Black Arrow Lord Ch. 04

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It's probably best not to think about fighting him in a bar.
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Part 4 of the 5 part series

Updated 09/22/2022
Created 01/03/2014
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TaLtos6
TaLtos6
1,930 Followers

***Ok, this is one chapter that I'd direct you to take a look at the tabs.

It's not a major part of this, but there's a scene with some gay interaction in it. I also move the main girl and guy pair closer together in this too.

Well, for a bit of a slightly stuck-up and yet accomplished female warrior and a blonde Danish barbarian, they're getting closer.

If nothing else, I think it shows just how tough it can be sometimes to get her attention. 0_o

***
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"I cannot get this one out," Kōichi hissed with effort through his teeth. He'd been trying for a few minutes now to remove Valdemar's arrow from the back of the last of the four men.

Valdemar looked over as he placed the flat of his palm against the shoulder of the first man that he'd shot and tightened his grip on the arrow protruding from the corpse's chest and he grimaced as he wrenched the projectile free.

"Then leave it," he shrugged, "I can see from here that it is probably ruined anyway. He fell from a running horse. The tumble cannot have helped my arrow. I'll just break it off."

He stood up and walked over, seeing Kōichi shake his head, "Do not leave such a strong sign as that to tell that you did this."

Valdemar nodded, "I guess you're right."

But as he looked, Valdemar could see that there might be hope after all and he rolled the body onto its side and pushed through instead. Other than the wet and bloody fletching, there seemed to be no damage. He carefully tried to clean it with a little snow.

They dragged the corpses off and rolled them into the narrow gap between a pair of boulders with some stunted shrubs growing nearby and they kicked some snow over the bodies. They left then, deciding that being in a place with four dead men who likely took orders from someone was likely not the best place to be found. Kōichi led Valdemar away, but the Dane noticed that it was in a different direction.

Before he could remark on it, a doe stopped in front of them coming in the opposite direction. She looked back at something but it was too late, since Valdemar was carrying his bow in his hand with an arrow held against it loosely just as a precaution.

She turned her head back only a little at the soft creak of the bowstring being drawn and she froze. Then she was down and struggling, but Kōichi's knife ended things moments later.

"I thought that she was going to remember her feet and run," he said in almost a whisper, "I have seen it before. Hurry Valdemar-san, pull out your arrow and then we will need to be gone from here. I worry that something caused her to run this way."

The Dane nodded and with the arrow out, he knelt and draped the carcass over his shoulders before he stood up. She wasn't large and he'd noticed that the deer seemed to all be smaller here. They walked off in a bit of a hurry, though they were quiet about it. Kōichi led them along a shallow stream for some distance, crossing quickly three times before moving away on the opposite side.

"I thought that we were going back to the village," the Dane said in a low voice.

The youth turned to look back a little and he nodded, "Do you plan to eat what you carry in a day? There are others who could use a little of it."

Valdemar understood and he smiled, "I was not prepared to actually shoot a deer today. But is it far? It's always best not to leave the work of it for too long."

In answer, Kōichi led them under a thick canopy of evergreen boughs in a place where the growth had been carefully managed so that those boughs never died back in the normal way as the trees grew taller. That way, they always hid the entrance to a bit of a grotto. Beyond that, Valdemar found that he was being led into a cavern.

As they walked, Valdemar could see people, most of them working at everyday tasks. Kōichi was recognized with smiles and quiet calls of greeting, but each time, the next instant, the eyes were on the Dane and the people stood and stared as he strode along with the doe over his shoulders. Some people even bowed, confused by the topknot and deciding that it might be best to play it safe by showing respect.

They stopped next to an old woman who looked happy to see the meat, even if it was still on the animal and she greeted Kōichi with a pleased bow. Then she turned to look up at the stranger for a moment with a little wonder on her face. She bowed deeply again and began to speak. He caught her respectful greeting and that she called him 'kuroi yajirushi hanshu' and after that, he didn't get a thing out of what she said.

"These people are the poorest of the poor, the ones who do the lowest and dirtiest of tasks," Kōichi said, "They do not even have homes to freeze in, so they live here. There are only maybe a dozen here at the moment. Can you spare the meat for them?"

