The Day of Thunder

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

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 her sense of direction and gotten turned around. Fortunately, she could hear voices! Recalling that sound carried farther in the fog, Ayako decided to follow them.

Unfortunately, instead of bringing her back to the open farmlands, this seemed to lead the young Crab deeper into the woods.

[Otaku]

The sound of hooves crunching through frosty undergrowth punctures the chilly quiet of the woods. Before it comes close enough to be really alarming, the noise of movement stops. An equine grunt and the soft jingle of a bridle bit follows.

“I know. Circles again.” The muttering voice is definitely mere human, though surprisingly lovely given the circumstances.

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

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 remembered her manners and bowed respectfully. "Ah - good evening, great lady," she said. "I am called Yoshitsune Ayako."

Ayako appeared to be a short, square-shaped woman in heavy armor, on foot with a bundle of firewood in her arms. She wore the daisho, and a wicked axe hung at her side, but her face was very young.

[Otaku]

Horse and rider both look Ayako over in the dim light. The rider is unarmored, straight hair hanging loose over her shoulders, but the small tough hands on the horse’s reins are muscled and calloused like a warrior’s. There might be an approving look—not quite a smile—in her expression as Ayako comes fully into view.

She bows easily from the saddle. “I’m Otaku, of Shinjo’s clan. Well met.”

After a moment or two, she adds, with a note of suppressed frustration, “I can’t get out.”

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

"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."

[Otaku]

“Out of the woods,” Otaku confirms quietly. “I meant to scout the approach to the village again.” Her mouth thins. “I lost the path in the trees.”

After a moment, she lifts a hand from the saddle bow to gesture at Ayako’s load of wood. “Going to Shinsei’s camp?”

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

"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, with this fog."

[Otaku]

"A Lion showed me to their camp. Also in the fields." Otaku shrugs. The beautiful gray horse shakes his head and switches his tail, showing his opinion of camping in village farmland where you weren't allowed to eat the plants in the next field over.

"Don't blame yourself," she adds. "I mislike this fog. I don't get lost... usually."

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

"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 certain I saw that particular tree before."

[Otaku]

"I think you're right. All our circles have brought us back in." That is probably a horse-and-rider we, not a royal one, as Otaku leans forward and scritches her mount's neck as she says this. "It's the way out of the village that is most...wrong, some way."

She reaches a hand down toward Ayako in invitation. "Will you ride? Or walk?" She kicks her foot out of the stirrup on that side so Ayako could use it to mount up behind her, if she chose.

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

Accepting Otaku's hand, Ayako climbed onto the back of the tall horse. The young Crab ended up dropping some of her firewood as she clambered up, but managed to save face by holding onto several sticks of it. Her quest for firewood would not be completely abandoned!

"It's the way out of the village that is most...wrong, some way."

"I think you're right," Ayako agreed. "It must be a Sign that the Fortunes want us to go back to the village. That big rock looks familiar - maybe go that way?"

[Otaku]

"Something wants it, at least," Otaku half-agrees, tucking her foot back into the stirrup and nudging Tsubame to begin walking in that direction. "The Fortunes would be better than... other things."

The horse whuffs melancholically about the extra load, but the truth is that he's perfectly used to carrying a rider under arms plus supplies, so Otaku knows this isn't a serious complaint and pays it no mind.

Being higher up on horseback, the women can probably see a bit further through the woods now than Ayako could on foot.

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

"Something wants it, at least," Otaku half-agrees, tucking her foot back into the stirrup and nudging Tsubame to begin walking in that direction. "The Fortunes would be better than... other things."

Ayako's forehead wrinkled as she thought about this. "Other things?" she asked. "Um... like what? Have you seen something?"

Being higher up on horseback, the women can probably see a bit further through the woods now than Ayako could on foot.

The higher elevation did seem to help. "It looks like the trees are getting thinner in that direction," Ayako said, pointing.

[Otaku]

"In places where people's dreams have gone too far wrong for too long, sometimes there are strange clouds." Otaku says, quietly and a little tightly. "This place seems ordinary, but I can't find true north. So I mislike it."

She nods agreement as Ayako points the way, and guides Tsubame in that direction. She holds the reins lightly in one hand but doesn't really seem to need them for this purpose; the communion between horse and rider could almost seem telepathic except that, since she's riding behind the saddle, Ayako might be able to tell that Otaku is actually communicating each change of course and pace with small body movements and shifts of her weight.

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

"In places where people's dreams have gone too far wrong for too long, sometimes there are strange clouds." Otaku says, quietly and a little tightly. "This place seems ordinary, but I can't find true north. So I mislike it."

"It's this awful fog," Ayako said, nodding in agreement. "It's so easy to get turned around here!"

"But what do you mean about dreams?" she asked. "I know there is ... well, something unnatural about what's been happening lately. Is it something to do with dreams?"

[Otaku]

"It's the realm of Hell, striking at our world through people's dreams." Otaku's quiet voice has the matter-of-fact quality of one who's had to explain this and hear it explained more than once. "From all I've seen, it's true. People dream strange dreams, and sometimes they turn strange. Then the land around may turn."

She makes a small dissatisfied hmph noise. "My lady is beset by reports of it."

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

"It's the realm of Hell, striking at our world through people's dreams." Otaku's quiet voice has the matter-of-fact quality of one who's had to explain this and hear it explained more than once. "From all I've seen, it's true. People dream strange dreams, and sometimes they turn strange. Then the land around may turn."

"Do you think that's what's causing the ... the madness?" Ayako said, in a smaller voice. "That's mostly why my clan has come to this village. To try and find out what's going on."

[Otaku]

"I think so. So does my lady." Otaku frowns ahead at the thinning woods. "But no one knows how to fight dreams."

She glances back over her shoulder. "Is it bad in the mountains, too?"

[Yoshitsune Ayako]

"It's... bad," Ayako confirmed, then fell silent for an awkward length of time. There was only the sound of the horse's movement as it carried the two women.

After a long pause, Ayako added, "We've ... lost a lot of people. Clan members. Kin." She tried to look stoic.

"Stopping this is... very important."

[Otaku]

"Yes," Otaku agrees.

The quiet after this probably goes on long enough to become awkward again.

"Lady Shinjo thinks he'll have some plan. Some spell, perhaps." She nudges Tsubame to circle wider around a clump of trees so that the fog-sodden branches won't brush the two riders. "The little teacher," it occurs to her to clarify. "Shinsei."