The Story: Fire!

At the Crossing

Ishi soon returns once again to the front of the ledge, and seeing the fire spread between himself and the assassins, he calls out to Tokkan.  "They are on the other side of the fire! You are the only one who can get to them now!"

"Oh nuts!" thinks Rik to himself, again coming to a halt as he realizes that all the heroism and redoubtable bravery in the world won't keep him from rapidly being reduced to ratling flambe if he continues after the bad guys.

Ishi then curses the imagination and ruthlessness of their foes, before quickly climbing down the mountain side to join up with whoever is holding the rope of salvation.

Hiro curses. "They're using oil to speed the fire - we don't have much time.  See what you can do to slow the flames, Tokkan-san! I will try and get the bridge up."

Hiro grabs hold of the rope attached to the bridge, and bracing himself against the anchor post, tries to pull up the bridge.  Like Tokkan did a little earlier, Hiro discovers that the weight of the bridge is far, far beyond what one man can move by himself.

Toshino kicks his horse into a gallop along the path, but suddenly pulls into a halt as the rising wall of flames and black smoke come into view.  He can see the fireline stretching along the hillside to the north... if he acted now, before it spread further, he might be able to slip around the southern edge and go after the men responsible, possibly capture one of them.  But he'd be cut off from his companions, and they could be trapped by the fire... a few tortured heartbeats pump furiously through his veins as he struggles with indecision.

Then he turns his horse around, spots the Ratling following him down the path, and realizes the danger  posed to his companions far outweighs the risks of going after the arsonists. The trap was expertly laid, but might have been spotted early enough that there's still enough time to fix the bridge and get everyone across the gorge, or perhaps they could climb downhill to the south and reach the river.

Toshino kicks his horse back towards the bridge, waving at Rik to turn around and do the same.

Casting about in vain for something to do that will be a) helpful and b) HEROIC, Rik eventually contents himself with following Toshino in the hope that perhaps he can do something heroic during the crossing.

Hiro tries to begin to pull up the bridge, thus giving us more slack for others to grab on to and help pull the bridge up the rest of the way.  Still scanning the area, Kentou considers for a few moments.  The ambushers seem to be fleeing, having set the fire, which is the immediate danger.  One person isn't going to be enough to deal with the bridge's weight... with a sigh he gets up and runs to help with pulling up the bridge.  With any luck, Tokkan can do something about the flames, but if not, this may be their best way out.

Hiro and Kentou start pulling the rop and hauling the bridge up, hand over hand.  They loop the rope around the anchor post to get some purchase and prevent the weight of the structure from pulling everything back.  Inch by inch, the bridge moves up, but they effort needed to obtain even that result is immense.  This will take more help.

Overhead, Tokkan shoots away like a ball of lightning to a position high above the fire front where it crosses the mountain path, just clear of the smoke that rises in a dark, oily column.  He stops abruptly to a complete standstill, his eyes reflecting the flames, and throws his arms wide open.  Snapping his head back to stare into the sky, he shouts with a voice like thunder: "Spirits of the air, spirits of water, come to my help!  Gather the flock of the skies!"  The mountain face send back the echo of his voice, multiplied.

Fingers spread out as if trying to catch a large object, he slowly brings his hands together.  As he does so, small threads of lightning jump from palm to palm, collecting into a flickering ball.  Overhead, the skies mimick this as the thin, tattered veil of sparse clouds starts coalescing and, as if following the movement of his hands, gathers overhead.  As the cloud mass becomes larger, the ball of lightning also grows, and begins spinning, first slowly and then faster and faster.  A twisting wind gathers around Tokkan's airborne form, whipping his clothes and hair in a wild swirl.

When the clouds have inflated to a dark, ominous cover centered on Tokkan's position, he calls out again: "Tears of Amaterasu, drown out the wicked's work!"  His hand whips back, the ball of lightning cupped in it, still spinning madly.  With a rumble of thunder, he hurls the ball into the cloud overhead.  The lightning shoots up and rips open the belly of the cloud, letting out a downpour.

