The bandits were clearly exhausted from the long chase, and fell asleep shortly after they’d been fed. The lone exception being the one assigned to stand guard- the large bald man who had spoken earlier sat next to the dying embers of the cooking pit and busied himself cutting a piece of wood. Fighting sleep himself, Masato kept his eyes barely open and watched the man work his long, wicked looking knife with amazing dexterity as he carved away at the little stick.
Masato could feel the knife-spoon the girl had slipped him resting inside his pantleg where he could easily get it and cut his way free, but the door was across the room, and he knew he’d never make it. If it has just been him, he might have tried to run, but with Taro next to him he was stuck where he was. All he could do was hope the big man would fall asleep and that they might be able to escape then.
Then he saw movement, and the farm girl heading for the door.
“Hey!” The big man whispered, putting down his carving. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I need to check the goats,” she replied. “They’re going to wander off if they’re not tied.”
The big man made a negative gesture, and pointed back to where she’d slept. “Get back to bed!” He hissed.
As Masato watched the girl suddenly drew close to the man and smiled, whispering something to him that Masato couldn’t quite hear, but that nonetheless changed the big man’s expression rather quickly.
“Okay, let’s go.” He nodded eagerly, setting aside his carving and slipping his knife back into its belt sheath.
Then the two of them slipped out quietly, and the room was silent once more.
The moment they were gone, Masato slipped the knife-spoon out and got to work. He wedged the knife facing up between his legs and used it to cut the straps on his hands, then grabbed it and freed his feet as well. The gag was the last thing to go, and then he looked at Taro, who had fallen asleep.
Gently rousing the young lord, he made quick work of the bonds and then motioned for the boy to follow him.
Leading the way, Masato crept around the edge of the one-room farmhouse as slowly and carefully as he could, using the dying firelight to see his way by. Several times, he or Taro nearly tripped over something, but they managed not to knock anything over, and, after what seemed an eternity, they made it to the doorway and slipped out through the hanging cloth that covered it.
Taro wanted to speak, but Masato stopped him, and then led him away from the building to some nearby bushes.
“Stay here!” Masato told him. “If they wake up, look for your chance and run into the forest.”
“Where are you going?” Asked the worried boy.
“I need to check on that girl.”
“But, we have to go.”
Masato shook his head. “She saved us, I’m not leaving her.”
Then, before the young lord could protest again, Masato rushed off into the night.
* * *
The farm was small, but still consisted of several buildings. In addition to the house, there was a storage building, a stable, and a few pens for animals. The moon was nearly full and the sky cloudless, so there was plenty of light for Masato to see by as he crept around the farmyard. Of course, that worked both ways, so he had to stay close to whatever cover was available to avoid being seen.
He found the girl and the bandit out near the pens, with the big man holding the gate while the girl led a goat inside, and shutting it once she was finished. Then, as the girl turned around, the big man grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to kiss her.
Seeing her fighting his advances, Masato suddenly found himself enraged, and quickly grabbed a piece of dry firewood from a nearby pile. Holding it as he would a sword, he advanced on the man from behind and quickly struck him hard on the back of the head. This, however, only broke the wood and caused the man to drop the girl and spin around, reaching for his knife as he saw Masato standing there.
Masato held the stick carefully, and kept it between him and the man as the long knife appeared. He was going to do his best to keep the man distracted, and then when the…
KA-TONG!
The bandit suddenly let out a loud moan and dropped forward, hitting the ground with a loud thud.
Behind him, the farmgirl stood carrying a shovel.
“He hurt you?” She asked.
“Uhh…no?” Said the slightly confused Masato. This didn’t seem right somehow- the stories always seemed to go another way.
“Good,” she said, and grabbed Masato’s arm. “Come with me.”
Masato did as he was told, letting the girl lead him back across the farm. She seemed awfully pushy for a girl, he began to wonder if she was really a boy in disguise.
Finally they came to a stone-walled storehouse, but Masato could see a large log had been placed across the door.
“My father and brothers are in there,” she explained as she examined the log. “The bandits made them go inside or they’d kill mother and I.”
“Oh, I see.” Said Masato. He looked at the log- it was big enough to take several men to move, and there was little doubt why the farmers hadn’t been able to escape. In fact, he doubted that he and the girl would be able to move it by themselves either.
That didn’t stop her from trying, however, and she was now tugging at the log to see if she could move it. “Well, are you going to help or stand there like a stupid old cow?” She asked.
Masato didn’t answer, instead he began to walk along the length of the large log. A log was round and should roll, but this one didn’t, so there had to be a reason. He found it a short distance along- there were a few stumps along the length where branches had been and these protrusions prevented it from turning.
“Do you have an axe?” He asked the girl, rushing back.
“No, just my shovel.” She held it up, but Masato shook his head- it was too thin and would likely break.
Then an idea struck him, and he ran off across the yard. When he returned a few minutes later, he held the large knife the man had threatened him with and began to use it to hack at the stumps. As it turned out, the wood had started to rot, so the long knife was able to make large gashes as he chopped away.
“Hurry!” She urged him, looking at the house.
“I am.” He replied.
He kept thinking about how much noise he might be making, and that they were going to get caught at any moment, but the ideas just made him work even faster. Eventually, he managed to break away the largest of the stumps, and a few minutes later had cleared away most of the smaller ones.
Once that was done, he hopped over the log and began to push. The girl joined him, and the two of them strained with all of their might against the log. It was large and nearly flat on the bottom, which made rolling it difficult, but with their combined effort they managed to turn it, and the long rolled forward half a rotation before it met another stump and stopped.
But that half a rotation moved it a distance thicker than a man away from the door, and after the girl undid the locks, a middle aged man and three younger men slipped through the gap it left.
“Natsuko, where is your mother?” Asked the older man, and she quickly told him, she also explained about Masato.
“Thank you, young man.” Her father said to Masato, bowing, and the brothers did the same.
“Ahh…No…No…” Masato answered, feeling his ears start to burn. “It was nothing.”
Then the father looked at the girl again. “Do the bandits still sleep?”
She nodded, they did.
“Then,” said the father, taking the shovel from his daughter while the brothers spread out to find other weapons. “We shall go wake them.”
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