The Bubbleship Series; The First Heroes

The Centaur Champion is a What?

The next morning they set out. Toyama and SunRue decided they would join them, Kontessa having told the two of the centaurs made up their minds to follow them into the fray. SunRue dressed in a suit of leather armor that was just a top covering her breasts and a skirt of leather strips. Again, the demon noticed her delicate face, and this time, she caught herself drinking in the beauty of the finely toned body.

Toyama wore a simple grey silk Sumi, that is what he called it anyway. It resembled the Kimono of SunRue’s that she wore last night. He carried a sword and dagger at his waist in a lacquered black wooden sheath.

They rode for two more days before they reached a small collection of homes and barns. Each with mosaic decorations on them, blues, reds, and oranges. The people came out to meet them, and their horses were taken, except for Toyama’s mount. His he led to the well that stood in the middle of town.

Kontessa went with him.

“I will make sure my horse is watered myself,” he said.

“So tell me,” asked the demon. “ what’s the deal with you and your sister. She looked over and saw SunRue being helped into a house as her thighs were very sore from the riding for the last couple of days. "Why is it you can't go back."

“Because we wanted freedom.” He let the horse drink from the bucket he had just drawn water with. “In my land, which I can never go back to, everyone is so serious. They seem in love with ritual suicide. Always keeping face. Never daring to look another in the eye. SunRue is a great poet, but her work will never be spoken in my land. We can not go home for no Samaria would leave Nippon. And I have left.”

“Ritual suicide?”

"Yes, seppuku. It is a way of saving family honor. If you lose face with other, face, a twisted sense of honor, I say. To kill oneself because you feel you do not serve your lord or as a punishment." Toyama's horse finished drinking, and the Ronin lowered the bucket himself for Kontessa and him to drink out of.

“Why can’t you go home again?’

“Because I left. My sister can not go home because she is Geisha, and she has picked up a weapon.” Toyama leaned against the rough stone wall of the well. “ if my sister went back, she would be torn apart by the other Geisha in the land. For she is supposed to be soft and giving to all. Not rough like she is trying to be.”

"Your sister seems to have had a bad ride here; perhaps we should go speak with her." Kontessa put down the bucket of water.

"Perhaps I will. She is in no condition to fight like she wanted to. But, that's just as well; she is not good enough yet."

***

Toyama sauntered over to the house the villager put his sister in and saw her through the open doorway laying on a bed with her face turned toward the wall. He entered and considered her for a moment as he leaned against the door frame. She lay there not noticing him or at least pretending not to notice.

“You are sore from the ride?” he asked needlessly.

“Yes, brother,” she answered. “I will not be able to stand with you against the horse-man creature as I wanted.”

“Then you shall write about me.”

She brightened at that.

“I shall write glorious tales of your deeds; all the world will know of your adventures. I shall write of your courage and honor. All the geishas will be envious of my tales. Now and forever, you will be remembered as the greatest Ronin that ever lived. The greatest wielder of the samurai sword."

“That’s it, sister." He walked over to sit on her soft linen bed and breathed in the stench of horse sweat. "Not like our home, is it, sister. No baths, no clean living like Nippon. You stink."

Her mouth opened wide in wonder, a face he had treasured since childhood. An innocent face she displayed. "And I never knew riding horses could be so hard and painful." Wonder filled her eyes and made them even more expansive. "Am I really that soft?"

Toyama laughed.

The alarm was sounded, and Kontessa came to the door. "They're coming. Quickly."

Toyama rushed out the door.

The two warriors sat down behind an old stone wall to wait.

“So why don’t we make them wait, you just to build the tension.” Kontessa sat with her back against the wall.

Toyama sat on his heels.

“So tell me about your country,” said Kontessa.

“The women are beyond compare," he said. "Black hair all, we prize our women. Alabaster skin. Tiny frame. I saw you looking at my sister, not that I care. You must admire beauty when it comes to you, for so few pleasures are given to us in this life.”

"You should see a sweet elvish made with silver hair, and you'd be changing your mind about any monopoly on beautiful women," she answered.

“Perhaps,” stated Toyama, as he sat and closed his eyes. “perhaps our flowers will compare. The beautiful Camellia with its yellow stamen and its deep pink petals. Or a cherry orchard in the spring with pink flowers raining down.”

