In the middle of the great and green forest, leaves fell blown by the long forgotten wind. Long ago it was said that the Oboro were here, the ninjas of old, with their magic of fire lightning wind air and water. There powers over nature and all that was on the earth. The Zeed had eliminated them all long ago, they were great warriors, the only warriors who were left in the world. They had become a legend of the past, a dream to children who still strived for glory.
Leaves blew down from the sky off of trees, and traveled through the air in spirals on the wind currents, it was becoming Autumn. Tall trees that reached high, high into the sky, past the clouds reached up, into the world, striving against each other for sunlight and energy and breath. The ability to cry out against the world. The floor was a bed of soft wet due and grass, and rotten leaves, tree trunks crawled out of the dipping ground like snakes or great works seeking burrows in the cool earth below. It was all quiet in the forest apart from the quiet lapping of water, or the, gentle wind that moved softly, it was always active but quiet.
The tree leaves blew this way and that as the wind swept them up, and the noise of the gentle wind was always present. The wind quieted for a second and bird song pierced the air, before it was drowned out as a gust of leaves blew past, obscuring the view. Great piles of leaves built up at every tree route, and the wind often feasted upon them, tearing them from their gentle places and scattering them across the forrest, like a child knocking down someone's card house. The wind whistled in-between the branches. The squirells were silent now, preparing for winter.
A child's laughter split the silent wind, they came running through the forest as a pack, like playing wolves, laughing and joking. Girls and boys, all about 8 or older, they tripped over each other and joked and laughed. They came into the clearing and started talking hurriedly together.
"Who wants to play!" the screamed breaking the sacred winds of the forest, there cries broke into the soft wind like fire to the stumps, their shouts and pleas, sprung through the air bouncing from treetop to treetop.
"Lets play Tag!" called another of the nine.
"No! Lets play Cops and ninjas!" cried another, they started arguing amongst them selves. Each one wanted to play a different game to the other. Each child tried to get to the center of the attention. Another child came into the clearing huffing and puffing, a small girl. She had bright green died hair and a cheap brown dress of sorts.
"Lets play 40 40!" called another "Yes!" said yet another of the group "That's a good idea! 40 40 I like that game!!"
An older girl who was there said wisely "But who's going to be on?"
They turned their eyes to the girl with the green hair, it wasn't just her, all the other children had funny hair colors, red and yellow, blue. Some hadn't bothered to die it, and they had normal blonds blacks and browns. But many did as it was so cheap and easy.
"Emile! Come on you lazy poo!" called a young boy "Your on cos your last!"
And all the children cried out that Emile was on and ran off in different directions, leaping over fallen trees and falling over stones. They went in different directions. Emile looked at the trodden leaves and walked forward "What game are we playing?" she called out into the dark forrest, but there wasn't a answer...
She looked at her shoes and kicked the leaves about "I don't know what game we're playing" she sighed, she walked over to a fallen tree and sat on it. She tried to remember as best as she could what the children had said, 40 40, that was it, she had to count to a hundred. She hurried up to the nearest tree trunk and buried her head, in concentration.
"1 2 3 4"
Counting to a hundred took ages, only a couple of the best in her year group could do it. Eventually you got to 100 but it took ages and ages "15 16" she always got stuck after 40. She could never remember how fivety went. She continued to count, decisively, pausing every now and again to check she had the numbers right "30 31".
Leaves blew up in a sudden gust and came down across her back, her hand came out quickly from behind her, and picked off the leaves one by one. They were pointed and stuck into the clothing she had "49 fivety... no fickty... no oh I can't remember the rest!" she called "That will just have to do, Coming! Ready or not!"
She left her place, and looked about her. She couldn't tell one direction from another inside the woods. It suddenly seemed sinister to her, the other children always seemed to know where they were... if she found one, then they could lead her out again. That seemed like the best idea. She looked around her at the different directions available, she swung round 900 degrees very fast and then headed forward, in the picked direction. Wind blew leaves past, and in the clearing there was no trace that she had ever come. The marks on the leaves, blew over silently in the wind, more leaves came over and covered the tracks.
The little girl looked this way or that, checking under tree trunks and round corners. Making as little as noise as possible. That was what she believed to be the secret of the game, to find everyone, you had to be as quiet as possible so that they wouldn't hear your foot steps. The other children when she played in the past, always made the mistake of calling out when they came looking.