As more, darker, clouds roll across the sky like the charge of  mounted warriors, Tokkan laughs as he exults in the growing storm. The wind lashes his cloak, and lightening crackles from his form, glowing against the back drop of clouds blackened and swollen with rain. As the deluge falls from the heavens, as heavily as the hammer of the Gods, Tokkan directs the tide of the rain against the forest fire, and the fleeing evil doers as well. The raging inferno stands no chance against such an assault of rain, and the fleeing villains will soon be mired and bogged down in the mud.

The downpour turns the thin soil on the steep, rocky slopes to a viscous but slippery layer of ooze.  Very slowly at first, the crest of the slope above the fleeing ambushers starts slipping, inch by inch.  And suddenly, a strip of muck rolls down the slop, like a long dark tongue.  Small trees begin leaning as their roots lose purchase on the mud-covered mountain face.  A few other strips of soil start sliding; a whole section of the hillside is becoming unstable.  And the villains are right in the middle of it, struggling to maintain their footing.

Takezo considers his slight frame for a few moments before trying to organize the horses. He's going to harness as many of the horses to the bridge rope as possible and then try to convince them to move away from the chasm.

Toshino leads his horse towards the bridge. "Hiro, Kentou... that's horses' work, wouldn't you say? Let the horses pull." He opens one of his saddlebags and pulls out his manriki-gusari (chain weapon) and tosses it near one of the bridge supports. "We can use that to help secure one side... anyone else have any more chain?"

Hiro grimaces with effort and nods. "Hai, Shinjo-san. If you would be so good as to <grunt!> get the horses ready to pull the rope, then <heave!> Kentou-san and I will get you enough slack to work with."

Toshino then turns around and calls out to Ishi, and struggles to find a polite way of asking if the samurai needs any help. "Ueda-san... you are quite high up there... is everything alright?"

"Hai. I'm coming down now," Ishi replies, barely loud enough to be heard from down on the road.

Takezo and Toshino round up the horses and fashion makeshift harnesses to help with the work of pulling the bridge back.  The horses smell the fire and heard the shouting, and are getting restless with the unusual commands.  With a pat here and a word there, Toshino nudges them into a semblance of order, while Takezo harnesses them as best he can.  Toshino clearly has a way with horses.  After a little bit, Takezo decides that the best way to help the young whippersnapper is to give him lots of advice and encouragement.

Ishi shows up during the proceedings and helps Hiro and Kentou pull the bridge up as much as possible until the horses are brought to take over.  To the west, overlooking the flames, Tokkan is calling on the fury of the elements.
 

First Crossing

A really hairy swan.

With a naked ratty tail, whiskers, an iron pipe, and a rice cooking pot.

In other words, really, not very much like a swan at all.

But you get the point.

His legs and arms a blur, he arcs far out into the canyon before landing on the bridge, using it as a giant spring and rebounding up on the other side.  Once there, he pauses long enough to drop off the rice cooking pot, and to make a cursory inspection of the ropes on the far side for any signs of sabotage, before executing a back flip with a tuck, and rolling back down the incline of the sagging bridge.  As he does so he flails away with his pipe at any planks that seem loose or out of place, attempting to knock them back in line as he rolls past.

Rik'EEEE'k'chik's sharp nose notices what his eye doesn't at first -- that the smell of human is fresh on the far side of the bridge, and strongest near the anchor posts.  Whiskers quivering, he examines the planks and the ropes in that area, only to find that the underside of the two bottom support cables has been gnawed -- uh, cut -- halfway through.

Toshino calls out to Rik, "Little one, look for more rope, or some chain... or, uh... a bigger, lighter bridge?"

As the horses pull, he scratches his head. "Not sure if we even get the bridge repaired if I would trust the horses on it, but we need them to carry our supplies. We'd better split up our food, so if we lose any of the horses we won't starve. We'll send everyone else across on foot, and then I can lead the horses over one by one while Tokkan keeps an eye on the fire..." He stares wistfully down the southern slope of the hill to the south, wondering if it might be better to lead the horses down to the river and take refuge in the water.

"Sounds like a good plan," Ishi comments while struggling with the rope.

The south slope is steep and difficult, but might be feasible along the edge of the canyon.  There is that faint trail running along it, which Toshino observed earlier.  But to lead many horses along it would be a very difficult task for a single man.  Leading the horses directly down the sides of the canyon to the stream would not be feasible from here, but might be accomplished somewhere further downstream.

