Chapter 53: The village in the mountains of Hima
"Hahaha, here it is!" Edoph exclaimed happily. "I've found it."
The others came towards him.
Nariko tilted her head. "That's not quite right …"
Cozid gave Edoph a clout. "Straight upwards, not towards the side. I think you need glasses."
"Pah, then not! I just wanted to help you," Edoph replied offended.
They had been searching for about half an hour for a tree with two branches spreading like arms towards the sky. This was the first clue leading to Lukea apart from the river they had followed.
Jek sighed. "Such a tree shouldn't be hard to find I thought …"
"It is in a forest," Cozid remarked. "We can consider ourselves lucky that it's winter and the trees are bare-branched, otherwise it would've been hopeless."
"Hey … Could the tree over there be the one we're looking for?" Nariko suddenly asked while pointing at something not far from them.
The tree had two branches pointing towards the sky.
"Yes, that's it!" Jek exclaimed excitedly.
"Finally … What's the next clue?" Cozid asked the archeologist.
"Well …" Jek rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Oh no … Don't tell us you don't have any clues anymore …" Nariko sighed.
"I have! It's just … It's strange …"
"Stranger than this one?" Cozid asked while pointing at the tree.
"Much stranger. We have to … follow a bird, it'll lead us to Lukea," Jek explained.
"A bird?" Edoph inquired.
Jek shrugged. "I said it's strange …"
"Great, what a fortune there are only thousands of birds here," Cozid said, annoyed.
"What does the bird look like?" Nariko wanted to know.
Jek sighed. "My friend said I would recognize the bird when I see it …"
"Well, have fun searching," Cozid replied.
Suddenly they heard a birdcall similar to the one of a seagull, but still somehow different. They looked up into the sky and saw a silvery bird that was circling directly over their heads.
"That's the bird …" Jek murmured before taking his backpack.
The bird flew in a direction, and Jek ran after it.
"That's really crazy …" Cozid murmured.
"But the only clue we have," Nariko replied. "Come on, let's go!"
So the Diaos followed Jek who in turn followed the bird. They soon reached the end of the forest and were now running through a little gorge. When they crossed this as well they were suddenly at the borders of a village.
"Lukea …" Jek mumbled in fascination and wanted to move on when suddenly someone stepped in his way.
It was a man who wore a cuirass and held a spear in his hand. "Stop! What do you want here?" the guard asked.
"I just want to see this village and … Ah, I just have to know everything about the clan that's living here! Elaros just has to learn about Lukea!" Jek remarked.
"If it's like that I don't have any choice but to kill you! Lukea has to be protected at all costs! We can't allow that even more persons learn of this village!" The guard leveled the spear at Jek.
The Diaos already wanted to intervene, but someone else took the wind out of their sails.
"Stop. Accord them entrance. They won't lose a word about Lukea," an older man said. Though he had no hair on his head he had a meter long beard that ranged to the ground. He wore a long white robe and seemed to be a monk.
"Master Jin …" The guard pulled back his spear. "If you say so …"
Master Jin helped Jek, who had fallen on his bottom because of shock when the guard had leveled the spear at him, up and smiled at the foreigners.
"Please follow me," he asked happily.
He led them to a temple-like building and sat down on a seat cushion. He indicated to the others to sit down as well.
"So, you want to see Lukea and learn more about the two clans that are living here," Master Jin remarked.
"There are two?" Jek asked, amazed.
The monk nodded. "The Clan of Dragon and the Clan of Tiger. But not all people in this village belong to one of the clans."
"That's interesting … Please tell us more about these clans. In what way do they differ from each other? Why are there two anyway? Aren't there any fights between the two clans?" Jek pestered the monk with questions.
However, his four friends kept quiet. They didn't seem to be interested in this whole subject. Now that Jek thought about it he didn't know at all why the four had wanted to come to Lukea anyway.
"Well, the two clans actually differ only in one point: The Clan of Dragon had made pacts with dragons and the Clan of Tiger with tigers. Well, regarding the origin of those two clans, nobody knows anything further about it. There's only the legend that there once were two brothers. One of them saved a dragon when he was on the verge of bleeding to death so that the dragon promised him that his descendants could expect the help of dragons anytime. To the other brother happened the same thing with a tiger. According to the legend that's how the clans formed. But it's not certain if it was like that, the more so as not everybody who belongs to one of the clans can summon a dragon or tiger just like that. Some have first to win the trust of the respective animal, whereas others have this trust since their birth."
"Fascinating! What about the Miko? I heard she has contact to a god?" Jek's eyes were sparkling.
