WARNINGS: mild violence, lots of angst and some sappy romance!
NOTE: Emtato is Hikitsu and Chamka is Tomite in case you haven't worked that out.
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CHAPTER THREE
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It has often been said that people who die suddenly suffer less than those who die slowly. The few short seconds between the moment they realise they are about to die and the moment in which they actually do, is not enough for the human mind to comprehend the full implication of the fate hurdling towards them.
This would explain the single, rather ridiculous thought that was going through Takiko's mind as she watched the razor sharp tip of the arrow buzz through the air towards her heart:
'This has *got* to be the worse day of my life.'
She slammed her eyelids shut in the vain hope that if she couldn't see what was going to kill or hurt her it would miraculously cease to exist.
A few milliseconds later there was a sickening thud as metal met flesh.
Takiko's eyes flew open as she realised that it hadn't been *her* flesh.
As soon as she opened her eyes she reared backwards.
The white haired stranger she had just been blush kissing passionately for the last - (oh gods, she had been so involved she had lost count of the time!) had blocked the incoming arrow with his right arm. That wasn't why she had moved her face back though. The reason for that, was because the arrow had gone cleanly through her saviour's arm and the razor-sharp tip had stopped mere millimetres from her face. She could *see* the cracks in the metal.
She stifled a surprise scream as the white haired stranger grabbed her roughly about the wrist with his one good arm and hauled her behind him.
"Prince Chamka! Stop! This girl's not a threat! I was just - "
"Damn you witch! You've enchanted my friend with your sex magic! I'll kill you!"
[AUTHOR: I'm a bit ashamed of that line. It's so embarassing.]
'Oh gods, he's protecting me.'
The unfamiliar thought ran through Takiko's head.
'Someone actually wants to help...me...Someone wants to help me!' She clutched at the warm cloth in front of her. 'I don't have to depend entirely on myself anymore - '
' - but he probably just pities me - if I rely on him once, I'll be tempted to do so again because I'll become addicted to this strange warmth that I can feel in my heart and I'll start caring about him - and eventually he'll hate me because he only pitied me or felt a responsibility to me and eventually he'll tell me to go away and stop bothering him and that its all my fault that Mummy died - and I don't think I can stand it if someone else I care about tells me that - so I won't let him help me! I won't let anyone help me!'
'I don't want anyone's pity!'
With that internal scream Takiko pushed the body in front of her out of the way.
'Its better not to feel anything for anyone. Then when they start hating you it doesn't hurt as much.'
For a moment she stood facing the enraged dark-skinned boy with nothing but air between them. Brilliant jade-green eyes clashed with fierce light green ones. Shocked, she noticed a green glow emanating from his body.
Whirling around she ran towards the forest. If she could only reach the cover of the trees, she could hide from his arrows -
Some primal warning bell rang deep inside her causing her to turn around.
Coming towards her were a rain of arrows - made of ice!
Somehow, she managed to dodge all of the deadly icy projectiles. However in doing so she slipped on the snow beneath her. A nasty cracking sound could be heard as her head impacted with a large rock projecting above the snow.
As her eyes fluttered shut memories came back of the last time she hit her head on a stone...
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"Take that back!" the little girl screamed at the boys surrounding her.
"No way! I mean come on, all the evidence fits! For one thing you're such a weirdo Takiko! You're such the teacher's pet. 'The answer's this sir' and 'I know the answer sir'."
"Yeah," another boy chipped in. "And look at her clothes. They're all really old and messy but we know her father has money. It's just so obvious that he hates her."
"My Daddy doesn't hate me..." Takiko's eyes began to water.
The first boy brought his face close to hers. "Come on Takiko, stop denying it. After all your *father* said you did it. Well the guy next to him, you know Suzuno's Dad tried to stop him but he said it anyway. I mean everyone in the village knows, so it's no big secret."
"My Daddy said I did it...Everyone knows..."
"There's no use denying it. I mean who's going to believe a kid over her Father?"
Another boy chimed in at this point. "We're not blaming you or anything. We just want to know...how did you kill your mother?"
"IT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Takiko screamed as she launched herself at the closest boy. Though she fought like a mad wildcat, scratching and biting at any piece of flesh that came within range, it was an uneven battle from the start and in a few minutes the boys threw her off them. Unfortunately her head hit a large rock on the ground as she landed.
Even though she was bleeding profusely from a head wound she struggled to get on her hands and knees...
"It wasn't my fault...it wasn't my fault..."
Suddenly a sweet gentle voice interrupted the ruckus. "What happens to be the trouble here?"
"Suzano!"
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'I need to stay awake...I have to keep on fighting... because it wasn't my fault....'
Both men stared disbelievingly at the girl struggling shakily onto her hands and knees even as blood poured down the wound on her right temple.
'I have to keep on fighting...because it wasn't my fault...I have to stay awake...because I can't depend on anyone but myself... '
She lifted her face up. As blood flowed down her face her jade-green eyes clashed defiantly with her attacker's light blue ones. The wild mad look disappeared from Emtato's eyes to be replaced by one of mild confusion. Why did those eyes suddenly look so familiar to him? And why did a ball of excitement and anticipation uncurl within him at the sight of them?
Suddenly streaks of ice with snake-like heads appeared from the air and grabbed onto the archer's clothing.
"Emtato..." the archer whispered disbelievingly. "You...you used your magic..."
"Magic..." Takiko whispered before she collapsed into blessed unconsciousness.
Emtato lowered his right hand from the prayer position. A haunted almost frightened look appeared in his eyes as the green glow slowly disappeared. To Chamka who was used to hearing Emtato's normal almost emotionless gentle voice, his current voice was almost...frightening.
"I know I said we should never use our...skills," he whispered hoarsely, "Never let anyone know about our magic...but...I this time...I don't know why I..."
Suddenly collecting himself, he lowered his head respectfully. "I apologise to you Prince for attacking you - "
Chamka recovered too. "Oh shut up Emtato! It wasn't your fault. I attacked you first. So this girl - "
"I found her nearly frozen to death. I was just giving her my chi - "
Emtato's face looked suspicious, "Really?"
"Yes really."
Emtato's face suddenly dropped as he realised something. "Oh great," the young man groaned. "I lost my temper again without reason. Mother is going to *kill* me. I'll never make a good ruler at this rate."
Emtato's lips curled into a slight smile. "You only seem to lose your temper around me, Prince. Maybe I am a bad influence."
"The reason why I lose my temper around you is because aside from Mother, you are the only one who actually cares for me - so I love you. You're like...like...an older brother! I'll kill anyone who hurts you!"
"As would I for you, Prince." Emtato said gently, a smile on his face. "But before we start the killing it might be a good idea to get back to camp first."
"First, lets look at that arm.."
"No. Check on the girl first."
Chamka raised an eyebrow. "That was the first time for years that I actually heard you say "no" to me. Are you sure you're feeling OK?"
Emtato paused for a moment before smiling softly again. "I apologise Prince, for countering your orders...My mind is a bit off from losing so much chi..."
Chamka gave an exasperated snort. "How many times have I told you to stop apologising to people for the smallest things. Anyway you're right, I'll go check on the girl now. Her injury is more serious than yours."
The young Prince paused in the act of bending downwards to pick up his bow. One of the ice-snakes had bitten too deeply into the right sleeve, piercing the layers of cloth and placing a bleeding bite mark on his right arm.
