0 comments/ 12014 views/ 13 favorites Black Arrow Lord Ch. 01 By: TaLtos6 ***I almost laughed when I found this - right up until the point where I remembered that I'd never done anything with this one because I could never categorize it to my satisfaction. What's so tough, you ask? You see any category here called "Adventure"? ~shrug~ Neither do I. The first three chapters don't have any sex at all in them. The rest? I went with Romance, since I was at a loss, though there are spots with group sex in them and even one with heavy male interaction - though when those come up, I'll mention it in the tags. Romance seemed to win for me by default and on average somehow, though there are really two in it. Group Sex didn't work for me since I had a feeling that the regular fans of that genre might not want to have to read 4 chapters of... You know what I mean. So I guess I can say that this won't be the standard four-speed corset-ripper. For one thing, if you tried to do that to the female lead in this, she'd about hand ANY man his tackle and walk away just slightly pissed as she re-sheathed her sword. The rest is swashing buckles and sailing ships to get one of the characters where he needs to be. After that, I gloss over the large scale loss of blood to concentrate on the characters for the last scene. I would like to make something a little clear however. There are things in this which are a little like life in general. Nothing is clear-cut. There is no good guy or bad guy and nobody's wearing a particularly white hat. The man in this would be the first to tell you that he's had to do a few things that he might not be proud of, though he doesn't think he's a bad man - or any worse than anyone else. The time is set in the 1820s for most of the tale. It obviously begins a bit earlier though ... Hope you like it. So 5 chapters total and I'm throwing them up and checking them (twice) all in one day - or two, depending. 0_o *** ---------------------- Valdemar Reventlow listened to the steady hiss of the teeming rain outside. It had gone on now for hours, as though it would never stop. God in Heaven, he thought. It was enough to drown a man just for wanting to step outside for a moment to have a piss in this godforsaken country. It was a fucking good thing that they were in a place on a hilltop. Nobody can sleep and swim at the same time. All this time, he thought. Years and thousands of miles of traveling and he still felt a little like a half-drowned rat swimming for his life in the rain. He looked over at Kōichi for a moment as the young man slept a little fitfully. And why not, the large blonde asked himself, not yet twenty and the things that he'd seen with those eyes -- the things that he'd been forced to watch ... and do... Valdemar grunted to himself then as a thought came to him. Maybe they weren't so different after all. Well, other than the way that they looked. They were different in their appearances to be certain and there were other things, little things such as nation of origin, and so forth, thought there were an awful lot of similarities as well. For one thing, they loved the same women, though not quite equally, it was true. For another thing, well they were very close and it related to those same women. And the other two. He shifted then, slowly and carefully so as not to wake his companion. The way that his friend had been wound so tightly these last few weeks, to wake him suddenly was much the same as asking to have one's head removed -- or shot off, depending on what the boy was holding in his hand at the time as he slept. Valdemar looked at his own hand, seeing the mosquito there on it and thinking a little as he waited for his moment. To move too soon would only cause it to lift off and continue to annoy him in likely a greater manner such as singing its song into his ear. To move after one felt the bite was too late. He just wasn't all that generous with his blood. The moment came and Valdemar crushed the insect, wiping off the remains with the fingers of his other hand. When he looked up, he saw Kōichi's smile and his quizzical expression. "You were hunting for our dinner? It will take a long time to fill the pot." Valdemar grunted and shook his head, "Fuck no," he replied, "I was just hunting for the sport of it, that's all. But I wasn't going to cheat this time and use my pistol, if that was your concern. If I'd missed then I'd have hit you and then where would we be? You'd probably get mad at me again. So I just slapped it. Sorry for waking you." "I was awake anyway," Kōichi replied as he nodded at the slope outside below them, "You see anyone?" "Nobody worth troubling you over, "Valdemar said, "A couple of the local lord's men came by a few hours ago, what few there must be left of them. They must have seen the barn here as they went by. Anyway, they were back twenty minutes later and coming up the hill. I could hear them talking and from what they said, they were running away, since they hadn't been paid in months. I did the neighborly thing and invited them inside out of the fucking rain," he smiled as the sideways motion of his head told Kōichi where to look. Valdemar saw Kōichi's eyes flick over toward the two bodies lying face-down on the straw at the far end and the younger man got to his feet and walked to turn them over. "These are ronin," he said, "How do you know who they worked for? Ronin work only for themselves." The big man grinned, "I know because I looked in their packs. The armor with the local insignia is there. I guess they were on the run themselves and thought that it might go better to take it off. Anyway, now we have four horses to feed instead of only two." Kōichi was still trying to wake up fully and he tilted his head, "What neighborly thing?" Valdemar chuckled as he poked at the small fire with a stick, "What do you think? I sang out in my high girlish voice that I was tied up in here and that I'd do anything to be freed, since I'd been grabbed by six men who were coming back and that two would go better for me than six. I offered my sweet womanly body in exchange for my freedom." Kōichi grinned, "You said that?" "Well, perhaps it didn't come out quite that way," the big man chuckled, "You know how awful I am in your language. I tried to sound like a girl in trouble and -- " He stopped then as Kōichi laughed quietly, "Well it must have worked. They're here, after all." Valdemar nodded, "Yes. They couldn't get here fast enough. I probably sounded more like a sow they wanted to eat, but of course, when they ran in, they met me." Kōichi nodded, seeing that one of the men's heads was still facing down, mostly, while his body now lay on its back. "So we've got our disguises for when we leave." Valdemar said, "Well about half of mine, anyway. One thing that our silent guests over there brought was their rice rations, so at least we won't starve tonight. Maybe you can work some of your cooking magic on it or something. If the rain starts again tomorrow, I swear I'll kill one of the horses and we can eat that. I haven't tasted something that good in a month. How you people manage to live on rice is beyond me." Kōichi began to try to get something together for their meal as well as keep an eye out for their safety while Valdemar found a place to sleep. As was usual for him these days, lying down and trying to get to sleep only restarted the feed of his memories until he dropped off at some point. -------------------------- Tonight's presentation opened with his memories of coming home at fourteen on the worst day of his life up to that point -- though he would come to see even worse ones later. It was late afternoon and he'd just lost his job. He'd been on his way home to tell his mother, ready to be beaten once again. He knew that she'd shrill at him and hit him with her hands, a cleaning rag or something while she cried, thinking that it must have been his fault. But he was a little older now and he was far taller than she was already. He even had maybe twenty-five to thirty pounds on her. He guessed that he could take it. He knew where it came from anyway. She loved him dearly, but she'd be so upset because they needed even the small money that he brought in. Valdemar had never known his father; never even seen him. From what his mother said, the man was a kind and very handsome gentleman who traveled the world and sent them money when he could. It had taken the boy years to figure that out. His mother had been seduced or forced -- or bought - and he was the result. He didn't know just how much of a relationship there had been between the man and his mother, but he saw that she always liked to paint him in a good light. Valdemar could never understand that. He and his mother were almost destitute and always had been. The truth of it was that the only reason that he was alive at all was because of the way that nature tricks the females of the species, making them grow a love for the little lives they carry and even if the progeny grew up to be a cruel, murderous prick -- well his little mother loved him, didn't she? The best thing that she could have done was to leave him at the church. For both of their sakes. He always wondered about the few coins that she told him had been sent to them from some far off place or other. Valdemar had hung onto that, since there was nothing else. He was twelve before he figured out that the small money that was shown to him all came from the same place. He'd memorized the names of the lands that she told him his father had been to and sent money from. One day, his need to know overpowered his shyness and he'd asked one of the monks who handed out a little food at Christmastime. He'd seen the man from outside of the inn as he'd been passing by and risked having his ear pulled off to go in and ask. The monk recognized Valdemar and said that he thought he might try to help. The monk and his companion, a seafaring man himself listened as the boy did his best to pronounce the names of the places that his mother had told him. Neither one had ever heard of them. Not one of them. The monk apologized for not being able to help and the other man said something then that caught the boy's ear. "You're going to be a big strapping lad, by the look of you," he said, "I'm here quite a lot for a few weeks or months at a time, looking for men who want work on the ships. Look me up in a little time if you think you want to see real places in the world instead of what sounds like it came out of a fool's mouth while he was chewing gravel." Valdemar knew then. In another two years, he'd know enough about the way that things were to be able to guess that his mother had been either fooled and seduced, or taken advantage of in another way, but the result had been the same. His mother had been only a girl in her teens who'd gotten fucked in one way or another and left behind. When Valdemar got to be about nineteen himself, he understood that between the long wait for her belly to grow and the anguish that she must have gone through, well, his mother must have come up with the nonsense to explain it to herself and later to him once he'd gotten old enough to listen and believe her. On that particular day when he'd lost his job, there seemed to be nothing that the boy could have done right, trying to learn the best ways to place goods into the shelves where he worked. The work was hard for a boy and even though Valdemar was large for his age and always had been, he was still a boy. He knew little of working sums since no one had ever shown him and that day he'd gotten a lot of things wrong. After having his eardrums assaulted and having to put up with the slaps that the master thought were a beating, he'd been shown the door. But as undernourished and poor as he was -- and he was only fourteen -- Valdemar had likely only one thing to thank the bastard who'd gotten his poor mother's knees pried apart for. He was already almost six feet tall and he'd always been a strong boy. When the master had tried to throw him out, Valdemar caught the fool's arm and twisted it at full length. They stood looking at each other for a moment then, the walking, braying ass who'd made his days into misery and the boy of fourteen who now looked the shorter man straight in the eye. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was an important few seconds for Valdemar. He might have lost his job, and things were going to be worse than awful until he found another one. But for that one long moment, Valdemar had looked into the eyes of a man much older than him and much used to abusing his position to make all of the warehouseboys miserable. Valdemar had looked into those narrow, rodent-like eyes and seen the fear that he'd put there. "My job is gone," he'd said quietly to the man who looked to be doing his best not to cry out in pain at how his arm was being twisted, "and I am leaving. I even know how to walk out of a door by myself. Where is my pay? I want what is owed to me. If I do not work for you anymore and I am leaving, then you have no right to push or kick me anymore, do you?" "Do you?" Valdemar hissed as he twisted a little more and the man cried out in pain. "I want my pay." The man said nothing, his beady little eyes flicking around the large work area, seeing the way that the work was stopping as the other men and boys saw what was going on. The longer that this lasted, the more he felt his position of power being eroded. The boy heard a man call out who the master had always left alone. He'd actually never heard him speak before, but he did then as he called out in laughter, "Hey! Feed the rat his own teeth, Boy! Go on! We'll lie to cover you. He needs to be taught too." The owner of the warehouse came over then and asked what was going on. The master began to speak, but Valdemar twisted again and then there was almost silence and only the sound of the man's tortured breathing to be heard. "I've just been sent off," Valdemar said, "I understand sir, but I have not been paid out for what I am owed for the week so far, and then I had to listen to the names and curses. Him trying to throw me out with no pay was too much." The owner looked at the two of them and nodded, reaching into his pocket and handing the boy coins which would have been his pay for a month easily. "Please let him go boy, and be on your way. I think that I'm doing the wrong thing -- letting the wrong man walk away and having to keep on the worthless nephew of my wife instead." Valdemar released the master and thanked the older man, bowing a little in gratitude. The man turned then and called out and the large, quiet man walked over. In the blink of an eye, the man had the master's job and the rat was just a warehouseman once again. "Good luck to you, son," the owner smiled," and my thanks for showing me what was wrong here." Valdemar walked home a little slowly, trying to put everything that had happened in its place in his young mind. At least with the owner's gift to him, they didn't need to really begin to worry for maybe a week. But as he rounded the last corner, he suddenly knew that his life was going to change somehow. He could hear his mother screaming all the way from where he stood at the top of the street. Valdemar ran then, all the way down the street to push his way past the people near to his door. "What's happening?" he asked no one in particular and a man shrugged, "I'd guess that the poor whore's getting more than she bargained for." The statement cranked Valdemar's head around, "Whore? What are you talking about?" The woman next to the man shushed him then and Valdemar blinked once or twice before he ran up the steps. What he found inside would stay with him all of his life. His mother was naked on the bed and beaten to a pulp. There were two men in the room who turned to look at him in surprise, but then one of them sneered and began to step over. Valdemar saw the old fireplace poker and in less than two minutes, there were two dead men on the floor. He almost ran the three or four steps to the bed to get to his mother and she only barely managed to tell him that she was sorry in between the moments where she was coughing up blood. It was all that she said and then she was gone too. He covered her with the sheet. In the next insane moment, Valdemar understood the reason for the lies that she'd told him about entertaining a man friend of hers now and then. He'd never thought of it before, but he'd never seen any of the few men that he'd gotten a look at come back. Valdemar pushed everything that he felt rising in him down and he looked around frantically. He wanted to cry then, but he knew that he didn't have the time to let his feelings wash over him for even a minute. He grabbed a small bag and a few of his clothes. As he turned, he saw that one of the men had a pistol. He'd never seen wood finished so well in his life. He went through the pockets and purses of the men and he had a comparative fortune inside of another minute. Then he was out of the back window and running, thankful that they lived only one floor up. He didn't know where he was going or what he'd do; he was just running, trying to make sense of things as he went. It was a hard thing to consider, but he thought that he knew what his mother had been doing in light of what the stranger had said to him. He guessed that on top of working herself to death doing someone's washing and the cleaning that she also did for two families blocks away who were a little better off and could afford it, his mother must have always done what she had to in order to keep her and her growing boy alive. He found himself not far from the church and he ran in then, trying to find the one person that he knew at least a little. They almost collided as Valdemar was walking quickly around a corner in one of the passageways. Valdemar began to cry then. The monk took him to a room and sat him down, asking what had happened. Valdemar hung his head and said that he'd heard that a man who had committed a crime might go to a church and ask for sanctuary. The monk bolted the door then and asked him to calm down. It was long after dark when the monk led the boy to a place down by the docks. They entered a small office and the man was there who had told him two years earlier to look him up if he wanted work. The day after that, a ship pulled into port belonging to the firm that the man worked for and after six days of staying hidden, Valdemar sailed off on that ship; a large boy who now had to work, but found that he liked that part of it. He never returned. What he didn't particularly like was having to sleep with one eye open and to defend himself from some of the men's advances every now and then. He did that successfully for the most part, though it led to a few incidents were he'd beaten grown men fairly hard so that they'd leave him alone. He'd have liked to be able to tell himself that he'd been everywhere only a couple of years later, but he knew that the truth of it was that he'd been to a few fairly far-flung places in his time. But his strange luck still threw things into his face now and then. One night, he'd been at an inn that he'd heard about. He'd been listening to a couple of the others tell of one place where the girls were lovely and very friendly to sailors from other lands. Valdemar had never been with a woman and he thought that it was about time. And he had saved a lot of his pay, after all. The next time that they sailed around Jutland and hugged the coast with the Frisian Islands off to their left before crossing the North Sea to call in at the English port of Southend-on-Sea, Valdemar found a carriage to hire and it brought him to the place on the outskirts. Things had gone well, and at least then Valdemar could tell himself that he was a man at last, but then things went into the pit not long after that. Black Arrow Lord Ch. 01 He was having a last drink when the doors burst open and a lot of men in uniforms walked in. He'd seen those uniforms before, and not knowing English terribly well at the time, Valdemar had just assumed that they were English sailors out for a bit of fun and a brawl. He tried to reason with them. It was almost a year later when someone had told him what it had all been about. The men were a press gang, sent out to take men against their will to work for the navy. He woke up on a Royal Navy ship already at sea. His protests got him nothing but abuse, though he gave as good as he got for a little while. While he tried to figure it out, he spoke very seldom to almost nobody, trying to learn what he could of the language and brooding. At least they fed him fairly well before the food began to rot. But he was broke; his money stolen from him while he'd been unconscious. All that he had were the clothes on his back. Perhaps the worst blow to him had been that someone had taken his pistol. He regretted only one thing most of all, other than he didn't seem to be a free man anymore. If he'd known then what he knew later, ... He'd have shot at least one of the pox-ridden bullies in the face. His luck swung a little the other way one day when he saw everyone running around a little frantically like a lot of ants. Somebody bellowed a phrase at him and he climbed the rigging to help unfurl a sail. From there, he saw the trouble. There was an American man-of-war out there, trying to do its best - just as they were - to bring itself into the most advantageous position. When he asked another man up there in the rigging with him, he was told that the English were at war with the Americans. "And they're bloody angry over the way that us blokes always stop their ships to press anyone who even looks like he might be an Englishman or a Scot into service." Valdemar remembered that this man's story was that he had just gone to town to buy some grain and stopped at an inn when a navy press gang walked in. He hadn't seen his family since. Three years, and he'd never been ashore again. The Royal Navy was very careful to keep out to sea while what travel to and from shore they required was done in the small boats manned by small crews who were kept under the guns of a few uniformed men. "Goot," Valdemar nodded in his abysmal English, "I hope zey vin zen." The other man looked at him for a moment and then he laughed, understanding what was meant a second later. "I do too, mate," he smiled, "Fuck this for a lark. I've had enough." The battle was long and frightening, but the British ship was outgunned and out-manoeuvred for most of the fight. Valdemar also played a small part. He was below deck, running bags of powder to one section of the ship's guns. He hated the bastard junior gunnery officer who commanded here. Valdemar carried scars on his back only because he hadn't understood a command and had asked for it to be repeated. For that, the little cock had him whipped. In the heat of battle, a lot of little things could easily be overlooked and during his trips, he noticed that there was one man with a musket kneeling where and when he could to take careful shots through the open gun ports at the crew of the other ship. Valdemar saw it several times. When the man was ready to shoot, he'd wait for one of the guns to fire, and as it slid back in recoil, the man would step up to the port and kneel for a few moments to aim and then fire well before the gun had been reloaded. He looked to be trying to hit the sailors below deck on the other ship. The next trip, Valdemar saw what he thought was his chance. The peacock officer clearly had his hands full, trying to deal with the mess that a volley of canister shot had made in the more forward part of the battery. The rifleman knelt right then, almost directly in front of Valdemar and best of all, no one was watching. He set down the bag of powder, strained to lift a cannonball, and then he dropped it on the head of the shooter, stepping well back so that the ball didn't land on his feet. No one saw it. Valdemar drew a long rag from his pocket and quickly wrapped his right hand with it in order to protect his knuckles from the sharp edges of the teeth that he intended to break in a moment. Before anyone could notice, he stepped up to the little cock of the walk officer, spun him around and began to beat the shit out of him. In spite of it all, in the stinging smoke from the guns and the flying splinters of wood from the grape and chain shot which were tearing against and into the side of the battery, no one noticed him doing it. Some of the men were dead and others were screaming in agony that they'd been hit. But Valdemar didn't care. He was smiling. He saw the man crying there before him with blood and snot pouring out of what the big blonde had left him for a nose, trying desperately to get to his pistol. But the quiet Dane hit the man hard enough in the solar plexus to knock him to his knees and he relieved the officer of his firearm. He considered a moment while the man threw up. He was in this deep over something that he hadn't done to anyone. What more was there to lose now? As the officer looked up at him, Valdemar threw the pistol out through the gaping hole in the side of the ship and lifted the officer up. He hit him three times after that, but after the first time it grew more difficult since the man was unconscious. Valdemar put a lot into the third time before he let the officer crumple to the deck of the battery. He knelt then and a few moments later, he unwrapped the cloth and inspected his hand before he dragged the beaten corpse to one of the ruined gun stations and threw him out into the water after the pistol. When he looked up, he was looking at an American gunner looking back at him across maybe thirty yards of smoky air and dirty water. Valdemar shrugged and smiled, the two of them exchanging little waves to each other before he turned away. One of the more comical moments of war. When he looked around, he was at least a little certain that they'd lose and it made him feel a little better. The forward port battery was in shambles with maybe three guns left which could be brought to bear and to his amazement, some of the men, others like himself, were organising themselves to get those guns back into action. He couldn't understand it. His ears were ringing, but he couldn't really even hear that, though it was constant now. He decided to go back to hauling powder bags from the magazine before he was pressed into helping on the guns. He didn't want that to happen because the way that he felt then, he knew that he'd refuse and likely be shot on the spot. He saw a boy there huddled in fear on the floor, one of the nippers. They were used to nip off stray strands of anchor cable. He'd always felt a little sorry for them. He'd heard that they were treated well on some ships, but he knew that they weren't on this one. The officer that he'd killed had seen to that. He stepped over and looked down, "You need to get lower down," he tried to say, but in the noise and with the way that he spoke, the boy didn't get it for a moment. He did look over at the gunport where Valdemar had thrown the officer from and then he looked up and nodded. The boy pointed toward the open wreck of the gun station. "Thank you." Then he was gone and Valdemar went back to the magazine for more powder. They struck their colors less than a half an hour later. Things were a little chaotic for a time after that, but eventually Valdemar had a chance to tell somebody that he was there against his will. To his surprise, he was offered a place on the American ship to replace a man who had been killed in the fighting. He accepted with a smile and as he walked to where the ship's boat waited to take him and a few others across, he saw the body of the boy floating in the water. When the war ended, Valdemar was on the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean, his ship undergoing a bit of a fast refit before trying to slip out past the British blockade. One day, the British just sailed off a month after the war was officially over. Valdemar was told that he could sail with them back to America or if he wanted, he'd be paid out and could find his own way to wherever he wanted to go. It wasn't that easy, though. His pay was enough to take him to maybe Jamaica and that would be about it. But he was alive for the moment and he said that he needed at least a night with a few drinks in him to decide and the American officer grinned at him and said that he understood and to seek him out in the morning and let him know. What he got from his night of careful and quiet drinking were three job offers. Valdemar had seen enough of warships for at least a time, he thought, and he didn't like the thought of going whaling in the Pacific. But he was a little intrigued to hear from a few Dutchmen who told him during their comical struggles to make themselves understood to each other that they were on a trader heading to Sumatra. Some of the Dutchmen would be working for a master there, sailing off later to trade in Japan. Valdemar knew nothing about it, but it sounded like there was a bit of money to be made there, though he also learned that there was an element of danger as well, since trade was not officially allowed there and everything had to be done on the sly and quiet. Valdemar agreed and the next morning he was talking a little quietly with the American officer, who told him what he knew of things there. It wasn't until he was actually on the Dutch ship four days later that he actually learned just what it was that they'd be smuggling, and he didn't like it. They were loaded with old army rifles and muskets. Valdemar nodded then to the one Dutchmen who could speak fairly good English -- something which was coming to him at last, "But," he said, choosing his words a little carefully, "From what you say, it will happen far from the coast and we sell twenty rifles or so on a trip. A few men could kill us all and take the guns for nothing." The man nodded with a shrug and a grin, "Yes, that is why we want you along, my large friend." And he handed Valdemar a pistol then and promised him a sword and a rifle as well. Valdemar stared at the pistol. It had seen a lot of use, by the look of it, he decided, but it was unloaded at the moment and he tried it in a safe direction. It was a side-by-side double barrelled thing and it felt good in his hand. "Give me another like this and what else that you said and I will be able to do the job," he smiled. "Can you ride a horse?" he was asked. "Ja," he replied, "Only gif me a little time to learn." He'd been joking, but his companions didn't know it. It brought a lot of laughter out of the rest and it bought Valdemar a few drinks for his frank boldness. Valdemar quickly found his place among the crew and with his size and quiet willingness to always lend a hand -- and his long hair, he was a little popular for the first time in his life. As with any collection of people, there were a couple of men who sought to give him a bit of a hard time when they could, but Valdemar was now nineteen himself and he'd long ago learned that he didn't have to take much in the way of garbage from anyone. Usually, all that it took was for him to lift a man by the collar and slam him against a wall painfully. A long quiet moment spent staring a man down went a long way toward getting him left alone after that. He'd had offers from some of the other men on the American ship to cut his hair for him, but Valdemar always declined. His light blonde hair was now kept in a thick braid and whenever anyone said anything about it, Valdemar would just look over to grin very coldly as he suggested that the man try to cut it off for him. They spent months working their way to the Dutch colonial possessions where the rest of the goods waited for them in storage. On the way, Valdemar slowly got to know about the main merchant, who was waiting on their arrival there. ----------------------------------- Valdemar had a thought in his mind that he was to accompany some others to act as their protection, but it turned out to be a little incorrect. The main trading merchant made his presence known the evening after their arrival. Cornelius Van der Zee was a man of many talents and a great deal of resourcefulness. Valdemar wondered since he seemed at first to be something like a kindly uncle who sought to teach others to trade on his behalf. That was the way that is seemed to go at first, but as the days went on, Valdemar could see that there was little softness about the man. He only looked that way, and underneath, he was as tough as an old oak tree. It came as a bit of a surprise to find that the older man tried to teach Valdemar a slightly different path than the one he set most of the others on. "What you see around you here really has little to do with where you are going, "Cor said, "Japan is a rather different place from this. But, like here or China, or any other land in this corner of the earth, there are always more layers to the onion, large shells piled on top of smaller ones which hide the shells underneath them - boxes within boxes, intrigues laid upon intrigues, and all of it hides the continual struggles for power. It can be exceedingly difficult to grasp and understand -- especially for someone such as you or I. Here - or where you will go; a man's life means little. The struggles and the wars go on forever and the only constant that I have been able to determine," he smiled, "is the one color which is consistent and that is the color of blood. Sometimes the wars are out in the open for all to see, and most other times, they go on still under the guise of peace, and yet, the struggles are still there, simmering quietly as one man or group of men tries to outwit another. What you will do for me and yourself, my Danish friend, is to go along on a trip to trade. You will be there to protect our goods and money, certainly. But really, I want you there to learn. You will learn by seeing the way that it is done and by doing." Cor smiled then, "Of course, most of the doing will be on your second trip, so you must see to it that you survive the first, naturally. The way that this is done is that you will be given money to use for your expenses the first time, so try to keep a tight grip on it. I have warehouses full of goods here for you and the others to trade and sell. For your particular journey, the focus will be on firearms, since it is what is most wanted where you will be going. For almost every type of merchandise which we offer, there are several different grades from best to worst. I am your supplier and I will sell you the goods to sell once you reach your destination. My prices are at a wholesale level, of course. I think that with your pay from the Americans who saved and hired you as well as your pay from crewing on our ship, you will have more than sufficient starting capital. That is your working capital, Valdemar," Cor said, "With it and your profits; you build your fortune, my friend. Other than the traveling and the occasional risk to life and limb, it can be very profitable for us both. The way that Valdemar figured it, Cor would have already covered his risk by selling to him. The split of the money after his return would be pure profit, though he said nothing of his thoughts on it to the other man. Cor looked at Valdemar and then he smiled as he considered the Dane's long braid for a moment. "That is really all your own hair, is it not?" Valdemar nodded, "Why? Must I cut it for this?" Cor shook his head, "No, but I imagine that it must be a little hot and uncomfortable for you." He looked out across the large harbour for a moment, seeing all of the hundreds of ships or other watercraft right down to the perhaps thousands of smaller boats weaving their way through, and all of it driven by the want of monetary gain. Turning back to Valdemar, he said, "Where you are going, the men tie their hair back in a couple of different fashions, depending on their station in life; what they do, who they serve -- things such as this. You would likely never see one, but other than the emperor of the place, most of the real power lies in the hands of the lords. Think of it as the lords under a European king, for there are similarities. The lords are very powerful locally and yet they are subservient to the wishes of the emperor, ... " He sighed, "Unless there is a strong ripple of war running through the land, of course. It happens, though a little rarely, thank Heaven. Something for you to consider is that while war on a large scale brings uncertainty and even danger, it also brings many opportunities for merchants. The world is a changing place, as you know, but to a lot of those people, they want things to remain as they have always been. I can see a major struggle over only that notion one day, but for now, that is why trade with outsiders is forbidden. In truth, Europeans have been trading here for a few hundred years, though the distance and the isolation have kept the numbers down. It was going well -- especially for us and the Portuguese for a long while. We even sold them muskets in quantity. But then the isolationists began to come to the fore and things have been closed down to a great extent. In the meantime, they fight with swords and bows in a time when your land and mine, along with many others have gone on to rifles and cannon to fight wars with. It's why I'm selling guns, after all." Cor produced a couple of cigars and offered one to Valdemar, who accepted. After getting them both lit, he went on. "The lords over there are called Daimyo and some of them wear their hair -- "he looked over for a moment, "which is the point of my little sermon to you - in the more or less traditional way. It's combed out and tied back, each side, and then the top is done the same way -- even if a man is balding. Indeed, some shave the tops of their heads, wanting to neaten things up and appear wise. The more dangerous ones are the daimyo who are really warlords. They are a more, ... shall we say impetuous and hungry breed, who run the much smaller and isolated places usually with an iron hand. Those are the ones which I want you to concentrate on in your travels. Those are the ones which see the advantages of firearms. Make no mistake, though. Either type can have you skinned alive for farting a little too loudly in their presence. But I have seen some of that kind who wear their hair a little differently. They leave it long and straight, but tie what would hang in their faces into a topknot. I think that the style would suit someone like you, Valdemar. Wear your hair that way and you make a statement that you are formidable, shall we say. You might have noticed that many or even most of the people here are shorter than you are. I think that it might be wise to put yourself in plain sight rather than try to hide the obvious. A lot of my people find themselves having to scurry around a little like rats, always trying to remain out of sight. A hungry dog has no fear of a rat. Have you ever watched dogs fight when there are two opponents in contention?" Valdemar shrugged and said that he'd probably seen it, but hadn't really given it any thought and Cor laughed then. "There is really very little difference between us as animals and animals themselves. You might see a group of dogs snarling at each other over something to eat or a bitch in heat to mate with. They all put on a grand show for each other and little gets done -- since they know the threat which each one represents to the others. What do you suppose might happen if a large wolf were to wander into the middle of things?" Black Arrow Lord Ch. 01 Valdemar nodded, getting it and Cor grinned, "That one can often walk right in and while the others are all trying to think of what this might mean, the wolf gets the bitch or the scrap of food. You can suit yourself, obviously, but my point is that you might get farther this way. Trade fairly and well, and do not seek to cheat anyone and once the few who find that they need not fear you see that, you will find more opportunities than the traders who act like rats. No one respects a rat, but everyone respects -- even grudgingly -- a wolf. Of course, like anything else, one shouldn't try to take things too far. If it comes to a stand-off, it only requires one or two of the mutts to find a little courage and then all the rest will join in to tear the wolf apart. And so, if I might offer a bit of advice, take only the first-rank guns .You won't be known so you need to impress. Jans will go with you to teach you the first time and he will have his own guns to sell them. If you come back in one piece and you find that you think there is more business there to be had, then the route will be yours, Valdemar. Jans has lost interest in it and wishes to sell farther south and I find that he seems to be losing his nerve for dealing with the northern bunch." --------------------------------- Over the time, Valdemar was given a little instruction in very basic Japanese and Cor took him to a place where there were many weapons stored. "I thought that you might like to choose your own sword," he said, "You might find the blades which are carried here to be a little, ... light for a man of your size. I am assuming of course that you intend to carry it as a sign that you are a little more than