Samurai Lost in the Time Rift 3.4

3.4

Taisa Mori barked at the men to stop their retreat. They have ran past the ambush area and was like running non-stop in to the cavern until the Taisa stopped them.

"Stop, you fools. You are heading into nowhere the way you ran." Taisa Mori moved up the line to the front. "Where are you headed?"

"There?" Taisa Mori shouted out. "Or there?" He pointed to a different directions.

"All of you are fools! Including you. And you too." Taisa Mori had pointed his finger at Edo and then at Teishin Buke. None dared to challenge him as they stood there heaving in with deep breaths.

"Gunso, come forth." Taisa Mori called for the aide of his. "Tell me which way the other creature went?"

Gunso point to the direction which he thought was right.

"Then we would go there. He may be going to someplace where there are more of them. Maybe its the way out....." Taisa Mori explained and then sighed as he completed his words.

"What? To another rock wall or worse another hole to climb out from to go deeper into Yomi." Teishin Buke sounded out his protest.

"Hai!" Gunso Mita charged at the Teishin but Edo held him back at the arms.

"Teishin Buke is right. We need to have a plan to get out or die starving here." Edo spoke up while holding onto the Gunso. "Gunso, restraint yourself. Killing him would not helped you in getting home."

Gunso relented and stepped back to stand beside Taisa Mori. Teishin had his katana half drawn but now left it there as he glared at the two. It was then one of the farmer called out.

"Fudo missing? Anyone seen him?" The farmer shouted out. Edo looked around and then asked the Gunso if he had seen Fudo.

"I saw him at the rear but I did not looked back again when we were running." Gunso replied. "He could be still behind us or captured."

Edo wanted to go back but Taisa Mori stopped him. He shook his head at the other leader. Then he addressed the rest of the group.

"Those who would followed me, do so now at my command. The rest who does not, can do as they wished." Taisa Mori bowed his head and turned towards the direction pointed by Gunso. He moved off with his feet without looking back. Not one stayed back except Teishin Buke, who eventually followed suit.

Taisa Mori had to bite his right hand to avoid shouting out when he saw the creature tossed the farmer into the pit. Edo who was besides him also stifle down his voice on the sight. The duo had diverted off the track to looked for Fudo on a parallel path. They saw the creature had walked off and was out of sight. Both of them rushed to the pit edge and looked down. They saw Sori attending to Fudo who was unconscious.

"Edo-san! Taisa Mori! Thanks to Amaterasu" You found me." Sori clamored to the rocky wall in the pit to greet the two who found him.

"How is Fudo-san?" Edo asked as he point to the farmer lying there unmoving.

"He is dead. The creature tossed him here." Sori replied. "I was doing the prayer for him."

Edo who had retrieved the discarded yari used it to pulled the slave up. Once he had pulled the slave up, he looked once more to the farmer. Fudo had been his friend and now laid dead there with no ritual to free his soul. Edo gave out a shout to his friend.

"Amaterasu guide your soul, my friend." Edo shouted. Taisa Mori jumped up and stopped the other.

"You fool! Do you want to bring the creatures here?" But the shout by Edo had woken up the 'dead man' who now raised up his right arm.

"He moves. He is not dead." Edo shouted out again. He then glared at the slave. "You lied."

Edo pulled the slave and pushed him back into the pit. He told the slave to carried the farmer out or die there. Sori begged for forgiveness.

"I was afraid. I never been so afraid until now. Please forgive me." Sori cried out in pain as tears flowed from his eyes. His plea fell on silent ears as he made his way to the wounded farmer. He looked down at the farmer who was heaving in his breath then and trying to made sense of his whereabouts.

"I am sorry, farmer. You are a mess. I am a mess. We are all a mess." Sori picked up the rock he saw on the ground. He held it up and pounded the farmer in the face while he kept on muttering to himself. Edo saw the act and jumped in the pity to try to rescue his friend. His naginata swung out and discapacitate the slave head from the body, but the farmer was already dead.

"Fudo-san, I am sorry. I was late to saved you." Edo knelt down by his friend's body. He muttered the words of the ritual of dead before he heard the Taisa calling his name.

"Edo-san, we got to leave." The leader was calling to him in the low tones. "I can hear the creatures coming."

Edo got up and walked to the pit side where Taisa Mori had lowered the yari. He was pulled up and they made their way on to rejoined the rest.

They found the group huddled in three groups with Gunso standing over all of them. Teishin Buke was to the side as usual.

"Gunso, why have you stopped? Did you get the creature?" Taisa Mori asked. Gunso motioned to the leader to walked to the side for him to speak.