"I just realised something," Chamka said softly. "We both drew blood - "
" - and in a fight between Hokkan men, if a sacrifice is made to Earth of the blood of both contestants the fight must continue until one is sacrificed to Earth completely. But this was due to a misunderstanding on both our parts so I'm sure that it doesn't matter if tradition is not applied in this case. It's not law - "
Chamka replied, "But to the people of Hokkan, the Black Tortoise was first born of the Four Gods and took 18 000 years to grow. Who are we humans, the children of Genbu to question his wisdom? Tradition is law."
Chamka's face suddenly lost its grimness. "But you're probably right. It was an accident...so this doesn't count...Still who'd imagine, us fighting over a girl?"
Picking up his bow he moved over to the unconscious Takiko. Gently he examined her scalp.
"She's fine, it's just a flesh wound. You know how head wounds tend to bleed a lot."
Taking a long scarf from inside his robe he bandaged her head. A puzzled look came over his face as he stroked her cheek gently.
"For some reason, I feel like I've met her before you know."
He chuckled quietly. "She's got quite a fighting spirit. When she glared at me like that with those eyes I felt like someone was burning me with the full heat of the Sun. If she's the Sun maybe she can chase away the darkness..."
He looked up as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Emtato was looking down on him compassionately.
"Don't think about that now."
Chamka smiled. "You're right. Oh well I'd better get both of you injured guys back home."
Emtato bent down to pick up the injured girl but Chamka stood up holding the injured girl in his arms. "Don't worry Emtato I'll take her, you're injured."
Emtato bowed his head. "Whatever you wish Prince. If I may inquire, how did the trial go?"
Chamka froze in mid-step. "As expected," he stated emotionlessly. "My first official act as Prince of the Ha tribe was to sentence my cousin to death."
"He broke all the laws of the Hokkan and the principles by which we live."
"Endurance, Loyalty, Tradition and Filial duty," the young boy intoned stonily.
"He turned traitor. He thought that your being only 16 and just new to the position of leader after your mother's long regency would make you weak. It was a clever plot. It took me a while to get enough evidence to convict him."
"I know, but..." Chamka sighed. "I have placed my seal on the execution order. He will be decapitated this afternoon."
As the young leader walked towards his horse, he shivered. "Ghosts...darkness...death...why do these things always haunt me?" he whispered to himself. But for some reason when he looked down at the girl he held in his arms, he felt some of the coldness seep away.
NOTES: I hope you like the quotes I made up ie. I hope they actually sound decent. I rewrote the first one about the two contestants about five times!
WARNINGS: Angst, violence and death.
CHAPTER FOUR
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"Having reached the zenith, the sun declines. When full, the moon begins to wane...The cosmos is in equilibrium; but this equilibrium...is an equilibrium by alternating compensation. Of the two phases, the one compensates, in proportion, for the excess or deficiency of the other - Nothing of morality enters into this brutal system. The alteration is not retribution; it is not destiny; it is not chance. It is physical, blind, immutable, eternal law."
From Chapter 9, "Tao-te-ching", "The Treatise on the Principle and its Action", the fundamental text on Taoism.
Taken from Weiger, L, "A History of the Religious Beliefs and Philosophical Opinions in China", 1927
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"It's snowing," the young dark skinned boy stated matter-of-factly.
To the people of Hokkan, snow was an unchangeable, immutable part of every-day-life for most of the year. Though the cold was harsh and often death was a constant shadowy presence, the people of Hokkan accepted the bleak whiteness of winter as a necessary part of the eternal cycle of life and death. As the first few flakes slowly drifted down from the overcast sky, Prince Chamka opened his mouth to catch them on his tongue. The snowflakes melted instantly, bringing a sharp tingle to his already heightened senses. His face coloured slightly from conditioned reflex when he realised what he was doing. Such a childish act! Fortunately only Emtato was there to witness it. Emtato and that strange girl...
"Achoo!"
Chamka started for a moment as the aforementioned girl sneezed in his arms. Was she awake? No, it must have been an unconscious reflex to something tickling her nose.
He noticed a few snowflakes falling onto the girl's blood stained face. He brought his gloved hand up to gently wipe the flakes off her skin before they melt and gave her discomfort. A sudden thought came to him. Taking off his glove he gently placed his fingers on her cheek, marvelling at the contrast between his hand and her skin: dark callused fingers on light silky smooth skin - as different as day and night, Yin and Yang. 'Will thalt be mine Sun to chase away the shadows of my mind?'. One of his fingers traced a trail of blood on her cheek. He frowned as he suddenly recalled how she got that injury. And to make things worse he had severely injured his best friend.
He looked with concern at Emtato. After giving so much of his chi to the girl and after losing so much blood after their...altercation, Chamka was not surprised that even a man of Emtato's stamina and strength was on the verge of collapse. It was only due to the fact that he was the tribe's best horseman that the tall white haired man was able to stay on his mount.
Chamka's green eyes alighted on Emtato's injured arm which was now in a sling. He remembered what happened when he went to pull the arrow out of his friend's arm
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"Don't touch my arm!"
Chamka was startled by his friend's vehemence.
"But, your arm...The arrow has gone clean through it. We'll have to cut off the flight feathers and push the rest of the arrow through. You can't do that your - Emtato!"
Emtato took the knife out of Chamka's hands and sliced off the top of the arrow. Then he pushed the rest of the arrow through using his one good hand.
His face twisted with pain for a moment before he grabbed the bandages and started wrapping them around his arm. Chamka noticed that as usual his right arm was already covered with bandages. He had never seen his friend without his lower right arm covered and had always wanted to ask why. But he never did. It was obviously something to do with what had happened to Emtato's original tribe, the Kan, and questions about genocide was not something Chamka felt comfortable asking.
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As their horses ploughed through the snow, Emtato's mind became more and more delirious. Normally the levelheaded man hated even the thought of losing self-control. That was why he never touched alcohol. However this time, the lost of chi and the lost of blood caused a light-headedness that was almost exhilarating. He glanced at his young friend, the Prince, who held the strange girl in his arms. He saw him brush her face with his gloved hand and then remove his glove to stroke her cheek with his bare hand. What was that he was feeling? Annoyance? Impossible. He could no longer feel anything for anyone. After all wasn't that why everyone in the tribe feared him? Red Snow they called him. Like the winter, he killed coldly and emotionlessly and all for the Prince's sake. Yes, all for him.
'Where has it all gone I wonder? Where has my heart gone? It's been bleached, bleached out like the snow, ' he thought deliriously.
He recalled a sudden flashback of white walls and white robes.
'Gone, it's all gone. The snow's got it all. Whoosh, and it's gone just like that. You know you'd think it'd last longer, but one moment it's there and the next moment they're dead in your arms and all that's left is the white, the white - and the red. Lets not forget the red too, white, red, white...'
Suddenly Emtato shook his head. What in Genbu's name was his thinking...but it was so hard to think.. so hard to stay in control. He caught sight of the blood spreading through the makeshift bandages on his arm. Red on white. Suddenly his eyes were drawn back to the sight of his liege lord stroking the girl's cheek.
'Such a touching figure of romantic love. Too bad I'm going to kill him for touching my woman.'
Once again Emtato shook his head. What, what was going on? His mind, he felt like he was losing his mind, as if he wasn't even himself anymore, as if someone was invading his mind. What was going on?!
"In a fight between Hokkan men", he recalled his earlier words:
'If a sacrifice is made to Earth of the blood of both contestants the fight must continue until one is sacrificed to Earth completely.' *
'Yep kill him.'
