Chapter
IV
General Masao and Nobuko were making
good time on their way to Master Ronin’s temple. They were now traveling
through some green areas, with some hills. Suddenly General Masao stopped his
horse and made Nobuko stop too. “What’s wrong?” asked Nobuko. “Trouble is near”
said General Masao. And he was right; some of General Takeshi’s men had set up
camp on the other side of a hill. “What should we do?” asked Nobuko. “We need
to pass this area to get to Master Ronin’s temple,” said General Masao “so we keep
going, and if the soldiers do give us trouble we fight them together”. “I
understand” replied Nobuko.
At first it went well passing by the
soldiers, but then they were stopped by one of the soldiers. “I know you,” the
soldier said “you are General Masao”. The other soldiers heard him and
surrounded General Masao and Nobuko. “We are in a hurry,” said General Masao
“so I would appreciate it that you let us pass”. “We cannot do that,” said the
soldier “we have orders from Emperor Hisashi to dispose of you and your
companion”. “I had a feeling about this,” General Masao sighed “it’s time to
fight Nobuo”. General Masao and Nobuko got off their horses and drew their
swords. The falcon stayed put on General Masao’s horse. The soldiers took out
their swords too and began fighting General Masao and Nobuko. General Masao
easily defeated the soldiers one by one, but then trouble happened.
One soldier had a crossbow and arrow
with him, and was about to shoot an arrow at General Masao when the falcon flew
off the horse and took the arrow; the arrow hit its left wing. General Masao
saw what had happened and slashed at the soldier in rage. Nobuko ran to the
falcon to check to see if it was okay; she knew that falcon was precious to
General Masao. The falcon was okay, but it was in a lot of pain because of the
arrow. General Masao came over and carefully picked up the falcon. “It’s all
right” he whispered and passed the falcon to Nobuko. “Ride on to Master Ronin’s
temple, tell Master Ronin I sent you and tell him to take great care of the
falcon”. “What about you?” Nobuko asked, pointing to his cut arm; General Masao
got the cut from one of the soldiers. “Never mind me,” said General Masao
“what’s important now is that this falcon is saved. Now go”. With the falcon in
her arms, Nobuko got onto her horse and continued onto Master Ronin’s temple,
leaving General Masao tending to his wound and praying that the falcon would be
okay.
Nobuko rode as quick as she could all
the way to Master Ronin’s temple, taking great care not to make the falcon’s
condition worse. Then at last she found Master Ronin’s temple. The temple was
one of those flat building temples, with a big red temple gate, a courtyard and
thirty step stairs. Nobuko got off her horse, and with the falcon cradled in
her arms she ran up the stairs, ran through the gate, ran through the courtyard
and knocked on the temple doors as hard and loud as she could. An elderly man,
with long grey hair, and a short grey beard answered the door. “What do you
want?” the elderly man asked. “I’m a traveling companion of General Masao and
his falcon has been injured by an arrow” said Nobuko, in her male voice. She
showed the falcon to him. The elderly man went pale in the face, after seeing
the falcon and hearing General Masao’s name. “Bring it in immediately” he said.
“I take it you are Master Ronin?” asked Nobuko. “Yes I am,” answered Master
Ronin “now come we must hurry”. Master Ronin led Nobuko to his bedroom, took
the falcon from her and laid the falcon gently on the bed. “Good news is, it’s
near dark time, so I can properly treat him then”. “Do you need my help with
anything?” asked Nobuko. “Yes I do,” said Master Ronin “fill up a basin with water
and get some cloths and bandages. Then start a fire in the courtyard for me”.
Nobuko brought the water and the
cloths and bandages to Master Ronin first. Next she gathered up a lot of
firewood and set up a fire in the courtyard. By the time the fire started
blazing, it was now very dark. To see if the falcon was okay, Nobuko went into
Master Ronin’s bedroom. But instead of seeing an injured falcon on the bed, she
saw an injured man on the bed. “You’re the man I saw last night,” gasped Nobuko
“but where’s the falcon?” “I’m the falcon” whispered the man, weakly. Nobuko
was confused and was about to ask the man another question, when Master Ronin
walked in. “Now I can heal you your highness” he said. He turned to Nobuko.
“Boy I need to do this alone, so I’d appreciate it that you leave us”. Nobuko
got out the room as quietly and quickly as she could, leaving Master Ronin to
attend to the man. The man was in a lot of pain because the arrow was in his
left arm. But Master Ronin used some crushed herbs to ease the pain a bit, and
then took the arrow out as fast and carefully as he could. It did hurt, but
with Master Ronin at his aide, the man was at ease and the pain slowly started
to fade away.
