During one of those years-of-exile, the man who was to become the Lord of Daizen-town was wandering among the mountains on the island we call Jaidojima, and there found a quiet race of people who named themselves the Hamada. They were a gentle people, unused to the appearance and manner of warriors, though they welcomed the stranger and even gave him one of their daughters as a wife.

During the wedding celebrations, a young Hamada boy wished to learn the extent of the stranger's courage. He told the stranger of the many dangers of their mountainous island. He told tales he learned from his grandfather about the thunderous waves when the hosts of the North Sea charge up the shores and attempt to quench the flames of the King of Fire that lived in Godo, the island's volcano. He grabbed a hand full of dust and smeared on his face, telling of the many times that the King of Stones had tried to crush the Hamada and drive them off of Jaidojima. And he told the stranger about the powerful Salamander that guarded a cave of wonders.

This intrigued the stranger, who listened politely through the boy's obviously exaggerated tales of Gods and Elemental armies. On the plains of the south, where the ronin was born, the Elements were not so strong. The stones had been tamed to make castles, and the volcanos had long since exhausted their rage. The sea was a thing far away, and such sky lords as wandered in came to escape the war with the sea. A cave of wonders, thought the ronin, might make me very rich. I have a wife now, and a masterless man like me cannot provide for a whole house--he can barely provide for himself without stealing! Surely I can defeat whatever provincial monster has these people so terrified, he thought, They would die of fright at the mention of things that I imagine to help me sleep.

Oji