What is this feeling? Help me, please. He grasped at the jade carving of the lower part of a dragon which he always hung at his side. The top half was with *him*...please help me. I'm losing myself.
He suddenly remembered the last time he felt these feelings. The shock almost brought him back to sanity. Almost.
"Mother. I have to go away. I had a dream that I was going to kill you."
The whiteness grew inside of him until he could hardly breathe. Even then he resisted, stretching his left arm out in helpless supplication to an imaginary saviour until he caught sight of his best friend holding the girl in his arms and he suddenly felt a spark inside of him. A spark that suddenly turned to red, red RAGE. And then he was lost, lost in the red-tinged whiteness of his mind.
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The flare of chi caused Chamka to twirl around towards his friend. Unmei, Emtato's horse - whom the young prince could have sworn was the most passive horse in Hokkan was rearing in fright. Screaming, she bucked, throwing her rider into the snow. Chamka leaped off his horse. After placing the girl carefully on the ground he raced towards his friend.
"By the Four Gods..." Chamka whispered.
It wasn't the fact that his whole body was surrounded by a green glow that worried the prince. It was the fact that Emtato's pupils were now shaped like hourglasses.
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The whiteness surrounded him.
The pain was gone.
The confusion was gone.
He was at peace.
"Let me show you..." the voice whispered. Startled Emtato turned to where the voice came from, but there was no-one there.
"Let me show you..." the voice was behind him now.
"Let me show you..." "Let me show you..." "Let me show you..." the voices were all around him, whispering maddeningly at him.
"...the past, present and future." This voice was different from the others, deep and masculine. From the whiteness materialised a tall moustached man.
Genbu.
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"IF YOU WANT A FIGHT, I'LL GIVE YOU ONE! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HER! I'LL KILL YOU FIRST TOMITE!" Hikitsu screamed with rage at his former friend.
The silver haired man coughed, bringing up a massive amount of blood.
Grasping the handle of the knife firmly with his hands, he pulled it out of his back.
The dark-skinned youth just stood there looking at his former comrade with an almost dazed look in his eyes. Like Hikitsu, he was bare from the waist up. His hands which were covered with blood hung limply by his side. He raised them to rub his eyes, leaving red smears along his face.
The two youths were surrounded by red. The rocks were red, the ground was red. Everywhere as far as the eye could see there was red. Except the sky, which was blindingly white.
There were no stars, Moon or Sun in this sky.
Watching the fight impassively from a large rock, Emtato seemed to have lost all his emotions. He wondered if this was the past, the future - or neither. The two combatants looked like him and Chamka, but they had different names - Hikitsu and Tomite, somehow without being told he knew that this was his other self's name. Besides, it was inconceivable that he would ever want to kill the Prince or that the extremely honourable Chamka would ever stab him in the back. Especially over a girl!
Meanwhile, his right eye glowing with the character of "Tou" - the Measure, Hikitsu gave an almost animal scream and sent a wall of green chi towards the bloodstained boy.
Suddenly the dazed look disappeared from Tomite's face to be replaced by an expression that equalled Hikitsu's in sheer animal hatred and rage. Along his back burned the character "Hsu" - Emptiness.
A sudden strange thought came to Emtato before the scene faded away. 'An empty vessel can be filled.'
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The red was gone. In its place was pure white. Emtato was in an ice corridor that stretched forward with no end in sight. Like before, he simply drifted along the ice corridor with no thought of panic, curiosity or fear. Whether he walked or floated and how long he travelled he couldn't really say.
Finally he arrived at the end of the corridor.
A little girl dressed in white mourning clothes sat crosslegged on the icy floor bouncing a large ball. 'The loneliest child in the world', the strange thought entered his mind.
"Hello little one," he greeted her.
"Hello mister," the girl looked up. Her jade green eyes looked familiar somehow.
"Did someone die?" He asked pointing at her white mourning clothes which consisted of white pants, tunic and headband and a vest made of rough sackcloth.
"My mother." The girl went back to bouncing her ball.
"Oh".
"I killed her you know. I didn't think I did but Daddy keeps on saying I did so it must be true. So I'm a baaaaad girl. Do you want to have a look at my ball?"
Emtato blinked, startled at the sudden change in topic.
"Sure."
On the surface of the ball were two curved symbols - one leading into the other.
"Yin and Yang," he murmured.
"Yup," the girl nodded taking back the ball. "This is the universe you know." She looked at him with the air of a conspirator. "You know that it is destiny."
"What is?"
"Yin and Yang. Life and death. Order and chaos. Order has reached its zenith and now it is the time of decline into chaos and total and utter annihilation. It's not evil or good or anything like that. It simply is. It's fate. It's the will of the Heavens and nothing you can do can change it."
"Mother I have to leave. I had a vision I was going to kill you," Emtato recalled the words of his younger self.
"Maybe," he stated quietly.
Man and girl looked at each other for a long moment.
"Can I help you?" Emtato asked.
"Can you bring the dead back to life?"
"No."
"Then you can't help me."
The girl started bouncing her ball again. "You know I think the universe is a cruel and terrible place. Everyone's always so mean to me and I'm always so lonely. No one wants to play with me. I sometimes imagine that I'm dead and my ghost is so sad because no one wants to bury me, not even my Daddy. So my ghost is crying because my poor body is just lying there on the ground and then the nasty vultures come and eat it all up. Gulp, gulp just like that. They're so greedy you know."
"I promise you that if you die, I will look after you."
"Really!" the girl squealed. "Your sooooo nice. But what if my ghost is lonely?"
"Then I'll stay with it until it's no longer lonely."
"Even if it's forever."
"Yes, even it's for forever."
"Yeah! You're so nice mister!"
The girl stood up abruptly, holding the ball in her hands. "Hmmm. I *still* think the Universe is mean though. So, I think I'm going to - SMASH it to pieces! Mmmm. Should I?"
The question was not directed at Emtato but at the white haired, golden eyed boy who had suddenly materialised next to the girl. The boy's sheer beauty was almost overwhelming.
The boy took the ball from the girl's hands. He started spinning it on one finger. As the ball revolved it suddenly started glowing with a golden light and turned into glass.
"I can destroy the Universe or save it." Even the boy's voice was beautiful and melodious. "I love you so I'll do whatever you ask. What is it that you want?"
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The ice corridor was gone.
Emtato turned around as he heard the explosion. Above him the twenty-eight constellations of the Four Gods twirled. For some reason there appeared to be three gigantic columns supporting the sky. On the first column was written Spirit, on the second Mind and on the third Body. The explosion he heard was the first column being destroyed by some unseen force. Then the second column collapsed and then the last column was destroyed.
The twenty-eight constellations twirled faster and faster until he couldn't even make out the individual stars anymore. Suddenly a rip developed in the dark sky, a blood red rip that tore Heaven apart...He was suddenly blinded by a flash of white light.
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As Emtato rubbed his eyes, he suddenly realised that he was in a field. It was a warm spring day. The Sun beat down pleasantly on the back of his neck and the sounds of birds filled the air. The air carried the smell of pollen - and blood.
So much blood had been spilt that even the infinite Earth could no longer absorb it, so it just stayed on the ground so it appeared as if the grass was floating in a shallow sea of blood.
But besides that it was a really nice spring day.
The delicate sounds of a lute filled the air. Four Kutou generals sat feasting in a luxurious pavilion. To Emtato's mind, only the youngest one stood out. This wasn't because of the fact that he only had one eye but because Emtato knew what was going to happen next. Fortunately it seemed that this time he was simply an invisible observer to events.
