The Day of Thunder

[Wu Zhe]

He just stood there, powerless, on the very porch of Lady Chouri's home. As far as his eyes could see there was nothing but devastation.

He knew what had happened, he knew instinctively: War, famine and death. All of his fears had manifested...The kami, their fanatic followers and the rest of the mortals who would not bow blindly went to war and killed each other and the land beneath them.

He turned around to see Chouri's corpse, barely a few steps away, slashed open by sharp blades. Which samurai did the deed? The lioness whoès fear of being impotent led her to claw at something, anything, to gain some illusion of power through murder? Or someone else entirely? A monster perhaps, having come to stop the ritual?

Did it matter now? The carnage had long been over. Nothing remained. Nothing was left alive as far as he could see. Nothing but silence under a grey sky and a grey land.

He grieved for a while. How long? He could not tell. He grieved until no tears were left in his body. Still he did not move. Until he did.

The man went to fetch a shovel and dug a deep pit beneath the fallen tree inside the house's inner courtyard where he had observed many times before, and layed Lady Chouri there. After covering her body and reciting prayers to whatever benevolent god was left he began to walk.

He did not know how long he walked nor where. Some sights he knew: the Imperial Palace, Great Falls city, the valleys of Wu. Everywhere was the same sight. Ruins and corpses, victims of a titanic battle. Great Falls itself was surrounded by the bones of a giant snake-like creature. The bones of a dragon, Togashi.

Everywhere he went the man did the same thing. He burrowed those he could or made a pyre for those he could not. It seemed it took an eternity to manage but he was not sure. The only thing sure was the beard he now had and how the distance he traveled each day was ever so slimmer.

After a moment he chose to return to lady Chouri's house.

On the way there he scoured the abandoned, rotting fields of anything useful. One day he found something precious: seed, untouched and ready to be planted once more. The more he travelled back the more he found until he found millet seeds, the very same millet seeds that he had given the Blue Lotus village when he had first arrived.

He knew what he had to do then.

Back to lady Chouri's home, a slight hint of grey in his beard, he made new prayers on her grave before going out again and searching for a hoe, a bucket and other such tools.

He did not know how long it took but he managed to clear the now vacant fields. Once done he planted what he could, bringing water from the wells to irrigate. Day after day he did so.

Eventually there were green sprouts and then the plants grew, little by little, until one day he spotted a speck of red among the grey sky. He followed and it landed on the green of the leaves.

A ladybug.

A small thing, a fragile thing but very well alive.

Then a drop on his face. Confused he looked up an another fell. A drop of water. Rain.

He did not know how long he took but after a while the fields were alive again. Simple fields of millet but enough to feed that little ladybug and all the other little things that followed as if awoken from slumber. There was more grey in his beard now and his face had more lines then before. He could not go for as long as he used to but the work was rewarding all the same.

He had seen a mouse today. A small thing, a fragile thing but very well alive. There was more then enough millet anyway, the mouse could eat it's fill.

The fields were green again. He did not know when but the grass grew green again, wild flowers followed suit.

He cooked with what he could. Humble, simple meals that filled him nonetheless. I could not remember when he started cooking or when he felt hunger.

Eventually, he began seeing movement in the distance. Often at night, something bigger then the things he had seen before would venture over the fields to the storage barn and the crops would vanish. There was more then enough for him so he did not mind.

Eventually he saw it, catching it in the act. It was a small thing, a human thing. Dirty and in rags, it could not speak so he let the human thing go.

His beard was fully grey now.

The human thing, a child, came back and kept coming back. Eventually others would appear with it and they were not afraid of him anymore.

So he cooked for them. Then he began mending the clothes. At times he made music using the pans and pots as drums.

He moved slowly now, he needed his cane to do so at times but it was fine. The children had grown, and had begun living in the village once more. A young couple kept visiting him in Chouri's house daily to help him with the chores. He was not sure if he knew them but they were kind.

They often stayed after supper, listening to him speak. He did not know if they understood but he also did not know if language mattered here.

Another sapling had begun growing in the courtyard on top of the older dead tree.

He often just sat there now, or on the front porch, watching life go on.

Day 2, EN, Sleep event: Nightmare!, Willpower roll, Void for 1k1, FR from Wu | 4k4 ⇒ 27 (TN: 20)