《Tale of Yashima》021. Sou
Advertisement
“Sou! Sou!”
He was dreaming. A beautiful dream. Was it a dream? He was standing upon a cliffside, looking out over the ocean. Waves crashed on the rocks below, and the sky was a grey-green. A storm was rolling in and yet he felt peaceful. Content. Someone stood by his side, someone important. A woman, yes. He looked down to smile at her, but he couldn’t see her face. Why couldn’t he see her face? Lightning flashed in the distance, followed shortly by the accompanying boom. This is how things were supposed to be. Everything was as it should be. The woman looked up…
“Sou!”
Sou opened his eyes. Ayane’s face slowly came into focus above him. She was shaking him.
“Oh thank god,” she cried. “I thought you were dead!”
Sou sat up, groaning in pain. Fire. He was on fire. His entire body was both hot and itchy at the same time.
“Be careful, you’ve lost a lot of blood,” Ayane warned him. “Are you okay?”
Sou held his head in pain and looked at her. “Do I look okay?”
“Well you still possess your sarcasm, so it can’t be that bad.” She smiled weakly. “What happened? When you didn’t come back I got worried.”
“She wanted me to join her.” The world was spinning. His head ached. He felt nauseous.
“Join her?! Why would she want that?”
Sou flinched. It was like she was screaming into a horn placed directly against his ear. He propped himself against a nearby tree to stand up.
“Seems to think we could rule all of Yashima together.”
Ayane laughed and then bit her tongue. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like… Why would she think that you’d just agree to join her?”
Advertisement
“Who knows how she thinks,” Sou replied. “When I didn’t agree with her plans she attacked me, then stabbed me with this before she ran off.” He was still holding the dart she had stuck in his neck. He sniffed it. It didn’t smell poisonous. Guess they would soon find out.
“We should get you back to the camp,” Ayane told him. She positioned himself under one of his arms and looked up at him. “Come on, I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’m not gonna let you die here.”
The sight seemed familiar somehow. She gave him a reassuring smile. Thunder boomed in the distance.
“Come on, we should hurry, it’s gonna rain soon.”
By the time they reached camp Sou’s head had begun to clear, but at the same time the pain burning in his arms and face raged ferociously. They sent men to find Riko, and she came running to help before they had even reached Sou’s tent. Rain began to fall.
“You should have told me what you were doing,” she chastised Sou as she covered some of his more serious cuts with an awful smelling poultice. “That was stupid.”
She was one of the very few people who could get away with telling Sou off, the only other person being his sister, Yuki. He sat in silence, quietly accepting her painful bedside manner.
“And you too!” She pointed at Ayane, who was already watching the scene in fear. “What if she had killed him, huh? Then what?!”
Sou placed a hand on Riko’s arm. “It was my decision.”
Riko sighed and continued her work. “This one on your eyebrow is going to need stitched up. Will be quite a nice scar once it’s healed. Sit tight.”
Advertisement
Sou let out a growl of pain as she began threading it up. Ayane turned around so she wouldn’t have to see.
“Get Toshio for me,” Sou said through clenched teeth. Ayane nodded and left so she wouldn’t have to watch any longer.
“I had a dream,” he told Riko once Ayane was out of earshot.
“So did I. I was being chased by a cat. A really big cat. So big, just-”
“No, not like that. This one felt… different.”
Riko tied off the stitching and put the thread and needle down.
“Do you think it was the witch?”
“I don’t know. There was… a storm was coming. There was someone with me. A woman. But… I couldn’t see her face. But it felt like despite the coming storm I was in the right place, you know? Everything was how it was supposed to be.”
Riko pondered it for a moment.
“Could be a warning. Could be nothing. Could just be your mind’s way of dealing with whatever toxin was on that dart she hit you with.”
“Yeah, maybe…” So why couldn’t he shake this strange feeling? Thunder echoed again outside and the wind picked up. They were going to be in for a rough night. The rains were coming, Izue said. Your men are going to get sick and die and eventually start abandoning you. Would they? Would they really?
“My lord,” Kazu suddenly appeared at the door, bowing deeply. “I’ve been looking for- oh my. Are you okay, sir?”
