The horse continues to charge full speed back to his home, his limp body staying barely atop its mount, arms dangling around the horse's neck as he continues to lose blood, growing weaker by the moment.
The girl laid motionless where the figure laid her blood still rolling down the rain coming down hard now. As the horse nears the castle gates, men and women can be heard yelling out, samurai barking orders for the gates to be open and the doctors called, one man grabbing the horse's reigns. A man kneels in front of the girl's body placing a hand on her forehead moving her pale brown hair out of the way slowly a glow shown bright as she sat up silently looking around the man smiling down to her with up most care as he lifted her into his arms the girl looking up to him blankly as the new man carried her away. As his horse is forced to stop, several men from the castle gather around to hoist the lord from his horse, women with rags and pales of water gathering around to help clean his wounds as the doctor approaches.
The man carried her high into the mountain pass the young girl's eyes closed slowly. "You are safe my wife along with our child."
As he's pulled from his horse and tended to, he groans lightly, the sword being left in his back until the doctor arrives with the materials needed to patch his wounds. Wincing a bit, he opens his eyes slowly, lifting his head a bit, "Where is she... where is the lady... my wife...?"
"...We do not know m'lord we thought she was in your room like you told her to be." A young female told him sadly.
His eyes close tightly, wincing at the images playing in his mind of his wife being slain in front of his eyes, tears flowing from his tightly shuteyes. As the doctor arrives, the men begin to remove the lord's armor to make it easier for the wounds to be dressed.
"... I am your wife and I am with child...?" She questioned curiously looking up to the man carrying her up the mountain pass until finally reaching a small village in the rocky walls and on the cliffs he made his way toward a small hut laying her down on a matted bed. As his injuries are tended to, his eyes open, his mouth wide as he yells out in pain, not from the injuries themselves but for the loss of his love, his eyes still overflowing with tears of sadness and anger. Head falling once more to the dirt, his body slips into an unconscious state, going limp once more.
The man who carried her up the pass placed his warm hand on her cheek softly. "Rest now more beautiful love." As the man's eyes open once more, he turns his head side to side, blue orbs glancing to the stonewalls all around him as he lay on his stomach on the bed in his room. Coming to the realization that he once again was alone, he knew she had been taken... that it wasn't just a dream, he began to cry once again. The young maiden closed her eyes slowly her light blue orbs fading. The young man petted her cheek softly until he knew she was asleep smiling down to her. "Welcome home little sister..."
Arms bending at the elbows, he presses his palms to the bed, trying to push himself up but finding it to be an impossibility, the pain shooting through his body instantly driving him to his stomach again, wincing on the verge of passing out. The maiden slept silently in the bed a thick blanket pulled over her wounds totally healed. After a couple hours, the man hears his door opening, head turning in an attempt to see who was entering. With a grimace, he turns his head away at the sight of the head samurai of his armies, "I've failed... I failed her... why does fate let me live when I've not done anything to deserve life... I should have died there with her..." The samurai lowers his head and kneels to one knee as he listens to the lord speak. The man who brought the girl in moved out of the hut to the forest out to hunt. As the lord stops speaking, the samurai stands and makes his way to the bedside, holding out a scroll. "I sent a unit of men to the enemy castle... all that remained were the charred remains of ninja... the girl's body could not be recovered... I'm sorry for our failure my lord..." The maiden woke after a few hours of resting the young man sitting beside the bed smiling down at her.
After a few hours of laying in the bed, the lord slowly forces himself to a sitting position on the edge of the bed, taking the scroll and looking at it, not really wanting to see it's contents, knowing it was an apology for the failed recovery of his wife's body, knowing it would only further prove that it wasn't just a bad dream as he'd hoped. A young female entered the room with bundles of bandages in hand to change his wounds. His head turning away, he sits the still unopened scroll on the window seal, his arms lifting to cup his head a bit, lowering it slowly, bangs covering his eyes that welled up with tears once more. The girl moved to him slowly unwrapping the used bandages to replace with newer ones staying silent worried about upsetting him further. Flinching slightly in a bit of pain as the bandages are changed, his head remains cupped in his hands, the tears lightly falling to the floor below. She stayed silent as she wrapped the garment around him slowly the last bandage being tied on.
As his robe is draped over him, he slowly stands and turns to face her, "Tell the doctor that I appreciate the caring hands of him and his assistants. You've done well, take some time to rest yourself now..."
She nodded lightly. "Thank you m'lord the people of this clan are sorry to lose your fare maiden."
His head lowers a bit at her mention of his loss, "As am I... as am I... thank you once again for your care..." Turning his back to her, he moves to the window, looking out at it with his eyes upturned to the sky. She leaves him silently shutting the door behind her letting him have time to rest.
Eyes upturned to the soft blue rays of the moon tremble with the heartache of loss. Head lowering, the lord watches as his teardrops fall and gather on the stone window seal, "I promised I would return... I promised I would... but... I was too late... I failed you... please forgive me... I will soon join you... when I avenge your death... my life will be complete, and I will join you, I will once again return to you, in the afterlife..." Turning away from the window, the lord climbs into his bed, slipping under the silk sheets and into a slumber, one that would be filled with pain and angst, the first time he would have a nightmare, one that to his dismay, would be reoccurring for years to come.