Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Dear Sister Lost - Dais's Story Part 1 ❯ The Village ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Dear Sister Lost
By Penguine

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*Disclaimer: Ronin Warriors/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers are property of Sunrise, Inc. Not me.
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Part 2
The Village


An instant after they teleported out of the Nether Realms, the four Warlords appeared on the crown on of a mountain somewhere near Kanto in the Mortal World. Upon arrival, the four looked around, taking in their surroundings.
They were in a meadow beside a mountain stream. Off behind them to their left, the river tumbled off the mountain in a series of waterfalls. At the bottom of the falls was a deep sapphire blue pool of water. To each side of the river, there was deep green forest. Out beyond them lay an elegant green valley draped between the several ridges of rugged mountains that enclosed it.
"Wow... Nice place. I didn't know you went for this sort of thing, Cale," Shuten laughed in surprise. Sekmet mumbled behind the gag. To which Shuten just laughed, admiring his handy work with the duct tape. Sekmet groaned and disappeared to poke about a bit.
Dais, however, oddly just stood dumb-founded as he took in the sight before his eyes. Shuten waved a hand in front of the Magic Master's face, "Hello..." Dais blinked and looked at Shuten blankly.
"What?" Rajura asked with a look of confusion.
"What's up buddy? You just had this blank, glazed over look on your face..." Shuten said. Dais looked back at him with a frown, then silently walked off to explore. To this, Shuten turned to Cale and just shrugged. Cale produced a "whatever" look and dropped the matter.
"If I remember right, there's more to this spot than just the landscape. I think there use to be a village somewhere near here back several centuries ago," Cale said, indulging Shuten in what little history he knew about the place, knowing that sort of stuff was right up Shuten's alley.
"Wow, I'm not a bit surprised, though. It seems the perfect place to put a settlement," Shuten commented. He walked over to the river's edge and stared down at the gurgling water.
"I must have been attacked or something, cause there's little trace of it here anymore. There's a few grave stones up on the hillside over there," Cale said, pointing to a gentle green upward slope off to the river's right side. "But that's just about it save for a few pieces of artifacts poking out of the soil here and there."
"Hmmm... Sounds interesting. It does look like a pretty good place to hit. The army could have come over the ridge up there, behind that slope, some time in the middle of the night and pull a surprise attack on the village," Shuten pondered aloud. Cale nodded his head in agreement. Just then, an unbound Sekmet reappeared from up stream.
"Geezl Shuten what was that crap you used on me? It takes a whole damn layer of skin off with you pull it off," Sekmet complained loudly. Shuten squeezed his eyes shut and groaned.
"It's called duct tape, Naaza," Shuten muttered. "It's suppose to be like that. So how did you manage to get out of it, Sekmet?"
"I used the rocks up by the falls to cut the stuff at my wrists," Sekmet grinned, enjoying the telling of his great escape from Shuten's wicked duct tape. Shuten frowned and shook his head. Sekmet then moved to change the subject.
"So, what are you two yacking about?" he said with boredom laced in his words.
"I was telling Shuten how there must have been a village around here at one time. There are a few grave stones up on that hill over there, and a few pieces of artifacts turning up here and there. We figured it must have been attacked and destroyed at some point since those graves and artifacts are basically all that's left of the place," Cale explained.
"Wow. So where, exactly, are these graves you're talking about?" Sekmet asked with a bit of interest. Cale shook his head and laughed.
"Come on, I'll show you," Cale said with a wave of his hand. Sekmet and Shuten followed behind as he crossed the shallow stream.
"Hey, where's Dais? You think he'd want to come along?" Sekmet asked as they walked. Shuten shook his head.
"No. It seemed something else preoccupied him. I ran off some where a while ago. Haven't seen him since," he said with a shrug.
"Oh," Sekmet said simply.


As Dais walked away from his comrades, he looked about the valley and reminisced over its special meaning to him. As he crossed the stream, he could see in his mind's eye, himself as a boy, gathering water for his mother to cook with. He looked over at the falls and the pool the water collected in at the bottom. Here he could see himself playing games in the water on a hot summer's day. He looked out over the valley and gazed up at the surrounding mountains, thinking that they were still just as beautiful now as they were centuries ago when he'd once called this valley home. He wondered as he wandered about, what had brought Cale to this place. Looking back out toward the meadow, he thought to himself how the events that had transpired here in this valley four centuries ago turned him into who he was today.
"He has no idea where he's brought me," Dais said to himself. He glanced up the hill ahead of him and he sighed a breath of sorrow. "Not even the slightest idea," he said as he slowly began to ascend the hill.
There on the top right side of the slope, a few feet from another patch of forest, his eyes fell upon a small cluster of grave markers. His gaze focused upon the one small grave that sat in the middle. As he came to stand before it, his gaze became blurry and his knees weakened. Falling to a kneel before the grave, he bowed his head as his shoulders quivered from the impact of the tidal wave of emotions that sloshed about inside him. Trying his best to hold the tears back, he reached out with his right hand and ran his fingers over the cold age-worn stone. In an instant, the past came flooding back to him in one huge torrent of long forgotten memories.
As Dais knelt at the small grave, picking over and reconstructing the memories of the past, sounds of chitter-chatter flowed up the hill to meet his ears. He didn't have to turn around to know who it was. The way the conversations were going was a dead give-away.
Behind Rajura, Cale, followed by Shuten and Sekmet, ascended the slope. As usual, Naaza had a bickering match going with Shuten. By now, though, Shuten had had enough of it.
"Naaza, I don't give a damn what you think. I'm sick of hearing your mouth run constantly. Shut the hell up before I shut you up myself!" Shuten screamed at the top of his lungs.
"No. I will not shut up. Besides, what are you going to do? You left your precious duct tape at Kayura's place. Remember? ...Idiot," Sekmet said sticking his tongue out and making moose ears. Shuten was about to turn and knock the crap out of Sekmet when Cale spoke up from a few paces further up the hill.
"What the heck?" Cale said furrowing his brow and scratching his head in confusion as he gazed up the hill to see Dais kneeling before one of the graves. Shuten and Sekmet immediately followed his gaze and made similar gestures of confusion.
"So that's where he ran off to," Shuten said.
"What's he doing?" Sekmet asked.
"I don't know, but it seems almost as if he's been here before," Cale answered.
"How's that for irony?" Shuten said rhetorically. Sekmet nodded. Stepping up a few paces closer, Cale attempted to get to the bottom of the mystery.
"Hey buddy, what's up?" Cale called out. After making sure no tears were evident, Dais turned around to face Cale.
"You haven't a clue where you've brought me," Dais said with almost a laugh.
"Huh? Obviously... Mind spilling the beans?" Cale prodded. Dais bowed his head.
"Fine, if you want to hear the story, then pull up a seat," Dais spoke softly. Then he looked up at all three of them, "But the first person who tries to laugh or make any other disrespectful and dishonoring remarks will die," he said in a low hard tone that proved he meant every word he just said. After getting rid of a small case of jitters that Rajura's tone of voice had just created, everyone nodded and sat down. Once everyone was situated, he heaved a sigh and slowly began to recite his story.

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