The Way of the Fox (45 page)

“Do crabs sleep?”

Kuno
wrinkled his nose in thought. “I do not believe so.”

“Damn.” The fox planted her fist upon her hip. “
Maybe we could scare them off?”

“
How?”

“Did you bring any of
your poems?”

Forever full of dignity, Kuno pointed the way on into the marsh. “That way, if you please. Exercise your wit upon the marsh.”

“I’m going!” The fox squelched off  into the reeds. “Keep your helmet on.”

They moved on.
Sura eventually came to a maze of old rocks and boulders standing amongst rank old pools. She thought she could see a way around, but hesitated, scowling at the weeds.

Rokuko
came shuffling up to her side, and laid a hand upon Sura’s shoulder.

“What is it, Kitsune san?”

“More rocks and pools.” The fox wrinkled her snout in thought. “Is there something we should be looking for? I’m not seeing any bamboo poles or anything.”

“The tides and winds
have taken their toll.” The old woman made to walk on. “We must pass the rocks. You will see a crooked tree…”

“
Are you certain? I mean – you are blind and all that.”

“
I once walked this path many, many times, Kitsune san.” The old woman quietly moved on. “I was a fool to ever stop.”

It was still a fair distance to the rocky mount.
Sura thought that she could see a route that avoided the worst of the open mud. She headed onwards, and Chiri supported Rokuko across a brake of tangled driftwood.

Bifuuko came to settle in Chiri’s hair, her wings wagging as she kept a watch for danger in the reeds.

Rokuko sensed the little air elemental. She turned her blind face towards Bifuuko.

“
An air elemental!” The old woman’s voice filled with gentle wonder. “Yes…

This one loves you too much to ever leave you.
”

Chiri flicked a glance to ensure that Daitanishi was still in place, hovering above Sura.

“Bifuuko chan and Daitanishi chan have been with me since I was a child, Rokuko san. They are my oldest friends.”

The old woman
suddenly seemed wan.

“
You are a shugenja, my child. A sister to the elementals. As I once was.”

Chiri’s ears gently blushed.

“I do not know if I can claim so honoured a position, Rokuko san.” The rat looked quietly to her elementals. “I do not have any power worth speaking of. I do not quite understand why I can sometimes summon help, and sometimes I cannot.”

“
Power of the soul comes from strength of the soul, Chiri san. Confidence and benevolence. Faith – and love. Above all, love.”

Rokuko’s voice was filled with regret.

“When you love, the bright souls of the world will heed you.”

Chiri looked towards the
old woman, and her ears fell. She reached out to take the woman by the hand, and gently lead her on along the muddy path.

At the head of the march, Sura halted yet again at the edge of a broad open field of mud. She knelt with Tonbo, searching the area ahead, and mused.

“I’m still bothered by the whole crab connection. Where do they fit in?”

Tonbo nodded.

“Clearly the whalers do not want anyone to reach the shrine.”

“Yeah – but how do a bunch o
f whalers manage to find critters like
those
and bring them here unseen?” The fox gave a sudden grumble. “They have a higher duty to go and make me a barbeque.”

Kuno
gave Sura a glower.

“
You will get your barbeque!” Kuno kept his voice to a quiet hiss. “Please be quiet, Sura san. The crab monsters are dangerous.”

Sura
stood up and gave a great, luxurious stretch. Her yawn was full of fangs.

“Crabs?
Eh! We’ve got them beaten. We know how they track us, and Tonbo has the whole crab-cracking thing down pat. We solved the swamp!” She gave a great, easy-going wave of her hand. “It’s not like there’s any more surprises!”

Two titanic crabs erupted from the mud – each easily three times the size of their cousins. The immense
monsters thudded down to land – each with claws longer than Tonbo was tall. A claw scythed overhead, almost taking off Sura’s ears as she ducked. A cloud of shaved fox hairs whipped away in the wind as she jerked back up and stared.

Kuno looked at Sura,
blinking and momentarily speechless.

“
I hate you.”

A crab stabbed its claw down at Kuno,
but he dove and rolled away. The ground shook as the both crabs thundered forwards. Tonbo tried to slam his tetsubo into one of the beast’s shells, but the monster’s claw guarded its face. It slashed back handed, the claw tip tearing into Tonbo’s armour and staving in the plates, sending him flying. The crab blundered forward, then Sura streaked in, thrusting with her spear. The point took the claw precisely in the elbow joint. The injured claw hung down at an angle, as the enraged crab turned to chase after the fox.

Kuno dove
along the side of the second monster, his sword slicing. Crab legs flew free. But the behemoth whipped about with surprising speed, clashing with its claws. Kuno’s armour took the blow, silk laces now hanging free where the claw had sliced clean through. But the blow sent him staggering back, bruised and winded, into the mud.

Rokuko stood sternly facing the titanic crabs, and threw open her arms.

“
Little offspring of the mud!

Earth and water, both combined!

Fly up now at my command.

Strike my opponents blind!
”

Power flashed inward towards the old woman, then out into the swamp – but the spell shivered, lost and unformed. Rokuko strained, struggling desperately, but the spell simply began dissipating from the air.

Chiri ran forwar
d, power swirling about her and lifting her long hair in a shimmering unearthly breeze. Her magic joined with the old woman’s and flowed into the mud. A host of little creatures suddenly arose out of the mire – flat ray-shapes made of living mud. The mud elementals flung themselves at the immense crabs and smothered their eyestalks with goo.

Kuno was up and onto the back of a blinded crab, anchoring himself by plunging his short sword into the creature’s shell.
He hacked at the base of the monster’s claw, severing it free. The crab whirled around and around, trying to dislodge its enemy, hissing and bubbling in rage.