She ventured further into the forest, and still couldn't find anyone, she saw no signs, no tracks no anything, she began to get a little worried. What if she was lost, she'd gone too far into the forest... She tried to retrace her steps carefully.
Leaves ventured out of their hiding places quietly under the winds supervision, quietly the trees whispered to each other, as branches snapped softly and fell to the ground. She heard the noise suddenly and headed in that direction, something raced away from her fast, and she followed it "I've found you!" she cried out "I've found you it's no use hiding!"
She turned a corner, and suddenly skidded to a stop too late. There was a large dip in the ground and her foot skidded too late, she tumbled down the earthy slope and landed with a splosh in cold water. She yelled out and started crying as the mud and water entered her nice died hair. The wind blew softly to the sound of the lapping water. She waited there a long time crying, she called out once or twice, her tears staining her clothes, but there was no reply. She was lost, and she'd probably die of starvation.
It was a long time before she calmed herself, the tears kept coming over and over and she couldn't stop them. She waited there maybe an hour out of fright, maybe two. After a long time sitting on the bank she got up carefully and looked around her, her eyes were red and sodden with tears. The bank was high and too difficult to clime on both sides, it was almost 7 times her height and muddy. Her knee was grazed, and her hands were cut, and muddy, she soaked them in the water, so that she could move them. The panic began slowly to die down and she got up, her little sandals banging round the straps. She stepped back into the water, she had to think carefully in dangerous situations, that's what her father and mother had always told her. The river might lead to people... she started to follow it.
The water went down at first, although strangely it seemed to come towards her... she followed it as it started to tip up hill and the bank became less. It was awfully difficult climbing up it, she thought about setting off again into the woods, but it didn't seem like a good idea. The river had ironically been the best find so far, but if only she hadn't fallen she might have been able to make her way back. She continued along the small river, unsteadily, limping, and breathing with every step.
She'd kill the boy who ran away from her, if it had been a boy. She heard several more noises recently, and when she had looked she just saw a squirrel or a bird in a tree. She felt incredibly threatened, but the sense of panic in her was gone. She kept on walking, the need to move forward was what kept her going, when she finally got too tired, she would sit down and rest on a round river stone. And then she would get up and continue walking.
The river turned, the bank getting small or taller as time went on, always up hill, until one point, where the bank completely dissolved. She looked forward, and saw something in the distance, a white stone, or maybe not. She kept walking and moving closer, and rubbed her eyes... it was a person wearing white... drinking out of the river. He had a bowel, in which he scooped up water and drank it, quickly she broke up into a run and hurried after him calling "Wait, hallo Mr? Please help me!" her eyes started crying again, but he didn't look up like a ghost. Her tutor had always told her not to speak to strangers, but this was different, she was the stranger here.
She hurried forward, and called again "Please wait for me Mr! I'm lost and can't find my way back!"
She stopped a few meters away from him. There was no bank now, he scooped water up in the bowel... there was something at his side, a brown leather casing like a walking stick, he looked up slowly, a young face with timeless blue eyes.
"Please sir!" she pleaded, not daring to get any closer. The man stood up, to his full height slowly and steadily... he looked down at her, his legs firmly together.
"Sir?" she muttered, tears coming to her eyes... the man faltered, and then as quickly as he had appeared took flight into the trees. Jumping and running, she ran after him "Please sir wait! Please I beg you! I'm lost!"
He had no problem with the forest but she did, vines and weeds and stinging nettles sprung up into her face as she tore through them. He had no problem, he just swept them out of his way as quick as anything. He was used to it, as if he'd lived there all of his life. She finnaly lost him but kept on running anyway. The strange thing about him was how he made not a single sound, he just moved on like the wind, quieter than the wind.
She turned past a tree and another, now she really was lost ... she could head back to the river, but she wanted the man to help her more than anything else in the world. She wanted to see her family again, to be safe... she continued to run. The forest began to darken, as more trees and leaves began to darken the canopy above, there was no litter here, this part of the forrest was timeless, away from people. Perhaps it was because this part was too dangerous... she had heard there were still bogs deep with the forest, quick sand that could pull you fast and keep you there forever. But maybe that was just the children's speculations...
The forrest parted, and she came into a clearing... finally houses. And lots of them... leaves were everywhere all over the floor, they were very very very old. Crumbling... in fact, she looked over for any sign of life. The windows were old and broken... so many houses, they stretched off into the distance, she hurried forward.
