...I have nothing to say...
Chapter 3
"Oh, man! I forgot to ask what the sword looked like!" Kumiko hit her forehead with the palm of her hand.
She growled to herself and dismounted Sonne. He walked away and found a patch of grass that looked appetizing. She was in the exact spot where she found Jin. She kept her eyes to the ground as she scanned the river bed. She continued to walk up and down the river. Until finally she spotted something caught on a rock, it looked like a sword.
She hopped unto a rock and then to another and another. Even though she was as close as she could get to the sword she couldn't reach it.
"Ah, I hate being short!" she said out loud with a groan. (She wasn't tall; 5'3" at the most).
Kumiko went back to the shore and grabbed a stick.
"Alright sword, you are going to come to me."
Again she reached for it. She growled at the fact that she couldn't get it to hook unto the stick.
"Fluch (damn)!" she yelled in German, "Ich werde Schlag sein er mit dieser Klinge, wenn ich ihn erhalte!"
(I will beat him with this sword when I get it!)
She leaned even farther down.
"Diese Klinge verdammen! Diese Klinge verdammen! Diese Klinge verdammen!" she yelled a little louder.
(Damn this sword!)
Finally she got the stick close enough to hook it. She pushed it a little too hard and it came loose and started to move.
"Oh, no!"
Kumiko made a dive for it, but accidentally leaned a little too far forward. With a cry she fell into the cold, cold river.
"Oh mein Gott! Kalt, kalt, kalt!" she yelled as she frantically swam to the waters edge.
(Oh my god! Cold, cold, cold!)
"All this for a person I barely know?!" she thought furiously at herself as she got up shivering from the bank with the sword clutched in her hand, "Wait, didn't he say 'swords' not 'sword'?"
She looked around and started to walk when she stepped on something hard. She looked down and was surprised to see a sword under her feet.
"How did I miss that? I could have used the sword to get the other one from the rock!" she said angrily.
After picking it up, she hurried over to Sonne and mounted him again.
"Let's go, Sonne. I'm freezing and that Jin needs new bandages." She said to her horse while kicking him slightly with her legs.
He picked up a gallop and they rode home.
Jin fidgeted in the bed. He didn't know if he was more worried about his swords or Kumiko. He started to weight what we worried about more to pass the time.
I use my swords to fight all the time and they protect me, but Kumiko is a small young lady who saved my life. He continued to mull over it all when he heard horse hooves falling and then footsteps approaching the door. He saw Kumiko's chestnut horse walk across the view of the window Jin had in the room he was staying in. Then he turned his head when he heard the footsteps closer. He was smiling softly when she entered the room, but the smile disappeared completely at the sight of her.
Kumiko looked rather angry, her clothes were wet and so was her hair. She was pale and was shivering slightly. Then she held up two swords in her hands and said,
"Are these your's?"
Jin nodded tentatively.
"Good." She answered.
"Ok so I didn't beat him with the sword," Kumiko thought to herself, "but I did hit him on the head with a chopstick when I finished making our dinner!"
First she started to make a few mochies when the forgotten bento box came into view. She stared at it.
"Well, I bet the food in that thing might be more nutritional then what I can make. I'll give him a mochi anyway though." She thought.
She walked over to the table and opened the box revealing all the different foods. She grabbed a pair of chopsticks and some tea and went to Jin.
"My friend from the tea shop made this for me yesterday. I can't possibly eat it all, but I know you must still be hungry. I noticed that you only ate a single bowl of the Miso soup I made." She said to him.
"Oh, yes. I forgot about eating." Jin said.
'His voice is getting better,' Kumiko thought and said, "Understandable. The thought of your precious swords came into mind and Jin-san made the decision that he couldn't live with out them!" She put the back of her hand on her forehead with a feigned faint.
Jin laughed a little and said, "You don't have to call me 'Jin-san', you know. Jin is fine."
"It would be a pleasure just to call you by your name, since nobody else seems to be capable of doing so…" she said as she thought about the villagers.
"What?" Jin said raising his eyebrow.
"Huh? Oh, nothing, I was just thinking about something that happens a lot." Kumiko answered with a wave of her hand as she set the bento box on his lap and put the chopsticks down.
"What happens a lot?" Jin asked.
"Well, the villagers like to call me Kawazoe-Chan or sometimes Kumiko-Chan and it get's a little annoying, because I always tell them to call me Kumiko." She explained.
"Villagers?"
"There is a village down the road. It is just about a mile or two away."
"Why do you live all the way out here if there is a village near by?"
"I…like to be alone."
Jin stared at her and said with a smile, "I can relate to that."
Kumiko smiled back and said, "Eat; you need to heal up."
He nodded and picked up the chopsticks, but watched all the while as she left the room.
As Kumiko left the room she thought, 'Well, at least he understands me. Or he just thinks he does. I don't care which.'
She then started on her own meal; a sausage with a couple simple mochis on the side.
"Maybe I will bake today." She thought aloud to herself, "I bet Jin wouldn't mind having something sweet."
