Dragon Tears and Raven Curses - Chapter Two
Byakuen growled suddenly from where he rested in the shade of an old oak at the edge of the clearing around the cabin. His great head lifted from where it law between his paws, and his fur rose on end.
"Eh?" Shuu turned from where he was raking the stray weeds and sticks into a pile, and glanced over at Byakuen. "Say Ryo?" he called up to the roof. "Something is wrong with Byakuen!" He glanced back at Byakuen, whose growl grew louder. The wearer of the Kongo armor nervously backed away from the tiger. Ryo looked up from where he was slathering tar.
"Byakuen? Byakuen!" he called down. The large cat stopped growling and licked his chomps. He stared up at his master. His fur still puffed out and the muscles beneath the striped coat were tense as iron. He growled again, stared at an empty space between him and the house, then glanced up at Ryo.
Seiji felt the hair on the back of his neck rise as a sense of something not belonging moved over his being. He grabbed Ryo just as he began to stand up. "No" he gasped, working for breath. His lungs refused to cooperate as a feeling of coldness enveloped his being. Ryo glanced down at him with concern.
"Are you all right?" he asked. Ryo felt his friend's forehead with his hand.
Seiji shook his head. "Something-something is down there." Ryo gave him an odd look, and then nudged his shoulder.
"Have you been in the sun too long?" Ryo asked, more to himself than to Seiji.
"No, something is upsetting Byakuen, because something that doesn't belong down there is there!" Ryo patted his shoulder sympathetically.
"You've been in the sun way too long," he said firmly. Seiji glared at his friend. Ryo began to gingerly step his way across the roof to the ladder. "Hey Nasutei?" he called down, as he perched himself precariously upon the top rung.
Byakuen continued to growl at the white figure before him. He glanced up at his master and growled again, trying to get Ryo's attention to the spot. He sighed with annoyance as Ryo barely gave him a glance. One of these days, he was going to have a long talk with that boy! Ryo called for the female's name again, and then took a step back. Byakuen growled again, earning a sharp snap from his human.
Well! Byakuen curled his tail around his form in wounded dignity. See if he ever did anything nice for Ryo again!
He watched as Ryo backed away from the roof a little more, and took a step down to the next rung on the ladder. Seiji called something to him, and Ryo snapped at him in the same manner as he had snapped at Byakuen.
"Nasutei-iiiiiiiiiiiii!" Ryo slipped on a well-worn and inadvertently slick rail and fell through the air on his back. As he hit the ground with a large thump, a wave of cold swept through him, chilling and freezing him almost instantly. His body stiffened. The door squeaked open as Nasutei exited the house. Ryo could hear Shuu thundering his way over to him.
"Are you all right?" Shuu demanded as he stepped near Ryo and stopped as a wave of cold swept over him.
Nasutei did not appear to notice; she was looking at her watch. "Twenty minutes; Ryo. I was right!" she called over her shoulder as she walked over to where the two boys were caught in an icy embrace. "You owe me a thousand yen!" She placed her fists upon her hips and frowned at the two young men. "What is wrong with you two?" Byakuen growled again. Her eyes drifted over to the tiger, and then followed his line of gaze to the boys. "Is something wrong?" she asked, reaching out and touching their bare cheeks. "Your skin is like ice! Are you two suffering a sun stroke?"
"No!" Nasutei looked up to see Seiji looking down at them. He moved stiffly as he perspired heavily. "Something is here, and it doesn't belong!" Shin came out of the house then, damp spots covering his shirt from where he had dripped water on himself.
"What's going on?" he called from the doorway. Nasutei waved his questions away.
"Come on. We have to get these two inside," she said, pulling the men inside of the house. Shin hurried over and helped her. Seiji glanced down at the spot, caught the flashing of billowing white material, and then clambered down the ladder as adrenaline kicked in and he found the strength to move quickly.
He made a wide berth around the spot Ryo and Seiji had been frozen in. He paused beside Byakuen. "I am right, aren't I?" he asked. Byakuen nodded and stood up. He growled and brushed his head against Seiji's hand. "Good, I thought so." Seiji continued his long sweep around the spot until he reached the door. He dashed inside of the house with Byakuen closely at his heels.
Ryo and Shuu had been lain on the cabin's dirty bed. Nasutei was fetching some damp rags from the kitchen's area as Shin checked for pulses. They all gave Seiji a strange look as he slammed the door shut behind him.
"Look," Seiji said, "something is really wrong here."
"Are you saying I can't live here?" Ryo demanded. The stubborn set of his jaw told the others that the words 'no, you can't' was not an option.
"No, I am not saying that. All I am saying is that something is really wrong here."
"What is?" Shin asked. His eyes grew wide and they quickly darted their gaze around the room. "Is it demons?"
Seiji shook his head. "No, it's not a demon; it's something else."
"Oh man!" Shuu said suddenly. "I remember what it was like to be touched by demons, and that was not a demon! I agree with Seiji! Something is wrong, and it doesn't belong here!"
Ryo shook his head and flailed his hands to get free of Shun's prodding fingers. "Look; I felt it too. I know it was cold, but I can't say that it didn't belong here." Seiji and Shuu glared at him. "I know that I don't have senses like yours, Seiji. I also realize that Byakuen was probably telling me something earlier-" Byakuen gave him a nasty look, and Ryo smiled sheepishly at it "-but if it was here, then it probably means to stay. Maybe it was here before I was, and if that is so, then I am not going to chase it off."
