Chapter 4:Home sweet home

It was late and I was tired when we arrived. Kira nearly fell off her horse trying to dismount and rushed to what looked like a body lying on the porch of the log cabin. I led the horses into a barn that was just off the side of the house and put one horse in each of the stalls. There was already one horse in its own stall. I saw a shovel that was hung in the barn and set it aside, figuring that it was going to be a long evening burying the dead. As I was walking out of the barn, Kira limped in crying again. I figured that she was exhausted, both mentally and physically. Tired as I was, I held her and then picked her up and slowly carried her into her house. "Which bed is yours?" I asked. She pointed and I laid her down gently and told her to rest, as I covered her with her blanket.

"Does your father keep any alcohol like whiskey?"

She nodded.

"Where?"

"In the cupboard by the window." she sniffed.

I opened the jug and sniffed, my guess was that it was pure grain alcohol. I just poured a small amount into a pottery cup that was hanging upside down then I mixed in the same amount of water from a bucket that was next to the cups. I figured that would help her sleep and handed the cup to her.

"Drink up."

She did, only coughing a little. I took the cup from her. "Sleep, I'll watch over you tonight. You can trust me."

As worn out as she was, I expected her to be her to be sound asleep pretty quickly with the added help of the alcohol.

Hell, I wish that I could go to sleep and have this all be a dream.

I removed my backpack and my katana before I went about the grisly task of gathering up the dead. I piled them up next to a compost pile away from both the house and the barn. It was getting close to sunset when I found the well. I pumped a couple of buckets of water to wash up with; the stink of the dead was getting to me. I was dragging at this point but figured that the horses needed to be unsaddled before I crashed. I pumped another two buckets of water and walked with them to the barn. I poured the water into what looked like troughs and then searched for something that resembled grain. I had no idea how much to give them so I probably overdid it. During my search for grain I found a lantern, but had no idea how to light it, so I ended up leaving it where it was.

I went to the horses and tried to figure out how to remove the saddlebags and the saddles. It turned out to be not that difficult, just cumbersome. I was starving after they were all unsaddled; I made myself go over to the house so that I could find something to eat besides the all too many apples that I ended up consuming during the trip here. Quietly as possible I reentered the log cabin and looked through the cupboards until I found some bread and cheese to munch on. It was goat cheese.

I hated goat cheese, but I needed food and this was here.

So I ate. It was dark by now so I blocked the front door with a chair and then waited for my eyes to get adjusted to the darkness before I stumbled to a bed and crashed for the night. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I awoke to the smell of eggs and pancakes frying.

Hell it isn't even dawn yet.

I mumbled good morning to Kira as I stumbled up and out to the outhouse. Before I returned to the house I grabbed a half-full bucket of water from the night before and brought it into the house for her to use. She smiled her thanks as she served both of us breakfast. It was pretty good and there was a lot of it.

"What would you have me do? I am completely unfamiliar with farms."

"You could feed and water the livestock." She quietly suggested.

"I can do that, I found the grain last night for the horses."

"What are you going to do with me, Sir?" She asked just as I was getting up.

"I plan on returning you to your family; your grandmother sounds like a good start."