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Prolog

In the realm where the sun rises from the ocean at the dawn of each day rest 12 stones where on 12 kingdoms preside. Form each of the 12 kingdoms hale twelve men and these 12 men would be the greatest heroes of their race. Should one of these grate men fall he will be born again to continue protecting his people till the end of time.

Atop the rock farthest form, the main land and in turn closest to the sun a people called the Usagi are born, they are tall slender people with white hair and long drooping ears, large feet and Shapley lags, many say that the Usagi can run so fast that they leave no mark on the ground where they treed.

For more than a thousand years the Usagi have waged war and their enemies the Uni, the Uni are everything that the Usagi are not. The Uni are balky people, their ears sharp, their hair dark, their teeth long, when the Usagi where learning to make peace with the world the Uni where learning to conquer those weaker then themselves.

For many years the Usagi alone out ran the Uni and escape extinction by their hand. But then the Usagi where given the gift of bronze from there heavenly keepers. With this in hand the Usagi begun to fight back pushing the Uni out to the sea.

But even with this new technology it would be years without number before the tide of war would truly swing in the Usagi's favor. Two powerful and wise men are held most responsible for this turning. First the King of Rabbits Aki, second his nephew Kero.

Kero was the largest and most powerful Rabbit ever born standing so tall he could see eye to eye with even a full grown wolf. Aki spent much of the wealth of his people on building ships at first with the intent of hiding on them when at-last the Uni overrun his walls but then with the aspiration to hand them over to his nephew to wage the greatest battle ever fought by their people. Aki also built a device that would throw spears a hundred at a time to place on his boats, but after seeing the weapon in action having slain 5000 Usagi in the blink of an eye he smashed it to pieces and planted a forest atop its broken pieces.

Kero had a plan, one only a mad man would dare try. Kero attacked the Uni at their home, launching a charge against Nine king of the wolves, he places a knife in the hand of every rabbit: man, woman, and child alike. If you were strong enough to run, then you were strong enough to fight. Kero loaded every rabbit in the kingdom onto Aki's boats and the battle was on.

The war lasted for only days under Kero's command, but they were the bloodiest days that have ever been seen. Ten thousand Uni and one hundred thousand Usagi slain with each passing day, but at-last king Nine had been slain in single combat against Kero, and all twelve kingdoms where handed over to king Aki and Aki gifted king Nine's island to Kero as a reward for his valor.

Even thou most return home Kero chooses 30 men and 115 women to stay with him and build a new castle atop the burning remains of king Nines stronghold. Kero it is told will live 10,000 life times as a blessing from the gods...

... If the story of the mighty Kero ended there it would be a beautiful epic already. But no tale I have ever heard ended so kindly. Kero would never again sleep a sound night as the ghost of Skoll, king Nine's mother would visit him in his sleep, she is a wolf so grand that her shadow blocks out the sun and her jaws so powerful she could no doubt take a bite out of the moon itself. Every rabbit knows Skoll, she is the mistress that leads us all into the next world. Only Kero has ever seen her and lived to tell the tale.

The story of the shogun Kero only grows more upsetting when only days after returning from the battle in the land that would come to be called Tanto island, Skoll comes calling for king Aki, as in every case Aki must heed her call and so never be seen again. This drive Kero into a deep rage, he locks himself in this new fortress for many years not wishing to speech to anyone.

With time his anger would numb and he would go out into the town looking for a confidant to fallow him back to the castle. Sometimes a man others a women but for the next 1000 years these confidants would carry his word from the castle on high to the kingdom below.

The actions of the Usagi lead to a long lasting peace, Kero and his followers enjoy their new world, allowing their boats to sink into the see and take on a new set of traditions becoming their own people. As by the orders of Kero every man woman and child still carry a blade with them, but with the passage of years the make and shape of the blade slowly changes. The people of Tanto become ever more skilled fighters never forgetting that which they learned fighting Nine and his wolves...

...At long last Kero emerges for his castle and retakes his places as acting shogun of the land. He takes a wife and she has a son and a daughter with Kero in short order. This too would not last as soon after celebrating the birth of the royal children Skoll comes calling. Many believe that Kero stood up to protect the people from her but if this is so the council did not end well. What was discussed by these two masters of the realm no rabbit knows but what is known is that every girl child in the land that was less than five years old was ordered sacrificed in the name of the shogun.

