SACHIHIRO

Being in a meditative state a lot of my time I have become more conscious of myself in a way that expands me. I am analysing myself and I find I am comfortable being here amongst the Hito. I’ve never felt this at ease before nor did I imagine I ever would amongst a people not my own.

‘’Come on, you don’t want us to miss our first Hito festival,’’ Mira’s head is in and out in a flash before her little feet are distant patters on the wood.

I’m up and running for my coat and out the door, I want to see this sword ceremony Hiroshi couldn’t stop grinning about.

Fire-lite yard sticks bring to mind a night challenge I once witnessed between two Norse, the ambience here is much more lively than that night. Everyone is carrying a sheathed weapon, everyone is in black and white for the occasion with the fire pit the central location around which people have gathered.

There is no preamble before spontaneously two warriors unsheathe their blades, face off and immediately start fighting.

[Clank],[clank],[Clank].

Their move are flawless, sudden, deadly before they disengage just as suddenly to face off. Faces painted in odd inhuman expressions, they attack each other again becoming a spectacle for everyone.

Sharp deadly strikes clash over and over in a cacophony of movement and blades as the warriors go at it. Perfectly matched in speed and technique the fight becomes a dance, like they are dancing to a beat together amidst the hum of voices.

When did people start humming?

The fighters disengage, facing off.

[HRrrrrrrrh]! One of them shrieks a scatting wail.

Suddenly pairs face of unsheathing weapons all across the crowd amidst people grabbing kids tighter, my fingers wrap around the dagger at the small of my back. I should have brought my fucking axe. Mira is tensely crouching beside me with a rock clamped in hand.

[AHhhhhhhh...]!

The people burst into spontaneous fighting all around the crowd to a symphony of clashing metal, all moving at the same time the same way clashing in synchronicity that contradicts the chaos of deadly strikes they’re throwing at each other.

We're already at a position with our backs protected by a wall.

I’m ready, crouched and ready to rand anyone that comes our way with a pregnant Mira protected behind me. I haven’t seen a single injury from the fighting, how are they so... wait. ‘They’re doing the forms,’’ I spurt. They aren’t actually threatening anyone, ‘’this is a performance.’’ I’m so surprised I lose my grip on my dagger.

‘’The Dance of Blades, we celebrate the forms tonight,’’ Kuyoki says unsheathing her curved single-edged short sword facing off against her neighbouring Hito.

More people pair off with bladed weapons attacking each other much less gracefully but just as organised. Its a show, all the fighting is for show, the background music makes sense now.

I relax my muscles straightening from my crouch.

‘’It’s beautiful,’’ Mira says watching the deadly art. She has a point.

*

Most of my daily life is a routine, easily to follow routine with incremental improvements in my skills with the sword, skill with movement, skill with mental gymnastics, also better at talking to people. Well its easy conversing with Mira, Asriel and Kuyoki because they don't require a lot of words anyways. I do miss home, Mira stirs from beside me.

Her breasts becoming exposed to the chill evening air, my mouth quicks at the sigh of that pink nipple but I resist the urge to play.

I grab my hand-axe and a katana bokken and head outside with nothing but a kilt around my waist. A reminder of home.

I take a stance as practiced in samurai class, I move through the forms with axe and sword equivalent. Cutting the air, stabbing at imaginary enemies, perfecting the precisions of my technique with the forms.

I’m a fighter from a culture of fighters yet I have never had a technique before, always been an instinctual fighter but technique makes all the difference. I don’t have to be alert to know where to move next, I don’t have to pay attention to know where he blade will catch an enemy next I just move.

I move and phantom enemies die as I imagine them dying, duel wielding through the forms I kill multiple ‘enemies’. I sever, I cut, I stab, I bash; sliding on the grass, a shadow under the light of the moons.

I’m going to have a baby.

All thoughts empty from my mind except that one, thats a big responsibility.

Sex has been great with Mira and she is always eager and generous with her favour but if I’m honest with myself a child was the last thing on my mind when having sex with her. I’m excited but also worried and scared, that’s definitely fear coursing through my heart not just excitement. I wonder what ma will say?

I hope the fae haven’t screwed us over yet, hopefully they never find the caches of ores otherwise the tribe is screwed.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

My body knows the movements even when my mind is occupied, the forms flowing into each other seamlessly as I move.

It would be a simple thing to disarm a tribesman and cut to pieces a tribesman who is unfamiliar with these sword movements, its a crazy cheat. A less capable warrior who knows only these forms could resemble fighting intelligence against an experienced veteran of war. It’s a crazy cheat and now it’s mine.

*

MIRA

We take care of each other in the community, the women. Especially the pregnant women, we take care of each other and do most of the necessary menial tasks while the men pursue their own obsessions. There are a few women obsessed with the sword and the way of the samurai who pursue the path with most of the men, but in most cases a woman has more sense and a lot of Hito women are more reasonable than that.

There is a secret life here for us women the men are too distracted, wise or too stupid to pay attention to which I’ve come to treasure. They make their own cloth here, I don’t know why I find that so odd and fresh but I do, I guess being amongst people so remote they have to make their own clothe pleases my sense of adventure. This is how I was meant to live, free at ease amongst people that look at me with kindness.

There are still times I wake in a sweat before I realise there is no Master sent to discipline me, I hate those dreams.

‘’You are about ready to pop, how far along now?’’

