This is a story based off of a writing prompt from Reddit, specifically the subreddit r/WritingPrompts. The Prompt reads as follows:
” A medieval European knight somehow ends up in feudal Japan. With nowhere to go in the foreign land he decides to settle down in a forest. Outside this forest sits a village; and as years go by rumours start to spread of a tall metal spirit that roams this forest.”
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Lost in the forests with only the corvids to sing to, it had seemed as the excitement of new life had slowly faded away. Each hour and each day had began to feel like a time of torpor. I’d often watch the leaves fall, only to be carried throughout the grove of trees around me. The wind would whistle dissonant notes as it danced with the leaves in an invisible flowing ribbon. This eventually became a sight I had become tired of, but a sight so serene I couldn’t just look away. As seasons past from fluttering blossoms to lacerating cold, I had devoted myself to a life with the forest. A life of peace with the land which I had never experienced before.
I had barely survived on foraged goods and roasted game alone. Sometimes I would travel out and strike a trove of berry bushes, but rarely would I venture out any further. The closer I got to the edge of the forest, the closer I got to the villages. Life had become lonesome, but staying alive reigned supreme over unity or interaction. Perhaps I could meet a lost villager, but I couldn’t guess what they would think of me. I could neither understand their strange language or customs, but it seemed clear that I would have been maltreated by their alternate ways.
Besides loneliness, I often stood away in thought. I would finish off each day staring up at the spinning sky of stars above, falling into a deep slumber by the crackling ashes and staccato of hidden crickets. Although I had lost what I called home, I felt a strong connection to what I found here. With only my sword and plate, I had come to a foreign land that seemed out of my own world. Plants and animals that I had never once seen in Hallstatt. But with each unsteady step I took, the more I broke into a full gallop on this fresh soil.
My spirit is not broken and neither is my sword. The deep gashes I lay in scattered trees have marked this as my new territory. It’s a constant struggle to fight Monotony and his grasp, but I persevere as a part of the Knights’ code. I often wear my armour as a reminder of my past, a memory of the dignity and courage I had built over the years. I spend much of my time exploring and becoming more understanding of the forest. Sometimes I’ll see a wandering villager, only for them to run off in fear, but I pay no heed. The forest is my home; in this domain, I am at peace.
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Souma Katagami, 1289, Nagakawa Region,
A translated scripture,
Bound in our barren cloth robes, our grandfather would often tell us the stories of the dancing spirits. It made us forget about our destitute life. These stories often captivated me, each with a different journey of each wandering dead. But lost in both time and the depths of darkened forest was one made of burnished metal. A giant colossus deep in the woods, standing nearly 10 feet tall. If you stood at the edge of the woods, you just might be able to hear the dissonant metallic ringing of his armour as he traversed the earthen terrace.
Some believed that this spirit protected us from greater forces that lay beyond the hanging trees. Some however believed otherwise, living in fear behind the walls of our village. They had cast out the diseased in hopes to leave the weakest as prey for the metal spirit. But the weak had only succumbed to thundering tempest of Raijin.
They called him the gatekeeper of Yatagarasu, a knight that guarded our lands as ordered from the god’s above. The few who had seen him saw a great samurai in foreign shining armour. Some even claim to have seen a strange series of strokes sliced into trees at random. We believe that if you were to step past these marked trees, you would be transported to the realm of spirits, and die far from the world you had called home.
I have never seen the giant metal spirit, but each different sighting seems to vary. However, I hope he is there to protect us from the evils beyond. Even our leaders don’t know what resides across the great wall of trees.
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Raijin: The Japanese God of thunder, lightning, and storms. Also known as Yakusa no ikazuchi no kami or Kaminari-sama.
Yatagarasu: (In Japanese Legend) A 3 legged crow, sent from the heavens as a guide for Emporor Jimmu. Yatagarasu is interpreted as a divine intervention for human affairs.
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