Kiko hummed quietly to herself while she played with her samurai dolls. Soon they were going to go to Otusan Uchi and fight Fu Leng just like the Seven Thunders did a long time ago, but right now they were having a tea ceremony. Her Hida Yakamo doll was just about to serve the tea when the walls of the hut shook and she dropped him.
Kiko ran outside to see what was going on and saw all the other villagers running in from the fields. The hills echoed with the sound of thunder and Kiko hugged her Kachiko doll close.
Soon the source of the sound became apparent; over a hundred samurai on horses were riding up the valley, their purple armor gleaming in the afternoon sunlight. They rode slowly through the valley splitting into groups and taking up positions around the village, enfolding it in a cocoon of purple.
A group of ten samurai broke off from the rest and rode into the village stopping next to the mill as the village's inhabitants prostrated themselves. A brace of ducks took off into the air crying their protests against the mounted warriors.
The lead samurai removed his helm revealing a man in his mid thirties with a white scar crossing his forehead. He asked in a strong voice, "Who is the headman here? I would speak with him."
Old Yoshi rose and walked over to the samurai, "I am the headman, samurai-sama, how may this humble one be of service?"
The samurai nodded and spoke again, "I am Moto Saku, gunso of this contingent and I would speak with you about the samurai who died in your village."
Old Yoshi turned as white as a snowflake then nodded his head in resignation as if he believed that he did not have long to live, "Hai, Moto-sama. Perhaps we would be more comfortable in my hut."
The gunso thought for a moment then looked at the rest of the villagers who were still face down in the dirt, "Hai, I believe that would be acceptable." He turned to the rest of the villagers, "You may rise and return to your work." The unicorn samurai dismounted and turned to his men, "Wait here, I should not be too long. See that my mount gets some water." His men nodded and dismounted as well as Moto Saku and Old Yoshi walked down the street toward the headman's hut.
Almost as one the villagers rose from the ground and returned to the fields. Little Kiko hid behind one of the huts and watched the strange samurai as they led their horses down to the edge of the stream. She watched as they removed their helmets and poured water over their heads.
Then suddenly the little five year old girl screamed with joy and ran up to one of the unicorn samurai, "You're alive Jade Sparrow-sama! You're alive! Tell me another story sama! Tell me a story please."
The young samurai looked down at the little five year old peasant with confusion. "I'm sorry little one, but I think you have me confused with someone else. My name is Shinjo Taketsu, and I'm pretty sure no one has ever called me the Jade Sparrow before."
Kiko stopped and looked at the young unicorn samurai, "Oh! I'm sorry, you look like him and I wish he was alive still. He telled good stories. I don't want him to be dead." The young girl sniffled and then burst into tears.
Taketsu knelt down next to the little peasant girl, "There there little one, surely it's not that bad."
Kiko looked up at the samurai, "He was a nice man, I don't want him to be dead…" Her lip quivered like she was about to cry again.
"Ok little one, why don't you tell me about him. Sometimes talking about the person you lost helps make it better. Can you tell me about him?" The unicorn bushi smiled warmly and sat down in the dust of the street.
"Are you sure samurai-sama, I don't want to waste your time. Momma tells me to never waste a samurai's time." Kiko looked around herself as if her mother was going to jump out from the shadows and scold her.
"You're not wasting my time, I'd love to hear about this man who looks so much like me."
The little girl beamed and rubbed her eyes, clearing the tears away. "The Jade Sparrow was a great story teller. He telled us lots of funny stories about animals and spirits doing funny things. He was nice too, he didn't hit anyone or look at us like we were animals or nothing. He was a nice man. Stupid bandits, I wish they were never here."
"Bandits? Was this Jade sparrow of yours a bandit, little one?"
Kiko shook her head vehemently, "No! He was a good guy, he was a Jade Magerstrate, and he fighted the bandits!"
"A Jade Magistrate? Hmm, so what can you tell me about these bandits little one?" The Shinjo gestured for one of the other samurai to come closer as Kiko continued.
"A long time ago a bunch of dirty samurais on horsies rode into the village and yelled at the adults. They said that if the adults told anything about them that they could ride into the village and burn it to the ground. They were mean, and the woman in charge had an ugly scar, she was the meanest of them all." The five year old screwed her face up with disgust. "Then a week or so ago another group of samurais rode into town. They were nice samurais, there were two Unicorns, they rode big horsies like yours. There was one of the gold people; I think he was a Lion or something. There was a nice man with a turtle picture on his kimono. There was one other samurai I didn't recognize and there was the Jade Sparrow."
"Daddy and the other adults didn't want to tell the samurais about the bandits cuz they didn't want them to burn down the village, but then the Jade Sparrow told us a story about how the samurais are supposed to protect the people, not be bandits, and how him and the others with him were going to make sure the bandits couldn't hurt nobody. So then the adults told him all about them." The little five year old nodded in agreement with herself.
