-Japan-guide.com
"Reina, you know you can not keep him"
"I know, but what am I to do with him?" Reina replied sourly
The nursemaid who was cleaning up the blood spoke up. "If I may be so bold, why don't you leave him with Hiro? The man's in need of a pupil, he's bored out of his mind, and his creative genius is being wasted!"
"Aya!" A woman shouted. Another woman started screaming in the room. Blood splattered over the floor, and a nursemaid hurredly wiped up the mess. The formations of a baby's head emerged. The woman who was shouting immediately tended to the baby after delivery. The Mother was a fairly pretty looking lady, about 15, Reina she was called. The delivery nurse came over and placed the young baby boy in his mother's arms.
"Reina, you know you can not keep him"
"I know, but what am I to do with him? Where is he to go?" Reina replied sourly
The nursemaid who was cleaning up the blood spoke up. "If I may be so bold, why don't you leave him with Hiro? The man's in need of a pupil, he's bored out of his mind, and his creative genius is being wasted!"
"Stop listening to us!" The delivery nurse spoke sharply, moving to slap the younger nurse. Reina stopped her. "No! she's right..we should leave him with Hiro. Hiro won't tell my parents, he is more loyal to me than them."
The delivery nurse sighed. "Are you strong enough to leave here tonight?" "Why so soon?" Reina asked puzzled.
"Why so soon? You have been hiding from your parents! You should get rid of that runt as soon as you can!"
"Don't call my baby a runt!" The pairs voices rose in the night.
"Do you even know who his father is???"
Reina replied shyly "No, I'm afraid not"
"Aya! If your mother knew---"
"But you won't tell her! Or my father! you promised!"Reina pleaded
"Yes, but we must leave once you are well enough to move! Your son could disgrace your family completely! And your husband to be! Did you think about him at all when you were fooling around??" The delivery nurse left the room abrubtly followed by the younger one. Reina was left alone with her little boy whom she decided to call Merick.
With a half hearted expression the nurse came in. "Reina, It is time.." Reina was dressed in pink silk imported from China and given to her as a birthday gift from her mother. Her hair was wrapped in a tight bun atop her head. The baby was wrapped in a blue bundle. They stepped outside into the night. The moon overhead was full and bright, with a faint white cirlcle around it. The grass was wet and Reina kept slipping in her shoes.
Hiro's cabin was located in a the middle of the densest part of the jungle they were in, it was also at the very top of a hill. Directly behind the hill was a mountain covered in green but not tall enough to be snowcapped. The two reached the front door and banged loudly. A grunt from the inside. "Hiro, its Reina, I need your help" There was a shuffling of feet coming from the inside. The door opened revealing a short man with long white hair. He was not old, but in his middle age. He silently ushered them in. "What is the problem child?" The nurse spoke "She has a baby" Hiro cut a sharp glance at her. "I was not speaking to you" The nurse moved closer to the door. "Now, Reina, Is that true?" "Yes it is" "No" Hiro said suddenly.
"What?" "I know what you are going to ask me and my answer is no" "But, why not sir? Would you rather see him drowned to hide disgrace? Why not save his life and let your legacy live through him?"
"As tempting as that is, he is not my child, and therefore I can not raise him as my child" "I'm not asking you to raise him as your child but as your pupil!" "You understand that he will undergo rigorous training and harsh conditions that will make you squirm to think about?" "Yes"
"You also understand that once he begins his training I will not permit you to see him at all?" Reina thought for a moment. "Why is that so?" "If he sees you around here too often, he will be curious and ask questions, and unless you want people to know who he is to you and your family, you are restricted from seeing him. Being your son, he will also feel somehow connected to you, I wish not to complicate my life more than necessary." A tear dropped from Reina's eyes. " What ever you feel is best then" Through anticipated sobs she agreed. "He will never know his heritage" Reina said. "I will give him this amulet, it is supposed to aid the wearer in any trouble that he encounters"
Reina put baby Merick down next to Hiro and left the cabin, never turning back.
Years later, Merick now at the age of 6, was ready to begin the process to becoming the samurai he was placed to be. Hiro gave him a small wooden sword. "Do not leave this anywhere for unwanting hands to reach" Merick took the sword from Hiro's hand. He dropped it. Hiro pulled out his whip and whipped him. Merick began to cry but Hiro whipped him more. Merick eventually learned that crying, showing signs of weakness, or discomfort were merits for punishment. During random times of the day Hiro would approach Merick while he was deep in thought or doing something. At one instance Merick had left his wooden sword in his room and went to go make rice. Hiro found the sword lying on the top of the neatly made up bed. He took the sword, went to Merick, and whipped him several times until blood began to gush from his back. "You must always be on guard, and never leave you weapon" Those were Hiro's words of wisdom which merick never, in his years to come, would forget.
