Here be Shinobu and Ice Dragons - The Forest of the Dead Samurai

As if some kind of unprecedented Hiroshige wave of indescribable proportions and power, had swept thousands upon thousands of conifer trees of over one hundred species, to form a vast woodland that would provide an arboreal tidemark to the northeastern lower slopes of Mount Fuji, the Forest of the Dead Samurai is a virtually impenetrable environment, which blankets some fifteen square-miles of volcanic rock possessing barely sufficient soil cover to sustain the forest itself; and now - during a mid-October sunset whose light was seemingly turning into liquid gold, the snow water river that was born of a slope of the iconic volcano, and that was escaping the forest, just southwestwards of the present makeshift landing site - a Yamashiro Y-970 jet helicopter which was being piloted by Shinobu, touched down amidst tall and wiry grass of the forest borderland.

            Perhaps in erroneous implication that the three occupants of the aircraft, were not fearful of the brooding and legendary forest which the helicopter was facing from close at hand, the main-and-the-tail rotor-blades were immediately allowed to whirl to a standstill; and without hesitation, the doors of the cockpit were pushed open, and Shinobu climbed down out of the pilot's doorway, whilst Lydia briefly awaited to follow Anzu in emerging from the front of the opposite side of the helicopter.

            Regardless of the fact that they were each thermally clad in waterproof jackets and trousers and boots (all items of clothing which, along with knapsacks and flashlights and various other pieces of equipment, had been added as afterthoughts to the recent shopping list of Nagatake Yamashiro), the three women silently and determinedly gathered alongside the starboard door of the passenger cabin; and now Shinobu stepped up onto a ski of the helicopter, and hauled the door open in readiness for unloading the equipment that the women had selected to take upon the impending and most likely perilous nocturnal expedition.

            Soon, Anzu and Shinobu had each donned a backpack tank which was filled with bright orange vegetable dye, whilst Lydia was to be found similarly wearing a knapsack that contained food and several flasks of hot coffee; and upon each of the three women having shouldered a state-of-the-art tranquilliser rifle  - and having each pushed a flashlight into a jacket pocket, Shinobu slid shut the starboard door of the passenger cabin, and then led her companions round to where the trio became stood in front of the helicopter nosecone, commencing to stare somewhat uneasily towards an expanse of the northern edge of the ocean of trees.

            'Do you think that the forest is really haunted?', Lydia asked of no one in particular.

            'I guess tonight shall be the night when the three of us find out', replied Anzu; 'and so depending how reluctant we are to learn the answer to the question, it could be considered fortuitous that the satellite map failed to reveal any place where the helicopter could touchdown in the forest'.

            'At least', said Shinobu, 'if we should succeed in our quest to tranquillise our quarry at the waterfall, the Air-Crane will be able to hover overhead to allow the Ice Dragon to be netted and airlifted from the site; anyway, we might as well use what little is left of the daylight, to aid our entrance into the gloomy forest - come on, let's start making tracks.

            'The waterfall lies several miles upstream; and I want us to be in position to make a move on the dragon at first light tomorrow - of course if the creature is still at the waterfall by then'.

            'It's a never ending chain of the most joyous of scenarios', said Anzu.

            The river, which achieved no more than a modesty of width before reaching its destination of Lake Kawaguchi, was still swollen by rainwater from the thunderstorm of the previous day; and now - in single file, and with Shinobu preceding Anzu and Lydia respectively - the three women set off into the Forest of the Dead Samurai, and did so along a muddy course of the eastern bank of the river, that could almost be construed to be a vague pathway.  Indeed the occasional litter which the three sisters encountered upon this the beginnings of their journey towards the waterfall deep within the forest, gave testimony to the fact that other twenty-first century people had ventured at least into the outskirts of the forest itself; but Shinobu knew from what she had read about this forest whose density rendered it a curiously almost windless environment, that approximately a mile inwards from the northern outer line of trees, signs of human incursion rapidly dwindled to a complete absence, and thus onwards from there, the forest turned into a place of virgin condition.

            Irrespectively, it seemed to the three women that their entrance into The Forest of the Dead Samurai, had caused the sun to cruelly speed up its descent to sink below the horizon which was hidden somewhere westwards from their sight; and as the dusk of a cold and starlit night gathered rapidly in the sky above the naturally yet eerily quiet forest, Shinobu brought herself and her companions to a halt alongside the hurrying river, and turned to face Anzu and Lydia.

            'If the way ahead allows us to keep up our pace of so far', said Shinobu, 'we should be able to hear the waterfall long before midnight; as for now, I'm going to have to start using a flashlight - but even though we've brought plenty of spare batteries, let's for the present at least, try to keep our flashlight use down to one torch at a time'.

            'Fair enough', replied Anzu.

            Shinobu took out her flashlight and switched it on, and then Lydia somewhat desperately spoke.

            'Come on, let's hurry on our way - I have a feeling that we're being shadowed'.

            Without further ado, the three women set back off upon their winding upstream journey into the legendary and feared Japanese forest; but a few minutes later - coincidentally just after they had rounded a southwesterly bend of the moonlit watercourse flowing restlessly past them, the company was again brought to a halt, this time at the instigation of Anzu, who then immediately asked a question of Lydia.

