" Ahoy! Ahoy Anyone!" shouted Captain Kosu over and over, his shouts becoming more and more desperate each time.
But only an eerie silence answered him, only the soft slapping of the waves against the side of the boat and the groaning of the ropes that held the sails up cut the silence. " What is going on?" asked Shion.
" The town looks deserted" said Renzo.
" It can't be" said Captain Kosu, " this is a busy town, something is very wrong."
" Fine" said Kisho, " let's just move on, this isn't our trouble."
" We can't" said Kosu, " we need to resupply, we don't have enough food and water to make it to Namaguichi."
" We'll need to see what is wrong" said Rei, " someone should go to see what had happened."
This suggestion was met with a great deal of scared mutterings and everyone started looking at their feet. " I'll go" said Saya.
" They may need a doctor" said Rei, knowing she was going whether she wanted to or not and it was best to make it seem like she wanted to.
" Fine, fine" said Kisho, " don't dally I do no want to stay here too long."
" Of course not" said Saya.
Kosu nodded as he turned to his men, shouting for them to dock the ship. The Soyokaze Maru slowly docked along side the longest of the five docks that jutted out into the river from Azarath. The gangplank was dropped onto the dock and the sailors leapt off the boat and tied it up as fast as possible before fleeing the safety of the ship. Saya and Rei set foot on the dock, an oppressive air of danger seemed to envelope them the moment they stepped off the ship. They slowly walked down the dock, expecting at any moment of the Soyokaze Maru to suddenly cut off its ropes and go fleeing back down the river. They stepped off the dock, their feet crunching in the snow covered ground. They slowly scanned the area looking for even the smallest sign of life but there was none, not even a stray dog that ever village seemed to have. " Strange" Saya said softly, " if this was an attack there would be damage to the houses or signs of death."
" I doubt it is a plague, where are the scavengers" said Rei, " but I can't rule it out yet."
They walked from the docks into the heart of town, it too was utterly devoid of any life. Rei was about to open her mouth when Saya froze and gently placed her hand on Rei's shoulder before motioning over to a blacksmith's shop. It took Rei several moments to understand why Saya was just staring at the shop until she too saw them. There were a pair of glowing eyes, they were red and faint, like the last two embers in a fire glowing in the darkness. " What?" asked Rei before Saya pushed Rei out of the way.
Rei stumbled and fell over a large pile of logs stacked neatly by someone's front door. She scrambled back up and looked over the stack of logs at what was transpiring.
A man slowly shuffled his way from the dark interior of the blacksmith. His movements were jerky, it was like he wasn't in full control of his limbs or his head, which rolled about on his shoulders like he had nothing to keep it up. In his right hand he held a large axe for cutting wood that he scraped along the stone floor of the blacksmith as he walked. He faced Saya and glared at her, his red eyes almost seem to glow brighter as he did. He raised his left arm and let off a challenging shout in some strange, unearthly language that sounded like gabbled gibberish. Saya didn't move, she stood like an onyx statue.
Suddenly the man burst into a run, his axe held high in the air, Rei was astounded by the speed at which he suddenly was moving at, it wasn't humanly possible to move that fast.
Saya stood firm in the face of the charging villager. Rei watched from the safety of a pile of wood as the villager closed in letting off a wild howl. Calmly Saya rose up her left hand quickly flicked it downward across her body. Rei saw a glint of silver and the villager let off a scream as blood sprayed from his body. It looked like he'd just been slashed with a sword but Saya held no weapon. Rei again saw a glitter of silver briefly as Saya whipped her arm back.
Rei raced over and first made sure Saya was alright, of course she was, and then she went to inspect the villager. He was dead, the wound was perfect and clean, straight across his chest, slicing through ribs, lungs, and the heart. Rei looked through the blood at the man's flesh looking for a sign of lesions or ulcers, maybe it was some sort of blight that was driving them mad like this, but found none. She looked at his eyes, they were red, it wasn't blood in the eyes but rather the flesh of the eye had become red. Rei would have probably spent hours inspecting his body if Saya hadn't picked her up like a bag. It was then Rei saw it, eyes, dozens of them peering out from every shadowy recess around them. " I think we're in trouble" said Rei, slipping her satchel strap over her head so it stayed close to her when the fight came.
Saya looked over to a large building and again flicked her wrist. She wrapped her arm around Rei's waist and suddenly they were both jerked off their feet. They glided through the air like two birds and landed safely on the tile roof. They came out from every corner, men, women, children all of them their eyes glowing bright red, their angry shouts filling the air with their sinister language. " Come on" said Saya, who took off running down the snow covered roof with the grace of a bird.