She headed towards the center of the constructions... old houses past her by as she went, some still had glass in side them, but always broken. Probably owls or animals had done it, or simply the changing of the seasons.
She finally came to what seemed to be the center of the buildings. On all sides, far away she could see the edge of the forest, a clearing. There was a old broken fountain in the middle, five figures each with had crumbled in different ways, with poison ivy growing up amongst their bodies. Bits and pieces lay strewn across the clearing, a head here an arm there. She knelt down and sat down on the leaves.
Emile started to cry again, she was lost yet again. The ground was hard underneath her, strangely hard. She looked down the tears drying, she cleared the leaves away to find cobble stones. That was interesting... how could the leaves fall to such an extent that the old floor could be covered up, she looked at them. They were crumbled and cracked, but still there, there were several gaps in the stones.
There was a noise from a window, the girl looked up and something moved... in front of the court yard. It was a very big building that stretched across the front of the court yard. She got up slowly "Kim?" she called...
There was no answer... the wind blew leaves across her path again. She didn't know why she had called the boys name, it could have been any of the children, but then again it couldn't have been... they wouldn't have hidden this far away. She walked tiredly over to the old house, the doors were open, she stepped inside. The floor boards were rotten... they were mostly gone, but what was left of the room, was most of the foundations. There were holes in the roof, and she could see to the room above. She looked for the stair case.
She found it, it creaked as she walked up it, quietly and carefully,
the steps were large, and they were difficult for her to climb up. She got to the top and looked about her... it was dark on the top floor. She could see something in a corner... a figure, it was the same one as she met by the river. His clothes were white and new looking, as if they'd just been made, his head had a helmet on. It was shiny even in the darkness, that was how she could see him.
His clothes weren't designed to hide, although that's what he seemed to want to do...
He looked up at her, hiding back in the corner "Hallo?" she called "Mr? Please speak to me"
He stayed quiet. She had never had an adult run away from her. He backed away, slowly, and then stood up as if getting new confidence, he paused and then walked forward slowly. He was of a muscular build, he looked down at the girl who retreated quickly under his blue eyed gaze. He took out the sword slowly and looked at it from tip to the but, it glistened under the light through the fallen roof. He swung it once.
Emile screamed and ran down the steps as fast as she could, she tripped, fell and … darkness…
[I]Emile looked about her, she was outside, in the center of the courtyard, but something was different. She looked down at her knee, it wasn't grazed, the leaves were gone and the buildings were repaired, the windows had new glass in them…
The fountain was fresh, water came from the mouth of the central figure, and from the hands of the two central ones and the feet of the outside figures. The water collected in the pool below, and stirred quietly. The sun reflected on the surface a single leaf, resting across the transparent surface.
She walked forward, and touched the edge of the fountain, it hadn't been there before, and there had been no water, the pillars had crumbled away when she had last looked. She heard a sound in the distance… chanting "Hai! Ha!" repeatedly, up away from the clearing. The wind wasn't here now and the trees were in full blossom. She looked slowly over to where she had been in only moments before, the horizontal building, she walked towards it. The double doors were closed, she opened them softly and walked in the chanting softened slightly as she walked inside.
The floor boards were all there… shiny and polished with varnish, the stone walls now had wooden paneling across them and had numerous weapons attached, axes kitanas Nodachis rapiers, long swords short swords, sledge hammers nunchucks and numerous blades and spears. She looked over to the steps, and up them, there was talking up on the floor above, she took the first step, but then dizziness took her and she away to white[/I]
She awoke in another building now, she was in a bed… she looked up slowly from her slumber, and felt a wet cloth on her fore head. It was cold, but eased the pain, the same man was standing over her, with blue eyes staring her straight in the face, his mouth was covered.
"Father?" she asked slowly looking up at him "Where am I?.." she moaned. The white figure had treated her wounds, but she felt dizzy and light headed. A spider crawled across her fore head but she never noticed, it hopped down off the bed leaving a trail of sticky silk. It crawled silently into a hole in the wall and was gone. Her eyes blurred, she squinted them.
The figure came back with a tray, it had bread on and cheese, and water in an old tarnished jug. He put it down by the bed and stepped silently back, not making a sound on the wooden floor boards, though she knew they would have creaked had she stepped on them.
"Kariu" he whispered as he walked quietly away down the steps.
