Silver Mantis

Seito lived in the canyon of the dragons Sashiko lived in the valley of the moon

They met along the highway to Aomeri where danger in the forest loomed

Shashiko dressed in silks and dreamed of heroes

She was carried in a hammock draped and veiled

Her father was a cruel and brutal warlord who fearful kept her in a shell

Seito he was but a lowly servant but his master knew him to be true and brave

When he happened on the scene of her ABDUCTION he sent her captors to their graves

Seito guarded Sashiko to her palace he had no thought of ransom to conceal

She took him in and washed his cuts and bruises and laid him softly down to sleep

When morning came she rose to tell her father

Of the stranger who had ruined the kidnap plot

But jealous and enraged her father seized him and chained him in the dungeon dark

Sashiko's tears flowed like the river Edo as she pleaded Seito's freedom face to floor

But the warlord turned his back and would not hear her

His mercy withered years before

When night fell she crept down into the dungeon

Two daggers hidden underneath her coat

And there they slept in death by harakiri her father's chains around them both