AN: Hey readers Just starting out,hope you like it.

note: Later chapter will be longer

I do not own Shaman king or anything related to it, just this plot and the original characters

Ren's grandfather stood before him lecturing him on their family history and why the Journey of Ascension was so important. The lecture was for tradition only, as he could match this man word for word His father and mother were behind him their expression serious and devoid of emotion.

This was a good day, one Ren had been looking forward to for the past three years. It was an extraordinary effort to hide this excitement and keep to a serious expression matching his parents. Ren looked past his parents to the other members of his family organized according to their relation to En Tao, as they too partook in this sacred ceremony.

Ren looked past them towards their family home for the past seven hundred years, ever since the betrayal and forced exile. It was similar to a small village though the three towers reaching high into the sky marked it as something much more. He would not be allowed to return here until he was twenty one. five years from now. In that time he was supposed to learn about the wider world and bring back the experience of dealing with the unpredictable nature and strength of potential enemies.

His grand father finished and bowed before him. Ren returned the bow glad to be able to hide his scowl. He would never disrespect his family, but his grand father's talks usually never ended, and he was glad that the experience was coming to an close.

Ren waited until his grand father straightened before standing as well, his scowl gone. His father and Mother walked toward him passing his grandfather each holding the only possessions he would be allowed to leave with. His father held his Kwan dao, his companion through the hours of training he had been subjected to over the past ten years. His mother carried a rolled up scroll that had an outdated map of the world. Everything else he would have to acquire on his own. His mother handed him the map first which he placed in the fold of his robes. His father then handed him his weapon which Ren took then snapped his wrist breaking it into smaller pieces held together by a chains. He placed the folded staff on his back held by the yellow sash around his waist.

"Your Journey will be long," His mother said, her voice soft and quiet though he had no trouble hearing her, as though the wind obeyed her commands and safely escorted anything that passed through her lips to their intended target.

"You will not be allowed entry here until your twenty first year," His father said. If his mother was the wind, his father was the stone, hard and unbending.

"I will return after five years from this day, I leave a child, and return a man," Ren said, every word had been carefully rehearsed and scripted. This departure was all tradition, and nothing was out of place, as the final part began. Ren turned and walked away, heading for the path that would lead away from their hidden home. This part was the hardest, the moment he turned his back he was not allowed to look upon his homeland until five years had past. It was so very hard not to sneak a glance back to the only home he had known, to the only people he had called family.

He refused to fall to that urge. his eyes were straight in front of him and his pride stopped him completely from turning around to once again see the comforting sight of his home. The path was one that led through the mountains and the temptation dissipated as he walked past a bend that completely blocked the sight of his family.

He paused, he had a long road ahead of him and it would not likely be easy. Ren took a deep breath, then started walking towards his future.

"Do you know what your doing?" Pirika asked, not really expecting an intelligent reply, after all Horo Horo was known for many things but his intelligence had always escaped notice.

"Of course I know," Horo responded confidently, "I am marking the trees we pass so that we don't go in circles," He finished marking the tree and started walking through the snow covered forest.

"You would not have to mark the trees if you weren't lost," Pirika pointed out, following her brother deeper through the snow covered forest.

"We're not lost, we just can't see the village right now," Horo tried to defend himself.

"You must be the only one in the village who can get lost in these woods," Pirika sighed disappointed

"We are not lost," Horo denied, "If we go this way we'll will be back before you know it," Horo proclaimed proudly, pointing west and heading off in that direction. "Besides even if we were lost, your just as lost as I am," Horo quickly added, feeling annoyed at being blamed for their current situation.

Pirika followed her brother as he made his way through the snow.

"I'm not lost," Pirika said with complete certainty, smiling at her older brother. Horo did not turn back as he continued on his way.

"Good, then we're agreed, we are not lost," Horo said beginning to get tired of ploughing through the knee high snow banks.

"Then where are we going?" Pirika asked still smiling though her brother had not turned to look at her.

"Back to the village of course," Horo responded still heading foreword until he heard a sound ahead.

"But if we want to get home then we're going the wrong way," Horo barely heard her as he ran toward the noise he was hearing. He did not see Pirika point in the opposite direction they had been going.

"Hah!" Horo exclaimed as he came across the Hokaida river. This was a river that ran parallel to their village which would mean he now knew which way to go. He turned to tell his sister the good news when he saw her smiling and pointing the opposite way.

"You could have told me we were headed the wrong way," Horo whined as they walked into their small village.

"I would have told you if you had asked, but you insisted you weren't lost," Pirika said skipping towards the house he and his sister shared ever since their parents died. "We made excellent timing," Pirika added. Horo knew what she meant as it was this year he would finally be old enough to travel to Cainen, a village just to the south to meet the Trading caravan.

