Undying Love (On Hiatus)

Feelings that are hard to convey

Jin looked out over the swamps. No movement. As usual.

They nicknamed the northern frontier "Hell's Gates", because they were at battle with the savage Erudians almost every day. Casualty rates were incredibly high here for both man and horse. They had also stationed the most almost of cavalry in a single garrison in this little town. Jin didn't understand why, since no one wanted to tell him.

But he had been in Paimotan for long enough to know that this town was the last one between the Erudian lands and Igarashi Castle. It was an important rally point for troops if an attack were ever to be made on the Erudians. And that was why it was so heavily garrisoned. Funds were lacking to make fortifications for the town, so whatever they had was scrounged up by the local populace who risked their lives to Erudian raiders while collecting materials. There was a barely functioning onager, a guardhouse, and a wooden wall that was one and a half men high and guarded only the dojo.

There were five hundred men in the garrison quarters and guardhouse. Two hundred yari ashigaru, a hundred levy axemen, fifty naginata levies, and a hundred and fifty katana and yari dojo cavalry. All of them were heavily armored with lamellar and plate armor, even the levies. At least, better than the Erudians who wore little to no armor. Jin saw no reason why they would lose in a fair fight against them.

He was sitting on a rooftop near the entrance to the town. A convoy of food supplies was moving into the quiet main street. Men from Kaida. If they were anyone else it would be prime cause for suspicion.

The two wagons, each covered by a cloth, rolled slowly towards the guardhouse. Jin turned his gaze to look out over the black swamps again.

He missed his family. After an administration debacle back at the palace, he had been assigned to the western border as part of a patrolling force, in preparation for a possible Hegurian invasion. Then, nothing happened, and he was then assigned to Paimotan for the same reason. Probably another false alarm. The emperor liked to see threats that weren't there, and move his troops about a lot. But being surrounded on all sides by enemies, it was hard not to be paranoid. Jin had been away for, what, seven years? His daughter must be all grown up by now, and probably was in love with some boy from their village. Probably that strong farmer's boy Yuuki. He wanted to go back for his daughter's big day. Maybe he could ask for leave. But that was a very slim possibility.

Jin had heard numerous horror stories about the Erudians from the disbanded soldiers of the Black Wall. They said that on the night of the attack, they appeared literally out of nowhere, like lakewraiths, with all of their siege equipment, despite there being a vigilant watch on the Black Wall at all times of the day. Their archers fired volleys of arrows that blotted out the full moon, and there was literally pitch-black darkness during the fight. The Erudians seemed to be able to see in the dark, as they had no problem assailing the walls and massacring the garrison. Some said that they tore men apart with their bare hands and ate their flesh, and some said that they had the claws of wolves and the teeth of ghouls. One of them even swore that their eyes glowed red as they wielded fire with skill that surpassed even the Fire-wielders from the Fire Clan.

Well, that last one was a bit of a stretch to believe, because no one else in the world possessed the secret art of pyromancy other than the Fire Clan.

A scream erupted from the guardhouse. Jin looked around in shock.

The food convoy had stopped right in front of it, but all the men were dead, their throats all slit. The wagons were empty. They weren't transporting food.

Panic built up in Jin's stomach and he grabbed his horn and blew it. A low, resounding note echoed throughout the town.

An axeman was kicked out of the guardhouse and a long-haired man jumped out and stabbed him in the chest.