"Teishin Buke complained of food when we rested here. Now the rest are also complaining. I have sent Bento and Sun to tracked the creature."

"Fools! Did the Hohei complained?" Taisa Mori asked but Gunso shook his head. Taisa walked to the farmers who were conferring with their leader. Edo saw him approaching and stood up.

"They are complaining the slaves got more than them. Its not....." Taisa Mori did not wait for the statement to be completed when he kicked at the farmers. Edo grabbed hold of him and told him to stop.

"Or you would fight me for these ungrateful dogs." Taisa Mori glared at the leader of the farmers.

"They are my men, and I would discipline them. Like samurai if need be. Or die here like a slave." Edo replied to the angry Taisa. The later proceeded on back to his own Hohei. It was then Bento came back with heaving breaths as he told them of his findings.

"I may had found the exit from this cavern."

They found a major outpost with the structure that span over across the mouth of the cavern; the span of a hundred feet, similar in length to Han Chinese Junk that was also parked next to the entrance of the cavern. The three bamboo masts was set upright with rocks and small boulders on its hull. There was a gaping hole in the left side of the hull; probably a result of the move here from its origin on the sea to this cavern. The exit that leads out the cavern was guarded by a dozen creatures while another dozen more was in the junk. The newly arrived creature had taken a dozen of the creatures off the place just now, but the count revealed earlier was the balance there.

"Taisa, we are outnumbered and more to it, we are trapped." Teishin was very re-assuring in his words, while Edo was looking to find ways to get the men to safety. The Taisa looked fragile in his current state and shook his head. Then he spoke to the men gathered around him.

"There is our way out. If we withdraw now, we would get this chance again. If we try, we might all die or some of us would."

They all nodded, and them checked their weapons. Gunso spread out the last supplies and had them all consumed it.

That was a mistake.

The aroma of the last bottle of sake carried far it scent. More so when they are new to the smell or was it they were used to it.

"I smell the toxic drink." One of the creatures hollered out. It started sniffing and getting frantic. That excited the rest and Taisa saw the reaction.

"They are onto us. We need to do it now or never." The men nodded and picked up their last remaining rice cakes. They then lined up in a row and spoke their last prayer. They jumped over their covers and rushed down towards the entrance.

Nine samurai lined up and offered their assistance with their archery skills. Arrows went flying off their bows and hit the deemed vital points in the creatures but they are still coming. The others stood in between them but they are outnumbered. The creatures are wounded but they are still fighting with their weapons.

Gunso was flung across the flooring hit by the long handled mallet on his left shoulder. He tried to get up but the pain was excruciating. Taisa was holding his own; retreating step by step until his back was next to Edo who was defending himself with the naginata. It looked like they are to be defeated.

"For the Shogun! Banzai!" Taisa hollered out as he swung the katana at the creature's exposed left shin. His blade cut the creature and sent it falling down. His blade followed with a downward swing on the back of the neck.

Then there was the shouts from the entrance.

Battle cries of the people of Nippon.

There were carrying yari and katana; numbering more than fifty of them, ragged, malnourished but now warriors of Nippon. Among them was some bearded men who was lighter in the skins shades with the curved blades that looks like scimitar but shorter. Each man was carrying a wooden cannister on their waist belt which they constantly used to poured on the blades. It was also noted that with each cut of those blades the creatures screamed as if burned by the wound.

"Samurai-san, put these on your blades." The bearded man hacked at the wounded creature that was done by Taisa Mori' blade. The man had just handed him the wooden cannister from the belt.

"Its dead." Taisa replied and took hold of the cannister. He opened the cover and the stench it gave out was overpowering.

"Its the red butt baboons' urine. The 'Hibagon' does not like it. It burns their skin." The bearded man smiled with his toothless mouth. It was then the Taisa realized he was talking Nippon to a stranger. He dipped his katana in it and passed the cannister to Edo. He then rushed towards the fighting creatures and slashed it at the back. The creature screamed out in pain and Taisa gave it another slash at the waist before jumping up for the overhead deadly slash.

Soon they had the creatures dead or wounded and Taisa had his men followed the strangers out of the cavern. Of the twenty five men, only fifteen made it out alive. The rest of them are all dead. Even the one wounded with one leg was dead when he was stomped on by the creatures.

Fifteen men; of the original forty one who had arrived in the mist; five are samurai, six farmers and four slaves. They cursed when they came out of the cavern into the land of the Time Rift

"We are no more in Shogun' land" Teishin Buke hollered out as he stared at the dark skies. The sight was the moon so large that it was one third covering the horizon and the there was another smaller moon just on the far horizon.

Indeed they are lost in a new land.