At that time Nobuko was sitting by
the fire in the courtyard. She had taken her straw hat off and had her hair
loose; she was in her real form. Right now she was very confused at what she
had seen so far. “What’s going on?” she said to herself “I mean the man said
he’s the eagle, how is that possible? Master Ronin seems to know him and
General Masao. Is General Masao aware that falcon is really a man?” A wolf’s
howl was suddenly heard in the distance. “It’s that wolf again. How come I only
see it at night and how come General Masao is not here yet? Something is not
right and I want to know what is going on here”.
At that moment Master Ronin walked
into the courtyard and saw Nobuko. “Who are you?” he asked “and have you seen
the boy that had come here with the falcon?” He didn’t know that Nobuko was a
girl and not a boy. “I’m that boy Master Ronin,” said Nobuko, in her real
voice, “the truth is I am really a girl but I disguised myself as a boy when I
left the palace”. “You were a servant girl there right?” asked Master Ronin. “Yes,
but I ran away to find someone to help me get rid of General Takeshi”. She
explained about her family’s slaughter. “I can’t blame you for wanting to get
rid of General Takeshi,” said Master Ronin “I have heard many evil things that
General Takeshi has done. May I ask you your name?”. “My name is Nobuko
Okamoto, but in my disguised form I call myself Nobuo. And I’d appreciate it
that you keep my secret until after my business with General Takeshi is over”.
“You are a brave girl to do something like this,” said Master Ronin “and don’t
worry, your secret is safe with me”. “Thank you Master Ronin,” said Nobuko,
bowing her head to him, “but now I would like some answers. How do you know
that man and General Masao? And how come that injured falcon I brought in is
now an injured man?” “It’s a long story,” replied Master Ronin “but since we
have all night and that you have become a travelling companion of General
Masao, I will tell you”.
This is the story Master Ronin told
Nobuko; “As you probably know, twenty two years ago, after Emperor Hisashi took
the throne, Princess Annika ran away from the palace”. “I’ve heard of that,”
said Nobuko “they say she ran away because of her brother’s wickedness”. “That
is correct; she knew very well that her brother was not a good man. The truth
is he planned to marry his own half-sister”. Nobuko gasped at that. “But of
course she did not want to marry her brother”. “I wouldn’t blame her,” said
Nobuko “I wouldn’t want to become an empress to that evil man”. “The thing is
really, he only wanted her to give birth to his children, not another man’s
children; he wanted her all to himself. Another thing is Princess Annika was in
love with another man, General Masao. To foil Emperor Hisashi’s plans, General
Masao and Princess Annika ran away together. They secretly got married and
lived happily together. Sad thing is she died after giving birth to a son”.
“You mean Princess Annika is dead?” asked Nobuko. “I’m afraid so”. Nobuko felt
devastated that Princess Annika was dead; she had always hoped that she was
still alive and would dethrone her brother one day. “So where is her son now?”
she asked. “Her son is the injured man in my room. He is Prince Hayato, an heir
to the throne. General Masao and his son lived happily together, and of course
no one knew that the boy was a prince. But one day, when Prince Hayato was only
nine years old, a spy found out all about General Masao and Princess Annika’s
secret marriage and their son, and he told Emperor Hisashi for money. When the
emperor heard of what had happened, he was in such a rage. He called upon the
powers of hell and placed a curse on General Masao and Prince Hayato. By day
Prince Hayato is the falcon you brought to me and by night General Masao turns
into a wolf. So both General Masao and Prince Hayato cannot be together in
human form. They cannot even touch or speak to each other in human form. And it
has become like this for eleven years now”. Nobuko was horrified with the
story. ‘So the wolf I saw last night was General Masao in his wolf form’ she
thought. “I know Emperor Hisashi is a really bad man, but this is the most evil
thing that I have ever heard”. She said. “Emperor Hisashi is both an evil and
mad man and would do anything to get what he wants including doing evil things.
You have stumbled upon a tragic past Nobuko and now you have become part of it”.
“I may have become part of this tragic story, but I promised General Masao that
I would help him and I will too” said Nobuko. “You are a good woman Nobuko
Okamoto,” said Master Ronin “and I know that the gods will bless you with
happiness in the future”. “Even though I’ve lied to General Masao and Prince
Hayato about being a boy?” asked Nobuko. “The gods will understand what you are
doing, and it will turn out all right in the end” smiled Master Ronin.
