A Private Justice...

Carmen stared out over the plains. Her eyes were dry. There were no tears left. It was dead. The vast plains that had been here were nothing but a battleground. The once firtile soil was now blood stained. The war had shattered everything. She bent down and grabbed a handful of what had once been black soil and allowed the odd powder to spill through her fingers. She was the last of her clan. They had been peace lovers who cared for the land that was now nothing. After the odd dust had been drawn from her hand onto the wind she stood and screamed, not that anyone could hear her. There was no one left. She stared down at what once had been a happy village with children that raced through tall fields of grains. She had been away. Her hair blew in the wind as she stared, screaming until she could no longer do so. She had been the village's miko and she had failed them...and the land.

Staring up at the clouded sky she raged within herself. She moved, instantly. Jumping atop her horse she rode. Her Umanori-Hakama offered no resistance as she straddled the four legged beast and urged it into a gallop. The closer she got to where her village had been the less recognizeable the land. She pulled the horse to a stop and stared, "There is...nothing left," nothing. Nothing in her had ever thought that anything would happen to her home. She moved the horse forward, hoping that the water shrine might still be intact. Though if she'd been gone many years it might have been difficult for her to find it...or what was left of it. A single board was all there was. In her rage burned. She didnt know who had done this, but they would pay. Life or life, love for love, home for home. A fire burned in her heart now that had once been love and peace. This Dragon Miko would find her enemy. She would exact justice. Only then could honor be restored. As she wheeled the horse around and set it galloping away from there, putting the destruction behind her, she knew just where to start....