            'Do you still feel that we're being shadowed?'

            'Most definitely'.

            'I've suddenly got such a feeling as well'.

            'Never mind you both feeling that we're being shadowed', said Shinobu, 'we are being watched - I can see two lamp-like eyes staring at us from between yonder pair of trees less than fifty yards distant'.

            Without hesitation, Shinobu directed her flashlight in the relevant easterly direction; and thus was illuminated to the dazzling of its owner, the animal face into which were set the eyes that had just been spoken of to the great alarm of Anzu and Lydia, and indeed of whose omnivorous owner Shinobu now gave positive identification.

            'It's a Black Bear!'

            'Which to me at least, is a welcome alternative to a Polar Bear' said Anzu, whilst she swiftly un-shouldered her tranquilliser rifle; and only a few seconds later, she had switched on the targeting-system of the rifle itself, and was using an infrared sight to aim a red laser dot, centrally towards the yellow chest-crescent of the male Black Bear stood staring at the three intruders into its forest domain.

            However, Shinobu pushed the rifle down until it was aiming towards the ground, and then spoke in explanation of this perhaps surprising action.

            'Remember, the darts are primed with tranquilliser strong enough to fell an Ice Dragon, so even one would probably be enough to kill the bear outright - let's give it a fair chance, and only shoot if the bear charges towards us'.

            'Okay', replied Anzu; 'but what do we do now?'

            'I'm going to try to scare the bear off', said Shinobu; 'Lydia, turn about so that I can get something out of your knapsack'.

            Lydia responded without question; and after Shinobu had quickly unfastened a side pocket of the backpack, she pulled out an orange tubular object, and did so to an immediate grin of understanding from Anzu.  Without delay - and watched by her two companions, Shinobu aimed the object roughly forty-five degrees skywards and in the direction of the inquisitive bear; and then a sharp clockwise twist of the base of the object, fired an instantaneously white hot flare into the nocturnal darkness high between the pine trees directly to either side of the creature.

            With an empty growl, the Black Bear flung itself face about; and moments later, the three women thankfully heard it crashing through fern undergrowth, as the two-hundred-and-fifty pound mammal lumbered as swiftly as it possibly could, in flustered retreat into a river-less tract of the Forest of the Dead Samurai.

            'Well done, Shinobu', said Lydia; 'but I just hope that you haven't started a forest fire'.

            'I think it's extremely unlikely that I have, given that the forest is still soaked after yesterday's thunderstorm.

            'Come on, you two, let's be on our way - though remembering to keep alert for any signs that the bear is shadowing us again'.

*

As things turned out, the continuation of the nocturnal trek towards the waterfall in the depths of the Forest of the Dead Samurai, brought not even the slightest indication (and indeed did so correctly) that Shinobu, Anzu and Lydia were again being shadowed by the relatively timid Black Bear; and yet, as weary as the three women were inevitably becoming, the possibility of the bear being back on their trail - in addition to the all-pervading eeriness of the virtually both windless and silent environment, robbed the company of any desire to halt for more than a few minutes at a time; and even then, but to break out refreshments to be partaken of on the move, and latterly for the changing of a set of flashlight batteries.

            However - several hours after the October sun had sunk below the western extremities of the forest canopy, a hillock of volcanic rock that was looming ahead in the paleness of the moonlight, caused the three women to bring themselves to a standstill some distance before where the at least temporary disappearance of the natural riverside route, would have otherwise obliged them to do so; and it was predictably in connection with this disappearance, that Lydia now asked a question which was in fact to prove to be the overture of a brief discussion.

            'So what do we do next?'

            'I suppose', replied Anzu, 'that our only feasible options are to climb over the hill of rock, or to head clockwise round it until we rejoin the river.  Which would you prefer, Shinobu?'

            'I think the climb might be treacherous, and thus unnecessarily risky'.

            'So do I', said Lydia.

            Anzu brought the discussion to its close.

            'Okay, I'll make that a unanimous decision to walk round in the lee of the hill'.

            Although not as potentially hazardous as would have been a climb over the rocky hillock, the chosen detour was not to be one without problems - for pine trees were growing so close to the obstacle in question, that skirting round its base required pushing through clothes-and-pack-snagging boughs, which were bristling with pine needles apparently eager to scratch faces and hands; and so it was over several minutes into the rapidly exhausting detour, that Shinobu now brought her companions to a welcome halt within a modest oasis of freedom from the reaches of malevolent boughs, and did so just before otherwise walking past the cave entrance which was in the southeastern curve of the base of the rock hill.

            Anzu un-shouldered her tranquilliser rifle, and used its infrared sight to remotely survey the interior of the cave, whilst the beam from Shinobu's flashlight, reached from outside to the back wall of the cavern which even summer noon daylight could but minimally brighten.

            'The cave is empty', said Anzu, lowering her rifle in readiness for returning it to a shoulder; 'and there's no evidence that the cave is the lair of some large mammal which is out on a nighttime hunt'.

