Chapter 10
When he finally opened his eyes, Leo blearily looked around in attempt to place where he was. As the hard sand walls of the house came into focus, he rubbed a hand over his face as he realized it was the house he had entered in the deserted village. He rubbed his eyes and stood, taking in the sight of the sleeping horse, effectively blocking the door from any intruder entering. He stretched, feeling refreshed now. Looking outside the small window, he saw the sun setting. With a furrowed brow, he shook his head. How much time had really passed? He felt too rested to have slept just a few hours. It had to be the next night after. Not what he wanted, but at least he had more energy to walk.
He stood next to the little window, waiting for the last rays of sun to disappear on the horizon. He had to formulate a better plan. He would die out here in this heat if he didn't do something different. True he had Kachiuma with him. He doubted the horse would go without food or water for long, so neither would he, but that wouldn't help him get out of the desert.
Frowning, an idea slowly slid into his mind. Even though this village looked deserted, shouldn't there be something to tell him the way to the docks, or at least to a more populated village? As soon as it was dark and Kachiuma was awake, he would find out. One way or the other, nothing would stop him from finding his way home.
An hour passed before it was truly dark. Kachiuma stood behind him, watching him with big eyes. He smiled and rubbed the large snout. "'Bout time we get out of here, huh?" he asked the horse.
Kachiuma snorted and nodded his large head.
With a laugh, Leo made his way to the door, horse in tow. Cautiously peeking out the door in case someone else could be wandering these sands, he saw nothing and exited the house. The air was much cooler, a welcome relief to the heat he had been walking though a day and a half ago.
A good half dozen other buildings stood nearby. Nothing about their positions assumed any semblance of order, but that did not deter him. Something in one of them would help him, just as the food in the first had. Patting his belt where he stashed the remainder of his find, he was satisfied it was still there. Not that anyone would take it with no one except him and the horse being the only one around, but it was still a relief to have it after so long of having nothing.
The next building looked just like the first. Pretty much empty except for a few cupboards, a table, chair, and bed. Everything was empty, as if the owner had cleared everything out long ago. Not detracted from his search, he went on to the next one, Kachiuma always following at his side, the leash of his belt limp in his hand. The third, fourth, and fifth proved to be the same. Same furniture, same emptiness. It was as if the whole village had cleared out in a hurry for some reason. That led to more caution as he approached the last building. From the outside it looked just as empty as the others. Maybe a little bigger, but not by much. However, this one was more furnished. It had a large bed, many cabinets, and an elegant wooden table.
"Now who would flee with all this left behind?" Leo mused. "Certainly someone of great importance lived here. So… what scared them off?"
Kachiuma seemed to shrug in response as they walked further in.
Leo resumed his opening and closing of cabinet doors, the only place he could see that would hold something hidden. He was dejected from finding anything by the time he reached the last cabinet. Nothing at all that he had found would help him. Except for the few dried fruit he managed to find one house back, but it looked more liked dried dust than an edible piece of fruit. It wasn't hard to leave that untouched.
Opening the final cabinet, Leo's heart soared in victory. Laid out in readable condition was a scroll. Opening up his find, he was even more elated to find it was a map. He couldn't understand any of the writing, but the pictures showed a route through the desert easily enough. And at the end of the route, the drawings resembled something of a harbor and ships that he was sure that this was the docks.
"Yes!" he cheered in triumph.
Finding the docks meant that he could go home. He would see his family again. The thought had him quickly striding out of the large house, stopping only to stare at what he saw before him. He took an involuntary step back, inadvertly running into Kachiuma.
A band of cloaked raiders stood in his path. There seemed to be twenty of them. At least that he could count. There could be more hidden somewhere, maybe even behind the other buildings. He wasn't going to assume otherwise at this point. Each of them held a long spear or sword in their hands. None of them looked as elegant or even as sharp as his own blades, but they would be just as deadly. Even the leader had a long pointed sword across his back, but this wasn't what he was worried about. It was the large black automatic gun in the man's hands. This man one looked more arrogant, more sure of himself than the others that followed him.
The leader spoke in a language that Leo did not understand. He cocked his head as the leader repeated it again.
"Sorry pal, not a clue as to what you're saying," he murmured.
The leader gave a shout and the other raiders flew forward.
Leo unsheathed his katana, catching the first spear with his left blade and the next one with his right. Side stepping, he slashed through the wooden pole of their spears and spun in a flying dragon kick to the first's chest, turning his body to land on the second one.
Standing, he took in the eighteen left, bracing himself, ready.
Their onslaught came quickly, not pattered like the Foot might have done, but erratic. One struck on the right, hard and fast, while another struck in front, weak and uncertain. The third came at the same time as the first two, angered and quick. Each swing was easily dodged, each strike blocked. It was becoming too easy.
Much too easy.
He had forgotten their leader as next eight went down, only alerted to his presence once more as a shot rang out, followed by a series of shots from the automatic weapon. Keeping himself moving, he only felt the heat of the bullets zipping past him, coming close enough as one bullet side swiped his cheek, touching it as if it was a graceful kiss of a lover.
Leaping to the left, followed by a quick leap to the right, he let the gunfire take out the remaining eight raiders.
The silence echoed as it was only him and the leader. A quiet neigh to the right alerting him to the fact that Kachiuma was still safe and sound.
The shots started again. Leo leapt left, running forward as he jumped high into the air. His blade sung true, swinging to the right as he landed behind the leader, cutting deep into the man's left shoulder.
The leader howled with pain, bringing up the gun with a wicked sneer, pulling the trigger tightly.
Leo only had time to dive to the ground and even that was not enough as he felt hot blood rush down his right thigh. Flipping back onto his feet, he used his momentum to carry him back up into the leader's face, kicking the gun out of the man's hand with his uninjured leg. Without giving the man a chance to retrieve the weapon, he swung his katana again, slicing through the man's chest.
A final scream had the man wiggling on the ground as his movements became weaker and weaker.
Leo wiped the blood off his sword with a careful movement against the cloak he wore. Saddened, he watched the man before him die. He had not wanted him to die, his followers that he had actually attacked himself being merely unconscious, but what happened had been inevitable. It was either him or the man. He had a family to get back to. Did this man too have someone to get back to?
Pain flared up his right leg, reminding him of the shot to his thigh. He pulled back a strip of the cloak and tied it tight above the wound to stem the flow of blood. It looked like the bullet had gone clean through, but he was not about to let himself bleed out from it. That done, he tried to take a step forward, only to fall to the sand, flat on his face. His right leg was starting to go numb.
A soft nudge to his shoulder had him looking around at Kachiuma, who neighed and nudged him again.
"What?" Leo asked, perplexed at what the horse wanted.
Kachiuma proceeded to shove Leo's shoulder and finally lay beside the turtle, neighing again.
"….I'm sorry? I still don't know…" Leo's brow furrowed. Just what was Kachiuma trying to tell him? Maybe show him something?
The horse snorted and let out a long neigh, inching closer to Leo.
The thought dawned on him like a strike of lightening. "You want me to ride you?"
Kachiuma neighed excitedly as if seeing Leo get it was a major achievement.
His own laughter surprised him, but the thought of riding instead of walking, especially when Kachiuma didn't seem to trust him enough before, was a welcome relief. Crawling carefully up onto the horse's back, it rose and started trotting into the night. Leo held on tightly, determined not to fall off and keep the bumps to his injured leg to a minimum.
He pulled the scroll from inside his cloak and compared to the stars above his head. It seemed they were going in the right direction, he only hoped the map was still accurate. His leg needed attention he could not get in the desert.