Valdemar nodded, smiling at the faces around them, "Please tell them that they are welcome to all of it, only have someone show me where I can lay this down so that I can butcher it for them. What did the old woman say?"

"She knew you as the Black Arrow lord from the talk in the area and said that the world holds many wonders. She is happy to see that not all wonders are to be feared, not matter how fearsome they might seem." He turned to speak to the others.

When Kōichi translated the Gaijin's graciousness, Valdemar found himself being led by the hand by a young girl to a place deeper in where there was an offshoot of the steam which they'd crossed.

Valdemar wasted no time, and the doe was skinned and dressed out in minutes with many hands willing to help him with the work. He didn't understand their quiet thanks to him, and they didn't comprehend his speech to them in a low voice as he worked, but that didn't matter. Once he saw that they had a place there to hang meat, he quartered the carcass and with a little hemp twine, he hung it for them and washed his hands in the icy stream.

When he turned around, he found himself being led to a chamber where he and Kōichi were offered tea and rice cakes. The cakes were not sweetened at all and a lot of the kernels were brown, not having their husks removed. The tea was the lowest grade, beneath what likely anyone in the village would have, but Valdemar didn't care.

"They are a little shamed to only have these things to offer to a lord from another land," Kōichi said, but Valdemar waved his hand a little with a broad smile for them all.

He looked at the faces around him, "Tell them for me that in my life, it does not matter if one has a title or is a lord. My family had only its name, and when I was a boy, most had already forgotten it. One cannot eat a title. I know what it is to be hungry. I am honored by their hospitality and friendliness."

They took their leave not long after. Most of the talk had been between the people and Kōichi, who explained to them who Valdemar was and roughly where he'd come from. On the way out, the Dane felt the hands of several of them on him as they wished him well and a few of them gave in to the urge to slap their palms gently against his shoulder or the leather of his cuirass in a friendly fashion as if to wish him safe travels.

Valdemar found that they now approached the village from a different direction as they walked. "What have you got there?" he asked, looking at the crude package which Kōichi carried, noticing it for the first time.

"A little of the meat from your doe," the boy smiled as he held it up a little, "They would not hear of us leaving without a bit, no matter what I tried to tell them."

Valdemar looked for a moment longer and judged that there was perhaps three pounds there and he shook his head, "Deer are larger where I am from and there are different kinds. What we brought was not that much to have any to spare, once the hide, bones, sinew and gut are cut away."

Kōichi shrugged, "This is what I was given, Valdemar-san. I argued them down from a whole haunch. You do not need to fear. I can say that everything we brought will be used."

After a time, Valdemar looked over again. "What was it that Matsu -san wanted you to tell me? I have waited all of this time, trying to make sense of what I saw."

Kōichi held up those two fingers again, "Not here, Valdemar-san. Wait a little longer."

--------------------------------------

The little fire crackled and Kōichi served them both tea to try to drive the chill out as the house warmed up. Valdemar was learning the slightly precarious pastime of trying to warm one's fingertips while holding a tea bowl and yet not burn himself at the same time by holding and not shifting his grip for too long.

Kōichi sat down beside him. "The other girl back there at the little house that we saw was Aiki-san," he said.

He looked down for a moment as he tried to think of the best way to say things. "The way that things are in little places such as this village can make life miserable," he said.

"People only see the things which they might wish to see. I am seen as – at best – only half-Japanese. There is little that I can do to change anything. I am expected to be a low sort of person; the only reason that I am already not a beggar is because of my mother, and that is only because of how she is tied to Maeda-san. My mother and Hoshino-san are viewed a little oddly because they are from the south, but they are afforded much respect since they are Samurai and from a noble family.

This is a little place and the thoughts of the people in it are even smaller. Aiki-san is seen in the same way as I am, and since she is a girl, she can be even less than me in this place.

Matsu-san is the only one here with a chance, because of her father."

Valdemar nodded as he tried to understand, "But where she ends up in life also depends to some degree on who she might marry, or am I wrong?"

"You are correct," Kōichi said, "and the only man around here whom everyone sees as a match is Taro – whom she despises openly. This is what all three of us have known all of our lives.