            'Aside from Black Bears', Shinobu replied somewhat indirectly, 'the Serow Antelope is the largest native mammal of the forest.

            'Anyway, as tempting as it may be to hole up in the cave for a while, I think we ought to push on - remember, we want to be within striking distance of the waterfall by dawn'.

            There were murmurs of agreement with what Shinobu had just said; and thus the three companions set back off in single-file upon their unpleasant and partial circumnavigation of the rocky hillock.  However, a short while later, Shinobu raised a hand in a successful gesture to prevent Anzu and Lydia colliding with her suddenly-again halted self.

            'Can you hear that?', asked Shinobu.

            It was Lydia who gave answer to the question.

            'I can certainly hear something - and I think that it's the sound of a waterfall'.

            Suddenly no longer concerned about any pine branches that might be endeavoring to block the  untrodden route ahead, the three women began to push on with what they knew must be the final stretch of their detour around the hillock of rock; and not long afterwards, a final prickly bough was pushed temporarily aside, and Shinobu and her companions emerged to become stood just before where a short, grassy bank fell away to dip into waters of the meandering river which had inversely led the women into the forest.  Yet not even a glance of joyous reunion, did the three women now spare for the nameless river; and in fact  instead, they directed their attention to several hundred yards upstream, where - deep within the Forest of the Dead Samurai - a waterfall tumbling over a ridge thirty or so feet high, stood against a backdrop of the forest itself spreading upwards onto the lower northeastern slopes of Mount Fuji, the dormant volcano which was at present towering snow-capped and pale within the moonlight of the seemingly endless night.

            Lydia was the first to speak.

            'This a view that I'm sure I shall remember for the rest of my life; and just think, there is probably a cave behind the waterfall, in which the smaller male Ice Dragon might be residing right now'.

            'That's a thought which brings me little comfort', said Lydia, about to consult her watch; 'anyway, the three of us have made excellent time into the forest - it's just a minute before two hours to midnight.

            'So, my dear sisters, should we push on to investigate behind the waterfall earlier than we anticipated, and do so in the hopes of tranquillising the dragon tonight - and thus of being airlifted out of this spooky forest long before dawn?'

            'As tempting as the prospect of such an extraction is', replied Shinobu, 'I think that we should stick to the original plan of making a move on the waterfall at first light: tranquillising the dragon inside a cave, would result in logistical problems for the Air-Crane ground crew; and nighttime darkness could exacerbate the problem of the dragon's ability to blend chameleon-like into his surroundings'.

            'I accept those objections', said Anzu; 'therefore why don't the three of us head back round to the cave in this hillock by which we're standing, and hole up in there for the rest of the night?'

            'With any luck', added Lydia, 'we could find some dry kindle on the ground beneath the pines trees near the cave, and use the kindle to build a campfire beside which we could have supper and settle down for a few hours' sleep'.

            'That all sounds wonderful', said Shinobu, ‘so let's make sure it all happens'.

*

Resembling a huge whale stranded upon a beach that was awash with a high tide - a resemblance which in fact belied the great depth of the Pacific waters of the actual location, the privately owned island lay a modest number of miles out of view from the southeastern coastline of Honshu; and within the several acres of the high walled, cultivated garden that constituted the land of the oceanic family estate, the three-storey house (architecturally inspired by castles upon the Japanese mainland) stood alone and in defiance of even the mightiest of storms which the North Pacific might inflict upon the island estate in question.

            As for at present, the tiny island was slumbering in warmth beneath a pale starry sky of a night of  approaching midsummer; and alone within the pleasantly airy environment of her southwardly facing bedroom upon the third storey of the house - and whilst laid beneath a light blanket, and upon a traditional Japanese futon floor-mattress, the fourteen-year-old girl should, by any expectations based upon the tranquillity of the given scenario, have been at least drifting into a sleep as welcome and as comfortable as the pillow upon which her head was resting.  However - as indeed had been the case for the last few nights, the increasingly puzzling and inevitably muffled sound of her four-year-old sole-sibling sister, intermittently chattering within the nearby bedroom in which she was supposedly alone for the night, was unsurprisingly proving to be not conducive to the elder sister now falling asleep.

            Therefore - regardless of the fact that the moonlight shining through the window opposite the foot of the futon, was the only current illumination of the sparsely furnished surroundings, the older sibling arose from her bed; and upon fastening a silk robe around herself, she momentarily padded across tatami mats, and then slid aside a fusuma panel which had just been denying her emergence into the passageway directly outside.  The passageway was bathed in the yellowish light from ando lanterns which were suspended one above either end of the polished wooden floor of the corridor; and indeed it was coincidentally at the point of the pooling of these two gentle sources of nocturnal light, that the teenage girl now halted in front of the fusuma panel which was generally used as the door of the nursery of her sister.