Now that an expert is taking care of the horses, Takezo steps back to evaluate the situation. Looking around, he calls up to Tokkan: "How much time do we have before the fire gets here?"

"Hey-hey!" yells Rik across the gorge.  "The ropes are cut-cut on this side too!"

"WHAT!?" Ishi cries out.

"I said, 'THE ROPES ARE CUT-CUT ON THIS SIDE TOO!" replies Rik, in his best squeaky bellow.  "HALF-HALF WAY!" he adds, pantomiming with his arms.

"By the panties of the forest kamis, how will we get across now?" exclaims the Crab bushi.

"You cou...  huh?" says Rik, figuring there must have been a translation error in there somewhere.  He starts back from the beginning and tries to parse the statement out, without much success.  Finally, he just shrugs.

Still holding on to the rope, Ishi ceases to pull at it and instead tries to make sense out of the situation.

"If the ropes are cut half way over there, that means one of two things. Either the bridge will still hold for at least one man, or else those who cut the ropes on that side are still on that side," he theorizes while breathing heavily from the physical exertion of holding the bridge in place. "In any case, even if we manage to pull the bridge close enough to this side to get a horse onto it, would it hold for one?" He looks around at the others, hoping that one of them will have enough experience with bridges to be able to accurately judge the capabilities of this one.

Toshino shakes his head. "The bridge has been sabotaged to collapse if we put too much weight on it... which means we'll never get the horses across. We could still string a rope across to the other side, but we'd have to leave the horses, most of our gear and food. We'll have to climb down the hillside and find some other way to cross the gorge... either a ford or another bridge. Besides, if the fire gets out of hand the best place for us will be in the water."

He pauses for a moment, scratching his beard, and says, "Whoever cut the ropes is probably still on this side of the gorge, because this is the side where the the ropes were cut completely. Some of them may have run after setting the fire, but they could also be waiting for us to go around... if we try to climb down the hill to the south, we could be walking into an ambush."

He looks around at the others expectantly, but then continues. "If we can get down to the water, though, we might be able to set an ambush of our own. Whoever set the trap will most likely come back to see if it worked or to check for bodies. We could tell Rik to finish cutting the ropes, so the rest of the bridge falls into the gorge. Tokkan could fly over and help him. Then, if we can work our way down to the wreckage, we could hide, wait for someone to come looking, and if we're lucky maybe capture some of them."

He sits back and waits for the others to respond, but his steel-grey eyes are focused on the slope to the south.

Hiro wipes his hand across his brow as the rain from Tokkan's storm begins to fall around them. "Tokkan seems to have at least slowed the fire down, which gives us more time to make our way down the slope safely. We might be able to fix the bridge with the rope the porters packed for us, but I doubt it would take the horses even then. If we head south, we should be able to ford the river further downstream, but I don't know how far we would have to go. Perhaps if one or two of us went ahead of the rest, we might be able to spot the ambush. Forewarned is forearmed - we should then be able to turn their trap to our advantage and capture a few of these brigands."

He looks back to the west, the wind blowing his robes about, and then turns back to the group. "We need to keep the horses, or by the time we get to Akibin the trail will be cold, if it's not already. Unless someone here is a bridgemaker of great skill, I don't think we can trust the bridge to hold. I say we head south and keep our eyes open for trouble."

Returning his gaze to the west, Hiro waits for a response.

"So, we let go of this bridge and make our way south?" Ishi asks with a raised eyebrow. "More ambushers could be on either side of the river, but I believe that ambushers on the other side of a ford would pose the greatest threat," he then explains as he lets go of the rope holding the bridge. "If Rik scouts the east side for brigands, that should be all we need to gain the upper hand.  Cutting the bridge and setting a trap of our own could work, but it would be more than half a day before anyone would show up to investigate on this side, and in order to make it safely across we are bound to alert the ones who would be keeping lookout from the other side. So I say we have better things to do with our time," he concludes.

Meanwhile, satisfied that the villains are trapped for the moment, Tokkan concentrates his will upon the fire itself. The caering lightning envelpoed his form in the dark sky/ His eyes gloed white blue, and lightning curled from his hands like the claws of a bird made of Thunder. The wind drove the rain before it like the waves of the ocean. The forest below was already fairly saturated from his efforts, now was time to finish the job. He made an effort to double the volume of rain falling directly upon the fire, trying to drive a series of hammering curtains of rain directly into the flames. He added the wind under his control to drive the flames back in the direction they came. Being driven back from it's fuel, and since what fuel was available was soaked, he reasoned that it would be a difficult for the fire to continue to burn.

