Moon and Star: Book One

by Mike Bergonzi

  Kaito raised an eyebrow. Tears ran down his brother’s cheeks, but showed no other signs of consciousness. The nightmare must’ve been frightening. He was talking about his mother. Their mother.

  The night grew darker and they had no choice but to leave the safety of the bushes. Not like it mattered anymore. If someone were after them, they would've been found by now. Kaito wiped sweat from his brow and looked back at Sora. He wasn’t faring well at all. A few more hours and he’d be dead.

  Kaito looked at his glass container of water. He splashed the liquid around inside the corked ceramic bottle, letting the swishing noise tell him how much water was left. It barely made a sound.

  If he were to give it to Sora, he’d have none for himself. But without his help, I wouldn’t know where to go? He’d never ventured this far into the woods.

  “If one of us is going to survive it might as well be you,” he said, uncorking the bottle with a pop.

  He lifted Sora’s head up off the ground, slowly tipping the bottle to his lips and letting the water dribble down his throat. The boy coughed, then lied still; no motion at all except the faint beat of his heat.

  The crisp night air blew over Kaito’s arm. Sora still did not move. He grew worried that perhaps he made a mistake in giving his water to someone who was already about to die. Why should he have to suffer? Better yet why did both of them have to die? There had to be a way to save one of them.

  A leaf came into contact with Kaito’s hand, landing in his palm. The leaf was unfamiliar, but at the same time, he knew what it was: a way to save Sora’s life.

  Memories of his lessons with Yuri flooded his mind. He processed each one as they appeared, sorting through them at a rate most would call impossible. In times of great stress, the body was capable of incredible things. Seemed the same was true of the mind. Kaito opened his eyes, unaware they’d been closed as he remembered Yuri’s botany lessons.

  The image of the leaf entered his mind’s eye. Of course. A karanasu leaf. Apothecary’s used it to make antidotes for poison. This particular leaf was not native to Kyotomo. One needed to delve deep into the forest in order to find them. Seemed Kaito had found the source. Or at least, it was somewhere nearby.

  He got up and darted through the trees, snapping branches and twigs with the force of his bare feet. Even with this speed and drive, it wouldn’t be enough. There were thousands of leaves in the forest. Yuri always said that each plant was unique; even ones of the same family. Not all karanasu leaves were the same, but there were many which looked like them. Some of them were poisonous, if he remembered correctly.

  Kaito’s dash came to a halt as his big toe no longer touched solid ground. Dirt slid off the edge of the cliff and before him, the ocean's waves crashing against pointed rocks below. It was the one thing in his path, which kept him from his actual home. He stared out at it—half in awe, the other in horror as he came to grips with going through a near-death experience. His heart still raced and the events were happening again and again in his mind.

  He saw the karanasu leaves, halfway down the ravine on a small ledge. Kaito gulped and gathered what little courage he had inside and started the climb down.

  The earth shook beneath his feet and he lost his footing. He fell all the way to the bottom of the ravine, hitting his head on a razor sharp stone the size of his leg. The world grew dark.

  Chapter Eight

  When he finally awoke, Kaito found himself upside down with his arms and legs bound together. He felt the itchiness of rope material on his wrists as he struggled to escape. He was a still little disoriented from whatever happened to him. His long black hair covered his eyes, causing him to sweat. It kept dripping down his forehead and into his eyes. It was both painful and torturous not being able to wipe it off.

  A few seconds later and his vision cleared. The sweat evaporating into the air, allowing him to see. A fire burned brightly below him. He could feel the sparks of fire fly out and land on his skin. They didn’t burn him, however, but being helpless to move away or even flinch was painful enough.

  Kaito struggled harder to break free, then stopped after realizing he didn't have a safe place to land. If he were to escape, he’d land with his back on fire.

  Minutes gave way until the hour of the hare was upon him, and still no sign of anyone. He didn't remember seeing a fire before he fell down, which meant someone built it and hung him above the flame. But Why start a fire at all if it wasn't meant to kill him?

