Chapter Twenty-Five – Good Horse

SPLASH

The shock of the cold mountain-fed water was a slap, and I inhaled a mouthful before I had a chance to avoid it. My plunge into the river had pulled us both under, and I frantically kicked back to the surface. Coughing, I tried to orient myself without losing my grip on the boy. At least he wasn't flailing or struggling.

The roar of the rapids blocked out nearly every other sound.

Foam splashed into my eyes, blurring everything.

The broken tree branch whipped past, spinning on top of the water, coming too close to my face, and I automatically pushed it away from my eyes, before I realized… it was buoyant.

I lunged for it. "Grab the branch," I yelled in the boy's ear, hoping that he could hear me. "It floats."

The river took that opportunity to force feed me another serving of water.

Meanwhile the boy nodded and clutched the branch, enabling me to sandwich his body between mine and the limb. I didn't know how much time we would have before it became waterlogged and sank, but it made sense to conserve our energy while we could.

If we could ride the branch into shallower water… or if the current would only toss us toward the riverbank. If… if… if only. Instead, though, the river picked up speed, intensified, thrashing waves, flinging twigs, leaves and even small stones into our faces with stinging accuracy.

The sound of the rapids was a constant tschhhh, interrupted by gurgling clunks during the terrifying moments when the pace of the water dragged us momentarily under the suffocating pressure, before spitting us back above the surface.

Then the churning waves spun us around –

Where once I could see a water-blurred preview of the torrents ahead, now the view was the landscape behind us. There was the boy's father frantically running alongside the river but, his figure was getting smaller and smaller as the current swept us away. On the opposite bank, I thought I saw a rider on a huge red horse, but then the river smacked me in the face with another wave and once again everything in sight dissolved into white foam.

My fingers were becoming numb, but there was no way I was going to let the boy or the branch slip away from me. Mentally, I chanted instructions to myself. Don't let go of the branch…. Don't let go of the boy… keep your mouth closed when you're underwater. The last one was a difficult mantra to follow when all I wanted to do was cough up the water that I'd already swallowed.

Thwack!

The roiling water slammed me into a boulder –

Son of a bi-

The impact travelled all the way through my body - even my intestines rattled.

I clenched my teeth to keep from gasping in pain – the last thing I wanted was another shot of water, and it was more than enough to just hang onto the branch and the kid and try my best to keep us both above water and hope that the river gave us up before we gave ourselves to it.

Then we bumped up against something else, something…not a boulder… softer than a boulder… something alive and warm … that gave a soft whinny at the moment of contact.

Horse?

A pair of arms reached around my stomach as Shingen hauled me and the boy onto his horse.

Good horse was my semi-coherent thought. Moonlight would never have gone into the river. Thank God Shingen's horse was bigger than the short-legged kisoumas most samurais rode, or he'd never be able to carry all of us. Of course, as soon as I thought that, the chestnut stallion slipped as he tried to find a foothold on the bottom.

"Hold on," Shingen growled into my ear, as he climbed off to lead Good Horse. When I realized what he was up to, I made a move to jump off and help, but he must have anticipated that because he glared at me over his shoulder and yelled, "If you get off this horse, I will drown you myself." Personally, I thought that was a very Kenshin thing for him to say. Apparently the Uesugi demeanor was contagious.

Obeying the order, I tightened my grip on Good Horse and the boy, holding my breath as Shingen, swearing all the while, using words, most of which I knew, in combinations I had never thought possible (if the boy was listening, he was getting a graduate level education in Creative Profanity), managed to lead us up the bank of the river.

The four of us (counting Good Horse), stood there in the rain, staring at the furious river. No one said anything. I hadn't had time or energy to be scared while I was in it, but now that I was safe on land, I realized my heart was thumping in my ears loud enough to block out the sound of the water.

"Hiko!"

The boy's father came thundering up to us, eyes wild with panic.

He grabbed his son, hugging, then yelling, then hugging some more. "How could you be so careless? I told you to keep back from the edge!" Then in the next moment, the boy was mooshed against his father's chest again.

Eventually he turned to us and bowed low. "Thank you for saving my only son. Hikosane is a careless whelp, but he would be missed."

"No thanks are needed," Shingen said. He ruffled the boy's wet hair.

"Be that as it may, I am grateful," the man said. He looked over his shoulder at where the rest of his family was hurrying toward us, all in one mass pack of chattering people. "I would have been left with five useless daughters."

Useless daughters?

Oh no he didn't!

I stepped forward to protest, but once again, Shingen anticipated my actions, thunked his hand on my shoulder, and gave me a warning squeeze. I bit back a hiss of pain… that was right where I'd slammed into the rock.

"I've found a multitude of uses for them," Shingen said.

