Have you ever had the feeling that something is watching you when having to go outside to relieve oneself? Then you might want to know about shadow wolves, the rare and mysterious creatures that have been known as a sign or omen of an event. First of all, you might wanna know what a shadow wolf is. A shadow wolf originates from the northern province of Obakeland, 'tis a sinister place for one to travel, for one rarely returns from such a evil place, and when one does, one is no longer alone! Though through one way or another, a shadow wolf may venture beyond the border of that blasted realm, many have been sighted, some near forest lakes and mountain glades and even some near major settlements. Half ethereal and half animal, this species have mystical powers. Their powers inlcude to shift in and out of reality and their suprisingly cunning minds, this makes them harder to catch than killing flies with a needle. Though some do succeed in capturing one, they are known to be unable to be trained or breed with other species and races of the Canis genus. Sighting one of these creatures is known to give knowledge about a future event. All except one man has been able to befriend and tame these ethereal creatures. Now I shall tell you the story of Kajind, the man who befriended a shadow wolf.
The wind rose and Kajind's cape was whipped up like one would see in a in a time period that is to take place in neo apocalyptic earth, but I'm getting ahead of the current time period. He had never had a worse day in his life. He had a magnificent and beautiful life, a stable of rather fine bred steeds, a decent-sized house and even the best cultivated bonsai garden in his village. Little did he know it would soon come crashing down. First, some one has set him up as the murderer of his clan lord. Next he ran home, and to his surprise, he found a man standing over his dead wife. He was holding a rather sharp sword. Kajind reached for his walking stick. The assassin turned around to see Kajind and lunged towards him. With a well timed parry, Kajind blocked the sword stroke that was aimed to seperate his shoulders from his head. The force of the swing, however, was sufficient to knock Kajind back and send him rolling across his garden, trampling his bonsai in the process. He used his stick(or should I say sticks), now in half, to parry his assailants attacks. With two sticks now, he found it easier to defend himself and even found himself on the offensive on many occasions. At one point, his assailant started to become exhausted, tell tale signs such as weaker strikes and slower swings beckoned him to attempt one final blow. With hard flavoured rage, he struck his adversary at the neck, and as if to reply to him, his adversary's neck cracked and his foe slumped to the floor. He picked up the sword used to slay his wife and found the sheath and set off for the woods. He knew he would be hunted forever and as long as he was alive. Silently and with a grim look on his face, he headed northwards, to the tall grey mountains that bordered Obakeland.
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With his life in ruins, his reputation existant as a murderer and assassin to his clan, and his walking stick in two, Kajind thought it was rather unlikely that he could make it to Obakeland, either by being killed in the wild of being caught tortured then killed. Reasoning that in he could be possessed by an entity powerful enough, he could could avenge the death of his wife or die trying. Collecting his thoughts, he stopped by at the side of the path. There, he hacked down a sappling and cut off its branches. With this new walking stick he continued on his was leaving behind his only trail, a stick that was hacked clean through the middle and arranged to point towards Obakeland.
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His first few nights in the wilds made Kajind a bit insecure. He managed to overcome this by sleeping in a tree with his fire alight. This might not be such a good idea for a hunted man, he reasoned he put quite some distance between him and his pursuers. After several days, Kajind reached a large lake, and beyond the chain of mountains seemed closer now. He had 2 options, he could find suitable materials and build a boat to navigate across this body of water, assuming of course that the waters were not infested with anything too horrible. The other option is to walk around the lake and cross the bridge at the river that the lake flows into. Surely the bridge could be guarded and that detour could cost him many days. But then again, his life was of lesser concern for a man who has no grand ambition to acomplish his goals. He could die there fighting for all he cared. If he was to die in five minute he wouldn't care less. With vengeance settled in to every single recess of his heart, he started to trek towards the settlement/village that guarded the access across the river. He followed the path for many days, until, over the final hill, he saw the settlement. There was a tower on each bank, plus 2 houses and finally a cultivated plot of land. Kajind crouched down and observed the settlement and reckoned that at night he would sneak across the bridge with he decorated cloak of twigs and leaves. If all went well, he could avoid all the armed men. Which were about 10 of them if his estimate was correct. If it all turned wrong, he would have to fight through and leave a trail of bodies for his pursuers to follow.