a trader. And if you are going to have to carry something such as that for all of that time, it might do to have one that is at least a little usable and does not look small in your hand." It took some time, but Valdemar found one blade in all of what was there, from among the ceremonial swords which an officer would carry to even some Japanese ones. His choice caused Cor to laugh a little. "That is not supposed to be a sword so much as it might look like one," he smiled, "What you have there in your hand is an executioner's blade from around here." Cor's eyes opened a little as Valdemar hefted the weapon and then began to swing it with a fair amount of ease and even little flourishes. "Oh, I don't care, Cor," Valdemar smiled as the blade flashed in a stroke to end in a blocking position, "It's big and more importantly, it's heavy enough for me. What would I do with a thin thing such as the ones I've seen on the guards here? This will do nicely, though it's a little front-heavy. But I think that I can see why that is now." They walked toward the door together and Valdemar saw -- a little to his disbelief -- boxes of bows and crates of arrows. He was interested, but only out of curiosity. Cor indicated that he considered most of it to be junk waiting to be thrown out. Valdemar's eye landed on some differently shaped ones and he lifted one and turned with an inquiring glance. "Those came with me when I first came here," the Dutchman smiled, "I have some fond memories of that trip. I sold a lot of guns to a Khalid and he liked the weapons so much that he insisted that I take some of his men's bows as a gift since they would no longer be needing them as much. You see the thick one there? That was his own bow, given to him by his father. There was a fair difference in size between father and son and the Khalid was happy to have it out of his sight, since he could never even draw it. He'd waited almost thirty years for his father to pass and it happened not long before I came. You may have it if you like, and whatever arrows you might find to fit it for length. The rest is trash to burn one day. Be a little careful not to trust it the first time. It is old and I wouldn't be surprised to find that it breaks then." Valdemar took it and two slightly lighter ones which looked to be just as well-crafted and one of them was very ornate. The trouble as he saw it was to find some arrows of sufficient length, since most of what lay there in storage was to fit the smaller stature of the people in the area. Cor helped him, pointing him to a crate full of long arrows, though they were thicker than most by far and they were finished in black lacquer. Cor smiled then, "These are to go with that Khalid's father's famous bow. Take all that you want." Valdemar grabbed a wheeled handtruck then, since his choices were piling up a little by that point. They strode off then, but when they rounded a corner, Valdemar stopped and stared once again, looking at old leather and the armor of several nations. "Heirlooms", Cor laughed, "More shit to burn one day. Take what you want and might find which will fit you. There is a large gap between you and the locals, Valdemar, but have fun if you wish." Well it wasn't a lot of fun, but with patience and a little time, he found a leather cuirass -- God knew how many ages old, but it looked to be large enough. It also looked to be bone dry, as though it might crack if it were flexed. But Valdemar took it along and with a many evenings and a lot of saddle soap, rags and elbow grease, he had something. It was a fairly good fit, once he'd gotten enough courage up to try the thing on. He didn't know where it had come from or when, or even who'd had it made for them, but he decided that whoever it might have been, he was near the same size as a misplaced Dane, and he must have been rich. It had to have cost the moon to have made, and it was thick and heavy. He wore it around a lot in the course of his doings, a little determined to wear down the musty smell or die trying. Neither one happened completely, though they seemed to have reached an understanding, as it were, and the old leather began to smell like old leather once more. There wasn't much patterning to it, but what there was looked a little nice, just some dull golden trim to match the hard bronze studs. There were heavy spaulders which went along with the cuirass and he bought a heavy hooded cloak in a dark and dull brown to go over top of the rest. He couldn't imagine anywhere that he might need all of it, but he had the thought that in a cold and unfriendly place, he might not mind having something like that along. He thought that he'd made out alright until he saw the bearded axe head. He had no idea how old it might be or where it came from, just an old wrought iron and steel axe head in a long-ago style. There was no haft to it. But he found a heavy stave of oak and a little time and effort yielded him an approximation of a Daneaxe with a handle of about three and a half feet long. If nothing else, grasping the thing under the beard the right way, and you had the best thing to make shavings to start a fire with and grasping the haft in a businesslike manner gave you a bit of a wild look with which to alarm the neighbors, he grinned to himself. True to his roots, he named the sword and the axe after a pair of she-trolls from out of Nordic legend. Whenever he had a chance and for some time after that, Valdemar practised to learn the bow that he'd chosen and also to try to regain a little of his long unused ability. He'd spent many afternoons with a past employer of his, an old noble who taught him and also told him of his family's long ago bit of glory in a better time. Of course, Valdemar had mentioned that his mother was a poor relation and that he himself was a bastard. The old man grinned and said at the time that in his experience, some of the best men were. "Your little corner of the family -- while it was remembered, came in for more than their share of glory, though that is all in the past now and no one but me and a few others know much of anything about it. Your people were horsemen, lad; fine and strong fighters who never turned away from the call to battle -- which is why there is likely no more than the two of you left, you and your mother. Your uncle, while he lived, was a worse drunkard than his father and he threw his sister out into the world penniless and with nothing but the dress that she had on at the time. Come," he smiled, "I cannot return your family's fortunes, but I can begin to make you into the horseman that you should have been by now." With that, the old man led Valdemar outside and began his teachings on how to ride a horse, shoot a bow and fight with a sword. Valdemar hadn't known that this was coming, but he wasn't terribly surprised and he took to it easily and quickly. It took him almost two years. He'd had no choice but to become proficient at riding in a hurry. He'd been a boy, but there was only one type of horse which the old man kept, and all of them were huge. It had been the best job that he'd ever had until the old man died. ----------------------------------- Vlademar found that he had plenty of time to study what he thought that he'd need as well as to get himself reacquainted the sword and the bow. The hardest thing to manage was to learn the at-first almost incomprehensible language of Nihongo -- as it was known to the Japanese -- the language which he was being taught. Cor had gotten him a tutor -- a pretty young woman who was so shy that their first lessons were spent with him feeling rather uncomfortable -- and doing everything that he could think of to make her feel less so in his presence. The location was another thing. Veldemar found that he couldn't fault Cor for being able to string something like this together, but the fact was that when it was time for his lesson, he had to go to a section of the city which was well-known for its brothels. In fact, his teacher was one of the women who worked there, plying the oldest profession. He didn't mind much at all, but to journey to that place and be seen doing it rather often gave him a bit of a reputation and for the wrong thing. Sometimes, someone would offer their profuse apologies that his tutor was not ready, still being engaged with a client. He guessed that he must have looked rather annoyed without meaning to at least once; for he found that he was being offered the services of a whore while he waited -- and for nothing. It caused him to wonder about Cor's importance around that place. He'd had no intention of availing himself of the offer until he'd seen the girls which he was to make his choice from. He selected one and spent a very enjoyable afternoon with her. But it happened one day that he noticed something. His tutor had a patron -- a woman who appeared to be a little older than his teacher was, and from what he saw, she didn't like men at all for the way that she glowered at him while the two shared a few kisses as she was leaving while Valdemar waited. The other thing which he noticed was that if this wasn't love that he was looking at between them, then his teacher was one hell of an actress. As their lesson got underway, Valdemar remarked on it and the girl admitted to him that he'd been correct. It got him to thinking and so he said, "I have always known that this sort of love between women existed, but I have never seen it for myself." The girl nodded, "Oh yes. To say the truth, I enjoy this kind of love most of all." So they began their lesson of the day, but as he was getting ready to leave, he asked the young woman to see about arranging for a way that he might be able to watch for a while. She nodded, smiling shyly that many men liked to watch two women making love together, but he shook his head. "I think that I can understand that, but that is not why I ask." He carefully asked about oral love and he explained that he had a thought that a woman might go about it in perhaps a different way than a man would. The next time that he went there, he watched from a seat as two women made love together for him. Afterwards, his tutor asked him if he had learned what he'd sought to know, and he nodded, "Almost." The next week, he was there for something other than his language lesson, though it was a lesson to him all the same as his tutor guided and taught him what he sought to learn with a young woman who had just come there from the countryside. "She is here to learn to take my place, Valdemar," the woman said a little sadly. "We will have one more lesson next week than then I am leaving. The woman who I am in love with has bought me for her own and I will go to her home to live with her there." That was how it happened, and though it caused a little fuss in how Valdemar was shown to the new girl's room the few times that he came back -- since ostensibly, she was there to service the very lucrative female client sector and never to know the touch of a man. He had to endure being taken to her room by some back hallways and though it cost him a little, he found that he liked doing that and the girl was pleased to see him every time as he got better at it. She used her mouth to take care of his needs, since she was not allowed to offer vaginal sex to him. Veldemar stopped coming after a few times. He'd gotten what he'd wanted in terms of his lessons and by then, he was busy preparing to leave for Japan. Black Arrow Lord Ch. 02 ***So, ... off to Japan. Not to a part that he'd ever really heard of, but one goes where the money is, after all. Valdemar learns first hand what Cor had been talking about regarding becoming known and trusted. In case you need to read it, the characters and placenames in this are fictional. 0_0 ---------------------------- When autumn came, they set off, Valdemar along for the ride to learn the way of things. It would be well into winter by the time that they arrived. His mentor on the trip was the man named Jans -- an open and very gregarious sort, which was why Valdemar didn't trust him at all, though Jans was very valuable for the things that he tried to each his pupil. They sailed and landed at a very small seaport on Hokkaido, avoiding the Dutch establishment near Nagasaki entirely. From there, they traveled on, hiding as much of their foreignness as they could from the locals and Valdemar was instructed to hide his hair under his coat while wearing a conical hat over top of everything. As they got a little closer to where they were going, Jans told Valdemar that he ought to disregard what Cor had told him. "They'd only see you as a challenge to their authority," he said, "It draws too much attention to us." He motioned to the landscape around them, "These people here live like bandits compared to how they live in the larger places. I don't know why Cor wanted us to come here. I've been here twice before and I couldn't wait to get out again." "How many guns could we sell to the people in those other places?" Valdemar asked. "Not many," Jans replied, "Other than to thieves and -" "Bandits," Valdemar said quietly. Jans nodded, "What is sold in the larger places is all done through our enclave in Deijima, far to the south." "Is Cor allowed to sell there?" Jans shook his head, "No. He has no license from the Royal Dutch family for that." "I guess, "Valdemar said, stretching a little in the saddle, "that the bandits around here must only get the worst of the junk that these larger places have refused, the bottom of the barrel. Maybe that's why Cor wants us to come here to sell." Jans's head swung around to look over, but Valdemar was looking off in a different direction then. "Something to keep in mind there," the Dutchman said after a little while, "You can't take anything from them at face value. Little is as it seems and you should be especially wary of their hospitality. There will always be a price." Valdemar turned then to look at Jans, "Are you always this cheery on these trips? You struck me as a much more open and friendly person back on Sumatra." "I just want to caution you not to be too open with them. As I said, you really can't take them at -- " "Jans," Valdemar interrupted, "You're talking to a man who's mother was a whore his whole life long and never knew. I only found out about it on the day that she'd been beaten to death. I was fourteen then. Do you think that the arrival of that knowledge wasn't profound to me? It caused me to realize that I shouldn't take ANYONE'S word at face value. And not to put too fine a point on it, you're also traveling with a man who was knocked unconscious and kidnapped into English navy service just for visiting a whorehouse himself. I hear what you are trying to warn me about." "It sounds as though you have some bad luck," Jans suggested but Valdemar shook his head., "Not really, because I understand it. My mother did what she had to do -- what she'd always done to keep us alive. The bad luck was hers. And as far as the other, I'm really thankful that I was allowed to at least fuck the girl before the press gang barged in. " He looked ahead at the narrow pass they were headed for and hoped the snow in the middle wasn't too deep. "If they'd have caught me after I'd paid but before I got to have any fun - THAT would have been bad luck." They rode in silence for a few seconds before Jans burst into laughter, nodding his agreement. "So tell me about where we are going and who rules there, who we will need to deal with, things like that." Jans nodded, "The local leader here is daimyo over a very small area in terms of the people, though there is a lot of land encompassed by it and most of that as you see is highlands. The people here originally were called the Ainu and were defeated by the southerners who represent the majority of the Japanese. Lord Maeda is said to have some Ainu blood in him, but I have my doubts that it would be allowed and he doesn't look anything like one of the Ainu. In any event, he has some backers down in the capital of Edo because they know that they need him. We are on the most northerly island and not all that far from Russia. Lord Maeda holds the place as the northern bastion of Japan. There are islands even farther north which the Japanese claim as theirs, but there are already some large groups of Russians there, fishermen mostly." He looked around at the mountains and forests for a moment, "As you can see, there are not many people here to rule over. Lord Maeda sees the need for firearms. Bows have too short a range effectively, and if the Russians do come, they wouldn't be bringing any bows for damn certain. But being out on the edge of the world as he is here, there is not much support for the idea in the capital. The lord is not a stupid man. He knows that the Imperial court knows nothing of life here and he knows how badly it would go for him and the people here if there were to be an invasion. The great armies would come from the south -- eventually and far too late -- only to be cut to pieces by the Russian forces -- who would be using muskets and rifles, naturally. His backers understand this, but they are in the minority." He looked over at Valdemar, "Cor explained the different classes to you? Did he mention the Samurai?" Valdemar nodded and Jans reply began with little more than a curt nod and a grunt, "The line is thin and a little foggy here. There are not enough people for the Samurai as a class to exist here very much. They could strut about all they wished and freeze for it. So the ones here are a little closer to Samurai farmers because they need to be, and there are commoners who are a little more like warriors at the same time, because they need to be. Something such as this is not possible in the south, but here, well it is a common need to eat and stay warm and to keep what they all have. The few Samurai here are known and respected as is their due, but it isn't a big jump to think that the majority are also not strangers to the work of farming. It is hard to live here." As they got closer to the place where Jans said they needed to be, Valdemar saw people here and there. They were mostly watchers who were looking back at him from under the eaves of the nearby forests. Once or twice, he saw a man with a bow turn to trot to a horse staked farther into the trees and ride off. "If that is the kind of bows that they use here," he nodded, "I can see why this daimyo feels vulnerable." Jans hadn't seen the men that his companion had and listened as Valdemar spoke of it. "Once again, you cannot trust what you think that you see. The Japanese have elevated archery to a form of art." The large man grunted back, "I once had a job looking after the house of a rich man who lived on the outskirts of where I was in Helsingborg. He was a bit of a poor noble, and a lot of what I did was dust and wipe the symbols of the older time of his, ... nobility, shall we say. He'd mastered the bow like nobody that I have ever seen and his favorite bow was a gift to him from some Persians, like the one that I own. He showed me a lot of things because he liked me and had little to do when he was there -- other than manage his family's matters and he hated that. I know how to use a sword -- as much as he could show to a boy as I was and I can shoot a bow. But I had trouble even lifting that one bow. Try as I might, I could not even begin to draw it. He was very kind to me and told me that one day, when I was bigger and old enough, he would have one like that made for me so that he could have a hunting companion." Valdemar fell silent then and Jans looked over. "What happened?" The blonde shrugged, "He died. He was hunting for boar and it went badly." Valdemar sighed, "So I lost the best job in the world and I became a warehouseboy. But I know what I am looking at when I see a bow, Jans." Not long after midday, they were met by a party of men on horseback, led by a grim and dour person who tended to bark out his wishes in an authoritative voice which had the sound to it that he expected his words to bring instant action. It was the first time that Valdemar had heard the language spoken by a Japanese male in what he took to be a position of authority and he didn't like it already. After a rather rough and curt exchange with Jans and a long and carefully appraising look at Valdemar after the introduction, the men turned and rode off. Their guides looked to be a little apprehensive. "Who the hell was that?" Valdemar asked and Jans grinned humorlessly, "A Samurai named Oda. The right hand of Maeda in a lot of things. He gave us permission to come to the village." Valdemar watched the group gallop off, "Is he always like that, or are his piles giving him trouble today?" There was no humor in the Dutchman's face as he replied, "That is how it goes here. He showed me as much respect as he feels is my due. To these people, we are seen as savages, or little better. They look at us and see not much more than savages who have come into possession of a few things that they might wish to trade for and they probably think that we stole them in the first place. Where we are going, it would be a little wise for you to keep your head down respectfully." Valdemar smiled, "I'll try, Jans. But I've been beaten and whipped by men for only asking that they make it clear what they want -- and I've killed for it in return. I prefer to give respect where I see that it is deserved." He chuckled, "But I will try." They rode into a rather small place in a bit of a bowl-shaped valley. There seemed to be a bit of fog hanging in the air and a great deal of frost covered a lot of the place. He asked about it and Jans said that there was a hot spring in the valley. Many of the people stopped what they were doing to get a look at the travelers. Jans was known to them and a lot of them smiled and nodded to him, offering little half-bows. When they looked at Valdemar, they just stared. But then they came to a bit of an open space and were told to stop and the same man looked at them from horseback with more barking and terse words. Valdemar thought that Jans sounded almost apologetic in his replies. After a little more talk, the other man looked at Valdemar and spoke again. "Oda-san wishes to get a better look at you," Jans said carefully, "Take off your hat and try to show some respect. These men around us are all armed." Valdemar looked up and into the eyes of the man opposite from him. There was a long moment of silence before Valdemar smiled and nodded. Then he slid his conical hat back so that it hung by the chin strap around his throat. As the man's eyes widened, Valdemar reached up and slid his fingers under his hair and flipped it out of his coat so that it spilled around his shoulders and he heard Jans' quiet groan among the several gasps from the villagers. It brought more words from the grim man. "You're being stupid," Jans said, "He asks if you are a Gaijin daimyo -- a barbarian lord. How the hell are you going to answer that? A lord from another place would come here with many to show his might. There are only the four of us." Valdemar considered for a moment, never taking his eyes off the ones which tried to bore into him across the space. "Tell him that sometimes, life changes what we are and do, and that even lords with no lands have to eat." "I do not think that --" "Just tell him that please, Jans." The man's eyebrows rose to hear it and then they were escorted to a house where the Europeans were to live while there were there. It was a little unremarkable and plain though it was large enough and it had a stable behind it. Their laden horses were brought there and tied up in it by their guides who left then and appeared to be very happy to go. "What are we supposed to do here?" Valdemar asked and Jans shrugge., "We are to wait here. It can take several days. The daimyo has to hear about our arrival and it will take even longer since there is a barbarian daimyo along on the trip," Jans said with a pained expression, "You should not have done that. I have found that it is best here to just trade and go. So, ... we wait," he said, "It would not do for Maeda to seem hasty in any way, so the assumption is that he is a busy man and will see us as he sees fit and finds the time for." The door opened and the grim man stepped inside out of the cold air. There were a lot of words spoken between them and Jans looked uncomfortable. The man said something else and pointed in an urging motion to Valdemar. "He asks why it does not seem to him that you treat me as your servant." Valdemar shrugged, "Tell him that I am no longer in my homeland and to act like a daimyo when one is all alone gets a man nothing but trouble and that even a daimyo may have trouble. Tell him that you and I are colleagues who work together." The man grunted with a nod when he heard it and asked another few questions then. "He wishes to see your sword. I told you to leave it on Sumatra. Now he has an interest in something which you have no skill at." Valdemar drew his sword, flicking it once in a lazy overhand motion before he held it out to the other man haft-first. He bit down on his desire to tell Jans to see whether he might have the ability in him at all to have a positive thought. "Tell him that my people carry swords, the noble ones. Tell him that it is tradition with my people. He is a warrior. He'll understand that." Jans was appalled, "But I've been to Denmark, it is not tradition. And you are no -" "My last name is a noble one in Denmark. As it happens, my particular branch of the family is little known and mostly forgotten, but we were on the same level as kings once. We had lands and power, Jans. This is truth. Now I am all that is left of my clan. That is truth as well." Valdemar saw the way that the man with them watched them covertly as he examined the heavy blade, so the large Dane growled at Jans in a hard-edged tone, "It's not the tradition now, and it doesn't matter. Nobody here has been to Denmark or will ever go there." His tone turned menacing then, "You are causing him doubts with your actions. Just bow to me a little as though I've just had to dress you down for something and tell him. I know what I have skill at, Jans. Try to have a little faith in me." Jans looked as nervous as a thief with his hand in a policeman's pocket, but he bowed and then said what was desired. The man grunted and smiled very, very slightly as he handed back the sword. Then he bowed as though it was killing him to do that and left. "Are you insane?" Jans hissed quietly, "He'll tell Maeda everything that he saw!" "I know that," the larger man said quietly, "But I don't think that you're seeing this correctly. Whoever he is in the pecking order around here, he didn't come here to ask questions like that out of his own interest. I can tell that he'd like to just kill us and forget about us. He was sent here to ask what he did. Now he will report on what was said and what he saw." Valdemar smirked then, "I'm a little surprised that he didn't ask you why I allowed you to speak to me that way." Jans looked down, "He did. I told him that I was here to guide you, but that I was not your servant. He said that if he were you, he'd have killed me for it anyway." There was a knock at the door a few minutes later and the man was back, pushing a very nervous-looking boy of about fourteen in ahead of him. If that was so, Valdemar reasoned, then he would be tall for around here when he finished growing, and it made him think of himself at that age, though he knew that he was far taller than this boy then. The boy looked around and stared at Valdemar with wide eyes as the man spoke a little more, pointed to the boy and then left. The boy fell to his knees and bowed. What he really felt like doing was to run, but that was plainly out of the question, and cowering -- which came in at a very close second -- was off the list as well, for Oda-san likely would have killed him for it. "What the fuck is going on now?" Valdemar asked Jans. The Dutchman looked to be at a loss for words for a moment while Valdemar looked at the boy. He was dressed in the same rough and dark fabric as most of the villagers that he'd seen. At this latitude and in winter, the emphasis shifted a few degrees from ornate to plain and warm clothing. He wore some pants of a sort and he had high boots on, up to a little below his knees. They looked nothing like the elevated sandals which the gruff man wore. His hands were bare and what could be seen of his arms showed that they were a little thin. His hair was tied in a sort of ponytail, and not a topknot. At the moment, the boy was straightening up from bowing, his hands on his thighs as he looked back, taking in the strange barbarian lord before him. He felt a slight sense of wanting this strangeness to end. He had a reason to feel that way and he knew that out of the whole village, only he and perhaps his mother would have understood it. There was something there before him which he thought should not feel so alien -- and yet it did all the same. Because for certain, it didn't feel anything at all like familiarity. Valdemar looked back at Jans. "Well?" Jans spoke in little more than a shocked whisper, "Lord Maeda says that a daimyo -- even a barbarian one with an impossible name who travels alone and far from his land -- requires a suitable servant and not a cheating trader." Valdemar thought that he'd heard something in that. "What does he mean by that?" Jans said, "I sold him some rifles the last time which might not have worked reliably. I didn't charge the full amount." Valdemar couldn't believe it. "That was a very poor plan to have, Jans. I can't think that it wouldn't come to you at all, but a man comes to believe in his weapons. Indeed, in many instances, he would want and need to be able to rely on them. These people don't look to be the sort who could be very understanding about something like that." "I know," the Dutchman muttered, "I didn't think that Cor would ever send me back here again." Valdemar cursed and the boy jumped visibly, seeing that the large barbarian was looking a little upset. "So you thought to sell for near the regular price for faulty goods and what? Pocket the difference and everything would be fine?" He swore again as he walked away trying to think, "What if I had been sent here alone? What if any other of Cor's traders had come here after that?" He walked over and grabbed Jans by the throat of his shirt and coat to lift him up, "Do you know what I'd be thinking if I bought a weapon from you and if was useless the very first time that I needed it?" He almost roared as he shook his companion, "I'd be thinking that if I somehow survived my predicament, that I would want very much to kill the man who sold it to me!" He let Jans fall to the floor and he looked over to see the boy with wide eyes now, ready to open the door and run. "Did you try to do the same thing with the guns for this trip?" He reached to grab Jans again. "Answer me!" Black Arrow Lord Ch. 02 Jans said nothing but he nodded. Valdemar looked at the ceiling for a moment. He thought of the small roll of tools which Cor had insisted that he take along and this time he lifted Jans right off the floor. "Go and bring the guns that you bought from Cor here, you idiot. We have to make sure that what we offer will work. If they have doubts now, don't you think they'll want to try them -- right in front of us this time? Go and get them!" While Jans struggled to carry the rolled up mats of wicker which contained the guns to the house one at a time -- and each weapon weighed ten pounds, Valdemar considered the boy for a moment. There was something a little different about him and thinking about it now took up a lot of the man's thoughts. He looked like the other people here -- for the most part, but when Valdemar thought about it, the faces that he'd seen around here were the slightest bit different from what he'd seen around him where they'd landed. They were just a little bit more angular where he saw none of that here in this one. But then, he told himself, he didn't know very much at all and the boy was still growing, he guessed. Maybe he'd look like the others one day soon. The boy looked to have settled down to some extent, but he still appeared to be at least uncomfortable in the large man's presence and Valdemar wondered what these people must say to each other about his kind. He also wondered about a few other things, so he smiled and said in Dutch, "Don't worry; my people do not eat other people -- if that is your worry." The boy continued to look at him blankly after that and then Valdemar had a strange notion come to him. He made no motion, but he looked past the lad and then said in English quietly, "There is a large demon behind you." The boy whipped his head around to look and then he knew that he'd been found out. He also realized that he now had a problem. The large guest knew that he understood English. When he turned back, he saw Valdemar unrolling the tools to set them out before him. He was looking down and not at the boy. "So you understand at least one of the Gaijin tongues," he said quietly. "Hai," the boy nodded quietly in a whisper. "Dutch as well?" Valdemar asked and the boy nodded once silently. "Keep the secret for at least a while, then," the barbarian said, looking up just a little, "I have nothing to fear from it." Jans was at the door and Veldemar let him in, "Ask the boy if we are to be given food or whether we are to cook and eat our own." Jans relayed the question and the boy nodded and left. Valdemar went out to bring in his own batch of the guns. When the boy returned twenty minutes later with a woman, both of them carrying a few pots, they found Jans sitting in the corner holding a wet rag to his eye. Valdemar was using a candle to peer at the manufacture dates of the weapons. He found a few which had none but in each case, he ran his thumb over the triggerguard of each piece as he held it to look for the number, the motion unnoticed by the other man. Satisfied, Valdemar rolled up his rifles and laid the heavy bundles aside. "If it weren't winter here," he said, "I'd make you sleep with the goats. What the headman said about you is correct. If you ever try to pull a switch on me again, I'll kill you myself. This isn't a game Jans. It's not my fault that you're a greedy, cheating little prick. Find your own way out of the pit you've dug." They ate their meals at opposite sides of the room, the boy remaining behind looking from one to the other. Finally, Jans spoke to the boy, who nodded and then left. He returned with the gruff man a few minutes later, and the man did not appear to be very pleased to have been summoned to deal with the troubles of the foreigners. Jans spoke to him and the man's mood seemed to improve. He walked away. Valdemar asked what was said and Jans only shook his head, refusing to speak. Valdemar snorted and ignored him after that before lying down to sleep. The boy didn't know what to do then and he sat and waited, wondering what would come out of this. He couldn't say why, but he found that he liked the one who'd said that he was a daimyo from another land. He must be wise to have found him out -- even though he looked so young. The other man paid him little attention unless he wanted something. After a time, Valdemar got up and put on his outer coat to step to the door. "Where are you going?" Jans demanded. "Fuck yourself, Jans," the other replied, "I don't need permission from you to have a piss. And don't touch my guns." When the door had closed behind him, the boy grabbed his coat to follow and Jans wanted to know where he was going as well. "He cannot walk anywhere outside," the boy replied in Japanese, "Oda-san will have him killed. I bring him back." Behind a nearby tree, the boy caught up with Valdemar and whispered to him, "He told Oda-san to say to Lord Maeda that you are a bad man. You cheat." Valdemar asked the boy if in this place -- right where he stood -- it was allowed to make water. The boy was a little surprised, but he nodded and Valdemar began as the boy turned away. "Thank you for telling me. It changes nothing." The boy leaned in a little to prevent them from being overheard, "You cheat? You bad man?" "Bad man?" Valdemar smirked, "I do not know, but cheat?" He looked over and smiled, "No. If I wanted to cheat anyone, I would not have come so far to do that." The boy thought about it and Valdemar asked him his name. The kid seemed surprised, but he answered, "Kōichi." Valdemar tried it and asked if he had it right. The boy nodded. "Why did you come then?" he asked. Valdemar thought about it for a moment and then he smiled, "I came to meet people like you, Kōichi-san. I am growing tired of certain Dutchmen. Not all, but a few." Kōichi tried to say Valdemar's name, but the blonde man smiled after the third try. "Just call me the Dane or even Dane if it makes it easier." "Why?" the boy asked and Valdemar shrugged, "It is what I am. My kind of people are called Danes by others." They walked back to the house together and Valdemar made himself a little comfortable and closed his eyes. But he didn't sleep. Kōichi left them. --------------------------------------- In the morning, the two men were summoned and berated a little by the man called Oda with Kōichi translating. After that, Valdemar was told to remain and Oda led Jans away, while Kōichi remained with Valdemar. Valdemar looked around at the surrounding winter countryside for a few minutes until he saw a young doe poking her nose out from under the snow-laden trees of the forest a distance away. "Kōichi-san," Valdemar began, "Can you see that deer over there?" He pointed and the boy looked for a moment and nodded. "Who owns her?" "The daimyo," the boy replied, "Why would you wish to know, Dane -san?" "Because I like to hunt, I guess. How is it that you speak English and Dutch?" "My father taught me," the boy replied, "The Dutch have a place like a town for them in the south, near Nagasaki. Important people go there to learn many things. The Dutch teach if they are important enough and bring gold. My mother learned to speak Dutch there. My father came from the sea. A ship was smashed on the shore in a storm. Almost all of the men were dead or gone in the water. Three lived. My father was one. People brought the men to their daimyo and he killed one. My father was sent to the Dutch town, and he met my mother. He stayed there and Mother stayed with him. He taught me to speak English as I grew. He was from there. The Dutch killed him. The other man took a serving woman as his wife and her daughter is Aiki-san. There was trouble one night over something -- I was very small and did not know what it was about, but the woman and the other English man were killed by some drunken ronin. Ronin are Samurai who have lost their lords and their wealth. Aiki-san was taken in by my mother and Hoshino-san." "How old were you then?" Valdemar asked and Kōichi answered ten. "My mother had no place to go, but her cousin is the Lady Hoshino. They were friends when they were young girls. Lady Hoshino is Lord Maeda's, ... I do not now the word." "Wife?" Valdemar suggested, but Kōichi shook his head, "Like wife but not wife. Maeda-san is not married. Hoshino-san came here to be with Lord Maeda and she brought my mother as her servant to be free from the court at Edo and also from people at Nagasaki. Mother brought me and Aiki-san." Valdemar nodded then, a lot of his questions answered -- including the reason that the boy spoke with a bit of an English accent on top of the one which his mother tongue added to the mix. "Dane-san?" the boy began, "Forgive me, but, ... Can I ask you things?" Valdemar nodded, "Certainly." "Why is your hair so long?" The Dane considered for a moment, "Because I have not cut it, I guess. I saw no need, and there was no one to force me to. Seeing as I have come to find myself here in winter, I am very glad of it now." "How did you get so, ... big?" The boy asked next. Valdemar smiled and shrugged, "I just did." The remark caused Kōichi to smile a little himself then and he acknowledged to himself that he was coming to like the large daimyo very much. He knew that a lot of it was his fascination with the man, which had begun as his fear of him faded, but it also had something to do with the Dane's seeming to try to find something likable in everyone. He looked up and found the man smiling at him and he asked what he'd done to cause it. "I find that I just like you," Valdemar said, "and I can't seem to help it. I am probably as curious about you as you seem to be about me -- only I am a man who must force himself to say the things which come out of you rather easily. I like that as well." Kōichi didn't really know what to say to that. "I am sorry if I have said anything wrong." It caused Valdemar to chuckle, "You haven't. You only seem to have trouble accepting something which is said to you without the barking which seems to be Oda-san's only manner of speaking to anyone." That remark caused Kōichi to even laugh a little, though in a restrained and quiet way which the Dane interpreted as his trying to catch himself, like trying to call a horse back after the gate had been left open a little. He found that he liked to see that on him very much. Valdemar