  “Hello,” Kaito shouted, “is anyone there?”

  The wind itself didn’t even respond.

  He wrestled around in his restraints. Something sharp poked him in the side. Kaito let out a hiss of pain. A few drops of blood landed on the fire. He hunched inward as far as he could, his mouth open and ripped his clothing over his head, holding it steady with his teeth. He could feel his hands behind back.

  The blood dripped out of his left side. This was more than likely going to hurt, but what choice did he have? He spun himself so that the blade pierced through his side at a vertical angle. He could feel the deepness of the cut, but if he tended to it straight away he might survive.

  He winced in pain as he inched himself upward like a caterpillar. The universal force which made it impossible for objects to fly, pushed him back down. He paused, catching his breath as more blood dripped onto the fire. He adjusted himself again, trying to line up the knife with the rope which bound his hands together.

  He was going on instinct. Each time he moved around, the wound opened up more and more. New ones were created and caught up to the original in pain in a matter of seconds. Each time he lifted himself up, he waited, prayed he would hear the sound of steel against rope on the painful drop down.

  Finally he felt the rope around his wrist tear. He moved back and forth slightly, letting the share edge of the dagger cut through his restraints. When he got his hands free, the world began to spin. He looked down at his side. The wound was worse than he thought. If he didn’t get help soon, he’d bleed himself dry.

  Kaito took the knife with one free hand, the other applying pressure to his bleeding side, and began to cut one of the ropes. As he cut, he rocked back and forth more violently. The rope cage began to swing and ...

  Shzzzt.

  He broke free, landing dangerously close to the fire as he struggled to keep his balance. When he found his footing, Kaito breathed a sigh of relief and took a few steps back before turning around. He wished he did it sooner.

  There was something was behind him. Bones of some sort. He carefully turned around and saw a man, a crazed look in his eyes and drool dribbling down his chin. Kaito tried to scream, but all that came out was a muffled gasp as the man clutched his hand over his mouth. He smiled, showing little to no teeth in his mouth. He wiped the drool from his chin with his other hand.

  “How’d you ‘scape?” he asked.

  The lack of teeth made him hard to understand and there was a slight whistle in his voice. Kaito could see his tongue play with what would’ve been his two front teeth. He’d never been so repulsed in all his life. His captor giggled, then frowned, turning serious in a split second.

  Kaito only saw his head and shoulders, but from the looks of it, the man wasn’t clothed on the upper half of his body. The man looked down at the knife in Kaito’s hand and dropped him.

  “Where’d you get that?” he asked. “And what happened to the fire?”

  Kaito turned around. The fire was gone, replaced with a trail of wispy smoke. The man shoved him out of the way and tried to get the fire started, again. He began to cry when the flame didn’t spark. Kaito took a step closer, trying to comfort the man.

  “I didn’t mean to ...”

  “You. Dead.” He lunged at Kaito, grabbing hold of his throat and squeezing.

  Kaito’s grip on the knife Mayumi gave him was loosening. He couldn’t hold out for much longer. Without thinking, he stabbed the man in the side of the neck. The man dropped him and covered the wound, ap
plying pressure to it. A few seconds later and his breathing stopped. Rainwater hit Kaito from above. He stared up at the sky for a few minutes. His bloodied hands shook as the rain washed it off.

  He looked down at the body. Woven in the man's hair were karanasu leaves. The rain freed the leaves and carried them to his feet. Kaito dug his toes in the dirt and began to cry.

  ***

  Kaito poked the fire his captor had almost killed him over. The more time passed, the more he thought about what he’d done.

  He tried his best to not think about it, but he felt guilty nonetheless. What if he was in the wrong? Did Kaito truly kill him out of self defense, or was their some alternative way he could’ve dealt with the situation?

  Adding to his pain, was his little brother. Alone, dying. No one to care for him. He'd only just met him, but not being to save him was as hard as thinking about the crazed man. How did other warrior's deal with killing someone?

