Heavenfall

With the sun rising steadily higher, Dojo Kaze slipped out of one of Kaiu's side gates and into the countryside, bow ready in his hand, yari slung across his back. The climate was about right, warmer than up north, but the lack of trees was unnerving. For the time being he kept to the side of the road. In the shade of the stalks of grain, he felt almost at home. He slowed as he breathed in the thick scent of the fields, listening for the tell-tale scrabble of tiny feet, the rustle of disturbed grain, the beating of wings.

He likely hears some scrabbling in the still-strange surroundings as Seppun Dawei does much the same thing.

Damned things make too much noise, he thinks, and stuff that should be quiet isn't, here. What is in the dirt that makes such plants?

Hearing the skrit of movement, Kaze immediately becomes still, allowing the sound gently to turn him to face its source. His hands made no motion to his quiver.

Steps come in twos. A Man.

He very nearly cleared his throat, but paused.

Fool. Are all men now your ally? You have lost much in your days of ease, Kaze. Time to wake up.

Instead, he quietly nocked an arrow and slipped into the grain after the tramping man, moving between the stalks without causing as much as a rustle.

Stealth roll=45

Only when he caught sight of the man did he speak in his dry rasp.

"Identify yourself, please."

Hearing the voice--and the "please"--Dawei turns slowly to face the voice.

"Seppun Dawei. And you are?"

The string loosened and the guard relaxed.

"Doji Kaze of the Lady's Clan." His dark eyes observed the Seppun for a moment before he emerged from the shadows. Arrow still nocked, he bowed formally as was required by Her will.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Seppun-san. You have had rice?" The upward inflection on the final syllable was a little forced, but Kaze had the sense of presence not to wince. He needed to keep his eyes open, after all. A man could claim many things out in the wild, and Her will had left him a bit exposed.

He shrunk backwards a half-step.

"I have heard your name, I think, when Nanzi and the Lady Doji visited my Lord Hantei. And I have eaten today."

He nods.

"I would say your woodcraft is excellent, but we are not in the woods."

"I was there, though my services were not required, in the end. Lord Hantei's people are excellent hosts."

Kaze looked down and to the side. That seemed like the proper thing to say. Kaze ignores the observation of his woodcraft. His skills are what they are: beneath notice.

"You are...hunting, then?"

A voiceless rasp of laughter precedes Dawei's reply of "If I am, it's badly." He shakes his head and continues. "These lands are so unlike home; there, I knew every rock and tree, but here..."

He trails off, gestures about.

"But we are bidden, and so we do."

"Hai, we serve." The nod was certain. There was a comfort to be found in those words.

"The land is different, but the fields are growing everywhere. It is not like the Great Forest, but we must adjust as the beasts have done."

He listened quietly. "Flushing the birds will be easier than stalking the var..." he fell silent, on the harsh syllable. "The rodents." That was the word. The precise word. "With the grain...it is the ears that hunt, not the eyes. And the Seidou will...appreciate the..." Assistance? No, signifies weakness. "Effort."

Dawei nods, strings his bow, nocks an arrow.

"Birds, then," and he starts to move off, more quietly this time.

Hunters gonna hunt.

Stealth roll=40

Kaze fell into step behind him, ears straining for the fluffing and stirring of wings, or the calls of the birds.

Hunting roll=40 2 Provision points to gain.

His ear cocked at the heavy thud of a wing as they moved across the berm of a paddy. The thud was followed by the gaudy honk of a goose. Kaze immediately went still, looking to Dawei with a raised eyebrow before inclining his head to the right. He slipped into the filthy water in that direction, moving into the marshy wet of the paddy, and a half-breath later there was a heavy beating of wings and raucous honking as four startled geese took to the sky.

Dawei's bow sings a quiet song, and sudden sibilances sound as shafts seek the startled waterfowl, bringing them down.

Dawei hustles up to them, moving easily through the terrain.

Kaze, squatting and waving his arms in an upward motion, emerges from the stalks of grain. Seeing the dead geese, he stops his beating and offers Dawei a smile. "It seems your woodcraft is worthy of comment as well, Seppun-san."

Dawei nods.

"These will make for good fletching, I think."

The nods are returned.

"And fine eating. If they can be preserved for the journey."

He bent down to pick two off of the ground, shaking them out.

"Not enough time to make jerky. Might let us keep off the more preserved stuff for a few days, though."

He picks up the other two.

"Or they'll help our hosts, which is also good."

"Hai." He led shouldered his burdens and began to move back in the direction of the city.

"You hunt for your clan?"

"At times. Hasn't been as needful of late, which is good." Dawei keeps pace.

"'As needful' isn't 'not needed,' though."

"No, it is not." He nodded. "It is much the same with my task. It is a talker's time, these days."

Dawei nods again.

"There're worse things. Seen too many lives cut off to look forward to more."