Because Merick learned of the importance of devotion to his master he never struck back, and thought to himself that his master knew what he was doing. Years past, Merick got whipped less and less for his errors began to fade. After developing his mental alertness and physical fitness. At 14, Hiro finally presented him with and iron sword which he was to begin the art of sword fighting with.
Unlike so many other things that had to be developed in his training, sword fighting came as natural to him as it is for a baby to chew its food. Hiro himself was taken aback by how fluid the youth moved. He moved with the maximum gracefulness of any 14 year old adolescent. But, if there were another force to act on him, the sword would fall. Hiro stressed that Merick be more confident. Hiro woke Merick early in the mornings and put him to sleep later in the evenings. "Merick, you have been a great pupil to me, but your training with me is done, I have taught you all I can but I feel that you can do better with another master"
Merick nodded sadly. "I am sending you to a friend of mine, Mobasho, in the imperial palace, he will further your knowledge and you will be set forth from me, and be able to polish your skill"
Merick left the next morning for the Imperial palace. The buildings were trimmed with red and green, lamps hung from all edges of the city. surrounding the palace. Merick had never been to the city, he had no money, and he was hungry. Dressed in rags, he was not immediately admitted to seeing the sword master but because he had a letter written from Hiro to Mobasho, the guard, who neglected to checked for this was punished accordingly.
When he was brought forth before the sword master, he did not know he was to be tested. Mobasho called for another student of the same age. In quite council he explained to the boy what he was to do. Merick learned well not to speak when not spoken to so he never asked Mobasho what he was to do, he just continued standing. The boy with unusually blonde hair seemed to have disappeard. Then Merick felt the prescence of someone or something behind him, ready to strike. Merick turned, drew his sword and quickly unarmed the blonde boy. All the time never changing his expression and returning to his former stance.
Mobasho clapped in amusement. "Hiro is not loosing his touch, that old fool. What was his purpose of sending you to me? You have no purpose here" At that moment Reina, now 29, walked into the room giving Mobasho and notice from her father. Mobash nodded "Merick, I will leave you, you are free to roam around." He thought for a moment "You there" he pointed to the blonde haired boy "He will stay with you, get him some clothes and give him some money, if he is to be my pupil I don't want him walking around the city looking like that" The blonde boy nodded and ushered Merick to him.
"I'm Don" the blonde boy said as they headed to their quarters
Merick observed that some of the people had a full body covering of armor, others a few pieces and yet others like himself and Don, had no armor.
Merick and Don were always kept close together, Merick's training was far far ahead of Don, but Merick was not there to train, only to make his knowledge perfect by interaction with others.
Mobasho kept a close eye on Merick for he would inform Hiro on Merick's progress. Merick began to see Reina more constantly, but he did not feel drawn to her as a man and wife are, he just somehow felt like he knew her. But he would never ask, nor question his instinct.
In Merick's 18th year there was an unpleasent rebellion in the Emperor's southern edge of the kingdom. The peasantry were rebelling against more implied taxes.
The time had come for them to go to battle, there first in fact. Merick had a few plates of armor, Don had none. But they did not feel threatened by this, they were going up against farmers and untrained peoples.
When they got down to the battlefield they found that there was something more to this rebellion than they had previously thought.
The Chinese had infact been quartering inside the japanese homes, and the japanese were not rebelling against themselves but the chinese who were trying to take over. The Chinese were attempting to take a scroll that was being guarded in this southermost end. This was the last village they had not raided so they surmised that it was hidden here. What the scroll contained niether Merick nor Don knew, only they had to protect it.
It was late at night, once again the moon had the faint white circle surrounding it. Merick heard a shuffle from oustide. "Don, hey wake up, there's something out there" "Merick, there's always something out there" Apparently Don did not take notice that there was nothing else sounding outside, not talk of the guards, or otherwise. "Don, I'll go look and see what it is" Don murmered something about him needing to sleep more.
Merick put on his helmet and shoulder plates. The air was crisp, and he took note again of the unsual silence. A light flashed in one of the village huts. Merick ran hurredly towards the hut, getting there just in time to hear the Chinese talking. They were speaking Japanese for some reason. Perhaps, Merick thought, there were several japanese villagers who are secretly serving the Chinese. Outraged by the betrayal to his emperor Merick charged in. The men in the hut were shocked to see Merick, in all his glory and rage. Merick had never seen the scroll but knew at once that it was the one plated in gold thread. The man holding the scroll knew that Merick would try to attain the scroll by any means, including taking that man's life. Quicker and quicker the scroll was passed between the men, niether could leave because Merick was guarding the door, the only exit. The windows were too small for anyone but a child to pass through so they were stuck to tyring to confuse Merick. At that instant, Merick began to meditate. The men were appalled and started to make for the door, thinking that Merick was paying no attention to them whatsoever.
