Chapter 2: The Great Journey

After leaving the lake, Meg and I walked to a field full of wild flowers and butterflies. What a beautiful sight, I could imagine Meg running through the flowers and playing with the butterflies.

"What are you looking at Isshin?" asked Meg walking up beside me looking at the field below us.

I shook my head at that moment and replied, "Nothing, I'm just thinking about something."

She looked at me strangely than walked down the hill ahead of me. When she reached the base of the hill she waved at me to come down with her. I made no movement for a couple seconds until my foot lifted and sent me tumbling down the hill to her feet. She stared at me than began to laugh, tears formed in her eyes as she began to laugh even harder.

"It wasn't that funny," I said lifting myself off the ground and dusting myself off.

"Y-You're s-s-so hilarious," she stammered trying to stop herself from laughing so hard.

I sighed and walked through the flowers without her beside me. She came running behind me, suddenly her foot got stuck in a hole and she began to fall forward. My reaction was total instinct; I turned and caught her in my arms. Her head placed nicely into the curve of my chest and my shoulder blade. My knees digging into the ground, Meg and I stayed in this same position for a few minutes.

"Meg…" I said trying to get her attention.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry," Meg replied moving away from me and blushing.

It's quite all right. I didn't want you to get hurt, that's all," I answered getting up off the ground above the flowers.

"Thank-you," replied Meg dusting herself off as she came toward me.

My eyes widen as her face came toward mine. I couldn't believe what she was going to do, something I'm going to soon regret. As her soft lips touched mine a loud thump rumbled the ground below us.

"Meg, run now!" I said pushing her forward and trying to get myself out of range also.

We hid in the forest upon the hill beyond the trees. This was the only place where we could hide besides the field. The rumble came again, shaking the trees and the ground.

"What will we do now?" asked Meg as I pinned her against a tree.

"Shhh…be quiet," I answered lifting my sword from its sheath.

I walked out from the trees after telling Meg to stay where she was. My sword scathed the ground as I made my way down the hill and into the field. Near the center of the field I noticed dozens of black horses with red eyes.

"Oh no," I said to myself as one of the horses heads lifted from the ground.

The horse's mouth had blood trailing from its lips, its eyes gleaming at me and its tail in the shape of a dagger. The other horses around the field looked up at me with the same reaction. Each of them snorted as they watched me, I was motionless from this point on. All of the sudden a horse from behind the group came forward; this one had the same red eyes, its body bleeding all over and its bones protruding from its skin. It lifted its head and gave out an evil cry making all of them come at me at once. Meg watched from behind the tree, in shock. I lifted my sword and ran at the lead horse. As I reached the horse my blade sliced the head off, the body remained beside me its head flying off in the opposite direction. Blood shot out from the head and covered most of my clothing and some parts of my face. Its veins and other organs lay outside the body making it look more gruesome. The other horses came all at once as I sliced through each of them. As the last and final one came it me, its tail whipped my sword and tossed it away from me. I stood there looking at my worst far ever, death. Its tongue shot out at me and wrapped around my neck. The smell of its breath made me want to gag, but I already was choking. I managed to grab my hand gun and pointed it at the horses head.

"Take this you son of a-…" I was cut off from the horses daggered tail that stabbed me through the back and out from the front. Blood trailed down my mouth and my eyes began to flickering.

"No!" yelled a familiar voice from behind me.

She ran to my word and cut the horse's tail off, making the horse scream bloody murder. I fell to the ground motionless, my eyes beginning to close completely. As my eyes finally closed the screaming of the horse finally faded.

"You must promise me you'll never fall in love and will never die," said a voice.

"You have my word sir, I won't let you down," replied the other voice in my mind.

I woke up near a warm fire by the lake. I turned my head and saw my clothes on the branches of trees, drying and across my body was a blanket, I was completely naked from head to toe. A shadowy figure came up beside me and knelt down to me.

"Glad you're awake," said the shadowy figure above me.

"Hmmm…" I mumbled turning my face to this mysterious figure.

"Oh, stop whining, I treated your wounds and washed your clothes," replied a familiar voice.

I opened my eyes to see a girl with emerald green eyes, it was Meg, but what happened to the horse?

"You feeling okay?" she asked setting one of her hands on my forehead.

"I'll be okay. What happened after I fell on the ground?" I asked looking up at her still.

"Oh, the horse is dead. Would you like some water?" she asked lifting a cup from the ground.

I lifted myself slowly off the ground and took a sip of the water, very refreshing. She helped me lie back down and fold the blanket back into its spot.

"Thank-you" I said to her, still looking up into her beautiful green eyes.

I had this urge of some sort. A jolt of lightning that made me go for it. I pulled her down to me, her lips touched mine and we kissed. I angled my mouth against hers to go deeper, my tongue caressing hers. She pulled away from me blushing and stared down at me.

"I'm sorry," she said getting up and checking if my clothes were dry yet.

I sighed and wrapped the blanket around my waist and walked toward her. She turned and smiled at me, that sweet and gentle smile that made me want more of her. I wanted to know more about her and how she got caught up in this kind of trouble.

"Your clothes are dry now, you can go put them on behind this tree," she said walking away from me and checking the fire.

I walked up to my clothes and went behind the tree to change. She walked over to the tree; I was finishing up and put my shirt on with my leather jacket.

"The suns about to set. Do you want to watch it with me?" Meg asked standing there looking at me.

"Yeah, sure," I answered walking away from the tree and to the hilltop to watch the sunset.

She walked up behind me and laid her head on my shoulder.

"You want to sit down?" I asked turning my head to hers.

She shook her head and together we sat on the hill watching as the sun disappeared. Meg grabbed my hand and set her fingers in place with min and together they intertwined. I turned to her and smiled; she laid her head on my shoulder and soon fells asleep. The sky turned bright orange-red over the field where the dead horse corpses lay. I picked up Meg and lay her next to the fire with the blanket on her. I lay my back against a tree, Meg in my arms asleep next to the fire.

I'm sorry master. I disobeyed you, my promise to you is now broken. There's nothing I can do to make it right again. But, to you there is only one way to solve this…the taking of one's life…