"Don't judge a ninja by his underwear. They are often used as weapons. Which, incidentally, explains a lot about ninja sex life."
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This is the longest night. Not because the darkness lingers, for reasons of wind and tide and the turning of the year. Not for the depths of the shadows, or the blanket of stillness that settles over the land. And certainly not for the time that passes between frightful sundown and blessed dawn.
No. This is the longest night, not for reasons measurable or calculable, but for all that which we cannot see, will not confront, and hope we never will have to know for certain.
And when dawn finally dissolves the dark, we breathe out in relief, safe in the knowledge that this land belongs to us again.
But when another year has passed, and the night again grows long, the woods are filled with a lonely and distant piping. And in its wake, the unmeasurable follows...
* * * * *
Part the trees, and into view it comes. Once hidden, now in sight, the picturesque townscape belies the deadliness of its inhabitants. Ancient buildings and worn facades nest between lush groves and well-contained but unruly clusters of undergrowth. Seen from up above, the sand-packed streets are barely visible between the narrow houses and the canopy of trees.
You probably would not know it, but your viewpoint is shared. You, the arbitrary viewer, are not alone to gaze upon the badly hidden secret Haven of the Shogunate of the Green Sun. Eyes sharper than both mine and yours spy from the shadows. And they have a very good reason to hide.
They adorn the smirking face of a young girl who occasionally passes for a woman. Perched on the limb of a massive oak tree, in the manner of people everywhere who have once read that perching in trees is proper sneaky behaviour. Nevertheless, she is well hidden, and close to invisible to any eye that does not deal daily with obfuscation and skulduggery. Her face bears an expectant look, and her eyes scan the town far below for signs of a source of amusement known only to her.
When she finally finds it, she is no longer the only one aware. But certainly the only one who is still amused.
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