She rested awhile, staring at the ceiling and then finding new strength she got hurriedly out of her bed, she heard an old door close with a creak down below, and hurriedly rushed to the window. The figure walked slowly out of the door to the house and then hurried off up and away into the forest. She was carefully where she stepped on the old boards, many of them had old nails sticking out, that had come loose with time.
She checked the sheets of the bed, feeling slightly dizzy, the wet cloth had made a mark, her feet were bear; she noticed the food slowly and set upon it hurriedly. She'd never gone hungry before, she felt surprised how once she became it, she found that it was less difficult than she thought it would have been.
She found her sandals under the bed, and quickly and quietly she slipped them on. She walked softly over to the steps, the boards creaked, and then she went down them, not but help noticing, the spider webs that hung to the corners of the room.
The steps were all in place in this room. Old tapestries hung on the walls with, pictures of ancient mountains and dragons. There was an old brown book on the table, she opened it slowly. She had only just started reading proper books at her home in the city, the script however was in another language. She blew the dust off first, not quite understanding, the pages started to fall out, and she quickly put it down in disgust, as she noticed the long trail of spider's web that was attached to it.
The dust left prints on her hand, and she blew them hurriedly, she shut the book carefully to cover the evidence that she had [I]broken[/I] it. The wind whispered quietly out side the house, she opened the old door with a creak, and immediately a bunch of leaves blew by in the wind. The place she was in had an ageless feel to It, like it was outside time somehow, they were deep thoughts, that she'd never had before.
The house was further away from the courtyard, she walked around, making a careful note of where the house she was in was, and started to look around her, she didn't want to get lost again…
She found the courtyard a little way down the path, away from the direction the white figure had gone in, she say on the statue's base for awhile looking around her. She was curious at her age, to no everything about this place, the panic of being away from her friends seemed to have vanished, in fact she was almost worried to see them again. Her parents would be angry with her for getting lost. She felt the broken stone arm, and touched the space where the arm should have been, it felt chalky, and she could feel small pieces under her fingertips.
The arm was else where, she looked around for a bit, but she couldn't find it. It must have been broken away under the weather long ago, dissolved under time's heavy hand. She had never seen such a place before… the fact that the buildings looked old seemed so strange. She'd seen buildings like it in history, they were old and made of stone, castles, but never like these, they seemed that they might once have been nice places to live in. She'd only ever seen old buildings once before in her life, the year before when her family had gone on holiday else where, they had passed through some old parts of the city, where the flats were shorter and old looking. The windows were all broken or boarded up, probably due to be demolished and forgotten.
She clenched her hands in fear as she thought of what her father would say to her when she got back, he never took any pity on her, he'd tell her off for sure "It's time you grew up in the world Emile" he always used to say. And her mother would surely ground her, it would ruin the holiday… she wasn't sure how long she'd been gone, she couldn't work out whether it was only a few hours, or if it had been a day. The truth however sadly was the latter, the time in this place, seemed to distort the mind, it had an ageless serenity to it, that distilled itself with wonder and mystery, only the wind seemed to call back as if it remembered what once happened here.
She was setting on a drain gutter edge, she knew that if she sat in the center, she'd be sitting on the wet leaves. Her casual little dress seemed flimsy now, it was tattered in places and felt weaker than it used to be. She'd never been worried before about what she wanted to wear, but now it seemed strange to her that she should think about it, the weather, it would surely rain, the clouds and sky were all a mass of brazen grays.
Emile got up softly and walked on, checking her position all the time, by tracking herself back from the court yard. She passed building after building, some even the walls had given in, perhaps from a past storm or fire from a lightning strike. She could see the floors of the buildings sticking out one by one, and she dared not enter incase they came in on her. Some buildings the roof was in, and some were strangely unscathed, though their age could always be told by some fault in the structure, a broken door or window, or a slate missing off the roof, there was always something which hinted at age, if not the building, the rotten leaves or wind sweeping at it's hollow walls.
Many of the buildings seemed to have been untouched, things just lay where they were inside, books some open, as if someone had read them only recently, now and again though she found a room that had been looked after. It was a rarity, but her greatest find was a huge library, the books although not dusted as much as they ought had been looked after. Someone had cleaned them, probably the person who had helped her out of her difficulties.
They were all very old and as she opened one, she was careful to make sure the pages didn't fall out. The writing was messy, not factory printed, she found it a strange idea, like an exercise book. She didn't realize that there were libraries where people wrote out all the books by hand. There were diagrams in side the one she looked at of people fighting, postures, and poses, arms stretched out in offence or defense, or even both. She thought it was a dance book in her juvenility.
