Endless Rain Untold Stories
Part Two: The End Of The Chi
© BlondeTeraesa

"Moyasu!"

"Mama?" came the response, the young girl dropping down from the tree she was hiding in almost immediately as her mother approached. "What’s going on, mama? Why are they using the alarm horns?"

"Where’s Koudo? And Youji?" she asked quickly, ignoring the question.

"I dunno, mama... we were playing hide and seek..." Moyasu replied, blinking back disbelief as she saw the fear and apprehension in her mother’s eyes. There was something terribly wrong, and she couldn’t understand what it was. Everything was fine just a minute ago, wasn’t it? Why is mama upset? she wondered.

"We have to find them, Moyasu! The Sendo are here!" her mother insisted, grabbing hold of her daughter’s wrist almost painfully as they took to running through the narrow streets shouting her brothers’ names.

"Koudo!!" her mother called out.
"Youji!" Moyasu added.

The sound of wood cracking and loud shouting came from the direction of the main gate. The men who were working on the repairs before were now hurriedly raising the carved logs that were meant to replace older ones and using them to brace the gate from the advance of the troops that were assaulting it. As Moyasu and her mother searched the village for her brothers, many archers and common men ran past them, towards the gate. The Chi hadn’t expected the attack to come so soon, and the escape routes they had planned for the women and children hadn’t been completed yet.

"Youji!!" Moyasu’s mother called out, her voice straining with fear.
"Koudo!" Moyasu called out, tears coming to her eyes though she didn’t know yet why.
"Koudo! The game’s over! Come out!!" she added, little sobs escaping her lips as her mother’s fear scared her more.

Youji and Koudo soon came running over from a sidestreet, out of breath. They were both smeared with dirt, and Youji was crying. Moyasu’s mother immediately picked him up and the four of them headed for the back wall of the village. The other women and children were already gathering there, spades and shovels in their hands as they dug at the half-finished escape route hurriedly. They could hear the shouting and screaming coming from behind them as they worked, and that fear of what was to come made each piece of the wall they chipped away seem like the first until they could finally see the light poking through the crevaces. That was when they began to work faster.

Why are the Sendo here? How did they break through the gate so fast? Moyasu's mind was spinning as she stood aside with the other children, helplessly watching their mothers digging at the wall. From behind them, they could hear the shouting getting closer as the Sendo made their way through the Chi ranks. Moyasu began to shake.

"Mama... where's papa?"

She watched as her mother suddenly stopped digging, looked down at the ground for a moment, and then up to the sky. Several tears fell from her eyes, but she couldn't seem to make any words, and Moyasu felt a tightness in her chest that she couldn't explain. Papa...

The Chi had been preparing for this attack, but apparently so had the Sendo. They were organized, prepared, and disciplined. They were experts at keeping themselves hidden, and they had been observing the Chi for weeks now. They'd chosen the perfect time of day to attack, a time when they knew the Chi would be at their weakest: sunset. The guards changed at that time, the gate was opened for the men returning from the forest, and the gateworkers prepared to go home for the night; so even with all the pre-thought and caution of the Chi tribesman, they were not prepared. Not for this.

Moyasu's mother embraced all three of them, kissing each of their heads and running her hands through their hair as she cried. They didn't know why she was upset, but they cried too.

"You have to be strong, Moyasu... Koudo... Youji. I need you to stay together." she spoke, hugging them close again. Something deep within the children knew that this would be the last time they would ever be held by their mother, and they clung to her tightly, unwilling to let go.

"The forest isn't far... I need you to run there and hide." she spoke again after a moment, holding on to her little ones for as long as she could. There were so many things she wanted to say, but she had no time.

"I don't understand, mama!" Moyasu cried.
"Don't worry, baby... just run into the forest and stay there. Okay? All of you run into the forest and hide. No matter what you hear, just stay away from the village, okay? Stay away! It's the only way you'll be safe." she insisted.

"Promise me!"
"I promise, mama..." Moyasu finally said.
"Me too, mama." Koudo echoed, tears in his eyes.

"It's ready!" another Chi woman suddenly announced, already beginning to send children through the opening they had created.

"Time to go... now do as I said, and be safe." Moyasu's mother said to them, pushing them towards the exit.
"I don't want to go, mama! Don't make me go!" Moyasu pleaded.
"Come with us, mama!" Koudo added. "Please!"
"I can't..." she sobbed, regaining her composure enough to address her elder son, "Koudo, take Youji and keep him safe." she insisted, detaching Youji's hands from the hem of her dress and giving him to his brother.
"Go! I'll come find you later, when it's safe!" she lied, waving goodbye and trying to force a smile for her children as they disappeared through the hole and out of her life forever.

---

Moyasu came out from the hole with her brothers on her tail. They were maybe thirty feet from the treeline, not a hard dash to make, but she turned back to the wall instead of running for safety.

"Mama!!"
"Go, Moyasu! Go!" her mother's voice shouted through the wall.

Just as a dozen or so children had made it through the wall and were standing there, confused, Sendo archers perched in the trees nearby began to fire upon the group of children.

"Run!"

Suddenly it was raining arrows and the children broke into a chaotic sprint for anywhere away from where they were. Moyasu ran straight ahead, her eyes closed tight with fear. Her brothers ran after her, trying to follow but unable to keep up with her speed. They even called after her, but she didn't hear them. She just kept running, feeling her way with her hands once she made the forest. One by one the voices of her tribe, most younger than even herself, faded into the background as she continued her insane dash into the unknown. She only stopped when she slipped down a small cliff and into the banks of a wide river. There she cried and mourned the loss of all those she knew.

---

Koudo and Youji almost made the treeline when a Sendo arrow hit Koudo square between the shoulderblades. He gasped and fell, taking Youji with him, but he didn't stay down. Holding his brother close and keeping himself between Youji and the Sendo arrows, the two brothers made it into the safety of the forest. Koudo was hit twice more before the Sendo left him for dead and moved on to the other children in the clearing, but that didn't matter to Koudo at all. What mattered was that every single arrow had missed Youji.

"Youji... stay still. Stay still." he said softly, covering his brother's body with his own once he couldn't move anymore.
"Stay still and quiet, and when it gets quiet you can escape." he continued, gasping in breaths as one of the arrows had pierced his lung.
"Koudo..." Youji wimpered.
"Shhh..."

---

"Youji, are you ok?" a young Chi woman asked, pulling the toddler she recognized from beneath his dead brother.
"Youji... Youji!" she hissed quietly, terrified of gaining the attention of the Sendo who still lingered around the destroyed Chi village.
"Koudo say a-quiet..." the boy soon wispered, crying.

The woman gave a sigh of relief, holding the child close to her and picking him up so she could move deeper into the forest. She and several others had been trying their best to gather the wounded and the children before the Sendo found them, but they had only succeeded in saving maybe two dozen total. Most were under ten years old, found being protected by the bodies of their mothers or siblings like Youji was. Everyone else... they were already dead.

"It's okay, Youji... don't cry." the Chi woman spoke softly, stroking the young boy's hair. "You're safe now... you're with your tribe. We'll protect you." she added, looking up to the sky with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"If there's even just one Chi tribesman alive, the Chi will never die."