The Kan villagers stood trembling on the edge of the long deep trench they were forced to dig. They knew that they had been digging their own graves.
Suddenly one of the soldiers separated a pair of identical twins from the group.
Standing next to the soldier stood a bureaucrat who frowned as he filled out a form.
"Mmm. Twins. Age - looks like 10. Village...District...Good we need more twins for our magicians and scholars to experiment on." Bringing a jade seal out of his robes the bureaucrat stamped the documents - in triplicate. The solider joked about how like most bureaucratic documents it'll probably get lost for two weeks in the mailroom.
'Order. Terrible order,' thought Emtato.
After the count of villagers was completed the execution order came.
When the arrows came, the women didn't even try to shield their children. From stories from other villages, they knew that the Kutou soldiers would simply kick all the bodies into the grave whether they were dead or alive. A quick death from the arrows would be better than a long agonising death from being buried alive.
"Mummy!" The young twelve year old boy suddenly came into view.
"Emtato!" One of the women screamed.
The boy saw the arrow coming towards her.
"NOOO!!!" he screamed. From his right eye blazed the character 'Tou'.
The adult Emtato was glad that Genbu had turned off his emotions.
Mercifully the ice killed all of the villagers, except one. The adult Emtato was too far away to hear the softly spoken words but they were branded in his mind for all time.
The woman's limbs and torso were black, the classic marks of frostbite except this time on a massive scale. The boy gathered her in his arms.
"Mother..." The adult Emtato's lips moved in time with the boy's.
"Emtato, please kill me. I'm in so much pain."
"Mother."
"You were right Emtato. You did kill me. But I forgive you because it was Heaven's will. It was fate and we can never challenge fate. Ahhh. It hurts Emtato, it hurts. Please kill me."
"Mummy."
The adult Emtato could almost feel the knife in his hands as his younger self pushed it through his mother's ribs, the warm blood trickling through his small fingers...And on his mother's face, the warmest most radiant smile...a smile of someone who *wanted* to die.
'I saw that smile again today,' the thought ran through the adult Emtato's mind. 'But why did that strange girl want to die?'
The soldiers surrounded the boy uncertainly. They had just seen him kill 50 people. But...
"Kill him!"
Kutou's soldiers knew better than to disobey orders. But as the blades advanced towards the shell-shocked boy a new authoritative voice rang out.
"Stop!"
As the one-eyed general moved towards the boy Emtato, one of his companions grasped him by the arm. "My Lord. What will we tell the Emperor if you..."
"You have placed hands on a royal person. *That* is a crime punishable by death."
The man whipped his hand off the one-eyed youth. Ignoring the wide-eyed stares of the Kutou soldiers the young general took one of the stocks and casually knelt down next to the boy. He fastened the metal plate around the boy's neck and after chaining the boy's arms together put them in the holes in the metal plate before locking it.
All of the assembled Kutou men sighed with relief. The young general felt like rolling his eye. It was obvious what condition the boy was in. He hadn't even responded when his life was about to be ended on a steel blade.
Standing up, the general proclaimed, "We shouldn't kill the boy yet. His powers would make him a special treat for our scholars to experiment on and as you can see he is no longer in any condition to attack anyone or even defend himself."
Taking off his eyepatch he placed half of a jade carving of a dragon in the little pocket in the covering that he usually placed soothing herbs for his injury.
"This pendant will make sure that he can't use his powers," he stated to his fellow generals as he placed the eyepatch on the almost comatose boy.
The other three generals looked at each other. They would have much preferred to have simply killed the boy then and there but his words did make sense and his relationship with the emperor...
"Of course. We were just thinking that ourselves."
As he was tying the cloth around the boy Emtato's head he whispered in his ear. "I know where they are taking you. I'm sorry but that was the only place I could think of where they would have an interest in keeping you alive. But once you get there, if you want to stay alive, never show your powers to anyone, no matter what they do to you. Remember it was your lack of control that killed your mother and the rest of your village."
This last statement brought a flicker of life back to the boy's dead eyes.
"You must learn to control yourself. Get rid of your emotions or you won't survive long in this place. And whatever you do, do not lose this pendant or you really will die. I'm about to do something to you which I don't want to, but unless you can take this without flinching, I can guarantee that you won't survive the place they are sending you."
Turning around the general took the burning brand that was offered to him by one of the soldiers. The bureaucrat started filling out another form. "Paranormal powers...village...district...number."
"I'm sorry I have to do this...But remember whatever you do, never show your powers to anyone, even if they do this to you."
As the general placed the brand on the boy's right forearm, the adult Emtato could almost feel the pain again as the hot metal branded him with the serial number 28768.
But he had not flinched that day when the brand had scarred him for life and he had survived when the rest of his race did not.
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"Emtato, thank Genbu you're all right! We're at the camp now so I'll get you to a healer as soon as possible."
Emtato closed his eyes. 'I killed them all. Everyone. My mother, my friends, the whole village because I couldn't control my power.'
'But, that was in the past not the future. Yin and Yang. It is a never ending cycle. Back and forth. Back and forth. So what was I shown? Was it a vision of the future - or was it a memory of something that happened in the past?'
NOTES: I know that it is confusing. Sorry - it's a vision. Its meant to be confusing. The reason for the similarities between Hikitsu's past and Nakago's was because originally Hikitsu was going to be what Nakago could have been IF instead of being taken to that stupid Emperor after he killed his mother he was taken into a loving environment. Of course plans changed...but I still kept some of what I originally planned. I know the Kan tribe is supposed to be West Hokkan but oh well - I'll either think of something or simply ignore it.
Hikitsu's love of endurance horse riding is documented but his ability to see "visions" (whether of the future or of the past Grin) is something I made up myself. The reason is that of the four supernatural creatures, Genbu is the most powerful and mystical (well, he is the oldest son...). In Chinese history the tortoise shell has been commonly used for divination purposes and in fact esp. early on in Chinese history the tortoise shell's commands were taken to be Heaven's will and thus must be taken as truth even by the Emperor. From this I got the idea of giving Hikitsu the power of divination. Tomite also has a special power I made up from the supposed mystic powers of the tortoise but I'll leave that to the next chapter. Divination by tortoise shell will make an important appearance later on.
Anyway a preview for the next chapter:
"Men of the six armies, I say to you on my oath...The Lord of Hu having rejected the official calender [this was one of the conditions of accepting the Emperor], Heaven has withdrawn his mandate, and I am about to inflict upon him the punishment decreed by Heaven - Men of the right, if you do not attack on the right; men of the left, if you do not attack on the left; charioteers, if you do not drive your horses directly toward the enemy, you will have failed in your duty - Those who obey will be rewarded before the tablets of my Ancestors. Those who disobey will be put to death before the mound of the Patron of the soil."
Emperor Ch'i before the Battle of Kan 1976BC
Prince Chamka threw out the wooden slate with the word "Execute".
"Do you have any last words...traitor...?"
Next expisode - A noble prince whose father died at a young age, Prince Chamka serves his tribe to the best of his ability. But a traitor's death leads him to ask questions about his past which he would prefer to keep hidden, even from himself. A storm arises from the east and in the ensuing chaos an angry Chamka finds himself irresistibly drawn to the mysterious girl from the woods. But when the camp is plunged into utter darkness, Chamka's true self emerges in an unexpected way.