Th
e second crab blundered forward to find Sura, but the fox dove beneath its shell and began hacking at its feet from beneath. The monster scuttled awkwardly backward, trying to grind her flat beneath its shell – but she was out and away beneath its legs, jabbing it enthusiastically in the rear.

Tonbo shattered the monster’s claw
clean off. The crab turned, blundering about, clashing its remaining claw. Pincers snatched hold of the iron tetsubo. But Tonbo released the weapon and lunged right in against the monster, planting both feet against the carapace and seizing hold of its arm. He plunged a dagger into the claw joint, and ripped tendons horribly apart.

Tonbo heaved. He tore the entire claw arm
from its socket with bare hands, then retrieved his tetsubo from the severed limb. He strode forward as the monster retreated, slamming blow after blow against the creature’s carapace. Shell splintered, then flew. Sura scrabbled out from the mud and ran to his side, plunging her spear into the gap, ramming half a spear-length deep. The crab shuddered and suddenly collapsed, crashing lifeless into the mud.

Atop his own blinded crab, Kuno managed to poise his long sword precisely, and plunge it down. The exquisitely crafted blade plunged deep, severing the monster’s brain. The crab collapsed and subsided slowly into the mud. Injured, dazed and exhausted, Kuno pulled forth his swords and slid back down onto the ground. Tonbo helped him steady himself,
then leaned wearily on his iron staff to gaze at the fallen crabs.

Kuno gazed at the crabs and shook his head.

“I confess I am alarmed.”

Tonbo shrugged.

“I’ve seen bigger.”

Sura – utterly elated – ran up and down in front of her fallen crab with great whoops of joy. She kicked the monster in the shell a few times for good measure.

“Did you see that? Two in, two down!
Pow!”
She ran to a hillock in the nearby mud and looked down in triumph on one and all. “Kuno! Crab ride! That was epic!”

“Yes – excellent.” The samurai felt gingerly at his ribs. “Please come down and behave.”

“Behave? I am the kitsune crab crusher! Kicker of crustaceans! They wanted trouble, and they found fox! Seafood kitsune style! This swamp just ran out of surprises!” The fox began to dance from side to side.

“We do the crabby dance! Hey!

We do the crabby dance. Ho!

We do the crabby dance. Ha!

We do the crabby…
”

The others were all staring up at Sura in horror. She halted her dance and looked down from the hillock in confusion.

“
What?”

Bushes fell away fro
m the mud to either side of her perch. Two immense eyestalks were revealed – each towering over the fox. The entire hillock slowly surged and rose, mud sucking slowly free.

Sura stood upon the shell of vast behemoth of a crab – a titan
as huge as a hill, with a shell two yards thick and harder than steel. The massive eyestalks focussed inward at the fox and seemed to scowl. Sura gave the creature a grin all full of teeth, leaped off the monster’s back, and ran like a hare.

“
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Tonbo backed away.

“That’s bigger.”

S
ura shot past, heading back along the trail with her feet and legs a blur.

“Run away!”

Kuno drew his sword. “A samurai never retreats!”

“Advance to the rear!”

Kuno backed away from the crab. Tonbo threw Rokuko over his shoulder like a bag of flour and the entire group fled for their lives. The crab rose up behind them – higher and higher, towering above the swamps. Mud, reeds and bushes dropped from its shell. The creature looked slowly about itself, caught sight of the Spirit Hunters and moved ponderously forward – each footfall making the mud banks shudder. Each stride took the giant creature lurching forward, easily matching the pace of the fleeing, racing folk down below. It smashed over trees as it they were twigs, sending boulders crashing and bowling past Sura and hurtling down into the swamp.

The fox led the others past a stand of trees, then sent them doubling back, shooing everyone on their way. She flung herself flat and hid beside Kuno as the gargantuan crab thundered towards their previous trail.
With trees crashing and mud shuddering, the fox yelled back towards her friends.

“
Alright. I have a plan!”

Kuno ducked a chunk of tree
flung by the crab’s passage.
“What plan?”

The fox ticked points off on her fingers.
“Right! I’ll need a cast iron pot sixty yards across, fifty thousand gallons of boiling water – some radish, shredded carrot and one ton of egg sauce!”

Kuno growled, watching as the crab swung towards them.
“I hate you!”

“
Well what’s
your
plan?”

The gargantuan
beast opened its mouthparts and roared, its eyes fixing upon them as they tried to hide. The group erupted out of cover and ran like hell, leaping over pools. Sura disturbed two smaller crab monsters, using them as stepping stones as she fled across a mud bank.

“
Out of the way! Scram!” The fox smacked a crab between the eyestalks as Tonbo leapt onto the thing. “I’m coming back for you later with dipping sauce!”

She le
d the retreat with foxy cunning, back behind the monster and then finding a pool. She emptied her flour tubes and threw them to one and all, leaping into a stagnant pool and hiding beneath an algae mat. The others all followed suit, with Chiri helping Rokuko san.

They hid underwater breathing through the bamboo tubes.
The giant monster stomped away into the marsh – further and further, eventually disappearing off somewhere near the great rocky promontory. Emerging from the water and dripping with algae, Sura peeked cautiously forth. She waded out of the pond and assured herself that the monster crab had gone.

“There we are! No problem. All fixed!”

Drenched, algae covered and with armour cracked and scored, Kuno surfaced from the mire. He was decidedly not amused. Sura looked at him, and was immediately incensed.

“Oh what? That was absolutely
not
my fault!” The fox helped Rokuko up out of the water. “See? A problem arose. I solved the problem! All you have to do in life is trust the fox!”