Princess Takiyasha's Arc

Chapter 5 of 10

The alligator army pulled into the trees, but Takiyasha knew they would come again. Five warriors and a handful of drifting serpents could not hold forever. She needed more than a wall. She needed a reason for the swamp's own to march to her. She climbed down from the tower and walked deeper into the mist, past the reeds, until she found the old shrine. Moss covered its wooden beams. Carved frogs peered from every post. A thick straw rope hung across the front, and paper charms swayed in the still air. The swamp folk left offerings here. Takiyasha knelt on the worn steps and pressed her palms together. If the frog spirits favored her, they would send a sign the whole marsh could see. Inside the shrine she found them waiting. A suit of samurai armor stood on a rack, black and green, its helmet shaped like a frog's head. Beside it leaned a naginata with a blade of pale jade, its handle wrapped in carved frogs and lily vines. These were the relics of the swamp's old defenders. Takiyasha lifted the naginata. It felt light and true in her hand. She fastened the frog-helmed armor over her kimono. When she stepped from the shrine, the mist glowed against the jade blade. Krogg saw her first. He dropped to one knee in the mud. The serpent warriors lowered their bows. Word ran along the wall faster than any horn. The princess wore the swamp's own armor now. She carried its blessed spear. By dawn, they came. Frog folk climbed from the pools by the dozens, drawn by the tale of the armored princess at the shrine. Bullywugs, toad-riders, and croaking spear-bearers waded to her fires. Her force swelled from five to fifty, then more. The relics had done what walls could not. The swamp had chosen a champion, and it followed her. Across the field, the enemy line parted. The alligator king came forward himself. A gold crown sat on his broad, scarred head. Skulls hung at his neck, and a notched greataxe rested on his shoulder. His slitted eyes found Takiyasha in her frog helm. He hissed, low and deep, and the sound rolled across the water. "Little princess plays at war," the king called. "You raise frogs. I will boil them." Takiyasha planted the jade naginata in the mud. Behind her, fifty voices croaked as one, then a hundred. The sound drowned his hiss. She had her army at last. But the king had stopped hiding behind his officers. He had come to the front himself, and he had brought his full strength with him. The grinding siege was over. Now it would be one great charge, decided in a single dawn.