They heard the sound of hooves and men running to the village, and whooping and hollering came from these men. The day felt chill in the autumn air. Kontessa peered over the enclosure to see two half-horse half-human centaurs standing in the clearing outside of the small village as the men behind them began picking at the foodstuffs around the village, going through baskets and making themselves at home where ever they felt.

The people dared not complain.

“Hello, Elder,” the lead centaur said. His coloring was black and white, and he carried a longsword. "Are the fall supplies ready for taxes?"

“Well, we’ve gathered it all Ummm…..Yes….Ummmm….”

"Well," He stated. "How come it isn't ready?" He pranced around, seeming somewhat agitated.

“Perhaps we should make an appearance,” Stated Kontessa to Toyama.

“Perhaps you are right.”

They stood together as one and walked around the barrier of stone.

“Hello,” stated Kontessa, as she put her long sword on her right shoulder. “Perhaps we can be of help.”

The woman in front of the centaur feinted.

The men the centaurs brought were paying particular attention now. One threw down a leg of chicken he was munching on.

“Who are you?” asked the Lead centaur, prancing back and forth even more agitated than before.

“My name is Kontessa Eldeman; my companion and I are known throughout the land for our heroism." She sauntered forward. "Today, you will die."

Toyama walked forward, and a man rushed at him with sword raised above his head.

Toyama drew his sword and made a slashing motion cutting the man from left shoulder to right hip.

He fell in amazement.

Toyama continued to walk forward at a saunter with his sword in his right hand, pointed to the ground out from his side.

The man that dropped the chicken came at Kontessa with a sword raised as well/

Kontessa sidestepped, brought her knee up into his stomach, and he doubled over.

She brought the pommel down on his neck, and a loud crunch could be heard.

That man fell.

Another two came at Toyama from the front armed with longswords.

Toyama brought his sword up to knock aside the first man's sword and sliced it into the second man.

He fell.

Toyama side kicked the first man in the chest and spun into another swing to decapitate him.

“Enough,” yelled the lead centaur. “We’ll go now.” He reared on his hind legs. “It’s obvious you are good. I don’t think any of these men are your equal, so I'll bring you an equal." With that, he spun around on all fours and took off with his troops following him.

***

"They'll be back tomorrow." The woman that had feinted told the three. Toyama, Kontessa, and SunRue sat around the fire, enjoying their evening meal of barley bread with honey and lamb slowly roasted over the fire before them. The village people were celebrating the two chasing the bandits away. "The fools think this is over."

"Let them think what they will," said the yellow-skin warrior. "Tomorrow, we will fight this champion of the centaur’s.”

"I'm sorry, but I don't think they will be of any help," continued Agnes, the woman who fainted. "That's why we needed your help. That's why we hired you."

"Here, things are different than in my country," stated Toyama, staring into the fire from a laying position. "In my country, the lord takes care of the bandits. They are non-existent practically."

"Here, your peasants are allowed to pick up a weapon." SunRue sat next to her brother in her leather armor, her aches from the ride feeling healed. "In our country, our peasants are not allowed to pick up a weapon.”

“Yes, it’s true.” Stated  Toyama. “Our island is rather small. Here there is much land, and most people live without a lord over them."

“We should get some sleep now,” Kontessa interrupted. “We’re going to need it.”

“I shall practice,” SunRue said. “I have lain around for too long." With that, she disappeared into the dark to practice the skills of the bo-staff. The Captain of the men on Toya’s ship had taught her.

Kontessa wandered away to join the drinking with the villagers, and Toyama continued to lay on his side, throwing small bits of twigs into the fire. He wondered where this newcomer came from and how good he was. Perhaps he would die in the morning, but it was better to go out fighting instead of the seppuku his Shogun had ordered simply because Toyama was better.

He Remembered through the fire.

“My Shogun.” Topknot had sat in front of his lord, eye bowed in servitude. "I will never do anything to fight against you. My sword is yours until death."

The Shogun sat in his chair as the Emperor whispered from behind a yellow-flowered rice paper wall. The whispers only the Shogun could hear cut as profoundly into Toyama's soul as the sharpest knife, the keenest sword.

“Very well,” stated the Shogun from his throne. “You will take your life to prove that you are loyal.”

The words cut even deeper into the Samurai’s soul.

"Very well, my Shogun." Anger now seethed in the Toyama's heart. Since birth, he had served this man, and now he allowed himself to be controlled by a weak melee-mouthed Emperor. "Allow me to prepare my death state for tomorrow morning."