Unfortunately for Tokkan, the kami, seeing that the Heroes are just standing there instead of reaching a decision, mock his valiant efforts and stoke the fire.  Several areas along the road, where the fire gives columns of dark smoke and an unpleasant smell, flare up, finally igniting clusters of pine trees despite the rain.  The fire starts running along the edge of the road in a straight line for the Heroes, like the trail of black powder behind a firecracker.

Hiros eyes narrow as he bites off a curse. "The time for discussion is over, I think. We must move, or be consumed!"

"So it would seem," Ishi mutters under his breath. Then he turns to the east and yells loudly: "Rik! Head south on your side of the river, and see if you can find more ambushers!"

Rik is off like an arrow from a bow, sprinting along the river bank and attempting to lure any additional ambushers from cover by the same clever method that he used previously (ie walking into their ambush and surviving.  Hey, it worked once!).  He has a big, ratty grin on his face and is swinging his iron pipe with reckless abandon as he goes, whistling a nezumi tune between his chisel-like incisors.

Hiro sprints to his horse, leaps into the saddle, and spurs his horse back along the path towards the fire, and turns off sharply to the south, galloping down the slope as a wall of flame envelops the forest behind him. Gritting his teeth and squinting his eyes as branches slap at his face, Hiro prays under his breath that they all make it out alive.
The horse's hooves kick rocks and dirt down the slope, and the animal flinches with terror.  For an instant it feels as the horse will fight his rider's command, but Hiro's garsp on the reins is sure and unyielding.  Hiro chose a spot that is not yet soaked by Tokkan's rain spell, and although the angle is steep the ground is not yet slippery.  In half-run, half-skid, horse and rider zoom down the hillside, skillfully avoiding the trees, outcrops, and boulders in the way.  The travellers still on the path rapidly lose sight of Hiro.

Ishi quickly finds his horse and cuts the rope that keeps it bound to the bridge. He then proceeds to lead it southwards down the slope, telling the others to get Rik's horse.  The rope holding the bridge gives a little jerk as recoils, but the heroes had blocked it agaisnt the weight of the bridge by wrapping it around the anchor posts.  It settles again, taut with the weight of the dangling bridge.  Ishi directs his horse with sober, competent horsemanship and heads out of sight too, less recklessly than Hiro perhaps but with quiet haste.
 

Separated

Through the Inferno

His thoughts are momentarily interrupted by a fit of coughing due to the increasingly thick smoke.  The wracking fit passes for now, and Toshino, eyes watering, returns to the problem at hand.  As he considers this dilemma, he hears a soft thud next to him: Kentou has just been overcome by the smoke and passed out. Toshino, coughing again, quickly picks up the unconscious gambler and throws him onto the back of a horse, securing him as best he can.

Toshino climbs back onto his horse and yells at the other horses, driving them down the southern slope (but hopefully not on top of his companions). He hangs behind to catch any stragglers. Pine trees start to snap in half as the heat of the fire intensifies, startling the horses. As the horses scramble down the slope, the rising flames and billowing smoke cut him off from his companions, obscuring him from view.

Riding is normally as easy as breathing for Shinjo Toshino.  Not this time.  Riding is much easier than breathing, right now.  He stirs the horses almost blindly, by instinct alone, the infaillible instinct of a Ki-Rin.  His presence offers the frightened horses a small measure of reassurance, and they follow him willingly, even though the slope is steep and the visibility now much reduced.

The canopy of trees here has kept the rain at bay, and the fire and smoke are running thick.  Toshino is no longer certain of what is east or west, all he knows is where "down" is.  Unfortunately, down wraps in several directions.  As he tries to turn toward where he believes the stream should be, a tree falls across his path, shrouded in flames, and the horses shy from it.

It is becoming quite warm.

Despite Toshino's skill and care, the flaming tree is too much for the already skittish horses.  They start shying and fighting Toshino's lead and a couple disappear behind the wall of smoke.  Their frightened neighing and stamping can be heard, but the yoriki's eyes water from the  smoke and he can't see further than a few yards ahead.  Keeping a hold of his wits, he rounds up the ones closest and shooes them ahead.  But then he realizes he has lost the horse on which he had thrown Kentou.