"Yup, so they told him and he and his people got ready to go visit the spooky caves. While they were getting ready though he sat down over there on that stump and told us kids the story of the fox and the plum and the crow and the pitcher. It was great! He was really nice.
Momma sent me to bed, but I snuck out and watched them leave after it got dark. They must have come back sometime in the morning cuz when I got up they were back and sleeping in the Inn. When they got up the Jade Sparrow came out and told us more stories, stories about the two Days of Thunder," She grinned, "Did you know there were two of them?"
The unicorn warrior smiled in spite of himself and nodded, "Yes I did little one, yes I did."
"I like the second one the best, Katchiko-sama is so beautiful." Kiko smiled and help up her silk and straw doll.
"Very nice, so you were telling me about this Jade Sparrow fellow. Do you know his name?"
"Nope, everyone just called him the Jade Sparrow, he seemed kinda uncomfortable when they did too," Kiko sat down in the road and started to braid the hair of her doll, "The other ones started to show my Dad and the other people in the village how to fight, just in case the bandits came. They showed them how to swing their hoes and the pointy curved knives at these weird straw bundles that were shaped like people. Dad even tied a knife on the end of a stick to use as a poker. It was kind of exciting, until later when people started getting dead." Tears began to fall down little Kiko's cheeks and she sniffled then composed herself.
"The Jade Sparrow told us stories about brave kids who hid when there was
fighting so that their parents didn't need to worry about them. He also taught
us to make bandages out of old rags. We were ready if the mean old bandits came
back." She nodded with determination.
"I sneaked and saw them leave again that night, then they came back to town and
Dad said that they brought a bandit back with them. I saw Kupo the old eta man
go into the stables with them but Momma wouldn't let me go near them so I don't
know what happened. About lunch time the big bell started ringing and everyone
came running in from the fields. The mean old bandits were coming." The little
girl gets a very adult look on her face for a brief moment as she seems to be
remembering the events that occurred next.
"Go on little one, what happened next?" The Shinjo and the other men around him leaned forward with anticipation.
Kiko nodded then continued, "The bandits came from the valley and from the hills. There were lots of them, like a hundred or something. The samurais had the villagers break one of the bridges and they all grabbed their sharp knives and pokers. The Jade Sparrow went around and talked to all of us, he made the scary go away. Me and the other kids hid in a hut but I could see out a hole in one of the walls.
The bandits came from two sides, down the hillside and up the valley. Their leader, the mean old lady, stood back and waved her fan around for some reason. The Jade Sparrow was amazing, did you know he was a genja? Well he was, he throwed fire and lightning at the bad guys the other samurais shot arrows and stuff. One of the unicorns charged at the lady but she killed him.
The fight didn't go good for the samurais, the bandits charged in on their horsies and cut them a lot. After not long there were only two samurais left, the nice man with the turtle kimono, who was hiding just outside my hut, and the Jade Sparrow who was cut up a little himself.
When it looked like the bandits were going to find the turtle man the Jade Sparrow nodded at him with a weird look in his eyes, he looked almost happy, like he wasn't scared any more. Then he jumped up on one of the badguy's horsies and rode away. The badguys shooted arrows at him but couldn't hit him. He was the Jade Sparrow! Then some of them charged after him I saw him blow up two of them with fire before one of them stabbed him with their pointy stick." Kiko looked into Taketsu's eyes. "I was hoping he wasn't dead, like that unicorn man that the bandits took away with them."
"Unicorn man?"
Kiko nodded, "Yep the weird looking one with the brown skin. The bandits tied him up and carried him away."
"Hmmm, interesting. What happened then little one?"
"Well they killed the old headman and said for us not to talk about them any more. Everyone was real scared except me, I was just sad that the Jade Sparrow was dead. Then they rided away and the turtle man came out of hiding. He collected all the swords and had old Kupo load the dead samurais on a wagon. He said that the Jade sparrow was a hero who had sacrificed his own life so that the turtle man could live and news of this attack could be sent to the Emerald Magistrate. I agree. The Jade Sparrow was the bravest man I ever met." The little girl stood up and dusted herself off.
Moto Saku strode over toward his men and said, "Men time to mount up. These peasants don't know anything about the bandits in the area except that they attacked the village with no provocation." The Unicorn gunso mounted his horse and started out of the village.
Shinjo Taketsu looked down from his horse and smiled at the little five year old, "goodbye Kiko, and thank you for telling me about the Jade Sparrow. He was indeed a hero and I will make sure that others know it." He waved and rode his horse after his gunso saying, "Sir, have you ever heard the tale of the Jade Sparrow?"
Kiko waved after the Unicorn samurai then walked back to the hut and sat back down with her dolls, a single tear rolled down her face as she looked at her newest doll, a man in a simple kimono with a green sparrow embroidered on the front.