The Samurai's Whisper

After pacing as fast as his heart, he dived behind a felled tree and peered over the mossed and cracking bark to see if there was anyone chasing him. Realizing he had bridged enough space between himself and them he placed the swords on the ground and began to crawl back over the footprint's he had left behind. After dragging himself through the dirt for about two minuets he began crawling backwards, rubbing away an covering his footprint's with the leaf and wooded debris that coated the floor.

"Did that just happen?" the spotter said to the sniper as he sat looking out over the valley from the opposite side from where the warrior had disappeared. The sniper rolled on his back and stared up through the leaf's covering them. "What the fuck just happened."

"Take out that notepad and write this down what's necessary. I don't know how long were going to be here now. The group that were there seemed welcoming, might have got a night or two under a roof with them, these Ri's didn't even take the time to speak. Were lucky we pulled this branch over us Brooklyn " Miller said as he reached his hand up rubbing a leaf between his fingers.

"That one that passed was nearly close enough to hear a whisper."

said as he recalled the Samurai that threaded by them as they walked down they valley.

The doors swung open on the room the women, children and elders were sitting in. From the back of the group of people the boy ran to the Samurai at the door. "Ah you found us!" he said as the towering Ri looked down on him. "Beside me now!" his mother screamed. "Hide and seek" she said to the Ri as she pulled her son back to a safe distance. The Ri laughed.

The older walked passed the Ri to the edge of the wooden porch and looked across the open area to see the bodies being pulled away.

He turned to the Ri stood beside him, "Don't loose who you were before all this began." he said as he turned back to face the group of people in the room. Whimpers turned into screams over time and crying to whaling as they began to realise their husbands and sons did not survive.

Brooklyn and Miller watched the situation unfold from above.

On the other side of the valley the warrior had realised he was in the clear for now. He began to hike his way through the scattered trees, he had trekked for about ten minuets in a zigged zagged pattern trying to figure out what to do. The moonlight broke the trees and casted shadows from the trunks. Like an endless row's of v shapes from where they extended at the roots. The branches extended and intertwined with each other.

From a distance he heard a whistle. Unsure of from where and unsure of it was a friend or foe he took cover behind the nearest tree. The whistle rang out again, making it easier for him to narrow down the location as he peered to see who could see him. A hand was outstretched from a thick bushed area beckoning him a familiar face appeared from the darkness.

The three that had made their way to the back of the village had doubled back through the woods after they had seen the Samurai's approaching from the valley top.

The warrior, Milo by name paced to the others acknowledging what was left of the villages defenders.

He greeted them by placing the two swords he brought with him firmly in the ground at area they were sitting in.

Rufus approached him asking what was the condition of the village. Milo shook his head.

"They're has to be around ten of them." Milo said as he sat beside the other two.

One of them was still wrapped in a face mask, the stereotypical ninja face covering.

"What is your name?" Milo asked. There was no response after a few seconds Rufus sat beside him.

"He hasn't spoke much since we left." Rufus said to Milo.

"Hey, your name?" Rufus persisted.

The masked warrior stood up and walked to the open in the wooded area. A crane bird was perched above on the tree. The warrior took the end of the mask and unravelled it. After the first few feet of cloth were removed a length of hair fell down over their shoulder. Elegant features revealed.

"Balaa" she said as she placed the length of cloth on a near by branch.

The crane stood tall and extended it's wings, claiming the airspace as it's own it pulled itself up above the woodland and glided through the air.

It passed above the village and took itself higher, looking out over the mountain range that stretched for miles, apart from in the direction the stream continued. Still quite a distance but the closest to any change in terrain which was the coast.

An area rumoured to be home to wolfs that stalk like a ghost.

And of ghost's that stalk like wolf's.

Tales that were told to keep their children from venturing too far off into the woods, that were passed on through generations.

Taken back to the earliest settlers, that had ended up waking up to dead and missing livestock. Sightings of silhouette's in the distance. Shapes and figure's moving through the trees. Rumour spread over the years.

Exaggerated and twisted was how the silhouette ended up being after more and more sightings occurred. A Dragon some would say, a daemon others. Trapped between this world and the next. Commanding attention, but leaving you looking into a darkness. Your eye's switching from tree to tree,

Did you see? Did you?

Or is your mind is just playing trick's as you looked into the darkness?

The undocumented, unconfirmed and unexpected was what had accumulated over time. As the years passed it had been disregarded, the screams and whispers of nothing human were followed by the howls of the wolfs in the mountain side which is why they both were thought of being associated.

The wolfs had learned over the years to refrain from picking their meals from the village as the men adapted to their hunting tactics, and it ended up being their own species that destroyed them on sight.

The Samurai, made a minority by the formed government that banished them after they protected the people of the land for years, legislated to turn in their weapons which few complied. The true Samurai's would have seen a true one take their own life with the blade they wielded then lay it down under capture.

Millers scope followed the leading Samurai who had sat down to take a moment to himself.

"Should I send this man to bed early?" he asked Brooklyn

"You've got one shot, the rest of them are going to close in on our location quicker then.."

Before Brooklyn could finish his sentence from way off in the distance a rattling and terrifying scream echoed through out the valley.

As it shattered the silence every other crane that was perched on the tree's took flight and climbed through the air.

Miller held his scope firm on the leader of the Ri's as he stood up to face the direction of the piercing sound. The rest of his men took a similar action, placing hand's on swords and casting an eye to the surviving locals as they looked at each other. The older man smiled to himself as he sat on the step.

Noticing the grin, the Ri holding them captive stepped forward. "What is that?" he asked trying to hold his voice steady.

The sound continued for a number of seconds as the birds flew over head.

The boy walked forward from the crowd and stood beside the old man.

''Grandad..''

As the scream began to fade, the howls of the wolf's began to overlap each other in the distance.

The old man looked towards the boy.

Struggling to get the words from his mouth ''..the Beanshee.''

''I'm not surprised...'' his grandfather replied.