Session 27. (23/10/09)

While Miyoshi, Kachamaru and Yoshi have been looking for a route through the mountains, Haku, Mineo and Kokuma have been busy with the rest of Koshamain's tribe preparing for the long haul over the mountains. Mineo and Kokuma have been hunting, trying to build up a reserve of food for the journey, while Haku has been organising the villagers and their belongings.

On the first hunting trip, Kokuma couldn't find any tracks, but Mineo's sharp eyes spotted movement that turned out to be two martens clambering about the trees. Two arrows later the martens are six meals' worth of meat, about half a day's worth for them and their families. The rest of the morning they wander around hopelessly, unable to find any game. The afternoon is better, first finding a grouse, which is no match for two arrows, and then two squirrels, which quickly fall to the pair's flawless kyujutsu. A day-and-a-half's food gathered in a day means they have built up a reserve of half a day to take into the mountains.

The following day the pair go hunting again. Kokuma gets on the trail of two deer, and when they come into sight one quickly falls to Kokuma's critical arrow strike. However, the other is only wounded by Mineo's arrow, and it darts off into the wood. Remarkably, Mineo and Kokuma both manage to hit is at long range, but the arrow lack the power to bring it down. But Kokuma follows the trail of blood and by the morning's end he catches up with and kills the deer. Four days' worth of food is returned to the village. The afternoon' haul is less spectacular but still worthwhile - two rabbits are spotted and Kokuma kills one while Mineo wounds the other, but it manages to bolt into a burrow before he can get a second shot off. Another two rabbits are found later, and this time both hunters make sure of their kills. That takes care of today's food, leaving the deer are pure surplus for the journey.

Up in the mountains, and a few days later in time, Miyoshi, Kachamaru and Yoshi descend from the pass, heading towards the sea and in search of better hunting. They are in a narrow river valley, heavily forested and looking fairly good for game. Having found a place to camp for the night, Yoshi quickly finds six rabbits and fells one with an arrow. Kachamaru fires at the other but only wounds it. They both fire again as the rabbits scatter, but Yoshi only manages to wound another and Kachamaru misses. They pick up their one kill and go in search of more. Kachamaru spots two hares and his arrow kills one as Yoshi's arrow kills the other. Miyoshi has meanwhile caught a rabbit and a squirrel, so by the time they have eaten they have increased their food stores to 11 units. With this in hand, the next morning Miyoshi decides that they must go back and report to Koshamain. However, he is not satisfied that they have found sufficient food resource for the soon-to-arrive exodus, so he volunteers to stay here and search for good hunting grounds. He insists that the others take all the spare food while he spends all day hunting and gathering enough food for one. So with Miyoshi singing a merry tune to himself, Kachamaru and Yoshi head back to the pass:

"I'll catch myself some mi-yi-ice:
I'd rather catch a boar,
But the oracle said 'Ferret' if
I forget katana bi-yi-as
And losing in the war -
Damned historical imperative!"

Back in Yakumo, Koshamain is getting really worried about how autumn is approaching and how long it is since Miyoshi's party headed out on its scouting trip. In fact it has only been four days, but nevertheless he orders Kokuma and Mineo to go to look for them and hurry back with a report. Leaving Haku to take care of their wives, Kokuma and Mineo set off at dawn the next day, carrying a day's food rations, and quickly pick up Yoshi's trail of blaze markers. This helps them make good progress and get 3 ri up the valley before they need to camp and catch food. Kokuma locates 5 stoats and they kill 3 of them, almost enough food for the day.

The next day they make good progress again. They spy some blaze that are obviously deliberately covered in moss and correctly deduce that it was where the first party went wrong and covered over the blazes to avoid doing it again. They camp in what is actually a very good spot for hunting, but tracking, observation and game are all conspicuous by their absence and two hours are wasted. Kokuma and Mineo are forced to use their entire food reserve to avoid going hungry.

Their third day out, Kokuma and Mineo decide to hunt before moving as they have no food. An otter is found and bagged by Kokuma, but two weasels are too quick for Kokuma's and Mineo's kyujutsu skills. They move on, and get a further ri up the valley before it is once more time to camp and hunt. Given their earlier success, Kokuma seeks out otters and finds three. He hits and kills one and Mineo manages a critical hit on a second. As the third tries to flee, two arrows find it and kill it. A good haul of 12 food units, plus the four from the morning gives them enough for the day and six in reserve.

Further ahead in the mountains and time, Yoshi and Kachamaru make their way through Hope Pass (as they name it) and to the entrance to Starvation Gorge. Here they camp and hunt, knowing there might be little food in the gorge. They find four giant rats. Yoshi's first arrow kills one, but Mineo's only inflicts a wound. As the rats leap away, Mineo hits his again and kills it while Yoshi wounds another. The rat scampers off to long range, but Yoshi hits it again for the kill. 15 units of food supplement the 11 they are carrying, so to lighten the load they eat 16 units and restore their lost attributes while retaining enough for a whole day in the gorge without needing to hunt.

Back with Mineo and Kokuma, the trail of blazes runs out as the trees thin, but it seems to have been heading straight for a treeless peak just ahead. They reach the weathered top and look across a broken terrain to a pass in the distance. Snow flurries blind Kokuma as he fails to find any sign of Miyoshi's passage, but wanting to mark the spot, they build a cairn from a very handy pile of rocks right at the summit. They descend into the broken ground and reach the trees as dusk falls. There is just enough light to find and kill two rabbits, and need to eat into their food stores to avoid hunger.

The next day they enter the broken terrain, but are spared the decision between trying to get across it over the interminable ravines or through a gorge when they pick up Yoshi's line of blazes once again. This takes them up to the left of the gorge and through the ravines. It is hard going and make barely half a ri before the end of the day. The trail has periodically detoured to the edge of the gorge for no discerned reason, and eventually they lose the trail completely. The evening hunt reveals one large rat, soon felled by two arrows, and three voles. Kokuma swings his testubo to make vole schnitzel, while Mineo leaps on another and catches it. They both dive at the third but it escapes. The seven units of food just see them through the night with a reserve of only one unit left.

The next day, the tenth since Miyoshi's scouting party set off, see the two parties in the same vicinity - but Kachamaru and Yoshi are heading east through the gorge while Mineo and Kokuma are heading west on the uplands. The parties pass in the late morning, but as it happens, Kokuma, Mineo and Kachamaru are making very little noise; only Yoshi is clattering a few stones as he scrambles through the stream at the bottom of the gorge. And as it further happens, at this point neither Kokuma nor Mineo are paying much attention to the sounds of the mountain forests. And so the party pass by, unaware of each others' presence. Kachamaru and Yoshi make it all the way through the gorge and camp at the exit, gathering 10 units of food from the stream in the form of minnows and freshwater shrimps. Kokuma and Mineo reach the other end of the gorge and hunt down two squirrels as darkness falls, and although they find two rabbits later on they are spectacularly unsuccessful in hitting them and they go very hungry, losing points in five attribute as a consequence (Kokuma all but deftness, Mineo all but wit).

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