Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18
Reizo landed hard, still bleeding and in pain. Something heavy landed on him and pinned him in place. He heard something crunch and pain bloomed in his chest. A vile smell like an outhouse and dead body combined flooded his nose.
Reizo's eyes were sealed shut. He wiped them on his shoulder opened one. It watered fiercely, but he realized he could see again.
A sunken finger of earth grew from the sinkhole around Reizo up to Taru. It wasn't a deep split, but it's sudden appearance caught him off guard and he tumbled into the ditch. Shock went up his right arm and his ankle twisted, but he didn't think anything was seriously injured. He retrieved his bow, grateful the string held. His shooting arm was numb. This is the danger of having those with no fighting experience on the battle field! I wish I’d been more insistent that Yoshi train his traveling onmyoji, Taru thought as he climbed back out.
Gin fared the best. She was light and on four legs, so when the ground disappeared beneath her, she manged to land on soft soil. She climbed back up to the field and saw two beasts aiming spears at one sinkhole.
Gin sneaked up on her prey. Months of hunting helped her. The beastman didn't see her until she bit his ankle. He howled and kicked her head over heels through the air. She landed in a roll and threw up again from the disgusting taste.
Taru drew a knife and threw it at the closest monster. It missed, but just then Gin bit him and his thrashing got in the way of the other monster's throw. That monster was aiming at Taru. Taru hobbled closer, cursing his useless right arm.
“Taira, Taira! Stay down, they can’t hit you!” Taru screamed as soon as he realized why they weren’t throwing their spears. When the beastman threatening Taira fell, he landed on his own spear. Reizo was pinned down, but he was also temporarily safe from the two remaining spears.
Taru wasn't safe, so he slide into the ditch.
“I’m trapped!” Reizo screamed. I’m trapped at the bottom of an outhouse!
“You’re safe, get a hold of yourself,” Taru snapped. “One of them fell on you.”
I’m safe, I’m safe. I’m an onmyoji, Reizo remembered. His ribs made it hard to talk to the kami, so he said out loud, “Dirt, leave my eyes.” It did and he opened them. They watered, they were sore, but they opened. He realized he was laying in dirt. Something stinky was pressing him to the ground and he couldn’t move.
Meanwhile the two remaining monsters walked towards Taru. Sliding down the ditch on a bad ankle had cost him. His knee didn't bend quite right now. But his shooting arm was pins and needles now. He flexed his hand, grabbed an arrow, and carefully situated himself to shoot as best he could.
“Taira!” Taru called.
“Leave him, get the archer. He’s the biggest threat,” one beast-man said to the other. “We’ll avenge our tribesman's death later. He’s not going anywhere.”
Was it a trick? Only one way to find out. “Lift me up,” he said to the soil kami beneath him. It obeyed. “Move me to the right,” he said. He maneuvered the soil until the weight fell off of him. Each breath was fire, but he wasn’t pinned anymore. Reizo peeked over the lip of the sink hole and saw a tiny Kitsune pounce toward on one of the beast man’s ankle. He was waiting for it, and kicked her. Gin landed in a sprawl and didn’t move. She's fighting. I can't be a coward when she isn't.
“Taira, hurry!” Taru called from the pit the monsters walked towards.
“Hey!” Reizo shouted at the monster’s backs. He winced as he dug in his sleeve for his last Ofuda. "It only takes a few moments to release a kami properly, or not." Ministry Head Fujiwara's words echoed in his mind. He blocked out the pain released the trapped kami.
Fire rushed from Reizo’s hand towards the two beasts that were closing in on Taru. He'd chosen a short, intense burn instead of a longer burn because fire was very fickle. The way things happened, it’s lucky I grabbed the soil Ofuda instead of this one before. My thoughts were so jumbled and chaotic, it would have burned them alive! Shame washed over Reizo with that realization. I would have killed my friends. Me. Not these monsters, not drowning, not bandits. Me.
The smell of burnt fur filled the air. The monsters screamed a terrible scream and rolled into the pit with Taru. Maybe they were trying to put out the flames, maybe they were desperate to kill one of their enemies.
No! “Lift up Taru!” Reizo screamed. His vision narrowed to a red tunnel as his mind scrabbled for the right kami out of the thousands surrounding him. He found it, and Taru rose on a wave of soil above the burning, screaming bodies. The screaming cut off abruptly when the wave of dirt crashed over them. Taru slid down the wave of dirt and landed near Reizo. His face was burned from the heat but he was alive.
“Gin. She’s hurt. I can’t see her around the pile,” Reizo said.
“Yip!” Came a faint bark. Gin limped into view holding her left paw. She sat down on Taru’s lap. He’s not Daddy, but I need to pretend right now, she thought.
Taru rubbed her head. “She saved me in the village, then she saved you when you were trapped in the pit.”
Unlike me who almost killed them both.
"Lord Taira, it's all over. Time to return to Gogo. Suki will be happy to see you."
Tears fell down Reizo’s cheeks. “I..” He began, but the words wouldn’t come out.
“You have never been in a battle before. It is ok, you did as well as you could,” Taru continued.
He is so wrong. I thought being an onmyoji was enough to win a fight. If either of them find out I almost burned them alive, they’ll hate me.
Taru helped him to a sitting position. Every breath was pain, but Reizo ignored it and guided the soil kami towards Gogo. A just punishment for my failures.
Then a scream split the air. It wasn't over.
Picture by Daphne Zaras - http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/headlines/dszpics.htmlOriginally uploaded at en.wikipedia; description page is/was here., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2130165