Kiisan winced as Falina dabbed at his wound with a soapy wet cloth, "That stings!" Falina smiled at her friend sympathetically, but persisted in her task. From across the room Hai-Yong shouted at Kiisan, "That girl's a miracle worker, kiddo! You don't realize how lucky you are to get such great treatment! Stop complaining!"
As Haneh stepped quietly into the room, she lifted up one side of the chair, dumping Hai-Yong on the floor. She pulled the chair closer to the large table in the center of the room and sat down in it. The rebels were gathering in this meeting room to discuss their next movement now that the siege of their current headquarters had ended. Feeling a little more generous than usual Sonoa grabbed the red-haired prisoner by the arm and shoved him into a chair close to Russ and Lucien so they could keep an eye on the prisoner who had become their charge without either man asking for the responsibility. Russ sighed and took out his knife, "I'll unbind your wrists for now, but if you look like you're going to make any trouble, that's it. I'll give Turan Magno permission to have you executed in the square." Hai-Yong grinned and held his wrists out, pulling them as far apart as he could to give Russ some extra room for hacking at the thick rope, "Anything you say, Sir!"
Jirobane strolled in with his sword over his shoulder, followed closely by Ocha. "Russ, are you still making an effort with this guy? It's not worth your time."
Ocha narrowed her eyes at the dark-haired swordsman, "His time, huh? He's got plenty of time to do whatever he wants! What about me? How about my time? I thought you said you would help me figure out a way to get home!"
Kiisan began to laugh at Ocha's sudden outburst, dropping his map onto the floor, where it rolled a distance half open, "You said you'd help her too Jirobane?! I thought that was my job!"
Falina rolled her eyes, "Kiisan, hold still."
The young man kept his attention turned to the doorway, waiting for everyone to arrive. Kusa and Kurin were already situated in a corner with Yuber, the two plunderers questioning the black knight about many trivial matters of the revolution. The blond-haired warrior did not even raise his head and none of their questions were answered, leaving the suspicious pair to turn to Louis Abdul, in hopes that he could answer some of their inquiries while he tried to finish his muffin.
Mai Mai slipped under the table, and while Falina was getting a bandage for Kiisan's injured foot, the large wildcat licked his toes. With an odd combination of surprise and laughter, Kiisan fell over backwards in his chair, hitting his head on the ground. Junsuke lifted the chair back up with Kiisan still sitting in it, "Don't let that cat upset you so much...she's just a cat."
The leader of the rebels wiped some nervous sweat from his face with his sleeve as Junsuke and Rizu took their places at the table, "Yeah...just a cat."
Mai Mai's eyes widened mischievously as she looked at him with interest.
"...just a cat..."
Murasaki Fuji no Shita ni Kuni
"The Country Under the Purple Wisteria"
Chapter 19- Through the Flower Fields
Kiisan spread his map out on the large table, revealing the entire Aronian Kingdom to his friends and supporters. "There are two things I've been thinking about," he began, "First of all, I think we need to start to move south, towards the capital. This part of the nation, especially our own state of Serif, has mostly risen to support our cause. There are still imperial sympathizers, but that's not what we need to worry about now. We want to become something large enough to have an actual chance of deposing our current government. ...I don't think we'll be able to do much else up here. And...I also think we need a new place to use as our headquarters. Serif City has had to suffer enough for our cause. ...It's just that I don't know where we could go that would serve as a good strategic location. I don't know enough about the places outside of this state. If anyone has any ideas at all, please feel free to speak up."
The revolutionaries began to murmur and speak with each other, consulting on different locations, strategies, and opinions. Kiisan sat nervously, looking down at his bare feet, while the others contemplated his words. Rather quickly Han Li stood up, got out of his seat, and walked over to his young friend, leaning down to whisper into his ear. "Kiisan, I know of a location in a more southern part of the country where a Cyndar city once stood on a ridge. It overlooks the Farlance River, separating it from the rest of the region. The original city is mostly gone, but a cathedral stands there today. It was built by people hoping to revive the region, but after attempts at building a new city there failed it was abandoned. That would be my suggestion."
