
The large bamboo forest was the lifeline for the people of the tiny village. There was a large river that flowed by the village and the bamboo forest. The people of this tiny village were poor as whatever, they grew and sold was taken by the marauders who swooped in like vultures for everything and anything they could find, from grains, fruits, to bamboo baskets, women and children.
Akiro was a young boy of sixteen. His parents were killed by the marauders when he was two years old, and he grew up with his grandparents. His grandfather was a fisherman and his grandmother were a weaver of bamboo baskets.
When Akiro went to school, he learned a lot of useful things, but he felt that something was missing. One day, on his way through the bamboo forest, he saw an old hermit doing strange exercises with a bamboo. The old man was chopping the air, and he seemed to be battling an invisible enemy. There was power and passion in what the old man was doing in that forest clearing, and he seemed to be emanating power and radiating energy.
A few days later, on his way home, Akiro saw the old hermit in the forest once again. He knew that the man was powerful, and he was nervous of approaching him. As he hid in the bushes and watched the man, he saw a deadly rattlesnake moving towards the old man. Akiro leaped into action and tried to stop the snake, but the snake was too fast and moved swiftly away from him. Akiro broke a bamboo stick and threw it into the head of the deadly reptile.
The old man stopped his strange gyrations and looked at the young man and the snake with its decapitated head.
“Why are you here, watching me for many days, young man?”
“I want to learn the way in which you are battling invisible enemies, so that I can defeat the raiders, who come to my village”.
“That is not the right reason to learn this fighting technique,” said the old man wisely.
“I want to make my mind strong so that I can teach the people to defend our land,” said the young Akiro, not willing to give up.
“Tomorrow, we begin, and spend tonight making me as many baskets that you can and fill them all with fish from the river.”
That evening the young, Akiro, kept making baskets as fast as he could. He completed making five carefully woven baskets and surprised his parents with his speed. Early the next morning, as the sun silently raised its head over the horizon, the young man was out fishing in a small dingy, his father had given him.
At midday, the young Akiro took his four empty baskets and one filled with fish of all sizes and colours to the old hermit. He saw that the hermit was still using the fighting bamboo techniques in the clearing near his hut. Akiro knew that his master would be hungry, so he prepared a fire and roasted some of the fish he had caught and served it to the old man, who was pleased.
After six months of training, Akiro was ready, and he proceeded to train the young men of his village in the art of bamboo fighting skills.
Narkissa, the leader of the marauders, was enraged when he found out that the villagers were learning martial arts, and he knew that Akiro was teaching the people how to defend themselves. He decided to attack the village at night. This was not as successful as the previous raids on the village, as the people were prepared. The marauders killed three villagers, and Akiro captured ten of the marauders in the battle. The people with Akiro as their leader took the captured raiders to the nearby town, where they faced justice for their crimes. Narkissa escaped and fled to the mountains.
A few days later there was an earthquake and the land shifted like a wild steer, the mountains rocked and boulders rolled down the mountainside, destroying the camp of the raiders. Narkissa was crushed like a bug. The villagers and Akiro were safe as they were living away from the tall mountains, closer to the bamboo forest.
As the years went, Akiro was made the leader of the town, that had since grown from the village it used to be. He created a police force to protect the town and the people. Akiro was known as the bamboo warrior who had saved the village and made it a town, by using all the resources from the bamboo forest to create a range of bamboo-based products, which brought prosperity to the people. Defend your land, and your cause and stand for what you believe in, in life.

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