wondered at himself just a little. His companion seemed to be a little wise beyond his years -- far more than he'd have managed to be at his age, the Dane thought. He also liked the way that Kōichi had of looking thoughtful as he considered something. Often, if he seemed to be unsure -- or perhaps a little more unsure than he usually seemed to be, he looked down as perhaps anyone might, but he did it in a way which brought some of his long hair forward. The action looked to Valdemar as though the boy sought to hide behind his hair just a little. Most of that hair was tied back, and in a western way, it caused him to look a little like a girl, though here, it had no such connotation. He guessed that Kōichi was not of the warrior class, since it was a little obvious, and that prevented him from tying his hair into a topknot -- which was fine with him. He liked this way better on him anyway. He knew that he'd have a great deal of trouble if the boy tried to speak to him the way that the headman did. He'd probably laugh in the face of anyone this young who did. Valdemar knew that anything that he said -- anything which they talked about -- stood a good chance of being repeated to the lord of this place, so he bore that in mind -- just as he also bore in mind that the boy seemed to have a well-hidden, though earnest want in him to get to know his large responsibility, as the Dane now acknowledged that he must have become. They spoke of all sorts of things for the next while. "Are all of the people where you come from as large as you are?" Valdemar knew that he might have been able to capitalize on this opportunity, but he decided to be honest. "No," he said, "Though there are a few who are larger than me, most are not my size." Jans was gone with Oda for about an hour. When Oda returned, he summoned Valdemar, and it was plain that he instructed the boy to come along as well. He turned and walked off, wearing sandals on wooden blocks as he strode along the snow-covered path. Valdemar followed with Kōichi following him. There was a small collection of others there, but Maeda knelt at the head of things. Lord Maeda looked to be a very fit and strong -- and proud man of about forty or so who wore his hair just as Cor had spoken of, just the same way that Valdemar wore his own hair. Valdemar was shown a place to kneel at the other end. As he took his place, Valdemar was keenly aware that he was under the collective gaze of the assembly. He noticed not long after that Jans was not there. Kōichi was called by the lord and told to stand next to him. After a moment of silence, Lord Maeda spoke to the boy in Japanese for a moment. Kōichi turned to Valdemar and said, "Lord Maeda-san has noticed that you have strange bows among your possessions. He wishes to know why a trader of rifles would have such things. He says that it shows that you have no faith in what you sell." Valdemar shook his head a little, "It might also show that some men see the need and value of rifles, and yet know of the old ways and keep to them where it feels better to do that. The best and fastest rifleman might be able to shoot three times in a minute, reloading quickly. But if a fast second shot is desired -- such as when one hunts as an example, then a bow might work better. Also, I believe that to use a bow to hunt with requires better ability to stalk the game." Maeda listened to the translation and nodded at the end in a grudging way. "Lord Maeda-san agrees," Kōichi translated afterward. "He also asks whether he might be allowed to examine your bow. He sees that it is different from what is used here." Valdemar nodded, looking at Maeda but speaking in English to Kōichi, "Of course. I had imagined that Lord Maeda-san might be one who understands the need to retain the older things before the way of them is lost. I would feel honored if he wishes to examine it. There are arrows there as well. A few should be brought with my bow. He might wish to try it." The daimyo heard this and smiled, giving instructions to a servant to bring the bow and some of Valemar's arrows. After the servant left, Maeda turned to look at Valdemar and he spoke to the boy again. Kōichi looked a little ashamed. "Lord Maeda-san sees that you have learned that I can speak your language. He wishes to know your thoughts of this." Valdemar shrugged, "Sometimes, it is desirable to learn what one can beforehand. I assumed that something such as this might happen. I do not care either way, though I find that Kōichi-san is a good servant as well and I am in his debt for this. It makes things much easier for me with him near me." Valdemar looked at the boy then, "And please tell him that you do not speak my language -- unless you also understand Danish. Jans does not, though I have learned a great deal of Dutch lately." The information surprised the daimyo. "The other trader has said that you are his countryman. He said that you are not a daimyo and that you cannot be trusted." Valdemar laughed a little when he heard it, "Well he lied. I am no more Dutch than you are. I only have a working partnership with our head merchant who is Dutch. I have no partnership with Jans at all. I only traveled with him to learn the route and the customer. As far as whether I am a lord, I leave it up to lord Maeda-san to determine, for I did not expect to be have the need to answer such a thing. I am a lord with no land anymore. If I had known that it would cause problems, I still would have said the same thing. I am what I am. I cannot change this." "Lord Maeda-san says that you told me that you do not know if you are a bad man. He wishes to know of this and how it could be." Valdemar thought this was getting a little personal for his taste, but he also recognized that there was likely a good chance that his life hung in Maeda's balance at the moment, so he said, "The land where I come from is no longer ruled by daimyo -- as your lord understands the word. I belong to part of an old and noble family which has fallen on hard times." He waited as this was translated and then he continued, "I traveled once on a ship with some countrymen of mine and we landed in England, if the lord knows of it. I was attacked by many men when I was alone. When I woke up, I was on one of their ships and had to work for them for nothing other than food and a place to sleep." He waited and watched as Maeda's eyes widened at that. "If something like that happened to him, lord Maeda-san says that there would be war on his return to his home." Valdemar shrugged, "I have not been home yet, and also, the English have far more ships and the rulers of the Danes do not seek war as readily as they once did. It happened not long after that I did not understand what was commanded of me. When I asked, I was punished, so if the lord tries for a moment to put himself in my place, then I would ask him what he would do to that man when he saw the chance." "Lord Maeda-san says that it would depend on what was done." Valdemar nodded and pulled his shirt off over his head. There were a few gasps around the room and he caught Kōichi's astonished look before he stood up and turned around, holding his hair aside. After a stunned silence, Kōichi said that Maeda had said that he would kill the man as soon as he had a chance. Valdemar nodded as he turned back again, "Tell him that I beat that man with my fists until he was dead. Ask him if he thinks that I am a bad man for this." He waited as it was translated and then Kōichi said, "Maeda-san sees nothing bad in what you did. He says that you have earned some of his respect for it. But he sees a problem." Maeda gave a signal to another servant with his hand and the man lifted some sheets of coarse cloth, revealing the two lots of rifles which the Europeans had brought to sell. Even from a slight distance it was plain that one lot was superior to the other. Valdemar walked over as he pulled his shirt back on. He pointed, "That lot is mine. The other is Jans'." "That is the opposite of what the other trader said." Valdemar nodded, not at all surprised, and he drew out a piece of paper. "Most of my rifles have numbers on them. It serves something like a person's name. All of the numbers are here, and it shows the date when I got them. Jans does not know that I brought this with me. Not every one has a number, but every one bears the mark of a proofing house because my weapons are English-made. For you, I chose English-made guns and beside the quality, I had another reason, and that is out of wanting your men to have a little more safety if they are not used to firearms of this nature. Fighting an enemy is difficult enough sometimes. A warrior should not have to hold the thought in his mind that his own weapon might kill him." "Jans said that this mark was the maker's mark." "Jans wouldn't know anything of it, "Valdemar said, "He is Dutch and the mark relates to English law. I might not have wanted to be there, but I was in the English Navy against my will and I learned a few things. It is against English law to sell a rifle or a musket unless it has been proofed by a known proofing house. Some of the houses also make guns, but many do not. A proven weapon will bear the mark of the proofing house on it by law, regardless of who the maker was. Black Arrow Lord Ch. 02 A weapon is double-loaded -- as might happen by accident or during the excitement of a battle -- but a proofing house does this on purpose. The loaded weapon is held in clamps and then fired by a man pulling the trigger by a string from outside of the room. It must be done three times and the gun must not explode or flash back. Then it may receive the mark." He pointed, "I can see from this far away that not one of Jans' guns has such a mark. They were made on the island of Java. The gunmakers there are skilled, but they cannot cast or forge whole barrels. They wind strips of steel over a bar and hammer it at the seams so that it is welded. After that, they bore it and finish it. This is called the Damascus method and it can make a fine weapon -- but do not ever make the mistake of double-loading it. The barrel might explode. Valdemar had to stop and wait often as he explained it and he added, "These are at best third rank guns and so they cost a trader less to buy. I did not know you or even how life goes here, but I thought that I would offer the best that I could get, thinking that you might wish to buy the weapons to arm more of your men in case they had to fight with them one day. Every one of mine was made for military service to last a long time in hard use. There is also one mark on every one of my rifles which neither the maker or the proofing house put there. If you run a fingertip along the left side of the triggerguard, you will feel the small notch that I put there myself into the metal with a little metal file. I did that before I walked away from the warehouse, so that I'd know if there was anything dirty going on. I said nothing of it to Jans." The truth of Valdemar's words was known in moments. He offered the list but Maeda said that it would not be needed. "Maeda-san says that he lost two good men to just such a happenstance as you told of. These others which you say are his look similar to what Jans sold here before, but I am not one who would know of these things." There were some more words from the daimyo then and the boy translated, "Lord Maeda wishes to know what price you wish to sell for." Valdemar looked down in thought for a moment, "Please tell him that I wish to make a request first. If it is possible, I would like to have the man who Lord Maeda believes is the most used to weapons such as these to take the one of his choice and try it. It is important to me that the quality of what I sell is seen. That man must know that the sights will likely need to be adjusted for him and I would be happy to do that, and then the man must be pleased with the results." Valdemar mentioned his price then on a per weapon basis and when he heard of it, the daimyo nodded and looked pleased. He turned then and gave orders which resulted in a lot of nodding and perhaps a little unsettling to Valdemar, Oda seemed pleased to hear them as well. As some sort of preparations were being made, Lady Hoshino entered and knelt next to the Daimyo as other women set out the little bowls and poured tea. The focus of the conversation left Valdemar and he watched the others out of interest, though he was careful not to seem to be staring at anyone. Valdemar noticed that he was provided with a bowl and that Kōichi was not, so he asked. "I am no one in this room," the boy said, "The woman who poured your tea is my mother." He then gave Valdemar a quick set of general directions regarding etiquette for the situation. As he listened, Valdmar looked at lord Maeda once and he saw the lord nod once as though approving. Kōichi stepped over to continue. Somewhere in the middle of his instructions, Kōichi looked at Valdemar's face for a moment and said very quietly, "Maeda-san will test you outside. He believes that a true daimyo must be able to remain impassive. Remember two things; Maeda-san is the law here so he can do as he wishes. And a daimyo does not show that he is upset to anyone in public. He holds his emotion away from those who are below him." After that remark, Kōichi continued with the abbreviated lesson and would answer nothing of Valdemar's quiet questions unless they related to tea. Black Arrow Lord Ch. 03 ***Teaching the Samurai how to set up their weapons, Valdemar is surprised to meet the leader of one group, though they don't get along all that well. 0_o ------------------------ When Valdemar and Kōichi accompanied the daimyo outside a little later, lord Maeda had many questions regarding Valdemar's bow. He answered truthfully most of the time. When he was asked if bows such as his were what was in common use where the Dane was from, Valdemar found it a little tempting to answer yes. But he didn't. "The bows there are very similar to the ones that I have seen here," he said, "though the ones I see around me are all longer than what is and was used by most of the people all over Europe. Mine comes from another land." He held it up and pointed out the recurved portions. "These are to allow more draw weight while keeping the depth of the bow more shallow." Then there were questions about the arrows . He wanted to say that his arrows were the longest ones there and would allow for his size and the length of his arm in a full draw, but he thought that must be obvious. The true reason that they were black -- which he knew was a question which would come soon -- was simply because they were. He didn't select them based on their color. It just happened that the black ones were the longest ones available in the warehouse. He'd wondered over it himself, but there was no answer that Cor could make. "They were made for me," he lied with a shrug, "They are black because it was a tradition in my family." They walked to an open area which looked like a field, though Valdemar couldn't really tell for the snow. But there was some form of an archery target there and Valdemar assumed that this was where the rifle was to be adjusted and tested. He asked where the man was who would be shooting and was told that the lord himself wished to be taught of this, since most of the results from his men's efforts with the guns which had been purchased had been abysmal. Valdemar nodded and hoped that he looked pleased to hear it. He asked the daimyo to shoot at the target at least three times and no more than five, but to make no attempt to change anything. "Tell him it is important that he make all of the shots the same way and aiming at the same place as exactly as possible. We do not care where the bullets go, only that they hit that target somewhere and are in as tight a group as is possible. That will tell us how to adjust so that the group and the aiming point come together." He had to explain it twice and then lord Maeda understood it. Ten minutes later, Valdemar produced a looking glass and after a look, he offered it to the daimyo. "You shoot very well," he said, "The group is tightly clustered, a little low and to the right of the center." He asked for the rifle then and made some small adjustments to the rear sight before handing it back. "Please ask him to try again, only three shots." Each time, the group of holes slid a little closer to the center of the target until the daimyo could hit the mark rather easily. The results spoke for themselves, judging by the almost delighted expression on the man's face. Valdemar cautioned that the sights, front and rear, must be protected a little from jostling or being struck with anything. "Or he will need to do this over again. All that is left now is the slightly frustrating task of getting the group a little tighter together each time. It relates to stillness in the body and calm breathing -- just as it does in using a bow." Valdemar was asked if the rifles which had been bought before could have this done to them and he nodded, though he held up a finger, "But tell him that for the very best results, each man should use the weapon that he was given. What this is - is a matching of the rifle to the man. If I were to shoot that weapon now, I would probably have trouble hitting the mountain there." Maeda chucked and nodded, understanding it all perfectly. Valdemar knew that he'd be asked to prepare all of the rifles and when it came up, he nodded, adding that if he could have Kōichi's help to translate, he would do it for nothing. "He wishes to know how long you can stay with us for this." Valdemar shrugged, "I am in no hurry to be on my way if I am welcome here. I must only go before the warmth of the spring takes hold." Maeda led them to a different field then, talking as they went. He produced a cigar of the type that Jans often smoked and asked Valdemar if he knew how it was used. The Dane nodded, "I can show the lord this as well, but I must caution him a little. If he finds that he likes the practice, there is a danger that when he runs out of them, he will miss it very much." The daimyo chuckled a little and said that he would like to learn of it later. When they reached the second area, Valdemar stared. Jans was tied very securely to a post, which was one of several which had been driven into the ground in the warmer weather. The man's back was to the piling and his hands were tied at the wrists and then to the post above his head. As soon as Jans saw Valdemar, he began to make accusations and shouted all sorts of unsavory curses. Maeda had a word with Oda and the village headman walked over through the snow with a thick piece of bamboo. He held his hand in front of his mouth toward Jans to indicate that the man should be silent. Jans shouted even louder until Oda hit him across the chest once. Jans hung his head as he gasped in pain and the headman walked away. Maeda looked at Valdemar as he spoke to Kōichi in Japanese. "Maeda-san wishes to see your skill with your strange bow. He says that you are to listen to his wishes and shoot only where you are told to shoot. He says that he likes you very much now for what you have shown to him. It is clear that you know of these things where your companion tells only stories which are easily seen through. Dane-san," Kōichi said very cautiously, "this is what I told of to you. Lord Maeda would have Jans killed for his cheating and his lies, but he thought that he was a servant to you at first and had no wish to insult you until he learned more. Now he knows that you are a true man. What he wishes to see now is if you are also a true daimyo. You should remember what I said. Your first arrow should go to the right thigh." Valdemar had no love for Jans at all after the previous evening, and he found even less in himself today to hear of what the man had tried to do - but to do this, ... He considered for a moment as he strung his bow. To do as he'd been asked would likely go a long way toward helping things -- if he looked at it coldly. But he also knew the other side of it rather clearly. To do anything else would likely end with him tied to the same post. He considered the wind, thankful that there was little at all beyond a gentle and even breeze. It went on one arrow after another as Jans screamed more and more piteously while his limbs exhibited the long and thick arrows. Valdemar held his face as impassively as he could the entire time. What he was weighing in his mind was the notion to try to hit the major artery in each of the limbs that he was told to aim for, but he knew that Maeda also likely also knew of them, so that was out. Koichi watched it all in a bit of shock. Whenever he looked at the Dane's face, he saw only the grim expression there and it pleased him that Dane-san had listened to his advice. He didn't know anything of the Dane's private thoughts. He only knew that the large man had to do what had been instructed or ... Valdemar was glad that the servant who had been sent for the bow had only brought five arrows. He had only one left and prayed silently that he wouldn't be asked to retrieve the ones that he'd used to shoot again. He held up the last arrow with a questioning look. He looked at the moaning man tied to the piling a little more than what looked to be thirty yards away from him as he listened to the lord speak. "Maeda-san says that he is highly impressed with your ability. He says that you are to finish it now." Jans slowly raised his head and looked at Valdemar. "I can give a moment if you wish to pray, "the Dane said, his face unreadable as he drew his bow back so that the bowstring kissed his lips. Jans chuckled a little for a moment, "Fuck you. I would only use it to damn you even more than I ha-" Valdemar released then and Jans' head snapped back against the pole. His body sagged a moment after that and he hung from his bonds. Oda walked over and remarked that the arrow had gone in where the nose entered the skull and had pinned the man's head to the piling. When he'd heard the translation of Maeda's praise over the skill of the shot, Valdemar shook his head. "Tell him that I aimed at the inner corner of his left eye." He noticed the way that the daimyo was looking at him, so he walked to where Jans' body hung and pulled out all of his arrows but the last. Gathering them up, he walked back to where Maeda stood and unstrung his bow. "The lord says that he believes that you are a true daimyo now. He understands that fate and luck can play a part and fail at the worst of times. He has seen that most Gaijin would have shown some reluctance to do what was asked, but you did not. It marks you as a true daimyo in his eyes to have done what was not wanted, but had to be done regardless. He says that you will have what you asked for, and he will pay more for you to stay for a time and teach so that his men can become better with the weapons. He asks how much for the guns that Jans brought." Valdemar looked over and shrugged. "They are not mine to sell. Since Jans does not need them any longer, I would suggest that he think of others that he has who could use them. I will prepare them to the best of my ability, but I wish to make it clear that if I say that a weapon is not safe to use, then it should be destroyed. I think that I saw two at least like that, but I will look closely and report to Oda-san." As they walked back to the village together, Maeda had a thought and spoke of it. Kōichi translated faithfully, "Lord Maeda says that he only just thought of it, but he says that I am the son of an English man and wishes to know if this makes me your enemy in some way." Valdemar looked over and he laughed, "Tell him that it makes you the son of an Englishman and that's all. I have only felt hate for one of them. Tell him that I only keep a list of my friends. The list is much easier to remember then." Maeda stared for a moment and then he laughed, nodding. "Maeda-san says that you may go wherever you wish in the village and the area around it. I mentioned that you like to hunt and he said that he will allow you to take three deer, one per month. He has a hope that his name might be included in your list one day." Valdemar smiled broadly to hear it and he said that the lord's name was already there. When they'd returned to the lord's hall, he summoned three men, and began to give somewhat detailed instructions to them. Kōichi saw Valdemar's curious expression and he leaned a little close to whisper to him, "Lord Maeda-san is sending two of them to command that some of the men in his northlands come here in the morning tomorrow. They already have their guns so you may begin teaching them first." "Will you be there to help me, Kōichi-san?" he asked, "I cannot think that it would go very well or even very far if I do not have your help, though I can try." "Of course, Dane-san," Kōichi smiled, "Unless I am given other things which I must do, I will be there to help." "You only mentioned two of the men here." But the boy only held up two fingers together, indicating that the Dane should wait. A minute later, he was translating Maeda's statement that the third man would measure their guest so that clothing could be made for him. "He says that because your teachings can easily include positions other than only standing, you will be given a pair of breeches such as what I wear." Kōichi smiled just a tiny bit and went on, "It is clothing suited for someone such as me. You are seen in a better way now than you were last evening or this morning, but you are still an outsider." Valdemar bowed low and showed his gratitude for the daimyo's kindness before he was taken to a room so that the man could take a few measurements. When they returned to where Valdemar was staying, he was surprised to see two women approaching with some bundles of wood. "For the fire," Kōichi said. Valdemar looked at what was being carried and he wanted to shake his head, but he didn't and said nothing. He only bowed and asked the boy to thank the women on his behalf. What he saw looked to be little more than bunches of deadfall branches cut to a maximum length for ease of carrying. From his point of view, it looked to him as though it was going to be a cold night. ----------------------------- He was writing in his journal when Kōichi came with some food for him. The question had come to Valdemar's mind a few times already, but he wondered how anyone here didn't starve on this food. He found nothing wrong with it in any way and he found himself liking the taste of some of it very much. It just didn't seem to be enough to suit him. As he began to eat, he noticed that the boy wasn't eating. "Have you eaten?" he asked and Kōichi shook his head, "I will be given something to eat later." Valdemar looked up, "From the last of what is in the pots?" The boy looked a little uncomfortable for a moment and then he nodded. Valdemar got up then and he produced his traveling pot. "Please wash this in the stream a little and then fill it with water before you bring it back. Most of the water will be to drink, but I must have, ... say this much" -- he held his finger and thumb a little apart -- "for what you and I will be eating. If anyone asks, tell them that I'm thirsty but that I will let the water warm first and drink it later." Kōichi jumped up and almost ran out with the pot. When he returned, he saw that Valdemar had two wooden bowls set aside and he'd placed a steel mesh on the fire and was moving the coals of the fire around a little. He thanked the boy and poured most of the water into an earthenware jug. Then he set the pot on the mesh and he handed Kōichi the bowl which contained the rice that he'd been given. "Here," he said, "I've eaten my share. The rest of this is for you. It will get something into your stomach while this cooks." Kōichi began to shake his head, but Valdemar raised a single finger. "You are my servant?" The boy nodded. "Then eat. I have no need of a servant who cannot think clearly because he is weak with hunger." He produced a bag and set it down near the fire. "This is nothing other than oats. Do you understand? Oats?" The boy nodded as he ate. "Good," Valdemar said, reaching into the bag. He drew out a small handful of the grain, "You probably know it as something which you feed to horses. But among my kind, we roll large wheels over the kernels to crush them, but not too much. Only enough to break them a little. If you don't do that, you could boil them for hours and still break your teeth." The small amount of water in the pot was boiling by then and Valdemar looked at what he held and reached into the bag again, drawing out a very slightly larger handful. "This much will be all that we need." He poured it into the pot and handed the boy a wooden spoon. "Your job is to stir this very slowly. It will take a little time." "We eat horse food?" Valdemar turned back and laughed a little before he came back and crouched next to Kōichi. "Think about something. A horse is a large animal, yes? Very strong too." The boy nodded and the Dane smiled, "You asked me today how it was that I grew so big. Well, among other things, I ate a lot of this. It will fill you up and we say that it sticks to your ribs," he said with a chuckle as he gently prodded Kōichi in the side with his finger. The boy flinched with an involuntary smile and Valdemar grinned, "By that, we mean that it helps you. You will not be so hungry and it will make you stronger. I just need to find something," he said as he got to his feet to look through his packs. "Ha!" he laughed a little as he came up with a small jar of molasses, "And I even have something to add on top later." "What is that for?" the boy asked as he looked up from where he was looking into the pot. "This is to give it a little bit of flavor and a touch of sweetness." Kōichi nodded and returned his gaze to the contents of the pot. "I've eaten that all of my life, so I'm used to it. You have not. I don't want you turning up your nose at this just because it tastes like shit." Kōichi looked up again, staring this time, but he saw the small smile on the Gaijin's face and he burst out laughing. As they sat eating the thick gruel a little later, Kōichi nodded that he liked it, "I never thought, ..." "Something which bothers me a little here," Valdemar said, "is that the food here feels thin to me and it doesn't last long before I feel hungry again. That's no one's fault, I think that it's just the way of things here. You told me that you are half-European. That means that your gut must be a little like mine. I can't think of how you grew at all on the food here. You're not used to this," he said, "but I've brought plenty. You likely won't have the room for any of the table scraps that you normally get around here tonight. Tonight, Kōichi-san, you will go to your bed with a stomach which will be happy." They talked a little and Valdemar handed Kōichi a thin strip of dried beef. "Here. You can chew on this as well. I should have thought of it earlier. I would have cut this into small pieces and thrown it into the pot. With a little less heat and a longer time, it would have made this meal a little better." Kōichi was not hungry when he left for the night and the thought made Valdemar feel better. As he closed the door after the boy, he looked at the bits of wood that he'd been given and he gathered another two blankets from Jans' things. Two hours later, he knew that he'd been correct. It was a very cold night. ------------------------------------ The next day was a long one for Valdemar as he found that he was to teach -- and adjust the weapons of thirty men -- and this was only the first batch. There would be more, he was told. He stood with Kōichi at the edge of a snow-covered field, waiting. He'd had a sense that there would be some dragging of feet to this, whoever the men might be. Being taught by someone might be one thing to these people, but if they thought that they were a bit of a cut above everyone, it might entail the necessity of a commanding tone to them from somebody, he thought. He smiled a little to think that it might fall to Oda to motivate and inspire them. Valdemar had brought a little coffee with him for this journey -- precious little to his mind. And he was going through it very sparingly. But he was going through it all the same. Conveniently, Jans wouldn't be needing his supply anymore so that was a bit of a windfall. It had allowed Valdemar to make enough for a cup each for himself and Kōichi, who now really enjoyed the beverage. He paused to draw out a cigar and then light it using a match. Kōichi looked over and Valdemar shook his head with a grin. "None for you, Kōichi-san. Smoking these will stunt your growth." Kōichi smiled and said that it obviously was an old wive's tale, since Valdemar had turned out alright. He wasn't really more than a little curious and he just wanted to see what the curious habit was all about. Valdemar grinned as he looked over, "I am a bit thankful that I began to smoke, Kōichi-san. Imagine how large I might have grown if I had not had these to keep me small." Black Arrow Lord Ch. 03 He looked over, seeing the hopeful expression there. "You still want to try, do you?" When Kōichi nodded, Valdemar held out his cigar, "Very well, but don't blame me if after two puffs, you find yourself trying desperately to avoid filling your pants." The boy took the cigar and tried an experimental puff. He grinned then and puffed some more, trying to look older and more sophisticated in emulation of the way that he saw Valdemar. But his expression changed then and after a bit of coughing he was suddenly dizzy. As he reeled a little to avoid falling over, Valdemar snatched the cigar from Kōichi's fingers, pointing to the treeline. "The nearest place for the next part of this," he smiled. Kōichi looked off in that direction and then he began to walk. That only lasted for several seconds and then he was running as off-balance as he was to get there in a hurry. Valdemar turned away, grinning and he wished Kōichi luck over his shoulder. He puffed on as he took in the scenery, thoroughly enjoying this now and remembering the first time that he'd tried to smoke a cigar with the old nobleman whom he'd so loved to work for. At least Kōichi had gotten as far as the woods. He heard the swishing of the snow behind him a few minutes later as his young servant returned to him. They said nothing between them. Valdemar turned and held out the cigar once more, but Kōichi, his face looking just a little green, declined then and Valdemar only chuckled quietly to himself. "I did try to warn you, my young friend." But at that point, they heard the sounds of a number of horses approaching and as they looked over, they saw the riders. He thought that they made a bit of a striking sight, riding in their armor with their curious horned helmets in the Japanese style. Together, they looked rather formidable, but if he isolated one man at a time in his view, he thought that they looked a little like reindeer. The group rode past them into the trees and began to dismount and tie up their horses and wander over in small groups. As Valdemar began to greet them, he found that something bothered him and it was the attitude among some of the men. There was barely-concealed scorn toward him from several and almost all of them regarded his assistant with scorn which wasn't concealed at all. He stopped at that point as a lone rider approached a few minutes later, long after the main body had arrived. Valdemar was a little startled to see that it was a young woman, dressed in rough and well-used dark armor which, once she'd gotten closer, looked to have a very subdued tiger-stipe pattern to it, though there was a thick collar of fox fur on the cloak she wore over everything. She dismounted and tied up her horse. As he watched, he saw that she was perhaps not the epitome of beauty, not with that stern look on her face at any rate. She hadn't come wearing a helmet and her armor fit her differently than the armor that he saw on many of the men. He looked over at his young assistant and the boy nodded once, "The Lady Matsu." Matsu wore her long hair tied up in a way which confused him at first until he saw the long metal spines which seemed to hold a lot of it together and off her shoulders. When she'd been on her horse, he noticed that her face wasn't held in the more normal or usual serene expression. He even knew what he'd been looking at as he'd seen her riding up. He didn't know quite who she was, but he could tell a few things from her face and the way that the men seemed to defer to her. Her expression on horseback had been about seeing everything at once, of scanning with her eyes and having a little care and concern over others. She must lead them, Valdemar thought to himself. It changed a little as soon as she was off the horse, becoming much more relaxed and that was when her beauty hit him. She was astoundingly attractive to him in a strange and slightly mystifying way however, and based on nothing but that, Valdemar decided to try to put his best foot forward for once. He just knew that none of it was going to buy him a thing. She wore that look. The one which spoke of how she and others regarded what he was. Kōichi bowed and they exchanged quiet greetings for a moment. "Dane-san, this is Matsu-san, "Kōichi said quietly, "the daughter of the Lady Hoshino." The woman turned toward him, looking at Valdemar with a critical eye, "I am here for my, ... 