The Warrior And The Pacifist

Missing

It was early dawn of the next morning. The ground below was a sea of tan, with a few islands of green popping up every so often. The air was hot, a dry sort of heat that was getting hotter as the hours slowly passed by. Tamura had hoped to have more answers than questions but since the meeting with Fa Laha, he had gotten very little of both. Again he wondered how exactly entire population could just up and vanish without a trace. And Again he wondered if the cause was spiritual in nature. Maybe spirits who had been disturbed by the war and were letting their dissatisfaction known? But there had been no reports of heightened spirit sightings in months, it wasn't like spirits to get involved in human affairs without cause.

Though Tamura would humor that a continent spanning war would certainly be a reason for the spirits to get involved. But he also knew that the simplest answer was usually the right one, without solid proof he couldn't lean one way or another.

"Is that Sipo Village?" Leki asked, pulling him away from his thoughts.

Looking ahead he could see that In a series of neat rows were a series of forty green tents with figures moving around them dressed in dark green. Close to their camp was a makeshift corral that held ostrich horses. Beyond those figures and the tents some seventy yards at most was Sipo village.

Even from this arial view Tamura could see the houses were built from dark wood, green tiles lining the roofs over every building. It was a fairly decent sized village, held well over seventy or so houses if he were to guess. To the utmost right of that village was a stretch of black soil with plow lines cut into it in neat rows. Tamura knew quickly that patch of ground served as the village's community farm. He had been to enough villages like this one to know that this early in the morning practically the entire village would have been on that farm land planting and tending the crop that would not only keep them fed, but give the village income for items they couldn't make themselves.

"It has to be, any further and we would be over the border in Quanchun." Tamura said. "Set us down near the tents."

Tamura had a feeling of vertigo wash over him as Pungsan began to descend. "Do you really think we will find anything?" Leki asked.

"I don't know." Tamura admitted. "It's my understanding that when Hong Bu and Fa Laha said everything was left behind, they quite literally meant everything. People only up and leave for only a few reasons, those being war, drought, and disease." Tamura could of added vengeful spirits to that list but again he didn't know for sure. "I haven't heard anything about a sudden illness springing up over the summer and the field over there wouldn't have been plowed if water had suddenly become scarce."

"If that's the case...then wouldn't war be the most likely cause for the disappearances in this scenario?"

"I would think so yes." Tamura agreed. "Since this village is right on the border it would be a prime target for raiding parties, but if it was war caused then why was this the latest attack and not the first?"

Leki looked back at him. "What do you mean?"

"In war, he who crosses the border rapidly usually holds the advantage if they do it quickly and under competent leadership. In the past few months Quanchun has begun pushing deeper into Shaoling, this village would have been in the path of the armies moving long before now."

Leki looked ahead over the horizon. "I...suppose that makes sense. You know more about this sort of stuff than I do."

He sighed. "Believe me Sister Leki...I wish I didn't."

Down below more movement could be seen in the camp as people left their tents and began to gather where Pungsan was preparing to land at. The massive bison letting out a satisfied groan as his feet touched solid ground. There were forty in  total, all of them men.