He rose from his place and turned his back on the Emperor behind the curtain wall. He turned his back on the Shogun on his throne. The fragrance of jasmine would forever be burnt into his memory to remind him of the night he fled his country.

He marched through the hall and back to his quarter. How dare this man come into his home, his ancestral castle, and demand his life after a lifetime of serving him. The men he had killed to get this Shogun on the throne, in command of the nation’s army.

“Kitayama, come in here." H called for his maidservant.

The door had not been slid back into place, so Kitayama came in directly and knelt. “Summon my captain, but first, I want you to deliver a message to my sister. I can not go because of certain eyes. Tell my sister to be ready to go at sundown. Tell her to pack only what she can carry in one hand.”

The maidservant left to fulfill her message carrying.

About ten minutes later, Captain Yoghama stepped through the door and kneeled. “My lord.”

“I leave tonight,” Toyama said. “Tell the men they are free to go. Be Ronin. Take up the sword against the Shogun. I know with you against him, he will fall. Split up the gold in my treasury."

“My lord, surely you would stand and fight with us.”

“No, the Shogun has demanded my life. I am sick of this country, my friend. I am sick of the political game played. I am sick of people having the authority to deal out death and dishonor for the whole house."

"May I speak as a brother, my lord," asked Captain Yoghama, standing.

“Yes, brother.”

"Take your sister and leave. This land has fallen to dismay since this new Shogun has taken power. I wish you could stand and fight but, You can't even write a decent poem. This place and its customs are different than yours, my lord. You do not belong here."

Suddenly, from nowhere, the alarm sounded that they were being attacked.

Fear came to both men’s eyes.

“The Emperor had this planned all along.” Toyama rushed from the room. “I must go to my sister. There is a secret passage in her rooms.”

"The house will fall," the captain said. "I can give you an hour to escape. Every man will die in your service, my lord. Forget this ronin stuff. We will fight to the last, Toyama."

Toyama put his hand on the captain’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Go to death with honor. I must find a different honor. A different life for me and my sister.”

The captain nodded then took off down the hallway.

Toyama stared at his back for an instant. Perhaps he should stay and fight. No. he had to save his sister. Her poetry should be seen by the rest of the world.

He came to his sister’s room, and she already had three boxes tied together.

“What is it, Toyama,” she asked, the concern written all over her face. “Why are we being attacked.”

“We leave this country, sister.”

“But…Our duty to the house, to our family.”

“My only duty is to you.” He pressed on the stone that opened the sliding stone wall.” Mother and father have been dead for years, SunRue. We are all we have left.”

He grabbed the boxes on the low table and took her arm with his other hand. Down the tunnel, he led her to another wall. Here he pressed another secret panel, and they went through that to see the harbor below. He bent down and cut his sister's Kimono at the bottom to allow her to run.

“Toyama, what is this?’ She took her box from him.

"Do you want to live, sister? Do you want to experience life without the restrictions pressed on us by false lords with too much power? Do you want to live without the fear you will dishonor somebody in power and have to kill yourself for the honor? Do you want to practice weapons like no Geisha can?”

She looked him in the eyes, and a broad smile took over her soul. Her eyes lit like he had never seen.

“Let’s do it,” she said softly. “Let’s go.”

He laughed and took her hand. Down they went to the docks and the ship he had there ready and outfitted for the occasion. How long had he mused this over in his head? How long had he dreamt of leaving all behind? Well, he had a chest of gold on this ship and food for a month's travel.

The last thing he saw as the ship left the harbor. In the distance, like leaving a bad dream. The castle burned. Three hundred years it had stood, and now it burned.

He watched before it faded from sight.

Toyama, Houseless Ronin, once the righthand sword of a shogun, continued to stare into the fire until he lay his head down on his arm to sleep.

***

The next day came, and the morning passed. SunRue had practiced all night, so she slept some of the morning. Toyama meditated on his sword all morning. He poured water on it and wiped it with his silk clothe, washing it to make it cleansed and pure, ready for battle. Kontessa lounged about eating sparingly, just a little hungover from the night before.

At noon the alarm sounded for the arrival of the centaurs; Jax and John were their names, arrived in the village. They came in walking with a giant ogre in their midst. He stood eight feet tall and four feet wide. He carried a large battle-ax and looked like he had not been fed for days; such was his temper. He growled and stomped his feet.

SunRue rushed at him to be knocked aside.