Rei followed, finding it difficult to keep her footing, several times she felt her feet sliding, she knew to fall would mean she would end up in the hands of these awful villages so each little slip made Rei's heart pound harder and harder. She finally caught up with Saya at the edge of the roof. " That way" said Saya, pointing into the garden of the house.
Saya dug into her kimono and threw two round balls, about the size of the cup of her hand on the ground and created a massive cloud of smoke. Rei and Saya jumped down their movements hidden by the smoke and rushed through the garden into the large estate.

" What are they?" asked Rei, her breath coming in long desperate pants.
" They were once my neighbors and friends" came an ancient voice from behind them.
Both spun ready to fight when they saw an ancient old woman. She was carrying a small lantern in her hand, " Forgive the lack of light, the light attracts them" she said, " are you from the river?"
" Yes" said Rei.
" Shame" she said, " you should have kept on going, you'll be the fourth ship lost since the snows began, but enough of that, come inside, hurry before they discover your trickery."
They followed the old woman inside and she slid the screen closed and placed a bar across it. " What is going on here?" asked Saya, scanning the room waiting for the next attack.
" It began during the harvest" she said, leading deeper into the house, " the summer had been short, too much rain the crops didn't fare well. Then one of our wells collapsed and we didn't have the funds to build another. The people began to fear they would starve this winter when a man came to our village with hope in his wagon. He offered us the wood and stone to rebuild our well for a very cheap price. The town elders of course paid, the Kyokawa isn't drinkable anymore and we need deep wells for winter. After the man got his payment he left, heading south. We built our well and all was happy."
The old woman sat down in a room deep inside the heart of the estate where it looked like she had stockpiled provisions to last months all around her. " The children became sick first, they took their beds with fever, then their grandparents, and finally they parents, everyone in half of the village came down with the fever. It was terrible, all the pain and suffering and no one could stop it, but the true terror was coming."
She stopped again and took a long sorrowful breath, " It began with the children, their eyes turned red and they began to kill. We had no way of stopping them, when faced with it, we couldn't kill our neighbor's children no matter what. But soon their parents joined them and began to kill anyone who didn't have the red eyes like them."
" Are you the last one?" asked Rei.
" I don't know" she replied, " I think there are a few left, hiding out like me in the deepest rooms of their homes, but I haven't heard from or seen anyone in several days. I doubt anyone is left."
" What did this?" asked Rei, " and why only half."
" It was the well" the old woman said, " the man who sold us the materials sold us cursed wood, everyone who drank from that well became sick."
" Why not you?" asked Saya.
" I have a spring in my garden" she said, " I've always used that for my water. The wood came from the Forest of Shikyo, it was cursed wood."
Rei arched her eyebrows, she always thought that was a myth. The Forest of Shikyo is supposedly a forbidden forest of black trees were bodies are buried by a secret religious sect, the last vestiges of the old religions. It is supposedly somewhere deep in the mountains, under the perpetual shadow of a great peak. The dead are supposedly given new life after buried there, but Rei had never seen it and always thought it was a myth.
" How do you know?" asked Saya.
" The town doctor, Himura, in trying to understand why he looked at the new well and realized the wood wasn't normal. He took it to the temple in the forest and they said it was cursed Shikyo wood" she said, " it was too late for them but we burned the well and watched as horrible face appeared in the smoke, laughing at our plight as they rose into the air and disappeared. Our village is doomed, you must escape while you can."
" I think she's right" said Rei, " I can't cure this and I doubt you can fight them all."
Saya nodded, she wasn't going to argue, her ninja training taught her to recognize a no-win situation and this one was a big shining example. " Will our ship still be there?" she asked.
" I would believe so" she said, " they will be more interested in you than it for now. You will find it difficult to make it back to your ship now though, you have alerted them to your presence and they will be out. I don't like your chances but if you can make it to the other end of town you can probably make it back."
Rei didn't like their chances in this but staying put was less of an option. Saya turned to leave but Rei just could leave without a token effort. " We can take you with us?" she suggested.
The old woman shook her head, " I can leave" she said, " this has been my home for too many years, this is where I belonged good or bad."
Rei nodded, that was exactly what she expected but her conscience would let her go without at least offering. Rei gave one last look at the old woman before following Saya deep into the dark house. Saya had no difficulty navigating through the near pitch darkness while Rei on the other hand stumble so much that she took to holding onto Saya's shoulder feeling very stupid for being so incredibly blind that she ended up walking like one.
Finally they came to a courtyard probably in the very center of the house were the natural spring quietly gurgled water down a small waterfall. Saya took Rei into one arm and flicked her wrist. Again they were flying through the air before gently landing on the roof. Saya crept to the peak and looked down, she didn't see any villagers and motioned with her hand for Rei to follow.