  The wind howled and blew against the fire, causing it to flicker and dance. Kaito quickly placed more wood into the flame. It was his first fire outside of Mayumi's supervision. She made it look easy. Kaito struggled to get a mere spark. Keeping it going was another struggle all by itself. Thank the spirits he got one started, or else he’d be facing the night without any light. He wasn't afraid of the dark. He simply preferred to see in the dark, rather than walk around blind.

  Kaito looked up at the sky. The sliver of light on the moon’s right side was wider than previous nights. Another month or so and the moon would be full again. He wondered what kind of damage Mayumi could do with tsuki no-haken at the zenith of its power.

  Night fell. The fire was all but a flicker of light against the vast black background of the sky. Color from the trees and plants all but vanished, looking like greyed out versions of the their true beauty. The evening air chilled his skin. Was it always this cold outside at night? Kaito had run out of wood to get the fire going and he lacked the proper tools to cut more. The simplest movement made his body shiver uncontrollably and his teeth to chatter. He couldn’t even rub is arms or chest for the implausible fear they might fall off.

  Kaito tried to fall asleep, but the wind blew over his legs every time he closed his eyes. It was bad enough trying to fall asleep without his bed and a fire, but now the wind was laughing at him. He heard it brush past the tree tops, using their leaves to make a noise which sounded close to someone’s cruel laughter. No matter how hard he tried, the wind kept him up with its howling and bristling against his uncovered skin. For the most part he had learned to ignore the cold, but unless the wind died down, he wasn’t going to get any sleep.

  When the wind finally did start to quiet, his thoughts took over the position of keeping him awake. Thoughts of his father, Mayumi, Sora and the rest of his actual family. He wondered what they were like and whether they would accept him as one of their own after failing his mission. Kaito still couldn’t believe he was supposed to kill the man who’d raised him.

  The man he did kill popped into his mind as he closed his eyes. They shot open. Kaito got up, no longer shivering. All he wanted was to sleep, but it seemed he’d need to get over this trauma before he could rest.

  The problem was where to begin? He couldn’t ask the man for forgiveness. He was dead. Even if he could, would the man be accepting of his apology? He didn’t know what he’d done wrong. It was an accident. It’s not like he did it on purpose. The man had also tied him up and was planning on doing who knows what to him. Surely it was self defense. There was nothing dishonorable about killing someone who was going to kill you.

  He kept telling himself this, but deep inside he wondered if the outcome could’ve been different. A ruler should know how to kill in order to gain power and keep it. Historically, that proved true. However Jin wasn’t as cold blooded as his father and others before him.

  Perhaps that is why he died, Kaito thought. He didn’t have the resolve.

  But what did that say about him? He killed one man whereas his adopted father killed hundreds, if not thousands, and was already beginning to second guess his actions. Grandfather said that killing a man made one a warrior, but a true ruler kills thousands more.

  All Kaito felt was heartbreak.

  His grandfather’s voice sounded in his head. It echoed and boomed at an unnatural rate that frightened Kaito to the bone. The cold was nothing compared to the chill he now felt from hearing the voice.

  “Stand up,” his grandfather said. “Be a man.”

  Kaito blinked and rubbed his eyes. Jin appeared before him—close enough that he could touch him if he wanted. A sense of respect and wonder stopped him from doing so, however. Jin smiled and placed a hand on Kaito’s shoulder. The hand phased through him, but he felt its presence nevertheless. He could hardly form words to speak as his father hugged him. Trembling his lips involuntarily was all he could manage.

  “I’m sorry father,” he said, holding back the tears and staring at his feet. He couldn’t bear to look his father in the eyes. He didn’t want to see the disappointment in them.

  When he looked up, his father’s face was gone. No trace of it remained. Kaito wiped his eyes with his dirty, torn kimono — sneezing on the accumulated dust and causing it to fly up his nose and into his eyelids. He sneezed again, this time away from the dust on his sleeve.

  It’d been ages since he last bathed himself or his clothing. He felt disgusted to the bone. Kaito wondered if there was a hot spring anywhere in the area. If all else failed, he had the ocean a few treks to the East.