Hokaida village was small and out of the way surrounded on two sides by mountains, another side a river. The only way out of the valley their village lay was south thus trading caravans never traveled to their town and they always sent a group to Cainen to pick up supplies they might need and to collect news of the wider world. News was turning out to be a valuable commodity. The politics of the region and indeed the boarders sectioning the land itself seemed to change every week. One month the Hokaida and the surrounding land was owned by Jessalo the premonition lord, this week they were apparently owned by Gavis the warrior. The constant claim to their village was very annoying to Horo, in his mind nobody owned them. That opinion was apparently unsafe since the elders had agreed that whomever controlled the green plains, the area around Cainen, would be given control of their little town. Thus the constant warring never reached Hokaida, and none of the Warlords cared enough or ruled long enough to exact any significant changes to their way of life.

"Well, are you ready," Pirika interrupted Horo's thoughts.

"Almost," Horo grinned at his little sister, before her perceptive gaze forced him to be a bit more honest, "truthfully, not at all," Horo admitted. Pirika just gave a loud sigh and headed for Horo's room to help him pack.

The journey to Cainen would take two days and a nice chunk of the third, and they would leave in the morning. Once there they would stay a week before returning carrying all they purchased on the horse drawn wagons. Horo wasn't worried, he had all night to pack. He had already arranged for himself to be able to ride in one of the wagons carrying the goods the people of their village intended to trade. He intended to sleep the entire day tomorrow.

"HORO!" Pirika yelled from his room, causing him to jump into action, it was time to pack.

Ren had been walking for two days and was almost at his destination. He was heading for the town known as Cainen a town to the west of his home and on the edge of the region called green plains. The name was well earned as their was nothing but green fields of grass occasionally interrupted by dirt roads and paths.

Cainen was his destination, because his mother had informed him a trading caravan would be heading through there in a few days and he would be able to acquire a more up to date map. After that he did not know where he would go. The goal of his journey was to learn about the outside world and understand the current methods of warfare, and politics being employed. Thus he would probably head to an area heavy with conflict, or perhaps he would join in one of the military's and gain first hand experience on the tactics performed by today's commanders. Then he could become a guard or more bluntly a spy that could infiltrate the higher ups and pay attention to the politics currently going on.

When the Tao family was exiled they knew that to become separate and ignore the potential enemies that could attack at any moment was foolish. So every Tao, unless exempted for special reasons, was sent out to learn what they could about the ways of their enemies. That way if war ever did return to the Tao family then they would be prepared and able to adapt.

Something he did not have to worry about was that the woman of the Tao were also supposed to find a worthy father for a Tao warrior, acquire his seed then abandon the man without a trace. This process allowed the Tao family to become diverse. His parents though were an exception as when his father left on his journey of Ascension he returned with his Mother. His Mother had been generally unwelcome, and still is very much disliked among the ranks of the Tao.

That was something he did not need to worry about, he loved his mother and even though she did not have a Tao ancestor she was very much apart of Ren's family. He though would not dishonor his family by bring home some woman.

Perhaps he could become an assassin and learn about the politics that way. Ren spent the rest of the day thinking and contemplating idea's on how he could accomplish his mission. Losing himself in his thoughts did not stop him from noticing a strange plateau along the path on the otherwise flat plain. When he reached it he decided to have a look around.

He was propped up and he could see quite far with nothing hindering his vision over the flat area he was surrounded by. A strange flicker in the evening sun caught his attention, in the distance to the south. It disappeared before he could identify it, and Ren was just about to put off as nothing. When the Sun fell beneath the horizon however, there were more of them, many more. The flicker of light came from bonfires, lots of them spread out along the flat grass land. Each was surrounded by clusters of shadows and indistinct forms, there were a lot of those as well.

Ren realized that he might not have to travel very far to reach the battlefield.

Horo Horo was not used to hard work, he more often then not put more effort into avoiding work then the original work would have cost him had he just done it. Unfortunately when the caravan left that morning he was not as he planned catching up on his sleep in the back of one of the wagons. Instead he was put to work, making inventories of everything they had to trade everything they needed separated by priority. It seemed that because this was his first run he was expected to take on all the menial work that nobody wanted to do.

That list of duties also included leading the third wagon in their group of four. Two were already filled with wood carvings, jewelery as well as other hand made crafts that the Hokaida people were known for. The Third had a few things that the villagers no longer needed and hopefully would get traded for something more useful.

The first day was absolute torture for Horo as he had gotten very little sleep the night before, and he was only given a few minutes before someone along the caravan would give him a hard punch to the shoulder to "help" him stay awake. That day was also annoying because he knew everyone was laughing at him behind his back. Well he made so many mistakes that they were probably laughing at him. That was no different then usual he was not a clown but he often looked for a good time and that sometimes meant making a fool of himself leading to others taking enjoyment at his expense. That was okay with him, more often then not he would just join in with the laugh, that day he was just too tired. The next day was better after having a full night sleep, but he knew he would pay for that late night all the way to Cainen. He still spent the day working usually guiding the Third wagon.