'lesson' and I make my apology if I am late. I only heard of it a few hours ago and after gathering up the ones that I wished to send and sending them off, I had other matters to see to before I could leave myself. The men here with me today are about half of my guard. It is my task to patrol the northlands." Valdemar thought that her English was easily on a par with Kōichi's, but that didn't matter, he supposed as he listened. It sounded a lot better than his own. "Please forgive me, Matsu-san," Valdemar said very cautiously, "but I was told that I would be instructing Samurai today. I know nothing of -- " "Gaijin," she said as he watched her attractive features tighten a little until she glared at him a little coldly, "in case you have no knowledge of things -- for which I will forgive you this one time, the word for the warrior class here extends to the females of that class as well. As it happens, I am a higher Samurai than anyone else here excepting only my honored mother and the daimyo himself. Any of these country Samurai are beneath me. Moreover, as far as the men of the northern watch are concerned, I am their commander. You were told to instruct Samurai. So? Instruct me, and we will see the value of your teachings." He made no sign of it, but he shrugged in an internal way to himself. He wondered if her demeanor was what she adopted when she was with the men of her command, or if she really was that prickly. He supposed that it didn't matter very much at all. "Very well," he smiled a little artificially and then he began speaking to them all, allowing pauses fairly often so that Kōichi had the time to translate . "I am a foreigner among you in your land, and I have come far in order to get here. In truth, I come from even farther away than that, and I can say something which I believe ought to make you feel a little pride. I come from Europe, where there are many nations. Each one of them has warriors of renown. But before I came here, even I had heard of the Samurai of Nihon. You are known and a little famous -- even that far away - as wondrous swordsmen and fearsome archers. But you are not known as good marksmen with any sort of firearm. That is what I am here today to begin to remedy. You were instructed to be here today because your daimyo has benefited from this teaching -- and really; it is not so much a lesson as much as it is a way for you to bring these new weapons into what you already know as Bushido. These things are no more or less than weapons. You all know how to care for the more traditional weapons. All that I teach today is what is needed to make you fearsome with firearms." As he waited for the last bit to be translated, Valdemar looked around and saw that there were some who had no interest at all, so he focused on them -- including the young woman. "I can see that you do not like the thought of having to listen to a Gaijin," he said, "I know that you are only here -- a lot of you -- because the daimyo has ordered it." He waited while Kōichi translated and then he pointed to a tree some yards distant, "You see that bird there? Is there one person here who can shoot at that bird and hit it? Is there even one noble Samurai here who can tell me that he -- or she - can do that with the weapon that was given to each of you?" There was no reply from them, other than stony silence. He walked to his things and took up his own rifle. Stepping to where the rest stood, he knelt on one knee and pulled back the hammer. An instant later, the gun discharged and the bird fell from the branch in a small cloud of feathers. Valdemar got to his feet and pointed again, "Do you wish to learn of this or not?" When they heard that, they all nodded but Matsu. She stared at the bird in amazement. "Then all that I ask is that you see that there are many different people in the world. Some of them even have something for you to learn from them -- even though they might be Gaijin and not as noble as you." He pointed at Kōichi, "The boy will help me to make clear what to anyone -- even most of my kind -- would be only unimportant details. But we are in a land where little things are treasured. Where I come from, no one makes an art out of only drawing a sword and the way that it is done. We either draw it or we don't. Here, it is considered a noble pursuit. I cannot teach this without him, and I know that he will say everything as closely as he can to what I say. If this is important to you, then you should be straining to listen to him, and try to remember that no one -- even a lord or a king or an emperor -- is given the choice of which family that he wishes to be born into. Kōichi-san may not be what you all are, but to you, right here as I try to help you, he is so very important. Your success hangs on the way that he says what I teach and how closely you listen." One of the men said something then and Kōichi said, "They have heard that you are the Black Arrow lord. Why do you speak this way?" It confused Valdemar for a second, so he brushed his confusion aside for the moment and considered his reply to Kōichi , "Tell them that here, among them; I am only a man who has something to show them. Tell them that they have been given guns by their lord, but that the trader taught them only to load and shoot a little. Tell them that when I am finished -- if they can listen and learn -- then all of them might have been able to hit that bird easily, and if, not, then at least cause it to wonder about the sudden wind from how closely they missed. Tell them that even if they cannot hit that bird when I have finished teaching them, they should think that if that bird were a man, he would be as dead as the bird now." Valdemar found himself with a suddenly eager bunch of students. The first thing that he made clear was that any man who did not understand something must ask to have it explained, for to remain quiet and think that he would sound like a fool to ask anything was the same as a fool to a Gaijin. "I cannot think that it would happen, but if I ever found myself facing Samurai who have rifles and wish to kill me, I would be hoping that all of them had been too proud to ask questions when they were taught." It produced a lot of nodding laughter from the group and Valdemar got down to teaching then. It took most of the day because Valdemar was intent on taking them from men who had been given weapons of questionable value to them to warriors who could see the need to refine their skills with this foreign technology. He made a point of stressing that Samurai to the south were already farther on this path, but there was no reason why any of them couldn't master this. Though she gave him an often questioning argument at perhaps every turn, needing to have the reasons for the adjustments made clear to her, Matsu found that with patience and her seeing the results as her groups of shots moved closer to where it had been that she was aiming at, she understood at last why shooting one of these things had always been an exercise in futility and a test of her limited patience. When he was done, they all went their separate ways leaving him until he stood almost alone with only Kōichi and Matsu, who now wore a pleased look. "I came with the same scorn in my heart as the rest, and perhaps even more," she admitted seriously, "I see that it will take some practicing to get better, but you have given me a real use for this stick which I was given and have hated from the first moment. Something else," she said, "I was impressed when you insisted that everyone pay attention to Kōichi-san. He is perhaps my oldest friend save one. But he often comes in for a lot of scorn and ill-treatment because -- " "Because everyone -- no matter where -- requires someone to look down on," Valdemar said, "Around here, it seems to be his job -- when it is not mine. I understand." She actually smiled then, "Tell me your name, Gaijin, and I will try to speak it properly. I see the value of the teaching in these unimportant details so I wish to learn the true name of the Black Arrow lord which I have heard a little of." "If I may ask it," Valdemar began, "how did I come to be saddled with this strange name? Do you know?" Matsu nodded, "Lord Maeda began it after what you did with your bow. He and Oda-san have told many of it." Valdemar bowed and smiled, "Do you wish to know my first name only, or the whole thing, Lady?" "The whole name, of course," she nodded. But she stared after he said, "Valdemar Reventlow" slowly. Kōichi looked to be straining to hold in his smile. Her eyes widened and he smirked, "You see now why they only call me Dane." Valdemar shook his head after a moment, "I begin to regret the name which I seem to be known by here. It was said of me by Maeda-san over something which I regard as little more than murder." "Not so," she said seriously, "You have tied the name to an event. Forget the worthless trader. It was given because of what was seen of another of your skills and now I learn why. Maeda-san needed a name for you because he saw that you are worthy of respect from your background and also because, ..." She laughed for just a moment, "Because you really do have an impossible name." Her features reverted to a more serious expression then. "I wish to have a meal with you but in a place away from the hall. If you are not afraid of the chance of a little adventure, I would buy you a drink as well. Rather than cut my strength in half a second time over, would it be possible for you to return with me to the north? You would see more of Maeda-san's lands and perhaps understand our ways a little better. Would you come?" He nodded, "I'd welcome the chance to slip the leash which holds me here a little. But I was only given the freedom to go about the village and the area. Lord Maeda-san - " "Leave the daimyo to me, Dane-san. I can be very persuasive when I hang on his ear," she said. ------------------- Valdemar was in his home packing a few of the things that he thought he might need while Matsu was off to the hall trying to get a brief audience with the daimyo. Kōichi was with Valdemar, but said that he would not be able to go with him. "If you are not here," he said, "then I go back to my duties for Lady Hoshino. You would not need me along anyway. Matsu-san can speak English very well. My father taught us all as children -- Matsu-san, Aiki-san and me. Aiki-san also learned from her father. We enjoyed having other ways to speak which no one knew. Dane-san," Kōichi said with a little concern, "I must warn you a little. Matsu-san is a little wild and she is fearless as well. Where you would go -- if Maeda-san agrees, is a place which has even fewer traces of our culture than this one. It is easy to get into a fight there, and even easier to die. Matsu-san can be trusted, but the rest, .... Who is to say? I am trying to tell you to be a little careful. If Japan is an empire, then we stand near to the fence here. Where you will go is to walk along the top of the fence in many ways. There are even fewer Japanese there and there are others. We call them Ainu and they are peaceful most of the time. But there has been trouble. It has been less than thirty years since the last uprising and tempers are always high." Valdemar nodded, "I'll try to take that into account, but that's only if I go. Matsu-san will first need to get his agreement and I have a feeling that it's a little unlikely." "Perhaps not," Kōichi smiled a little, "She was truthful about her persuasiveness with Maeda-san. He sees the importance of the northern watch and she is his daughter, though if you value your skin, you will never mention it to her. She does not want to be known that way. She prefers to stand on her own merit and her own name." Valdemar was truly surprised, "I thought you told me that she was the daughter of Lady -- " "I did," Kōichi nodded, "Matsu-san is the only one of us three who still has her father. It is little-known here and never spoken of. And there are a few others things that you should know. She feels herself to be the equal of any man and she enjoys shaming them if they are too boastful or loud in their manners. I have heard it said that she has also done it for nothing other than her own enjoyment, though I have never seen that and she has never done it to me. Matsu-san is very much her father's daughter and if I know her at all -- she will test you even more than her honored father did." Valdemar nodded and said that he'd keep it in mind. He'd just pulled off his shirt to change when Matsu walked in and he wondered what had happened to the famous politeness that he'd heard and seen so much of. "So, you have permission to come along with me to the North country for a few days," she said, "We may not boast as much civility, but I can sa-" She stopped there as Valdemar turned away to pick up his simple singlet and Matsu stared at the marks on his back. "I was told that you are a lord, but what I see marks you as a criminal," she said. Valdemar smirked, "You are only a Samurai as long as you are in Japan. Try to think of where your own power comes from. Here, you are someone. But the world is a large place and I assure you that there are far more places where you are nothing, no matter what outrage you might put into your voice as they whip you like a dog. In the part of the world where I come from, you would be seen as the same thing that I am in this place to you and other people -- a curiosity at best. Someone to stare at and little more. If it matters to you at all, this was not done to me by my countrymen. This was done on the ship of another land far out at sea where one can do anything to another person and get away with it." "Why did they do this?" Matsu asked, "Were you a thief who was found out?" He turned then and looked at her as he pulled the singlet down over him, "You would probably not care, but that was done to me because I did not understand what I'd been ordered to do. I could not speak English at all at the time. That didn't matter though," he smiled, "The one who did this had many men to hold me." "What happened?" she asked. "Nothing for a time," Valdemar said, "I spoke even less after that." He decided that he was now a little annoyed at her assumptions, so he looked at her with an even gaze as he picked up his cuirass and began to strap it on. He stopped then. "For you -- since you are more doubtful than charitable, I can offer a different way to look at me, Lady. Think that I am no lord. If it makes things easier for you, then think that I am the bastard son of a very poor whore. I must be a criminal because only criminals are ever whipped, aren't they? Truly; the world over, that is the only reason why anyone ever whips another person, isn't it? Why, I must have DESERVED to have this done to me." "Well?" she asked, "Which is it? A lord or a criminal?" He already regretted agreeing to go with her, "Take your pick and believe what you will. I will answer nothing more over it to anyone." The spaulders went over the cuirass and he decided that it would suffice for a ride on horseback in the winter sunshine. His cloak went over everything else. Matsu wondered a little about where the warmth had gone in him, "Why do you wear that?" Black Arrow Lord Ch. 03 He smiled a little coldly as he picked up the rest of his things to take them out to the stable for his horse, "I am hoping that it will at least protect me for a little time in case someone wants to whip me again. I think that we do not need to go anywhere for a meal. Please take me where I must go to teach." Matsu was growing angry herself and she nodded, "I will wait for you at the front of the house." When he'd gone, she turned to Kōichi, "What is the matter with him?" Kōichi looked a little uncomfortable, "I have not seen him this way before. I think that you must have insulted him over your remark, Matsu-san." "Insulted him?" she snorted, "He must be quite the large baby then if it takes so little to do that." "You do know that you are sometimes a little too proud," he said as he turned to go, "You treat others as you know that you would hate to be treated and then you wonder why they are no longer pleased with you." He stepped to the door. "Enjoy your journey." When Valdemar had saddled up and ridden around to the front of the house, Matsu was waiting for him and she had nothing to say to him at all. She only turned her horse and galloped off. She obviously expected him to follow, and though he rode after her, he didn't spur his horse to more than a trot. He rode on and after a time, he noticed that the hoof prints on the road thinned out to only one fresh set and by their spacing, it was clear that she hadn't even slowed down at all. He rode until it began to grow dark and then he turned around and began to ride back toward the village. That lasted only a few minutes before he heard her call to him from behind, and she'd used that word. Gaijin - so that he knew that they were back to their original relationship. He stopped and looking back, he saw her waiting for him up at the top of a slope. He decided not to be an idiot about it, knowing that if he played this out of pride as she was likely doing, then the two of them would be sitting on their horses forever. He turned around once more and rode to her at no faster a pace than he'd been going the whole time. "Gaijin, who gave you permission to return to the village?" she asked impatiently. "I did," he said, "I am only a criminal and a rather stupid and mindless one at that. I do not own a fine warhorse. I have only this one and she is no proud thing. She is only a horse who has walked far her whole life and she cannot run well or fast, and she cannot follow your tracks in the darkness. I followed as far as I could, knowing that I would need the little light which is left to me to find my way back." She looked hard at him, trying to decide if he was being impertinent or stubborn. "I could have you whipped," she smiled, "Samurai may kill anyone of a lower class that we wish. I do not need much of a reason at all." He raised his eyes then and Matsu was a little surprised by the cold flicker in his blue gaze. "What you are," he said in a very low and menacing voice, "is a daughter of privilege to my eyes. You might possess the power to have me whipped by someone else, or even have me tied so that I could do nothing while you whipped me. I have no doubt that you are skilled with your weapons, but I can tell you that as we are right here, you cannot whip me. If you want to try to kill me, then that is your choice, Matsu-san. You may attempt it if you wish, but I would see it as a waste because where I am from, a man has the right to defend his own life as best he can. It might cost you your own. That, to my eyes would be a waste." "A waste of what, Gaijin? A good woman?" she sneered, "Someone to make a man's home and raise his squalling young?" She laughed then, "As though you could best me in anything." He shook his head, "If that is what you believe that I hold in my head, then keep your stupid notion. It ought to serve you well." He snorted, "Oda-san must be a cherished friend who shares your views on most things, especially his ideas of what a woman's place is -- Samurai or not." He looked off into the darkening distance for a moment and then she watched as he turned to look at her and there it was again - that unsettling cold blue flicker in his eyes as he continued his thought. "And if it happens by some chance that you succeed at whipping me, then you should kill me right afterward. I would become the hound of your nightmares if I was allowed to live. I'd need to be kept in chains forever. And your gods protect you if I were ever to get free. I'd tell you to ask the last one who whipped me, but, ..." They glowered at one another for a few more seconds. Matsu broke the lock when she scowled, "I loathe Oda-san." "I know it," Valdemar said, "I have not even seen you near to each other and I could have guessed that." "You will never see him and I near to each other," Matsu said, almost spitting the words, "By what means could you guess?" "I try to think about the people that I meet," he said, "Oda-san would lay his life down for what he believes is right, and while I know that you are likely no less heartfelt, his way dooms someone like you to a life which you do not want for yourself." "Which way would you wish to see?" she asked as they stopped near the entrance to a narrow draw which she knew would place them in a poor tactical spot were they to be ambushed there. Valdemar saw it as well, but he said nothing as he fished through one of his pockets. He drew out a cigar and he lit it in the brief flare of a match. If they were ambushed, he told himself, he'd do what he could to get himself out of it. If she was only half as good as she seemed to think that she was, he reasoned that she ought to have no difficulty with it. He put the matches back into his pocket and he puffed his cigar for a moment to draw out her anticipation of his reply, hoping a little that it would annoy her. He only looked ahead as he spoke around the cigar, "I couldn't care less." "That is not the way that I have heard that you are," she said, and he almost groaned, wondering why she thought that he wanted to speak with her at all. He guessed that if one grew up the daughter of a daimyo, then one would just have to think that everyone stood ready to kiss her ass at a moment's notice. Valdemar leaned over his saddle and looked at her, "That question is not for me to answer as I am a stranger here. I have not been here long enough to see the way of everything. But as far as my own wish is concerned, I prefer your way, if it matters to you." "And why is that?" she asked. "It makes things more interesting to one like me," he said, "Many of the women here are beautiful to me. If there were more like you, they would be even more fascinating to me as well, not that any of my fascination would do me any good. I do not care much personally what you do, but I might want to give you a little fair warning if you love this way of life which you and Oda-san share as you glare at one another. Avoid the Christian faith if you and your people can. Stay with your own gods, choose someone else's, I do not care, but avoid the Christian teachings." Matsu grinned then, "You see? This is the sort of thing which I had hoped to discuss with you over a meal -- but that was before I took what you have called my stupid notion. Come; ride with me and we will talk. I am sorry if I insulted you. I have had the time to think as I rode back, wondering what had befallen you." She looked over for a long enough moment so that their eyes met, "What I said was callous and unkind -- especially to one who bears scars as you do. Pride can make a person stupid. I do not know you, but I think now that what was done to you was done in order to break your spirit and your will. I am a little glad that the attempt must have failed." They rode through the gloom, talking quietly at some points where Matsu indicated that it was likely safe to. She found it a little difficult to get him to speak much anymore, needing to phrase her queries so that he had to reply or run the risk of seeming rude. "I must know what lies behind your words about the Christians," she said. He almost sighed, deciding that this talk was mostly for her amusement and entertainment. "A long time ago," he said, "a dark cloud hung over a great portion of the land in Europe. There are many lands there, not only one or two -- or six. There were a people feared by many for the way that they came often and raided, stealing everything from money to women, killing any who tried to stand before them and laughing in joy as they did it. They were large and fearsome warriors from out of the cold northlands, and the mere sight of their dragon ships on the horizon could make people tremble and run. They were called Vikings and the lands which spawned them slowly became five or maybe six different lands. Mostly, they were men, but there were women among them and I have been told that a woman could be a clan lord and hold land in her name and that she was equal in the eyes of their law to the men. They were also traders who traveled far and later, they became farmers and landowners in the lands they had originally raided. Some even became bigger lords and were kings. They held their own religion, but slowly, the Christian faith came to them. Where before it was desired to die a glorious death in battle, their own lords decided that they preferred not having to do that to get to their heaven. Most of them forced their own vassals to become Christians on the threat of death." He looked around in the deepening gloom for a moment, "The faith is not a bad one by itself, I think. But like anything else, there are always men who trade on it and tailor it to suit their purpose. Today, a woman in their lands is not equal to the men and cannot hold land by herself. I believe that in some ways, adopting the Christian faiths robbed those people of their fierceness." "These Vikings came from all of those different lands?" she asked. He nodded, "They were all a little similar anyway and the lands are all in one area. Most of them spoke the same language and many could understand each other even if their speech was different. They were the Norse, the Swedes, some of the Finnlanders, some of the northern Germanic tribes, the Gotlanders , ... And the Danes. The priests have been here for a few hundred years already. All that I am saying is that once they close their mouths over you, the great Samurai will lose their teeth and there will be no room for fierce women warriors at all." Matsu was surprised, "You say now that your kind -- the people of your land, they were among these warriors, and now are cowed?" "My kind were among them, yes," he answered, "But I did not say that they were cowed. I meant to say that they were changed. I cannot say how much, because I was not living then. That was hundreds of years ago. But I have been to other lands in Europe and I can speak of what I saw. The Danes of today are very much alike to the French and the Dutch and the English and all of the others. Their armies are armies now, and not bands of raiders and they fight their wars in much the same way as the armies of any other land. Everything changes anyway, regardless of what one might want. I studied a little of your people's ways of fighting before I came here. The merchant who taught me thought that I was wasting my time and his with my wanting to know. But I learned anyway. Think of how the Samurai fought at the time of the Mongol invasions and before what you call the Divine Wind came to ruin their attacks. Some ships landed and the Mongols spilled out onto the land. The Samurai who faced them began to proceed in the way that they knew -- one man stepping out to challenge and then when an opponent stepped out, the Samurai would begin to proclaim his heritage; who his father had been, and the father before and so on and on. It would take a long time, but it was how one clan of Samurai fought another. But Mongols are not Samurai, are they? They charged in their hundreds, being there for more than to only listen to a good story in a language foreign to them. The Samurai learned from this to skip the tale when fighting one who does not know your tongue." "How would it have gone if it were these Vikings who stepped out of their ships?" Matsu asked. "From what I know, Northmen also treasured their ancestry, but there are a few differences. They did not step out of their dragon longships; they simply jumped over the side and waded out of the surf. They did not ever come to listen to anything. If it had been Vikings, they would have paused only long enough to stare for a moment. And then they'd have begun to laugh as they ran to begin. They wouldn't have understood a word. They couldn't have cared less either. Perhaps it is a trait that I share with them." He laughed to himself quietly then, "I think now that they would have come to appreciate their opponents in the Samurai. More than perhaps anything, the Northmen loved a good fight. It is possible to respect one's enemy. And another difference was that the Divine Wind might have had less of an effect. I was told that many of the Mongol ships were for use on rivers and had flat bottoms. Very bad in a storm. Longships were made for long voyages on stormy and very cold seas. But as I said, things change and ages pass. I do not think that it would even have been possible to raise an armada among Northmen; not on the scale which would have been required to invade a land such as this." They were silent for a time until some minutes later, Matsu looked over again, "What are the women like, where you come from? Are they large and hairy as well?" The question caused Valdemar to see a little of how he must look to her and he chuckled, "Oh yes. They are even hairier than the men. Some of them grow long beards and never wash and there are giantesses among them. Why do you think that the men were always away raiding, after all?" Even though it was almost dark, he saw her mouth open so he shook his head. "That was not truth. I only made a joke. Our women are as lovely as most other sorts of women can be. They are not hairy -- well, most of them are not. They have the same eyes and their hair can be the same as ours; blonde and brown and red and black. It is said that there are more with very light hair among us and I think that it is at least a little true in the north. I have seen young girls and maidens with hair the same as mine, but it was so light that it looked white in the sunshine. But my talking of them does me as little good as my fascination over a few warlike women of Japan. They are where I am not and the ones here believe that I am a hairy demon." He thought that his jibe had sailed right past her ears as they rode on for a minute or more and then she said, "I saw that you have hair on your chest. I have never seen a man with so much hair." Valdemar rolled his eyes, well and truly tired of it now, "Yes, of course. I am only an animal to the eyes of any civilized and cultured person. I spent most of my childhood with no shirt on in the winter. All of us did -- even the girls -- so that we might get our wish -- to be the hairiest creatures next to the bears. If I do not shave as soon as I get out of the bed, and if I do not shave again before midday, then I will have a full and thick beard by the evening meal. I do that sometimes if I know that I will have soup, so that I can strain the vegetables out of it with the hair on my lip. I have a little hair on my chest and a little on my arms, some on my face and even some in other places. I have no way to know, but I likely even have some on my backside. My people come from a cold, dark land, where one tries to stay warm. Shivering really cuts down on stupid talk for half of the year. That is why we live there; so that we do not have to answer stupid questions." She tried one more time after that when she said, "So, you really were not a criminal?" His reply was little more than a growl, "Use your imagination and make up whatever you like." He puffed once more on the cigar, hoping that he didn't singe his lips and then he threw what was left down into a snowbank. "I don't care what you think. I'm an animal, remember?" They rode on, both lost in their thoughts for a time until they arrived at an outpost. They were let in the gate and that was when the stares began. The Dane did his best to ignore the looks as Matsu led him to where he could sleep. She tried to get him to change his mind about the meal, but he said that he was tired and wanted to sleep. When she left him, he sat chewing strips of dried beef for a time. He'd been hungry, but he had no hunger for her company. The next day, Valdemar taught as he could with Matsu interpreting for him. But though she now tried to be a little friendlier, he didn't seem to be in the mood and as soon as the men dispersed to return to their duties, he coolly prepared to take his leave and ride back to the village. And by then of course, Matsu had no intention of trying to dissuade him anymore. She rode with him in silence to the edge of her area of responsibility. "Thank you for the lessons. I must leave you, but I hope that I may see you again." With that, she turned her horse around and galloped off. She didn't know it or care, but he didn't believe a word. In that sense, they were in agreement. Her thanks had been only polite. As far as she was concerned, he could fall off the edge of the world and she wouldn't care. --------------------- The next day, Valdemar taught again, though it was a smaller group near the village, so it didn't take very long. They were done not long after noon, he guessed. "What will you do now?" Kōichi asked and Valdemar chuckled as he began to walk back to the village. "I go to learn of the deer around this place. It is far too late in the day now, but I will take my bow in case I see a deer, but that is not the main thing. I wish to learn of where they hide. I think that deer must be all the same, no matter where or which sort they are and they are creatures of habit. If you learn of their haunts, then you know where to be near when you begin. Do you wish to come along?" "Perhaps," Kōichi smiled a little, "I may wish to see how far away that you can get while you look for their hiding places. I will stop you if you look to be in danger of wandering off too far. Or, I could just take you to those places, Valdemar-san, since I know of most of them." Valdemar's jaw opened at that, "How do you know of these things, Kōichi-san?" The youth smiled and spoke rather quietly, "The daimyo claims the deer for his own, but Valdemar-san, there are very few rich hunters here and rich or poor, the people must eat. I poach in these woods sometimes so that the poor might have a little meat to eat now and then. If you only own one animal and you need that one for some of the work, then you cannot eat her. No one eats meat unless their animal dies of old age or overwork. Many people have no animals at all and the whole family must do all of the work." They began to walk to where Kōichi kept his bow hidden, but long before they got there, they heard voices and shouts and turned in that direction. Valdemar was astounded to find Matsu on her feet in a small clearing just in front of a small house in the woods. She was facing four men -- who carried the appearance of Samurai to him, though his companion whispered to him that they were little more than bandits. The men were all on horseback, three of them with drawn swords, and one holding a bow. Matsu kept them all off-balance rather easily, standing before them with a naginata cradled in her hands. Whenever one of them looked to be getting a little too brave and nudged his horse, she moved and her skill with the long bladed weapon reminded them that she could deal them a lot of damage with only one strike and was not in danger of falling off her horse, since she wasn't on one. They also couldn't just ride her down -- not with that weapon in her hands, not if they valued their horses. Black Arrow Lord Ch. 03 What came to Valdemar's mind was that the three only needed to come to the thought that she couldn't deal with them all at the same time. He had no doubt that one of them would think of it at some point. It was the bowman who Valdemar had a concern over. He strung his own bow behind a tree. Moments later, the men formed a strategy and Valdemar could see that the plan didn't sit well with Matsu, not that there was much of anything that she could do about it. In truth, Matsu had her own plan and that was to remove the threats piecemeal. She'd take the legs out from under one's horse and as it fell, she planned to kill the rider. She knew that she had to be quick so that she could be ready to engage the next. But the one with the bow, ... She wouldn't be able to get to him at all if he kept only a little distance between them. It didn't look good for that reason. She tried to keep moving, seeing the bowman begin to draw his bow back. Valdemar whistled with his own bowstring almost against his pursed lips. As the bowman began to turn his head, Valdemar released and with a yell of pain and surprise, the archer was off his horse and struggling on his back with a long, black arrow standing up out of his ribs. What made the shot memorable to the men and even to Matsu was the deep thudding slap of the arrow piercing the man's light armor. The rest turned then, but the next black arrow was already nocked and the thick bow was mostly drawn back once again. As one rider turned, he caught the briefest sight of something coming to him and the blade of Matsu's polearm was in his open mouth as she swung and yanked back. The last two exchanged glances and turned their horses to ride off, but one of them was already on Matsu's long naginata blade a fraction of a second later. She twisted the shaft a little and pulled it back and the man groaned as he slid from the saddle. There was one man left and Matsu was nowhere near to him as he spurred his steed. Valdemar drew back fully and sent the last one's doom to him. The slap of that arrow against the leather was clear and the man was unhorsed and tumbled to the ground. He tried to get up, but Matsu ended his worries for him an instant later. Valdemar walked out into the clearing where a furious Matsu gored the first man to fall from Valdemar's arrows. Doing that to the rest of them to make certain that they were dead, she looked over and he could see that she was unhappy about something. She thanked him for his help, knowing that without him, she'd been facing a losing fight as time wore on, but that wasn't the main thing. "These are dressed as ronin and bandits," she said, "but I have seen at least two of them before, Valdemar-san. They hide in the hills around here while I and my men are much farther out and not able to hunt them easily." She bent down over one that she'd killed with her bladed lance and drawing a knife, she cut off his topknot above where it had been tied. She cleaned her naginata blade in the snow for a moment and then she tied the hair to it, not far below where the blade began. Now that he knew what he was looking at, he saw that there were already two other ones there. "No one says anything," she fumed, "but I believe that these were friends of Taro, the son of Oda-san. I will tell of this to the daimyo, though I will probably be shouted down." Valdemar nodded, "Then take the heads and if you have need of me, send for me and I will tell of what I saw and did." She looked over and up at him for a moment in surprise, wondering why he'd make such an offer. "Not so easy," Matsu muttered in thought, "You have killed two of these. Murder is a crime here, unless it suits the purpose of one in a bit of power. But that is my puzzle for now. In the worst case, I may be forced to lie and say that I killed them all. I hold the right to do it, but I doubt that I would even be believed, so it is still a problem. Thank you all the same." She looked at Kōichi, who brought her horse for her, "Do not judge him, Valdemar-san. He is not permitted to have a sword, since he is not Samurai." She sighed then, "But if Kōichi-san could have gotten one of their swords, he'd have sought to help. It would have been his death because I have not taught him, being stuck out on the edge of the world most of the time. I worry over this." The door to the little house opened then and a girl stepped out onto the snow hesitantly. Kōichi trotted over with concern written on his face and they embraced for a moment. Kōichi walked the girl to Matsu's horse and they both helped her onto it in an instant before Matsu swung up herself. Valdemar saw them all speaking quietly between them for a moment before Kōichi began to walk away, back to where Valdemar stood. "Kōichi-san," Matsu said, looking as though she now had to say something which she might regret, "When you are away from here, tell the Gaijin lord what must be told. I leave it to you, cousin." She nodded to Valdemar and with that, she spurred her horse and the women were gone. Valdemar watched them go with raised eyebrows and Kōichi asked. The blonde man shrugged, "This is the strangest land that I have ever been to. Nothing makes much sense to me. People see my back and think that I am a criminal. I kill a man with my bow to please a lord and I am praised for it." He shook his head, trying and failing to make any sense of it. "I murder two men for no reason other than they looked to want to harm someone who mocked and taunted me a day ago, and from the way that she refers to me, it seems that I am not a criminal anymore." It's a wonder that I do not try to stay drunk. It might make sense then." Black Arrow Lord Ch. 04 ***Ok, this is one chapter that I'd direct you to take a look at the tabs. It's not a major part of this, but there's a scene with some gay interaction in it. I also move the main girl and guy pair closer together in this too. Well, for a bit of a slightly stuck-up and yet accomplished female warrior and a blonde Danish barbarian, they're getting closer. If nothing else, I think it shows just how tough it can be sometimes to get her attention. 