Fangs, Claws, and Camouflage (eBook)

Frances Applequist (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016 | 1. Auflage
100 Seiten
First Edition Design Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-5069-0243-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Vampires, werewolves, Marines, and the militia work with a powerful witch in a battle to save a town overrun by zombies. The fight begins eight-hundred years earlier with the brave child who became a willful adult, and then the powerful and seductive vampire leader. While other humans hide, two frightened, but stubborn, coeds brave terrifying zombie hordes to document the truth.

Textauszug

Part Two

Samurai Sons

 

 

Four-hundred years before Battle Day, 2017,early in the 1600s, Avianna walked through a forest admiring the Japanese cypress, Longstalk Holly, Andromeda, Mongolian oak, and Fuji cherry trees. She thought about the previous four centuries spent traveling alone, and the way old hatreds had faded. She thought about the friends she made and lost along the way. It was time to revisit one of the best of men, a sensei who still taught on the estate of his Japanese lord.

She emerged from the forest with the last rays of the sun and arrived at the estate soon after the arrival of two children, twin brothers named Isamu and Akio. Their parents had sent the children to the sensei to learn literature, painting, horseback riding, and combat, and to grow into service as protectors of the estate.

Avianna waited in the twilight, in a courtyard with the children, while her friend instructed his older students. As she sat in a lotus position on the cool tiles, the two children, barely more than toddlers, struggled to imitate her. Their chubby legs did not want to contort into the necessary angles and the attempt toppled them into each other. As they struggled to hide their anxiety behind stoic faces, they tried for the lotus position, again, and attained a proximity.

In their language and dialect, Avianna said, “Children.”

Her Neapolitan accent made Akio giggle, but Isamu answered, “Yes, Avianna-sama?”

“How do you feel about being here?”

“It is a great honor,” both boys chorused in voices too young for the concept.

Avianna grew silent to see if the boys could sit without fidgeting. Focused on maintaining their precarious balance, they maintained silence. She studied the intelligence in their eyes and their fascination with the green in hers. For a moment, the vampire wondered if she should compel them to admit their apprehension and homesickness, but thought it might bring them more shame than relief. Instead, she said, “Your sensei has important things to teach you. He will help you become great warriors.” Then she held each boy’s gaze and reached into his unsullied mind. She instilled a belief that he could remain calm and brave under the most alarming circumstances. Aloud, she said, “Someday, when you are grown, we might meet again. If we do, you will trust me.”

“Yes Avianna-sama,” they chorused.

When the sensei returned, Avianna stood to the side while he gave the children an instruction. Then she strolled with her friend through the estate’s beautiful gardens. The handsome, middle-aged teacher and the vision of a graceful young woman settled on stone benches near a koi pond. After the attendants brought them lanterns and tea, Avianna asked, “Those children seem too young, Sensei.”

“It is common for children to come to me young. Training you, an adult and a woman, would have been the aberration.”

“It would serve me well if you taught me weaponry.”

He grunted, “I know there are other masters training women in the art of the naginata, kaiken, and tantojutsu, but our master has forbidden me to train female samurai.” He stopped and almost smiled, “You can seek other masters, or learn the tea service and the ways of a dutiful wife.” When Avianna shook her head, the sensei nodded, “Ah, you are still determined to wander the world alone. I am concerned for you.”

“Then teach me the art of the sword.”

“You are free, but you know I am not. I am honor-bound to my master.”

Unwilling to compel her friend, the vampire nodded and let the conversation trail off. It had grown late and she wanted to say goodbye so that he could sleep and she could reach safe hiding before sun-up.

“Again, you leave at night.”

“At night I see my path easier than an enemy can see me on it.”

The sensei bowed, saying, “Then sayonara, Solitary One.”

Avianna returned the bow, intoning, “Sayonara, Sensei.”

As he watched her walk away, she blended into the shadows.

The next morning, the sensei began training the twins with Bokken swords made of strong Sunuke wood. They moved from there to lighter Bokken made of Tsubaki wood for precision. As the boys became more skillful, they graduated to Uchigatana: steel fighting swords. At the same time, they learned to read, play music, and draw. Different from the other boys, the twins learned from one reprimand, never repeated an error, and learned to hide the humor they inherited from their almost forgotten father. The sensei looked ahead and saw that he played a critical role in their becoming courageous warriors. He could not imagine the role he would play in extending their futures.