They lined up, the man holding the scroll last, slowly and swiftly, each of them left the room. Finally when it came to the man with the scroll, Merick made one swift move with his sword. The man never saw it coming. The scroll flew out of the corpses hand. Merick caught it in the air. Now, curiousity was never seen as bad to him so he opened the scroll with utmost interest. The penmanship was not that of a Japanese man but that of someone from the America's. "This is why those men could not read it..They did not know that it was not our language" Merick knew little of the language himself but knew what the words and sounds were.
Flying, and fighting, make them true
of another world I dreamed I knew
take my soul, my body, embrace
the dieties of another place
Merick did not understand what this all meant but the words seemed to have lifeted off the page and began to form in circles around him. The uproar caused by the people who saw the man's head cut off roused all the other samurai. Don rushed in just in time to see Merick surrouned by a bright white light that shot up and out of the hut and straight to the center of the moon. Whispers grew louder within Merick's ears and there was a pulling and freezing sensation that his body felt.
In the few last seconds of Merick's time on earth Don saw him shoot up towards the heavens traveling on the trail that was made by the light. Then he disappeard compeletely. The ring around the moon had disappeared. The knews of the samurai's strange disappearance traveled quickly to Hiro and to Reina. Reina ran to Hiro's temple bursting in outrage. "Why did you send him to the sword master?! You knew he would eventually be sent off to battle! And you knew I could make no objections because I'm not supposed to know him!" "Calm down girl. I sent him on his path to self discovery. It would not have been fitting for him to grow up old and alone in this little hut with me. He had to go and make friends, learn his value in life" Reina began to sob uncontrollably. Hiro could comfort her in the only way he could, he sent her home.
Merick felt the cold sensation go as quickly as it had come. He opened his eyes to find himself in a place that looked similarly like his hill top home. He looked down at the scroll, it no longer had anywords on it, and the gold plating was gone. A strange sound filled the air making Merick quickly hide behind the nearest tree. What he saw next baffled his knowledge, but he was nevertheless more curious about this strange new creature. The amulet that he had carried since birth began to glow red and vibrate heat.
His attention was momentarily drawn away from the large beast because a smaller form of the same creature popped in front of his face. It was covered in a filmy slime, apparently it hatched, or was just born. The creature looked like a flying rock. It dived into one of Merick's pocket's containing his last bits of food. The creature then landed on one of Merick's shoulders and ate contemptably. Merick returned to watching the large creature, all the time the noisey thing on his shoulder was chittering.
Somehow Merick thought it the right time to talk to the stranger who had gotten off the large creature. When he spoke, the language common to his tounge did not come out, but another strange form of words flowed.
"Excuse me sir, what's that?" Merick asked pointing to the creature. The man replied "That is my dragon, Merth, I'm R'yan" Quickly Merick asked "what's this thing on my shoulder and why is it following me around?" "That's a firelizard...and if it got food off of you it's going to stay with you" R'yan looked questioningly at Merick "And you are..?" "I'm Merick, apprentice to Hiro, and serving the Imperial Army of Japan" R'yan looked more puzzled by this newcomer. "Well, uh..Merick, I don't know about Japan but this is Pern." Merick looked troubled "I have no knowledge of Pern sir" R'yan felt sympathy for the young man. "Well, I'm on an errand but if you will kindly wait by Merth I'll gladly help you out" Merick waited, curious about this new world.
R'yan came back a little while later. Merick decided to call his new friend Tip. Where he thought of that, not even he himself knew. He heard Merick's stomach grumble hungrily. "When's the last time you had something to eat?"R'yan asked.
"Too long ago for me to remember" Merick replied. He had infact not eaten for several days. They went to get something to eat. R'yan then took the time to explain to him all the aspects of Pern. Merick took particular interest in the dragonriders. He surmised they were much like the samurai of his home, and yet they were so different. R'yan explained to him the process of impressing a dragon. This excited Merick completely. "If you want Merick I can take you down to Ryslen Weyr and I can help you sign up to stand at the next clutch." "But I don't know how all the proper care of these creatures" R'yan reassured him that he would teach him all he needs to know.
2 years later, R'yan surmised that Merick was ready to attempt a dragon hatching. R'yan gave him some robes that he would wear that the hatching. "No" Merick said sharply. "What? It doesn't fit?" R'yan asked puzzled. "Know that I don't mean to offend you but I want to wear my full samurai armor"
"I'm at wonder what they'll think of you when they see you!" R'yan said with the utmost amusement. Merick chuckled and was very excited about the prospects of the future.
