Read Online Moon and Star: Book One by Mike Bergonzi - Free Book Online Page B

than he thought. If he didn’t get help soon, he’d bleed himself dry.
    Kaito took the knife with one free hand, the other applying pressure to his bleeding side, and began to cut one of the ropes. As he cut, he rocked back and forth more violently. The rope cage began to swing and ...
    Shzzzt.
    He broke free, landing dangerously close to the fire as he struggled to keep his balance. When he found his footing, Kaito breathed a sigh of relief and took a few steps back before turning around. He wished he did it sooner.
    There was something was behind him. Bones of some sort. He carefully turned around and saw a man, a crazed look in his eyes and drool dribbling down his chin. Kaito tried to scream, but all that came out was a muffled gasp as the man clutched his hand over his mouth. He smiled, showing little to no teeth in his mouth. He wiped the drool from his chin with his other hand.
    “How’d you ‘scape?” he asked.
    The lack of teeth made him hard to understand and there was a slight whistle in his voice. Kaito could see his tongue play with what would’ve been his two front teeth. He’d never been so repulsed in all his life. His captor giggled, then frowned, turning serious in a split second.
    Kaito   only saw his head and shoulders, but from the looks of it, the man wasn’t clothed on the upper half of his body. The man looked down at the knife in Kaito’s hand and dropped him.
    “Where’d you get that?” he asked. “And what happened to the fire?”
    Kaito turned around. The fire was gone, replaced with a trail of wispy smoke. The man shoved him out of the way and tried to get the fire started, again. He began to cry when the flame didn’t spark. Kaito took a step closer, trying to comfort the man.
    “I didn’t mean to ...”
    “You. Dead.” He lunged at Kaito, grabbing hold of his throat and squeezing.
    Kaito’s grip on the knife Mayumi gave him was loosening. He couldn’t hold out for much longer. Without thinking, he stabbed the man in the side of the neck. The man dropped him and covered the wound, applying pressure to it. A few seconds later and his breathing stopped. Rainwater hit Kaito from above. He stared up at the sky for a few minutes. His bloodied hands shook as the rain washed it off.
    He looked down at the body. Woven in the man's hair were karanasu leaves. The rain freed the leaves and carried them to his feet. Kaito dug his toes in the dirt and began to cry.
    ***
    Kaito poked the fire his captor had almost killed him over. The more time passed, the more he thought about what he’d done.
    He tried his best to not think about it, but he felt guilty nonetheless. What if he was in the wrong? Did Kaito truly kill him out of self defense, or was their some alternative way he could’ve dealt with the situation?
    Adding to his pain, was his little brother. Alone, dying. No one to care for him. He'd only just met him, but not being to save him was as hard as thinking about the crazed man. How did other warrior's deal with killing someone?
    The wind howled and blew against the fire, causing it to flicker and dance. Kaito quickly placed more wood into the flame. It was his first fire outside of Mayumi's supervision. She made it look easy. Kaito struggled to get a mere spark. Keeping it going was another struggle all by itself. Thank the spirits he got one started, or else he’d be facing the night without any light. He wasn't afraid of the dark. He simply preferred to see in the dark, rather than walk around blind.
    Kaito looked up at the sky. The sliver of light on the moon’s right side was wider than previous nights. Another month or so and the moon would be full again. He wondered what kind of damage Mayumi could do with tsuki no-haken at the zenith of its power.
    Night fell. The fire was all but a flicker of light against the vast black background of the sky. Color from the trees and plants all but vanished, looking like greyed out versions of the their true beauty. The evening air