A Warrior Made Of Dragon's Blood

Chapter 11

Hidden in a glade, Nagaraja and I discuss the strategy while we wait for the ronin to round up the prisoners and bring them back to the village. Our idea is to wait for the ronin to go to sleep. The sounds of their conversation still travel up from the village.

Nagaraja leans into me, and whispers,

"Sora, I need to give you one last thing before this battle."

"What is it?"

"Hold out your right arm."

Nagaraja touches my right arm with his right claw and pain shoots through my entire body. I open my eyes to see my arm covered with runes.

"What is this?" I ask.

"It's a power to gain the strength of a dragon."

"How do I use it?"

"Trust me, you'll know when the time is right." Then he reminds me, "Remember, we want to complete this mission as fast and peacefully as possible."

"I have to figure out who has the keys to the cages. It's something that only I can do, but if I need your help, remember, I'll give you a shout," I say just as the sound of calm breathing reaches our ears.

"Now go!" Nagaraja orders.

I silently slide down to the village and look in the front gate. Good, everyone seems to be sleeping. I survey the village and see only one huge white tent over to the side. It must be the leader's tent. Using my skills from the forest, I soundlessly creep inside. I see a few cots on the floor, but only one is occupied. I assume the one sleeping on it is the leader of the ronin.

A wakizashi and a katana lie at the side of his cot. I don't need another katana, but the wakizashi I could use. I pick it up and strap it to my pack along with the katana.

I scan the room. It doesn't look like he has the cage keys. I'm disappointed and head for the door, when suddenly something glints at me just beside the door—it's a large set of keys hanging from a hook. I reach up on my toes and just as I'm about to grasp the keys, the leader sits up and yawns. I freeze. I'm expecting him to open his eyes and sound the alarm. I tense, waiting for him to come charging at me with his katana, but he just falls back to sleep. Breathing out slowly as not to wake him again, I take the keys and creep out of the tent.

I walk to the first of eight cages and try all of the keys until one makes a satisfying sound. I open up the door flinching at its creaking noise. None of the ronin wake up. Peering inside I see two rows of benches covered by sleeping people. I doesn't look like my Haha or Chichi are in this cage, but I can still free these people.

I wake one of them and tell them to quietly wake the others.

"Thank you so much! How can we ever repay you?"

I assure them, "I don't need anything. Wake the others and wait here until I come back around and don't make any noise."

I do the same with each cage, but I don't see my parents in any of them. I finally come to the last cage and walk inside. My Haha is sitting inside, but I don't see Chichi anywhere. I wake Haha.

"Who are you? Where are we going?" she asks.

"Haha it's me, Sora."

"No, you're not Sora. She died a long time ago," she says sadly. "But, how do you know her name?"

There is such pain and fear in her eyes. I turn away. Holding back this indefinable hurt from not being recognized I say:

"I am Sora. How could you not recognize me?"