            Indecision as to whether to knock upon the panel, or to slide it aside without warning - or indeed to abandon the investigation into the mysterious chatter, was the reason for the hesitancy of the investigator herself; and yet it was upon the relevant pause having reached only several seconds of length, that the teenage girl, with a sudden resolve, hauled the fusuma panel out of her pathway into the nursery beyond. Thus it was that the adolescent girl let herself in for what was to be one of the greatest shocks of her entire life: for just beyond the far side of the futon in the lantern-lit chamber which had just been revealed, her four-year-old sibling was knelt facing away from the opened doorway - and was doing so, with arms lovingly draped one apiece around either of the two fully-grown Bengal Tigers who were calmly sitting one to either side of the little girl, and who were suddenly staring implacably towards the intruder into the amazing and tender scene.

            The elder sister gave a predictable gasp of shock, and stepped a few paces backwards from the entrance into the nursery; and then the younger girl twisted round to discover what was happening, only moments later, to be bounding over the futon, and on her way to drag her sister reluctantly and bewilderedly into the room with the pair of tigers.

            'Shinobu, Shinobu - it's okay', the little girl was desperately saying, 'I promise that the tigers won't hurt you!'

            'Anzu - little one, where on earth did they come from?!?!'

            'When I clap my hands three times, the tigers appear'.

            'Can you make them disappear?'

            Instead of answering the question which Shinobu had just asked - and through what was to prove a groundless fear that the ongoing commotion would summon the parents of the two sisters, Anzu hurriedly slid shut the fusuma panel whose thereby cancelled openness had been offering escape into the passageway; and then the little girl strode back to stand fearlessly between the pair of tigers, faced about, and respectively and calmly introduced the supernatural creatures who were sat one to her left and one to her right.

            'This is Ananta, and this is Ajeya - they are sort of my guardian angels'.

            'But can you make them disappear?'

            'If I clap my hands three times'.

            'Then do it!!!'

*

            'A yen for your thoughts?’, said Anzu.

            Shinobu opened her eyes, from what had been a sleepless respite from the campfire glare within the cave of the rocky hillock of The Forest of the Dead Samurai; and upon levering herself up to become sat more straight - and yet still as uncomfortably - against the rear section of the wall of the confines of the cave, she gave a fleetingly delayed response to what had latterly been said.

            'I was just thinking back far too many years, to that night on Kujira Island, when I first encountered Ananta and Ajeya'.

            'And still they are invisibly ever at my summons', Anzu replied somewhat unnecessarily, from where she was sat directly to the right of Shinobu, and thus cozily wedged between Shinobu herself and Lydia - who was in fact the next person to speak.

            'I was just outside the gazebo at the Newfoundland property, when I was introduced to the two spirit  tigers - an introduction which, with hindsight, was far less disturbing than entering into the spooky forest that we are now temporarily and mercifully withdrawn from'.

            Perhaps because of the latter words of (surely unnecessary) reminder regarding the forest in which the fire-lit cave was located, the three women who were sheltering within the cave itself, lapsed into a silence of uneasy thoughts about the arboreal ocean that was in part forming a shoreline immediately outside; and indeed the silence presently and predictably segued into bouts of brief and fitful dozing for all of the three women concerned.  Nevertheless - and irrespectively as a final minute ticked down towards midnight, Lydia was now suddenly and fully awake as she desperately and yet gently shook Anzu back to full consciousness; moreover, doing so whilst uttering a dozen or so words which gave assistance to the urgent cause, and whose terrifying content arguably proved sufficient to summon Shinobu back into the world of the cave within the Forest of the Dead Samurai.

            'I can hear voices calling to one another - and they're nearby out amongst the trees!'

            As if in deliberate confirmation of what Lydia had just said, a male voice harshly shouted a brief possible order; and in fact did this, in an old Japanese dialect which conspired with distance to render the words indistinguishable within the cave, and yet not to the loss of any of their power to further alarm the trio of women who heard them.

            'Should we extinguish the campfire?', asked Lydia.

            'I can't see any point in doing that', replied Anzu, 'because whoever is out there, has probably already caught at least a glimpse of the firelight.

            'Shinobu, what should we do next?'

            'Right now, I want you and Lydia to stay exactly where you are - but to be ready to move at a moment's notice; I'm going to advance to the mouth of the cave, and reconnoitre as best as I can from there'.

            Seconds afterwards, Shinobu - having just picked up her tranquilliser rifle - had headed a quarter of the way clockwise around the campfire, and was lowering herself to become partially kneeling in the left-hand-side of the cave entrance; and then she raised the rifle's infrared sight up to her right eye, in hopeful commencement of scanning between the trees of the nocturnal wilderness that was immediately outside.  However - moments later, the elder sister reflexively abandoned the intended reconnaissance, and did so as a consequence of visually tracking the small rock which (to the somewhat distant accompaniment of maniacal cackling) had just been thrown into the cave, and which was now rolling through the flames of the campfire, to send Lydia and Anzu, albeit unnecessarily, leaping sideways out of the way of the rapidly de-accelerating projectile.

         From where they were suddenly shakily standing, Anzu and Lydia looked towards Shinobu; and thus was immediately witnessed the unbelievable and utterly terrifying sight of a pair of skeletons dressed as samurai warriors, snatch a struggling Shinobu out of the cave, and thereby drag her into the darkened forest that was suddenly confirmed to be the virtual namesake of at least the pair of skeletal kidnappers.

            'God help the three of us!', said Lydia.

