The bandits, now in full control
relocated their camp from the top of the
hill to the center of the village. They
brought their other prisoners down with
them and led them into the main building
to be with the others. This was so they
could keep them all in one place for the
purposes of security, and sorting. Two of
the bandits huddled them all together in
one room and kept a watchful eye over
them while the others made one of the
ladies cook for them. As hungry as the
women and children were they didn't dare
ask for anything to eat.
The bandits spent the following several
hours eating, drinking, and planning which
of their prisoners would be coming with
them and which would have to be disposed
of. Later into the night
the bandits began to fall extremely ill.
Some of them suffered horrific stomach
cramps which near crippled them with
pain. Others felt so nauseous they began
to vomit violently and could not stop
until the entire contents of their
stomachs had been expelled. One, who was
less affected than the others accused
the lady who cooked the food of
poisoning them and told one of the men
to take her outside and kill her. She
vehemently denied the accusation however
with a lack of any evidence to the
contrary her pleas fell on deaf ears and
she was led outside to be murdered in
cold blood.
The food was fine, their sickness was in
fact caused by the water they had drunk
when they set up their camp at the well.
the little girl's stepfathers bowels had
released when he died and the water was
tainted with faeces. A blood chilling
scream came from outside and the women
and children held each other hoping that
they wouldn't have to share the same
fate and that this ordeal would soon be
over. To their surprise, the lady came
running back into the building clearly
having been spooked by something behind
her. The bandit then slowly stepped back
into the room and stood still. Blood
began to drop onto the floor, followed by
the bandit himself,
revealing a large deep slash to his back.
The bandits reached for their swords and
slowly pulled themselves to their feet.
In the doorway a lone samurai walked
into the light and stared them down. On
the previous day when the villager had
seen the bandits in their camp he indeed
raised the alarm with the others so that
they could prepare, but he also headed
off to the nearest town in order to get
help. Fortunately for him he met a
samurai along the way. The bandits rushed
at him but they were no match and with
the two swift slices, he had killed them
both. The women saw this as their
opportunity to rise up and they wasted
no time overpowering the remainder of
the bandits, slaughtering them all
with uncompromising rage and violence.
All except for one. One had taken the
little girl and threatened to slice her
throat if they didn't let him go. The
little girl had other ideas.
She pulled something from inside her
clothes and stabbed the bandit right in
the neck, severing his jugular vein which
cause blood to erupt from his wound,
and his quick death to follow. He was
dead. They were all dead.
The samurai then noticed something very
interesting about the object that the
little girl had stabbed the bandit with.
He picked it up and held it out to her.
"This hair pin, where did you get this?" he
asked. She explained that she took it
from her dead stepfather when she was
trapped in the bottom of the well. "Do you
know who this belongs to?"
he asked. "No" she said. "It bears the
Imperial seal!" he told her. "It's extremely
valuable. You'd better come with me." With
no energy left to argue, or fight she
submitted.
They traveled for several days over which
the samurai took good care of her,
ensuring she would reach the Imperial
Palace clean, and well-fed. The palace was
unlike anything she had seen in her
entire life.
It was so beautiful, and was so
terrifying at the same time. She had no
idea what was going to happen next, and
felt she was either going to be
imprisoned for her crime of stealing, or
worse, executed.
She was taken inside its walls to a
beautiful garden where a woman stood
alone under a pagoda. She was asked to
take the hairpin to her and explain
herself. As she presented the hairpin the
princess was overcome with joy. She told
the little girl of how she lost it down
a well when she had stopped for a drink
while traveling with her soldiers. She
couldn't retrieve it at the time as they
were needing to move quickly, but she had
regretted it horribly and sent one of
her samurai to get it. This was the same
samurai who saved the little girl and
her village. She hugged the little girl
and thanked her for returning the pin to
her. The pin that had once belonged to
her mother. She said she could have
anything in return at which point the
girl replied, she just wanted to be loved.
And she was. For the rest of her days, in
the safety, and security of the palace
walls.