Toshino leads them as best he can down the slope to the south. If the fire starts to spread out of control, the safest place to be will be in the water, if they can just manage to get down to it...
 

Along the East Bank: the Drunkard and the Ratling

Instants later, Takezo hoists himself next to Rik, pulls his waterskin, and takes a refreshing drink.

"Alright Nezumi, let's go see if we can find another way across for the horses."  With that, Takezo begins to make his way southward paralleling the Hiruma scout looking to see if he can find a path that the horses might be able to use to climb to the top of this side of the ravine. He also checks inside his waterskin to see if there is anything useful in there

Rik slams on the brakes just long enough to look perplexed for a moment.

"I'm looking for ambushers," he explains with great enthusiasm, and then rockets off once again, figuring the human can look for a place where the horses can cross.  What does Rik know about horses (other than they are tasty) anyway?

Rik skitters down the slope and over the side of the ravine, bouncing and chittering.  He shows no difficulty keeping his balance and seems to be having a great time.  He finally reaches the east bank of the river.  Craning his neck upwards, he can still see Takezo up there near the hanging bridge, and across from him near the anchor posts on the far side, Kentou, Toshino, and several horses.  Looking down, he sees Hiro and Ishi emerge from the wooded slope on their own horses, and start examining the far bank.  No ambushers seem to be conveniently waiting for Rik to show up, or perhaps they're just discussing their ambush in detail, as humans are wont to.

Takezo follows much more slowly. He would prefer not to be ambushed, and if he could find anything that would help horses get up the cliff it would be useful, but he's not looking too hard. He's trying to keep an eye on Rik and make sure that he doesn't get into too much trouble.

That, however, may prove to be an excellent koan on which to meditate.  Naturally, Takezo's more sedate pace means that although he can occasionally hear the Nezumi squeaking with excitement ahead, he can hardly see him.

Takezo tries to speed up a little, but since the Nezumi is running and Takezo isn't, inevitably the two get farther and farther apart. From time to time, Takezo stops and listens to hear for either the Nezumi, or for anyone who might be following him (his taking a drink at the same time is only coincidental). Given how quickly Rik is running along anyone who might try to follow him is likely to make a fair amount of noise.

"Come ON-ON everybody!" Rik yells, sqeaking with excitement.  "IF YOU DON'T HURRY-HURRY YOU WILL ALL BURN UP-UP!  MOVE-MOVE!  NOW-NOW-NOW-NOW!!!!"

Rik isn't quite clear in why the humans are moving about so sedately.  Perhaps they have been so successful at harnessing fire that they no longer fear it?  Or maybe they have one of those "human cunning" plans - the weird kind that generally make no sense to Nezumi because they require a) long term concentration on uninteresting detail stuff, b) an understanding of that weird code of boo she dough that humans seem to love so much, c) some crazy belief that they are better than the rest of the universe and that therefor the rest of the universe should just darned well conform itself to their wishes.

Or perhaps they are just insane.  "Why are so MANY humans insane?", Rik wonders as he continues to rush headlong into a probable .ambush.  He gives a mental shrug and puts the thought out of his mind - content that they were smart enough to put someone realistic and calculating like him in charge.

He continues to barrel forward, leading by example, his beady eyes gleaming with excitement.
 

Along the West Bank: Scouting

Hiro examines the area.  Naturally, his and Ishi's descent have left their own trail of broken branches and tumbled rocks.  The banks of the stream are mostly made up of pebbles, keeping little or no trace of footsteps.  They run against the sharply angled sides of the canyon, in some places too narrow for a rider (or for most riders) to pass without dismounting to lead the horse.  The stream level is still quite high and the water flowing fast; snow melt is only a few weeks behind in this area and still on-going at high altitudes.  Finally, Hiro's examination pays off: in a narrow and slippery spot, where the bank is barely two or three shaku [feet] wide, he finds a handprint on the rockface, as if a man had leaned there for balance.  Hiro runs his fingertip on the print, then examines it: it's oil.