            Anzu pulled a partly-burning branch out of the fire; and barely had she done so, than a skeleton samurai (who was not one of the abductors of Shinobu) stepped out of the haunted Japanese forest, to stand menacingly in front of Anzu herself: a pair of rusty swords, suspended from the belt that was encircling the mouldy, threadbare robe whose open front was offering a hideous glimpse of the fleshless ribs of the long-dead warrior.  Without hesitation, Anzu plunged the burning branch to become lodged within the rib cage of the skeleton; and as the young woman released her grip upon the improvised weapon, the dead samurai looked momentarily down, just in advance of unconcernedly uttering a handful of words.

            'You put fire in my belly'.

            'And I'm going to knock your fucking head off', said Lydia, then bringing the butt of her tranquilliser rifle crashing down, to indeed send the skull flying off the rest of the somehow - and strangely almost comical - animated skeletal swordsman.

            Nevertheless, the suddenly headless skeleton failed to fall lifelessly onto the floor of the cave; and in fact instead - as Anzu and Lydia watched disbelievingly on, the bony hands withdrew the burning branch from its lodgement within the rib cage, and then tossed the branch back onto the campfire.  Arms outstretched, the decapitated skeleton tottered the few yards that had just been separating it from the back of the cave; and from upon the floor there, retrieved the skull which was forthwith replaced onto the top of the spine protruding from amidst the collar of the samurai robe.

            'Ah, that's better', said the skeleton.

            'Obviously, dead samurai are problematic to kill', replied Lydia, then nonetheless leaping forwards and using the butt of her tranquilliser rifle, to again knock the skull off the skeleton; 'but they're actually quite easy to slow down'.

            Anzu disgustedly picked up the skull of the samurai, and kicked it out through the cave mouth to become at least temporarily lost within the undergrowth of the nightmare forest at midnight; and as the again headless skeleton wandered outside to go in search of its skull, Anzu hurriedly spoke to Lydia.

            'Let's grab the gear, and get out of this cave and rescue Shinobu'.

            Shortly afterwards (with Anzu and Lydia having just respectively shouldered a backpack tank and a knapsack, and each now carrying a tranquilliser rifle, whilst sharing the burden of carrying the backpack tank belonging to Shinobu), the two women made an extremely cautious departure from the cave in the base of the hillock of rock; and upon a scuttling advance through moonlit tall grass between a pair of ancient pine trees - during which Lydia retrieved the tranquilliser rifle that Shinobu had dropped whilst being dragged along by her abductors, Anzu brought herself and Lydia to a crouching halt beneath a lower bough of another pine tree, and quietly spoke.

            'Let's dump the backpacks here, and hope that we can find them later on'.

            Barely had the three backpacks been discarded, than from no more than several hundred yards ahead - and to a hopeful inference that the woman involved was no further away than upon the utterance of its recent few predecessors, a scream of terror rent the nighttime air of the forest, causing Lydia to be the next person to speak.

            'I cannot bear to hear Shinobu scream like that'.

            'Believe me, terrified screaming is not Shinobu's style under any circumstances; and so she'll only be doing so now, to enable us to pinpoint her location.

            'Come on, we need to get as close as we can to wherever she is, of course without making our presence known'.

            Anzu and Lydia pushed back on with their advance in the direction in which they were indeed being deliberately drawn by Shinobu; but barely had the pair passed out of the moonlight shadow of the pine tree that they had left the backpacks underneath, than the two women threw themselves down to become flattened amidst what little cover the grass was providing hereabouts, and did so to albeit unnecessarily hide themselves from the headless skeleton, as it blundered past leftwards only a couple of yards in front, still searching for the lost item that was its skull.

            'Try towards the river', whispered Lydia, with a borderline hysterical giggle that was reflected by Anzu; 'and with any luck, you'll fall in and get swept down into Lake Kawaguchi'.

            'Even by Yamashiro standards', said Anzu, 'we're in the midst of insane goings on - but if we just push on between a few more trees, we should reach within sight of Shinobu'.

            Lydia and Anzu levered themselves up from the ground; and approximately a couple of minutes later, they had just been scratchily brushed by the lower branches of several gnarled pine trees, en route to where the two women became crouched within the deep shadow underneath the latter of the branches.

            Thus the would-be rescuers found themselves at the edge of a ghostly clearing within the Forest of the Dead Samurai: a semicircle of several wooden huts - each dilapidated and facing towards a campfire from which smoke and sparks were climbing in futility towards the stars, was located opposite the position of the two women who were suddenly observing the unexpected scene; and yet it was the sight of Shinobu, enforcedly kneeling and with her hands tied behind her back, that was unsurprisingly at least the initial focus of the attention of Anzu and Lydia.  Moreover - in deliberate bait of these two women, Shinobu was clearly silhouetted by the nearside of the campfire; and standing arrogantly next to her, was a tall yet burly-boned skeleton samurai, whose tattered robe nonetheless correctly indicated him to be the leader of the band of dead feudal warriors.