All know that the shogun is wise and kind in ways that every few can understand and so most fallowed the words of their lord without hesitation. Any who did not understand the order were given the opportunity to engadge in "the Wright of a Hundred Blades" where they may bargon for the life of their offspring by doing battle against one hundred men of the shoguns choosing. If one should endure this trial then there child would be spared and the family given as much gold as they can carry.

Not even the shogun's wife was spared this fate as her new born twins were separated and her daughter drowned. For thou the shoguness was brave she lacked the power to defeat Kero and his 99 chosen swordsmen...

...In the spring of the fallowing year the Shoguness and her court of 10 maidens find their way to the steam. There they find a washtub floating down river, after dragging it to dry land they find within it an odd looking beast, in large it looks like in Usagi but only half the size of a newborn baby, it's hair is shorter than most as are its ears, but it's tail is as long as it's lags and teeth are short and sharp, it is a girl clear as day they all can see and ever so helpless.

The Shoguness takes the beast and wraps it in a robe taken form one of her court to bring it home. The Shoguness gives the beast as a gift to her boy, who she has named Sun, and this strange beast from the river she names after her late daughter, she would be called Moon.

The two children would grow side by side, Sun ever venturing to become more like his father Kero, Moon much to everyone's surprise is a clever child thou always half the size of Sun learns the Usagi language, and way of life, in spite of her strange appearance she has convinced everyone (her self-included) that she is a rabbit and that she is Sun's twin sister.

Act 1

Age of Love

Chapter 1

Even as their teen years start Sun and Moon still share a bed, sleeping noise to noise. There room is against the east wall so as the sun crests the water they are the first to see it and be raised thereby. Sun sleeps facing west; Moon east, Moon always wakes up first. Moon playfully bites at Sun's ears to stir him from his rest. "Sun, we have to get bathed; Father, Shogun Kero, is expecting to see us before breakfast." Sun and Moon step out of bed almost in step as they grab their robs form the wardrobe, tie their obi's and preform the prayer that allows them to remove their swords form the cradles.

***

The two of them leave the castle together and walk to the creek that runs past the south wall of the fortress as they do most days. Sun's ears lift high into the air as he looks up stream to the ocean, his chest buffs out as he tries to focus on something in the distance. Unable to see what he sees Moon bounces up and down trying to look at what Sun can see. "There is something in the water." He explains.

Moon grabs Sun by the hip and jumps up his body to stand on his shoulders. Once she can see she specks "Is that in Arrow ship? I don't think I have ever seen one."

Sun lifts his eyes looking up at his sister "no one has, not since before mom was born."

"Who's is on it? Where did it come from?" Moon sits atop her brother's shoulders and looks down at him.

"The flag has the crest of crossed hands. That is the same emblem as the flag that hangs over father's chamber door. The ship must belong to one of our cousins across the sea."

"Why would it be here do you think?"

"Maybe it is just passing by, no one from the other land comes here anymore."

"We will have to tell mother about this." Moon jump down from Sun's shoulders then run to the river to start playing around. Sun playfully chases after Moon jumping into the creek after her, but play is always done in moderation under Kero's watchful eyes. The children clean themselves up and make their way home shortly and prep for what is sure to be a day filled with work and studies.

***

Moon dresses in her finest robe to see Kero, a hefty robe woven from spider silk with a cotton under robe and a ribbon around her waist, the silk robe is dark blue with a waterfall like deign, the ribbon bright pink to draw attention to itself and away from the short-sword hidden tucked within, running down the back of her lags.

Sun has a simmerler formal robe but his is yellow and has a secondary tailed vest that goes over it and an orange and red sky scene across his back. His sword is long and rest in a vibrantly decorated scabbard. His blade is not hidden but more so displayed resting on his shoulder.

As they dress Moon reaches under the dresser and withdraws a long thick wooden box. Sun looks to his sister "what do you have there?"

Moon opens the box and starts to unroll a gown dark green in color with wood like texturing and the image of a wolf and a rabbit baring fangs at one another. "Father has a fascination with dogs, half the painting between here and the dining hall are of wolves." She freezes a moment "also, I have seen father loves you but loathes me. I thought maybe I can buy his love with a gift like this." She places the garment back into the box "I've been sneaking out of the castle at night to work on his for the last three weeks or so."

