Three days out from the Hosokawa camp, the body gave out.
We had been walking since dawn, the path a monotonous ribbon of dirt cutting through endless green hills. The ache in my muscles had become a constant, dull companion, a background noise I was learning to ignore. But then, without warning, the noise became a roar.
My left leg buckled. The right one followed. The world tilted, and I slammed face-first into the dirt road, the impact jarring my teeth and filling my mouth with grit.
"My lord!" Taro was there in an instant, a frantic flurry of limbs. He dropped his pack but kept his distance, a nervous dance he had perfected. "Are you... are you injured? Should this one—? Forgive me, should I fetch a healer? Are you bleeding internally? Is it your heart?"
