Free Moon and Star: Book One by Mike Bergonzi

chilled his skin. Was it always this cold outside at night? Kaito had run out of wood to get the fire going and he lacked the proper tools to cut more. The simplest movement made his body shiver uncontrollably and his teeth to chatter. He couldn’t even rub is arms or chest for the implausible fear they might fall off.
    Kaito tried to fall asleep, but the wind blew over his legs every time he closed his eyes. It was bad enough trying to fall asleep without his bed and a fire, but now the wind was laughing at him. He heard it brush past the tree tops, using their leaves to make a noise which sounded close to someone’s cruel laughter. No matter how hard he tried, the wind kept him up with its howling and bristling against his uncovered skin. For the most part he had learned to ignore the cold, but unless the wind died down, he wasn’t going to get any sleep.
    When the wind finally did start to quiet, his thoughts took over the position of keeping him awake. Thoughts of his father, Mayumi, Sora and the rest of his actual family. He wondered what they were like and whether they would accept him as one of their own after failing his mission. Kaito still couldn’t believe he was supposed to kill the man who’d raised him.
    The man he did kill popped into his mind as he closed his eyes. They shot open. Kaito got up, no longer shivering. All he wanted was to sleep, but it seemed he’d need to get over this trauma before he could rest.
    The problem was where to begin? He couldn’t ask the man for forgiveness. He was dead. Even if he could, would the man be accepting of his apology? He didn’t know what he’d done wrong. It was an accident. It’s not like he did it on purpose. The man had also tied him up and was planning on doing who knows what to him. Surely it was self defense. There was nothing dishonorable about killing someone who was going to kill you.
    He kept telling himself this, but deep inside he wondered if the outcome could’ve been different. A ruler should know how to kill in order to gain power and keep it. Historically, that proved true. However Jin wasn’t as cold blooded as his father and others before him.
    Perhaps that is why he died, Kaito thought. He didn’t have the resolve.
    But what did that say about him? He killed one man whereas his adopted father killed hundreds, if not thousands, and was already beginning to second guess his actions. Grandfather said that killing a man made one a warrior, but a true ruler kills thousands more.
    All Kaito felt was heartbreak.
    His grandfather’s voice sounded in his head. It echoed and boomed at an unnatural rate that frightened Kaito to the bone. The cold was nothing compared to the chill he now felt from hearing the voice.
    “Stand up,” his grandfather said. “Be a man.”
    Kaito blinked and rubbed his eyes. Jin appeared before him—close enough that he could touch him if he wanted. A sense of respect and wonder stopped him from doing so, however. Jin smiled and placed a hand on Kaito’s shoulder. The hand phased through him, but he felt its presence nevertheless. He could hardly form words to speak as his father hugged him. Trembling his lips involuntarily was all he could manage.
    “I’m sorry father,” he said, holding back the tears and staring at his feet. He couldn’t bear to look his father in the eyes. He didn’t want to see the disappointment in them.
    When he looked up, his father’s face was gone. No trace of it remained. Kaito wiped his eyes with his dirty, torn kimono — sneezing on the accumulated dust and causing it to fly up his nose and into his eyelids. He sneezed again, this time away from the dust on his sleeve.
    It’d been ages since he last bathed himself or his clothing. He felt disgusted to the bone. Kaito wondered if there was a hot spring anywhere in the area. If all else failed, he had the ocean a few treks to the East.
    Without a moments hesitation, Kaito picked up the dagger Mayumi had left him and marched towards