HOME | DD

Description
The city was all a bustle, even nigh to sundown. Men and women hurried through the streets, carrying their baskets and their belongings upon their head. Children scurried around the city, trying to find their mothers and fathers, and having a dainty good time while doing it. The road from the main gate, through town, to the keep of the city was a maze of corridors and alleyways, and it was through all this commotion that one particularly insignificant farm-girl hurried towards the castle. She went to laborious effort to look inconspicuous, keeping her head lowered to avoid the glances of suspicious eyes that might have confused her for the once-“princess” of Kai. She took the old backstreets she so familiarly remembered from the times of her childhood, crossing over her path again and again so that her true destination could not be distinguished.
                “I shall see the lord before the day is over,” Jade said to herself. “And if it’s a bed I sleep in tonight, it shall be nowhere but in the royal palace,” she added mischievously.
                “Hey! Peasant girl!” came a voice from behind.
                Jade stopped mid-step and instinctively spun around, nearly clasping her hands to an imaginary sword-hilt, but then smiled. A tall, dark boy approached her, his own hands toying with the sword around his waist. He was about sixteen years of age, broad-shouldered and muscular.
                “What’s a country girl like you doing heading towards the palace? he asked playfully.
                “What’s wrong with yours truly?” she inquired with a smile.
                “Well a real peasant girl wouldn’t keep her head down in the city. There’s too stuff much to see. Too much crap to bump into.”
                “I see,” she laughed.
                “I recognized you with barely half a second’s glance. Just the way you walk.  Those aren’t the steps of a peasant. A tiger, more like. A surprise you weren’t caught out there in the east, Jade.”
                “Oh, shut it up, Strader… royal guardsman?” she asked, looking at the insignias on his uniform.
                “Only in peacetime,” he corrected. “In war I’m nothing less on the battlefield. You figure it out by yourself.”
                Jade nodded her understanding.
                “Can you take me to him?” she implored. “I lost the seal awhile ago. I was worried they wouldn’t let me in without it.”
                “Of course. But you owe me one, girl. Otherwise the guys will soon be talking of Strader bedding a farmer’s daughter.” He added with a laugh.
                Jade’s face flushed a bright red for a moment, but, she slapped the grinning guardsman around the shoulder, and the two of them, who had not seen each other for over a year, proceeded on their way towards the center of the city.
                There, towering like a mountain over the city, was the castle of Kai, known far and wide as the Mountain of Golden Flowers, for not only its sheer size and magnificence, but also for the way the colors of the sunset would light its many eaves and rooftops, and for the beautiful autumn colors visible in the citadel. In Kai, it was known simply as the Kinjou, or golden fortress. Never once in the history of Kai had that innermost keep fallen to its enemies.
                It was said that, more than twenty generations before, when the entire city had been taken by an enemy innumerable, and the castle set ablaze, even then the lord of Kai and his loyal retainers held the inner keep and slaughtered hundreds upon hundreds of the invaders amidst the flames. It was then that a sudden wind rose from the west, and the fires blazing inside the Kinjou were no longer able to be contained by its walls. The flames, fanned eastward, leapt directly into the enemy formations and before sunrise, the entire opposing force had been routed. Thus it was afterwards said that the Kai were favored by the gods.
                As the two friends strode up the steps to the main gate, Jade saw that the castle had little changed in her absence.
               “So tell me,” said Jade, “what is he like nowadays?”
               “The young lord? Damn rascal hasn’t changed one damn bit,” replied Strader with a grin. “Some of the other lords even think he’s just joking around on the throne.”
               “Oh?” asked Jade inquisitively.
               “Yeah, but everybody loves him,” exclaimed Strader. “Things haven’t been going this good for years. Besides, he takes advice from his grandfather. He’s only been around for a little over a year, but he knows how to rule. But he knows how to have fun while doing it, too.”
               “Yeah, that’s him all right,” said Jade with a whistle.
The walls in the castle were covered in murals and tapestries depicting famous battlefields in the past, made to glorify the ranks after ranks of gallant Kai soldiers. At their head was often a solitary warrior, astride a great white steed and wielding a spear engraved with the symbol of a tiger. This was presumably the lord of Kai, the first to charge into the ranks of enemies, and the first to fearlessly cut them down.
               The wide, shining corridors were lined with men-of-arms, standing silent and still, decked with armor made of plated steel. Through these corridors, Strader led the young girl as she nostalgically gazed out through the balconies onto the city below them. It seemed never-ending, an endless plain of rooftops under the fiery setting sun. The last of the townspeople were in the streets, leisurely strolling home; the others were enjoying the company of their family, the smoke rising from their chimneys.
              “Jade?”
              Turning her attention back to the corridor, she saw that Strader had brought her to the double doors she remembered so well from her younger days. She ran her hand down the smooth handles. The elaborate, inlaid gold carvings had not changed a bit. The young lord sitting on the throne, she hoped, would not have changed any more than those doors.
              “You’ll find him in there,” said Strader, motioning to the entrance.
              “Thanks,” Jade said with a nod of appreciation as she pushed open the door and entered the chamber.

