Burying the Dead

Laid to Rest:

Pounding

Ishikawa's first recollection that morning was pain, even before his eyes were open his head was pounding. "I'm too old for this" Ishikawa's strained and weak voice said out loud to no one as his eyes groggily opened. As he pushed his elderly body upwards a plethora of items fell off of his body and onto the floor. The noise made Ishikawa strain again, his head continued to pound almost rhythmically. Ishikawa looked down at the source of the noise and saw drink containers of carrying size and shape. "Now that was a celebration," He said to himself as he tried to compose his thoughts. He had completed an odd job for the alderman of a neighboring village the night before and delivered a dowry to him, this had ended up in him joining in the wedding celebrations of his daughter. However, now Ishikawa needed to move on and continue on his journey.

Ishikawa prepared some supplies with the goodwill he had acquired from this village and then made his way on to the next one. After a couple of hours of brisk walking, he and his pack which consisted of all of his earthly belongings arrived at a small town. Unlike most of the backwater villages, he had visited in this no-name country this town appeared to have some sort of life about it. The town in front of him had a gateway as an entrance, but no gate, nor a wall connected to it. Two guards stood either side of the gateway and people travelled in and out of the town at a moderate pace, carrying various goods in carts or on horseback.

Ishikawa pressed on towards the gateway, as he approached he expected to be stopped by the guards but he was ignored. Ishikawa nodded to one as he passed, but still no reaction. Ishikawa moved on towards the closest pub he could find and asked if there was any local work going. He was then directed to a small church nearby that needed help digging graves and burying people. Recently there had been some sort of plague that killed off a large number of people and nobody wanted to help bury the bodies. This did not matter to Ishikawa due to his bloodline abilities. Ishikawa made his way to the church and introduced himself to the reverent. Ishikawa proceeded to dig graves for the next few days, he buried around 20 bodies. Ishikawa knew that burning them was the correct thing to do, but that would go against the local traditions, and it was not his job to try and save this town from such things. He had a goal and he was actively working towards it, every situation he came across on the journey to the Haven country was irrelevant to him. After Ishikawa had completed the job he stayed another night in the main hall of the church, then received his pay and moved on. However, he did stop back at the pub.

EXit
WC: 500
Claiming 1100 ryo, +5 Ap, +5 Vigor, 500 words for Black Threads E>D