The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Lady Samurai
by Jaime Johnesee

Ōhōri Tsuruhime slid through the trees quietly, leading the samurai to the beach in the cover of the pitch black night to defend Ōmishima from the Ōuchi. This is a legend that none can contest. 

What they do not speak of in history books was how difficult it was for her to betray and kill her Ōuchi lover to do so. 

Tsuruhime overheard her lover’s plans, pained by his conspiring against her, she had no choice but to take his head. 

Hearing his plots, she let her arrows loose into the bodies of his counsel, as she rushed to him, pulling his beloved blade from his sheath and putting it to his neck. 

“How could you?” She growled at him, her voice shaking with rage, hurt, and betrayal.

“The money made it easier, ” he shrugged, certain she would not harm him; she was only a woman, after all.

His blade cut right through his neck with ease, proof of his care and maintenance of the weapon. His eyes remained open in shock, and terror. She tossed his head onto the lap of his deceased advisor, and took his sword. She wiped his blood off of it and onto his robes, removed the sheath from his corpse, and stowed her new weapon.

Then, Ōhōri Tsuruhime assembled her army and made at once to those aforementioned beaches to kill the invading forces that her lover had metaphorically knifed her in the back for. 

As she fought them, she did so covered in the blood of the lover who betrayed her, giving her a ferocious appearance and terrifying many enemy soldiers into running away.

She, and her army drove back the invading forces and saved their land. Its soil now stained eternally in the blood of their enemies.

Eventually, the blood spilled was forgotten, so too was the betrayal. In the end, the only thing that mattered was the heroism she showed, the selflessness and brave leadership she is known for. And that is the legend Ōhōri Tsuruhime leaves upon this world. 

Fiction © Copyright Jaime Johnesee
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Jaime Johnesee:

Shifters: A Samantha Reece Mystery

When a serial killer begins leaving remains of victims in hotel bathtubs all over town FBI Agent Samantha Reece makes it her business to stop him.

This detective’s got an ace up her sleeve in the form of her ability to shift into the guise of a were panther. As she tracks down the cold-hearted murderer she also has to contend with an anti-shifter group determined to destroy her.

Not to mention the black jaguar who turned her decides to come sauntering back into her life.

Available on Amazon!