Chapter 2: Look Ma, a damsel in distress

I continued down the hill following the stream until it abruptly fell off the side of a short cliff. The sheer face didn't even have any vegetation just a few exposed rocks. The risk of injury from sliding against the jagged rocks seemed too high. I needed to find a different way down. Choosing another path to follow I ended up climbing a few hundred feet. All the while trying to keep the stream within hearing distance.

Near the bottom of the hill, I spotted an old overgrown path. The height of the weeds in-between the parallel ruts meant nothing came this way in months. The stream twisted and crossed across the path flowing in the direction away from farms that I saw from apple tree. The new path that I found would be easier to navigate to what I hoped would be civilization. Bending over to take a drink from the frosty water before I had to change directions, a sound of a horse approaching startled me.

Cautiously, I looked for the horse to see if it had a rider. It did! A girl with honey blond hair rode straight at me. Her gray nightgown draped to her waist exposing her leg. I stepped from behind the trees waving at her and shouting at her to stop. I startled both horse and rider causing the horse to flounder, dumping her off in the process.

The girl's horse stood, shook and then fled nearly bowling me over in its haste to flee. She took one look at me, scrambled to her feet and took off into the forest. I took the first steps to chase after her when I heard more horses coming along the same route. No one would flee like that unless they were being chased. A short tattered nightgown was not and outfit that someone would normally go riding in. Stepping behind a tree I wondered why she fled and decided that I would get more information before acting. A girl on a horse fleeing in terror did not make me hopeful of the ones pursuing her.

Two men reigned in their horses right in front of me. They had to have seen her flee into the woods. Both dismounted and went to tie their horses of to a nearby maple tree.

"She won't get far on foot. The bitch will pay for stabbing Moky." The taller one said. The shorter one just grunted.

This looks bad! I can't let them have her.

"Excuse me, is there a problem here?" I announced myself from beside the tree. The shorter one then looked around to find me, drew his sword and a dagger and told his friend to kill me.

The shorter one charged me while the larger one tried to unsheathe his sword. I stepped around the tree that I used for cover and drew my katana. Again it glowed as I dodged the shorter one, his blade flashing near my head. The larger one stumbled around the uneven ground. From the way that they held their weapons, neither seemed to be very good with them.

They both wore some sort of thick leather armor, carrying an iron scimitar in one hand and an iron dagger in the other. Their armor wouldn't stop my sword. I had it custom made for me by the only licensed weaponsmith in the United States and it came out perfectly. Master Haru wouldn't even let me commission it until I proved my skill and when I did he outdid himself.

I used the tree as a way to separate my attackers. Defending myself against both at once scared me. I needn't have been worried but I didn't come to that conclusion until later. The taller attacker made a clumsy attack that even a novice should have been able to avoid. His sloppy attack let him open for my cut that nearly severed his forearm just above the wrist. He screamed and dropped his sword as he tried to get away from me and stumbled over his own feet. The shorter one tried to strike at me from behind the tree with a slash at my leg. I parried his feeble attempt.

Who taught these bozos how to fight? They sucked.

I thrust my katana into the right shoulder of the shorter one. He seemed shocked that I so easily avoided his attempt to block my katana and penetrated his armor. His outdated iron weapons might have been stopped by the thick boiled leather armor, but it didn't have a chance against mine.

Thinking that they were both down, I almost died when I let down my guard. A rustling to my rear caused me to dive into a roll to avoid the attack that I heard coming. Good thing that I did since the larger one almost skewered me with his dagger. Both of them looked scared now that they each had a major wound and I was unharmed. The shorter one said "throw" and they both threw their daggers at me.

Since both of them were holding the daggers in their left hand I needn't have been worried. The smaller one had problems standing and he didn't have any accuracy throwing his dagger. His missed by a good margin. Unfortunately for me, the larger one had a much truer aim and his dagger sliced my left forearm, breaking the skin with its dull edge. I hadn't been standing still during this and while the daggers flew, I moved in for the kill. I thrust my katana into the center of the shorter one and he dropped like a stone. The larger one turned and tried to run. His blood loss and my speed together overcame his last efforts. I easily caught up to him and sliced through the back of his neck, which dropped him for good.

I just killed two men!

I dropped to my knees and threw up. I shook so hard I couldn't even stand.

After a few deep breaths I slowly rose and walked over to the stream to wash up. The ice cold stream shocked my face when I rubbed the chill water against it. Cleaning the wound that the dagger made hurt more than that idiot causing it did.

I removed my flannel shirt and cut a strip off of the bottom of it with the box cutter. I soaked the strip in the water and wrapped it around my arm, trying to stop the bleeding. I remembered my first aid kit in the backpack. Placing my fist against my head, I tapped it lightly several times. I needed to start paying more attention to what I needed to do instead of just doing without thinking.

Gingerly, I opened the backpack and removed the first aid kit. I found the kit at the bottom of the backpack. That I needed to fix. If this kept up, those extra seconds might save my life.

I've had considerable practice fixing superficial cuts on my arms and legs. When we sparred at the dojo, we always wore protective padding when we could. That didn't mean that accidents didn't happen.

Damn, this stings.

The long sleeves of the turtleneck and the flannel prevented any of the rust or other particles from the blade to get under my skin. The combination of plenty of fresh clean water and a capful of peroxide cleaned out the gash. After making sure that the I properly bandaged the wound, I put my shirt back on and went over to the two dead guys.

Might as well search them.

I rolled the larger one over and I'll be damned but his head almost fell off. I just stared. No way a normal sword could have cut through a human spine that easily. I don't even remember any resistance when I sliced through his neck.

Around his neck hung two leather thongs. One had small leather pouch and the other a pendant. I cut off both the pouch and the pendant from his neck. The wooden pendant that had some sort of engraving on it but the gore from his neck obscured identifying it. After I cleaned the blood off of it, I could make out a set of shackles engraved on it.