Outside, the cold autumn moon looked down upon the forests east of the Shinomen. In the silver twilight, a fox hunted through the brush, seeking hare to fill its belly, and those of its kits. Even the breath of a fox showed in the frozen air. Food would be scarce, soon.
"Please," the old man gestured to the tatami at his side, "sit."
"Domo arigato, Suzume-sama." The Fox shugenja sat, and accepted the offered tea. He had returned from the northlands, only to find that he was invited to the home of the second-greatest storyteller in all the Empire. Before long, the conversation turned from pleasantries to more pressing matters.
"Ah. The reason for the invitation. Yes." Mukashino looked pensive. "I have heard... rumours of late. Disturbing rumours. An old man, I have trouble travelling so far as once I was accustomed. There is a tale in the telling, but I cannot leave my home to see it with my own eyes. Tell me, Kitsune Katsume, why do your kinsmen return home? Is Yoritomo's army not still at war in the North?"
The Fox bushi looked closely at the Sparrow. Though aged, Mukashino sat as straight as a yari, and a firm light burned in his eyes. This old man was no fool. His Clan had not joined the Alliance. Of all the Three Clans, the Fox, the Wasp, and the Sparrow, only Suzume Mukashino's Clan had stood apart. It looked now as though they had been right.
"Bah. Our Daimyo will have little to do with the Mantis. Yoritomo is a fool." The Fox bushi hesitated, uncertain of his host's opinion on this matter. Mukashino looked undisturbed, and so Katsume pressed the point home. "The Mantis are unwilling to destroy the Crane. The Crane! Yoritomo claims that such bloodshed is pointless. Instead, he spends his time insisting upon an Alliance with the Phoenix, refusing to treat the Crane as they deserve. To think that he thought that our Daimyo would sacrifice our Clan into his name. The Fox will not become merely a family in a Clan which does not care for our history. Let him entreaty the Phoenix."
Mukashino sipped quietly at his tea. The Phoenix. Three Great Clans stood weakened by the Clan Wars; the Lion, the Crane, and the Phoenix. What would bring the Mantis Daimyo to have an interest in them? He could see no need to gain a military alliance. Perhaps it had to do with the lost Emperor, and the Throne.
Katsume was no more certain than Mukashino, of the Mantis Daimyo's purpose and intent.
"He claims that within their lands stands a dark fortress, an evil place, which 'his' armies will help the Phoenix to destroy. Everyone knows that the Phoenix are still re-building their armies. Yet to build a hoped-for alliance with them, he abandons our lands to the aggressions of the Crane!"
"You fear that Kuwanan will move on the Fox lands, then?" Mukashino's face was calm as he offered the Fox more tea.
Katsume's face showed the briefest shadow of doubt, then hardened to a bitter resolve. Only Mukashino's attentive eye cought that fleeting uncertainty. "Kuwanan is a fool no less than Yoritomo. He leaves his lands behind, marches north and strings out his line of supply. One swift strike, and there will be no supplies nor reinforcements for the Crane." Katsume's brow furrowed. "No. The Crane are all bravado. For the first time, they have an army. Now, they do anything necessary - ignore their Charter, attack the first army they see - they will do anything to 'prove' their decision to abandon the ways of Hoturi. Since they have an army, they must use it. Doji Kuwanan wishes to abandon the path of his ancestors, and become a Lion.
"Yoritomo simply chose the wrong time to ally with the Crane."
If Katsume said that the Crane's supply was tenuous, then Mukashino believed him. The young fox - barely more than half of Mukashino's fifty years - had made a study out of that military science. Tactics like those had halted the Dark Sorceror's reinforcements at the end of the Clan Wars. Mukashino phrased his next question carefully, eyes focused to measure the reaction of the Kitsune.
"The word is about that Chancellor Takuan may soon approve of the Crane's declaration of war.."
"The Crane did not declare war. They simply attacked!" The Kitsune rankled. "It was, I admit, a sound strategy: wait until the army has passed, and then attack the caravans which follow it. The Mantis had little time to react, and no chance to protect the peasants. They had no choice but to retreat. Kuwanan outsmarted Yoritomo - the Mantis relied upon Crane honour." Katsume's lip curled with the irony of these words.
Suzume Mukashino stroked his thin beard. Still, something did not make sense. Yoritomo had been secure at Beiden Pass.
"Why does he insist so upon aiding the Phoenix? Aid them to what end? And more, why do they not reply?" This troubled him. This was a tale only half told. Until the ending arrived, he did not know what to make of it. It was nearly winter. True, the Mantis fleet could keep them supplied along the Phoenix coast, but why were the Phoenix so silent, if the threat of the Crane marched so close behind?
"I do not know why he wishes to aid them. I do not think my Daimyo knows. Perhaps Yoritomo himself does not know. A simple castle within their lands cannot be reason enough. If it must be destroyed, then destroy it. They have no army, to have to ask their permission. As to why they do not answer, that too I do not know.
"Perhaps they wish to be like the Crane."
Ouside, in the early winter night, the snow began to fall.