  Without a moments hesitation, Kaito picked up the dagger Mayumi had left him and marched towards where the sun rose in the sky. It was positioned halfway between the horizon and the top of his head. Tree leaves more or less shielded his eyes from the sun’s light. Once in a while a gap in the tree top made it hard to see, but after last night he wasn’t about to let the sun stop him from surviving.

  When he arrived on the coast of the main island Honshu the water sparkled from the sun’s rays. Kaito ran for the water. It was his first time being this close to such a large body of water. He’d never been to the ocean. Father and Yuri prohibited him from leaving the castle grounds. Eight years later and he finally understood why. He was their bargaining tool; their ace in the hole.

  Their hostage, Kaito thought.

  He didn’t mind being a piece in the game of politics, even knowing what he did. It’s not like he had a bad childhood. His was probably better than most kids. What bothered him the most was the lack of trust that both sides seemed to lack when it came to him. No, not seemed to, did lack. Jin always said to lead by example. Both the Yoritomo and the Minamoto had shown him they were not afraid to lie to best the other.

  The water was colder than he expected. He could barely get one foot in the water before the ocean's waves crashed against his upper leg. Kaito ran away, shivering The lower half of his kimono was clean, but felt much heavier than normal; as if he were being weighted down by a vast quantity of wood or rocks

  Kaito sneezed. Last night’s weather seemed to have given him a cold. He felt sick and going into ice cold water was not the best thing to do after shivering all last night. But he’d manage. Somehow.

  He’d all but given up hope on Mayumi or Sora finding him. He might as well try to make the journey to Yoshino himself. Perhaps they would be waiting for him there. Kaito packed up what few belongings he had: the dagger, his only remaining change of clothes—which he’d already worn twice so far—and some berries he found.

  His stomach growled in protest as Kaito finished packing the last of the berries in a cloth sack. He tied it up tight, making sure the berries wouldn’t fall out, then fastened it on his rope belt. One day there’ll be a sword there, he thought, and continued towards Yoshino.

  Kaito stumbled through the woods, lost and confused as the sun continued its descent for the day. He’d eaten a few berries to gather up his strength, but all he felt was pain bubbling in his stomach. He wanted to die. Anything would
be better than this agonizing feeling of some imaginary force jumping up and down on his belly for their own sick, twisted amusement.

  He placed a hand on his stomach, moaning. He burped, but didn’t feel any better. Those berries must’ve been bad, he thought, collapsing against a tree and sliding down the rough patches of bark. He faded in and out of consciousness. Every time he opened his eyes, the world around him changed in a visual sense. One of the illusions looked like a giant pond ripple, which covered the entire world, or at least his perception of it. Watching the inner wavelets journey outward was soothing for a bit, but then became nauseating as the speed in which they moved became faster and faster. Eventually it was a blur and Kaito could no longer keep his eyes open.

  When he continued to look at the distorted world, the berries found their way out the same way they had come in.

  Chapter Nine

  Kaito gazed upon the horizon and out at the great sea. It was his first time seeing water so vast and large. It seemed endless, but he knew what was on the other side: His home. His real home. He didn’t even know what it looked like or what to expect. Would he be welcomed with open arms or would he be labeled a traitor? After all he’d failed his mission. A mission he'd found out about only recently from his younger brother.

  He sighed, wondering if Sora was with Mayumi or if they’d gone their separate ways. Kaito was young, but Sora was younger. To think he had a brother all this time. It still boggled his mind to the point where the short time with his little brother could be attributed to a dream.

  He was surrounded by shrubberies of all shapes and sizes. The farther south he went the more trimmed and well-kept they appeared. It was as if someone lived here. But who would be stupid enough to live in the forest? Rogue bushi-ama warrior, sure, but they didn’t have much or a choice. He’d only encountered one group of those. Still, he hadn’t come across anymore in the three months he’d been in the forest with or without Mayumi or Sora. Yet the bushes and trees got smaller, not taller as he journeyed towards Reikutaun.