0_o *** ------------------------------ "I cannot get this one out," Kōichi hissed with effort through his teeth. He'd been trying for a few minutes now to remove Valdemar's arrow from the back of the last of the four men. Valdemar looked over as he placed the flat of his palm against the shoulder of the first man that he'd shot and tightened his grip on the arrow protruding from the corpse's chest and he grimaced as he wrenched the projectile free. "Then leave it," he shrugged, "I can see from here that it is probably ruined anyway. He fell from a running horse. The tumble cannot have helped my arrow. I'll just break it off." He stood up and walked over, seeing Kōichi shake his head, "Do not leave such a strong sign as that to tell that you did this." Valdemar nodded, "I guess you're right." But as he looked, Valdemar could see that there might be hope after all and he rolled the body onto its side and pushed through instead. Other than the wet and bloody fletching, there seemed to be no damage. He carefully tried to clean it with a little snow. They dragged the corpses off and rolled them into the narrow gap between a pair of boulders with some stunted shrubs growing nearby and they kicked some snow over the bodies. They left then, deciding that being in a place with four dead men who likely took orders from someone was likely not the best place to be found. Kōichi led Valdemar away, but the Dane noticed that it was in a different direction. Before he could remark on it, a doe stopped in front of them coming in the opposite direction. She looked back at something but it was too late, since Valdemar was carrying his bow in his hand with an arrow held against it loosely just as a precaution. She turned her head back only a little at the soft creak of the bowstring being drawn and she froze. Then she was down and struggling, but Kōichi's knife ended things moments later. "I thought that she was going to remember her feet and run," he said in almost a whisper, "I have seen it before. Hurry Valdemar-san, pull out your arrow and then we will need to be gone from here. I worry that something caused her to run this way." The Dane nodded and with the arrow out, he knelt and draped the carcass over his shoulders before he stood up. She wasn't large and he'd noticed that the deer seemed to all be smaller here. They walked off in a bit of a hurry, though they were quiet about it. Kōichi led them along a shallow stream for some distance, crossing quickly three times before moving away on the opposite side. "I thought that we were going back to the village," the Dane said in a low voice. The youth turned to look back a little and he nodded, "Do you plan to eat what you carry in a day? There are others who could use a little of it." Valdemar understood and he smiled, "I was not prepared to actually shoot a deer today. But is it far? It's always best not to leave the work of it for too long." In answer, Kōichi led them under a thick canopy of evergreen boughs in a place where the growth had been carefully managed so that those boughs never died back in the normal way as the trees grew taller. That way, they always hid the entrance to a bit of a grotto. Beyond that, Valdemar found that he was being led into a cavern. As they walked, Valdemar could see people, most of them working at everyday tasks. Kōichi was recognized with smiles and quiet calls of greeting, but each time, the next instant, the eyes were on the Dane and the people stood and stared as he strode along with the doe over his shoulders. Some people even bowed, confused by the topknot and deciding that it might be best to play it safe by showing respect. They stopped next to an old woman who looked happy to see the meat, even if it was still on the animal and she greeted Kōichi with a pleased bow. Then she turned to look up at the stranger for a moment with a little wonder on her face. She bowed deeply again and began to speak. He caught her respectful greeting and that she called him 'kuroi yajirushi hanshu' and after that, he didn't get a thing out of what she said. "These people are the poorest of the poor, the ones who do the lowest and dirtiest of tasks," Kōichi said, "They do not even have homes to freeze in, so they live here. There are only maybe a dozen here at the moment. Can you spare the meat for them?" Valdemar nodded, smiling at the faces around them, "Please tell them that they are welcome to all of it, only have someone show me where I can lay this down so that I can butcher it for them. What did the old woman say?" "She knew you as the Black Arrow lord from the talk in the area and said that the world holds many wonders. She is happy to see that not all wonders are to be feared, not matter how fearsome they might seem." He turned to speak to the others. When Kōichi translated the Gaijin's graciousness, Valdemar found himself being led by the hand by a young girl to a place deeper in where there was an offshoot of the steam which they'd crossed. Valdemar wasted no time, and the doe was skinned and dressed out in minutes with many hands willing to help him with the work. He didn't understand their quiet thanks to him, and they didn't comprehend his speech to them in a low voice as he worked, but that didn't matter. Once he saw that they had a place there to hang meat, he quartered the carcass and with a little hemp twine, he hung it for them and washed his hands in the icy stream. When he turned around, he found himself being led to a chamber where he and Kōichi were offered tea and rice cakes. The cakes were not sweetened at all and a lot of the kernels were brown, not having their husks removed. The tea was the lowest grade, beneath what likely anyone in the village would have, but Valdemar didn't care. "They are a little shamed to only have these things to offer to a lord from another land," Kōichi said, but Valdemar waved his hand a little with a broad smile for them all. He looked at the faces around him, "Tell them for me that in my life, it does not matter if one has a title or is a lord. My family had only its name, and when I was a boy, most had already forgotten it. One cannot eat a title. I know what it is to be hungry. I am honored by their hospitality and friendliness." They took their leave not long after. Most of the talk had been between the people and Kōichi, who explained to them who Valdemar was and roughly where he'd come from. On the way out, the Dane felt the hands of several of them on him as they wished him well and a few of them gave in to the urge to slap their palms gently against his shoulder or the leather of his cuirass in a friendly fashion as if to wish him safe travels. Valdemar found that they now approached the village from a different direction as they walked. "What have you got there?" he asked, looking at the crude package which Kōichi carried, noticing it for the first time. "A little of the meat from your doe," the boy smiled as he held it up a little, "They would not hear of us leaving without a bit, no matter what I tried to tell them." Valdemar looked for a moment longer and judged that there was perhaps three pounds there and he shook his head, "Deer are larger where I am from and there are different kinds. What we brought was not that much to have any to spare, once the hide, bones, sinew and gut are cut away." Kōichi shrugged, "This is what I was given, Valdemar-san. I argued them down from a whole haunch. You do not need to fear. I can say that everything we brought will be used." After a time, Valdemar looked over again. "What was it that Matsu -san wanted you to tell me? I have waited all of this time, trying to make sense of what I saw." Kōichi held up those two fingers again, "Not here, Valdemar-san. Wait a little longer." -------------------------------------- The little fire crackled and Kōichi served them both tea to try to drive the chill out as the house warmed up. Valdemar was learning the slightly precarious pastime of trying to warm one's fingertips while holding a tea bowl and yet not burn himself at the same time by holding and not shifting his grip for too long. Kōichi sat down beside him. "The other girl back there at the little house that we saw was Aiki-san," he said. He looked down for a moment as he tried to think of the best way to say things. "The way that things are in little places such as this village can make life miserable," he said. "People only see the things which they might wish to see. I am seen as – at best – only half-Japanese. There is little that I can do to change anything. I am expected to be a low sort of person; the only reason that I am already not a beggar is because of my mother, and that is only because of how she is tied to Maeda-san. My mother and Hoshino-san are viewed a little oddly because they are from the south, but they are afforded much respect since they are Samurai and from a noble family. This is a little place and the thoughts of the people in it are even smaller. Aiki-san is seen in the same way as I am, and since she is a girl, she can be even less than me in this place. Matsu-san is the only one here with a chance, because of her father." Valdemar nodded as he tried to understand, "But where she ends up in life also depends to some degree on who she might marry, or am I wrong?" "You are correct," Kōichi said, "and the only man around here whom everyone sees as a match is Taro – whom she despises openly. This is what all three of us have known all of our lives. We were children together," he said, " we met each other while we were not much beyond infants and even then, we already knew. The other children would have little to do with us, so we grew together, us three. Matsu-san and I are cousins of a sort because our mothers are cousins. Aiki-san is really not related to us in any way, but we have always called her our cousin as well because she belongs with us." He leaned forward to pour them both more tea. "I do not really know how to say the rest, Valdemar-san. I do not know how things go in the land where you come from and I am a little afraid that I might offend you." Valdemar couldn't really see any way that he might be offended and he said so. "Say whatever you need to – or whatever Matsu-san meant for you to say, I would guess. I doubt that you even could offend me, Kōichi-san." The boy still struggled, but eventually he just began. "As the three of us grew, we remained the closest of friends, and, ... he looked down and stopped there. Valdemar placed his hand onto the younger man's shoulder, "If it gives you such trouble, my friend, then don't tell me now. Tell me when you think you can or not at all if it causes you to feel the way that I think that you do now." He stood up to begin to prepare the evening meal, but Kōichi stopped him, "Leave it for tomorrow, Dane-san. I have hidden the package in some snow. It will keep. I am to take you elsewhere this evening." "Where do we go now?" Valdemar asked and Kōichi shrugged, "Nowhere bad, let's just have another cup of tea before it grows cold." ------------------------ That evening, Valdemar was taken to the bathhouse by Kōichi. He was a little surprised to see three women there, one of whom was the boy's mother. He tried to hide his surprise to see that another of them was the girl who had ridden off behind Matsu on her horse earlier. "What am I to do here?" He asked. "You have been given the right to use the bath," the boy said, "How is this done where you come from?" Valdemar shrugged, "We fill the bath and get into it. A person's bath is a rather private thing. We scrub ourselves to get clean and then we wash the tub afterward. Is it different here?" Kōichi nodded," Only a little, I think. Here, we wash before the bath and then get in. The more important people are washed by the women." Valdemar tried not to look shocked as he nodded. "But my mother knows that the custom is a little bit different, and she told me that if it is your wish, then I can wash you if it makes you less uncomfortable since I am to act as your servant." "Kōichi-san," Valdemar began, "What is it that you normally do around here?" "I am a servant to the Lady Hoshino, a part of her household with my mother and Aiki-san there. Maeda-san took Lady Hoshino after he killed her husband in a battle. She tried for many minutes to kill him with her naginata as she defended her husband's home. He chose not to kill her out of his admiration and they grew to respect each other after a time. What they share now grew out of that respect and much time. The other woman runs the bathhouse and cares for it." Kōichi introduced them then and his mother spoke to Valdemar in English, "We are pleased and honored to have Dane-san with us. It is my hope that my son pleases you with his efforts and that you find his assistance to be of great value." Valdemar smiled and nodded, "You may be proud of him. I was taught a little of the nihongo language before I set off on my journey. You might imagine how I tried very hard to learn this language. But I see now that my best efforts would have served me very poorly here. To have Kōichi-san's help makes this all very easy and pleasant for me." "I am pleased and proud then," the woman smiled, "even more that lord Maeda-san also finds my son to be of value to you. He has already told me how happy he is to have my son to help in this. Life here is a little lonely for Kōichi-san. He has found it difficult to gain much of any acceptance here due to his heritage. He does not look much like you, but he is half, ..." "Barbarian?" Valdemar asked with a warm smile. "I understand. This must make life a little challenging for him at times." "Yes," she said, "but you are making what he is a little more popular these days from what I am told." She said something to the girl then and he watched her young face light up as she chattered her reply with a little bit of excitement, bowing to Valdemar a couple of times. "Aiki-san says that after you left Lord Maeda, he stood in his hall and everyone listened as he spoke his praise of the Gaijin daimyo and what you did with your bow. Kuroi yajirushi hanshu - the Black Arrow lord – as he has called you," "I guess that the way that it might be seen would depend on a person's background," Valdemar said quietly. "Jans was a bit of a cheat and I could say that he was a lying dog who would have been happy to watch me die for what he'd done. I would guess that here, what the daimyo wanted was for me to prove to him that I am a noble person." He shrugged, "That might have been so, but to my mind, what I did to a bound man carried no honor in my eyes." Kōichi's mother nodded her understanding and glanced at her son for a moment, "My son is well-liked by most of the common people, but I find that there is always something in it which is to remind him. We are from the south and he is a mixture, though it is not easily seen. It is a bit of a barrier to him nonetheless. Neither of those things are anything which help him here in this place." "Well I like him for it," Valdemar nodded with a pleasant smile, "He is well-mannered and careful with his words to everyone for me. I am not certain of it, but I am at least a little sure that he has saved me from making embarrassing mistakes fairly often. I'd thank him for that, but I'm not even sure when it has happened because he is always very tactful. I know that this task which I have become for him would have been far too much for me when I was his age for certain. And I like the way that he looks," he grinned a little, "You must try to remember that I see with the eyes of a Gaijin after all, and you are right. His heritage does not show much or very plainly. I see that his eyes are a slightly lighter shade of brown from what I see everywhere around me here and it wasn't until I was outside with him that I saw that his hair is actually not black, but a very rich and dark brown. At any rate, I think that he has not yet come into his own, being still a boy, but if those things are enough to condemn him in this place, then it saddens me." She smiled at her son, making no attempt to hide her pride in him then – though Kōichi looked to be at a loss over what to say then. She laughed a little, "Dane-san, Kōichi must hide his age very well from you. He was eighteen only last month and he seems to be growing yet again. I have only had one child, but it has always seemed to me that children here grow more evenly, while what I have seen him do is to stay the same for a time and then several times now, he seems to grow suddenly to a new size overnight and I must find him clothes all over again. How old did you imagine him to be?" Valdemar looked confused then and worse, he would have to find his own way to extract himself from the pit that he'd just dug. "I am sorry," he said quietly to them both. "I took him to be about fourteen." Kōichi did the only thing that he could think of then. He took the Dane's hand in his own two and bowed a little, "Thank you, Dane-san. I hope that my ability to look younger than I am serves me as well when I need it to – when I am an old man." The awkward moment passed then and the woman touched his sleeve then and spoke very quietly, "I am also to tell you that my cousin, the Lady Hoshino wishes for me to express her gratitude over the incident earlier today. I can only add my thanks to it. Aiki-san is as a daughter to us both, my cousin and I." They smiled at each other after Valdemar's abbreviated bow, guessing that it ought not to be spoken of there and Kōichi's mother directed him to a spot where there were hooks on the wall and instructed him to please remove his clothing. "Try to disregard it as you are washed. Would you prefer it if my son washed you instead?" Valdemar shook his head a little, "Please try to tell whoever is to wash me that where I am from, a woman's touch might produce a result which is not necessarily a sign of what might be desired by me." That brought a smile from the woman and a nod, "That is understood, but I will mention it." As he stepped forward, the bath woman and the young woman both stared at him before they recovered quickly to resume what he took to be somewhat strained attempts at looking bored. He was shown a bench to sit at and to his surprise, the young woman began. As she worked, she made very quiet comments to the others in Japanese. To his ear, she was praising him, though it didn't do much to help the awkwardness that he felt. Kōichi listened as Aiki worked, thankful that he was not being asked to translate. "See his neck and his shoulders, "Aiki almost whispered in Japanese, "and these arms. There must be women weeping where he comes from to be without these around them, whoever they are. ... And look at this! I can feel the hard ridges under his skin here. If he could stand the cold of the day, I would love to ask him to hold still for me beside the stream. I could do my washing right here." "Look a little lower then, girl," the old bath woman nodded. "Aiee," the girl whispered, "How in the world am I to get past that? I still have to wash his legs and his feet." "Well stop then, if you do not think that you are up to it," the bath woman said with a straight face, "I know that I can do it easily enough. He is a man, after all – the same as any other one. The things which can make a girl quail these days, ... honestly." Black Arrow Lord Ch. 04 "Please keep your hands away, mother," the girl said with a little grin to the old bathwoman and being sure to show respect in her tone, "I say it respectfully, but when will I ever get a chance like this again? You have held every one of these in the village for years on end." His sense of awkwardness grew only worse for him the closer that she got to his tackle. As his involuntary erection began, the sounds of her appreciation for it, as well as the nods and small smiles of the others – no matter how much they tried to hold them back only caused him to blush even more. The careful and almost reverent way that she worked at her task made him have to hold back the groan which he felt. "There is nothing for you to feel shame over," Kōichi's mother smiled, "We are women, after all. None of us want for you to feel uncomfortable in the least. But this is a moment when we can enjoy seeing a man who is a little different to the ones which we see all of the rest of the time. We wish to thank you for this opportunity." She looked at the way that Aiki held onto what she found growing in her hand for a moment, "Aiki-san says that she can help you if you think that you would like it." Valdemar shook his head, though he was careful to say that it was just too uncomfortable like this for him to accept what to him was a very kind offer. The girl looked a little disappointed for a moment, but she covered it the next second, though she leaned a bit in a way that would allow her to give him a few gentle strokes in a hidden way. When their eyes met for an instant, she gave him a pleased-looking little smile and a gentle squeeze, but that was about all that she had the time for, since the bathwoman resumed watching her a little intently. Kōichi was trying not to stare himself. He tried to busy himself with details, neatening up the way that Valdemar's clothing was hung or folded and both he and Aiki stood behind him at one point, both of them staring at the long scars visible on his back, Aiki much more than Kōichi. She gasped a little and tried to hold it in. "He was whipped by men from another land once," the boy said quietly in Japanese, "For a lord to have to endure this shame, ..." Aiki stopped her washing of him then to step around beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder. When he looked up, she began to speak to him very quickly and apologetically, bowing twice in an abbreviated manner. He'd heard it said of her that she understood English, but he'd forgotten the detail since and her voice and it's tone surprised him, coming to him in a very soft and respectful tone, though it was a little heavily-accented. "Please accept my apology, Dane-san," the girl said in almost a whisper as she bowed a little, "I understand everything now. Please forgive me. I did not know and even so, I did not say anything of you in a jesting way." Valdemar nodded, "There is nothing to forgive. I thank you for your kind and hopeful thoughts earlier, but I find that I have become a little, ... shy after having had to show my marks to Maeda-san and everyone in the room. Until then, it was something which I could forget about easily, since it is behind me. Now, ..." The girl's hand remained on his shoulder very tentatively, as though she was trying to show him her care, and yet was very afraid that she might insult him more than she felt that she'd already done. "I believe that what was done to you was a crime," she said earnestly. "Please get into the tub now." He tried to smile a little as he stood up, "The man who caused my marks suffered something more lasting from me, though it took less time." He heard her ask Kōichi and he guessed that he was explaining what had been done when Valdemar found himself with the chance to take his revenge. The bath was very hot and he had to ease himself in very slowly. "Try not to move," Kōichi said as he did his best to help, telling Aiki to lift his hair so that it hung outside of the tub. He found himself looking at the two of them once he was in and when he found a moment to open his eyes. The girl looked as though whatever she wished to know would cause her to explode shortly and he thought that he knew Kōichi enough from his concerned expression already, so he sighed then and tried to explain what had happened to him and how it had ended. The difficult part was trying to have it make sense to them all from the English side of it, because no matter what, it had been unnecessary and cruel. "But, ... they had no right," the boy said. "Well, they had many men so that gave them the right in their eyes," he said tiredly. He looked up at the sound of the boy's mother sending the bath woman away. "It doesn't matter anymore," he said, "I will never go near to an English ship again without wanting to kill someone and while what was done was a crime, I guess, it is permanent, and my reply to it was even more so." He watched as the boy's mother's eyes looked past him a little when Lady Hoshino stepped out of the place where she'd stood hidden to leave the room, having listened to everything and seen what she'd wanted to see. As was desired, Valdemar knew nothing of her presence there the entire time. "Try to go back to forgetting again," Kōichi's mother said softly, "What is much more important is that you are known to everyone now and you have earned their respect for what you did the day that you taught Maeda-san and killed the other man." "Forgive me," he said, "but what I did then was only, ..." "You have shown that you are a daimyo to another lord even if you are a lonely traveler in a far off land and what is spoken of far more is the strength of your arm and the way that you placed your arrows exactly as was asked. Perhaps you did not see them, but there were many others watching from the forest. Aiki-san was one of them. She would never find enough courage to say it to you, but my cousin and I wish to say that you may think of them both – my son and Aiki-san as a pair who are coming to care for you very much – though she tends to hide herself away where Kōichi-san feels honor and pride to walk by your side in the village. I must leave you for a time now. After your bath –" She smiled, "if you do not fall asleep, my son will bring you to my quarters so that we may enjoy a meal together – if you think that you would like that." "I would," he nodded with a tired smile as he felt Kōichi's hands massaging his shoulder while Aiki did the same to his other one, "and I thank you very much for your hospitality." He closed his eyes then and didn't see the look which went from her to the girl. Aiki slowly stopped the work of her fingers on him with a regretful look and the two women left the room. Valdemar almost drifted off several times then, his eyes closed while Kōichi's hands worked on slowly on both shoulders now from where he stood behind Valdemar. He went on, wanting to make the experience a good one for their guest, but also, Kōichi found that he wanted to do this because, though it was something of a surprise to him, he found himself drawn to the stranger – who now seemed far less strange to him. He couldn't really understand all of his feelings, but he knew that at the heart of him, he just liked Valdemar very much. It was the rest of that which confounded and confused him. He was beginning to feel a want inside of him to be near to the barbarian as much and as long as was possible. The whole thing caused him to feel a little embarrassed, but he knew that he liked the feeling overall and he resolved to hide it whenever possible and just enjoy it. He leaned a little and looked at the man's face as he went on, gently kneading the muscles under that skin which to him had only one group of flaws and even those – something which he could not imagine anyone having to endure for having done nothing wrong – they spoke to him of this man's vast internal strength. He couldn't imagine killing a man with only one's fists. He knew for certain that he could never have done it. Kōichi just accepted it then. He liked doing this as he looked at that face, seeing the stubble of the beard which would grow if it were given the chance for it. He wondered what that would look like and then he was a little shocked to find himself wondering how that might feel to his fingers. He considered for a few moments that he thought that he might like that. His next thought almost caused him to stop what he was doing altogether when it crossed his mind that he thought that he'd enjoy it if this man ever had a want in him to kiss his servant. That thought had barely fully registered in him, and he struggled over the surprise of it coming to him when he suddenly realized that he had his own erection then and he gave in to leaning forward just a little to press the bulge under his clothing against the outside of the large wooden tub a few times very slowly in a covert way. His hands worked on as he did it, but then he opened his eyes to see the Dane looking up at him over his shoulder. It was a huge shock and Kōichi didn't know what to do or even see a way to recover from it. "Have – have I done anything wrong?" he asked a little nervously. Valdemar shook his head a little, "Not at all, really. I only wondered why you did that so, ... well, a little forcefully." "I did not mean to," Kōichi said, "I must have been thinking of something else. Hold still a moment, Dane-san. There is a droplet of sweat just waiting for its chance to slip into your eye." Valdemar felt it and had been just about to either shake it off or raise his hand out of the water, but he closed his eyes as he saw Kōichi's fingers approaching. Kōichi held his breath a little as he rested his fingertips against the Dane's unshaven cheek very lightly before he brushed the droplet away with his thumb. "Thank you, my young friend," Valdemar said looking up again before he eased his head back against the edge of the tub and closed his eyes once more. Kōichi nodded with a slight smile in that same second as he slowly mashed his groin against the tub, wondering just how he would get the Gaijin out of the water and dressed without his own arousal being noticed. He couldn't believe what was happening for a couple of reasons. That it was happening at all was one thing – and a big one. He knew that he liked the foreigner very much now, but like this? What was the matter with him? He'd had these little thoughts and notions come to him before, but they were only what he might have thought of as stray thoughts and nothing more. Now he kept having the recurring thought run through his mind that he almost couldn't wait for the chance to be alone in his bed that night. He had no idea how he'd manage to last even that long. The rest of the thoughts which came to him, ... The other issue was at least a little self-explanatory. Why he felt this way toward the Gaijin? He supposed that it was because there was some sameness there and because the Gaijin was the only man who treated him better than someone lower than they were. No matter how low a person stood in the pecking order around this place, every one of them felt that they were at least a little better than Kōichi, the half-barbarian boy. He could almost hear some of the taunts which he'd had to stand from the other boys in the village at one time, not long after they'd come there with the Lady Hoshino. He looked just like the rest of them, but it didn't matter. "Poor little animal," he'd heard. "He'll be a hairy pig one day," another had said often. He looked at the closed eyes on Dane-san's face for a moment. Who wouldn't want to grow up like that? He asked himself. Well, any number of them, he guessed, but for once, Kōichi thought that he could see a less-visible form of beauty on another person. He didn't think it very likely that he'd ever look like the blond man very much, but he knew that he liked what he was looking at. He thought about it for a moment and then he tried to rehearse silently a few times. "Vald, ... Valdemar-san?" He watched the blue eyes open and turn to look up at him again, "Yes?" "Thank you very much for saying that I am your friend. Am I on your list now?" Valdemar nodded and reached out of the water to place his hand over Kōichi's there on the edge of the tub. "I know that you were told to help me and also to report on my words and my doings here. I understand that. But at every turn, you have gone beyond what I am sure that you were told to do and three times at least, you have warned me to keep me from saying or doing the wrong thing. In doing that, you have likely already saved my life at least once. He patted the boy's hand with his fingers once, "Don't worry, Kōichi-san. You are on my list. Now," he smiled, "if we are finished with our womanly declarations of love for the moment, please help me out so that I can get dressed and we can be off for some of your fine mother's hospitality." As the Dane stood up to get out of the tub, Kōichi couldn't help but look. He willed himself not to, but he lost and found his eyes locked on what hung down and dripped with a lot of the running bathwater there before him. He managed to tear his eyes away, but he knew that it was far too late and that the Gaijin had seen it. He resolved to pretend that it hadn't even happened. But in spite of his intent, he found himself a little rattled and sought the last topic of conversation as a place to start at in order to move away from the last moment. Unfortunately, it was also something which led back to ... He did manage to look away as Valdemar got out of the tub – well, after the briefest instant as he'd watched the groups of the man's muscles slide under his skin. It only rattled Kōichi a little more. "What did you mean when you said what you did about declarations?" he asked and then wanted to groan as he realized where those blue eyes were looking at that moment. "Well what I wanted to do was to make a joke, Kōichi-san. That is what friends often do with each other where I am from and I guessed that it must be the same way here. But that was before I saw this," he said as he nudged the bulge in Kōichi's pants with the towel in his hand very gently. "Before you try to crawl into a gap between the floorboards, I want you to know that I understand, so don't feel badly over the way that your body betrays you." "You ..." Kōichi couldn't believe it, "you do?" The Dane was drying himself with a towel then, not looking anywhere even close to the boy. He nodded, "You saw what happened to me when Aiki-san washed me? Did you think that I wanted for it to choose that moment to stand up and wave at her in a friendly fashion?" Kōichi laughed then, "But you are a man. I do not think that mine ought to be waving at a man, should it?" "Well, when you get a chance in a private moment," Valdemar smiled as he continued to dry himself, "maybe you ought to have a bit of a close look at yours. I do not know how the ones around here are made, but I can say that where I come from, not one of them has eyes to see with, so one never knows who they might be trying to get attention from. Though if you do find that yours has eyes, you might want to see about getting it a pair of those spectacles like some old men wear." He pulled on his pants and tied them up while his companion laughed before he turned and placed his hand on Kōichi's shoulder. "What I mean to say is that you shouldn't worry about it. I don't mind. I think that what is in your pants there is at least being a little reasonable. Mine was trying to get the attention of three women as well as you. If nothing else, I think that it was being ridiculously hopeful, don't you?" Kōichi felt better then and he stepped up onto the bench to hold out Valdemar's shirt for him and Valdemar allowed Kōichi to pull it over his head while the Dane looked up at him a little bit. As his head emerged and Kōichi told him to hold still for just a moment so that he could get all of the long blonde hair out of the collar, Kōichi lost his balance a little and found himself against Valdemar with his arms around the other one's thick neck. He'd have fallen off the bench in his shock then, but Valdemar caught him and the two of them looked at each other for a moment. Kōichi felt the Dane's arms slip around him and he groaned a little, not wanting to make any sound at all. He tried to look down then but he found that Valdemar was trying to get him to look up again, so he did, very slowly. The Dane watched those brown eyes rise up until he could see into them and then he leaned forward to kiss Kōichi very softly for a moment. Kōichi looked as he watched the blonde man's face pull away from his own and all that he knew was that he didn't want that. Not now. So he leaned in himself with a very quiet sigh to kiss Valdemar, who groaned quietly before the kiss ended and they looked at each other again. "Is something such as this allowed here?" he asked. "I – I do not know," Kōichi said quietly, "I think that it is. I know that some of the Samurai have taken young commoner men as lovers, though no one speaks of it. But I am not really one like that." "I think that it could be a good thing, because I'm not a Samurai," Vakdemar said with a soft smile, "But this is real? I wish to know if I am holding you because – " "Because I want to be held by you," Kōichi nodded, before he kissed Valdemar again, "I have never felt like this." "Neither have I," the Dane admitted, "but I have been having thoughts of you all day." They spent the next quarter of an hour like that, saying things to each other sometimes, but mostly spending the time just kissing until Kōichi tore himself away a little and regretfully said that they'd better get moving. Valdemar agreed and it was a bit of good timing. Just as they'd gotten their coats on and were opening the door, they found Aiki there coming to get them. She looked at them for a moment and then, as if she saw something there in them, she smiled with a pleased look for a moment. As they walked, he looked up for a moment at the moon – which happened to be full that night – and he groaned quietly. Aiki noticed it and asked him what was wrong. Valdemar had no way of knowing what caused the phenomena that he was looking at. No one would know the exact nature of it for well over a hundred years. But he knew what it presaged quite well. "Aiki-san, can you see the pale ring there around the moon?" When she nodded, he said, "I do not know if it is the same here as it is where I come from, but to us, that means that there will be a storm. Not tonight, and maybe not even tomorrow, but by tomorrow night or maybe sooner, there will be a winter storm – if this is the same as what happens in Europe." As they reached the large hall, Valdemar saw Oda standing outside with Maeda. He walked over as he was greeted. Both of the men mentioned that they were pleased with the results of the first teachings of the men. It surprised him to hear a little of that from the headman as well. Valdemar said that he was happy to have been of service and looked forward to teaching the rest. He remembered the cigars that he'd brought then on the chance that he'd see the lord that night, and before long, the two men were puffing contentedly – along with a little coughing from Oda-san. Maeda-san seemed to have it down already, but Valdemar did mention that they both ought to have their clothes washed – or devote their current clothes to smoking, since the cloth would carry the smell. The remark brought raised eyebrows from the pair, but Valdemar nodded. "Dane-san says this is true," Koichi translated, "He also asks if he may go into the forest to seek a fallen tree. He says that he wishes to cut it up for use as heat during the coming storm." Black Arrow Lord Ch. 04 The daimyo looked around and asked why Valdemar thought that there would be one. It resulted in Valdemar pointing toward the moon and explaining what he knew once again. The daimyo shrugged, "Tell him that if he wishes to take a tree which has already fallen, then he may do that. But I think that he is wrong about the storm." After bidding the men a good night, the three continued on to the Lady Hoshino's suite of rooms. To the side of that, Aiki led them to a small apartment where their meal was waiting. Koichi related what had transpired over the moon and the tree. Valdemar forced himself not to roll his eyes as he told of it yet again, thinking that it he weren't correct, then the villagers would all likely take him to be an idiot very soon. To his surprise, they were joined after a time by Hoshino-san herself who seemed to enjoy the evening very much. "My deceased friend and I were very young when we made our mistakes before she and her Gaijin were killed," Koichi's mother said, "Our children were the most joyous errors which we made, and with Matsu-san they have grown very beautiful to our eyes and we feel such pride in them. But this is a place where Aiki-san's options are limited and my son's even more so. If this were the capital or even any of the larger cities, then Aiki-san would have a bright future and Koichi-san might have one worth living. Here? ..." She shook her head a little sadly. There was more to it, and Valdemar had to listen to the way that fine Japanese women had of winding what they wished to say in many directions and all over the countryside before they got to the point. But when they finally arrived there, the Dane sat with his eyebrows raised quite a bit. He looked at Aiki as well as Koichi and wondered what was really being asked of him. "But there is time yet for this," he heard, "We think that you will be here for a time yet. We only ask this evening if you would consider it." Valdemar nodded and said that he'd give the matter some thought over the next few days. After that, the conversation drifted over several topics while Valdemar found himself to be the object of scrutiny to the Lady for a time. He watched as little nuances were passed between the women and after a time, he noticed that Koichi's mother seemed to regard him a little differently as well. But he couldn't make anything of it and he didn't want to ask, since that would bring Koichi into it somehow and he had a sense that whatever it was, it also related to him. After the meal and the polite talk, He prepared to leave, thanking everyone for a wonderful meal and the chance to get to know them better. He found Koichi preparing to go with him. "I can find my way," he smiled. "You do not understand," Kōichi's mother said quietly, "Last night and tonight it is very cold. We do not know about your little prophesy regarding the moon, but, we have ordered a little more wood to be sent to your home here and, ... well, ... let us say that a space with two people in it will at least seem to be a little warmer than one where you are alone. My son will go with you and spend the night there. He has wanted to stay there for the past two nights anyway. He has no real friends here but Aiki-san-san and Matsu-san. We are all concerned for your health in that cold home if you are there alone. Please agree to take him along." Valdemar was a little stuck then. He didn't mind that much at all, but he only had so much in the way of blankets. He was fairly certain that he was a little more inured to the cold than these people were, given where he was from, but this would mean that he'd have to make do with half as many blankets. But he felt that he had no way to refuse politely – especially after being invited into a home for a fine meal, so he acquiesced and the next thing that he knew, Koichi was walking beside him again with a couple of folded blankets in his arms. ----------------------------------- Their conversation was a little strained after they'd gotten to his home. Kōichi was being nothing but open and honest and matter-of-fact on his side of it. All things considered, it made Valdemar feel a little more as though he was doing something illicit. He nodded his thanks as Kōichi poured him a cup of hot tea and like this – the way that they were then, it bore little resemblance to any sort of formal tea ceremony or even tea serving. It was just one person preparing tea for the two of them in a cold place as the fire crackled a little. "Kōichi-san," he began, "Has enough time gone by for you to finally tell me what it was that Matsu-san said to you, or is that something that I will likely never know?" He expected to hear more embarrassed words and downward glances, but clearly, something had changed that evening because Kōichi did nothing like that. "You were asked to consider taking Aiki-san and I away with you, "he said, "So, you should know some of the rest of it. We three, Matsu-san, Aiki-san and I have always been close. We love each other very much." He looked as though he didn't quite know how to continue then, but he finally just pushed on, "I was to tell you as well that Aiki-san was at that old farmhouse because she and Matsu-san had gone there to be alone together. We do not get many chances to be together, and Matsu-san must spend almost all of her time in her garrison or leading her men. I believe that our mothers want for us to have lives elsewhere and that is the reason that you were asked to think about taking us with you." Several lights blinked on in Valdemar's head then. "So, if I understand you," he began, "You are all lovers?" Kōichi nodded without embarrassment or shame , "And we are all very fond of you, for the way that we are seen now in this place. Not much had changed, but we have noticed it. With you here, our lives have improved, mine and Aiki-san's." He smiled, looking down, "I don't think that I've noticed much of a change in Matsu-san, other than perhaps that she might not regard me as such a criminal now – or at least she might think that I am a slightly useful criminal now." Kōichi shook his head somewhat emphatically