The dragon and the silver mare

III. First blood

After the assassination attempt Nobunaga proposed a ceasefire to the Uesugi-Takeda alliance and they agreed. Even though Kenshin was a warmonger, he had pride and honour and Shingen's spies must have informed them about what happened. Mitsuhide already started his investigation. We were riding back to Azuchi together.

Ana was riding with Nobunaga. I couldn't take my eye off her. She is alive... I still couldn't cope with the reality of this situation. She lived all this time... Her hair was much shorter than before but grew a lot during the past year. I remembered when her maid burst into the audience hall with the cut-off hair in her hands. Why didn't she send at least a message that she lived? Long lost emotions were swirling in me again.

We rode past the pastures where the horses grazed.

'Stop!' Ana cried out and jumped off the horse. What the devil?

She stopped before the dapple-gray stallion and he looked at her. Ana reached out a hand and the horse sniffed it and stepped one step closer. He recognised her...

'Han!' She threw her arms around his neck and the horse rested his head on her back.

'I am sorry, love! I know I promised you that I'll never leave you. I let you down. I am so sorry! Forgive me!' She apologised and talked kinder to that animal than to a human... I deserve an apology like that too... But I had to admit that I've never seen such bond between horse and men. I used to think that I had similar connection with her.

She let the horse loose and he galloped far away. He jumped and kicked up to the sky. Ana just laughed and wiped her tears. Her laugh used to bring me so much joy. Now, it only stirs up unwanted bitterness... She whistled repeatedly and the horse came back running. She kissed him between the nostrils and looked up to him smiling from the bottom of her heart. She used to look at me like that... Did that even happen or I just want to remember that way?

She laid the stallion down and climbed on his back then she trotted back to us.

'Okay, we can go now!' Her smile was shining brighter than the sun. I couldn't help but smile a little too. Her glance got me unprepared. I found myself smiling at her. For a brief moment our eyes met and she smiled even warmer. I quickly erased my smile and looked away. I can't do this. I'm not going back.

...

A few days have passed. I didn't want to talk to Ana so I tried to avoid her. I knew it was a coward move but I had no better plan yet. I didn't know how to talk to her or what to say.

I took the shortest route to the audience hall because I didn't want to risk running into her. I was almost there when someone poked my shoulder. I turned around.

'Uhm, Masamune, Good afternoon!' She looked up at me with round eyes.

'Good afternoon, lass!' I kept my tone business-like and hoped someone would come around.

'How are you?' She tried to break the ice and smiled uncertainly.

'Never been better, thanks.' I nodded and tried to go around her but she stepped in my way. 'What?'

'Uhm... I just wanted to... you know...' She paused and stared at her feet nervously. Finally, she took a deep breath. 'I think maybe... we... we s-should...'

'We should what? Maybe you should think first instead of stuttering gibberish. You make no sense...' I barked at her. Those words came out the worst possible way but at least she dropped the conversation.

'Sorry.' Her eyebrows ran up in surprise. 'Uhm. Okay, then see you around?'

She was staring at me throughout the council. She must have been wondering why I was so rude to her. I was wondering about that too. That was nothing like me. She put me on edge whenever I saw her. I was frustrated and angry. I wasn't paying attention to the reports but Nobunaga's words caught my ear.