They gently slipped off the roof into the snow with a soft crunch. Saya and Rei began to move as silent as ghosts. Rei kept looking over her shoulder, expecting to see all the villagers standing immediately behind her at any second. Her heart was beating fast and she feared they would be able to hear it. The sweat that dripped from her immediately chilled her body making the cold air even colder.
Saya suddenly stopped and Rei nearly ran into her. Just before the end of the large estate stood a villager, a woman, she was looking about a long kitchen knife in her hand. Saya gently drew something from inside her sleeve and moved with lightning speed.
Rei finally saw what Saya had as it wrapped around the woman's neck. It was thin piece of steel wire. Saya jerked the woman back and her entire body went limp, the knife dropping from her hand and landing tip first in the ground. Saya dragged the woman back into the shadows and dropped her lifeless body. Rei followed Saya as they raced across the street to the safety of the shadows once again. Saya leaned as close to the edge of the shadows as she dared and looked down the lane towards the river, it was still a far way to go.
Rei was watching Saya when she got an intense hot corkscrew sensation racing down her spine. She turned and saw a villager, he was looking straight at her. Without a single thought Rei reacted. She delivered a powerful spinning heel kick directly to the man's face. Saya turned when she heard the cracking sound and watched as the villager hit the ground dead. Saya was impressed, Rei certainly has some spark to her.
Saya led Rei down the small alleyway, past the dead villager and into another street. Thankfully this street looked deserted, the snow had only a few footprints it in and Saya didn't feel anyone close by. They ran like the wind, by now Rei, who while athletic from years of walking the country from one end to the other was not use to this much terror and running was starting to slow. Saya slowed too and stayed close to Rei. " We're okay" said Saya, " I can sense when people are close."
Rei smiled and opened her mouth but her words were cut off by a loud shriek that was answered by a chorus of others. " They found her" said Rei.
They turned and ran for all they were worth, there was still a long way before they could reach the ship. They raced to the waterfront area and turned sharply and started for the dock at the far end.

Rei was starting to believe the villagers were on the other side of the village by now and would be well out of their hair and as the dock began to appear in the distance her heart began to beat a little less rapidly and she began to think she was going to be okay.
Saya heard Rei scream and spun around, she was clutching her bleeding arm and beyond they could see the villagers. There were so many it looked like a sea of pale grey skin and piercing red eyes. " I'm okay" said Rei, " it's not that deep."
Rei was lying her ass off as she tried to keep the arterial spray contained against her fingers, she'd be dead in minutes. Saya put herself between the mob and Rei and hurled dozens of shiny black caltrops and hurled two more smoke bombs. The caltrops didn't even slow the villagers although the caltrops had pierced their feet the villagers didn't seem to care. They charged over the caltrops after their prizes.

Saya and Rei continued to run as fast as their feet could carry them, they knew it wasn't enough, neither wanted to turn around and see how close the villagers were, they didn't want to know when death would come. They could feel their presence directly behind them, they knew it was all over.
Suddenly arrows began to zip past the pair. They could hear the arrows striking the villagers behind them. They were impressed the volume of arrows that were flying past, it looked like 5 men were firing at once. They looked to the Soyokaze Maru and saw that Jintiro was standing on the bow holding his massive war bow in his hands, two quivers of arrows at his side. He fired at an incredibly rapid speed, each of his arrows finding its mark as if he was leisurely firing at a stationary target.

Saya and Rei reached the boat just as they crew were desperately pushing the boat away from the dock. They leapt off the dock onto the safety of the Soyokaze Maru pushed away.
Several of the villagers tried to leap for the boat but the fast current pushed the boat far out of range of any of them. Jintiro stayed on the bow firing at the villagers who where on the dock until they were out of his range and nearly out of sight.
" Thank you" said Saya walking over to Jintiro, " I am honored to be in the company of the famous Hawk Jintiro."
" It is nothing" he said, pulling his hat back over his eyes, " Saya, Mistress of the Wire."
Jintiro unslung his bow and slowly lumbered away. " Okay, who is that?" asked Rei, tending to her arm wound which was much less severe than she had expected, too much excitement had exaggerated her diagnosis.
" Hawk Jintiro is a hunter" said Saya, " probably the best."
" I'm glad he's here" said Rei, " I didn't want to end up food for the villagers."
Saya helped Rei tie the bandage tight, " You were amazing" said Rei, " what are those wires in your sleeve?"
Saya gently let one dangle out, it was thin, but incredibly well made. " These are my wires" she said, " in my circles I am called Mistress of the Wire because I use these not daggers or swords."
Rei gently touched it and felt the sharp razor's edge, " Impressive" she said, " you are an amazing woman."
" As are you" she said Saya, finally she blushed feeling silly for saying it.
" Come on" said Rei, slinging her uninjured arm around Saya, " I'm beat, let's sleep three days."
The pair made their way into their cabin where they promptly went to bed.