“SunRue,” shouted Kontessa as she grabbed her longsword and ran forward. “Get back.”

Toyama ran forward with his Katana raised over his head. Anger seethed in him because his sister had been knocked aside and lay there trying to get up.

The ogre raised his ax over his head.

He brought it down.

Kontessa made it in time and blocked the blow with both hands.

The ogre screamed in her face.

The ogre raised his ax and made a sideswipe.

Kontessa dove backward to land on her rump to avoid the swing.

Then Toyama made it to the battle as well.

He sliced the right arm of the beast but barely made it through the hide armor.

SunRue made it to her knees.

Toyama made another slice to the beast’s leg and drew blood.

The beast screamed.

It swung with its ax in both hands to be avoided by Toyama easily.

Kontessa made it to her feet and thrust forward with her longsword, only to be knocked aside by the centaur Jax's sword.

"We will see who's in charge of this village, hero," he yelled and pranced backward.

Kontessa swung again overhead.

The centaur blocked it.

The ogre made a downward swing at Toyama to bury his ax blade in the ground as the yellow warrior dodged.

The yellow warrior brought his Katana down and, as it made contact, sliced off the ogre's right arm.

SunRue came out of nowhere and with a double-handed swing to take out the centaur's front legs.

He crashed to the ground, both leg bones showing through the skin.

The centaur cried out in agony.

With a mighty swing, Kontessa cut off his head.

SunRue and Kontessa look over to see Toyama standing on a body that smelled of rotten furs. His sword buried to mid-blade in the creature's chest.

“It is done,” announced John the other centaur. “My brother’s ways were never mine. But he was my brother. I tried many times to tell him that what he did was wrong, but he would never listen. Live by the sword, die by the sword as they say."

"Where will you go," asked the black-eyed Demon Kontessa. "Back to your men to wait for our departure?"

“No,” he answered. “I’ll go back to my people.” He sheathed his sword. “Ask these people, have I ever done anything to hurt any of them?

A woman came forward and said he had not. Then a couple other people started to come forward to ask for mercy for him as well.

“Then go, John, is it?" Kontessa said. "Don't you want to take your brother?" As she asked this question, she looked at Ronin and saw him wandering into the forest with the sword he pulled from the ogre. She wondered, but that had to wait.

"No. my people banished him some years ago. I'll leave this mess for you, sorry." With that, the centaur John, brother of Jax, spun around and headed west out of the village.

They all stood there for a moment, silently.

Then Kontessa remembered Toyama.

“Your brother, perhaps we should go after him," she said, starting off toward where the fighter had disappeared into the woods.

“No,” SunRue answered hastily. “It’s his way since he was young. He’ll be back. I’m starving.”

***

Two days later, Kontessa sat at the fire by the ship that beached in the sands of the north sea. She took a heavy swig from the jug containing the Saki Toyama loved and passed it back to him. SunRue sat on her heels in a blue and white flowered kimono, sipping her Saki from a small cup and calling them barbarians.

“What now demon,” asked the yellow warrior. “Where do you go?”

“Back to my city, Arn. It’s a bit of a cesspool, but it's home. Back to my Marjory."

“Ah, Marjory. A friend?”

“My love. Where do you go?”

“I shall stay here for a time,” answered Toyama. “Perhaps we will visit you in this Arn,”

“Why did you walk into the forest after you killed that ogre?”

“It is a thing I do. For as long as I live, I will fight. My sword is my soul." He stared into the fire at the white embers and the small flames dancing there. He felt the heat on his face and continued. “We will live in this land of yours forever. I once served a Shogun, a man I helped bring to power, but he lost all will to the Emperor, who he was supposed to control. Things went bad. But, yes. I walk into the forest to practice and rid myself of anger. I will do this always, and my sword will be my everything." He laughed. "Except for you, my sister."

The attention turned to her, but when Kontessa turned her attention, she found beautiful black eyes staring back at her and into hers. The demon found herself lost in the ebony stare; deep into her soul, the demon saw. SunRue, without breaking eye contact, took the flower blossom from her hair and placed it on the ground at Kontessa’s feet. She rose and walked away from the fire with the demon staring at her.

"Go, demon," said Toyama quietly. "A Geisha’s love is not to be taken lightly.”

Kontessa got up and followed the young woman into the dark. At the edge of the firelight, she saw SunRue standing.

The Kimono dropped.