A figure staggered out into a clearing, and paused. A flash of lightning briefly illuminating a young face wearing the mon of the Phoenix Clan embroidered upon the now wet and dirty clothes. Shiba Kenku breathed slowly and gathered his strength. It had been a long night and it wasn't going to get any shorter. He used a wet sleeve to wipe the rain from his face, but immediately the wind threw more onto him. Kenku briefly glanced behind him but could not see any of the twisted shapes that had been tracking him.

But they would be close. Kenku hoped that the sudden storm would hide his tracks and give him enough time to get to Kyuden Isawa. Enough time to pass on the warning to the Elemental Masters of the army of Oni and other creatures of the shadowlands that were marching on the ancestral lands of the Phoenix.

Kenku began to slowly run across the clearing, the exhaustion showing clearly on his face in the brief flashes of lightning that crackled across the small patch of sky above the clearing. A small root hidden in the grass nearly sent him tumbling to the ground. Recovering quickly, Kenku headed into the trees on the other side of the clearing, hoping that he was still heading in the direction of the castle. He mouthed a quick prayer for luck to Shiba, the Kami his family was named after and ran on.

A sharp and high pitched laugh sounded behind him. Kenku cursed. They had caught up to him. He looked behind him and saw a slim twisted shadow slide across the clearing he had just crossed. One, only one. He breathed a sigh of relief. One could still be outrun. Two would be trouble.

He turned back and saw death in the shape of a mouthful of long jagged teeth filling his vision, followed by a brief, sharp pain. Then blackness fell and he knew no more....