The Day of Thunder

"There's a Lion camp here, too?" Ayako said with a raised eyebrow. "It does seem like a lot of people of different clans are converging on Blue Lotus Village, then." "If it pleases you, perhaps we could find our way back to the village together," she added. "I know it is close by. I'm ... fairly cer...

"Maybe the cure is about mindset. And if it is, then my path could be the way to strengthen men past it." He shook his fist in the air with an awkward smile then continued down the road. "Is that so, Saru-san?" Ayako asked, tilting her head in a strained attempt at courtesy. "What is this path ... ...

Ayako nodded. "I understand, Anjing-sama. It may be that there is no other choice."

"If it comes to that, I will do what I must," the younger Crab promised.

"My clan has set up a camp near the village, actually," Ayako replied. "I'm sure you'd be welcome there, if you're wanting to rest for the night. I was just out gathering wood for the fire." "But I ... I got turned around," she said, looking abashed. "I'm afraid these woods are confusing ... more so...

"Sure, any of them who have committed crimes should pay the price," Ayako conceded. "But for those who haven't ... many of them are our clan members ... some are our kin. We can't just abandon them to the madness."

Ayako looked troubled at Naraku's words.

"Surely not everyone afflicted with this... this sickness... must be put to death," she protested. "For those that are far gone, perhaps death is a mercy. But I have to believe that some of them can be saved."

"Can't get out?" Ayako replied, sounding confused. "We.. we are outside now? Or do you mean out of the woods? I was having some trouble with that, myself."

Saru Ranmaru wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 21, 2023 1:46 am

"I can't say I've seen much of any Crab women before."

"At this rate, I can't say you will see much of any Crab women in the future, either!" Ayako huffed in irritation, before looking away again.

The echoing sounds in the woods had been playing tricks on her ears, but Ayako was pretty sure that she had really heard a voice this time. Following the sound of the voice, the Crab woman rounded a tree and glimpsed the Unicorn. A look of startlement crossed her face momentarily, then she remembere...

Ayako licked her lips thoughtfully, as if to taste the air.

"I mean, the fog tastes all right," the younger woman commented. "It would taste bad if it were corrupted, right?"

"Right...?" This was about as much as Ayako understood of the elements, and she started to look concerned.

Ayako offered a quick bow to the returning Takuma.

"Lady Anjing's commanded that we resume the march, Kaiu-san," she reported. "The bare-chested Dragon appears to be friendly... well, friendly-ish, at any rate." She made a funny face at this.

The short armored woman sighed as she peered into the fog, looking to find her way back to her group’s campsite. Ayako had gone to gather firewood, and she had stepped just into the tree line to collect some fallen deadwood. But when she was ready to bring back her bundle of firewood, she had lost h...

"Where did you hit this creature?" "I hacked at its 'arm', and some kind of poison water leaked out, but it barely noticed," Ayako recalled. "I'd have to say Cai's arrow down its throat slowed it down the most." The younger Crab looked solemn as she remembered the price the archers had paid for the...

"We saw a corrupt monster on the journey over here, a foul thing and what it did should not have been possible. Have your witnessed the same on their side of the mountains?" "It was a gruesome, huge thing with too many mouths," Ayako recalled, nodding. "Lady Anjing and the rest of us were able to k...

Saru Ranmaru wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 16, 2023 5:06 am

"But who knows? You could be a worthy concubine."

"Concubine?" Ayako gasped, somehow offended at being demoted from a wifely position that she hadn't even wanted. "GRarGH." She struggled to compose herself.

"I... I don't think so," she managed at last, then fell silent as her elders spoke.

"Not betrothed yet are you, girl? Just think, he's probably an option." Ayako's eyes flew wide in shock. "What?! I- uh-" she sputtered, her cheeks burning. Why do the aunties keep trying to match me up with people?! "Urgh!!" she said definitively, and deliberately looked away from the shirtless Dra...

Ayako relaxed her posture a bit at Anjing's signal, but remained close by as Ranmaru spoke. "It's so my fellow warriors can behold my physique," he said, looking away from them sheepishly. The young Crab cracked a smile at this. "Well, you certainly made an impression," she said, trying to suppress ...

Ayako frowned as the stranger called her jumpy, but she refrained from making any further jumpy moves, like accidentally hacking someone down out of jumpiness.

Instead, her eyes flickered momentarily toward Anjing to see what the daimyo's intent towards this man might be.

Ayako looked a little comforted by Tai's words, when the mysterious shirtless man appeared. The young Crab moved quickly to interpose herself between Tai and the stranger.

"Who are you?" Ayako challenged. "I warn you, we're no easy meat."

"That is why we are here, to set right what is wrong. You will not fail, because you will not allow yourself to. Remember your training, remember the Clan, remember those around you. Take strength that the stories will always be with you, and one day, hopefully many years from now, you will become ...