We were children together," he said, " we met each other while we were not much beyond infants and even then, we already knew. The other children would have little to do with us, so we grew together, us three. Matsu-san and I are cousins of a sort because our mothers are cousins. Aiki-san is really not related to us in any way, but we have always called her our cousin as well because she belongs with us."

He leaned forward to pour them both more tea. "I do not really know how to say the rest, Valdemar-san. I do not know how things go in the land where you come from and I am a little afraid that I might offend you."

Valdemar couldn't really see any way that he might be offended and he said so. "Say whatever you need to – or whatever Matsu-san meant for you to say, I would guess. I doubt that you even could offend me, Kōichi-san."

The boy still struggled, but eventually he just began. "As the three of us grew, we remained the closest of friends, and, ... he looked down and stopped there.

Valdemar placed his hand onto the younger man's shoulder, "If it gives you such trouble, my friend, then don't tell me now. Tell me when you think you can or not at all if it causes you to feel the way that I think that you do now."

He stood up to begin to prepare the evening meal, but Kōichi stopped him, "Leave it for tomorrow, Dane-san. I have hidden the package in some snow. It will keep. I am to take you elsewhere this evening."

"Where do we go now?" Valdemar asked and Kōichi shrugged, "Nowhere bad, let's just have another cup of tea before it grows cold."

------------------------

That evening, Valdemar was taken to the bathhouse by Kōichi. He was a little surprised to see three women there, one of whom was the boy's mother.

He tried to hide his surprise to see that another of them was the girl who had ridden off behind Matsu on her horse earlier.

"What am I to do here?" He asked.

"You have been given the right to use the bath," the boy said, "How is this done where you come from?"

Valdemar shrugged, "We fill the bath and get into it. A person's bath is a rather private thing. We scrub ourselves to get clean and then we wash the tub afterward. Is it different here?"

Kōichi nodded," Only a little, I think. Here, we wash before the bath and then get in. The more important people are washed by the women."

Valdemar tried not to look shocked as he nodded.

"But my mother knows that the custom is a little bit different, and she told me that if it is your wish, then I can wash you if it makes you less uncomfortable since I am to act as your servant."

"Kōichi-san," Valdemar began, "What is it that you normally do around here?"

"I am a servant to the Lady Hoshino, a part of her household with my mother and Aiki-san there.

Maeda-san took Lady Hoshino after he killed her husband in a battle. She tried for many minutes to kill him with her naginata as she defended her husband's home. He chose not to kill her out of his admiration and they grew to respect each other after a time. What they share now grew out of that respect and much time.

The other woman runs the bathhouse and cares for it."

Kōichi introduced them then and his mother spoke to Valdemar in English, "We are pleased and honored to have Dane-san with us. It is my hope that my son pleases you with his efforts and that you find his assistance to be of great value."

Valdemar smiled and nodded, "You may be proud of him. I was taught a little of the nihongo language before I set off on my journey. You might imagine how I tried very hard to learn this language. But I see now that my best efforts would have served me very poorly here. To have Kōichi-san's help makes this all very easy and pleasant for me."

"I am pleased and proud then," the woman smiled, "even more that lord Maeda-san also finds my son to be of value to you. He has already told me how happy he is to have my son to help in this.

Life here is a little lonely for Kōichi-san. He has found it difficult to gain much of any acceptance here due to his heritage. He does not look much like you, but he is half, ..."

"Barbarian?" Valdemar asked with a warm smile. "I understand. This must make life a little challenging for him at times."

"Yes," she said, "but you are making what he is a little more popular these days from what I am told."

She said something to the girl then and he watched her young face light up as she chattered her reply with a little bit of excitement, bowing to Valdemar a couple of times.

"Aiki-san says that after you left Lord Maeda, he stood in his hall and everyone listened as he spoke his praise of the Gaijin daimyo and what you did with your bow. Kuroi yajirushi hanshu - the Black Arrow lord – as he has called you,"

"I guess that the way that it might be seen would depend on a person's background," Valdemar said quietly. "Jans was a bit of a cheat and I could say that he was a lying dog who would have been happy to watch me die for what he'd done. I would guess that here, what the daimyo wanted was for me to prove to him that I am a noble person."