Not waiting for the young priest to reply, Han Li returned to his original seat, and leaned back in his chair. Hittoko scolded him chirpingly, her grammar was somewhat awkward, but it served its purpose of teasing in the mysterious man, "Mr. Han Li get hurt! No lean back at table!" He smiled at the girl, but did not change his position. Hyoko added to her younger sister's teasing, shoving the dark-haired man, making him feel a little off balance, "What will Father Kiisan do if you get hurt? What will we do, Mr. Han Li?" Regaining his balance Han Li moved his chair and sat will all four of its legs firmly on the ground, "Okay, okay, see? I'm doing this just for you." The brightly-clad women laughed cheerfully and continued to fuss over their fairly calm companion.
After some discussion with Carlos and Lucien, Louis Abdul stood up and looked to Kiisan for permission to speak. The young man nodded and the officer addressed his comrades, "Last week I wrote a letter to a friend of mine, Mio, who lives in Silverburg. For anyone who doesn't know where that is, it's in the state of Onwya, just south of here. I didn't expect the aid of Kusa and Kurin in our situation with General T'Rumour, so I was asking him for some advice. By the way...I still want to know how they knew what they did about Han Li and Sasshalai...however... Mio's father is a strategist for the Imperial Army, but although his father had him educated as a strategist too they have their differences and went their separate ways years ago. I received a reply yesterday and he invited me to come visit him. I was thinking that maybe his knowledge could help us fight this war. Thank you for listening to me. I hope that helps, Kiisan."
Kiisan nodded and pushed his hat, which was slipping down, back onto the top of his head. "I've gotten two good suggestions now, and I think I know what I want to do. Thank you very much everyone."
Lucien took the map off the table and rolled it back up, "Can you inform us now?"
"Yes, I want to tell you all what I'm thinking. I'm not going to be able to handle everything myself so input from anyone about anything can only help strengthen our effort. I think we should head south to the town of Silverburg and see if we can enlist the aid of Captain Louis Abdul's friend. If Mio will join us, we'll take him with us to check out a location Han Li knows of and see what he thinks of it as a strategic location. If he won't come, then we'll just have to make the best of our own judgement. Either way, we have to go south. I hope everyone will be able to get ready to leave Serif City tomorrow morning bright and early."
The revolutionaries dispersed, each person heading off to get ready for their new journey. Father Carlos and Sasshalai accompanied Kiisan down to the stables to take a look at the horses and see if the turan would be able to spare any for their mission. "Do you think we're doing the right thing?" Kiisan asked his friends.
"Whether this is wrong or right is a matter of opinion...I think we can't stop now," responded Carlos, stroking the side of the black horse tied up outside the stable.
Kiisan shook his head, "That's not exactly the answer I expected from you Carlos... You've changed."
The westerner tipped his head at his younger friend and looked at him inquisitively, "Is that a bad thing? I'm glad that I've come to see the world in a wider sense."
"No! It's not bad at all! ...I'm still just a little surprised."
"Sometimes it's hard to accept changes...even if they are for the better..." murmured Sasshalai; his face turned down towards the ground.
"I'll agree with Sassarai on that!" laughed Carlos, putting an arm over the boy's shoulders.
Kiisan sighed, not really frustrated, just slightly amused, "You can agree with him, but you still can't say his name right..."
********
Instead of taking the Tol Highroad northeast like the group had on their original trip to Crystal Valley they headed out on the southern branch of the Highroad. Green cornstalks waved in the warm breeze along both sides of the road. Kiisan could see a tiny farming village like his hometown on the horizon and the sight made him grow a little homesick. He had gone so many places, but none of them had been like a home at all. It made him curious if any of the others were homesick. He glanced at the little boy sitting behind him holding onto him tightly, his arms wrapped around Kiisan's waist. Sasshalai had said he missed his father, but no one else, even if they were homesick, was letting it show.
