs to be watched. We would listen in on their discussion."

"Leader Tut, you have come back, but need you bring back so many of your warriors? Our last meet was more cordial in numbers." Keo of the Nihonzaru greeted the other leader. The last meeting was to cease the war, and there was only four in attendance; Keo and its Lord, with Lord Zethre and Tut. It was the tradition that in declaring a truce only the leaders and their best warrior can attend.

"Bah! The old tales does not interest me anymore." Senior Leader Tut replied with anger. "I am Senior Leader Tut now and you are the still miserable Leader Keo."

"And for that, you come with an invading army of only hundreds." Keo roared out his protest and raised his arms.

"Enough of our talks. Are those the only numbers you can mustered from your empire?" Leader Micten asked. "Then this war is over even before we could start."

"My army could matched yours any say. These are only the ones I need today. The others are in the city." Leader Keo hollered out towards the young Hibagon creature. "My warriors doubled matched your ferocity. You have seen it on the last war."

"Bah! Those are..." Micten the leader fo the riders voiced out his arrogance, but Senior Leader Tut silenced the young creature.

"Leader Tut, I am...." Micten was not giving up, but the older Hibagon held his hand up. That shut up the young Hibagon.

"Enough of talks. Are your army in place?" Leader Tut asked.

"Yes, they are. If all is fine by you we would march there now." Keo told the Hibagon leaders. "But before we do, let me deal with a traitor of mine."

Keo raised his arm to have the traitor brought from the forest out to the bridge. It was another Nihonzaru but this one was half dead after being tortured for sometime. It was thrown on the beach before the leaders.

"Behold my own blood, Kiru who tried to betrayed me to my Lord. He would be punished." Two Nihonzaru carried the injured one and tossed it into the river. "No one betrays me!"

The column of rebels marched out leaving only traces of blood from the injured Nihonzaru in the beach.

Taisa Mori stood up and looked at the departing column. He spoke to Lord Noriake on this thoughts.

"They are planning a coup on their Lord." Taisa Mori spoke up. "Its like in our land, we overthrown Daimyo and Shogun before, but we always preserved the Emperor."

"Yes, they have done what I wanted to do." Lord Noriake replied and then jolted his right elbow on the Taisa. The later turned to look at where Lord Noriake was pointing.

"It survived." Taisa saw the Nihonzaru which was tossed into the river; now lying on the beach. "We must see to it."

Leno of the Nihonzaru survived the river as the crossing of so many of them had scared off the local inhabitants. When Leno hit the water, there were no predators. But there were others besides the two samurai, who had seen him being tossed in. That other was a Nihonzaru who fled off in the forest unseen by the others. Its name was Rini, a member of the guards assigned to protect Leno.