Joro-Gumo Chapters 1 - 6
Joro-Gumo Ichi T hey rode for days through the driving wind and rain. Each rider wore their wet weather coats pulled about them and even though they protected them from the onslaught of pelting rain, it was not enough to keep them a hundred percent dry. Night was drawing in quickly, Kato Nobu brought his companions to a stop on the edge of the winding cliff face road. To one side of them was a sheer drop, to the other a high rocky face which jutted out in intervals. Kato had stopped them at a break in the mountain face where it seemed to widen, and although there wasn’t much shelter to keep them all dry, what shelter it did provide, was enough to sleep two men at a time. This meant out of the seven tired travellers, five would have to keep watch, and take it in shifts to sleep for a couple of hours. From the rear of the travellers, one of the women which accompanied them jumped off her horse and headed to the front of the line where Kato stood. Suki Ume wa...