The sun was rising high in the sky when Louis Abdul rode up close to Kiisan's side and, raising his left hand, pointed at the horizon. "See that? The corn is thinning here. We're entering the flower district...that means we're crossing the border into Onwya, but we're still over a day's journey to Silverburg. It's very pretty here Kiisan, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to stop and go check it out with the girls."
Kiisan swatted at his friend, but was afraid to take even one hand too far from the reins, so he missed hitting him by nearly a foot, "If you want to stop here, Captain, I will, just don't blame me!"
The fields of flowers, dotted with groves of oak trees, stretched as far as the eye could see. The variety of colors was amazing; Kiisan had never seen anything like it. The flowers he was most used to were the purple wisteria that trailed over and clung to all the buildings and fences in Finnel Village and the white blossoms on the cherry trees. Flowers growing out of the earth in such a multitude were an impressive sight to the young man. Sasshalai tugged on his sleeve excitedly, "Big Brother, let's go look at the flowers! Please! I know you want to!"
The young priest was just as interested as his small friend, but he tried to keep his feelings under control as he reigned in his horse and called to the others, "Let's take a break here!"
No one seemed to be upset about resting in such a lovely spot. It was the hottest part of the day so many of the soldiers who had come with Louis Abdul from Serif hurried to find somewhere to sit down under the scattered trees. The captain himself climbed up into a tree to eat his lunch in peace. The revolutionaries wandered around the field, taking a break from the long ride of the morning.
After seeing that Sasshalai was settled with Han Li and Carlos who were eating their lunch, Kiisan walked off through the flowers to take a better look at the area. Some of the grasses reached past his knees and he felt like he was wading through a sea of plants. He took a deep breath, smelling sweet perfume of hundreds of wildflowers. He considered picking some flowers to give to Falina and Sasshalai, but decided against it seeing as the sheer number of beautiful blossoms: daisies, wild roses, blue-eyed grass, lupin, clover, bellflowers, coneflowers, thistles, trefoil, and many more that he could not identify. Strolling across the flat fields he caught sight of an orange butterfly floating gracefully towards a thick bunch of trees. Kiisan followed the butterfly slowly, happy to have such a peaceful goal. The tiny insect fluttered through the branches of a large, wide-trunked oak into the shade of the grove. The young priest lifted the edge of his robes to keep them from getting caught on any branches or thorns and walked further into the glade. As his eyes adjusted to the darker area out of the direct sunlight he realized all the tree trunks were covered with orange and yellow butterflies. They flitted through the air, rising and falling on the breeze like tiny kites on a summer day. Kiisan turned away quickly and hurried quietly out of the grove. "I want Falina to see this! I bet she'll love it!" he thought as he scuttled through the flower fields back to his friends.
"Falina, hurry, there's something I want you to see!" urged Kiisan, tugging on his friend's pinkish sleeve with excitement. Falina took her time, getting up slowly and excusing herself from her conversation with Ocha and Hai-Yong, who they had decided to bring along until they decided what to do with him. Kiisan felt like she was taking forever, "Falina!" He grabbed her hand and began to run towards the grove full of butterflies.
"Eek! Kiisan! Where are we going?" she asked in surprise.
"You're going to like this Falina! Just hurry!"
The two friends rushed through the ocean of colors and between the trees, Kiisan coming to a sudden stop on the edge of the overhang. Falina did not anticipate his stop and she bumped into him hard. He lost his balance, and still holding onto Falina's hand fell to the lower ground, pulling his friend with him. She landed on top of him, wincing from the impact. Kiisan opened his eyes slowly, looking up and all around as the startled butterflies rose from the ground, bushes, and trees lives brilliant feathers in a whirlwind, "Falina...look..."