            Several more dead samurai, could be counted seated at the far side of the campfire; and now - whilst nonchalantly reattaching its skull, the hapless skeleton who had twice fallen foul of Lydia in the nearby cave, emerged from between the pair of pines stood at nine o'clock of the perimeter of the clearing.  The just repaired samurai halted in front of its leader - bowing in spite of a possible precariousness of skull, and about to face an angry question which would be clearly heard by the two women who were hidden at the edge of the clearing itself.

            'What news of the two other spies?'

            'They fled from the cave, Iwahashi-San, and so are now somewhere in the night of the forest'.

            'Given the order that you were under, Hideyoshi, they fled to your disgrace as a samurai - be gone from my sight, and do not return within it unless I ever summon you again'.

            As Hideyoshi - bowing in apology and servility - backed away from the chieftain of the dead samurai, Lydia whispered in the place of concealment which was not far distant from the shameful retreat.

            'As long as there are none in the forest - nor in any of the huts, I count seven skeletons for us to have to deal with'.

            'Seven samurai - how very Akira Kurosawa'.

            'Cinematic reference notwithstanding', replied Lydia, 'how are we going to deal with the skeletons?'

            'Just follow my lead, dear sister'.

            Both with their tranquilliser rifles still shouldered, and with Lydia still carrying the corresponding rifle belonging to Shinobu, the two women arose from amidst the grass at the edge of the clearing, and subsequently strolled side-by-side into the clearing itself; and under the inevitably faceless gaze of Iwahashi - as well as the similar yet more distant gazes of his deceased warriors, Anzu and Lydia now brought themselves to a halt some ten or so yards in front of the skeleton chieftain.

            'Forgive this intrusion into your quality time with your dead samurai', said Anzu, 'but my sister and I have come to rescue our sibling'.

            'And not a moment too soon', said Shinobu, looking up grinning from where she was still knelt by the chieftain and with her hands tied behind her; 'these boneheads are the most dreadful of company'.

            Lydia spoke next.

            'They look like a bunch of gutless wonders'.

            'Silence!', roared Iwahashi.

            'You two...', the chieftain pointed a bone finger towards Anzu and Lydia, 'you walk calmly into this warrior encampment, as if you were but strolling into the garden of a temple; and yet - as spies doubtless sent by the Shogun Yamanaka, you must be aware of who I am, and thus of my most fearsome reputation'.

            'History and spooky legend', replied Anzu, 'have made me most assuredly aware of who you are, or more accurately were, Arata Iwahashi: the treacherous samurai who led a failed coup against the Shogun Yamanaka; and who along with a small band of other samurai, fled into a forest in the shadow of Mount Fuji, only to be hunted down and slain by soldiers of the Shogun'.

            'Except oddly enough', said Iwahashi, 'I and my fellow samurai seem to have somehow survived'.

            'Thereby posing the conundrum', replied Anzu, 'of by what means to dispatch the living dead'.

            The response from Iwahashi, was as chilling as the sight of the skeleton who delivered it.

            'Even if the conundrum were to have an answer, it would not be one that I would allow either you or your two accomplices to live long enough to ever reach'.

            'Nonetheless', said Anzu, 'I think I have the answer to the conundrum in question'.

            Iwahashi reached for the hilts of the two swords that he was wearing; but the direct consequence of Anzu then clapping her hands three times - which was the materialisation one to either side of her, of a pair of fully-grown Bengal Tigers, in turn led to Iwahashi suddenly becoming too uncharacteristically afraid to continue to withdraw even one of the swords.

            'Ananta, Ajeya', said Anzu, 'free these seven dead samurai, from whatever bond is preventing their passage into the next world'.

            Without hesitation, Ananta bounded forwards and pounced upon the chieftain of the skeletons; and as Iwahashi fell backwards to land screaming upon the ground where he would be forthwith ripped fatally bone from bone, Ajeya leapt gracefully and unharmed through the flames of the campfire, to similarly rip apart the skeleton who had already twice lost its skull during this October night.

            Even before Hideyoshi thus met his ultimate fate within the physical world, the other five warriors scrambled up from their improvised bench of a fallen tree trunk, unsheathing their swords, and doing so inevitably with the intention of defending themselves; but rusty ancient swords can inflict no harm upon guardian tigers who hail from the supernatural realm - even if wielded by ghostly samurai warriors; and therefore within a minute of the relevant command having been given, all seven of the dead samurai were indeed literally that, moreover reduced to scattered individual bones, and partial skeletal remains dressed in mouldy clothing which had just been shredded by merciless tiger teeth.

            Laughing and weeping in relief, Anzu and Lydia hugged each other in the most understandable of celebrations - Ananta and Ajeya padding up unnoticed by the ecstatic duo, to become laid faithfully on guard nearby; and then, having just struggled to her feet despite her hands being tied behind her back, Shinobu made her way to become stood in the company of the two women who had clearly now fleetingly forgotten her.

            'When either of you have a moment', Shinobu said humorously but in earnest, 'perhaps one of you could please untie my hands'.

            'Oh, yes...of course', replied Anzu, in a manner that was unnecessarily apologetic for the oversight, and as she hurriedly pulled a Swiss Army knife out of a pocket of her jacket.