then, "No. She respects you. She did before, but it has grown in her since she saw you in that little fight out there in the forest. That is something which Matsu-san finds very difficult to show to anyone." Valdemar let it hang there and looked around. "Where, ... uh, ... where were you going to sleep?" Kōichi didn't even blink. He didn't look embarrassed in the least. He didn't even look just slightly uncomfortable. He just smiled a little. "I will sleep with you, Valdemar-san." The Dane managed to suppress a slight desire to groan, since that was what he'd been a little afraid that he'd hear. He looked at that beautiful face and he said, "You're sure that it is what you want to do?" Kōichi nodded, "Yes." He looked at Valdemar and he saw at once what the trouble was. "I want to sleep with you and more than anything, I wish to please you tonight. I even know a little of the way that it is done. I have some experience, though I admit that it is not much." He stood up then and moved closer to where the Dane was sitting cross-legged. "I wish to sit with you. May I?" Valdemar thought about it for a moment and then he nodded, "Of course." He just wasn't prepared for the way that Kōichi eased himself down carefully to sit on Valdemar's leg so that neither of them spilled any tea. He leaned back a little against Valdemar and he smiled, "I must admit that I am very surprised at the way that Mother insisted that you take me along," he said, "I have a feeling that she knows somehow. From what I think that I saw, she even approves." Valdemar grimaced for a moment as he put his arm around Kōichi's shoulders, mostly in order to prevent him from falling over backwards, "Move a little to your left. Your thigh bone is pressing too hard on my leg." When Kōichi shifted himself a little, Valdemar asked, "How do you mean?" Kōichi sipped his tea for a moment and then he said, "It probably relates to what they said to you. Both my mother and Hoshino-san are from the south. They grew up in the Imperial court at Edo, so they do not need to rely on rumors of what is said; they can feel most of what goes on as though it is another sense that they possess. Hoshino-san constantly amazes Maeda-san with her knowledge of tiny little details of what goes on in and around his hall. They see that Maeda-san will soon have a need of you and they would like for you to stay here. If you do, then Aiki-san and I may have a chance to have lives of our own here. If you cannot stay, then they would like for you to take us both with you. I know Aiki-san better than anyone alive. We are very close in many ways. One of those ways is that we have always loved each other. But here, we can never have each other, and at best, she would only become a whore from the south. If I didn't starve, I'd probably become something even worse and a thief as well. I know that it is a lot for you to think about, but they would like it if you would consider it seriously, and if you can only take one with back with you, then it is my sincere request that it be Aiki-san." Valdemar finished his tea and put the cup down slowly as he tried to understand. Kōichi smiled and reached to prevent the Dane from setting the little cup down on its side in the dirt of the open hearth. He set his own cup down then next to Valdemar's and he turned a little to reach across for the Dane's other shoulder. His kiss then said quite a lot to Valdemar, who was lost in it within seconds. As the kiss was ended, Kōichi only took his face away a very short distance and he whispered, "You could have us both, beautiful Gaijin, anywhere you wish to go, you could have us both to love you. I already do, and Aiki-san wants so much to be there as well. No one would dare say anything unkind to us anymore – not if we belong to the Black Arrow lord. Even as it is now, I have noticed the change in the way that I am treated here as I have said. It is not very much yet, but today, I was actually greeted by an old man. When Mother and I first came here, I remember trying so hard to be pleasant and polite to everyone as my mother taught me to be, but the first time that I tried to say only 'good morning' to that man, he cursed me as the bastard of a southern whore from Edo. I was only a little boy and it made me upset and I asked him what I had done to anger him that way. He told me to be off, and that he knew that a demon had gotten between my mother's legs to make me. He told me that he wouldn't waste his time speaking with animals." Kōichi sighed a little heavily, "That has been my life here." "What changes in your life if you are with me?" Valdemar asked. "Everything," Kōichi smiled. "You are a Gaijin as well, but you are liked. They cannot help but like you. You are too large and dangerous-looking to be ignored, Valdemar-san. You trade in matters which to many older ones here is still seen as magic, and the Samurai grow to respect you. Everywhere in this village – even right now – there is talk of the way that you shoot with a rifle or a bow – especially the bow." What he was not saying was something which he knew for a fact. Maeda would already have begun to see Valdemar as a mild threat if it weren't for the fact that he didn't speak the language well. But he knew that having the barbarian around could help him and the Lady Hoshino had been very quick to point that out, saying that from what she knew, some Gaijin were every bit as duplicitous as the Japanese down in the court at Edo. But she had met a few, ... A few, who like Valdemar, weren't looking for gain or power all of the time – or even most of the time. A few were more open and honest, to a degree which manyJapanese mistook to be stupidity, when in reality it was openness and honor. "The true danger to any of us from them does not come from intrigue or plotting," she'd said, "The true danger comes when they have been used and learn of it. If they are not killed then or before, then a hatred grows within them. You know this yourself, "she'd said, "He even told you what he did to the one who had him whipped. If it had been you who had suffered that, you would have killed the man who'd caused that with a sword or a knife or a pistol, but no, he beat that man's life out of him. Think of that amount of rage, my love. Think of what he would do for you as an ally." But Valdemar knew nothing of this. He only knew that he had feelings for the beautiful boy who professed to love him. As the room glowed and flickered by the light of the few extra pieces of wood thrown upon it, Valdemar stood as Kōichi removed his clothing for him. Kōichi was doing it as quickly as he could, not wanting his large friend to feel any chill. Even so, ... "I know that at some point," he said in a very quiet voice as he looked, "You will possess me with this, Valdemar-san. Even now I think that I would welcome it. But the other side of that is that I must come to know of this wondrous thing and learn to master it a little by knowing its desires." He kissed it softly and sighed, "And as yet, I know but little." He stood up and removed his own clothes in little more than the blink of an eye and then he stepped forward into Valdemar's thick arms. He held himself against the Dane for a few moments and then he looked up and strained a little for his kiss. Valdemar was gentle with Kōichi in bed. They spent a lot of time only pressing their bodies together and kissing each other. The first time that it grew a little urgent for them, Kōichi pushed Valdemar over onto his back and as he climbed on, Kōichi moved his own genitals so that the Dane had a little room and then he held what Valdemar had between this thighs and he held on a little as he worked his slender hips up and down. When Valdemar came, he wanted to try to catch the semen and wipe it off, but Kōichi wouldn't hear of it. "I am yours Valdemar-san, and I am happy to feel it on me. Leave it where it is to remind me of my happiness." The rest happened almost too quickly. Valdemar coaxed Kōichi's semen out of him with his mouth and then he used it to lubricate his lover with his fingers and his tongue, and before either one of them knew it, really, Kōichi was doing his best to allow Valdemar's thick shaft entry into his body. It took a bit of time, since the big blonde didn't want to hurt the one that he felt so much for, but Kōichi saw it as a signpost for them and he worked very hard to get that thing inside of him. When it happened, Kōichi cried out and they froze. But after a long and gasping minute, Kōichi began to hump back against Valdemar, encouraging him when he thought that he could and before long, ... Kōichi was on his hands and knees, looking back now and then as Valdemar drove into him again and again. He groaned and he sometimes wept a little. The pain had been surprisingly brief and it had gone completely by then. Kōichi was in joy and loving the way that it felt to be fucked by a man like this, moaning a little very softly whenever his large buck slowed down a little to press into him deeply so that Kōichi could feel the heavy sack pressing against his own. Whenever he felt that, he'd reach back if he could to softly pet Valdemar's scrotum. But it was only for a minute each time before one or the other of them was back to needing to fuck even more. Kōichi was amazed that the Dane could go this long and he felt a little pride in himself that he seemed to be able to please the man. That thought made him buck back like a fiend, his ragged breath almost whistling in and out of him as he begged Valemar to fuck him harder, and even harder. Then Kōichi cried out as he came and Valdemar pushed in so hard and deeply for him, hanging on to his slim hips with those huge hands of his – lifting Kōichi's back end off the bed for a moment and moving in slightly different ways. Kōichi felt his spurts beginning and he hung his head down to see it by the light of the flickering fire. He saw his own hard shaft waving up and down at him as he came. Most of it sailed under him onto the blankets. A little hit him in the chest and he felt it. And one or two squirts actually hit him in the face. He couldn't believe it. He was so happy. Valdemar eased his lover forward to lie on his front before he continued to fuck him to his own finish. By then, all that Kōichi could do was to moan softly and tell Valdemar how good he was. Kōichi cried out a little when Valdemar came inside of him. It all felt wonderful, but there was the last little bit of reality. Valdemar swelled and hardened just before he came and it opened Kōichi even more and that was where the cry came from. Kōichi opened his eyes and looked at the face of his lover there next to him for a moment. He lifted his hand and caressed the stubble on the far side for a moment very gently. "Imagine two of us for this with you every night," Kōichi smiled weakly. "I'm not sure that I would survive it," the Dane chuckled and they groaned together since the laughter had caused Valdemar to slip out of Kōichi. ------------------------------- The next morning was still cold, but it felt as though it was a little warmer. Valdemar knew that it was only an impression as he looked around. The sky was dull and overcast and he knew that it was the moisture in the air which fooled everyone. He left Kōichi sleeping in the bed when he'd gotten up. The way that beauty could love him, he told himself from the door as he looked back. He didn't have much experience at this and he knew it. He'd never done what they'd done last night and he found himself thinking that he liked it. Right after that thought each time that it came to him, he remembered what had been said of Aiki and her wants. He decided to try to ask in a very cautious way if he could, not understanding how they were both really hopeful to have him like that, and for more than the effect of it on the quality of their lives. He looked back again from the doorway, seeing that face asleep in the bed. The sight of it almost made him go back inside. What the hell was he doing getting up to walk away from a bed with that in it? But he shrugged and walked away to go and look for a tree. No matter what, they'd need a lot more wood if he was even half right. He found one in minutes, one that had only blown down that very year. A little work and, ... He saw a pair of women out looking for wood as well, a lovely–looking older woman and her rather pretty, though not exactly willow-like companion. But they were obviously brighter than he was, since they had a sort of a sled. They could pile wood on it and then the two of them could pull it together back to the village. They knew him to see him, since there were no other Caucasians known to be there and they smiled and greeted him. He showed them his saw, his steel wedge, and his axe. It was a bit of a crazy pantomime, but after a few minutes, they reached an agreement. He'd cut up the tree and allow them to pick the pieces that they wanted. He'd put the wood on the sled and he'd pull it to where they lived if they'd allow him to use the sled to take his share to his home, bringing the sled back afterward. Cutting the tree up into logs which could be burned in the average fire pit took only minutes. Aiki arrived then and said hello to the pair of women – a mother and her daughter who was a friend of hers. Valdemar looked up then, recognizing the voice and Aiki ran to him and hugged him briefly before she bowed a little. He was a little surprised, but her happy face made him grin for a moment. Black Arrow Lord Ch. 04 Then he began to split the wood. In less than a minute, Valdemar had to stop to take his heavy coat off and hang it from another tree. Then he set to it again as they watched. Two minutes after that, they saw the steam of his sweat rising from his shirt in the cold mountain air. "Aiee," the mother remarked, "Look at him work. That won't take him long." "Do you know him, Aiki-san?" the other young woman asked and Aiki nodded. "That is Valdemar-san, the trader who came a while ago. He was at our home last evening for dinner with us – Lady Hoshino, Kōichi-san's mother, Kōichi-san and I." "He sure is different," the girl remarked and her mother laughed a little, "I think that he must be, for I have never seen a trader of any kind who can actually work at anything. Yet this one does and, ... you know? He even looks to be enjoying it. This one –he is the Black Arrow lord, no?" the mother asked, "I have not seen him before. I have only heard of it. What is a lord doing something such as this for?" "Well, I know that he likes to help everyone," Aiki said, "and I guess that where he comes from, they have different ways than we do. "Even so," the older woman said, "I have never heard of a lord who cuts his own wood." "Kōichi's Mother said that he has lost his lands somehow and I guess that if that is so, then he has no people either. He seems to be a little wise, as well," Aiki remarked, "He told me last evening that there would be a storm either later today or tonight. He seemed to be pretty sure about it." "Well you only need to put your pretty nose in the air, girl," the mother said, "I can almost smell it coming, but I don't know if I can say that it will be a proper storm." Aiki shrugged, "Well he told me that last night when it was cold and clear, and by only looking up at the moon. He said that what he saw would bring a storm. "I know what kind of a storm that I wish he might bring me," the girl said and her mother scowled at her to hush. "He does not speak our language," the girl said, before she looked over at Aiki a little uncertainly, "does he?" Aiki smiled uncertainly and she shook her head, "I think that he studied it before he came here, but since he got here, Kōichi-san does all of his talking for him. He was at the bath house early last evening and it fell to me to wash him." The girl's mother chuckled quietly, "And I'd bet that it was such a difficult task, too." "Well there was a lot of him to wash, I have to say, but I liked it. I couldn't really even have begun if he hadn't been sitting down." "Aiki-san," the other girl began, "what was he like, ... you know, ... there?" Aiki expected to hear the girl's mother chide her again, but when she looked over, she saw the woman listening rather closely as well. "It looked the same to me as anyone's," Aiki shrugged and the others nodded. "Only, ... well, bigger." "How big it is when it hangs means little," the older woman said, "it's only when –" "I saw it get bigger - as I held it," Aiki said, with just a little pride, "He was very embarrassed then. I would have thought that he'd be a little proud." But by then, Valdemar was finished and he began to pile the wood on the sled a little carefully so that nothing would be lost during transport. The three females fell silent as he stood up and walked to the tree where his coat hung. He put it on but left it hanging open, since he was still feeling the warmth of the work, and then he grabbed the ropes of the sled and held out his hand to indicate to them that they ought to lead, since he didn't know where they lived. "He surely cannot move that whole thing," the older woman said, "We will need to help hi-" But she stopped and stared as he gave the ropes a heave and once it had started moving, he just kept on with a more or less gentle pull. After a few feet, he beckoned to Aiki to help him and she was glad to, though she was surprised at how little it took. It didn't take them long to reach where they lived, the pair of them walking along in front with Valdemar and Aiki walking behind and pulling the sled together. They walked on up the path right to the door and he waved to them to take what they saw as their share. Even with almost half of it gone, there was still plenty for him and Valdemar didn't mind. He had a feeling that they'd need it if they'd been out hunting up little deadfall branches as he'd seen them. "Hey, who's your big hairy boyfriend?" the neighbor woman called out as Valdemar and Aiki began to drag the rest off. "Never you mind," the woman laughed as she answered, "I don't see that you've got one to work for you, hairy or not!" As the mother and her daughter turned to begin to bring some of the wood inside – just in case the Gaijin was correct about the weather, the mother muttered quietly. "A handsome Gaijin lord who helps common women and doesn't just walk away when there's work to be done – now I've seen everything." She smiled at her daughter, "And I hope that Aiki-san knows what it is that she might have, too – the way that he seemed to smile at her on the way here." -------------------------- Valdemar and Aiki walked to his home, dragging the sled together. It was on the other side of the village, but that didn't mean that it was especially far. Aiki liked the Dane, no matter what anyone said about Gaijin as a whole, and she quickly dispensed with the awkwardness between them by taking his arm as they went. He looked at the gesture with a little surprise, but she laughed, saying in her accented English, "I not fine lady, Dane-san. No one cares." Whenever she was sure that there wasn't anyone within earshot, she just began to talk to him a little, trying to coax a little Japanese out of him. What she heard surprised her actually, since she'd thought that the best that she'd likely get might be 'hai' or 'iye' – literally, yes or no. But he managed to string a few rough sentences together. She had a thought then. "Dane-san? Did you hear and understand what the women and I were speaking about while you were splitting the wood?" He looked a little uncomfortable then, but he finally nodded and said yes, though to his credit, he quickly held up his thumb and forefinger to indicate that he had only gotten a little. In truth, he'd gotten quite a lot of it, but he'd mostly only been listening to see if she mentioned anything about his scars. For the most part, he liked her – really liked her. He understood now what Kōichi had been talking about and he got that. He just couldn't really see how it would work. But then she was talking again, so, ... "Did Kōichi-san tell you that I want to ... be with you as well? I know that he loves you. Anyone could see that last night. I hope that it went well if you tried with him. He told me that he would do anything for you for the way that you treat him, Dane-san. I think that it is what I want as well. We could have a life anywhere with you then and he and I would be happy." It was all too much for him to deal with conversationally at the moment in Japanese as it was now. He looked at her and motioned a little, hoping that she understood to go back in her statements. She thought about it and she tried, guessing that it was what he wanted. The thing of it was that she was speaking so quickly so that she could say it before her courage ran out. "Did Kōichi-san tell you that I want you?" He shook his head, his face showing that he disliked the way that the question was put, dragging his hand out a little. "Did Kōichi-san tell you that I want you as well?" she asked very quietly, though it was obvious that she felt a little flustered to be having the conversation in quite the degree of detail which she was in at the moment. She'd hoped to just be able to gloss right on through it at as high a conversational rate as he might be able to manage, but she was pleased when he nodded. "Must I struggle to ask if it is what you would like?" He didn't get that, so she tried, "Is that what you would like - Kōichi-san and Aiki?" He nodded, "Hai, I want to help ... Kōichi-san and Aiki-san," and he took her hand in his. Aiki stared at him for a moment. And then, ... she understood. It wasn't quite what she'd meant, but she was pretty much finished with whispering her embarrassed admissions to him out in the street this way. She sighed with a smile and squeezed his hand with her fingers as they walked on. -------------------------- "Look at him," she said very softly into his ear, "He's so beautiful like that." She closed the door very quietly behind them. Right here, there was no one to see, so she kissed his cheek and he smiled as she stepped over to pull the covers over Kōichi. As she walked back, she smiled, "You must have worn him out." Valdemar understood little of the words, but he smiled anyway. "You have no idea," Kōichi groaned as he managed to lift his head, "Why are you here, Aiki-san?" "I came to help Valdemar with some firewood. Come on and get dressed or burrow deeper into the blankets, Kōichi-san. We'll have the door open for a little while with we bring it in here." --------------------------------------- It was snowing a little as Valdemar and Kōichi ran down the pathways leading back to where the women lived. Aiki was on the sled, hanging on for dear life and laughing as they pulled her along. The woman was pleased to see them again and offered them rice cakes. "Thank you so very much for the wood. It look to me now as though you might have been right about the weather, Gaijin-san. Where do you come from, if it is not rude of me to ask? I have heard that there are many kinds of Gaijin. I thought that there was only one." She reached out a little tentatively, hoping that she was not being rude and she touched the long blonde hair which was there over the front of his shoulder. "I have heard nothing of your kind before," she said, " and I have certainly never seen anyone with hair like gold before. And eyes which are blue - of all things. The few Gaijin that I saw years ago in the south were all darker somehow with eyes the same color as ours, mostly. I am glad that we met you today." When he'd heard the translation, Valdemar grinned and began to draw in the snow – just general shapes, but he got her to understand that this place over here was where they were and over there was the island with Edo on it and over there was China. Then he walked over a little way and drew what he termed as Gaijin lands. He grew tired after a dozen or so, but then he finally drew a strange smaller shape. "Denmark," he said, and he pointed to himself, "Dane." "That place over there is where he comes from," Kōichi said "His people are called Danes. His name gives Maeda-san fits to try to say, so everyone calls him Dane-san." "Why, he comes from the end of the world," she gasped. When he heard that in English, he shook his head and ran off a little farther, drawing more islands and lands until he drew the same spot that he'd begun with. And he pointed down again. As he walked back to her, he held his hands up as though he was holding a ball. "He tries to tell you that the world is a round thing. He must know something of it, because I know that he has sailed far and been to many lands. He said that he was only showing you the top half of it. There is more down below that." "Well, he sounds like a bit of a fool to me with this nonsense, but I have learned that he is a very kind man who helped my daughter and me, giving us more wood than we could gather in a fortnight – and all while disguising it to look as though he needed to do it so that he could borrow my sled. Please tell him for me that he may use it whenever he wishes." She bowed deeply with a wide smile and then she went inside. ------------------------------------ When they'd walked back to his quarters, they found Matsu sitting out in front of the place with her horse tied up. She noticed right away that Valdemar now said nothing after his rather curt bow and greeting to her. She asked him respectfully to follow her inside for a moment. "I have spoken to my honored mother and my aunt, Kōichi-san's mother, Valdemar-san. I know what was asked of you last evening." She sighed a little sadly once as she gathered her thoughts. "I also know that you do not like me very much at all. I find it a little strange that, where I would never have even given someone such as you a thought before with regard to how he might feel, I now do. I am here for a few reasons, Valdemar-san. One of them is to offer you my apology for my short temper and the way that I was inconsiderate, not thinking that you might hold a different view of things." She paused then and Valdemar could see that whatever there might be which she wanted to say to him next was difficult for her to the point where he might say that it might kill her to say and he waited in respectful silence for a moment. She looked up at him and saw those blue devil's eyes regarding her in about the way that she'd have least expected. They were open in their view of her and she saw no hatred or anger there at all. "Please forgive me," she said quietly to be sure, but clearly all the same. She was a little surprised to see him bow slightly in acceptance without any sort of smirking smile of pleasure to see her obvious discomfort. "I accept, and please, stop whatever I see that you are doing to yourself inside over this," he said, "It does not befit you." She saw his hand reach out for hers then, "Where I am from, we offer our hands at a time like this to show that the matter is to be forgotten." Matsu looked at his hand and then she looked up into his face again to see his open and honest smile and as hard as she tried so look for it, she saw none of the pleased gloating that she'd have expected. She cautiously grasped his hand and he shook hers for a moment. "Forgive me if I do not understand," she said uncertainly, "but why?" He shrugged, still smiling a little, "Because that is how it is done between warriors of my kind – if they are honorable at all." She grinned then, "I do not think that I will ever be able to understand your kind then. One minute, you are cold and look ready to eat the heart of another and the next ... " "We are this way when it is possible to be," he smiled, "though sometimes it cannot be so. But if every slight or imagined one was hounded and pursued to a mortal ending with bloodshed, the land would be empty once more. Sometimes it is better to let the swords rust quietly in disuse." Matsu nodded, "I also came to tell you of the arrival of some more men for you to teach. I have been given fourteen – though I could use forty – and I hoped that you might teach them from the beginning, tomorrow if you could begin then. Also, I still would like to take you for a meal. We are not near the inn where I would have preferred to go, but there is one not far from here where the soldiers go, and to eat with you there while we talk would give my 'cousins' a little time alone together away from the lord's hall." Valdemar looked at Aiki and Kōichi. They tried to give nothing away, but he could see that they had at least a hope for some time alone together, so he nodded, "One thing, Matsu-san. I have a hope that this place, wherever it is, is not very far away at all. There will be a storm tonight." She looked at him as though she thought that he was simple. Either that or she wondered if he was a little touched, but she smiled, "No more than five minutes on a horse – and I think of YOUR horse now. Come, wear your leather finery and your cloak for me and be sure to take at least a sword. Where we go is a place frequented by men at arms and it is to be expected if one wants no trouble." She said nothing this time as she saw the scars on his back, though she thought of how the injustice of it must have felt to him, and though she turned her head a little as he turned around, she did admire his body for a second now and then and when she turned away fully, she saw the others smiling widely at her. "What?" she asked them in Japanese, "Am I not allowed to show a little professional interest?" Valdemar missed it and he wondered why Aiki and Kōichi were laughing. "Pay them no mind," Matsu smiled as she took his arm to guide him out of the door, "I was only admiring your finery." As she closed the door, they heard Aiki almost shriek with her laughter. ----------------------------- They rode through the gathering gloom of the afternoon and Matsu found herself looking at the sky now and then, wondering. She looked over at Valdemar one time afterwards and she found him looking at her with a sly little smile, "Have you decided?" She shrugged, "What am I to decide?" "Whether I am an idiot or a fool," he chuckled. "Neither," she grinned, "Even I can tell that it will snow not long from now, but I see no sign of – " "It will be thick when it happens, Matsu-san," he chuckled, "Just wait a little." ------------------------------- True to her word, it didn't take long to reach the inn. After tying up their horses, they walked in and the raucous laughter and banter of the drinking soldiers fell away to almost silence as everyone stared. Matsu and Valdemar appeared not to notice as they took a pair of seats at one end of what looked to him to be one of the bars in the place. No server came near to take their orders until Matsu slammed her fist on the bar and yelled. A man almost ran over to them and Matsu ordered for them and the place slowly resumed it's former boisterousness. "Where did you learn to shoot so well with a bow?" Matsu asked Valdemar. He looked at her, "It depends on what you believe that I truly am." He smiled, "I could tell you that as a barbarian, it is the first thing that our mothers press into our little hands as we suckle at their breasts." He looked over and saw her doubtful smirk. He smiled. "No, hmm? Well then I could tell you that I picked it up while I was running with a pack of other criminal children, robbing the coaches and carriages of the wealthy." He looked again and saw her smile as she shook her head. "What if I were to say that I was taught by another lord, an old one who said that I would need to know one day when I was a boy?" Matsu reached over and patted his bicep lightly, "Save your secrets then. I will not believe it either when you tell me that you grew these arms because a whore grew confused one night and blew when she meant to suck." He stared at her for a moment and then they both burst into laughter. As they sat trying to talk and beginning to enjoy themselves, some of the stares turned into comments from several patrons who'd been drinking for a time. Matsu said nothing unless the remarks grew to be too crude, but sometimes even her hot glare didn't cause them to stop since she spent hardly any time in the place these days and many of the men didn't know her. "Who let the horse in?" one guardsman asked. Valdemar looked over at Matsu, who shrugged, "That is Taro, the son of Oda-san - a bully who is even more stupid than his father." "I'm speaking to you, horse," the man said, pushing against Valdemar's shoulder just as he was raising his sake bowl to his lips. The action caused only a little to spill, since the Dane saw it coming from the corner of his eye. "That is not a horse, Taro-san," a second man laughed, "that is a bear, as large and dim as any of them." "The first one,"Valdemar said slowly and quietly, "he is the same class as you? As his father?" She nodded with a sour look, "And he gives us all a reason to be proud – while he sleeps his liquor off. The second one is his friend. He is not Samurai. He is only the son of a landowner. He hopes that his service here and his loud friend's help might see him elevated to Samurai one day. That will never happen." Black Arrow Lord Ch. 04 Taro did it twice more, finally succeeding in causing a little more of the drink to spill. "I'd say that he must be a drunk bear then. He stinks of sake." The other man began to try to imitate the snorts of a pig. Valdemar ignored the remark and asked to be clear. "The farmer's boy is not a Samurai?" Matsu shook her head just as Taro tried to shove Valdemar again. The Dane grabbed Taro's arm without even looking and twisted it forward viciously. Taro was forced to lean forward to follow the distension or have his elbow joint torn apart. He grimaced in pain with his face only inches off the bar. Valdemar spoke slowly in his abysmal Japanese. "Father is not here to protect you, Taro-CHAN," Valdemar hissed quietly, using the diminutive suffix reserved for when one speaks to a child. "Leave bears alone." Valdemar reached over with his other hand and he slammed Taro's forehead into the bar three times in rapid succession, upsetting his own sake bowl. When he released the man, it was only to drive his fist into the side of his head. Taro landed on his back but rolled to stop lying face-down on the floor. Valdemar heard a small crash then as his sake bowl exploded. When he looked up, the hopeful farmboy held a short cattle whip in his hand. "Filthy Gaijin, you will regret that. And I know how to tame a bear." He pulled back the whip then but the Dane was already moving, coming around to run at him. That man's expression changed when Valdemar's right hand came into view, slipping his axe out of its loop on his belt. He made a hurried attempt to swing and he struck Valdemar's arm before he turned and ran out the door. Valdemar threw his axe with a roar then and there was a cry from just outside in the darkening gloom. Valdemar stopped running at that point and only looked at the red line growing there on his forearm as he walked the rest of the way to where the man lay gasping on his face in the mud with the axe embedded in his back. Valdemar glanced up at the sky once as he noticed the wind before turning to his task. The Dane pulled the other one up by his hair out of the mud. There was another scream as the axe was wrenched loose and then the cries became piteous as Valdemar hung on grimly and began to hack away at the neck. He was almost half way through before there was silence and another three swings got the head off due to the bad angle. He set the head down on the body and then turned to walk back to the tavern. The others backed away from him with wide eyes and he wiped the bloody axe on Taro's clothing for a moment without even bothering to look up until after he'd placed it back on his belt. Taro was beginning to stir until the Dane lifted his head by the topknot and hissed loudly in Japanese, "Stay down, or the bear might eat you as well, Taro-chan." As Taro tried to focus his eyes, Valdemar shut his lights off again with a rabbit punch to the face. That done, he dragged the unconscious Taro outside and draped his body with his face over the crotch of the corpse. He set the head on the torso in front of Taro's face and then he walked back into the tavern to sit down next to an ashen-faced Matsu. No one said a word as they stared. "To get respect from stubborn animals," Valdemar said to Matsu quietly in English, "you might have to hurt them a time or two – if they are big enough to stand it. Those two were not. Go on, Matsu-san. I will let it be your choice what you tell them now. I might be a wild and half-crazed demon; barely more than a beast myself. Or you might tell them that I am a criminal who has murdered many times and should be put to death. Other than my sadness at ruining what was becoming a fine evening with you, I really couldn't care less what you tell them." He smiled then as a thought came to him, while he scooped up a few fingerfuls of rice to his mouth. "Or you could tell them that I am a lord from a far-off land who dealt with their insults in the same way as is done where I come from – the lonelier parts, anyway." He grinned a little then as he looked over at her, "And that one might be at least a little true. For certain, I am a little sensitive to having someone threaten me with a whip." After saying it, Valdemar looked in no other direction than Matsu's horrified eyes and he waited. Matsu slammed her fists down against the bar, and she stood up to come around and tear the lot of them new places to shit from – especially the new ones in her command, promising punishment for only sitting there while their leader was embarrassed by a pair of besotted louts. She railed at them that Valdemar-san was a Gaijin daimyo; there to teach them something important and that they'd embarrassed themselves - and more importantly their commander by their drunken actions and laughter. "He," she seethed as she pointed back, "has more right to sit in here and be treated well than the dead one – who was no samurai at all, not a lord, and not possessing a single honorable trait whatsoever!" Just as she wound down, there was a cry from outside as Taro got to his feet and retched out there in the mud before he pushed the door open again and drew his sword, rambling on and on at the top of his lungs. "He is telling you of his heritage," Matsu said as she sat down in disgust, "the whole thing." Valdemar got to his feet with a slow smile at the other man, "Please tell him that he ought to just begin. I have no interest in hearing of the deeds of others which are not his own. I see no connection other than to shame the memories of others by the actions of their foolish descendant. My meal is already almost cold and anything that he says is only important to him. I would rather eat, but I am sure that I can spare enough time to kill him if it will shut him up. Spoiled little boys annoy me." Matsu stared at him wide-eyed, but she translated and Taro shouted in his rage as a few of the others snickered. Valdemar threw off his cloak then and drew his own sword and his axe. "Run, Taro-chan. Get father." He took a step forward and stomped his foot. Taro started visibly and he watched several of his comrades shake their heads in disgust. Taro felt the weight of his shame then and ran for his horse. He was off and galloping into the night before anyone could try to stop him. "Bringing you here this night has caused me all sorts of trouble," Matsu said with a little humor, "I do not even know how to report some of this – but it was a very good show." "Think about it, Matsu-san," Valdemar said, "I think that it would read best if you reported what actually happened." He took his first sip of his sake – the second one, since he'd never even had a drop out of the first bowl as he regarded her for a moment. "I will do as we agreed tomorrow. For certain, I will have no trouble holding their attention this time. You said to me that you are the highest, save only your mother and Maeda-san out here. Say what happened. Tell it the way that it came to be. The shame here is Taro's and a little of it will stick to Oda-san, I suppose." He looked away for a moment, seeing the looks that he was drawing from the other men in the now-quiet place, "I would not wish to be any breakable thing in his household when he learns of this, and then I am certain, he will come wanting to kill me." He sighed audibly, "Just another little thing to be happy about in this charming place." "Why did you do that?" she asked. Valdemar shrugged, "What was I supposed to do? To sit still and hope that they might shut up and leave me alone would never have worked. They were drunk. I think that they were past listening to reason anyway. Even if you'd have howled at them to behave even earlier, they would have only seen that the Gaijin needed you to protect him. They have small minds when they are drinking. I wanted to eat in peace and anyway, ... Now they have seen a Gaijin when he is annoyed." He turned to her, "You might think that men are often stupid – and I would not disagree a lot of the time. But where I come from, we try to solve our own troubles when we can." He began to eat again as though nothing had happened. Matsu watched him for a few seconds before she shrugged and joined him. They actually came to enjoy each other's company for a time. After a moment, she looked up at the others and almost roared as she asked them all what they were looking at, and after a moment, the place was just as it had been before the entire incident. They heard the approach of horses about twenty minutes later and then Taro was back – with his father, of course, as well as lord Maeda, who wanted to know whether things were so quiet now that his soldiers could find no one to fight but each other. Taro lost even more of the respect of the others as he stood pointing at Valdemar while speaking to his father and Maeda. Valdemar watched for a little while as he finished his meal and then he wiped his mouth and got to his feet. He stepped over slowly and stood unnoticed by Taro, who continued to jabber out his indignation until Valdemar tapped him on the arm. When he turned and saw Valdemar there looking down at him with a smile. He was visibly startled and almost stepped away, barely catching himself in time, though his father had noted it with an expression of disgust. "Matsu-san," Valdemar said slowly and evenly, his blue devil's eyes never leaving Taro's face, "Please tell Taro-san that I do not know the way that these things go here, but in the barbarian wilds where I come from, a man - once he is indeed a man - seeks to solve his own troubles and tries not to disturb the peace of his father, since he no longer needs his father's help – that is, ... " Valdemar leaned a little, "if he IS a man." He stepped back then, still smiling as he drew his cloak back and gripped the haft of his sword and waited as he watched their eyes while Matsu translated for him. Oda looked ready to explode and Maeda suggested to Valdamar that he sit and enjoy a little sake while he learned of the facts. Valdemar nodded and bowed before he turned and walked back to sit with Matsu as their server brought them more rice wine. He noted the interested expression on the lord's face to see the barbarian drinking with his daughter. "I will do my best when I am asked to tell of it," Matsu whispered to him. "Thank you, Matsu-san, my friend," he smiled as he watched the proceedings, "It means a lot to me – especially as this might be my last night on Earth by the looks that I am seeing." After Matsu was asked to speak and had concluded her remarks, she was surprised to see eight of her men get to their feet to respectfully ask their daimyo if they might speak as well. Maeda allowed it and what he heard went a long way toward negating the differing accounts that he'd heard from Taro's friends. Oda did explode then – at his son for shaming him and he was sent off to live on his own for a year in order to hopefully learn what being a man means. Taro left in fury, and Oda glared at Valdemar for a moment, before he left as well. Maeda walked to where Matsu and Valdemar sat and he asked for a bowl of sake as well. "It seems to me that the Black Arrow lord is a little shrewd as well as being wise," he said, "What he did took some courage and belief in oneself and one's gods. I think that it was the only way to find a path out. But please tell him not to kill any more of my men, Matsu-san. Even I can only look away for so long." When she translated it and saw Valdemar nod with a smile, Maeda grinned a little, "Tell him also that he was correct. The weather has turned into a wild thing and the wind tries hard to suck the flames from many firepits tonight in its rage. You should come home to the hall very soon. Please do not tarry or drink too much and wander. Tonight is not forgiving in that way." Matsu was a little shocked, "That bad? Truly? I mocked him a little for it, and you know how I hate to admit when I am wrong. I plan to either return to the hall, or spend the night in Dane-san's little house, since Aiki-san and Kōichi-san are there waiting with enough wood to keep us all warm. You should know that I have learned many things about Dane-san. Among other things, I have seen that he has honor enough for even me to be able to respect. You have no cause to worry." He almost laughed, "You hold the Northlands in your hands, ruling the men there in your command. I have no worries over you." He laughed a little then and he slapped his hand down on Valdemar's wrist, "I worry for my friend here. I have not been on his list of friends for very long yet." When Matsu translated it for Valdemar in a laughing voice, Maeda took his leave, reminding them that wherever they went, to have a care for the weather and not to leave it too long to go. When he reached the body there on the doorstep. Maeda bellowed to the innkeeper that there was some filth to be removed. Matsu and Valdemar enjoyed a little more of the evening and he made a point to ask Matsu so introduce him to the men who had spoken up for him over what they'd witnessed. With the loud regards of the men, they opened the door to leave. It was almost a challenge just to find the stables where their horses had been tied up. Black Arrow Lord Ch. 05 ***The last chapter to the strange little tale. Check the tabs again, just sayin'. 