It was a beautiful afternoon. The fall sunshine was gentle and the breeze was mild.
Yoshi and Nishi walked down the road as it passed through some rice fields. The paddies had been harvested within the month, and the stubble of shorn rice stalks gave the muddy fields an indistinct amber fuzz from a distance.
Yoshi was whistling, enjoying the day, when suddenly Nishi laid a hand on his arm.
"Quiet!" She listened. "Horses, again!" She spun and looked back at the road behind them.
Behind them, perhaps a half-mile or more, they saw moving figures, and a trail of dust. "Kuso," Nishi hissed, and looked around them.
They were in a terribly exposed position. On their sides the rice paddies stretched for nearly as far as the horsemen were behind them. They had no chance of reaching cover before the horsemen caught them.
They had been passed by a similar patrol the day before, but then they had been on a road skirting the foothills of the mountains, with bushes and trees close by. They had hidden in time to avoid detection.
Now there was no such luck. The only feature of note in the huge field was a small stream ahead, crossed by a small bridge. Low earthen walls banked the stream a foot or so up, like the walls that crisscrossed the paddies. This was autumn, though, and the stream was more like a steep-banked ditch, with the water level a tall man's height below the low wall. A spidery contraption of a large wheel and bamboo pipes stood beside the wall. It was a water wheel, used for filling the paddies from the stream, made of light-weight bamboo to be operated even by a child.
The muddy fields would be hard going on foot; even harder for horses. The short walls were high enough to hide a man, but footprints would be clearly visible in the mud.
Yoshi frowned, looking back at the distant trail of dust. Figures were unidentifiable at this range. There was no way to tell if the horsemen had seen them or not.
"Hrrr... We cannot flee or fight..." Nishi glanced about at the barren ricefields with a look of disgust. " Do you have any suggestions, Yoshi?"
Yoshi looked around again, clearly discarding the idea of flight, and equally the idea of fighting a dozen horsemen in the road. His eyes examined the low bridge carefully.
This road was the only way south to Kubota and the rest of Japan, so the bridge was built to carry carts. It wasn't very well-built, though. It was made of two largish logs, staked in place. Over that several layers of bamboo were laid cross-wise, the lowest being bound in place with rice straw ropes, and finally the bridge was covered with packed earth.
Nishi followed Yoshi's gaze with a look of disbelief. "You can't be serious? Destroy the bridge?"
Yoshi gestured at the rice-straw ropes binding the bridge timbers to the lowest layer of bamboo cross-braces. "Cut the ropes, Nishi. If they are cut, I may be able to lever one of the timbers out of position."
Nishi shook her head, "If you say so."
Yoshi bent over the end of the bridge timber. A thick stake braced the end into position. Yoshi wrapped both huge hands around the stake, squatting with his back straight to get the most out of his enormous strength. With a heave and a groan - and the feeling that something popped in his back -- Yoshi pulled the stake out the ground, which was still damp from recent rains. It slithered out with a deep sucking sound.
"A...amazing..." Nishi gaped for a moment as Yoshi pulled the length of wood free from the clinging mud. Stepping back from the bridge, she drew her katana and looked down at the ropes. To get at them she would have to slither down into the ditch beside the bridge. An action that would certainly result in her being coated with thick mud. Nishi shrugged, she'd undergone worse in the service to Lord Arai.
Sliding down the side of the ditch, Nishi noticed two things - first a pair of large feet in straw sandals, and secondly a deep voice which said "Ho! What are you trying to do!"
"Wha..." Nishi turned as best she could, considering the uncertain footing, and brought her sword into a guard position. "Who are you?" she demanded, pitching her voice deep.
The owner of the rope sandals slithered down the bank and stepped into view, brown water curling about his ankles. He was obviously a yamahoshi - his black hair sprouting into a straggly beard and a tangled, curly mass of hair. While not as tall as Yoshi, he was much broader, and his tattered clothing showed tanned muscled forearms liberally laced with scars. A sword stuck from his belt at a jaunty angle, and a rope sling held a small cask at one hip. One hand rested negligently on the barrel, while from the other trailed a hefty staff. He glared at Nishi.
"I am Saito." he rumbled. "And again - what are you doing, samurai? Do you think to destroy the bridge?"