Next episode - "Are you afraid of the dark?"
NOTE: Emtato is Hikitsu and Chamka is Tomite in case you haven't worked that out.
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CHAPTER THREE
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It has often been said that people who die suddenly suffer less than those who die slowly. The few short seconds between the moment they realise they are about to die and the moment in which they actually do, is not enough for the human mind to comprehend the full implication of the fate hurdling towards them.
This would explain the single, rather ridiculous thought that was going through Takiko's mind as she watched the razor sharp tip of the arrow buzz through the air towards her heart:
'This has *got* to be the worse day of my life.'
She slammed her eyelids shut in the vain hope that if she couldn't see what was going to kill or hurt her it would miraculously cease to exist.
A few milliseconds later there was a sickening thud as metal met flesh.
Takiko's eyes flew open as she realised that it hadn't been *her* flesh.
As soon as she opened her eyes she reared backwards.
The white haired stranger she had just been blush kissing passionately for the last - (oh gods, she had been so involved she had lost count of the time!) had blocked the incoming arrow with his right arm. That wasn't why she had moved her face back though. The reason for that, was because the arrow had gone cleanly through her saviour's arm and the razor-sharp tip had stopped mere millimetres from her face. She could *see* the cracks in the metal.
She stifled a surprise scream as the white haired stranger grabbed her roughly about the wrist with his one good arm and hauled her behind him.
"Prince Chamka! Stop! This girl's not a threat! I was just - "
"Damn you witch! You've enchanted my friend with your sex magic! I'll kill you!"
[AUTHOR: I'm a bit ashamed of that line. It's so embarassing.]
'Oh gods, he's protecting me.'
The unfamiliar thought ran through Takiko's head.
'Someone actually wants to help...me...Someone wants to help me!' She clutched at the warm cloth in front of her. 'I don't have to depend entirely on myself anymore - '
' - but he probably just pities me - if I rely on him once, I'll be tempted to do so again because I'll become addicted to this strange warmth that I can feel in my heart and I'll start caring about him - and eventually he'll hate me because he only pitied me or felt a responsibility to me and eventually he'll tell me to go away and stop bothering him and that its all my fault that Mummy died - and I don't think I can stand it if someone else I care about tells me that - so I won't let him help me! I won't let anyone help me!'
'I don't want anyone's pity!'
With that internal scream Takiko pushed the body in front of her out of the way.
'Its better not to feel anything for anyone. Then when they start hating you it doesn't hurt as much.'
For a moment she stood facing the enraged dark-skinned boy with nothing but air between them. Brilliant jade-green eyes clashed with fierce light green ones. Shocked, she noticed a green glow emanating from his body.
Whirling around she ran towards the forest. If she could only reach the cover of the trees, she could hide from his arrows -
Some primal warning bell rang deep inside her causing her to turn around.
Coming towards her were a rain of arrows - made of ice!
Somehow, she managed to dodge all of the deadly icy projectiles. However in doing so she slipped on the snow beneath her. A nasty cracking sound could be heard as her head impacted with a large rock projecting above the snow.
As her eyes fluttered shut memories came back of the last time she hit her head on a stone...
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"Take that back!" the little girl screamed at the boys surrounding her.
"No way! I mean come on, all the evidence fits! For one thing you're such a weirdo Takiko! You're such the teacher's pet. 'The answer's this sir' and 'I know the answer sir'."
"Yeah," another boy chipped in. "And look at her clothes. They're all really old and messy but we know her father has money. It's just so obvious that he hates her."
"My Daddy doesn't hate me..." Takiko's eyes began to water.
The first boy brought his face close to hers. "Come on Takiko, stop denying it. After all your *father* said you did it. Well the guy next to him, you know Suzuno's Dad tried to stop him but he said it anyway. I mean everyone in the village knows, so it's no big secret."
"My Daddy said I did it...Everyone knows..."
"There's no use denying it. I mean who's going to believe a kid over her Father?"
Another boy chimed in at this point. "We're not blaming you or anything. We just want to know...how did you kill your mother?"
"IT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Takiko screamed as she launched herself at the closest boy. Though she fought like a mad wildcat, scratching and biting at any piece of flesh that came within range, it was an uneven battle from the start and in a few minutes the boys threw her off them. Unfortunately her head hit a large rock on the ground as she landed.
Even though she was bleeding profusely from a head wound she struggled to get on her hands and knees...
"It wasn't my fault...it wasn't my fault..."
Suddenly a sweet gentle voice interrupted the ruckus. "What happens to be the trouble here?"
"Suzano!"
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'I need to stay awake...I have to keep on fighting... because it wasn't my fault....'
Both men stared disbelievingly at the girl struggling shakily onto her hands and knees even as blood poured down the wound on her right temple.
'I have to keep on fighting...because it wasn't my fault...I have to stay awake...because I can't depend on anyone but myself... '
She lifted her face up. As blood flowed down her face her jade-green eyes clashed defiantly with her attacker's light blue ones. The wild mad look disappeared from Emtato's eyes to be replaced by one of mild confusion. Why did those eyes suddenly look so familiar to him? And why did a ball of excitement and anticipation uncurl within him at the sight of them?
Suddenly streaks of ice with snake-like heads appeared from the air and grabbed onto the archer's clothing.
"Emtato..." the archer whispered disbelievingly. "You...you used your magic..."
"Magic..." Takiko whispered before she collapsed into blessed unconsciousness.
Emtato lowered his right hand from the prayer position. A haunted almost frightened look appeared in his eyes as the green glow slowly disappeared. To Chamka who was used to hearing Emtato's normal almost emotionless gentle voice, his current voice was almost...frightening.
"I know I said we should never use our...skills," he whispered hoarsely, "Never let anyone know about our magic...but...I this time...I don't know why I..."
Suddenly collecting himself, he lowered his head respectfully. "I apologise to you Prince for attacking you - "
Chamka recovered too. "Oh shut up Emtato! It wasn't your fault. I attacked you first. So this girl - "
"I found her nearly frozen to death. I was just giving her my chi - "
Emtato's face looked suspicious, "Really?"
"Yes really."
Emtato's face suddenly dropped as he realised something. "Oh great," the young man groaned. "I lost my temper again without reason. Mother is going to *kill* me. I'll never make a good ruler at this rate."
Emtato's lips curled into a slight smile. "You only seem to lose your temper around me, Prince. Maybe I am a bad influence."
"The reason why I lose my temper around you is because aside from Mother, you are the only one who actually cares for me - so I love you. You're like...like...an older brother! I'll kill anyone who hurts you!"
"As would I for you, Prince." Emtato said gently, a smile on his face. "But before we start the killing it might be a good idea to get back to camp first."
"First, lets look at that arm.."
"No. Check on the girl first."
Chamka raised an eyebrow. "That was the first time for years that I actually heard you say "no" to me. Are you sure you're feeling OK?"
Emtato paused for a moment before smiling softly again. "I apologise Prince, for countering your orders...My mind is a bit off from losing so much chi..."
Chamka gave an exasperated snort. "How many times have I told you to stop apologising to people for the smallest things. Anyway you're right, I'll go check on the girl now. Her injury is more serious than yours."
The young Prince paused in the act of bending downwards to pick up his bow. One of the ice-snakes had bitten too deeply into the right sleeve, piercing the layers of cloth and placing a bleeding bite mark on his right arm.