He shrugged, "That might have been so, but to my mind, what I did to a bound man carried no honor in my eyes."

Kōichi's mother nodded her understanding and glanced at her son for a moment, "My son is well-liked by most of the common people, but I find that there is always something in it which is to remind him. We are from the south and he is a mixture, though it is not easily seen. It is a bit of a barrier to him nonetheless. Neither of those things are anything which help him here in this place."

"Well I like him for it," Valdemar nodded with a pleasant smile, "He is well-mannered and careful with his words to everyone for me. I am not certain of it, but I am at least a little sure that he has saved me from making embarrassing mistakes fairly often. I'd thank him for that, but I'm not even sure when it has happened because he is always very tactful. I know that this task which I have become for him would have been far too much for me when I was his age for certain.

And I like the way that he looks," he grinned a little, "You must try to remember that I see with the eyes of a Gaijin after all, and you are right. His heritage does not show much or very plainly. I see that his eyes are a slightly lighter shade of brown from what I see everywhere around me here and it wasn't until I was outside with him that I saw that his hair is actually not black, but a very rich and dark brown. At any rate, I think that he has not yet come into his own, being still a boy, but if those things are enough to condemn him in this place, then it saddens me."

She smiled at her son, making no attempt to hide her pride in him then – though Kōichi looked to be at a loss over what to say then.

She laughed a little, "Dane-san, Kōichi must hide his age very well from you. He was eighteen only last month and he seems to be growing yet again. I have only had one child, but it has always seemed to me that children here grow more evenly, while what I have seen him do is to stay the same for a time and then several times now, he seems to grow suddenly to a new size overnight and I must find him clothes all over again. How old did you imagine him to be?"

Valdemar looked confused then and worse, he would have to find his own way to extract himself from the pit that he'd just dug. "I am sorry," he said quietly to them both. "I took him to be about fourteen."

Kōichi did the only thing that he could think of then. He took the Dane's hand in his own two and bowed a little, "Thank you, Dane-san. I hope that my ability to look younger than I am serves me as well when I need it to – when I am an old man."

The awkward moment passed then and the woman touched his sleeve then and spoke very quietly, "I am also to tell you that my cousin, the Lady Hoshino wishes for me to express her gratitude over the incident earlier today. I can only add my thanks to it. Aiki-san is as a daughter to us both, my cousin and I."

They smiled at each other after Valdemar's abbreviated bow, guessing that it ought not to be spoken of there and Kōichi's mother directed him to a spot where there were hooks on the wall and instructed him to please remove his clothing. "Try to disregard it as you are washed. Would you prefer it if my son washed you instead?"

Valdemar shook his head a little, "Please try to tell whoever is to wash me that where I am from, a woman's touch might produce a result which is not necessarily a sign of what might be desired by me."

That brought a smile from the woman and a nod, "That is understood, but I will mention it."

As he stepped forward, the bath woman and the young woman both stared at him before they recovered quickly to resume what he took to be somewhat strained attempts at looking bored.

He was shown a bench to sit at and to his surprise, the young woman began. As she worked, she made very quiet comments to the others in Japanese. To his ear, she was praising him, though it didn't do much to help the awkwardness that he felt.

Kōichi listened as Aiki worked, thankful that he was not being asked to translate.

"See his neck and his shoulders, "Aiki almost whispered in Japanese, "and these arms. There must be women weeping where he comes from to be without these around them, whoever they are. ... And look at this! I can feel the hard ridges under his skin here.

If he could stand the cold of the day, I would love to ask him to hold still for me beside the stream. I could do my washing right here."

"Look a little lower then, girl," the old bath woman nodded.

"Aiee," the girl whispered, "How in the world am I to get past that? I still have to wash his legs and his feet."

"Well stop then, if you do not think that you are up to it," the bath woman said with a straight face, "I know that I can do it easily enough. He is a man, after all – the same as any other one. The things which can make a girl quail these days, ... honestly."

TaLtos6
TaLtos6
1,930 Followers