Day 13 - Mizu-Umi no Sakura Yuki(Lake of Cherry Blossom Snow)

High above the Shinomen Forest, waterfalls cascade down to an icy lake. Their hiss hides her footsteps, their mist conceals her passage--until she steps forth at the edge of the wide tree line. An arrow sings and buries its head into the stone at her feet. Its message is clear.

She is not welcome in the Shinomen.

Another hiss, this time not of water or steam but of serpent's tongue. "Turn back, Betrayer." The deep voice resonates without source from the high limbs of pine and cedar. "Or the warriors of the Pale will find their revenge on you, despite the call of our Dashmar." There is hatred in this voice, and it rings with desire for the kill.

She does not know if this is the Balash but she hears his echo in the voice's whisper, carried on the Akasha's wind. "The Pale Onnotangu must die so that the new can rise," she says staunchly, her obsidian face impassive.

"What do you know of Pale and Bright? What do you know of the People's Mind?" Disgusted, the hiss turns darker. "Nothing." Three movements and three dark forms, their scales as black as ink, slide forth from the forest. Though their strangely curved swords hang in their sheaths, Hitomi knows their deadly strength is contained only by an unknown command.

"If you go," the Balash says, "We will not follow."

"If you do not," Hitomi murmurs, "then your revered Qatol will die once more. Think on that when you call me Betrayer?."

Source: posted to www.wizards.com/l5r on 2/3/00