"I just realised something," Chamka said softly. "We both drew blood - "
" - and in a fight between Hokkan men, if a sacrifice is made to Earth of the blood of both contestants the fight must continue until one is sacrificed to Earth completely. But this was due to a misunderstanding on both our parts so I'm sure that it doesn't matter if tradition is not applied in this case. It's not law - "
Chamka replied, "But to the people of Hokkan, the Black Tortoise was first born of the Four Gods and took 18 000 years to grow. Who are we humans, the children of Genbu to question his wisdom? Tradition is law."
Chamka's face suddenly lost its grimness. "But you're probably right. It was an accident...so this doesn't count...Still who'd imagine, us fighting over a girl?"
Picking up his bow he moved over to the unconscious Takiko. Gently he examined her scalp.
"She's fine, it's just a flesh wound. You know how head wounds tend to bleed a lot."
Taking a long scarf from inside his robe he bandaged her head. A puzzled look came over his face as he stroked her cheek gently.
"For some reason, I feel like I've met her before you know."
He chuckled quietly. "She's got quite a fighting spirit. When she glared at me like that with those eyes I felt like someone was burning me with the full heat of the Sun. If she's the Sun maybe she can chase away the darkness..."
He looked up as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Emtato was looking down on him compassionately.
"Don't think about that now."
Chamka smiled. "You're right. Oh well I'd better get both of you injured guys back home."
Emtato bent down to pick up the injured girl but Chamka stood up holding the injured girl in his arms. "Don't worry Emtato I'll take her, you're injured."
Emtato bowed his head. "Whatever you wish Prince. If I may inquire, how did the trial go?"
Chamka froze in mid-step. "As expected," he stated emotionlessly. "My first official act as Prince of the Ha tribe was to sentence my cousin to death."
"He broke all the laws of the Hokkan and the principles by which we live."
"Endurance, Loyalty, Tradition and Filial duty," the young boy intoned stonily.
"He turned traitor. He thought that your being only 16 and just new to the position of leader after your mother's long regency would make you weak. It was a clever plot. It took me a while to get enough evidence to convict him."
"I know, but..." Chamka sighed. "I have placed my seal on the execution order. He will be decapitated this afternoon."
As the young leader walked towards his horse, he shivered. "Ghosts...darkness...death...why do these things always haunt me?" he whispered to himself. But for some reason when he looked down at the girl he held in his arms, he felt some of the coldness seep away.
NOTES: I hope you like the quotes I made up ie. I hope they actually sound decent. I rewrote the first one about the two contestants about five times!
WARNINGS: Angst, violence and death.
CHAPTER FOUR
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"Having reached the zenith, the sun declines. When full, the moon begins to wane...The cosmos is in equilibrium; but this equilibrium...is an equilibrium by alternating compensation. Of the two phases, the one compensates, in proportion, for the excess or deficiency of the other - Nothing of morality enters into this brutal system. The alteration is not retribution; it is not destiny; it is not chance. It is physical, blind, immutable, eternal law."
From Chapter 9, "Tao-te-ching", "The Treatise on the Principle and its Action", the fundamental text on Taoism.
Taken from Weiger, L, "A History of the Religious Beliefs and Philosophical Opinions in China", 1927
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"It's snowing," the young dark skinned boy stated matter-of-factly.
To the people of Hokkan, snow was an unchangeable, immutable part of every-day-life for most of the year. Though the cold was harsh and often death was a constant shadowy presence, the people of Hokkan accepted the bleak whiteness of winter as a necessary part of the eternal cycle of life and death. As the first few flakes slowly drifted down from the overcast sky, Prince Chamka opened his mouth to catch them on his tongue. The snowflakes melted instantly, bringing a sharp tingle to his already heightened senses. His face coloured slightly from conditioned reflex when he realised what he was doing. Such a childish act! Fortunately only Emtato was there to witness it. Emtato and that strange girl...
"Achoo!"
Chamka started for a moment as the aforementioned girl sneezed in his arms. Was she awake? No, it must have been an unconscious reflex to something tickling her nose.
He noticed a few snowflakes falling onto the girl's blood stained face. He brought his gloved hand up to gently wipe the flakes off her skin before they melt and gave her discomfort. A sudden thought came to him. Taking off his glove he gently placed his fingers on her cheek, marvelling at the contrast between his hand and her skin: dark callused fingers on light silky smooth skin - as different as day and night, Yin and Yang. 'Will thalt be mine Sun to chase away the shadows of my mind?'. One of his fingers traced a trail of blood on her cheek. He frowned as he suddenly recalled how she got that injury. And to make things worse he had severely injured his best friend.
He looked with concern at Emtato. After giving so much of his chi to the girl and after losing so much blood after their...altercation, Chamka was not surprised that even a man of Emtato's stamina and strength was on the verge of collapse. It was only due to the fact that he was the tribe's best horseman that the tall white haired man was able to stay on his mount.
Chamka's green eyes alighted on Emtato's injured arm which was now in a sling. He remembered what happened when he went to pull the arrow out of his friend's arm
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"Don't touch my arm!"
Chamka was startled by his friend's vehemence.
"But, your arm...The arrow has gone clean through it. We'll have to cut off the flight feathers and push the rest of the arrow through. You can't do that your - Emtato!"
Emtato took the knife out of Chamka's hands and sliced off the top of the arrow. Then he pushed the rest of the arrow through using his one good hand.
His face twisted with pain for a moment before he grabbed the bandages and started wrapping them around his arm. Chamka noticed that as usual his right arm was already covered with bandages. He had never seen his friend without his lower right arm covered and had always wanted to ask why. But he never did. It was obviously something to do with what had happened to Emtato's original tribe, the Kan, and questions about genocide was not something Chamka felt comfortable asking.
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As their horses ploughed through the snow, Emtato's mind became more and more delirious. Normally the levelheaded man hated even the thought of losing self-control. That was why he never touched alcohol. However this time, the lost of chi and the lost of blood caused a light-headedness that was almost exhilarating. He glanced at his young friend, the Prince, who held the strange girl in his arms. He saw him brush her face with his gloved hand and then remove his glove to stroke her cheek with his bare hand. What was that he was feeling? Annoyance? Impossible. He could no longer feel anything for anyone. After all wasn't that why everyone in the tribe feared him? Red Snow they called him. Like the winter, he killed coldly and emotionlessly and all for the Prince's sake. Yes, all for him.
'Where has it all gone I wonder? Where has my heart gone? It's been bleached, bleached out like the snow, ' he thought deliriously.
He recalled a sudden flashback of white walls and white robes.
'Gone, it's all gone. The snow's got it all. Whoosh, and it's gone just like that. You know you'd think it'd last longer, but one moment it's there and the next moment they're dead in your arms and all that's left is the white, the white - and the red. Lets not forget the red too, white, red, white...'
Suddenly Emtato shook his head. What in Genbu's name was his thinking...but it was so hard to think.. so hard to stay in control. He caught sight of the blood spreading through the makeshift bandages on his arm. Red on white. Suddenly his eyes were drawn back to the sight of his liege lord stroking the girl's cheek.
'Such a touching figure of romantic love. Too bad I'm going to kill him for touching my woman.'
Once again Emtato shook his head. What, what was going on? His mind, he felt like he was losing his mind, as if he wasn't even himself anymore, as if someone was invading his mind. What was going on?!
"In a fight between Hokkan men", he recalled his earlier words:
'If a sacrifice is made to Earth of the blood of both contestants the fight must continue until one is sacrificed to Earth completely.' *
'Yep kill him.'
