Another night, another uncomfortable inn, another half-remembered dream. The more he tried to grasp it, the more it sifted through his fingers like sand or something far less tangible. The grinding wheels of a heavy cart on a rough road perhaps, or maybe the sound of rice sacks being dropped on a wood floor. In his hazy, half conscious state, Sanzo couldn't distinguish between dream sound and real sound. They were simultaneous, one in the same. The sudden blaze across the blanket covering his legs brought Sanzo to startled alertness.
As suddenly as it appeared, the light was gone. Was it a ghost? He sat up, searching for the figure he was sure he'd seen, but there was nothing but the sleeping bodies of his companions in the room. Sanzo breathed out heavily, hearing the window shake over his head from the slow boom of the thunder outside. Autumn thunder. The light hadn't been a ghost, just a flash of lightening.
Hakkai stirred and mumbled in his sleep, "Sanzo…? What is it?"
"…Nothing. It's nothing."
--
"Cup of tea, Kouryuu?" Koumyou Sanzo's gentle voice shooed away the boy's thoughts, from where he sat on the porch.
"Sorry, Master. What did you say?"
Koumyou set down a small, plain wooden tray and folded himself to the edge. "I brought you some jasmine tea." He repeated, pointing to two cups. Small wisps of steam twirled like miniature ghosts above them, made all the more ethereal by the gray pre-storm daylight.
"…Thank you." Kouryuu's response was slightly delayed, seemingly more attentive to the low roll of thunder sounding in the distance than the present. His small hand reached for the cup and cradled it in his lap to feel the warmth.
Next to him, Koumyou sipped lightly at his own tea, blank and calm in stark contrast to the clouds overhead. "Something on your mind?" he asked between sips.
"Not really, I was just listening to the thunder. It sounds so far away."
Nodding sagely, Koumyou followed his gaze to the distance past the temple trees. A brief flash of lightening framed the dark branches of a tree that had already lost its leaves to the October air. "If you count the seconds between the lightening and the thunder, you can tell how far away it struck."
"That works?" Kouryuu seemed skeptical, but he decided to try the trick anyway. He watched for the next flash, and began counting – 1…2…3…4…5…6… Six seconds before the rumbling thunder followed. "Six seconds…does that mean six miles?"
"No, then you have to multiply by ten. Sixty miles."
Raising an eyebrow, Kouryuu tried it a second time in his head. Did it make sense that the distance was so great? He supposed so, with how powerful the sound of thunder could be. "Is there anyway to tell where the lightening struck?"
"No, only if you happened to be there. Does it matter?" The faint smile on Koumyou's face told the boy the older monk was trying to imply something important, but he couldn't quite comprehend what. When Kouryuu didn't answer, he continued quietly. "I prefer to think about how beautifully the gray sky brings out the colors of the leaves. Did you notice they're the same color as your hair?"
"No, I guess I didn't think about that." Kouryuu said thoughtfully. The beauty and poignancy of the moment was far greater than the worry over what was happening sixty miles away. Those events didn't affect him, but the quiet cup of tea with his master would remain long in his memory.