We could almost tell where and what insects were chirping as the darkness made sure we couldn't even tell who slept beside who but knowing Master Han we would have to do better, we would have to be able to hear our very own heartbeat and even more those around us.

The week before that night had been exceptionally brutal, a week of silence where none was expected to say anything not even a sound, it was horrific seeing choi choke on his food and die without the masters giving the slightest care and Marly had been made to endure a viper's bite without screaming his lungs out, not even the slightest sound came from any of us, whoever's heart thumped faster than usual was punished severely by the masters.

Choi wasn't always the brightest nor the smartest but I had hoped he would at least last the second labor.

We had come up with a sign language by day four and managed to get the most basic messages across without flaunting any of the master's order.

The labor of silence they all called it yet it's mystery tore our minds apart, surely the master wasn't planning to let us all loose in the dying forest? We all may must have thought at some point.


Tomorrow, the master had warned us would test and help us accept and become one with the silence.

"A ninja is the silence, and the silence is the ninja, they are one and the same, mastering the silence is your key to survival, it is your life as a ninja, to live in silence externally and internally"

Master Han's voice echoed in my head as I laid still in pitch darkness, my restlessness was a curse I shared with the others, there was no gain in worrying my head over tomorrow I tried to tell myself with no success, one certainty was this, many of us would have to pay a prize for failing, I intended not to pay more than I had already.

SHADOW OF THE NINJA: LABOR OF SILENCE

I was bad at this, the masters knew how to get to us, the pit was dreary, cold and alive, filled with light and life that wasn't ours.

A millipede gnarling on a leave, a roach escaping the jaws of a small scorpion, a bunch of fire red ants unsettled by our presence, we were five yet I felt I was all alone. The masters were up above, eyes peeled on our every action.

The goal was as hard as all labors were and I wondered who would do better this time.

Our heartbeats were in synchronization so how then could I pick which of my brothers were and with us, this was dreadful, the labor of smell was still far away, rumors had it the masters could tell from the very air breathed, who was from who and we had no doubt in thus parts about the rumors that followed the shadow clans and its masters.


I listened to our heartbeats, it boasted of a rhythm I was impressed with, the masters laid silent, their heart beats could never be detected not by the likes of us but I knew they were there.

Han told me, this was the intuition of Ouki which laid dormant in my shadow form.

Thumb! Thumb! Our heart beats went as I tried hard to guest all other four without touching them least I had my hands chopped as would the loser of this challenge would be.

"A true ninja's intuition must be as strong as his will and deadly as his steel,"

Gbam! Gbam!!

The pagoda bells rang up above us, telling us to get ready to be taken out yet I hadn't figured out just who yet I was in the hole even after a week but what had I been doing over a week in the pit?

Thump!..Thump!!...Thump!!!

"Katuyah!" I beamed with joy, He had given us all I believed the slip, his heartbeat and nervous breath was his let down and I could bet my arm that was the ninja who swore to kick my jaw the night before.

The others ghosted me very well and I realized there was only one way to draw the remaining all out.

I copied katuyah's breathing pattern and waited for them to pick the bait, the reaction was a chain reaction that would end up ultimately exposing us all, I was desperate and sad.

"Why?"

I guess that would be the question for katuyah!

SHADOW OF THE NINJA: LABOR OF THE SIGHT

"Just pick anyone!"

Some gestured at me where i shuddered and shook under the cold blistering snow that was determined to end us all if our choices didn't.

Laid in front of all eight of us where the pots of 99 death and 1 life. Each Pot filled with a different kind of poison that explored death in its own fancy manner and one that was filled with an antidote for all.


We bothered not to look for the masters, they were always watching and observing us, by now you would think we were any better trying to be what we desired most; well, i taught i was amongst many yet we were all in a way children, desperate for something other than sudden death.


Striped naked and left thirsty for the last two days didn't do us any good either, if we could fight the cold, if we could defy our need to quench our thirst, could we defy the commands of the Masters whose penalty was taking our tongues from us?

The numbers were against us here, the seniors had passed a warning about this test, it wasn't to teach us a lesson or something, it was simple and finely orchestrated murder on a mass level, the seniors had been reduced to little over ten from a count of fifty three, we were a lot lesser than that.

Perhaps Okiho's miserable attempt to escape the training camp and find his way to the world below which had been meant with punishment worth more than a thousand death still somehow infuriated the masters? I wondered.

"As the snow bites deeper and your throat yearns for a bit of liquid, you can be certain, reasoning becomes a death sentence and you can never know which is antidote but you will know which is the poison!" one of us declared to us as he was told by a senior.

Someone came out and walked into the labyrinth of pots, he had been trying to get someone else to take a leap of faith.

I watched him closely, as he moved from one identical clay pot with pure colorless liquid to another, he seemed nervous and edgy as he withdrew back but just then the cold wind blew and there he fell to the ground, his body could no longer take the cold.

Rishi rushed out and grabbed the boy; rishi was a no good boy who gladly sacrificed anything or anyone to stay alive but then again, we all had a little of him or more in ourselves and maybe this one, i rooted for him to do something or anything to help us stay alive.

Rishi pulled the almost lifeless boy by his head and began to force him to drink as many as he could.

"Poison...Poison...Poison...Poison...Poison.........."


"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8....12..13"

Rishi pulled the boy closer to realize the 13th pot had been the poor soul's last attempt to help us.

Rishi screamed angrily and tossed the kid away like trash and how it did anger me but rishi wasn't done just yet.

He pulled away and seemed to give the pots a thought before settling his eyes on me.

I took some steps back even though i knew I would never be able to win a fight in this condition.

"Come quietly, there is no reason for all of us to die tonight, you just need to get the right pot and you won't die!"

I shook my head in disapproval as I withdrew my steps quickly which only gave rishi more excitement to grab me.

I disappeared into the midst of the others who only pushed me out, it was certain they would be next, after i was long gone.

"Got you!"

Rishi held tightly to me, his grip and the cold threatened to peal my flesh off my bones.

This was it, I imagined, my own death seemed closer than ever.

"Don't drink it all, have a taste and get over it and be quick about it, the others might die soon from the cold, I will need them to continue from where you stopped!"

I took my first taste and soon realized, there was a taste once it was about to slip into my throat.

I spat hard and went for the next pot; a startled rishi was taken a back by my sudden willingness to participate in this game of death.

"Poison...Poison... Poison... Poison..."

I vomited and spat terribly each time i felt that foreign taste in the liquid.

"Hurry up, I need something to drink!" A cowardly and ungrateful rishi said.

"Poison... Poison... Poison.... Poison... wait...wait..."

Rishi kicked me so hard i crashed into a clay pot whilst he and the others took the antidote for themselves.

I tried my best to get up and get a drink myself, aware i had swallowed a vast amount of that pot which i had crashed into.

Rishi and the others had their fill and did the unthinkable.

"Kplah!!!"

Rishi kicked hard the pot so that it broke and shattered.


I managed to stand up, stared at rishi and the others, my sadness and hopelessness soon turned into a vicious smile.

It was right there, Rishi and his cohorts realized what had happened.

"You crashed into..."

His brain didn't get to add up the maths but rishi spiteful kick had just saved my life.

I watched them fall, never to rise again, buried by the snow.


SHADOW OF THE NINJA: LABOR OF TASTE