What is this feeling? Help me, please. He grasped at the jade carving of the lower part of a dragon which he always hung at his side. The top half was with *him*...please help me. I'm losing myself.
He suddenly remembered the last time he felt these feelings. The shock almost brought him back to sanity. Almost.
"Mother. I have to go away. I had a dream that I was going to kill you."
The whiteness grew inside of him until he could hardly breathe. Even then he resisted, stretching his left arm out in helpless supplication to an imaginary saviour until he caught sight of his best friend holding the girl in his arms and he suddenly felt a spark inside of him. A spark that suddenly turned to red, red RAGE. And then he was lost, lost in the red-tinged whiteness of his mind.
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The flare of chi caused Chamka to twirl around towards his friend. Unmei, Emtato's horse - whom the young prince could have sworn was the most passive horse in Hokkan was rearing in fright. Screaming, she bucked, throwing her rider into the snow. Chamka leaped off his horse. After placing the girl carefully on the ground he raced towards his friend.
"By the Four Gods..." Chamka whispered.
It wasn't the fact that his whole body was surrounded by a green glow that worried the prince. It was the fact that Emtato's pupils were now shaped like hourglasses.
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The whiteness surrounded him.
The pain was gone.
The confusion was gone.
He was at peace.
"Let me show you..." the voice whispered. Startled Emtato turned to where the voice came from, but there was no-one there.
"Let me show you..." the voice was behind him now.
"Let me show you..." "Let me show you..." "Let me show you..." the voices were all around him, whispering maddeningly at him.
"...the past, present and future." This voice was different from the others, deep and masculine. From the whiteness materialised a tall moustached man.
Genbu.
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"IF YOU WANT A FIGHT, I'LL GIVE YOU ONE! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HER! I'LL KILL YOU FIRST TOMITE!" Hikitsu screamed with rage at his former friend.
The silver haired man coughed, bringing up a massive amount of blood.
Grasping the handle of the knife firmly with his hands, he pulled it out of his back.
The dark-skinned youth just stood there looking at his former comrade with an almost dazed look in his eyes. Like Hikitsu, he was bare from the waist up. His hands which were covered with blood hung limply by his side. He raised them to rub his eyes, leaving red smears along his face.
The two youths were surrounded by red. The rocks were red, the ground was red. Everywhere as far as the eye could see there was red. Except the sky, which was blindingly white.
There were no stars, Moon or Sun in this sky.
Watching the fight impassively from a large rock, Emtato seemed to have lost all his emotions. He wondered if this was the past, the future - or neither. The two combatants looked like him and Chamka, but they had different names - Hikitsu and Tomite, somehow without being told he knew that this was his other self's name. Besides, it was inconceivable that he would ever want to kill the Prince or that the extremely honourable Chamka would ever stab him in the back. Especially over a girl!
Meanwhile, his right eye glowing with the character of "Tou" - the Measure, Hikitsu gave an almost animal scream and sent a wall of green chi towards the bloodstained boy.
Suddenly the dazed look disappeared from Tomite's face to be replaced by an expression that equalled Hikitsu's in sheer animal hatred and rage. Along his back burned the character "Hsu" - Emptiness.
A sudden strange thought came to Emtato before the scene faded away. 'An empty vessel can be filled.'
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The red was gone. In its place was pure white. Emtato was in an ice corridor that stretched forward with no end in sight. Like before, he simply drifted along the ice corridor with no thought of panic, curiosity or fear. Whether he walked or floated and how long he travelled he couldn't really say.
Finally he arrived at the end of the corridor.
A little girl dressed in white mourning clothes sat crosslegged on the icy floor bouncing a large ball. 'The loneliest child in the world', the strange thought entered his mind.
"Hello little one," he greeted her.
"Hello mister," the girl looked up. Her jade green eyes looked familiar somehow.
"Did someone die?" He asked pointing at her white mourning clothes which consisted of white pants, tunic and headband and a vest made of rough sackcloth.
"My mother." The girl went back to bouncing her ball.
"Oh".
"I killed her you know. I didn't think I did but Daddy keeps on saying I did so it must be true. So I'm a baaaaad girl. Do you want to have a look at my ball?"
Emtato blinked, startled at the sudden change in topic.
"Sure."
On the surface of the ball were two curved symbols - one leading into the other.
"Yin and Yang," he murmured.
"Yup," the girl nodded taking back the ball. "This is the universe you know." She looked at him with the air of a conspirator. "You know that it is destiny."
"What is?"
"Yin and Yang. Life and death. Order and chaos. Order has reached its zenith and now it is the time of decline into chaos and total and utter annihilation. It's not evil or good or anything like that. It simply is. It's fate. It's the will of the Heavens and nothing you can do can change it."
"Mother I have to leave. I had a vision I was going to kill you," Emtato recalled the words of his younger self.
"Maybe," he stated quietly.
Man and girl looked at each other for a long moment.
"Can I help you?" Emtato asked.
"Can you bring the dead back to life?"
"No."
"Then you can't help me."
The girl started bouncing her ball again. "You know I think the universe is a cruel and terrible place. Everyone's always so mean to me and I'm always so lonely. No one wants to play with me. I sometimes imagine that I'm dead and my ghost is so sad because no one wants to bury me, not even my Daddy. So my ghost is crying because my poor body is just lying there on the ground and then the nasty vultures come and eat it all up. Gulp, gulp just like that. They're so greedy you know."
"I promise you that if you die, I will look after you."
"Really!" the girl squealed. "Your sooooo nice. But what if my ghost is lonely?"
"Then I'll stay with it until it's no longer lonely."
"Even if it's forever."
"Yes, even it's for forever."
"Yeah! You're so nice mister!"
The girl stood up abruptly, holding the ball in her hands. "Hmmm. I *still* think the Universe is mean though. So, I think I'm going to - SMASH it to pieces! Mmmm. Should I?"
The question was not directed at Emtato but at the white haired, golden eyed boy who had suddenly materialised next to the girl. The boy's sheer beauty was almost overwhelming.
The boy took the ball from the girl's hands. He started spinning it on one finger. As the ball revolved it suddenly started glowing with a golden light and turned into glass.
"I can destroy the Universe or save it." Even the boy's voice was beautiful and melodious. "I love you so I'll do whatever you ask. What is it that you want?"
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The ice corridor was gone.
Emtato turned around as he heard the explosion. Above him the twenty-eight constellations of the Four Gods twirled. For some reason there appeared to be three gigantic columns supporting the sky. On the first column was written Spirit, on the second Mind and on the third Body. The explosion he heard was the first column being destroyed by some unseen force. Then the second column collapsed and then the last column was destroyed.
The twenty-eight constellations twirled faster and faster until he couldn't even make out the individual stars anymore. Suddenly a rip developed in the dark sky, a blood red rip that tore Heaven apart...He was suddenly blinded by a flash of white light.
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As Emtato rubbed his eyes, he suddenly realised that he was in a field. It was a warm spring day. The Sun beat down pleasantly on the back of his neck and the sounds of birds filled the air. The air carried the smell of pollen - and blood.
So much blood had been spilt that even the infinite Earth could no longer absorb it, so it just stayed on the ground so it appeared as if the grass was floating in a shallow sea of blood.
But besides that it was a really nice spring day.
The delicate sounds of a lute filled the air. Four Kutou generals sat feasting in a luxurious pavilion. To Emtato's mind, only the youngest one stood out. This wasn't because of the fact that he only had one eye but because Emtato knew what was going to happen next. Fortunately it seemed that this time he was simply an invisible observer to events.