            Shortly afterwards, Shinobu had been cut free of the ancient piece of rope which had been used to tie her hands behind her back; and forthwith - whilst Shinobu rubbed her wrists, she and Anzu and Lydia walked part of the way clockwise around the campfire, surveying the remains of the band of zombie skeleton samurai, and with the two supernatural tigers trotting along in unbidden but most welcome accompaniment.  Now, the party halted at the edge of what was in effect a sudden mass boneyard, and which was located before the fallen tree trunk that had so recently been a bench for five of the since riven and utterly lifeless skeletons.

            'Should we bury what remains of Iwahashi and his men?', asked Lydia sombrely.

            'Even had we spades to do so with relative ease', replied Anzu, 'I for one would not have any inclination to bury the bones - what think you of the matter, Shinobu?'

            The answer was given without hesitation.

            'I say leave the bones for whatever animals of the forest, may have an appetite for them'.

            'I can live guiltless without an internment of the remains', said Lydia; 'and so what of we three for the rest of the night?'

            'Let's head back to the cave', Anzu suggested, to the result of Lydia and Shinobu nodding in agreement; 'the campfire therein should still be ablaze - and on the way, we can pick up the backpacks from where Lydia and I hid them on our advance to this clearing'.

            Shinobu spoke next.

            'On the off chance of the samurai bones stirring back into life, let's have Ananta and Ajeya spend the hours until dawn, sitting on guard just outside of the cave'.

            'That's an excellent idea', said Lydia.

*

Having received much fuss and great praise from Anzu and Shinobu and Lydia, the two supernatural tigers had indeed spent the hours until dawn, sitting on guard just outside of the cave in which the three women had consequently spent the rest of the night as restfully as possible, given the extraordinary events of the midnight hour, and the reality of the ongoing hunt for the smaller of the two male Ice Dragons; and as for the off chance of the ancient samurai bones stirring back into life, such had not come to fruition before the first light of the next day, nor thankfully in fact ever would.

            Regardless, after partaking of a unappetising breakfast beside the embers of the campfire in the cave, and as the light of a golden sunrise, probed weakly through the canopy of the Forest of the Dead Samurai (a forest that was of course now at last most appropriately named), Anzu, Shinobu and Lydia took their final leave of the cave itself; and with the pair of supernatural tigers, Ananta and Ajeya, still manifested within the physical realm - and indeed strolling along as unnecessary advance guard, the three women retraced the final stage of their previous partial circumnavigation of the hillock of rock; and this they did, to the inevitable result of arriving beside the eastern bank of the forest river, several hundred yards downstream of the lofty waterfall behind which they presumed lay the den of the Ice Dragon.

            As the trio of women stood somewhat distantly surveying the waterfall in the early morning daylight, Lydia was the first of them to speak.

            'Given that we don't even know for sure if there is a cave behind the waterfall - let alone one with a dragon inside it, I'm wondering what our best plan of action would be'.

            Anzu had just begun to use a pair of binoculars to scrutinise the picturesque cascade of melted snow water from the upper reaches of Mount Fuji; and when - approximately thirty seconds later - she lowered the binoculars to again dangle from the leather strap around her neck, Anzu unsurprisingly gave report of her findings (or indeed lack thereof).

              'Even with the binoculars, I cannot see any indication of the waterfall having a cave behind it.  However, the width and the volume of the cascade, could easily account for the lack of visual evidence; and so I intend to check out the waterfall from close at hand - and if I do discover it to be masking the entrance to a cave, I'll send Ananta and Ajeya in to flush out whatever may be lurking inside'.

            'And in the meanwhile', said Shinobu, 'Lydia and I shall have taken up sniper positions, ready to tranquillise the Ice Dragon should the tigers force that monstrous creature to emerge'.

            'How many darts would be required to fell it?', asked Lydia.

            'I believe at least four', replied Shinobu; 'notwithstanding, the female Ice Dragon apparently took a dozen hits when she was captured at Svalbard, and showed no symptoms of overdose afterwards - so if the smaller male dragon is within your rifle sights, keep firing until the chamber is empty.

            'Okay, my two dear sisters', continued Shinobu, 'let's see if we can capture an Ice Dragon!'

            Each wearing a backpack and carrying a tranquilliser rifle, the three women - with Anzu in the lead, and preceded by Ananta and Ajeya - commenced to cautiously pick their way along the easterly bank of the forest river, and of course in the direction of the waterfall.  Overspilling a slightly concave wall of volcanic rock that towered some thirty feet into the air, the waterfall tumbled into a large catchment pool along whose eastern side a stone ledge curved upwards and round, to terminate behind the cascade of water; and just before where the ledge disappeared behind the aquatic curtain, the adjacent rock wall provided a niche in which an adult human could crouch hidden behind a protrusion of rock.

            Indeed it was towards the natural hiding place, that Anzu (thankful of not being upwind of the waterfall) pressed on in the company of Ananta and Ajeya, subsequent to Shinobu and Lydia peeling off rightwards onto the grassy spur which protruded into the river just after it poured out of the catchment pool: moreover, the spur upon which the two women now un-shouldered their tranquilliser rifles, in readiness for taking up positions of half-kneeling whilst aiming as if towards the meltwater tumbling into the pool itself.  Irrespectively, Anzu - who had just become aware of a dragon-size cave entrance behind the waterfall - pulled herself up to within the niche of rock, nonetheless to then peer down to where the two tigers were stood nearby upon the ledge, and to issue instruction to them above the thunder of the cascade.