0_o ------------------------- When they left the inn, the wind had turned into a vengeful banshee, moaning and shrieking, driving what fell from the sky hard enough to sting any exposed skin and obscuring everything that was more than perhaps a dozen feet away. The pair rode off together through the howling maelstrom, their heads hung as low as that of their horses, though Matsu could see that Valdemar looked up now and then to get and keep his bearings. "I cannot see a thing in this," Matsu almost screamed to Valdemar to make herself understood. She saw a shadow that she thought she recognized and pointed, "See there? Let us stand by that building for a moment. I need to catch my breath." He slowed his horse when plainly the mare wanted to go faster -- for once, and he took hold of the bridle of Matsu's horse with a calm hand to help her along and keep her a little close. "Do not try to go there. Only hold on to your saddle. My mare knows the way, as do I," he roared in the wind, "Close your eyes down. We'll be there in a few moments!" It felt like an hour, but it was only minutes before he stopped his horse and opened the door to the stable. Only his horse knew where she was and moved to enter thankfully. Matsu's horse balked, though she gave in to Valdemar's constant pulling and the steady sound of his voice. When they were inside, Matsu dismounted and went to pull the door shut, a little surprised that she could already see the flare of his match to light the lantern hanging there. The latch of the door gave her a bit of trouble because her hands were already well frostbitten. She struggled with it before she won the short battle at last and the wild weather was banished from the cold stable. When she turned back, she found Valdemar already tying her mount up and she strode over to help get her saddle off. They said little, Matsu trying to come to grips with the residual cold that she felt and struggling to work with her wooden-feeling hands. Valdemar came to help her in a few moments. "See to your fine horse," she tried to smile to him as she shivered, "the one with the best nose to guide her home in that mess. I think that she must be part hound." "My saddle is off," he said, "We only need to get yours off and then I have blankets for them both." She looked over; a little amazed to see that it was as he'd said. "How in, ... how did you do that so quickly?" He smiled a little grimly as he tossed her a thick horseblanket, "I come from a land where the winters are often like this. I have learned to keep moving when I feel like only standing to shiver. Most of all, I know that on such a night, to lose your way and above all to stop for longer than a few moments can only have one ending." As they stood between the animals, pulling the blankets onto them in order to smooth them out, Matsu looked over at the snow that she saw in his long hair. It didn't seem to bother him if he even noticed it at all -- likewise the cold's effect on him appeared as much the same to her ... just something barely noticed. Whereas she was beginning to lose the battle to her shivers. They were out of the wind and snow, but ... She remembered that he'd been speaking. "What ending?" He stepped over and pulled his gloves off, placing them under his arm to hold them while he took her cold hands in his warmer ones and rubbed them very gently. Matsu looked down to stare for a moment before she looked up into his face. "You will never reach where you try to go to," he said quietly. "If you stop for longer than a moment, you will never go on because it feels less severe to stand. You may not believe me, but the worst thing that you can do is to seek a sheltered spot unless you are within sight of where you wish to be, and if you are that close already, why stop at all? If you seek a spot out of the wind that is really not shelter like this, the your next thought is that you want to only sit for a moment to rest." He nodded once, "We have legends of evil female spirits who come to travelers then, sometimes changing themselves to resemble loved ones or beautiful maidens -- who appear to want the travelers, of course." "Is this true?" Matsu asked, "Are these spirits all females?" Valdemar kept rubbing her hands, bringing them up to his face so that he could blow on them a little before he went back to rubbing. The cold of the night and the wind tended to bring out his sailor's vocabulary, but he managed to bite it back after the first thought. "Fuck no, that is only the legend, and most travelers who would be out on a night like this are men anyway, so the usual two-sided stupidity of men comes into play if they are thick or just don't know better, I suppose. There are no spirits, Matsu-san, but the results are the same. The traveler sits and rests and never gets up again. I think that the death might not be too bad, once the agony of one's fingers and toes stops because they have frozen solid." He blew onto her hands again before he looked into her eyes, "Matsu-san, the next time that I tell you something, please try to have a little faith in me. These are your lands, but they are on the same world as mine, and the same things happen here as they do there. I think that here, this does not happen as often, that is all. I see you as a lovely woman under your armor and there can be no doubt that you are a proud and accomplished warrior as well, but I have been to more places in the world than you have. I am not a wizard or much of a wise man, but if I am certain enough about the weather to remark on it to you, then you ought to believe me at least a little -- at least enough to think to bring something for your hands on a night like this on the chance that I am right. For everything else, I am like a child who must be led, not understanding what is meant behind the words that are spoken, but for something like this ... " They stood looking at each other there in the flickering light of the lantern for a moment. Valdemar slowly let go of Matsu's hands as the moment lingered and at about the time when he was about to lead her to the door, she raised her arms to place them around his neck and she kissed him for a long moment. Valdemar was a little slow to recover after Matsu drew back, but he surprised her when he thanked her. "My kiss was that good to you?" she asked and then she smiled in pleasant surprise when he nodded, "I'd ask you for another, but it would only prolong the delay where we must think of the solution to the next problem." Matsu kept her arms on his shoulders, "Then whatever the problem is, please hold me so that we may stand together as we delay and consider it." Valdemar was no idiot, so he agreed. The delay came anyway, since by their unspoken agreement, more kisses were obviously needed regardless. "What is the next problem then, if you can even remember that there was one?" she smiled many minutes later, "I have almost forgotten most of my troubles." He looked a little perplexed, "I have only my bed, and I am at least a little certain that when we enter, we will find the others in it -- unless they are far more respectful than wise on a night like this." She chuckled a little, "That is not a problem, Valdemar-san. I brought my bedroll when I came. I left it inside, since there was no one here when I arrived and I saw no purpose in leaving it on my horse while the skies threatened to cause a wild Gaijin lord to be correct. I did heed what you said. I just didn't think to take my gauntlets, since they are not warm to wear. I heard it before I even saw you today, and later when you said it to me as we rode, I only said little because I felt foolish then over not bringing gloves. Many people, the older ones anyway, could see that something was coming, and many others had heard by word of mouth of the kuroi yajirushi hanshu's prediction of foul weather." She smiled, "You are becoming known for your wisdom as well as your prowess at other things. I heard it from the children that I saw as I rode up to the edge of the village. Even they had heard of it and when I asked, they were not shy at all to say that they'd heard of it from their parents -- whom you have likely never even seen. They said that it came from the large Gaijin. This is a small place, Valdemar-san, and the doings of the Black Arrow lord fly on wings of their own." She kissed him again and laughed a little, "Why, I have even heard it said -- not to me directly of course -- that there is a thought that the commander of the northern garrison has designs on the heart of the mighty Gaijin lord." As she watched his eyes open wider at that, Matsu nodded with a clear little laugh, "Oh yes! It is so. I heard it and even I had to wonder over it, since until now, our dealings with each other have only produced angry feelings and hard words. I see no problem here at all. To go anywhere else now would be beyond stupid -- even for one with too much pride such as me. Since you seem to be able to almost laugh at this storm, then I want to be where you are tonight. ------------------------------- When they opened the door to the house and stepped into the dim light inside, they felt the heat of the fire immediately and Valdemar looked from it to the pile of sawn logs which was placed not too far from it, ready to be used. Matsu looked elsewhere and she tugged at Valdemar's sleeve, pointing toward the bed. Aiki lay in Kōichi's arms under the blankets as they both slept. Valdemar took his cloak off and held out his hand for hers to hang them up. She handed it to him and then he astounded her as she pulled the long spines from her hair and it spilled down over her shoulders to hang far down her back - and that was over her armor. Matsu didn't appear to notice the way that Valdemar's jaw seemed to hang a little unhinged, amazed as he was at the sheer volume of her lovely mane. Instead, she immediately began to unroll her blankets, seeing the pile of others which had been brought from somewhere, she guessed. In moments, there was another place for them to sleep. With their boots off, Matsu looked in her pack and came back with a few half-broken rice cakes. Valdemar stepped over and whispered to her, "You have gotten a chill tonight. I can see it in you from across the room. Sit here and pull the blankets over you as much as you can. I will make some oatmeal. I even have some dried meat strips to add to it. Trust me this time, Matsu, and I will give you something that warms you from the inside." She nodded with a smile, though she wasn't very hungry to eat then. But she did want him to see that she could listen to him and not always argue over everything. Though she did manage a little grin as she sat trying to be rid of the last of her shivers, "I have a hope of something such as that, though I was not thinking of eating." He caught her inference and smiled with a nod, "I think that I can see that as well. But without a hot bath to warm your bones, there is only me, isn't there? I seek to give us the best chance." They were a little frozen in time as they looked at each other then. Matsu ended the moment with her smiling nod, "Then do as you must, Valdemar-san." ------------------------------------- As he knelt stirring the pot as the oatmeal cooked, Aiki awoke and she lay on the bed smiling at them for a while. "You should let him warm you in another way," she whispered in Japanese. Matsu nodded, "Why do you think that I am here, Aiki-san? But as in all things I must guess, our Gaijin seems to have strange rituals which must be performed beforehand, I think. It does smell good, though." Valdemar looked around, "There is only one bowl." Aiki nodded carefully, not wanting to wake Kōichi, "We shared a little rice after you left. I will get up and wash the bowl for you." But he held up his hand and whispered to her, "No. That would be wrong to my mind, Aiki-san. Stay where you are, please. I will give this to M -- " "THAT would be wrong, Valdemar-san," Matsu smiled, "Unless you have some reason, I would be happy to share out of one bowl with you." They sat together as close as possible while they ate and Matsu looked over, her face showing her surprise, "What is this? You were right about how it seems to warm me." "Oats," Valdemar smiled, "Milled oats, cooked in boiling water and I added a little milk afterwards. The pieces in it are dried bacon which the cooking softened and I poured molasses over the top to sweeten it a little. I think that it goes well with the rice cakes that you brought." "I think that you are a walking and never-ending surprise to me," she grinned, "I can say that I can never guess what you might say or do next, but I am coming to really enjoy it. So I sit here eating horse food and I am pleased. She leaned against him a little with a soft smile as she looked up, "This here," she said very quietly, "this to me, Valdemar-san, is not anything to do with who we are, you and I. Tonight -- and I find that I wish to say 'at last', my large friend, it has everything to do with what we are, and that is only a woman who now has a want to be against a man she has come to admire and care for. I care nothing that I am Japanese and you are Danish, and I can now tell you that I care even less about the other things which are different between us, since I have come to like them very much. You understand this, yes?" Valdemar nodded, as he put his arm around Matsu, careful to avoid tugging at her hair with the weight of his arm, "I feel the same, though I might say that I always have, ... well, whenever the differences were not being thrown in my face by anyone. Thank you, Matsu-san." "May I ask you something which has bothered me for a time?" she asked, "It changes nothing to me, but I am always a little confused when you tell me that you were a poor and illegitimate son, and with the next breath, I hear you tell me that I might consider you a lord with no lands and no people. I truly do not care anymore, but if I might hear of what actually is, then I could tell my curiosity to be still and to leave my thoughts alone." Valdemar smiled a little, wishing now that he'd never been asked by anyone here to explain himself from the first meeting with lord Maeda. "Alright, Matsu-san," he nodded, "First allow me to complete your confusion by telling you that all of what I said is true, every word. My name is an almost royal one where I come from, though few have even heard of it anymore. In Europe these days, it can be a little hard to maintain one's nobility without the application of a lot of money -- which my family's house has none of anymore anyway. The title and the name came down to my uncle -- whom I had never met. From what I learned, he was a drunkard and guzzled the last of the family's fortunes away before he drank himself to death. At some point, he threw his young sister out into the world where she had no idea how to live with little more than the dress that she wore. She kept at least her name and did her best. Sometimes, the best that she could do was to sell her body. " He looked down then, wondering how Matsu might take the next part and if nothing else, he guessed that to hear it might test the words that she'd spoken to him a few minutes before, so .. "I never knew my father, who I must suppose was only a man and who only used my mother -- for that was the sister of the last of the lords of my family -- for his pleasure. I do not know if there was a relationship there at all, or if my being conceived came about from only one evening. I never knew for certain what I was until the day that my mother was murdered by two men. I killed them, the first men that I ever killed. I beat them to death with an iron fireplace poker. I was fourteen then and I knew nothing of my mother selling herself sometimes even then to keep us alive. After that, I hired on to a Danish ship and never went back. What happened to my back came later at the hands of Englishmen. Before my mother died, I had a job working for an old Danish noble who had some money troubles himself. But he knew my family and he told me one day that my uncle had drunken himself to death one night. He taught me to shoot with a bow and a rifle and to ride a horse and many other things, saying that I ought to know of them even as I was. So to finish my tale, I am -- as far as I know -- the bastard son of a very poor whore who came from a noble family. Since I never knew my father, I took my mother's last name and as far as I am aware, I am the last living person descended from that family. The name will die with me." He looked at her, trying hard not to look a little expectant to see her shock and disgust. But she only leaned against him a little more and, carefully cradling their shared bowl of oatmeal, she reached around to pull his face so that they might look at each other and she kissed him softly for a moment. "What you have told me changes nothing for me, Dane, "she said in a whisper, "Though I promise you that I will never speak of it to anyone. Leave this secret with me, Valdemar-san. To me, the fact remains that I sit here with a lord all the same, and I will never speak of it again, even with you." She looked down then at what they shared for a moment. "Is this what you would be eating where you come from?" "On a night like this, probably, if I had not eaten by this time. It depends on one's circumstances, Matsu-san. If I were living in a town or city, or if I were a little wealthy, I'd eat this more for breakfast than a late meal. My dinner would have many vegetables which store well then. I'd tell you, but you have likely never heard of most of them. There would be much more meat then, to be sure. From what I have seen here, we eat far more meat than your people. And of course, we wouldn't be sitting like this then, if we were there together. We'd be sitting on chairs at a table and looking at each other in the soft light of candles a little hopefully." He smiled a little then, "And I could forget my troubles over eating with little sticks of wood. I have come to like the way that it is done here, but sometimes I almost ache to feel a knife in one hand and a fork in the other and a grand-looking roast before me." He smiled at her and the way that the light of the fire cast her in a warm glowing light, "But that is there, many thousands of miles away, and if I was there and was asked by someone, I would probably tell them of the time that I sat in a drafty little house with the wind trying to howl everything down outside, sitting next to you and eating something like this together with the hardest warrior woman that I have ever known and feeling like a lord only to be that lucky." Matsu smiled, "If I can cause you to feel like that while I only sit with you to eat like this, then let us hurry to finish so that I can try to make you feel even better. But, ... tell me, is this what a Dane man feeds to a Dane woman if he has a hope for a little love with her?" Valdemar shrugged with a helpless expression before he smiled at her very slowly, "Not unless he worried for her health after seeing her half-frozen and cared for her enough to worry at all. At most times, he would feed her whatever he thought gave him the best chance for it between them. Strong alcohol seems to work well at removing their doubts -- as well as their clothing." Matsu laughed quietly, nodding, "And I poured that in all by myself at the inn. You might have a good chance, my friend." The room wasn't really cold at all, and it grew even warmer from the additional wood that Valdemar had thrown onto the fire as it began to burn, but neither of them wanted to get up to remove their clothing. Black Arrow Lord Ch. 05 It did come off, though, just a piece at a time with a lot of quiet and laughing struggles as they helped each other. Neither of them ever forgot that night, making love in a rather limited number of ways to try to keep the covers on them in the darkness. The room was lit by only the flickering light of the fire as they held each other tightly out of some need between them which remained unspoken by them both, since beside the obvious, neither one could really say that they understood it well enough to remark on it much. But they did know that it was there inside themselves and even more oddly, they thought that they could see it in each other as well. The quiet way that they sought for this out of consideration for the others just didn't seem to be as much of a bother as they'd thought, and it surprised them that they even liked it this way. "Valdemar, "Matsu whispered, the polite suffix forgotten as she raised her leg to ease it over his hip once more while she guided his shaft into her again, "I wish to tell you something. Many of us regard the, ... well, the hairiness that we see on the bodies of the few Gaijin that we might see as something which marks the person as -- " He nodded as he looked at her and he opened his mouth to speak. But she had her fingers over his lips in a heartbeat or less as she shook her head. "Stop, Valdemar. Please stop. We are here and I love this with you far more than with any man that I have had -- other than perhaps Kōichi-san, though this is very different to me and better in that it is us here. With him, it has more to do with familiarity and comfort, since we three have done this together for so long that we know that we just need it between us. It is our little secret family -- us three and what we do, and I always have the comfort of knowing that I am one of the three in a place and a way where there are no distinctions made about class or who is better. It is the love of three children who grew up together with no other friends. With you, now, ... this is far different, but I wanted to tell you something, so listen before you grow angry with me over what is NOT meant this time. Most of our troubles, yours and mine, have come from me -- I admit it -- but what begins our coldness to each other each time is the way that you react to what I might say." She kissed him for a moment, hoping that it would cause him to forget their earlier troubles. "What I wished to say -- and now, seeing that I almost caused us even more trouble, what I now need to tell you is that, like so much about you, I have come to love it." She felt him relax then, a little surprised that she hadn't even noticed it when he'd tensed and took it to be just another of the dangers of his kind. She must have caught him just before he'd withdrawn again. "I love it now," she smiled, "I know that at the moment, it has a little to do with the way that the night is an awful one outside and that I was so cold in such little time. But I saw it when you did the right thing and ignored me to reach over and lead my horse for me out there. I saw the care in your eyes as you tried to warm my hands, and Valdemar, I even felt a little of the warmth coming to me from your body as you held me in the stables. I understand all of that. Now, I am here with you, aren't I? If you need a reason, it is because I want to be here and nowhere else but in these arms. I am against a man who has the strength to throw an axe that I would need to likely strain so that I could even lift it up. I doubt that for all of my skill, I could do very much at all with that evil-looking sword of yours, and for certain, an arrow sent from my bow might only get in to an enemy if it hit a seam in the armor on him. Your arrows go in deeply every time anywhere. I almost dropped my naginata to see it. I want to be here with you. And ... and what I wanted to say that I like this fur on your chest very much now. It is so warm and it gives me a place to press my face against and it never itches me, a very nice and pleasant thing to have found out about you, as so many things are if I only set my pride aside. I love to run my hands over you. Have you not noticed this? I would never do it if I considered you to be a hairy beast." She kissed him again and as she drew back, she smiled softly, "Though the thought of lying with a beast like you is a warm one to me which I like to think of quite often. So please, ... allow me to say the words which come to me and I will be careful not to say anything which you might mistake. I once thought of you very ... disdainfully in the way that I often regard men, but I was wrong about you. Please allow me to say what I wish and try not to mistake it for anything other than what it is. Come," she smiled as she rolled the upper part of her body back onto the blankets underneath her. "I am no longer cold thanks to you, my friend. Come and let me have you again while I lie on my back and look at you. Only try to keep us covered if you can. I find that I do not care much anymore and I want it that way with a very fine man to my eyes." He slipped out of her for the moment that it took him to try not to crush her as he got over her and mounted her again. When he looked into her eyes, Valdemar was rather astounded at what he saw there. Her eyes, lidded down as they were then seemed to be able to reach into him somehow and he felt the pull. She could look so dismissive and cold when she felt that way, and he'd seen the way that she could appear when she was angry. He found that he loved to look at her face at any time, seeing her reasoning ability as the wheels turned and the way that she seemed to sparkle to him a little when she was feeling humorous and playful. But this, ... It seemed to him that he could see her in several different ways at once like this. He could imagine her when she'd been a child and at the same time, he saw her now as a woman who wanted this time with him, this mating. He also saw her small and almost continual sense of wonder at him too, but ... There was hope there, he thought, and it came to him as a bit of a shock. There was hope in her as well, and he knew that it related to something far longer than this and it made him consider that, of all of the women that he'd ever known well enough for this -- any of them -- ALL of them, he'd seen many things in their eyes. But he'd never seen what he was looking at right now. He watched those eyes close languidly as he entered her once more and then, after two soft thrusts, she drew her legs back and he had to stop to try to cover them out of his consideration for her. When he looked again, she was smiling up at him. "You didn't need to do that." He smiled back as he leaned in a little to kiss her throat, "I have learned one truth in my life which is as fundamental as the sunrise and the waves on the sea." She shivered though not from the cold as she felt him lick under her ear for a moment. When the moment passed, she nudged upward on him with a pleased sigh, "And? You cannot say a thing like that to me, Gaijin. I am a woman after all. Now there is something which I must know. What is this truth?" He sighed himself as he pulled back and then thrust into her slowly again while she exhaled her reaction to the feeling of it, "A woman who feels even a little cold at a time like this is a terrible shame which is to be avoided if at all possible. You see?" he smiled down at her, "fundamental." "Ah!" she hissed a little in humorous pleasure, "I am a fool. To have seen you that first day and thought badly of you, when there is something like a mind in you which seeks for fundamental things and the heart that you have in there ..." She reached up and felt her fingertips sliding over him; his very strong arms and shoulders. She brought her eyes back up to look into his face once more, reaching to slip her fingers into the hair at the back of his head while her hand touched his face and the light stubble there. She loved the way that it felt under her palm and she drew her thumb toward the rest of her fingers so that she could feel the short and hard bristle as it slid over them. The rest of her body reveled to feel his careful weight on her and the way that it felt to her as that wonderful thing of his plowed in and out of her so slowly that it all threatened to take her breath away. No one had ever loved with her like this. She felt the hard bristle as he kissed her, but she also knew that he was aware of it and what it could do to her skin. It had never been an issue with anyone before, but she had a thought that surely few of his kind would think of the detail and of those would might, she doubted that they'd care all that much. She'd expected and even hoped for a good fucking here, but the situation and the circumstances had precluded it. So they had this wonderful and much quieter match between them instead. And anyway, she told herself, what mystery could there be to the faster one, which she was certain would have been every bit as good for her? The three times that he'd already had her had been quiet wonders to her, the last time being the best so far since she'd come to her bliss a few times in it. He was a man whose body went rather far past impressing any women who saw him and had the brains to regard him as attractive, and she'd seen the explosive power there with her own eyes as he'd forced respect and fear out of a group of cocky guardsmen in the inn. As she looked up at him in what to her was the most dreamy pleasure that she could imagine, she remembered something that he'd said for a moment and she smiled. He asked about it and she felt a little silly for just a second, though she recovered in an instant. "Some men regard the quiet thoughts of a woman to be empty and foolish things. I know you well enough now to see that you do not. It was only a thought of you that I held in my pleasure, nothing more," she whispered as she felt herself nearing the point where reasoning thoughts were likely about to become a little rare and hard to think through. As he went on and she rose to it in the most delicious and unhurried way that she'd ever known, the memory of what he'd said returned to her mind. 'Now they have seen a Gaijin when he is annoyed.' Annoyed, she thought. If that had been his annoyance, what must he be like in his wrath? She drew her legs back a little when she realized that they'd slipped down a little bit. That would never do, she thought. She wanted him in as deeply as she could get him into her. She felt each thrust as something beyond palpable. This was something which women had a weakness for after all, she reasoned. We are designed to want and need it, she thought, so that the seed of the man has the best chance to make another life. We might not want that at the time, but we are all made to want the heat of a large prick deep inside of us. She wondered for a moment if they might be making a new little life here with what they were doing. She knew her cycle, but there was always the chance of it, she guessed. It made her smile to herself that for this one, she'd want to do it at some point ... And then she had the sudden and startling thought that she'd actually had the previous thought and it surprised her. But before she could take herself down the roads of thought and what it could do to her as far as her father and mother might think about it or how it might affect her reputation, she felt herself rising in her want of it -- and him. She was nearing her mountain, the one where there was only the clouds and the rain and she wanted to spread the wings which she didn't have to fly there and beyond. She looked up at him and saw that his topknot had become undone in their quiet struggles and the way that his very long and golden barbarian's hair spilled down past his head and onto her -- the way that she felt the silk of it as it moved over her breasts ... Her eyes flashed up to look at his face then, and she saw a man, ... a rather large one to be sure, ... but she saw the way that he seemed to be almost the boy that he once must have been almost holding out his heart to her. The image was gone the next instant, ... not because he sought to hide it, and not because she'd lost the desire to see it. Her tears had begun. It had never happened to her before and she blinked furiously, trying to see through them while needing to hold onto him tightly at the same time. She even tightened her grip on him with her legs a bit as well as her tears ran slowly down the sides of her head to hide in her long, dark hair. Valdemar saw them and he almost asked, but he saw her close her eyes and shake her head, trying to wave the question away for a moment. To his credit, he got that there was nothing wrong for her and he held his tongue. Neither of them really knew that it was just something which was so very, very profound and ... right to her instead. It came to her in another minute. She tried to hold it back, but she sobbed once and then she looked up at him again and he knew what it was, though he'd never seen it in anyone before either. "Deeper, Valdemar, "she sighed as she tilted her head back and reached for one of her own nipples. Over the next three strokes, he lowered himself a little and it caused her to tilt her head back even more as each of her breaths seemed to begin to snag in her throat as she gasped, and he began to feel her quiver a little under him. Matsu's mouth opened wide in a silent scream and he felt her contract on him there deep inside of her. He'd had his own issues in this up to this point, seeing her there under him as though she was the very first woman that he'd ever really done this with and meant it in this way. The trip over the rim of the canyon to see down into the depths of her heart was a very short thing which just flashed past underneath him as the first knowledge that he was about to let go came to him even faster than the first tickle of it's warning. The lip of the rim was there and gone in an instant. But the trip down into her heart was a very long one indeed. The swell and hardening of his shaft then, the sign that it was imminent caused Matsu to gasp even louder and then as she felt herself slip into the rain, she also felt his contractions. For the first time in her life, she felt without a doubt that a man was filling her. It had happened before, of course. She'd just never felt it like this before. She smiled with closed eyes as she welcomed something which had never thrilled her before -- though she was happy for it now. Matsu had never minded the way that a man's semen had of seeming to get to the most surprising places when he came, onto her robe or onto her cheek and Heaven forbid, into her hair unnoticed and unfound after she'd fellated a man. That was all good if it was found in time and she loved to feel it in her mouth if it was Kōichi-san's. She liked to taste his the best and Aiki-san shared the very same opinion of it. But this, ... the way that she felt Valdemar pump into her as he pressed in so deeply and well, moving in little ways as though his doing that might get the tip of that wonder in just a little deeper somehow in a cautious way as he hoped that he didn't hit her cervix this time. He just felt the end as he grazed it and he drew back a tiny bit. To him, it felt so very good and it matched what he felt coming from her breast to him, though he hadn't really noticed that yet. To Matsu, it felt almost holy. She sighed and whimpered a little, not caring that she had nothing whatsoever to whimper about as she ran her hands over his shoulder and the back of his head, her fingers in as far as she could get them into his magnificent golden mane as she held his head next to hers. This had been the fourth time that evening that she'd had his seed pumped into her. Each time had been better than the last, but this time, ... she didn't know what it was, it was just, ... right, even more than the others. "Valdemar, ..." she whispered so softly to him. "Valdemar, do you always do this to your women?" There was a pause as he considered for a moment, "I think that I am usually a lot louder," he chuckled, "but do you mean this, ... you cannot feel it, but I have this feeling." He felt her nod against his head very gently, "I have a feeling as well. That is what I was asking for." He raised his head very slowly to look into her eyes and he smiled -- which took her heart in a way and to him, it felt as though the thin ledge that he seemed to feel as though he stood on above that canyon was crumbling under him. He kissed her very softly for a moment. "The other