After finishing her small meal she washed her dishes and went back into Jin's room.
He smiled at her and said, "This is kind of a lot of food. You don't expect me to eat it all do you?" he thought for a second and said, "How could that friend of yours think that someone your size could even finished half of this? I'm a lot bigger than you and I couldn't get through a third."
Kumiko laughed and said, "He said I needed to gain some weight."
Jin started to look her up and down.
"Oh come on!" she yelled, "I don't need your opinion now, samurai!
"Well…you could-
Kumiko cut him off, "No stop, don't talk. I'm not going too!"
"I'm just saying-
"Ahhhhhh! No!"
"But-
"No!"
"All I'm saying is-
"Jin…shut…up." Kumiko said slowly.
Jin gave up and laughed. This time it was a little more powerful and all the more painful.
"Ha ha ha, ow!"
"Du dummer Mann! Are you trying to get your wounds to reopen?" (You stupid man)
"If that would give me more time with you, then yes, I am trying to reopen them." He said teasingly.
Kumiko rolled her eyes and said, "Are you done? With the food, I mean."
"Oh, yes, here you go." He said, handing her the box.
"You're talking a lot better now."
"Well of course." He said as if he was offended.
With a grin she took the bento from him and went into the kitchen.
"Oh, I almost forgot." She thought and turned around and said, "Do you like apples?"
"Do I like apples? Uh, sure, I guess. Why do you ask?"
"I'm going to bake something."
"Like what?"
"Let's make it a surprise."
Jin smiled and nodded and at that Kumiko left the room.
'I wonder what she is going to make.' Jin thought.
He thought about the different dessert foods that she could cook with apples.
"And why did she choose apples out of all the fruits? Ah, I'm thinking too much." He thought, "I wish this wound was gone. Then I can find an easier way to entertain myself."
He looked out the window and saw Kumiko's horse. It was just standing there staring at something with its ears pricked forward. After awhile, it seemed to get bored with whatever it was looking at and resumed eating the grass. Kumiko came into view. She stroked the horse a couple of times before she walked over to a tree and looked up. To Jin's surprise she jumped up and grabbed a hold unto one of the branches and hoisted herself up into the tree.
"She isn't exactly lady-like!" he thought to himself and then smiled, "She can jump pretty high. I wonder what she is doing."
Her horse apparently did also, for he too stared up in the tree. After a short while a pair of legs came into view and then her body. She was holding onto the tree with one arm and slowly letting herself down. In the other arm she seemed to be carrying a few round things.
"Don't tell me…are those apples?" Jin thought.
He closed his eyes, shook his head and laughed.
"As long as I'm staying here, I guess I should get used to her strange ways." He said out loud as he watched her disappear from the view of the window and then thought, 'Is this what happens to women when they move away from civilization?'
"Hah, I got the apples." Kumiko said as she made her way into the house, "I sure hope he likes this. I don't think he has ever tried any type of German food."
She started mixed all the ingredients into a bowl and quickly baked her treat.
She smelt the aroma of it and said, "I really need to bake this more often!"
She cut off two pieces of the cake like-sweet she made and made her way to her room.
"Well, I guess it is Jin's room now." She thought to herself.
Jin looked up and watched her as she knelt down to the side of the bed. She handed him a square of the cake and took a small bite out of her own. She seemed pleased with how it turned out.
Jin stared at the hot cake in his hand and said, "…What is this?"
Kumiko laughed and said, "Oops, I forgot to tell you. It is called apple kuchen. It is a German food."
"Oh." Was all he said as he continued to stare at the 'kuchen' as she called it.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"It's just…I'm not good with foreign foods."
She quirked an eyebrow at him and said, "Why not?"
"I had a bad experience with some food that some Chinese travelers brought with them. They were kind enough to share some with me when I came through the woods, but my stomach wasn't used to the strange ingredients, I guess." Jin said thinking back to that day.
"Well…ok, I doubt that you are going to get terribly sick, but if you don't want to eat it, I won't make you." She said a little disappointed.
Jin watched her face as it fell slightly. He looked down at the steaming square in his hands then looked at her again. She was nibbling a little on the edge of hers and watching her horse graze outside the window.
"What am I doing? I'm a guest! It is impolite to refuse food, especially if they are as hospitable as her!" he chastised himself in his mind.
At that he raised the cake to his mouth and took a small bite out of the end.
Kumiko caught sight of this and said, "Oh, you don't have to Jin! You said you didn't like foreign foods and that is ok!"
Jin stared at the cake he just took a bit out of and thought, 'Whoa that was really good! Great now I feel like an idiot!'
He smiled at her and said, "This is really good! I think I will make an exception on my grudge against foreign foods."
She laughed and said, "Whatever you say."
After awhile she brought him another square and he ate happily.
"When do you think you will let me walk?" he asked.
"Leaving so soon?"
"I'd be stupid if I left this soon with these injuries. I just want to know."
"Maybe a couple more days, we'll see." She answered.