Description
The city was all a bustle, even nigh to sundown. Men and women hurried through the streets, carrying their baskets and their belongings upon their head. Children scurried around the city, trying to find their mothers and fathers, and having a dainty good time while doing it. The road from the main gate, through town, to the keep of the city was a maze of corridors and alleyways, and it was through all this commotion that one particularly insignificant farm-girl hurried towards the castle. She went to laborious effort to look inconspicuous, keeping her head lowered to avoid the glances of suspicious eyes that might have confused her for the once-“princess” of Kai. She took the old backstreets she so familiarly remembered from the times of her childhood, crossing over her path again and again so that her true destination could not be distinguished.
                “I shall see the lord before the day is over,” Jade said to herself. “And if it’s a bed I sleep in tonight, it shall be nowhere but in the royal palace,” she added mischievously.
                “Hey! Peasant girl!” came a voice from behind.
                Jade stopped mid-step and instinctively spun around, nearly clasping her hands to an imaginary sword-hilt, but then smiled. A tall, dark boy approached her, his own hands toying with the sword around his waist. He was about sixteen years of age, broad-shouldered and muscular.
                “What’s a country girl like you doing heading towards the palace? he asked playfully.
                “What’s wrong with yours truly?” she inquired with a smile.
                “Well a real peasant girl wouldn’t keep her head down in the city. There’s too stuff much to see. Too much crap to bump into.”
                “I see,” she laughed.
                “I recognized you with barely half a second’s glance. Just the way you walk.  Those aren’t the steps of a peasant. A tiger, more like. A surprise you weren’t caught out there in the east, Jade.”
                “Oh, shut it up, Strader… royal guardsman?” she asked, looking at the insignias on his uniform.
                “Only in peacetime,” he corrected. “In war I’m nothing less on the battlefield. You figure it out by yourself.”
                Jade nodded her understanding.
                “Can you take me to him?” she implored. “I lost the seal awhile ago. I was worried they wouldn’t let me in without it.”
                “Of course. But you owe me one, girl. Otherwise the guys will soon be talking of Strader bedding a farmer’s daughter.” He added with a laugh.
                Jade’s face flushed a bright red for a moment, but, she slapped the grinning guardsman around the shoulder, and the two of them, who had not seen each other for over a year, proceeded on their way towards the center of the city.
                There, towering like a mountain over the city, was the castle of Kai, known far and wide as the Mountain of Golden Flowers, for not only its sheer size and magnificence, but also for the way the colors of the sunset would light its many eaves and rooftops, and for the beautiful autumn colors visible in the citadel. In Kai, it was known simply as the Kinjou, or golden fortress. Never once in the history of Kai had that innermost keep fallen to its enemies.
                It was said that, more than twenty generations before, when the entire city had been taken by an enemy innumerable, and the castle set ablaze, even then the lord of Kai and his loyal retainers held the inner keep and slaughtered hundreds upon hundreds of the invaders amidst the flames. It was then that a sudden wind rose from the west, and the fires blazing inside the Kinjou were no longer able to be contained by its walls. The flames, fanned eastward, leapt directly into the enemy formations and before sunrise, the entire opposing force had been routed. Thus it was afterwards said that the Kai were favored by the gods.
                As the two friends strode up the steps to the main gate, Jade saw that the castle had little changed in her absence.
               “So tell me,” said Jade, “what is he like nowadays?”
               “The young lord? Damn rascal hasn’t changed one damn bit,” replied Strader with a grin. “Some of the other lords even think he’s just joking around on the throne.”
               “Oh?” asked Jade inquisitively.
               “Yeah, but everybody loves him,” exclaimed Strader. “Things haven’t been going this good for years. Besides, he takes advice from his grandfather. He’s only been around for a little over a year, but he knows how to rule. But he knows how to have fun while doing it, too.”
               “Yeah, that’s him all right,” said Jade with a whistle.
The walls in the castle were covered in murals and tapestries depicting famous battlefields in the past, made to glorify the ranks after ranks of gallant Kai soldiers. At their head was often a solitary warrior, astride a great white steed and wielding a spear engraved with the symbol of a tiger. This was presumably the lord of Kai, the first to charge into the ranks of enemies, and the first to fearlessly cut them down.
               The wide, shining corridors were lined with men-of-arms, standing silent and still, decked with armor made of plated steel. Through these corridors, Strader led the young girl as she nostalgically gazed out through the balconies onto the city below them. It seemed never-ending, an endless plain of rooftops under the fiery setting sun. The last of the townspeople were in the streets, leisurely strolling home; the others were enjoying the company of their family, the smoke rising from their chimneys.
              “Jade?”
              Turning her attention back to the corridor, she saw that Strader had brought her to the double doors she remembered so well from her younger days. She ran her hand down the smooth handles. The elaborate, inlaid gold carvings had not changed a bit. The young lord sitting on the throne, she hoped, would not have changed any more than those doors.
              “You’ll find him in there,” said Strader, motioning to the entrance.
              “Thanks,” Jade said with a nod of appreciation as she pushed open the door and entered the chamber.