"The Miko, who belongs to one of the clans, applies in her prayers to Ariyakon, the God of Healing. With that she's able to heal even the worst wound in some time. But even she can't defeat death," Master Jin explained.
"I-Is it perhaps possible for us to see the Miko?" Jek asked nervously.
Master Jin shook his head. "I'm afraid no."
"Why not?" Cozid asked, bored.
"Right now there is no Miko. The last Miko mysteriously disappeared with her children twenty years ago. And only the Miko herself can announce her successor after Ariyakon appears in her dream and tells her who he believes to be worthy of the task. So, there probably will never be a Miko again."
"That's why you never should give such a task to a woman," Cozid said, sighing. "They're just incompetent."
Nariko gave him a fierce clout. "And I already thought you changed!" She turned to Master Jin. "What if the Miko comes back again?"
"Of course, a new one could be announced then, but … It's unlikely that Phoca Litoris, the last Miko, is still alive. She did a moonlight flit shortly after something terrible had happened in her house …"
"What?" Jek asked curiously, waiting like a little boy for the narrator to go on with his horror story.
"Well, it's only a rumor, but it says her husband tried to kill their newborn daughter. After that Phoca fled with her two daughters, and her husband disappeared the next day as well. So it's his fault that this village has lost its Miko."
"What a pity …" Jek remarked, sighing.
"That's why foreigners aren't so welcome here, because Phoca's husband wasn't from here either. One day he came here, badly wounded. Everybody thought it would be best to keep him here so that he can't tell anybody of Lukea, and he didn't mind at all. But if we had known what the consequences would be we would've probably chased him away. Well, now it's too late anyway," Master Jin sighed.
"We heard that here are supposedly documents about the Prophecy of Balance. Would it be possible to see them?" Cozid asked, seeming to be somehow impatient.
Master Jin smiled, almost as if he had awaited this question. "Of course. Follow me."
He led them through a corridor illuminated by torches; eventually they entered a room similar to a library, only that there were more scrolls than books in the shelves and it was far more messy. Though there obviously seemed to be tables in the room they couldn't be seen anymore because they disappeared under a pile of scrolls.
"Please excuse me this mess. But I always say: 'Organization is only needed by the stupid one, the genius controls chaos'." (Actually that's a quote from Albert Einstein, but I couldn't find the English quote … So I just translated the German quote. But if you know the exact English quote I would be glad if you could tell me. ^^) Master Jin laughed. "The documents of the prophecy … Let's see …" He searched one of the shelves and eventually pulled out a scroll. When he walked towards one of the tables he tripped over his beard and fell on Cozid whom he downright knocked over.
"I'm sorry, young friend. I constantly forget to stuff my beard in my pocket." He stood up from Cozid and put his beard in one pocket of his robe so that he didn't trip again.
"It's alright," Cozid murmured, scowling.
Master Jin rolled out the scroll on the table. Cozid and the others looked at it curiously.
"What's that? What are those characters?" Cozid asked, upset.
"Those are Ryunish runes."
"Interesting …" Jek murmured. "The Ryunish language still exists only in this village, right?"
Master Jin nodded. "A long time ago everybody in Elaros knew this language but it was buried in oblivion more and more until only this village still knew Ryunish. And because Lukea has no contact to the outside world we could continue cultivating this language."
"And what is written here?" Edoph asked while pointing at the scroll.
Master Jin shrugged. "How should I know? Only few people can read Ryunish runes."
"What? But you just said …" Cozid objected.
"I know the meaning of the Ryunish language, but I can't read the runes," the monk remarked.
"Is there someone in this village who can read the runes?" Nariko wanted to know.
"I'm afraid the last person in this village who could read the runes was the last Miko."
"Great …" Cozid sighed.
"It's indeed a pity," Jek agreed. "But nonetheless here's still more to see."
Master Jin smiled. "If you want I'll show you the village. But maybe you want to rest? You have to be exhausted. If you want you can stay in my house overnight."
"We would gladly accept this offer," Jek said before looking at the others. "Or do you object?"
"No … No, that's alright," Cozid replied. "If it's possible we would already like to rest now."
"Do that. I would like to see more of the village," Jek said.
Master Jin nodded. "Then I'll lead you to my house first of all."
After the monk had led them to his house and showed the four Diaos where they could sleep, he showed Jek the village and answered the inquisitive archeologist many questions.
So they found Lukea. ^^
I like Master Jin ... xDDD But that's no surprise because ... Well, you'll find out later. ;)
To be continued ...
