"RYUKO! MY SON! HERE!"
Ryuhitsu did not even turn back towards the caravan, the source of his mother's cries. He was nearly old enough for his gempukku, but he appeared to be a much younger boy, mainly because of his diminutive size and thin build. He was nearly one foot (Author's Note: I seem to have forgotten the number of feet in a ken-an, or I would use that.) shorter than his peers and was startlingly thin. In fact, he was so thin that it made his mother, Mirumoto Shinko, constantly worry about his health.
"Poor boy, please eat!" she would always plead as she shoved the fourth or fifth bowl of steamed rice before him. Ryuhitsu would then comment that he believed she was fattening him up to eat. Shinko even took her son to a renowned monk healer, who told her, "There is nothing wrong with the boy, no parasite, no chi imbalance. It just appears that he has a stomach of the Void."
Ryuhitsu laughed at the memory of his mother's angry reaction to the smile on the old monk's (and his) face.
"RYYUUUKOOO!"
Ryuhitsu winced at the sound of the name. It was bad enough when just the other boys in the caravan started calling him by that nickname, but then his parents started calling him by it. Ryuhitsu's father was the caravan master, a somewhat eccentric man who liked to make new words by combining two old ones. He made Ryuko's name out of "Ryu no Hitsu," or "Dragon of Fire". Ryuko often wondered about his father and his strange mannerisms, as well as his pale hair and green eyes (both of which Ryuko had inherited).
"Coming!" Ryuhitsu called back, and he turned away from the edge of the cliff he had been peering over. He stopped for a second two watch a wild falcon flying overhead, an auspicious omen to his caravan, and then ran toward the caravan.