Uses? I really didn't like how he phrased that… although I imagined he was only trying to meet the man on the same conversational level. Still. Uses.

He bowed to the trapper. "But I'm glad we were able to be of service to you."

The boy's mother scurried up with a blanket and wrapped her son up in it. She tried to lead him away, but he broke from her and ran over to me. He gave me a hug, and whispered in my ear, "Thank you. I am not careless – I was pushed."

What? Who? How? I tried to picture the scene at the riverbank, but all my memory came up with was the chaotic family. Maybe he had been fighting with one of his sisters? I wanted to question him further, but his mother retrieved him, gave me a short bow, and the boy was absorbed back into the bosom of his family.

Meanwhile the trapper was still trying to reward Shingen. "I cannot repay you, but would you like to have one of my daughters?" The man gestured to where the girls were now lined up. The oldest couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen. "Sho," he said, and the girl stepped forward. She looked Shingen up and down – his wet clothing was clinging to him everywhere… and I mean, everywhere – and gave him a shy smile. Pretty sure she was hoping he'd say yes.

Shingen smiled back at her and turned on the charm. "I couldn't separate you from your family, Princess." Then he addressed her father. "You do me honor, but I am not in any position to add to my household."

The man bowed, then went to his wagon, and returned with a couple fur pelts (sea otter, I think) and a sack of something that clinked. "Please accept these as a token of my gratitude."

The man needed to give us something, and while he clearly would rather have given away his daughter, he was willing to part with these items instead. To have refused at this point would be insulting, and Shingen apparently realized that as well, for he accepted the tributes.

The family all bowed and headed back upriver.

And once again, I was left alone with what I expected was one very angry warlord.

Thus, I was surprised to be hauled into his arms as he enveloped me in a tight hug. He hung onto me, breathing into my hair, hands firm against my back and waist.

Alright.

This is good.

Hug good. Hug warm. Hug…

…over.

And that was when the yelling started.

He put me at arm's length and his fingers tightened on my shoulder (ok, ow, stop hitting the damn bruise!). "Didn't you promise never to do something that dangerous again?"

"I did not!" In fact, I was very clear on that. "I said I couldn't promise that. I might be a liar, but I don't make promises that I don't intend to keep." I pulled out of his grip and resisted the urge to rub my shoulder. "What I said was that I would consult you if feasible. It was not feasible."

He raked his hands through his hair and glared at me with frustration etched into the lines on his face. The effect of the glare was somewhat ruined when his hair flopped back over one eye. "Do you have any idea what could have happened if Sasuke hadn't gotten my attention in time?"

"Yes." Since I was drenched and was growing another rock-shaped bruise on my shoulder, I realized quite well. "But, if the tree branch hadn't broken, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"The hell we wouldn't." He pushed his wet hair out of his face again. It flopped back into his eyes … again. "Just because you survived, doesn't mean it wasn't a stupid, reckless thing to do!"

Unfair! I was not going to apologize this time. "I didn't have much time to think-"

"That, is obvious-"

"What else was I supposed to do? Let the boy drown?"

We might have stayed there yelling at each other, if Good Horse hadn't decided to interject his own opinion, with a neigh and a full body shake, which I think translated as 'would you both shut up and get me out of the rain.' Pretty sure Shingen interpreted that the same way because he sighed and said, "Come on. We'll need to find shelter before we lose daylight."

Belatedly I realized we were on the wrong side of the river to either return to the engineering post or go to Kasugayama. Figuring that Shingen likely didn't want to hear anything else out of me, I silently followed him to Good Horse (at some point, I really need to learn his name), and climbed on behind him. Good Horse responded to the click of Shingen's tongue immediately into a trot, (eep!) and I quickly grabbed Shingen's waist to avoid being tossed off. I had a feeling that he wasn't in the mood to stop and pick me up if that happened.

Shingen seemed to have some idea of where he was going, so I basically just hung on to him and closed my eyes, the long night and the battle with the river suddenly catching up to me. I dozed off in fits and starts, always waking up with a jerk to confirm that no, I wasn't losing balance. Apparently in half-sleep my grip was like that of a sleeping bird on a wire. I shut my eyes again, existing in a fuzzy dreamlike state until Shingen pulled Good Horse to a halt.

"This will have to do," he said.

I peered around him, letting my eyes adjust to the twilight gloom, then realized… we were in front of a…

"Th-that's a c-cave," I said, not able to keep the horror out of my voice.

Oh no. Oh hell no.

He heard my fear but misinterpreted the reason. "Don't worry, I'm not going to take the opportunity to push my unwanted attentions on you again."

Right. I still hadn't apologized. But at present, I had to deal not with the liar that I was now, but the naïve idiot who had been trapped in crate for a day, and convince her that, yes, she can do it. It's just a cave. A plain old… small… dark… cave.

I can do this.