Chapter one:
And so the journey begins...
The girl slowly opened her eyes. She found a couple of people leaning over her. She tried to stand up, but just as she lifted her shoulders off the bed where she was laying, they pushed her back down.
"Whoa there young lady!" Said the oldest of them. A very old fellow, he looked like a living fossil. "You should stay down, rest a little. You're still too weak to stand up." He gave her something to drink. "This as a broth that should restore you strength." His voice sounded like the wind had carried it around the world. He turned around and left the room with all except one of the figures following him. She tried to turn her head, and after a momentous struggle she could see the face of the one that had remained. He was a young fellow, probably sixteen. He was wearing a loose fitting two piece black suit. It was fastened with strips of the same fabric wound around his lower legs and arms. His head was covered with a cap of the material that was thrown over his head. It extended from the shirt. His face was covered by another piece of the suit; it covered everything up to the tip of his nose, which disappeared beneath the rim of the cloth. He saw that she was looking at him and removed the piece covering his face.
"What… what's your name?" she managed to murmur.
"Kuhey… Kuhey Arusaki." He said equally soft. His eyes shot to the ground just in front of her for a moment before returning to her face. "What's your name?" He asked.
"Nera." She said with some effort. He nodded slowly. "Where am I?" She asked.
"You're on the Shikaki Peninsula." He said standing up and walking to the door. The name didn't ring a bell. She tried to make a connection with it for a minute, and then looked at the door, but there was no one there anymore.
It was two weeks before she first left the room where she had awoken. She opened the door and held her hand in front of her eyes. They took a minute to adjust to the light. When she looked around her she was astounded. The sun was just coming up over the ocean and everything was the shade of wilting oak-tree leaves in autumn. There were children running, elders talking and all other kinds of social activities going on in the village. Just at that moment the same old man, she had learned that he was the village doctor, came up to her.
"Good to see you're finally up." He said with a broad smile on his face. She gave a halve smile in return.
"Excuse my directness. But… do you know where Kuhey might be… the one who had found me?" She asked politely.
"At this time of the day he's usually busy training out in the woods. You should find him in the clearing about ten minutes walk along the beach or on the beach or in the sea." He said scratching his grey-white beard.
"Thank you." She said with a bow and set off on a slow walk through the village towards the beach.
She found Kuhey in the clearing as the elder said. He was busy training his senses. Practicing his martial arts. She looked at him in amazement for a couple of minutes. She watched him do back flips and punches over and over again. He was wearing the same clothing that she had seen him wearing that first day. But this time he wasn't wearing the shirt. His entire upper body was naked and streaming with sweat. He finally noticed her and stopped. He walked up to her.
"Hi. I see you're feeling much better." He said passing her and heading for the ocean.
"Yes, much better. Thank you." She watched him wash his face and rinse the sweat from his chest and stomach.
"Good." He said when he had walked back up the beach to the edge of the forest where she still stood. "Let's walk." He said in his gentle voice as he gestured along the beach. She nodded.
They walked along the beach talking for about a kilometre; he then turned inland along a small stream. She followed him. He took her to the source of the stream, a small spring that brought ice cold water from the depths of the mountain. The water gushed out between a couple of rock. They both drank.
"We'd better go back to the village now." They walked along a small path that ran through the woods. When they were about two hundred metres from the village they smelled smoke. He stopped her.
"Stay here." She nodded and went down on her haunches. He ran a couple of steps and then jumped, vanishing into the leaves of the canopy. She heard the slight rustle of the leaves each time he jumped from tree to tree.
Kuhey moved silently, when he reached the edge of the clearing where the village was located, he stopped. He peered through the leaves and his mouth dropped open. The entire village was on fire, houses were collapsing and people shouting. He made his way to the dojo slowly, hiding behind the flames from the soldiers walking triumphantly through the village. He reached the building on the other side of the street from the dojo entrance. He placed himself, so that he could look in through the entrance. He found his master hanging from a pole. Blood dripping from his feet, the blood was gushing out of whip marks on his back. A great rage filled him. With a scream that came from the bowls of death itself, he burst out of the burning building. He unsheathed his sword and cut the two guards in halve in a single movement. The one just above his hips, and the other just below his shoulders. Their eyes portrayed absolute astonishment. Before the guards' bodies started to slide apart, Kuhey had sliced three more, one through the head, cutting off the upper third of his head from the rest of his body. The second one he stabbed through the face, and the third's legs he cut off. By the time the latter hit the ground, Kuhey was already pulling the nails from his master's arms and legs.
"Master! Master!" He brought him back to consciousness. His master looked at him through halve open eyes.
"Leave. Leave now." His master moaned to him.
"But I can't leave you unburied..." Kuhey said through the tears, but his master cut him short.
"They still have the rest of the village... They're taking..." He coughed, took a deep breath and continued with renewed urgency, feeling that this was his last breath. "They're taking them to the caves of Katari, at the base of Mt. Tsurosho." He looked at Kuhey. "You're my best student; you possess skills that even I would dream to have..." He coughed. His eyes were turning pale and glassy, but he fought back death's claws. "You are the only hope our people have. Never shy away from your feelings, and never shy away from you destiny." His head dropped and his eyes closed. He gave a momentous sigh as his last breath left him.
Kuhey lifted his head up to the heavens and let out cry after cry after unearthly cry. Upon hearing these, the men in the village were gripped by fear and ran away.
Shortly afterwards, Nera arrived. Having heard the screams, she had rushed into town, oblivious to the possible danger. She fell to her knees next to him and watched him cry for nearly an hour. Afterwards they buried him hurriedly and set off on their journey together.