The Kan villagers stood trembling on the edge of the long deep trench they were forced to dig. They knew that they had been digging their own graves.
Suddenly one of the soldiers separated a pair of identical twins from the group.
Standing next to the soldier stood a bureaucrat who frowned as he filled out a form.
"Mmm. Twins. Age - looks like 10. Village...District...Good we need more twins for our magicians and scholars to experiment on." Bringing a jade seal out of his robes the bureaucrat stamped the documents - in triplicate. The solider joked about how like most bureaucratic documents it'll probably get lost for two weeks in the mailroom.
'Order. Terrible order,' thought Emtato.
After the count of villagers was completed the execution order came.
When the arrows came, the women didn't even try to shield their children. From stories from other villages, they knew that the Kutou soldiers would simply kick all the bodies into the grave whether they were dead or alive. A quick death from the arrows would be better than a long agonising death from being buried alive.
"Mummy!" The young twelve year old boy suddenly came into view.
"Emtato!" One of the women screamed.
The boy saw the arrow coming towards her.
"NOOO!!!" he screamed. From his right eye blazed the character 'Tou'.
The adult Emtato was glad that Genbu had turned off his emotions.
Mercifully the ice killed all of the villagers, except one. The adult Emtato was too far away to hear the softly spoken words but they were branded in his mind for all time.
The woman's limbs and torso were black, the classic marks of frostbite except this time on a massive scale. The boy gathered her in his arms.
"Mother..." The adult Emtato's lips moved in time with the boy's.
"Emtato, please kill me. I'm in so much pain."
"Mother."
"You were right Emtato. You did kill me. But I forgive you because it was Heaven's will. It was fate and we can never challenge fate. Ahhh. It hurts Emtato, it hurts. Please kill me."
"Mummy."
The adult Emtato could almost feel the knife in his hands as his younger self pushed it through his mother's ribs, the warm blood trickling through his small fingers...And on his mother's face, the warmest most radiant smile...a smile of someone who *wanted* to die.
'I saw that smile again today,' the thought ran through the adult Emtato's mind. 'But why did that strange girl want to die?'
The soldiers surrounded the boy uncertainly. They had just seen him kill 50 people. But...
"Kill him!"
Kutou's soldiers knew better than to disobey orders. But as the blades advanced towards the shell-shocked boy a new authoritative voice rang out.
"Stop!"
As the one-eyed general moved towards the boy Emtato, one of his companions grasped him by the arm. "My Lord. What will we tell the Emperor if you..."
"You have placed hands on a royal person. *That* is a crime punishable by death."
The man whipped his hand off the one-eyed youth. Ignoring the wide-eyed stares of the Kutou soldiers the young general took one of the stocks and casually knelt down next to the boy. He fastened the metal plate around the boy's neck and after chaining the boy's arms together put them in the holes in the metal plate before locking it.
All of the assembled Kutou men sighed with relief. The young general felt like rolling his eye. It was obvious what condition the boy was in. He hadn't even responded when his life was about to be ended on a steel blade.
Standing up, the general proclaimed, "We shouldn't kill the boy yet. His powers would make him a special treat for our scholars to experiment on and as you can see he is no longer in any condition to attack anyone or even defend himself."
Taking off his eyepatch he placed half of a jade carving of a dragon in the little pocket in the covering that he usually placed soothing herbs for his injury.
"This pendant will make sure that he can't use his powers," he stated to his fellow generals as he placed the eyepatch on the almost comatose boy.
The other three generals looked at each other. They would have much preferred to have simply killed the boy then and there but his words did make sense and his relationship with the emperor...
"Of course. We were just thinking that ourselves."
As he was tying the cloth around the boy Emtato's head he whispered in his ear. "I know where they are taking you. I'm sorry but that was the only place I could think of where they would have an interest in keeping you alive. But once you get there, if you want to stay alive, never show your powers to anyone, no matter what they do to you. Remember it was your lack of control that killed your mother and the rest of your village."
This last statement brought a flicker of life back to the boy's dead eyes.
"You must learn to control yourself. Get rid of your emotions or you won't survive long in this place. And whatever you do, do not lose this pendant or you really will die. I'm about to do something to you which I don't want to, but unless you can take this without flinching, I can guarantee that you won't survive the place they are sending you."
Turning around the general took the burning brand that was offered to him by one of the soldiers. The bureaucrat started filling out another form. "Paranormal powers...village...district...number."
"I'm sorry I have to do this...But remember whatever you do, never show your powers to anyone, even if they do this to you."
As the general placed the brand on the boy's right forearm, the adult Emtato could almost feel the pain again as the hot metal branded him with the serial number 28768.
But he had not flinched that day when the brand had scarred him for life and he had survived when the rest of his race did not.
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"Emtato, thank Genbu you're all right! We're at the camp now so I'll get you to a healer as soon as possible."
Emtato closed his eyes. 'I killed them all. Everyone. My mother, my friends, the whole village because I couldn't control my power.'
'But, that was in the past not the future. Yin and Yang. It is a never ending cycle. Back and forth. Back and forth. So what was I shown? Was it a vision of the future - or was it a memory of something that happened in the past?'
NOTES: I know that it is confusing. Sorry - it's a vision. Its meant to be confusing. The reason for the similarities between Hikitsu's past and Nakago's was because originally Hikitsu was going to be what Nakago could have been IF instead of being taken to that stupid Emperor after he killed his mother he was taken into a loving environment. Of course plans changed...but I still kept some of what I originally planned. I know the Kan tribe is supposed to be West Hokkan but oh well - I'll either think of something or simply ignore it.
Hikitsu's love of endurance horse riding is documented but his ability to see "visions" (whether of the future or of the past Grin) is something I made up myself. The reason is that of the four supernatural creatures, Genbu is the most powerful and mystical (well, he is the oldest son...). In Chinese history the tortoise shell has been commonly used for divination purposes and in fact esp. early on in Chinese history the tortoise shell's commands were taken to be Heaven's will and thus must be taken as truth even by the Emperor. From this I got the idea of giving Hikitsu the power of divination. Tomite also has a special power I made up from the supposed mystic powers of the tortoise but I'll leave that to the next chapter. Divination by tortoise shell will make an important appearance later on.
Anyway a preview for the next chapter:
"Men of the six armies, I say to you on my oath...The Lord of Hu having rejected the official calender [this was one of the conditions of accepting the Emperor], Heaven has withdrawn his mandate, and I am about to inflict upon him the punishment decreed by Heaven - Men of the right, if you do not attack on the right; men of the left, if you do not attack on the left; charioteers, if you do not drive your horses directly toward the enemy, you will have failed in your duty - Those who obey will be rewarded before the tablets of my Ancestors. Those who disobey will be put to death before the mound of the Patron of the soil."
Emperor Ch'i before the Battle of Kan 1976BC
Prince Chamka threw out the wooden slate with the word "Execute".
"Do you have any last words...traitor...?"
Next expisode - A noble prince whose father died at a young age, Prince Chamka serves his tribe to the best of his ability. But a traitor's death leads him to ask questions about his past which he would prefer to keep hidden, even from himself. A storm arises from the east and in the ensuing chaos an angry Chamka finds himself irresistibly drawn to the mysterious girl from the woods. But when the camp is plunged into utter darkness, Chamka's true self emerges in an unexpected way.
Next episode - "Are you afraid of the dark?"