            'There may be a dragon inside the waterfall cave - if there is, drive the dragon out'.

            Without hesitation, Ananta and Ajeya bounded forwards to subsequently swerve into the large cave which was behind the sparkling curtain of falling water; and now a cacophonous chorus of roars, made up of those of the tigers and of the Ice Dragon that they had just caused to become uncharacteristically startled, carried loudly out into the forest glade of the waterfall.  In a fearless act of attempting to lure the monstrous creature from his den, the two supernatural tigers leapt out through the tumbling water - splashing down in shallowness of the catchment pool, and immediately slewing round to snarl ferociously upwards in the direction of the spectacular exit which they had just performed; furthermore, to do so in understandable expectation of the emergence of the suddenly enraged Ice Dragon.

            Indeed the cascade forthwith parted in partial fulfilment of the expectation of the pair of supernatural tigers; and yet all that Anzu could consequently make out from her nearby place of concealment, was a shimmery suggestion that something akin to a huge head which was moulded of clear glass, had commenced to peer downwards from amidst the relentless water of the cascade.

            'The dragon has gone chameleon', Anzu said to herself.

            She reached round backwards with her right hand, and switched on the battery-powered pump of the tank that she was wearing strapped to her back; and as the pump whirred obediently into life, Anzu unclipped the spray gun which was attached to the tank by a long, flexible tube made of plastic.  Seconds later, the young woman was using the spray gun to fire a powerful arc of orange vegetable dye, which immediately began to clearly reveal the head and the chest of the otherwise virtually invisible Ice Dragon peering down through the waterfall; and distractedly irritated by the misty dye (and yet not comprehending the dangerous visibility consequence of it), the dragon looked away from the two tigers snarling in the catchment pool, and directed his attention towards where Anzu was stood partly emerged from her place of concealment.

            A machine-gun round of two dozen or more ice pellets wildly fired by the furious dragon, caused Anzu to reflexively drop - unscathed - into the safety of the full cover behind her small battlement of rock; and as she did so, the first pair of a flight of a dozen tranquilliser darts fired six apiece by Shinobu and Lydia, embedded into soft flesh of the head and of the chest of the mighty winged beast.  Nonetheless unaware that he was being assailed by the tiny projectiles, the Ice Dragon roared in anger coincidentally towards the sky; and upon outstretching his wings, he leapt forwards in an intended short glide downwards from his lofty perch within the cascade.

            However, the powerful tranquilliser delivered by the darts by which he had just been struck, was already hard at work within his circulatory system; and therefore the intended glide turned into a spectacular crash landing within the catchment pool, sending Ananta and Ajeya scattering to take up defensive positions one to either side of Shinobu and Lydia, who had just risen to their feet upon the grassy spur that was nearby downstream in the river.

            Splashing his wings within the water of the cascade pool, the Ice Dragon struggled uncomprehendingly and in vain against the tranquilliser dose that was rapidly shutting his body down into a comatose state; and indeed as he slipped into this state of induced slumber, the body colors of the dragon consequently flooded back, regardless of the possible fatal vulnerability to which they thereby exposed him.

            Irrespective of his snout inadvertently being propped upon the boulder that would fortunately save him from drowning, the Ice Dragon took on the semblance of a Manatee sleepily afloat within a Florida everglade: his massive bulk rising and falling almost imperceptibly, as he breathed on steadily and healthily; but it was through a diagonal cautious approach rightwards to by the trailing edge of his corresponding wing, that Shinobu, Lydia and Anzu (the latter having just scrambled down to rejoin her companions) now waded to become stood - whilst under the guardianship of the tigers - more relieved than triumphantly in the lee of the fearsome dragon whom the women had managed to bring down.

            The right wing of the Ice Dragon, was limply angled so that its extremity was dipped beneath the surface of the catchment pool; and thus it was with a reasonable feeling of not acting incautiously, that Shinobu used the butt of her tranquilliser rifle, to nonetheless at first tentatively prod the huge leathery limb - and in fact to ultimately do so, to not even the slightest stirring of the monster.

            Her tranquilliser rifle having just been shouldered, Shinobu spoke to Anzu and Lydia.

            'Clearly, the dragon's out as cold as the water that we're standing in...', from the inside pocket of her jacket, Shinobu took out a shortwave walkie-talkie, '...so now it's time to call in the Air-Crane and the ground crew, and to have the dragon transported back to the Yamashiro Kawaguchi Complex'.

            'And along with the dragon', added Lydia, 'thankfully for you and I and Anzu, to get winched out of this forest of bizarre and dangerous troubles'.

            'Which nevertheless unfortunately means', said Anzu, looking towards Ananta and Ajeya, 'that - with my eternal and yet inadequate thanks for all of your help of last night and this morning - it's almost time for me to send you two back to your home in the spirit realm'.