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It was night already. He put on his modified cloak and advanced towards the bridge. The first guard he encountered was half asleep and without much difficulty, he crossed the bridge. As soon as he stepped on the other bank, a guard walked by. With as much stealth he could, he pounced on the guard and choked him with his walking stick. He silently got the corpse into the river before anyone came by. However, with typical bad luck, he knocked his own head on the bridge. Undoubtedly, the thump woke up the whole garrison, and before Kajind could get past the second tower, 5 men stepped out, swords drawn, from the house, he turned backwards and saw 6 men about to cross the bridge. He knocked one of the guards out with a blow to the head. This alerted the other guards to his presence. The fight was 10 versus 1, hardly a fair fight. During his travel in the wilds, he managed to fend off many a wolf and learned quite a few techniques himself. Wielding his walking stick as a quarter staff, he parried a sword stroke and hit his foe back with the other end. With another foe neutralized, he was attacked simultaneously by 2 adversaries and the blows he deflected was enough to send his stick flying. He drew his sword and like a fencer is able to deflect a guard's blow and the guard's sword was separated from his hand, it landed with a thud on the wood of the bridge. That foe ran and tried to dislodge his sword from the bridge. With many guards surrounding him and taking their chances of killing him, he slowly backed towards his walking stick who was still lying on the ground somewhere. Suddenly, his feet gave way, and he found himself on the ground. He reached behind him and felt the cold wooden shaft that was his walking-stick-turned-quarter-staff. As soon as the guards surrounded him once again, he swung his cape in such a way that all the leaves and branches fell out, this distraction was all Kajind needed and he twirled his staff knocking the guards down. He got up as one of the guards collect himself and stood up, only to be incapacitated by a blow into his gut followed by another on his head. Kajind put the sword back into it's sheath and as the guards got up, he made every single one as casualty, each incapacitated in an original manner. The last guard, unaware that his fellow brothers-in-arms were beaten up by a lone stranger, pulled his sword free of the woodwork of the bridge. Before he could survey the scene, Kajind struck the last guard with a blow to the wrist, and soon, his defenseless foe (or should I say man), was on his knees, clutching his broken wrist. He stood over the unarmed guard, and bade him to tell anyone who enquired about him that he was heading north and that pursuit is useless as Kajind would return and wreak havoc upon them. After the sentence pronounced, Kajind set off once again for his destination.
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After chasing away what seemed like a very white wolf, Kajind settled down for the night. Kajind had a nightmare. It was about many people fleeing as a horde of bandits descending upon a village and witnessing a massacre of great proportions. Just as light slit a small part of the sky to shine upon the land, Kajind woke up from this disturbing dream. This nightmare evoked a memory from his childhood. There was a village nearby. In this village, he was born. But due to his father coming from a different village, his mother followed his father to the village of his residence. All his life, he ignored this simple fact and after reflection, he might be able take residence as the child born there returning. He would figure out an excuse for his presence but for now, he felt a certain joy in walking in through the road surrounded by woods. A certain joy he was sure he was not going to experience for a long time. What felt like an eternity to Kajind, which was only a few days, he arrived at his village.
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He could not believe his eyes. There in front of him, was a blasted ruin of smoke, burnt timber, and many corpses. There were already many people scattered over what was left within the burnt village walls. As he approached the ruined village children ran up to him and after studying him for a few minutes, they ran back towards their mothers and started tugging at their kimonos. One of the elder women turned around and suddenly was shocked. She called out to the other women and they gathered around him. Kajind enquired what happened to the village. The matriarch took a step forward and told him how a nights before, a runner came to the village to inform the clan lord of a renegade assassin running loose in the wilds. The messenger also demanded that guards of his clan to come and police the village to find this so called assassin. The clan lord refused, and with this, the messenger said that the fate of this village is no longer in the clan lord�s hands. And during the night, the raiders descended, setting alight the houses with their torches. The clan lord got outside and he went to each house and woke everyone. The men stepped outside with their swords only to be cut down minutes later. The men that were not cut down fought back in vain. They killed a majority of the horsemen. The clan lord however, was trapped in the last house as he tried to save a family from a fiery death. Most of the men were all killed, including the clan lord. Most of the