The look on his face was comical, but Sou couldn’t bring himself to laugh. “I’ll live. Just some cuts and bruises.”
Kazu’s eyes were the size of saucers, but he said nothing more. He shook his head and returned to what he had come for.
“Sir, the men camped near the east forest have been complaining of onibi appearing at night. Some men followed them out into the woods last night and didn’t return. This morning we found their bodies. Well… what was left of their bodies. It was like their life force itself had been sucked dry.”
Sou rubbed his pounding head. Sure, why not? What else could go wrong? Nurikabe, witches, men who could appear from thin air, an incoming storm, now onibi. What next?
“Some of the men have deserted, sir…” Kazu’s voice trailed off and he flinched, unsure if he was about to take a beating or not.
“Thank you, Kazu,” Sou replied with a sigh, rubbing his forehead. “I’ll look into it.” Perhaps the witch had been right.
When he realised a beating wasn’t coming Kazu stood up straight again, relief evident on his face.
“One more thing, sir.”
“What’s that, Kazu?”
“I think I have a way into the castle.”
Advertisement
the Mediator
Award-winning rock musician Kris Maya had just held a ground-breaking concert, with an arena packed with his most die-hard fans. His songs that contemplated the human condition: desires, love, pain, loss, fantasy and reality, and his philosophy towards life have garnered a great number of people to follow his every move and as he strummed the last chord that signaled the end of his song, he stumbled in pain and collapsed. With a smile, he closed his eyes on the curtains of his final concert in this life. As the applause of his show turned to become murmurs of worry and disbelief, he was happy and excited. Still, he felt that he was ready and he was anticipating his return to the world where all his past mistakes left a grueling and bloody mark on its history. This world that he filled with his music had taught him many lessons. In Earth, the power of music served as his gateway to learning. When he returns to his former world, his overwhelming power of magic will teach others the same lessons; the bloodshed being the only difference. It was now time to pay it forward.
8 90OFFLINE FANTASY: Virtual Deities
Once, he was a god. Not a benevolent one. Not a cruel one either.The kind to be full of pride, and to rule over multiple realms. But he was tricked and made to commit a mistake, one so great it destroyed worlds and cost him his freedom and status. Centuries afterward, the worlds of the Path have changed. Mortals, forced to adapt, have created their own new gods of metal, fire and technology. Now a simple human, stripped of his powers, he is given a chance to partially redeem himself... ... And maybe obtain his revenge. Updates twice a week. The art is my own.
8 142Broken Lance
The Carfani peninsular is on the brink of revolution. The settlers of the peninsular, chafing under Commonwealth rule, are beginning to consider revolt as a real option, while the Commonwealth places the city of Trackford under military occupation and the native Woose and Wyverns face humans constantly enroaching west. Into the middle of this are thrown Tane Bayder, an elite Commonwealth cavalry officer occupying Trackford who ends up fighting a dangerous new group of revolutionaries, while Hans Draiger, a trapper and huntsman and his Woose wife Uln stumble upon the aftermath of a wyvern massacre and end up dragged into deadly frontier politics.
8 157he's my mate! he pushed me out of a tree when i was eight!
Rose and Scott where childhood best friends. he's the next alpha and she the only daughter of the omega. when they were younger Scott pushed rose out of a tree because he was upset about something. and she hasn't forgiven him yet. now she's his mate.will he get her to forgive him before they get married? and to make things worse he's a teacher at her high school! will they get caught? follow rose and Scott through there life.
8 196playboy issues | jimin
Нэг л өдөр чамайг өмнө нь огтхон ч анзаардаггүй байсан сургуулийн алдартай хөвгүүн чамд үерхлийн санал тавьбал яах вэ?started: 06/28/18finished: 02/02/19
8 169Why Dont You Love Me?
Megan is 19. Ryan is 25. Megan's just starting to realize who she is, and who she can be by running away to Tennessee. Ryan's the lead singer of a popular band called Hot Chelle Rae. Megan is utterly and desperately in love with Ryan. Ryan, on the other hand, barely knows anything about this girl until they meet. That was the day that everything changed.
8 188