Ankūro

10

10

When heads become lost,
Fools decide and do not think.
Action before thought.
- Kangua.

What had begun as a small group of hungry, lost and homeless people had become something far greater. Here, in the foothills of the mountains that made the spine of the island of Kaguta, they had made a home for themselves. Growing from a handful of people into a thriving community.

Dirty, unkempt and free. That was the people of this stronghold. Called bandits by others, they saw themselves as taking what they could not make themselves. Outcasts from normal Kaguta society, they never stood a chance. Until they came here. Until he had brought them together.

The first few years came as cruel torment. Many died, through starvation, through the harsh environment, from the animals protecting their territory and from hunters, always ready to take the lives of those they considered less than human. Detritus unworthy of respect.

Saiban walked among his people, accepting the bows of respect that he knew he deserved. If not for him, these people would not have a home. Would not have full bellies, or roofs above their heads. Would not have safety, or protection. His people, drawn together by his leadership, his will and his personality. Even the name of the place came from him. All-Home. A statement of intent.

After All-Home became established, they began to move out from their base, testing the waters, attempting to live beside the established villages around them, only to find themselves rebuffed, taunted and chased away. After his wife died during one attempt at negotiating a trade deal with a local village, Saiban decided that they would not ask for what they needed. They would take it.

What followed saw the people of All-Home become even more hated. Raids began against villages. Barley taken from one village, rice from another, livestock from yet another. Always preferring stealth to confrontation, trying to keep lifetaking to a minimum, but the villagers would fight.

People would die on both sides. This caused Saiban much grief, for his people and for the people in the villages they raided. He did not like killing, but he learned to accept it. After one raid saw over twenty people die, his people, their people, there came an opportunity and he took it. Grasped it with both hands and spread that opportunity to all the villages they raided.

The villages would give half their resources, be it barley, rice or livestock, and the raiders would kill no more of their people. The villagers had no way of knowing that Saiban despised all the deaths, too, they only knew that Saiban's people fought with a ferocity borne of want. They could not stomach any more death and Saiban never let them know that he had no heart for it either.

And so began a golden age for All-Home. A time where the community could flourish and grow until they rivalled the largest of villages. It filled Saiban's heart to see families growing within the stockade of All-Home. One day, he hoped, they would be able to stop the raids altogether and be then seen as equals with the other people in the area.

Perhaps the greatest agreement Saiban made, the one that could lead to a final, lasting acceptance, was that with Haūdo Rinhi, liege lord of the Naika region, within the borders of which All-Home stood. Rinhi had agreed, after much time spent in secret negotiations, that he would not send his forces against Saiban and All-Home, on one condition. Saiban would have to restrict his raids to those villages within the neighbouring region of Shaō, Haūdo Ita's region. Rinhi's sworn enemy.

Saiban agreed. Most of the raids occurred in Shaō, anyway, and the resources lost from the villages in the Naika region became replaced by villages across the border. Things changed, became better and far more easy. The lives of the bandits of All-Home became enriched and diverse. Saiban could allow himself some happiness, at last.