women made it through the night, while some preferred to live with their husbands through the afterlife. After this tale, Kajind explained how he was framed as the murderer of his clan lord and how they had killed his wife and that they are now after him. Many of the women started to yell curses at him but the matriarch calmed them down. That�s when suddenly the matriarch suddenly noticed something on his arm, underneath his torn tunic, it was a scar. Then suddenly the matriarch laughed out loud. This was the scar that was the result of baby Kajind getting a hold of the younger matriarch's lower kimono and which dislodged a hidden dagger that the matriarch carried about her and resulting in a deep wound that went straight into Kajind's bone. Kajind spent a month recovering this wound and as memory of this incident, the matriarch kept that same dagger, unsharpened and dirty. The matriarch recognized Kajind at once and welcomed him. Many of the other women too, such as his many childhood friends. That night, there was a feast in the honour of Kajind's return to his native village. The next day, the blacksmith, who survived because he was in the fields, looking constipated at the time and who was taking a dump, sharpened Kajind's sword and found a rune that had endured the night in flames. He quickly and skillfully, hammered the rune into Kajind's weapon and in doing so bestowed the sword magical properties. The tailor, and his miraculous fireproof silk he had invented, saved him from the flames and was thus able to gift Kajind with the miraculous fibre that has even more properties than that of resisting flames, and what they are have not been discovered yet. He was given what was left of the armoury's artifacts. A helmet that he stole from the river incident was replaced by a cloth headgear and a circlet that the previous clan lords had possessed. His staff was then soaked in the spring near an ancient oak, and soon the mundane walking stick soon became a knurled, arcane and powerful quarterstaff. Everything Kajind had on his body was taken off, replaced or upgraded. This took up one whole day, and when he was completely reequipped, he left the village, the chagrin of many of his exes. Kajind, silently walked away into the distance, leaving his native village and continuing towards the towering grey mountains.
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Kajind arrived at the base of the mountains. In his heart, he felt joy and despair. Joy because of the near completion of his goal and despair because of the sheer size of the peak. He recalled an old saying, "The first step is often the hardest." With grim determination, Kajind reached out for an out cropping of rock and started the ascent of one of the Shadow Peaks. For hours and hours, he picked his way through the jagged rocks and on many occasions he could have fell and meet his fate at the base of the mountain.
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At last he hauled himself over the ledge. To his amazement, there was a smooth path that lead off somewhere. As he traveled along the road, he noticed how the roadside shrubbery became more scarce and bizarre in shape. Around the corner, he heard the sound of a battle taking place. He poked his head around a the bend and saw an old man walking along the road with a pile of corpses behind him. The old man didn't see the second wave of horsemen heading straight for him.
-Watch out old man! Kajind shouted.
The old man stopped in his tracks and look at Kajind during which he unsheathed his sword.
-Look behind you! Kajind shouted again.
The old man spun around, just in time to block a strike. This knocked the old man backwards and his sword out of his hand. As one of the horsemen were about to deliver the fatal blow, Kajind tossed his staff which diverted the blow in midair and saved the old man. Half a dozen bandits were now staring at him. Meanwhile the old man got up, grabbed Kajind's staff and knocked a bandit from his saddle. At that instant, the leader barked an order and three horsemen broke off from the group and charged towards Kajind. With that Kajind leapt at the side of the canyon and used the canyon wall to jump even higher. The first horseman, who did not see Kajind coming and was knocked of his horse. With the expertise of a natural born warrior, and the grace of a geisha, Kajind flipped himself onto the second horsemen�s horse, grabbed the bandit in a chokehold, reached for the bandits dagger, gored the horseman with the dagger and pushed him off the horse. Being a experienced horseman back in the day, he drew his sword, heading towards the third horseman and decapitating the bandit with horrifying ease. The old man by that time, had forced the bandits from their horses and forced them to fight on foot. As all the bandits lunged at him, he struck the ground with his staff and the bandits flew backwards as if a wall had stopped them. As the bandits got up, they were either maimed by the old man who wielded Kajind's staff or cut down and trampled by Kajind on horseback. Within moments those bandits that were not a casualty, were fleeing. The old man handed Kajind's staff back to Kajind, thanking him and inviting Kajind for tea. Being one who could not turn an invitation down, he gladly accepted. The old man jumped into the saddle, they rode until they came to a fork. There were 2 paths, one that headed north, and one that headed slightly to the west. The took they the west path.
