burning

The sun was quickly setting and in the night sky Harumi could see a yellow glow from far away. Fear flooded in her heart but she was also glad, now she knew exactly where to go. Back at the castle she hadn't bother rounding up some troops, she knew that they would come. In the history she knew they would be too late, she just hoped she wouldn't be. All the details about the incident were a bit hazy for Harumi because she never paid any attention in history class. She only thing she knew was that Nobunaga would die tonight in the castle of Honno-ji because one of his warlords had betrayed him.

The closer she came to the burning castle the hotter it became. Luckily her horse just kept going, putting her trust in her driver completely. Harumi could see the burning castle clearly now and urged the horse to speed up. Franticly she looked around until she found a small creek. She stopped the horse and jumped off her back. Harumi made a sloppy knot in the reigns to a tree so the horse couldn't run away. After that she hurried to the creek and without taking off any of her clothes she submerged in the water. Although it wasn't winter yet, the water was freezing cold. Searching for breath she emerged from the water and dragged herself to the side and out of the water. Without taking a moment to think about the safest way to enter the castle she just barged to the burning building. Almost immediately she found a door that was open and entered. Inside the castle there were a lot less flames, but she still had to be quick. She tried to call for Nobunaga but he didn't answer. After a while the smote got too tick that her throat started to hurt. She checked room after room but couldn't find him. Honno-ji wasn't very big so in no time she checked all the rooms on the ground floor. Eventually she found a staircase and went to the first floor. Just as she arrived at the landing, the fire had made its way to the staircase and flooded it with flames. The fire was beginning to spread faster and faster and Harumi still hadn't found Nobunaga.

Harumi pushed open a door and found Nobunaga sitting in the middle of the room. It looked like he was meditating or something. His short sword lay before him on the ground while he was calmly looking at it.

"What the hell are you doing? We gotta get out of here!" Harumi yelled. As if woken from a trance Nobunaga looked at her. At first with hazy eyes until he understood what was happening.

"What are you doing here?" He asked while he jumped up and ran towards Harumi.

"Saving you of course." Harumi yelled while she took of the still damp overcoat.

"Put this on, we have to jump through the window." She explained while she looked at the wall covered in flames.

"It's not that high, but make a head roll when you land so you don't break your ankles. As soon as you are outside you have to run to the creek that is running next to the castle." Harumi explained as fast as possible. Nobunaga still stared at her in amazement, not showing a sign that he would put the coat on any time soon or jump out of the window.

"We don't have much time, come on." Harumi said angrily while she grabbed the overcoat. She roughly put Nobunaga's arms trough the sleeves. Nobunaga finally came to his senses. He grabbed Harumi's and and they both ran towards the big window. Harumi hoped the overcoat and the clothes that she was still wearing were wet enough to protect them from the flames. When They jumped trough the curtain of flames Harumi tried to protect her face with her arms but she could still feel the heat penetrating. For a moment Harumi had the feeling that she was flying, the next the earth called her again. Thanks to gravity she made a hard fall on the burning grass. Somewhere in the air she had let go of Nobunaga's hand. As soon as she hit the ground she tried to make a head roll what resulted in her rolling a few times. Still dizzy she tried to stand and run to the creak. She felt on some sport of her body the burning sensation you got when you burned yourself. She tried to reach the cold water as soon as possible. When she arrived at the water she jumped in while next to her she heard someone else jump in. That had to be Nobunaga. Harumi had no Idea how long they stayed in the water, cooling their flash burns, but she knew everything would be alright. Nobunaga hadn't died and that was all that mattered at the moment.