"Hmph..." Nishi snorted in feigned disgust, "My name Hotaru-no-suke; my companion and I fear attack by bandits and are preparing to make our stand here." Still holding her sword in one hand, Nishi pointed in the direction of the road, "If you listen, you can hear their horses."
Saito cocked one eyebrow and grinned. "They are very bold bandits, to be riding on the road in broad daylight - especially with the soldiers of the new lord so busy these last few days. I would have throught them no trouble for a bold samurai and his retainer. Still, if you wish to avoid them, perhaps you should take shelter under the bridge and let them ride by." He gestured to where he had recently been sitting, then glanced up at Yoshi standing on the bank above.
Nishi saw his face harden, and he turned back to her and spoke again. "Is it really bandits you are seeking to avoid, samurai?"
Taking a step backwards, Nishi glanced from the yamahoshi to the top of the bridge. "Yoshi..." she called, "Get down here!"
Yoshi had been squatting open-mouthed, as surprised as Nishi at the sudden appearance of the yamahoshi. At Nishi's command he glanced into the distance, but the riders were still far away. Following Nishi's path, he slid down the bank into the ditch, but lost his balance and fell with a huge splash. He got up, shaking his shaggy head.
"I am pleased to meet you, honored yamahoshi," Yoshi said.
Saito nodded his head, barely suppressing a grin. "Pleased to meet you too, Benkei. So what is all this bridge destroying? Do you want to bring the lord's soldiers down about your ears? If so, you won't have long to wait - I can hear hoofbeats already."
Still holding her sword Nishi scowled, "We would like to avoid meeting the men who follow us."
Yoshi wiped mud from his eyes and opened them wide, looking at Nishi. "You mean they might be the lord's soldiers, and not bandits?" He looked up at the bridge above their heads. "I hope they didn't see me trying to destroy the bridge, then! Maybe we ought to stay hidden down here, in case they are angry!"
Saito grunted, then indicated the space on the bank where he had been sitting. "If you think they didn't see you, then sit there. It's dry under the bridge. Myself, I will sit opposite you - I would prefer not to talk with soldiers. They can be a bit... argumentative.... when times are unsettled like these." He suited words to action, and as he settled himself added "Besides, trying to break the bridge would have gotten them off their horses; but it would also have made your presence very obvious. And two of you trying to hold the ditch would have been easily encircled, and made a fine target for arrows as well. Horsemen almost always carry bows - don't they, samurai?" He addressed this last to Nishi, his brows raised.
Nishi resheathed her sword and shrugged. "Perhaps," she answered noncommittally before ducking under the bridge and settling herself on a dry portion of the bank.
Yoshi followed Saito's example, climbing up the bank under the bridge, where he started to wring the ditchwater out of his clothing.
The drum of hoofbeats was much closer and louder now, and they stopped talking. Yoshi gripped his makeshift staff tightly -- if the horsemen had seen them and stopped, their position under the bridge would become a deathtrap.
The thunder of hooves approached, then slackened. Sounds of discussion drifted down to the tense figures beneath the bridge, then the horsemen took flight again and the bridge shuddered under their hooves. Dust sifted down on the three hidden below it.
Saito sat quite still until the sound of hooves had died away, then putting a finger to his lips, slid slowly from his place, and waded out into the stream. After a moment he reappeared, and grunted "They've gone. It's time for you to continue your journey and me mine."
Yoshi nodded. "It was lucky we met you, Saito-san." As they climbed out of the ditch, he gave the big man a once-over. "You look very strong. Do you wrestle?"
The monk stared at Yoshi in astonishment, then laughed. "No, Yoshi, I do not wrestle - and especially not with huge peasant lads like you. Come - up on to the road now." Clambering up onto the roadway, Saito pointed along the earthern wall that bounded the paddy fields. "If you walk on that, you won't leave footprints. I would stay away from the road for a while - those horsemen might be returning. And a word of caution, youngsters. If you wish to travel safely, be a little less obvious than you are now."
With that, he turned and began to trudge down the road's edge, southward.
"Obvious?" Nishi snorted, "And how should I make Yoshi less obvious?"
Yoshi just started up whistling again and started walking.