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Upon arriving on the clearing, there was a rather grand building annexed by a corridor to a dome. There was a multi-storey tower attached to the first building. They rode past the building into the wilds. Though Kajind remarked that the jungle surrounding the path they took was infested with wild, monstrous or even strange creatures, the beasts did not dare approach the duo, as if the old man intimidated the creatures with his very presence. Then the path sloped upwards and the trees became dark, and twisted as if there was a mutating presence. Suddenly, the trees dropped backwards to reveal jagged rocks that now bordered the path that now lay before them. That was not the only thing that changed. The creatures once monstrous and strange, were now graceful and grave silent. Some resembling animals such as crows, vultures, wolves, mountain lions and even some mythical creatures. The others as expected though were often zombies, ghosts, spectres, brave souls trapped in their armour, and the collective mass of the usual undead. There they came to another clearing, in which a large paved road ran through, to the side, there were two buildings, one that resembled a dojo, and one that had living quarters with the usual chopped wood next to the side and a workshop annexed with a small path and the whole thing surrounded by pretty shrubbery. It had not dawned on Kajind that his old friend he was traveling with was Fujin himself!
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The old man descended from the horse and walked towards the house, Kajind did likewise. He stepped inside and found the room to be comfortably heated, a change from the cold climate outside. The room itself was adorned with many strange looking dust-collectors, a shelf on which the duct-collectors rested upon, a low table, an armchair. The man beckoned him to sit, and Kajind did so. The old man disappeared while Kajind looked around. As the old man step through into the room, Kajind's awe had left him alienated and humbled. With imperceptible speed, he set down the tray and started pouring some tea from a rather tall teapot. They had a discussion, all the while sipping tea. The old man had asked what was Kajind doing around these parts. Kajind stiffen and shifted around slightly. He explained what has happened to him. The old man enquired about the wolf he chased a way. Kajind explained it was rather white, it was also alone. The old man then realized something, and hurried out of the room and came back with a rather large tome. Kajind peered over the man's shoulder, who wasn't blocking whatever he was writing in the book. Most of the scribbles appeared to be an old language that a few clans spoke. He looked on an earlier entry and saw characters that he did recognize, it spelt Fujin. The man closed the book, dust billowing as the two pages met and shut the book. The man noticed Kajind standing behind him. He apologized as he was conducting some research on a strange type of wolf he had seen more and more commonly in the mountains. He also apologized the Kajind for not saying that his name was Fujin. It suddenly came to Kajind immediately, another hidden memory resurfacing once more to his conscious. Her remembered tales of a great hero, who faces the oncoming enemy army in attempt to give time for his child to flee. He also remembered men in black armor riding past his village to west. Seeing as these memories surface, he enquired if the old man knew anything about that legend about one man stopping an army and he enquired. For the hours that followed suite, Fujin recounted what had happened during those dark times. A army fallen from grace, attacking villages, burning and pillaging all in the name of conquest. At the battle near the Mourning Mountain, Hattori swept through the horde of the army slaying countless pitiful enemies. This little diversion was long enough for Fujin carrying Sinjid, Hattori's son, to escalate the mountains and escape to this remote area. Revealing as much as Fujin could remember, he said there was one being who could stop the oncoming war. What Hattori has done was delay the army long enough, as the army was so setback, it had to wait years again before gathering in strength to finally overcome and conquer all of the land. That one such being happened to be wolf. Kajind burst out laughing, tea spraying Fujin's face like sea spray, and proceeded to nearly die of laughter. Fujin expected one such reaction, but maybe not the tea. He continued, saying that it was no ordinary wolf, and that the wolf in question was the one species of wolves that had become almost common a while ago. After he heard this, Kajind became silent. Fujin asked him a favor. Kajind listened on intently for the request.
-Kajind, I want you to look for the great one, then you must find Sinjid, said Fujin
Kajind was about to open his mouth when Fujin continued.
-If the great one was the one that could prevent war then, this creature must be sought, he continued.
Then Fujin said that Sinjid also played a part, which was to kill the evil daimyo that was at the head of the army. That being the reason that Kajind must find Sinjid, which was a secondary objective. Sadly however, Fujin was a bit too frail to travel through the mountains to reach the great one's lair. But instead Kajind will accomplish this task for Fujin. As a last request. Somehow Kajind accepted, through sympathy or a reason known only to himself. As soon as he was on his way, he thought, " last request?" Suddenly it dawned on him what Fujin meant by that. He shed a tear, wiping it off with his palm, and continued on his way.