She looked through many more books to try and find one she could read, but she couldn't; they were all in the same scribbled down text, which in none of them, the characters meant anything to her young mind.
The building was light only because the combined lighting of the windows at the top of the building and the slightly opened door, it was a much brighter room than the bedroom she had woken up in. She closed the door softly behind her, and walked away, she tried her best to memories where it was, though she knew she'd have trouble finding the building again. The courtyard was easy to find now she new the directions.
However once Emile came to the courtyard, she was surprised to find the white figure there, sword in hand, he danced a silent dance of death round the courtyard. The sword came this way and that, swinging moving like a dancer, with perfectly timed steps. The Kitana that he used seemed to glow blue with it's own light as he took it round and round the courtyard.
He attacked at nothing and then retreated flipping over and over, always to land on his feet. He came to the fountain, putting one finger over the highest point came up gracefully and balanced there on one finger sword at right angles. He hopped forward and rolled once and thrust again at nothing. The sword swept round in a wide spin over and over again, but always controlled. The sword whistled round each time aiming at a different point, torso, heart head leg, weapon and arm each one perfect and almost as if in unison. He came up in an impossible jump, spun round in mid air, and the sword swung down vertically hitting nothing.
He hopped off the walls of houses, and came down with kicks, and swipes it seemed faster than gravity would take him, he would now and again spin round twice ascending in mid air as if he could walk on it. The moves were impossible to comprehend, Emile had never seen anything like it, she looked on in awe, knowing that this was something special. She had seen martial art films on the television, but they were always filled with action music in the background, and men with pistols and weapons, this act of grace, was only accompanied by the quiet wind. As the sword came up, long chains of leaves would flutter by circling the sword, or moving past him. Leaves came across the courtyard softly without a sound, except the quiet shuffling like paper.
Emile watched him move, and for the first time in her life knew that this was what she wanted to do. She had always before wanted to be a dancer, but that was nothing compared to this. The thrill of it enticed her called her on, the white clothing the man had on his body actually moved with the wind, she could almost feel it moving through her own hair, and suddenly she felt dirty, awkward. She felt weak and un perfect, she too wanted to be cleansed by the wind that moved through this person's body, that enabled him to reach out and touch the sky. The timeless serenity of the place was nothing she had ever heard of or seen. She came forward from her hiding place behind the wall and stepped softly forward onto the bed of leaves.
The man came whirling back that way spinning and stabbing and bringing the sword round and round, Emile screamed and dived to the ground as the sword came over her head. The person stood still, the sword paused in mid air where her head was only a moment before. She was on the ground in deep fear ridged, the man breathed softly not moving, he opened his eyes, still holding the sword stretched forward in it's position. It sang softly with an intense blue that seemed to bring a ringing to the ears, leaves stirred by as neither of the two moved.
He stepped back, and withdrew the Kitana, was he slightly mad?
"Please don't kill me" sobbed the girl closing her eyes.
The wind blew the white clothing softly in the wind, he stood still for a moment.
"K…. kill?" muttered the man slowly, Emile looked up, her eyes red and warn, leaves blew softly across the courtyard, somewhere softly for the first time a bird sang "kill…?… Kariu.. k" he turned away and walked softly across the courtyard, he left the girl there, her short green hair ragged from the experience. He sat on the wall of the old fountain thinking.
"Who… are you?" whispered Emile, he didn't answer, the wind as hazy as ever covered her voice as the leaves went by.
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The days passed bitterly in the houses, the white figured man kept her a prisoner of her own will, Emile in her child like state dared not return home to face the wrath of her parents, every morning the Shinobi would bring her food and water, and every day and evening she would have a supper and a lunch. She hadn't spoken to him since the day he had brought that sword over her again. He seemed confused, he seemed trying to remember, as if something had consumed his memory, Amnesia or a blow to the head. Every day he would be in different places of the complex, Emile hadn't found them all yet. And she still didn't understand where he got the bread, the water was simple. That was from the river, he brought it back in double buckets, balancing them on his shoulders with a piece of wood.
And then other times he would be taking the sword round the courtyard with never a mistake, but she hadn't found out where he went to sleep. He was always moving and always active, Emile got very bored sometimes, because she often had nothing to entertain her. But there was no way she wanted to go back, she was too scared.