Thursday, November 10, 2005

Inugenesis
*episode 2*

Her ladyship. The man’s heart still bled when he thought of her. He knew that he might seek comfort in the boy’s shared grief, but that was not his way. For all his life, Chuugimaru had bourn his emotions within himself, and he would not stop now. He thought back to his childhood, not a happy time for him. He carried the joys and sorrows of youth behind a mask which separated him from the other children of the peasant farmers on the lord’s estate. He was shunned by all but one of his fellow boys. This lad, Usagiuma, a wild and rowdy hooligan, gradually worked his way into the heart and confidence of the stone faced boy. They grew to be men, and Usagiuma took a wife and began a family. When they were in their 30s, Usagiuma, whose behavior still tended toward recklessness, brought down the wrath of a powerful vassal. Seeing his one friend about to be executed, the man who still never showed any emotion threw himself on his knees and begged for Usagiuma’s life. They would both have died, had not fate intervened. The favorite daughter of the lord, herself only a girl at the time, was returning to the castle after an outing with her servants. Ever curious, the young lady had sought to investigate the commotion by the side of the road. Upon hearing the tale, she commanded the vassal to release the men, and take no further action against them. She then said, without phrasing it as a condition of her pervious action, that she wished Chuugimaru to accompany her back to the castle. Surrounded by luxuries beyond his wildest dreams, he sat before the noblewoman and feared for his life. “Loyalty,” she said, “is beyond value. I know this, despite my youth. You showed great loyalty to your friend earlier; do you think you could show me the same loyalty?” Chuugimaru sat, speechless. She continued, “These people,” she made a gesture to encompass the entire estate, “are not loyal to me. Some are loyal to my father, or my family, but most are simply loyal to themselves. For now, I must trust my father to protect me. But in time, I will need people of my own who are loyal to only me. I would like to give you a post in my father’s household. You would no longer till the soil, and your life would be much more comfortable. In this and in other ways I will help you, but you have shown yourself to be capable of loyalty. When the time comes, I will need your loyalty to be to me. If you accept, you and your family shall take up residence here immediately.” Finding his voice again, Chuugimaru says, “Your ladyship, this one has no family. As for your ladyship’s offer, one is struck dumb. One cannot refuse your ladyship’s terms, and one hopes that he may someday repay your ladyship’s kindness.” So he came into the household of the lord. The lord loved the girl above all his children, and when she asked if a certain peasant could become a servant within the castle, the answer was, needless to say, yes. As the years past and the lady grew, Chuugimaru became her eyes and ears in places where a young lady could not go. He would gradually get to know all members of her ladyship’s entourage and inform her of where their loyalty truly lay. As she bloomed, like a fragrant lotus, into a beautiful woman, Chuugimaru realized that he loved his mistress. Like all of his feelings, he buried this deep within himself and proceeded as if all was normal. She was destined to wed a nobleman, a man more worthy by birth and by nature then this lowly servant. In time, the sons of lesser noblemen came to court her. Each was greeted by a distrusting eye from a servant they soon learned to be untouchable. When one such suitor thought to force her to accept him, and without delay, servants happened upon the two before he could complete his vile act. As the servants ran to tell the lord, her ladyship ran to the arms of her most trusted friend. By the time the lord’s guards found the suitor, he was long dead and his body had been defiled. By the lord’s order, no search was made for the young nobleman’s killer, and his body was sent home, wrapped in a horse blanket.
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