"I had no idea that you knew how to weave silk as such. It is lovely."

"it's not like I have done this alone but thank you."

"I don't think father hates you so."

"You cannot see him from the angle I can. He swoons over you as you practice with your blade, he hardly offers me an upwards gaze when we speak."

"He can't, you are a fourth his height. *Giggle*"

Moon doesn't understand the joke at first and starts to shout back at him but before more than just in angry huff can leave her lips she freezes thinking aloud "how tall is father? Like twelve paws?"

"Twelve of my paws," Sun jokes around "more like twenty of yours."

***

The children go to the main hall where the Shogun awaits. He is sitting on his knees with his hands set on his thighs head ducked in prayer. Kero has chosen not to dawn a robe but instead the loos fitting cloth laggings and lone cloth that he dresses in when training. With his chest bare it is clear to all that he dawns scars like few others, a dozen puncher marks lining the side of his body and a laceration mark on his chest where he would have been held in a beast mouth and pride himself out, a moon shaped gash from shoulder to chest where surly and axe had been broken off in his body and what could only be a handprint permanently bruised into his fur form chest to hip flexors.

The Shogun's wife sits side by side with him looking over the scrolls set on the ground having finished first the shogun speaks "this was sent by a man named Nero, it seems he was affiliated with my uncle. He is coming here to 'checkup' on us." The shoguns voice is low and thundering, he talks slowly but his overwhelming size makes his whispers sound like a shout to those who are not expecting to hear it.

The shoguness is quick to weigh in on the desiccation at hand "the Emperor has not contacted us in decades. I don't like this. Why would he want to see us now?" The shoguness chooses a different from of dress then most, she like dark formfitting dresses mostly nightshade and gray no fancy patterns for her. As for her sword she has the handle cut short and the blade halved so she can strap it to her forearm to quick draw. The shoguness has no interest in a fair fight; she planes to win at all cost.

"If the Emperor's lapdog wants to see our home that he can do, we will give him as much wine to drink and bread to eat as he can possibly want. There will be dancing and drumming at his arrival. But should he ask for more I shall need to remind him that this house is My house."

Sun and Moon walk in after standing at the door for a moment to get a beet on the situation. Kero looks up and grunt with a hint of agitation in his voice. "You two are late..."

Sun cuts in not waiting for Kero to ask him to elaborate "it is my fault, we were at the river, we saw a strange sight in the water..."

"Captain Nero's ship, I have seen it too." Kero nods in understanding at that point "I do not wish to speak of him at this time. He is going to stay on his boat for 2 days before coming to shore himself. I know not way he would wish to do this but so be it. Till then we stick to our works as normal."

Kero stands to search the table in the room for his pipe and a spoon full of poppy seeds to fill it with. "Boy, I wish to ask you about your thoughts on the future."

Sun looks to his father "what is there to think about? I will take my 31 day pilgrimage into the mountains on the eve of my 16th birth day and then join the monks in copying the ancients' scripts just as any civilized rabbit should."

"Have you ever wanted more?"

"Is there more that I should want?"

"You are the son of the Shogun? Do you wish for battle? Glory? Lordship?"

"maybe, but you are the shogun and you will never die so there is no need for me to do such things as lord over people or dream of glory, as for battle, my being the son of the shogun has no merit on that."

Kero leans forward to push himself upright. "Do not speak with such a soft voice. In your wake wise min should fall to their knees and kings should weep. You are Sun, your father is Kero the immortal, and your sword may yet level mountains and part the sea, but perhaps not today. Come with me children" Kero walks to the door looking out to the village below. "I have not walked the streets of My kingdom in many days, I should like to do so, we will walk together."

Moon kneels before Kero with her head down. She holds the box over her head presenting the Shogun with her gift. Kero looks down to her with a grunt "what is this you are showing me small one?"

"I have brought you a gift father." Moon explains. Kero grunts clearly aggravated by Moon's words, Moon corrects herself "Shogun."

Kero opens the box and pulls out the robe. Without a sound he examines it a short time then raps it around himself he nods approvingly as he ties his obi