Hiro rubs his fingers together, a thoughtful expression on his face. "At least one of the people who helped set the fire must have come this way. I smelled oil before, and this one obviously got a little messy while preparing the forest for firing. We should probably press on and try and find this ambush before the others get here. They may be in no condition to fight if they take much longer."

Ishi nods his approval and stalks away southwards, leaving his horse to avoid the fire on its own. He stays away from the river, counting on Rik to spot anyone hiding anywhere near it, and in preparation for what sneaky devils might rear their heads in the shrubbery or in the treetops, he readies a few shuriken.

Hiro continues downstream, still searching the area for tracks or signs of an ambush.
 

The Shugenja's Ire

"Attend me, villains! You have a single chance to prolong your wretched existances! Tell me why you have commited this foul attack against us, and if there are others of your ilk lurking about intending us further harm!  Speak now, or drown in the clutching mud that holds you fast!"

Tokkan, hoping his companions have made it as far as the stream by now, swoops towards the fleeing bandits.  His fury is terrifying to behold, and the three muddied men, instead of answering his command, crouch in the muck in abject fear, sinking their foreheads in the slime repeatedly as they make their obeisance.

Tokkan rolled his eyes, bloody peasants. "Answer me you accursed fools if you value your miserable mortal lives. I would know what I ask of you, or see you dead." Not knowing how to un-scare commoners, he tried to make his demand as cooly as he was able... which wasn't too.

It's hard to not be terrifying when you're riding the lightning.  The forest arsonists prosternate themselves in abject terror, faces in the mud.

"We... were ordered, danna [milord]," one answers, his voice quavering.  "The oyabun [boss] told us to spread the oil and set the fire, then he left with the rest of the men.  We poured the oil, then Yuji was supposed to wait for you and give us the signal to start the fire, so we did.  Please don't kill us, danna, we'll serve you faithfully if you let us live..."

The one who spoke dips his forehead again and again to the soaked ground, while his companion merely cowers, huddled in a terrified lump.  A rivulet of mud streams down past the two men.

As if I would take a servant that so easliy betrays their master, thinks Tokkan.  "Your only chance to live depends on you continuing to tell me what I require. Where are these men now waiting? And who is this oyabun that devises such deviltry upon us... and why?"

"D... down along the stream, danna, but please don't tell anyone I told you!  I'll never do this again, but please don't kill me...  and don't let Nobuo kill me...  Nobuo, that's the oyabun, he's the one you want.  He'll be down there waiting for you, sama!"

During this fine speech, the mud keeps on streaming down in thickening ribbons.  The two grovelling bandits are beginning to slide down with the flow, struggling to remain where they kneel while maintaining a properly submissive posture.  The one who has stayed silent is glancing left and right in alarm, grasping for something firm enough to hold on to along the liquefying slope.

"Nobuo is as one with the dead," declares Tokkan.  "You may leave. You may leave but you are under my command to make your way to the palace of the Lord of these lands, confess you misdeeds and plead forgiveness from him. Fail to obey this lawfully given order....and I shall come looking for you."

The terrified would-be bandits try to make one more obeisance as they start sliding down the steep slope in slow motion.  A tongue of mud carries them down into the next ravine to the west, along with various forest debris.  They get banged around, perhaps a fracture or two, but they still seem to be able to move.

Tokkan pauses to see if they will be able to make it clear of the slides, offering advice if it will help them. Once they are on their way to not being killed, Tokkan gains altitude and flies towards where the villains are said to be waiting, looking for his party all the while.

To the east, the fire is now past its turning point; it is still fiercely sputtering, sending roiling clouds of black smoke, but it will not have the strength to jump past its initial nest.  Still, any man or beast trapped in the blaze would find an unpleasant death.

Speaking of which, Tokkan is well out of sight of his companions.

He rises to the level of the road, then up some more to see above the smoke and fire.  Nobuo is supposed to be "down along the stream"...  And of course Tokkan's companions were trying to cross that same stream earlier.

He flies high above the forest fire, looking for the landmark ribbon of the stream.  The creek forms the eastern rampart against the advance of the fire.  Through the smoke, Tokkan makes out the horses, tied in a string along the western bank of the stream south of the broken bridge, but no one stayed with them.  Tokkan continues his search, perplexed; he finally spot Rik and Takezo, a good distance to the north, apparently fighting something in the bushes along the stream's eastern bank.
 
 

To Be Continued...