Once, in early adolescence, another student lost his temper with Isamu and attacked him. Their tall, lean, sensei pulled them apart insisting, “We must remain united, even when unity feels impossible.” He pointed to two Yaku Sugi trees felled by a storm, and he explained, “Ancestors of the master brought these trees here as young Kosugi from Yakusugi Island, and they are now hundreds of years old.” He turned to glare at them, “Perhaps they fell for the two of you, so each of you could chop one of the trees, and finish with pieces of firewood equal in size to each other’s. You must also respect the trees and end with no more waste than can fill this bucket.” With much discussion, planning, sketching, and working, the task took the two boys several days. While they did not finish as friends, they did learn to work together.

Years later, when the fading faces of his parents haunted Akio’s paintings, the sensei moved past him without haste. He repeated his favorite mantra: “Patience and focus. Patience and focus. Simple needs and acceptance move life forward.” Although Akio did not appreciate his sensei’s ramblings, the interruption dissipated his melancholia. Continuing to paint, he did not know how important his artistry would become.

The hours of training and lessons became a decade and, by their sixteenth birthdays, Isamu and Akio had become expert riders, and masters with bows and arrows, swords, knives, staffs, and spears. They had earned the right to wear the traditional chonmage hairstyle with the shaved pate and long, tied tail. They also wore the loose-fitting hitatare trousers and long-sleeved shirt.

One morning, soon after their eighteenth birthdays, the sensei said, “Our master is returned from his travels and I go to meet with him.” He opened a door and swept his arm through the air. The gesture brought in the fragrances of the tulips and pink moss that grew in the gardens. The sensei still stood tall and lean, but he had aged in the fifteen years since the twins arrived. “I sent the others to guard the outer perimeter,” he explained. “You,” he pointed to the three oldest in the room, “will sleep while Isamu and Akio guard the grounds around the house throughout the day. Then you will stand guard while Isamu and Akio sleep through the night.” The sensei went into the main house and stayed with the master the rest of the day, and the twins went to sleep after their shift without seeing him.

Deep in the night, Isamu woke in pain. Puzzled by his disorientation, he struggled to sit upright and look around. He saw the lean back of his sensei bending over Akio. With a burning wound on his neck and his voice catching in his damaged throat, he asked, “Have we been attacked, Sensei?”

When his sensei turned toward him, it shocked Isamu to see blood dripping from his teacher’s mouth down his chin, his eyes wild, and his canine teeth elongated. Isamu leapt to his feet with a strength and speed that, given his injury, surprised him. With great relief, he saw his brother stirring and demanded of the sensei, “What have you done? What has happened to you?”

“Stay calm, my beloved Isamu. You and Akio are my favorites and I have given you a great gift.”

When Akio bolted upright, Isamu could see blood around his twin’s mouth and smeared around wounds on his neck. Isamu touched his own neck and felt the stickiness surrounding his wounds. He rubbed his lips together and tasted blood. In a hardened voice he demanded, “What have you done?”

“We are new. We are forever. Together, we will give this gift to your brethren.”

 “What is this?”

 “This is immortality. This will keep you young and magnificent into eternity. Think of it. We are the Goryō without being all spirit. We are Shiryō, without being all soul. We are something new that our master brought back from his travels.” He paused, and then continued, “Now, we must share this gift with your brotherhood, so we can become an invincible army.”

“Rōnin,” Akio exhaled, “You want us to be Rōnin, rogue samurai.”

The sensei persisted, “Right now, our master is in the village feeding on the unworthy while I must change all my students. I transformed you first, because you will help me transform the others.”

Isamu’s new strength pulsed within him as he snarled, “Where there is no risk, there is no courage. You dishonored us. You dishonored yourself.”

“Do not even think of seppuku. Our master told...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.12.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Jugendbücher ab 12 Jahre
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Sachbücher
• ISBN-10: 1-5069-0243-X / 150690243X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5069-0243-2 / 9781506902432