“Yes, Sensei,” Kaze said.
Without another word of instruction the Sensei turned and left.
Kaze stepped into the cold water of the pool at the bottom of the falls and immediately felt the truth of the Sensei’s prediction of how icy the water would be. He waded out to the tumbling waterfall, feeling the drops hitting his skin like crystals in an ice storm. Taking a deep breath to steel himself against the cold, he stepped under the stream of water coming down Dragonfly Falls and turned to face outward. He put his hands together, closed his eyes, and tried to concentrate as the water from the falls pummeled his head and shoulders and made his body shake from its frigid embrace.
It was hard to do what the Sensei instructed him to, but he tried to turn his thoughts and feelings inward, thinking about the lesson of Yoshimori. His powers of concentration were not strong enough and the noise of the falling water and the cold bothered him sufficiently so that he had a hard time focusing. He squeezed his eyes tighter and tried to think even more single-mindedly about the story he had been told.
Then he heard a sound that disturbed him much more than the falling water and noise and frostiness of his surroundings. It was the sound of a young girl giggling.
Because of the popularity of Dragonfly Falls and its beauty, it was not unexpected that someone else might come by. But it annoyed him that some young girl found his attempts to meditate under the tumbling water an excuse for laughter. In moments the young girl’s laughter was joined by the sound of three or four men, and Kaze opened his eyes to see what was going on.
In front of him was a bamboo palanquin held by two kago porters. To the front and back of the kago were two samurai acting as guards. Sitting in the kago, the protective bamboo strip curtains raised so she could see the view, was the most beautiful girl Kaze had ever seen. Her face was oval with high cheekbones and a small pointed chin. Her large, expressive eyes were sparkling with some forbidden merriment. She held her hand to her mouth as she giggled uncontrollably. The porters and samurai guards had joined her in laughter, but theirs was a hearty guffaw.
When the girl removed her hand to suck in some air, Kaze could see a small mouth, perfectly formed with even white teeth. The smoothly arched eyebrows that accented her eyes looked natural rather than painted on. Her long black hair was in a casual style suitable for traveling, and her robes were extremely rich, including a kimono with a pattern that showed botan, peonies, scattered across a large brown branch.
Kaze was stunned by her exquisite beauty, but this beauty also heightened his discomfort about her laughing at him. Kaze closed his eyes and tried to concentrate even harder, to squeeze out the distraction that this rude group of people was causing him.
“Hey, boy,” a male voice called to him.
Kaze was determined to ignore the summons.
“Boy!”
Kaze concentrated even harder.
“Please cover yourself, boy,” the man said.
Kaze was puzzled by what the man meant, and, reluctantly, he opened his eyes again and stared out at the group. The water streaming down his face blurred his vision, but he could see that one of the samurai guards was lowering the kago’s protective bamboo curtain on the young girl, while the other, the man who had shouted at Kaze, was pointing down toward Kaze’s groin.
At first Kaze did not understand what the man was doing. Then he understood that he meant Kaze should check himself. Looking down, Kaze saw to his astonishment that the strength of the water coming down the waterfall had actually loosened his loincloth. Kaze was so numb from the cold that he hadn’t noticed. And although the fundoshi was still on Kaze, the cloth had pushed to one side, exposing him. His young manhood was shrunken and shriveled by the cold water, but it was still plainly visible for all to see.
Normally Kaze was very comfortable with his body, but discovering why the beautiful young girl was laughing at him caused him to blush so hotly that, at least on his face, it momentarily blanked out the cold of the water.
Mortified, Kaze immediately turned his back to the group on the bank and the girl who had found his manhood a source of amusement. It was a long time before Kaze could concentrate on the tale of Yoshimori and foxes, as ordered. It was so long he almost froze.
More than a decade later, Kaze was a rising star in his Lord’s service. He had left the Sensei’s training years ago, yet he often thought about the old man and the lessons he had learned.
After returning to his family from the Sensei, Kaze was married. After marriage, he got a post at his Lord’s castle. The strength of his character and martial skills soon earned him a rapid string of advancements.
One day the Lord’s castle was in a frenzy of excitement and anticipation because the Lord’s bride was arriving at the castle for the first time. As with Kaze’s marriage, this union was made on the basis of political, financial, and military considerations, but rumors circulated that the young Lord was also getting a woman of remarkable beauty.
Kaze was chosen to lead the escort that was to meet the future Lady of the domain at the border and escort her to the Lord’s castle. He sat in his best battle armor, astride his favorite horse, with the ashigaru, the foot troops, selected for the rest of the honor guard, waiting for the bride’s party to arrive at the border.
Before the Lady arrived, the martial display was literally and figuratively dampened by the start of a driving rainstorm. It beat down on the assembled troops, making them drenched and miserable, but it also made their helmets and armor glisten. The line of men formed a serpentine cordon, the wet scales of their leather do, or chest protectors, blending together to create the illusion of a dragon’s body, with Kaze at its head. Kaze wore his best armor, including a metal kabuto, or helmet. Some kabuto for generals had enormous crests on them, to allow them to be identified on the battlefield, but Kaze’s helmet just had a modest copper crescent on its front.
Kaze was thinking about getting his troops out of the rain when the vanguard of the Lady’s entourage was spotted. Kaze gave an order in a voice trained to rise above the din of battle, and the men snapped to attention, holding their spears smartly to their sides. Kaze had trained these men, and he was proud of their appearance and discipline.
In a few minutes, four samurai on horseback, the advanced guard of the bride’s party, reached Kaze’s position. Then the palanquins of the Lady and two of her companions came by, followed by an oxcart full of luggage. The palanquins carrying the Lady’s companions were simple bamboo kago, but the Lady was in a fancy norimono. The lacquer work and polished brass fittings of the norimono broadcast the wealth of the Lady’s background, and the painted family crest on the folding door of the norimono proclaimed her lineage. Because it had this crest, instead of the three plum blossom crest of the Lord, Kaze knew this norimono would be returned to the Lady’s family after the wedding.
The companions in the kago had chosen to follow the Lady to ease her loneliness at being sent to a new family to live. The Lady’s new family, the family she was marrying into, would be expected to arrange suitable marriages for these companions in exile when the proper time came.
The remaining troops escorting the Lady marched past Kaze’s guard, their heads bent into the rain. They stood opposite Kaze’s troops, forming a corridor of honor for the Lady’s palanquin. Walking with the bowlegged gait of palanquin porters, two men carried the small covered platform hanging from a thick lacquered beam between the two rows of troops. The palanquins of the companions were put on the wet ground a proper distance from the changing of the escorts ceremony.