Horo hated that wagon or more particularly the horse driving it, and Horo was positive the feeling was mutual. Every time that he had gotten into a rhythm and was about to doze off while guiding the horse the horse would stop and the abrupt halt would shock him awake and force him to get the stupid horse moving again. That was only part of Hora's problem with the horse, that horse had bit him. While feeding the horse a carrot, and actually being nice and taking care of it, the horse had nicked him with those large blunt teeth. Horo would have gotten back at the horse until the elder, Yuki told him that the horse was more important then him and he should leave her alone.

So second day for Horo was better then the first but still annoying. On the Third day Cainen came into sight at around midday and Horo was surprised by it. It was huge, Hokaida village was approximately fifteen houses bunched together, while Horo didn't think he could count how many houses their were in that city. That was when Yuki had mentioned that Cainen though large was still only a town and that there were many larger cities farther south.

Horo arrived with the wagons close to sundown and were not allowed to enter their gates as they had been closed for the night. He would have to wait to explore the town until the next day. He like most of the people from his village had to sleep around them while Yuki and a few others were aloud by the watch to go in and stay at an inn, with comfortable beds. Horo had no idea why he wanted to come in the first place, thus far this trip had been nothing but a pain.

When the sun rose the next morning Horo was awaken by the other villagers moving about preparing their belongings for sale.

"Horo," Yuki called to him from inside the town gates her tone implying that this was not the first call of the morning. She was wavering him over to her.

When he reached her, her wizened features lifted into a small smile and she handed him a few coins.

"Go ahead and enjoy," Yuki encouraged, Understanding he rushed into her arms with a big hug. "Don't get lost," she was quick to yell after him as he ran into to the new town.

As Horo looked around he found himself assaulted by a whole new world of textures and sensations. The place was filled with different smells and sounds that Horo could not guess what they belonged to, or where they came from. He quickly lost himself in the market place stopping by every stand to smell, touch, and see everything that was offered. There was so much he could not begin to describe. Foods that seem so complex that Horo would not have known how to eat them. He stopped himself from buying anything, he didn't what to buy something then see something better later on. He was so excited and with such a rush of sensations and experiences that as he turned a corner he bumped into someone.

"Sorry, my bad," Horo said instinctively, after all when you bump into someone your supposed to apologize.

"Of course it's your bad you blue haired oaf," The other person yelled in an unusual accent. Horo had to blink a few times to get his barrings and shake the birds away from his head. Okay so he was in a hurry and it was probably more his fault then this persons but... what was his problem.

"Do those round things in your head actually serve a purpose or are they simply for appearances," The man... or kid as it seemed, he was short and scrawny, like a shrimp continued to snap at him. Horo was proving an easy target this morning because after he recovered from his bump into this stranger he looked up at his accuser to see the strangest person he had ever seen.

He had a spike on his head. That was the weirdest thing he had seen this day, this shrimp had a spike on his head a purple spike at that, not to mention his weird clothing. It seemed traditional was the word that best describe it. It was secured tightly around his neck then flowed into intricate layers that still managed to be formfitting. As his top reached his waist it continued between his legs both at the front and the back. He also had a golden sash around his hips that matched his eyes. What kind of weirdo had gold eyes, not that he had a choice in the color of his eyes. Those eyes were glaring at him now.

"Tell me, is their something wrong with your hearing or is it your brains ability to process information," The weird shrimp again insulted him, that was the second time.

"What?" Horo said intelligently

"mm perhaps both," was the reply.

"wait, what? what's your problem, I apologized for bumping into you," Horo finally managed to put a sentence together.

"Your apology won't bring back my buns," The stranger seethed indicating the muddied bread spread about them.

"oh," Horo articulated, he was really slow this morning "sorry," He added lamely. He noticed that he shrimp was starting to get angry.

"I just finished telling you that your apology is inadequate and insufficient, you owe me thirteen silver for that bread," The man demanded. Horo glanced to his pocket which held only ten silver.

"I don't have that much," Horo said before it finally hit him, "hey there is no way that bread cost you thirteen silver," Horo shot back.

"Are you questioning my word," The shrimp said through clenched teeth

"if your saying that you paid thirteen silver for that bread then I'm not questioning your word, I'm calling you a liar," Horo declared finally catching up and able to defend himself. The small man just glared at him, rather impressively.

"You owe me thirteen silver for both the bread and the inconvenience of having to return to the bakery and buy more," The shrimp demanded, determined to get the thirteen silver, Horo just as determined returned the glare with his less intimidating one.

Their argument was cut short when the wall of the building they were standing against exploded. The entire wall seemed to expand outward before splintering and sending both him and the other rolling away. Horo got up in time to see several armed men jump out of the establishment that was short one wall and rush out, attacking everyone in their path. Horo saw the man he had been arguing with, get up, and reach for something behind his back.

Horo without thinking grabbed the mans arm and took off running the opposite direction. He completely ignored the protests coming from the smaller male and headed as fast as he could away from that blood bath. The town was under attack.

AN:

hoped you like it,

R&R

also, in your review, let me know if you prefer this be a short or a long story.