Samurai Lost in the Time Rift 3.1

Part 3

The New Level

3.1

"Kono yarou ( you bastard )!" Gunso shouted as he climbed from the small hole in the flooring. "Is Susano-ô playing with us? Or are we to climbed up more levels to get out of Yomi."

The sight that greeted him was another cavern; larger, wider but less darker than the one he just climbed up from. The rest of the group who had climbed up was all looking shocked or in a daze. It was Gunso who shouted at them to get the rest up. That effort took more than an hour as everyone was tired and more so when they reached up there, they felt disgruntled.

"Have we come to the mother cavern or are we still lost?" Taisa asked of the Gunso when he was the last to stepped out.

"I don't know, Taisa. The place is larger and yet wider but we don't where it leads. Maybe no more serpents but others we may not have encountered could come forth now." Gunso was relieved to be out of the lower cavern.

"If there were human sacrifice, then the living ones may be around too. We need to find them to get ourselves out of this land." Edo gave the reassuring thought to the samurai's. The farmers around him nodded and smiled among themselves.

"You are right, Edo-san. We must not lose hope." Taisa Mori shouted out to the Hohei to get ready to move.

"Where to. Taisa?" The cynicism of the Teishin was displayed. It caught the Taisa off guard, as he looked around the new cavern. He would not apologize to the Teishin but choose to word it carefully.

"Laid out over there, the clearing. We would camp here and looked for food." Taisa Mori gave new command, as he moved towards the clearing.

"Taisa Mori, you are obviously lost. You have no idea of where we are but tried to made amends." Teishin Buke shouted out in disgust. "Our supplies run low and you are indecisive on your directions."

That last statement irk the Taisa who rushed at the Teishin but Gunso stepped in between them.

"Even if you killed him, none of us would touched his foul flesh. Let us find our own." Gunso told his leader, which made the Teishin angry. He drew on his katana, but Gunso stopped him.

"Do that and we would all fight you." The Hohei have all stood up holding the yari in their hands now. "We would feed you to the serpents below on your death."

That took out the fight from the Teishin who stormed off again to the other side. He kicked at the slaves who were sitting there in his path but he did not go too far. Taisa Mori sat down with Edo and Gunso to discussed the issue.

"If some one or thing dragged the carcasses here, then there must a place which they had to collect it. Maybe what we had fought off could be a Nue. The one which described as having the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon dog, the legs of a tiger, and a snake as a tail. Those were their eggs but they are down below." Edo commented on his observation.

"Yai! Nue or no Nue, they can be killed. That solved my concern. Now we are to find the way out. We cannot continue on with the supplies we have now. The sake are all gone and the men may get restless." Gunso was clearly impatient to move on, but Taisa halted him.

"We need to find track of any dragging marks of whoever brought the carcasses. Who among your men are the best in this field?" Taisa Mori asked of Edo.

"A taisettsu?" Edo asked back."We are not samurai?"

"A farmer may have more skills than us. Please asked them." Gunso asked of Edo. "We have none with us."

"Fudo-san may be the best we have. He was called many times to tracked lost animals." Edo replied. "He used to tell us the difference between the smell of animals."

"Fudo-san, come here you old dog." Edo called up for the farmer to come. "Taisa wants you to be the taisettsu."

"Yai! I am no samurai nor ....the taisettsu." Fudo disclaimed as his shame on lying at the previous time weighed on his conscience. "Bento-san is a better one, and also a samurai."

"I have no more excuses. You would go with Bentos-san that way. Scout for half a day and returned. I would go this way with Sun, and do the same as you. Edo-san please take that way." Taisa motioned with his hand. "Gunso take charge during our absence."

Edo bowed and called on a farmer to followed him with two torches while Taisa made off with his Hohei. Fudo looked to the samurai who was to accompany him.

"Samurai, you go on and I would followed." Fudo bowed in humble gesture.

"Yai! You are the appointed taisettsu. I would follow." Bento replied with cynicism onto the farmer. "You may had seen us out of one trap and perhaps this one too."

Fudo sighed and picked up his weapon to move out, with Bento following close.

"Make some fireplaces. We got a long wait ahead of us." Gunso ordered the rest of the group to do as per instruction. It was then Sori came up with two others of his group.

"Gunso Mita," Sori bowed his head. "We would like to do our own exploration. I would take two men with me."

"There are three out there now and should be enough." Gunso protested but Sori was adamant on going.

"One more patrol would give us more chances. Please let us go. We shall returned on time." In the end Gunso allowed but cautioned them they would need to avoid any trouble.

"Here have this yari. It fights better than your pitch fork." Gunso offered a samurai yari to the leader who bowed in thanks.

"Gunso, our supplies are only for one day. We need to find more." The Hohei reported to him,and he sighed. He dismissed the Hohei and pondered his predicament alone by the boulder. He soon then starts to recite the renga; a favorite of the artisans then for the people to hear and reflect in their life.

Under the boulders (5 syllables)
of earth, man and creatures dwell (7 syllables)
jointly querying the dusk. (5 syllables)

( A Renga (linked verse), a medieval Japanese poetic form, made popular in the 14th and 15th centuries. A renga was soon to evolved to be haiku.This one was assisted for me by a fellow member of Storywrite.com; Amanda Vampiress.)

Gunso saw most of the men are asleep while he remained on guard. Its best they rest as their journey have far to go.