‘’Five months now, its a feisty one.’’

‘’I bet, that Sachihiro is the father isn’t it? Or is it the dark mysterious one?’’

‘’Ohh that Asriel, he is smoking hot with that mysterious maturity.’’

‘’I bet she’s has both of them, I’d have both of them on such a perilous journey across the Untamed South.’’

‘’Sachihiro is the father,’’ my face is warming as the women chatter about me.

‘’Oh look how pretty she gets when she’s flushed!’’

‘’Ohh, so pretty.’’

They touch my hair, compliment me and ask about my sex life while giving morsels about their men and teasing each other about them. I get some good raunchy advice the women call dryad wisdom.

‘’So women also visit the dryads?’’ I’m intrigued.

‘’Honey, nature spirits just want energy; as long as you’re giving to them it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman.’’

‘’Don’t tell me that woman Kuyoki hasn’t brought you to the Drayd Springs yet.’’

‘’Pssh, the older women would be incensed if Kuyoki brought an outsider the Springs. Even the men haven’t shared them with our male guests,’’ they admonish each other.

‘’Well we women have more sense, the nature spirits will love you and look favourably upon me for bringing you.’’

‘’After this one has been born,’’ I politely stall. I want, but I’m also terrified something will be wrong with the baby. I’ve never been this happy and at ease, what if this is a build-up so that I’ll be crushed. What if something happens to my baby? Especially with this thing in my body leeching something vital from me, I can feel its cold fingers sometimes and they terrify me.

I’d be beyond crushed, I’d be destroyed.

I smile declining the tea sitting back to better help with the folding and sorting.

Communal chores, such a simple yet profound social practice. I’ve noticed a lot of cleverness in the practicality of simple living, a lot of practical wisdom even in how these people exist in this beautiful isolation.

I’m five months pregnant and I eat like a horse, its worse now that I’m eating for two but I’ve never been fitter. Sachihiro has had to go out hunting so we aren’t too much a burden on our hosts, he enjoys the time spent alone though he pretends to grumble to annoy me. He’s insufferable the man but very gentle with those calloused hands of his.

‘’Form 16.’’

I move in sync with the class, smooth motions with my bokken striking sideways then overhead. The forms have taken over my body, my tights are firm and ripped, my arms supple, shoulders strong. My back ripples as I move with the next form.

‘’Form 17.’’

I’ve never been fitter, never been this competent with my body and I find that I love it. In the mountains fitness and stamina were a matter of survival, here it's a matter of pride, of pleasure to be fit and able. I like being flexible, able to jump in an air splint land twist in a high kick without falling on my face, I love being so strong. There is sensuality in tiring myself out in a martial dance like this, I swear if I just had a Sachi inside me I’d orgasm with the climax of the forms.

‘’Form 23.’’

No one here knows me as a slave or thinks of me as inferior in social status, matter of fact I’m considered ‘exotic’ for my red hair and skin tone. I could live here forever, raise my kids here but I’ll have to speak to Asriel before I get my hopes up. Hiro has been getting beaten up lately in training, I wonder how Asriel has been holding up, it's been a few days since last we spoke.

*

Laughter echoes across the passages of the quant house at the southernmost edge of the southernmost village amongst the Hito Mountain Villages.

''And I suppose you're having an easier time with the training,'' Mira asks slurping up the wiggling tapeworms making sure she doesn't spill any source.

Asriel groans rubbing, the bridge of his nose.

''These people are ruthless with their training regiment,'' he whispers conspirationally. ''The moment I have a grasp of their forms they introduce the stances and when I get a hold of the stances they set up these obstacle courses that we have to fight through. I've also been getting beat up in my sparing sessions with samurai.''

''At least you spar with the samurai, I've still been fighting the uninitiated with blunted weapons,'' Sachihiro complains leaning back to tap his bloated stomach in satisfaction.

[Pssh], ''you already come home beaten up yet you want to face the samurai?''

''A man needs a challenge to get him out of bed in the morning.''

''There are still some prerequisites they look for before letting the unAwakened spar with the samurai, I hear only good things about you two. Especially you Sachihiro, they are very impressed with how quickly you're improving.''

Sachihiro shrugs nonchalantly, ''ultimately I love to fight. The people here are extremely focused but very few of them enjoy the violence, to be a good fighter you must take pleasure in it.''

"'I believe him, I can't tell you how often he's come back beaten up lately yet he always goes back every single day. Hard-headed Barbarian,'' Mira says playfully ruffling his wild hair.

[Ahhh..], Asriel sighs after a nice cold drink.

''You know, as much as I came here for a purpose you guys don't have to follow me through the path laid out for me here but you also have a unique opportunity rarely offered to outsiders.''Asriel looks seriously at both his 'wards' slowly becoming friends, am I still capable of having friends?

''You didn't come here for the training?'' Sachihiro asks with seriousness sharpening his gaze.

''Not just the training, the Hito have greater treasure hidden in plain sight. But the sacrifices required are drastic and one risks not just death but their very soul walking the path open to me here.''

''But you will walk it regardless?'' Mira asks concerned, will I have no rest here then?

''Yes, I will walk it regardless. It is why I am here,'' Asriel says solemnly taking away the last of Mira'splate so he can serve them all tea.

''Tea?''

Sachi nods holding up his cup to be filled, ''tell us about this path and risks and rewards it offers.''