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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alejandro" data-source="post: 47147" data-attributes="member: 248">Kitsu Shiro's Background (Part IV)Your horse slowly descends the valley wall down towards the paddies. Your sharp eyes catch someone leaving your destination - the cottage you have visited for the last three days. Each day you came with questions and left with few answers.The rider wears black and red and gallops off to the north as you approach from the south. Perhaps another is seeking information about Shirogitsune? Maybe there is more to this peasant than meets the eye.You recognize a face or two among the paddy workers as you approach the cottage. The large peasant stands by his fence as you approach. He smiles and looks down to the ground. "I see you are hear for more testimony?"You feel cheated for some reason. Slipping from the horse, you point at the cottage. The peasant scurries off and enters. You notice that a tea service sits dirty in a corner. The peasant prepares another and urges you to sit down. As you do, you look around the room to determine what kind of man the peasant is. You notice nothing in particular. But suddenly realize that there is nothing to note. No, portraits or paintings. There are no shrines or ornaments. The peasant walks in and sits."Is something the matter?" he drones."No," you say quickly, "Please tell me...give your testimony to me.""Ah yes, I told you of how Shirogitsune entered Kitsu school. There he learned the ways of nobility, the philosophy of combat and his role as enabler of the mighty samurai of the Lion Clan. This was difficult for Shirogitsune because he stood apart from the other students. However, the tutors treated everyone with the same level of insincerity and disdain so it eased the pain of self-awareness that Shirogitsune was succumbing to in those first years of adolescence.After his fifth year at the school, Shirogitsune began to patrol the Lion Clan lands with a small attachment of men-at-arms. This was done so that the young nobles could learn to wield authority. It was a pungent lesson for some because the young nobles learned that they could demand and order the men, they relied on the men for protection. In turn, the men relied upon the noble to keep them alive in battle. This interweaving relationship helped the nobles understand the importance of levity and some of the tenets of bushido that their samurai peers studied.The patrol that Shirogitsune led was very skeptical of the one called the Albino Fox. Some of the men talked of abandoning young Shirogitsune. Others thought him weak and sickly. For two months they patrolled the areas between the towns and villages searching for bandits.On day, the men were caught completely by surprise in an ambush. Dozens of archers fired upon the patrol. Men fell all about the road and in the chaos the snipers began to kill the men. Shirogitsune saw men's throats explode in a splash of red ichor as sinew and bone hung limply from the wound. Shirogitsune did not cower. Instead he rose up in the middle of the road and called to the spirits. Only knowing minor spirit tricks and minimal healing abilities, Shirogitsune knew not where this power was taking him. From the sky above a thunderclap was heard and then the air around Shirogitsune and his men turned instantly into a deep fog. The archers and snipers could no longer see. Next Shirogitsune began to make noises magical and otherwise and he leapt about the fog. Soon there was the twang of bows and then volley after volley of arrows.Within an hour the fog cleared. Once clear, the remaining men of Shirogitsune's patrol found that the archers had been tricked and had killed most of each other. The remaining archer bandits were quickly dispatched. A day of misery had turned to victory.The men were in awe of Shirogitsune and rejoiced. They took him into the nearest town and that night taught him the ways of carousing and drink. The older men treated Shirogitsune as one of their own. Shirogitsune, even of higher birth, had never felt such acceptance. He enjoyed their company and thought of leading them to victory again.However, it was for not. The next morning a very...disheveled...Shirogitsune came to the main room of the inn. Sitting facing an open fire with his back to Shirogitsune was none other than his grandfather. Ashamed at his appearance, Shirogitsune turned to leave. "Sit down, Kitsu Shirogitsune."Shirogitsune sat in silence for 2 hours while his grandfather sipped his tea. Finally, the grandfather spoke. Shirogitsune was to once again travel the circuit with Mimuzuku. Shirogitsune was to train in the ways of law and learn the craft of his grandfather. Shirogitsune had spent enough time at Kitsu school it seems and his abilities had grown too much already.Thus Shirogitsune made and lost his first friends within a day and returned with his grandfather to the circuit of villages."The peasant looks very tired as he finishes. "You will have to excuse me, I am exhausted from a day of..." he pauses."Day of what?" you inquire quickly."Day of working," he says as he walks behind a door and slides it closed. Left to yourself, you leave as your mind returns to black and red riders and the meaning of the story.</blockquote>

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