times, yes, I suppose, though I have never felt things in that way before, but what we just did, no, Matsu, I don't think that I have ever felt that way -- and certainly I have never caused anyone to cry before," he said just remembering it. "I'm sorry if I -- " The angle was terrible, but Matsu did get her fingers over his lips again. "Stop again?" he asked in a muffled way and she nodded. "You did nothing wrong. I was happy. Very surprised, but happy. "I cannot say that I have had many men," she said, just a little seriously, "But that, Valdemar, ..." She smiled then, "I only need to know one thing from you. Are you married to anyone, ... somewhere that you have been in your grand travels? Is there anyone, some woman someplace who considers you as her man alone?" The earnestness that he saw there caused him to have to think of it rather than just answer. Matsu shook his shoulder after a few seconds, "I do not require the full long list of their names." He almost laughed. "I saw that you really wanted to know for some reason, and so I had to think. Sorry if it took too long, Matsu. There is no one. Why would you want to know?" She reached as far as she could under the blankets and she tried to slap his bottom as she chuckled, "Because I wanted to know whether I have a hope at all." She kissed him for a moment and then she moved her arms to hold him tightly for a moment. Then she sighed, "If there is no one, then I have no reason to feel foolish for having asked out of my need to know. If you like this with me, then please allow me to be yours, Valdemar. I will only share you with two others." He blinked, wondering what this strange thing was about. "Have you been with my cousins yet?" Valdemar found himself staring into Matsu's eyes for a moment, and then he shook his head. But then he understood a little more and he amended it, "Wait, yes, I have. Kōichi and I slept together last night." "And?" Matsu asked in a way that astounded him, "Was it good? He loves you as he has told me, and he said that he hoped to lie with you and you say now that it has happened. If it was good, then there is only Aiki-san left for you to love with and if you wish, then you have your family here. We three need to speak of it yet, but I think that we would all agree. Kōichi-san and Aiki-san would like to be married one day, and also, ..." She sighed as she shifted a little under him, "I suppose that I must find a husband at some point. But I do not want anyone around here -- especially not after this night with you." She looked away a little for a moment, "A girl might want to have only one man and it must be like that from the other side, though I do not know that. If I am not enough, we can just try to bring you into our family and we go on as before, but sharing you between us." Valdemar was struggling at that point. "But you are Samurai," he said, "The daughter of a daimyo." Seeing her look, he held up his hand, "I only say it to point out that there might be expectations there which might be difficult for you, that's all. I know who you are and it changes nothing for me in how I see you." Black Arrow Lord Ch. 05 "And for yourself?" Matsu asked, already wondering why her temper wasn't rising quite so quickly. "For myself," he said, "Not that it could ever happen, but for myself, I'd be honored to try to see if we can make more out of this between us, Matsu.I find that you have placed a longing in me for that." Her eyes opened wide and he wondered if he could ever get to learn how to recognize all of the pitfalls that living here placed in front of him. The thought that he'd likely ruined something really bothered him now. "Wait a moment and I'll let you up," he said sadly as he began to do it, "I've never felt anything like what I felt with you, but I guess that was only to show me what I'll be missing and -- " Matsu lunged for him and she pulled him down onto her with a grunt as she tightened her arms, "You will go nowhere, Gaijin. I don't care about expectations. I believe that I may have found the one that I want. We will need to see, won't we? If I can hold you to me with my poor and slightly manly charms, then if I must, I will find some way to keep you next to my heart somehow. If it can be done, we might have to marry and set up a home somewhere so that we need a pair of servants," she said, moving her chin to indicate the others in the room. Kōichi already loves you, and I know that I could love you so easily after this. I find that I might be falling already. I have no want to frighten you, Valdemar, but I find that I have to keep pushing away my desire to let my mind run free as I imagine what a life as the Black Arrow lord's wife might be like. You will need to love with the third one of us very soon, if any of this appeals to you. I can already see it in her eyes, Valdemar. Aiki-san wants you too." "She has already said as much to me," she whispered, "I think that she has been waiting for you and I to do what we did here tonight." "Do you want to try?" she asked, "Valdemar, I would not ever mind knowing that you love with all of us. We seem to be in agreement that we all want you. I think that I just seem to want it in a more formal way with you, since it would be easy to make their lives better that way. For me, there must be a certain, ... formality to it, being who I am." "That's the only reason that you have?" he asked. She did manage to slap his ass that time. "No. Do not be foolish. I have my own hopes as well. But a girl does not say things like this and make her admissions to a man as she lies with him after the fourth joining." "Fine," he grinned as she felt him just beginning to harden again against her thigh, "What about after five times? I've felt something with you that I've never felt before, and I think I saw right into you past that mysterious outer shell that you all seem to hide yourselves behind." "What did you see?" she asked, not fighting him as he pulled her onto her side a little. Her eyes opened wide at the soft slap of his hand against her backside in a little retaliation. "I think that I saw the most wondrous thing -- even though my eyes were closed at the time. It just came into my head then that somehow, I caught a glimpse of your heart, Matsu. Other than how you always look so good to me, I don't think that I've ever seen anything so beautiful or deep in my life." Matsu ignored her mild and surprised outrage at having her bottom slapped. She lifted her leg over him again, "Gaijin," she whispered, "then I hope that you can see your fine luck as it comes to you. I know that I can certainly see my own." ------------------------------- In the morning, they all looked out and stared at the sheer volume of the snowfall. As Aiki began to set to the making of some sort of early meal, the rest spilled out of the door and tried to at least clear the pathway to the road. After about a half an hour of it, they all looked up as they heard some quiet sniffling and weeping. It was the pair of women that Valdemar had helped with the wood walking along looking like walking misery and dragging their sled behind then which was piled with a few possessions. It took more patience than he had to stand out in the cold as they shivered and tried to speak of it. "Let's get them inside," he said," Perhaps with a little warmth and hopefully something warm inside of them, we might come to learn of their troubles today sometime, I would hope." When they'd finally gotten it out of them, they learned that the heavy snowfall had caused their small and poorly-built home to collapse. All that they had -- everything that they owned -- now lay under the broken beams and bits of thatching which stuck up out of the snow in a very small area. They'd had no food and very little warmth over the night as they'd huddled against what was left to them in the world, which amounted to not much more than what they were wearing and some furs which they clutched to hold around them. Valdemar found that he had to smile as the older one of them looked a little aghast as he tried to unwind the frozen rags from her feet. She even tried to fight him a little, but he only shook his head and, finally getting down to her bare feet, he and Matsu began to hold their warm hands against them as gently as they could, while Aiki and Kōichi started in on the still-weeping girl's feet. There were a lot of painful tears before they managed to get the last of the frostbite out, but there didn't appear to be any sort of permanent harm done, as almost miraculous as it seemed. Just as they were beginning to get the women warm, a messenger came to ask Valdemar and Matsu to go to the lord's hall for an audience with him. They left, after asking Kōichi and Aiki to do whatever they could to warm and comfort the unfortunate pair and then asking them to go back and get what firewood they could salvage from the ruin as well. "Not quite so quickly, "Matsu groaned a little as she tried to keep up with Valdemar's long strides. "The daimyo will still be there in his hall even if we walk at my slow speed today." ----------------------------------- The daimyo managed a very small smile as his daughter and Valdemar were shown into the room. He silently motioned for everyone else to leave, though he said nothing and only held up his hand for them to wait. A moment later, Lady Hoshino and her cousin walked into the room and took places on either side of him. "I have had some time to think of things," he said quietly as Matsu began to translate for Valdemar. "I make my assumption that last night was a pleasant dream which passed between someone that I hold a great measure of respect for and my daughter, who I have always felt such strong and quiet pride in -- since you both stand there with what I take to be closeness between you. I have had news that our nearest southern neighbors will soon -- if it is not already beginning -- prepare to march against us. I am pulling our forces down in the north so that I can add to what we will need to repel their attacks. For this, I will need the skill and ability of many, and to lead them, I will send my own flesh and blood, Matsu-san. But I have asked for you both to be here so that I might ask my large friend's help and that he add his skills to yours." "What about my cousins, honored father?" Matsu asked, "Since I have been commanding the northern garrison, I see them only rarely." Maeda was about to speak when his cherished concubine tugged once at his sleeve and he turned to lean his head down to listen for a moment. He looked at the pair again afterwards with a nod and an almost barely perceptible smile as he said, "This coming time will be turbulent for everyone before it is done, I am certain. But after this, if we prevail, then it is my intention to send you both back to the northlands to continue to guard there. I will allot some funds so that you can have a proper home there, and of course, you will require people there to run the home -- though you, daughter will need to oversee the expenses and upkeep. Think of this in the way that I do," he smiled, "that it might be a rather true test of what I see before me. Before such time, your cousins can continue as they have done here, but now I wish for them to live in my esteemed friend's little house in the village. I wish to see if they can manage that at all well." Valdemar turned to Matsu and reminded her of the women whose home had fallen in. When he heard of it, Maeda nodded a little sadly, "I have heard that there were three homes such as that. Let them remain where they are until the spring reveals to us what might be spared of their home. The mother, as I recall, was a woman of pleasure at one time, but her swelling belly forced her to draw back from the business and she never returned to it, choosing instead to live poorly and raise her child. I give them to you, Matsu-san. Make them into servants if you need to, so that the kuroi yajirushi hanshu's home might have a little harmony still in it when you both return. It is our need to win this," he said, "and if I might have a wish, I begin to see it as an opportunity to give a landless lord at least a measure of my respect and thanks." ------------------------------ "What do you think?" Matsu asked as they walked back together, both of them still rather amazed at what they'd been told. "I think that your father fully expects you to kill me in a fit of rage one day, but before then, he wishes me to help you in any way that I can," the Dane smiled, "so that is what I will do." "I don't see it in quite so severe a way," she smiled back, "I believe that he intends to capitalize on something between us and use it to hold onto what he has here, while at the same time allowing us something that would normally not be permitted. A time of war can allow many veils to fall, Valdemar-san." They walked to the inn first where Matsu bought two bottles of sake before they carried on back to Valdemar's home. ---------------------------------- The others at his home were astounded at what they'd heard once it had been explained to them. The older woman nodded, "We can do that easily," she nodded, "and even better since it is a way for my daughter and I to give something to this fine lady and the foreign lord that she now wishes to keep beside her, if I am correct in what my eyes see. But, ..." She looked around herself, "This is much larger than our poor home was to be sure, but even so, it is only one room for the most part. We are grateful for the chance nonetheless," she said with a low bow. "I have always wanted to be a woman who lived in the home of a lord, though I could never find a way to manage it here, since Lord Maeda has his two lovers for his pleasure, and next to them, my poor charms could never outshine those two beauties." She chuckled in a little embarrassment when it had been pointed out to her that the children of those beauties were there with her in the same room. "I never knew of it," she grinned a little in surprise, "but I am happy to know you now for who you are, and I am so grateful for everything." She didn't really bat an eye as the relationships and even the hopeful relationships were explained to her. She only nodded. "It was my hope that my daughter would not be forced by our circumstances to follow the road that I have walked, "she said, "Truly, it was my mistake to come here, hoping to make a living. I should have known that out here, people do not have as much gold to spend for the services of a woman like myself. I had to make do with Oda-san's patronage now and then, not that it took very much time out of my day to do it." She looked around at the small smiles of the others for a moment, "Well the poor man was always in such desperate need of me. It was easy to see that his useless wife had no concern for him. Besides, from the way that she looks, she started drying up long ago - only in her, it must have gone from the head down and the slit up to begin with and it must have met in the middle. Why I don't think that she remembers what his pillar even looks like anymore. It must have been so long ago and she must have been drunk out of her senses to allow him to rut with her to make her strutting little bastard with him. Taro-san is worthless, as everyone knows." They smiled at her and she began to whisper to them as she pointed to her own breast, "I am the one who got the best out of him. To say the truth of it, I have always been certain that Yukiko is Oda-san's daughter, though if he has ever thought of it, he's pretended that it was otherwise, not that I have cared very much. I didn't have much trade at the time that I made her. Oda-san was all that there was for me a lot of the time, though many men came to me with less than I could allow. To most people around here, Oda-san can be a cold-hearted prick who kicks children and dogs aside if they do not give him the room to pass. But I learned that he has always been unhappy in his life over the marriage which his traditionally-minded parents cobbled together for him. Once I knew that, it wasn't hard to get him to be a little kind to the one who always took his seed from him with a smile -- since his own wife sure won't." She sighed, "I think that his unknown daughter got the best of him from our pairings. She is not like him at all and out of all of the things which I have done in my life, making her was the greatest one." She chuckled a little in her own sentimental moment before she continued her thoughts on the proposed path forward. "If this comes to pass, and all goes well, then my Yukiko can avoid all of that and live a better life. Still, I have taught her as I was taught in how to best please a man or a woman as the case may be, so if, ... " she looked over at Valdemar and Kōichi, "the two lovely ladies here find that they need rest from their pleasing the men, Yukiko can stand in for them and neither of us would mind." She leaned toward the pair which she was truly very happy to know and acknowledge as her masters, since her life would now have a fair amount more certainty to it. That was the way that it worked, of course and she was so thankful and even more pleased because she liked Valdemar a great deal. She felt that way because she knew that he had a large heart in him and also because he had a way of stirring her own heart just a little to look at him, though she'd never tell anyone that part of it. She wouldn't have had quite the same outlook if it had just been the Lady Matsu who was now her overlord. She had nothing against her and had admired her for many things whenever she'd seen the lovely young woman, but there had always been this sense of intensity to her out of her role in the place. Now the woman knew why that was and she could see it clearly. She was coming to like Matsu-san even more, now that she knew of it all. In her heart of hearts, she offered up a silent prayer for them both -- though she also offered up one for Valdemar alone and she decided that wherever he might have come from in that crazy map that he'd drawn for her out in the snow, the men there must be truly terrible if they went to battle -- if building the love that she was sure that she could see between him and the almost-feared warrior-girl held no terrors for him. She looked up in a bit of surprise as Aiki got up from where she sat to come to her and kneel on the floor. "Honored mother," she said after bowing her head to the woman respectfully, "it comes to me that there might be an opportunity for me to learn a little at some time. My own poor mother before she was killed was also a friend of the lady Hoshino. The mothers of my cousins here took me in and raised me between them as they could, but I was never given much in the way of learning of that sort. I would like to be taught by you or Yukiko-san whenever you might find the time or have a kind thought for me." The woman snorted a little, "My dear young friend," she said with a broad smile, "How could either of us not have a kind thought for you? I have known you for most of your life, though I never knew where you came from. It does not happen very much anymore now that you are both grown, but I can remember times when you and Yukiko-san were friends. I used to love to see you together, always laughing. After what you have done to give us comfort on such a terrible day, it would be our honor to help." ------------------------------------------ After the evening meal, they sat together and talked with Valdemar sitting in a bit of wonder to see the way that they just began to draw together like a family and he also saw the beginnings of his household in many ways as they almost planned for the other side of whatever conflict was on it's way to them. When he was asked about the look that he wore, he said so. "And why not, lord?" the woman smiled, "My daughter and I have little anymore, but we were plucked out of the snow by some fine people. We know that none of you have very much, yet we are given tasks and duties to perform and it all leads to hope for the future." After a couple of shared sake bowls between them all, she sat with a smile which looked to Matsu and Valdemar as almost a little contentment when the other three seemed to just tumble into the bed together with a lot of laughter. She heaved a bit of a sigh as she looked on, "I know that a lot of this is out of the uncertainty which will come very soon, but I like to see this start between them. I know that Kōichi-san has had his troubles and none of them were of his own making. It was all out of the way that we all look down on others. Yukiko-san never really had this to face, since she did not get her looks from me. I come from the south too, but she escaped the stupidity that Kōichi-san and Aiki-san have always faced." She laughed a little as they listened to Aiki's shrieking laughter for a moment. "That is good to see," she grinned, "As long as they are a little careful and no babies come from it, what harm can there be to something as nice as that? I miss times like that in my own life. For certain, I rarely had a chance to laugh that freely, ever." She heard no response from them and she looked from one to the other, very surprised at what she thought that she saw there. She almost blushed as she looked down, "I think that you both must be feeling the sake. I am an old woman, long past my time of beauty now -- too far past it for the way that you look at me, my lord and lady, though I thank you for the honor of it all the same if I am right." Matsu grinned at her after tossing a sly wink to Valdemar, "Oh really? And just how old must a woman be to be considered old in your view, revered mother? Why, by what I know from what Aiki-san has said to me, you cannot be one moon older than thirty-six or at most, thirty-seven, no? Perhaps, it is not only my cousin who feels as though she faces a challenge in loving. Perhaps I might yearn to learn at the hands of a woman of pleasure myself. Have you had a good look at the test which I must face in loving with my Gaijin beast here? All night, Masako-san," she smiled, "all,... night, ... long last night, he had me. I cannot think of what I would have done if I'd had to ride my horse today." She bowed a little from where she sat, "Please, revered mother, teach me a little of your magic this night, so that I might have the hope of at least a little sleep tonight, since he and I must set out tomorrow." The woman stared at her and then at Valdemar, "But ... I am not young anymore." "It might be so," Matsu smiled, "but I doubt that you are aged and dry, all the same. Can you tell me with no hint of a grin or smile that you'd turn down a night in those arms with me?" She sat back a little with a chuckle, "Go on then, tell Valdemar-san that you are too old, and must spend the time washing your lovely hair or some such thing. Look at the way that he smiles at you, Masako-san. You would turn away from that to think about knitting?" Black Arrow Lord Ch. 05 She pulled back the top few blankets and indicated a spot, "Come on and love with us this night. I might have a chance at riding to my garrison tomorrow and he might not even have to listen as I complain over how my hips ache as we go." The woman looked over at the bed where the others were already trading caresses and kisses and then she looked at the ones there with her and their hopeful smiles and she stood up to throw her clothes off with a slightly nervous laugh. The looks of admiration on their faces went a long way as she decided that for these two, she'd do anything in her duties to them -- for surely they were the finest sort to want her. "Matsu-san," she began with a soft giggle, "I think now that what is said of his kind is true. They are demons of the best sort and I can see that he has given this demon lust to you, Lady. I hope that I might have a little of it as well for the way that I feel right now if I might share a bed with such a pair of beauties." --------------------------------------- "Have you ever had to please a Gaijin before, mother?" Matsu asked as she watched Masako sitting astride Valdemar as she fucked with him, her features revealing the bliss that she felt. "Yes," she nodded with a sigh as Matsu's hand slid across her chest to cup one of her breasts and lightly pinch the nipple, "twice, no -- three times that I can recall. Why?" "I was only wondering a little if they truly are different somehow, that's all." "No, not really," Masako groaned, "They are the same as any other men, .... Well, other than this fine one that you have here. I thought ... that ... you were joking with me earlier, Lady Mat -- Matsu. ... Take my earnest advice to ... you." There appeared to be no more coming from the woman then and at last, Matsu leaned in to kiss her cheek when she had the chance. "You did not finish," she said with a grin. "Ah yes," Masako smiled widely, "Chain this one to your bed by the ankle and never let him go. That's the best thing that you can do." ----------------------------------- Aiki waited as she watched Kōichi copulating with Yukiko. She was a little larger and heavier than Aiki, though she really was lovely. Aiki was still in a fair bit of wonder at the way that she'd enjoyed Yukiko's mouth between her legs and even as Kōichi fucked her a little slowly while holding her on his front while he took her from behind the way that they'd often done it. It had just been such a wonder to look up and see Yukiko come to her and lick her there while that was going on. She had to give Masako credit, she thought. She'd taught her daughter so well. It had been a lot of fun and she found that she and the girl were renewing their friendship as they now shared something else. But at last, she saw what she thought was her chance and so she excused herself to get out of the bed and wander over to where the others were, drawing on her robe as she went. "Valdemar-san" she began a little quietly and in a humble fashion, "Is there a chance for me with you tonight?" Matsu and Masako laughed quietly and reached to pull Aiki down onto the blankets where they pulled her robe away from her as they held her between them. "Have you any left for this girl, lord?" Masako grinned as she held what he had in her other hand, stroking it with some hope of a resurrection, though she already knew the likely-favorable outcome. "She comes to you in such a soft and quiet hope for herself. Surely there is something that you can do for her, no?" Valdemar got up on his knees and moved to position himself between her legs with a little smile, "I only hope that I don't disappoint you now." Aiki sighed and it turned into a groan as she felt him begin the slow slide into her, "I have had this hope from the first moment that I saw you. I love you already, Valdemar-san. You cannot disappoint me." As they began, Matsu looked down feeling a lot of her own happiness as well as a fair measure for Aiki. When she had the room for it, she leaned down to kiss her for a moment before settling onto one nipple while she stroked the leg which she held up on the girl with her thumb. "I think that with luck, we can all have what we want," she smiled. Aiki nodded, looking very happy now, "Though I think that ... I might want ... to see Kōichi with him as well tonight." Valdemar shook his head with a little grin, "Not anymore tonight, I'm afraid." Masako laughed a little as she held the other of Aiki's legs for her, "As much as I'd want to see that too, that is a request that you must not wait this long to make, little blossom." ---------------------------------------- It took almost a year. The two major battles and the seventeen skirmishes and the months of beating down attempts to foster guerrilla action across the countryside spilled so much blood over the greedy aspirations of the neighboring daimyo and his small group of advisers. Valdemar had been there when Matsu took the head of the lord, knowing the way that he'd felt about the place of women in their society. She didn't have a problem with that specifically. She only wanted that the chance existed for women who wanted to step out of those roles as she'd done. For damn sure, she knew that the homes of warriors who were gone fighting the wars would be better defended then at the least. Valdemar took the heads of the rest with as close to a joyful expression as he could manage, hating the way that no matter where, the human equivalent to the weasel tried to ply his trade, causing mayhem and bloodshed while never quite having to get his own hands dirty. Not long into the little war, Kōichi had arrived, and they both taught him as they could, pleased to see him become a skilled and fearless sort of unrecognized warrior who fought with both a sword and a pistol as the need arose -- and yet they also worried for him at the same time. Valdemar became a nightmare to the other lord in this before it ended -- a fierce ghost who often appeared and then vanished with a few others, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. More than half a dozen times, the official who stood droning out a nonsensical and oppressive new declaration stopped in mid-sentence to land in a heap some feet away with a thick black arrow in his chest. Matsu took control of the lands while she and Valdemar searched out and hunted down any opposition that they heard of -- sidestepping more than one neatly-laid trap for them as they did. At last, Lord Maeda himself led his host onto the field for the last battle which decided things and crushed his opposition. Matsu once more sat in the hall of the dead lord and waited until the imperial court down in Edo finally sat in session to render their decision that Maeda take that land as his own. Perhaps Valdemar's most distasteful though not very challenging moment was the one where he found Taro leading a group of the southern lord's men. The soldiers that he was there with sawed through them like kindling, and at last, it came down to Valdemar slowly walking after Taro, who'd been wounded in the leg by a gunshot. When Taro stopped running, Valdemar nocked an arrow and raised his bow. Taro, who knew of the Dane's skill stood on shaking legs and begged for his life. Kōichi appeared at the Dane's side and began to speak of the rumors that Taro had spread before he'd left the village and come to the other lord's land. He told of what had been said of Valdemar, and all of them. Not much of it surprised or bothered the barbarian even a little bit. Valdemar lowered his bow and asked why. "I see you struggling with your feelings of honor over something which will never be a man to anyone's eyes. Remind yourself of the raids over the border onto the land of his real lord and what was done to common people who knew Taro all of his life. Who led the raiders and rode off when we came each time? Is that the way that his father would have taught him?" The last thing that was said were the rumors about Matsu, though the Dane stopped him then. Valdemar used five arrows and took nine minutes before he sent the last one. As they walked away, Valdemar told two of his men to bury Taro face-down in a ditch. But before the end, and months before the court even sat to consider in their slow and imperious way, Valdemar became a true lord of that land in a small way by his marriage at a very small shrine to Matsu. The little place was a bit crowded and Valdemar, having grown used to living a little roughly in that time of war and struggle had looked around, noticing the many other men who stood in small groups as though they were just neighbors talking to each other in an idle way. He noticed that they were in addition to the men that he'd posted for their security. He also saw that though they were discrete about it they were all armed. He realized the reason for it when he saw what looked at first to be a trio of peasants approaching him and his bride. But he saw that the one in the middle was far too large and well-built to really be a peasant under that cloak. As they stood and offered their best wishes, he saw that it was Maeda himself and his two women. Kōichi's mother looked to be having far too much difficulty in her happiness to be able to speak very much, though her cousin had no trouble as she spoke to them with shining eyes. "Our daimyo wishes for me to say that he intends to see his daughter properly wed once this war has passed. In the meantime, he is pleased at the fame and fortunes of his daughter and son." She winked as Valdemar smiled, seeing the way that Maeda discarded his normally stern countenance to smile at them both while he spoke. Matsu's mother continued then, "And he is relieved to see that his large friend has survived Matsu-san's affections. For my friend and myself, I can say that we feel joy to think that now the lives of the three children can grow better still and move ahead to a mother's most cherished part." Valdemar stood for a second, trying to understand, until Matsu leaned in and whispered, "They want grandchildren now." The trio departed only minutes later and the additional men drifted off over about ten minutes after that. No one in the court really cared as long as Valdemar stayed at the northernmost tip of the empire where the disturbing thought of this might not trouble the dreams of anyone far to the south too much. At the time when Valdemar had lain down to catch a little sleep, he and Kōichi were headed home to where Matsu sat as the lady in her own hall -- the one that she'd been born into - her father having changed his mind and sent Oda off to the northern reaches before he'd gone to claim his new hall. He'd passed his daughter on the way as she was on her way to seek the end of this at last and wanted nothing more than peace in her lands and a large man in her arms. There were still a few loyal fighters left of the dead daimyo's army in wandering bands who hadn't gotten the news, so they still had to remain cautious as they crossed the frontier on their way home. -------------------------------- Valdemar opened his eyes from his fitful nap, tensing a little as he did as soon as he recognized that Kōichi had not shaken him, but had only nudged him a little carefully with his boot. He sat up in a smooth and silent motion, seeing that the evening had given way to night while he'd rested. And it was still pissing down rain. Careful to make no sound, since he didn't know yet what was happening, he crossed his ankles and rose up to stand as he leaned toward his friend to get the whispered news. "Are your weapons loaded?" Kōichi whispered, "I heard horses a minute ago. Someone is coming up the hill." He pointed in the direction, "Too dark to see who." Valdemar nodded, reaching for his rifle and then down to his belt to feel for the comforting presence of his double-barrelled pistol. He bent a little to pick up his bow as well before they stepped silently toward that wall and the few gaps that it presented to see and shoot out of. "Any chance to get away?" he asked as a sigh into the other man's ear and he saw Kōichi shake his head. "Too close already. Besides, I have cooked a marvelous meal as you asked, my friend. I think that I'd feel insulted if you don't think that it's worth defending." As the minutes passed in the heavy rain, they came at last to the moment where common sense told them that there were two people out there not ten yards distant who were silent in their almost creeping approach and that they'd better decide what they'd do soon. Kōichi stared the next second as Aiki walked into the barn and as Valdemar stood in a little wonder and relief to see their embrace. Just as his own worry began, he felt the tap on his shoulder and spun around. Matsu -- his Matsu, the most beautiful warrior in his world stood there with her hand on her hip, a sword in her hand and a grin on her lovely face. Then, before he could even smile, she was against him with a whispered cry, holding him in her arms. -------------------------- "Where did you steal this?" Matsu asked, smiling as she ate some of the meal with Aiki. When she'd learned that her cousin had made the meal, she offered her sincere appraisal that his cooking had certainly improved. "There isn't any of Valdemar's oatmeal in it at all." She and Valdemar stood at opposite sides of the barn for the time that it took the other two to make a little love over their joy at being re-united. Their watchfulness precluded being able to talk for the time that it lasted, though they didn't mind at all. It had been all too infrequent to suit their tastes, but they'd managed to find a little bit of stolen time now and then for a little loving in a few rather imaginative ways and places, including fields, wagons and in one case, up in a tree. Kōichi and Aiki hadn't seen each other in all of the time that he'd been gone. They changed places after that, with Matsu pulling off enough of her armor to lie back in the straw and spread her legs for her man as she beckoned to him eagerly. They slept in watches of two hours each and early the next morning before the sky could decide if it ought to stop raining or not, they were gone, riding the last leg home in the downpour. "We have to hurry," Matsu said, the rain sluicing down off the rim of the conical hat that she wore, "Well, I'd really like to hurry, though I guess that we must still remain watchful for an ambush. I can't wait for you both to meet our children." To that point, Kōichi had been riding point with Valdemar bringing up the rear and the statement caused a lot of wondering looks which caused the women to almost laugh out loud. "Yukiko-san and Masako-san were both with child from at least one of you and we now have a boy and a girl to start among us all," Aiki said in a very pleased tone. "You should see the way that Masako-san runs the hall. Sometimes she stands with her little one at her breast and other times, she carries her girl on her hip, but only the happy little thing is immune to her bellowing and commands. and she sometimes laughs in the middle of them. Masako-san has told me that she never thought to have the joys - and labors -- of motherhood again and this time, she is not destitute. She thought that she would die a poor and forgotten woman. Instead, she and Yukiko-san are the concubines to a noble pair between you and the Lady. Now she runs the hall and she is a mother again and a grandmother as well in the same year! I have never seen her so happy." "We'll all have a bit of a mystery in any event," Matsu smiled, "since nobody yet has been able to guess which of you might have made either one. That's why Aiki-san and I are in such a hurry to see them and their mothers again." Yukiko-san's little boy looks to have blue eyes, but who knows if they will stay that way? He is only a few days old and has not even been outside in the light of day so that I can stare at his eyes and hope to see blue in there. You both make pretty children to my eyes if that is how it went." Valdemar rode on with a happy and dazed expression; Matsu decided when she looked back -- even if she couldn't see much of his eyebrows. "We also want to get home as soon as we can so that we can make ours with you as well," Aiki grinned, "I love the happy women in my life, but I've missed our men so much, especially the long nights when we are all together." Matsu had nothing to add to it but her nod at them, especially Valdemar as she remembered making love with him one night not long before while they'd traveled together, hunting down some of the groups of men still loyal to the dead lord. She'd been on her back, with her heart rate almost back to normal as she ran her fingers into his hair. He was on his front, still kissing her labia softly. "It's just a thought that I hold," she'd whispered then, "This is all that I know, but I find that I am prepared to set it down to take up a different life with you. My cousins would like to go with us and it makes me happy." He'd raised his head to look at her and her smile snagged his heart again. "You know that everything would change there. You would leave your nobility and all of it's trappings here. You would be no one anywhere else -- just like me. You would give up everything to live as a farm woman in a strange and barely half-explored land. Your beautiful appearance alone could cause you trouble." She stroked his beard with the backs of her fingers as she smiled at him, "I love you so, Valdemar. I try to think of the others as well. I try to think of our children when they come. I do not know all of what might lie awaiting us there, but I want to believe that it might be a better life for us all to go to the new Gaijin land. But let us leave this talk for later. We see each other only rarely these days and I refuse to only talk to my man when I have him against me for only a stolen night at a time. Come, love me again." She sighed and spread her legs a little more when she felt his weight lessen on her as she watched him rise up on his hands and come to her. Her thoughts came back to her as she looked at the people that she loved while they worked their way home again. Remembering what Aiki had said, she nodded, "Then let us spend some nights such as that together with them, Aiki-san. It is our turn now, no?" As Aiki laughed softly and nodded, the men considered it, and all four of them disappeared into a wall of rain. The End