Once in a land where villagers of all ages lived a young woman of the name Asémouto Nizlaun performed an act that saved all her people and more. Asémouto was a strange girl when all the other girls would play with their dolls Asémouto would make strange drawings in the mud. When all the other girls would study to learn about how to be a proper wife Asémouto would study about the world and its history. For being different Asémouto was bullied by the other girls. This lasted throughout all of her childhood and into adulthood when Asémouto’s twenty-fourth birthday came around all the girls and boys from her village had left and started families of their own and her family had become unliked because Asémouto had no man for her to love. One day four months later her younger brother Hyiehu was sent to war because their kingdom had been invaded by samurai. Hyiehu was only sixteen years old Asémouto tried to intervene but was thrown to the ground for trying to say no for her brother. A year after Hyiehu left Asemouto and all the people of her village had been kidnapped by the samurai the women were forced to clean all the clothes of the soldiers and the men were forced to farm and lift things for the samurai. The samurai sent their tents up near the woman because they knew the women weren’t meant for war. But Asémouto was unlike the other girls because she listened in on all the classes the boys had taken so she understood all the plans the samurai were planning for. A few days later Asémouto was speaking to her friend Nijumái because she had a plan to escape and stop the samurai. Nijumái protested Asémouto but didn’t want Asémouto to go out to the world by herself. At night Asémouto and Nijumái snuck out of their tents and went to a passageway to leave the samurai. Asémouto and Nijumái got out of the passageway when the sun started to rise they raced away because they knew the samurai would be looking for them. Asémouto and Nijumái reached a dead end where a stone sculpture of three dead men rested by it. Nijumái turned around but Asémouto stopped her. Nijumái looked at Asémouto confused because Asémouto was climbing to the top of the sculpture. Nijumái asked Asémouto “Asémouto why do you climb to the top of the sculpture?” Asémouto had read about this sculpture it is called Dead Man's Staircase and at the top of it, there is a lever that will make the three men a staircase leading to a passageway. Asémouto answers to Nijumái “For Nijumái this is Dead Man’s Staircase i shall pull the lever at the top and we will go down the staircase to the secret passageway.” When Asémouto gets to the top she pulls the lever and the sculpture turns into stairs Asémouto and Nijumái go down the stairs and threw the passageway at the end of the passageway they see a camp sight with their countries' flags waving threw the air the two girls race over to the camp sight to tell them of the samurai and who they kidnapped when Asémouto and Nijumái get to the camp sight Asémouto is surprised to see Hyiehu is outside guarding the camp. Hyiehu lets them in to speak to the head chief Captin Iynegúm the tell him of the kidnapping and Asémouto tells them of the samurai's plans Iynegúm and his soldiers start to make plans but Asémouto interrupts them and tells them she has plans but the men just laugh at her. Asémouto starts to cry and runs to a tree to cry. Asémouto draws her weird figures in the mud and starts praying to them. Nijumái walks over to Asémouto and asks her what the figures are. Asémouto tells Nijumái what they are “The figures are the guardians of my family and my country and of the world.” Nijumái looks at Asémouto and then starts drawing her own figures to then pray to like Asémouto. Asémouto starts to cry for nobody had ever listened to her or believed her when she talked about the guardians. Asémouto then started praying again she prayed that her family would be okay and that the samurai army would be disbanded and ended. When Asémouto opened her eyes she did not see the tree but all of her ancestors and the guardians she had prayed to. The guardians blessed her with three gifts the guardians of her family blessed her with the gift of health for your family can heal you from the deepest of pain, the guardians of her country blessed her with the gift of strength for she is stronger standing with her people, and the guardian’s of the world blessed her with the gift of knowledge for the world is still so mysterious. Nijumái was standing up waiting for Asémouto to finish praying when Asémouto got up she told Nijumái that they needed to go to the palace right now because the samurai would attack them. Asémouto and Nijumái steal two horses and start riding Asémouto starts going but Nijumái doesn't know how to ride so Asémouto tries to teach Nijumái how to ride but Nijumái can’t do it Asémouto won't leave without her friend so she draws the guardians around the horse and prays to make Nijumái be able to ride the horse suddenly Nijumái starts riding the horse extremely fast and Asémouto hops on hers and they start to ride to the palace Nijumái trys to find a map but Asémouto tells Nijumái the way to go. In half a day the two women get to the palace and try to get to the front of the palace as fast as possible. When they get to the front of the palace they are stopped by the guards and not let into the palace Asémouto and Nijumái try to tell the guards that they need to speak to the king but the guards don’t let them through. Suddenly a girl comes out and orders the guards to let them in. Asémouto and Nijumái go to the girl and introduce themselves the girl tells them she is Princess Amunshí. Asémouto tells Amunshí that the samurai are coming and she needs to tell the king her plan to ambush the samurai. When the girls get inside they see that the soldiers are fighting against the samurai and all the soldiers from the camp except Hyiehu and Iynegúm and a few others Asémouto grabs a sword and races into the fight to stop the samurai Amunshí and Nijumài race up to the top of the palace and start dropping objects on the samurais heads Hyiehu sees Asémouto surrounded and races to help but when he gets there Asémouto has taken all of them out Iynegúm is fighting off soldiers when he sees Asémouto fighting and races over there to tell her she can’t Hyiehu goes in front of Asémouto and blocks her from Iynegúm trying to kill her. Asémouto sees a samurai much larger than the others and is wearing a larger helmet he climbs the pillar to get to the king's room. Asémouto races to the top of the palace where Amunshí and Nijumái are dropping heavy things on the samurais Asémouto tells them to continue while she races into the king's room where she sees the samurai trying to get the king to bow down to him. He is about to kill the king when Asémouto goes in front of the king and knocks the sword out of the samurai's hand the samurai goes racing for his sword but Asémouto grabs his sword and throws it to the ground the samurai is furious and tries to kill Asémouto with his fists but Asémouto is to fast eventually Asémouto ducks under him and shoves him to the ground Asémouto then drops her sword on top of the samurais head to kill him for good. Asémouto goes into the hallway to see that Amunshí and Nijumái and the rest of the king's army have killed the rest of the samurais but Iynegúm and Hyiehu were still fighting Hyiehu was corned by Iynegúm and about to be killed when Amunshí yelled “LET HIM GO NOW IYNEGÚM!” Iynegúm then let Hyiehu out of the corner when the king entered. The king took away Iynegúms helmet that was meant for the captain and walked over to Asémouto and told her “The guardians and I bless you as the captain of my army.” Asémouto is shocked not only that she is captain of the king's army but also that the king believes in the guardians. Iynegúm is furious that he is no longer captain and a woman is so he grabs his sword and races to kill Asémouto but Nijumái grabs another sword and stabs Iynegúm killing him to protect Asémouto. The King then lets Asémouto, Nijumái, Hyiehu, and all the other soldiers go. But Amunshí then asks her father if she can go with Asémouto and Nijumái to live with them. Then the king says yes so that his daughter can explore more of her kingdom. Asémouto, Nijumái, Hyiehu, and Amunshí get to their village but, Asémmouto and Nijumái are surprised to see that everyone who was kidnapped has returned to the village Asémouto asks her mother how they escaped and she told her that when the samurai left they raced back to the village to continue life. Asémouto told them about her and Nijumáis journey and Hyiehu told them about his life as a soldier Amunshí went to live with Nijumái and when Amunshí became queen she started a school where any gender could learn anything and when Asémouto died of old age she became queen of the guardians and when Nijumái, Amunshí, and Hyiehu died the ruled beside her and Asémoutos story has been told ever since.
