A Samurai's Honor

Chapter 1 The Night

As the group winded down for the night many of the party did their own things as they went to bed for the night. Belch especially was being extra as he carried the barrels of whisky taken from the last town over to his tent to have a talk with them, Belch is a green-skinned half-orc with a full beard and long hair free-flowing in a raggedy manner. He wears a dark brown coat and old torn ship hand clothes underneath with a red bandanna and gets aggravated easily with anyone that insults him or his friends. Yet, Hikari simply continued to sit on the log in front of the smolders of fire that was soon to go out as they did so. He didn't have a bed to make a tent to sleep in for he was mostly alone, and besides he would be taking the first watch regardless. He couldn't feel the growing cold that was creeping in on everyone around him as he was a thing without feeling one of the negatives of being a sentient piece of armor. 

Though he did notice when a small girl no older than 9 wrapped their arms around him. Although he couldn't feel it he could see it all the same, in the black and white way he saw the world. The girl was Sophie the only living descendant of the family Hikari had sworn to protect thousands of years ago and failed to accomplish. She was a halfling so only around 3 feet tall and she had most of her blonde hair pulled up in a bun, she wore a cross between a noble woman's dress and leather armor that was rather fitting for the girl who had known only tragedy her whole life. She had made a deal with an arguably very kind Demon named Percival and although Hikari didn't know the terms of the agreement he was very thankful to him as his power had saved Sophie more times than he could count. Though because she took the deal she had to undergo many challenges in gaining the saints' blessings all 6 of them that Hikari was now along for the ride with. During which she had returned to her home only to find her parents dead, yet instead of letting that get her down she stood back up clamoring, "fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Hikari couldn't be more proud of her she was truly something special he thought, and he would be happy to see her grow into her own one day and he knew she would go on to do great things as the next ruler of her home kingdom, or as something completely different. "Everything alright Sophie," Hikari's voice rang out as an echo as his gauntlet for a hand pated the top of her head. Instead of responding with words she just shook her head. "Do you want me to tell you a story is that it?" Hikari asked knowing that this was probably why Sophie had yet to fall asleep. Indeed her mood brightened considerably at the mention. Hikari couldn't smile to himself as he had no face but he would have had he been able to at this moment. "Oh that one about how about one with a Samurai and Princess," she said as she danced around.

Hikari then followed her to the tent he had set up for her with the help of Nocturne, a sage, and scholar born in the slums of Excedra. She is clad in rags that are a bit too wide for her at the moment, has long black hair with blonde streaks, brown skin with red coloration in some areas, is a tall and slim figure with a rounded face, and her left eye beams as if it were the bright eye of an angel while her other eye is entirely darkened. She went inside while he sat with his back facing the entrance to the tent and began recanting his story.

"In a time long forgotten in an age where gods walked around like men," Hikari started before being interrupted by Sophie. "Oh like Barley," she said in a gleeful tone from inside her tent. Barley was another halfling from the same town as Sophie who claimed to be a god so in a sense Sophie was correct. Barley even for a halfling, his shorter stature is emphasized by his slim figure with the weapons and other utilities on his person seeming to be the only mass on his body. His long blonde hair is slicked to the left side of his face giving an air of distrust to the mans overall demeanor, his one visible eye deprived of rest with a dark circle filling the space beneath it. "Yes I guess that is right Sophie," Hikari responded as he tried to pick back up from his entry monologue. "Right so in the age of gods, there was a clan of swordsman unmatched in strength and technique each one blessed in one way or another with something special. Yet each one was tasked to protect something, whether a country, an ideal, or in this case a princess." Hikari was always careful with the stories he told Sophie as he didn't want to ruin her impressionable mind with weak ideals or morals so he always tried to make sure the characters in his stories were of fair value the princess being as important and strong as the Samurai sent to protect her.

"The princess's name was Therese, she was quite possibly one of the strongest magic users of the time rivaling even that of the Saints themselves, with her power she would make sure her city never went hungry and prospered. She was heralded as a god despite her best efforts to quell the praise she received as for her it was a power borrowed from else were not her own. Though the people did not know such a thing, no they thought it was the princess who was single-handedly their savior.

Though one of the gods grew jealous, of her fame and began to worm thoughts of misfortune and distrust into her mind. Implanting ideas that she lacked true skill, that she wasn't good enough for her position, things of that nature. Despite Therese being strong in both mind and body it began to whittle her down and she slowly slumped into a depression. Eventually, the crops no longer grew and the city grew hungry, and her people turned on her disgracing her name which only reinforced the false ideas implanted in her mind.

So she ran away, far far away. Far enough away that the people wouldn't know who she was, wouldn't know her name, her language, her face, anything. So she ran and ran leaving everything and everyone who still cared about her far behind. She left her family, her friends, the one who gave her strength, and the Samurai sent to protect her who she ended up saving instead. When she ran people searched for her, but eventually they stopped starting with the general populace, then her family, then the one who gave her power, then her friends, but the Samurai she saved didn't stop. He searched and searched long past the others. He would trudge through deserts with a panting of Therese long since outdated as time-weathered it down all the same. He grew old yet he did not stop, he would die before he would give up. Soon enough he would walk into towns and the doors and windows would be boarded up.

He began to see the places he went change the faces he knew long past, as time itself seemed to forget him and Therese but still he refused to stop. He didn't care if those around him saw him as an outcast or a demon he would continue the search, and he did find her..." Hikari's words seem to stifle here slightly. "He was late, far out in the middle of a forest was a small cottage that was overgrown with vines and brush the garden in the back seeming to take over the entire home. He opened the rusty hinges on the door and as he walked inside he found he couldn't cry. Someone was there a long time ago as what currently laid in the bed was a skeleton the skin long since rotted away. The worst sight was what the bones of her fingers still held, it was something he himself had long forgotten of. A simple canvas panting one that he had made for Therese a long time ago, was clutched to her chest still indicating this skeleton had belonged to the princess he had been searching for. The samurai wanted nothing more than to die at that moment, yet he seemed to have cursed himself, being so focused on staying alive all this time wouldn't allow him to, no matter the strength but into the thrusts to take his own life they found no flesh, the samurai couldn't feel and hand not even realized when the world became grey and dull with his lack of vision. He was not alive nor dead. He was forever the wanderer of light cursed to search forever for the princess that would bring the light of day to the city she ruled over, but even that city eventually fell to nothingness before the samurai's eyes." Hikari paused for a moment lost in his own thoughts.

"Hikari that story seems really sad, does the Samurai bring her back and stuff," Sophie asked with a yawn. Hikari knew in his head that he got carried away in his recanting of his own story like an idiot, and he knew the princess never comes back but Sophie didn't have to. "You'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out," Hikari says as he pushes himself off the ground outlooking the forest. "Awww okay goodnight Hikari," Sophie once again yawned out before Hikari heard a poof of her hitting the sleeping cot.

"I am still not as good as you father," Hikari said as he sat on the log taking up first watch. "You never let your emotions come out, neither did any of my siblings huh, I really was a failure in every sense of the word... what a shame that I am the only one who is alive," he said with a sigh as he gripped his sword hilt.