The others gave him uncertain glances.
"What? That is how it's going to be!"
"Whatever," Shuu finally said. "It's your place, so it's your decision. And as for me, I am glad I don't live here with you, but with my family."
Ryo snorted at that, deciding to leave his sarcasm left unsaid about Shuu's eight little brothers and sisters. "Look; if you guys want to finish helping me after what just happened, fine. If not, fine."
Nasutei shook her head. "We will finish," she said, glaring at Shuu and Seiji. "After all, you fought demons and monsters and such, just how scary is the thing you faced outside? Are you men, or are you mice?"
Shuu appeared to debate that. Shin slapped him across the back of the head. "Come on! If you finish your job, I'll make you a chocolate cheesecake!" he said. Shuu brightened immediately.
In the woods somewhere, a raven cawed loudly, causing the white figure standing outside to shiver ominously.
Everything was completed in two days after that. Several other incidents occurred that caused the others to vow never coming near and visit Ryo ever again. Ryo grumbled about their choices then, but made them promise to write at the very least.
So maybe there was something wrong with anyone who switched the salt with the sugar-no one could explain that situation. Nasutei did not do it because she hated any sort of waste, Shin did not believe in doing such a thing, Seiji was not the kind to pull such nonsense, Shuu thought such behavior on anyone's part was scandalous, and Ryo knew he never did it.
And then there was the matter about the tar. Ryo knew he placed it under the tarp with the lid firmly sealed. He knew it; Seiji knew it because Seiji had been there watching him do it; so how in the world did it get to the top of the roof and spill all over the shingles?
Ryo sat before the fire in the new fireplace he had finished plastering earlier that day. The fire was small. He only wanted it to harden the plaster, not add to the lingering intense summer heat. Byakuen lay across beside it on the bare floor. Ryo leaned back against the furry stomach and watched the licking flames.
"So," he began uncertainly. The silence hung into the air after that, broken only with the occasional thump of Byakuen's tail against the wooden floor and the constant crackling of the flames. Shadows-created because it was night and the only light source was the fire itself-twisted around the room, giving the atmosphere an eerie feeling. It had been too long since he had been alone with himself. Ryo smiled and scratched Byakuen behind the ears. "It's just like old times!" he laughed.
The tiger gave him a cold look. "What?" He settled back against the stomach, watching the fire. "I know; you're still mad at me, aren't you?" The tail thumped yes in reply. "Look, if it makes you feel better, I don't think we are in any real harm. What was it that Grandma used to tell me? 'Ghosts cannot kill a living creature.' "
Byakuen huffed at that. Ryo shrugged. "I know. She also said that ghosts are capable of harming people, but that's okay. I mean, if the ghost had really hated me and wanted to get rid of, it would have done so when it had the chance, right?" Again, Byakuen's tail thumped against the floor. Ryo scratched his head; he felt the word no was being conveyed in that movement.
"I wish you could talk; we might actually have a decent conversation one of these days," he said. "I wonder what everyone else is doing right now?" he asked. "Does sort of feel a bit lonely around here." He glanced over to the window where he could see a sliver of the shining moon. He glanced away and back at the fire just as a raven flew across the sky.
A shirtless Ryo hummed softly to himself the next morning as he exited the cabin and strode over to the spring flowing past the house at the opposite side of the clearing. He grabbed a bucket from a small shelf built next to the water and dipped it into the spring. He carried the filled bucket back over to the cabin, and froze at the doorway as the hairs on the back of his neck rose upward in warning.
He warily turned to see a woman dressed in ragged white clothes staring menacingly at him. "Can I help you?" he inquired curiously. She tilted her head and glared at him. She shook a finger, opening and closing her mouth. Not a sound was heard from her.
"Could you speak up please? I can't hear you?" Ryo began to feel nervous as the woman became angrier and shook a fist at him. She jumped into the air once, gestured around the yard with the flat of her hand, and her mouth moved some more. She shook another finger at him and then stomped away with a silent huff.
Byakuen growled from the interior of the house and swept past Ryo to stand between him and the woman.
The woman cringed back when she saw Byakuen, and said something. She looked at Ryo and then made a gesture at the tiger. Ryo glanced from her to his pet.
"Byakuen," he called softly, "come here." Byakuen growled. His fur stood on end as he faced the woman. "Byakuen?" Grrrrrowl. "Byakuen!" The woman threw her hands up in an indignant defeat and then she disappeared into the woods without a backward look.
Byakuen snuffed and padded back into the house. Ryo blinked with shock. "What was that about?" he wondered. He turned to look at Byakuen, who laid down before the fireplace. Ryo tromped up to him and set the bucket of water harshly down on the floor.
"All right!" He tried to appear intimidating to the tiger. It was hard thing to do to a kitten, let alone a five-hundred pound feline predator. "What just happened?" Byakuen opened one eye, and then smacked Ryo's shins with his tail.
She huffed as she paced through the woods, angry with herself for not being able to communicate with the mortal, and angry with the mortal for being an idiot and not getting the hint that she wanted him to go away. She thought about the conversation she tried to hold with him.
She tried to tell him he didn't belong; in fact, she did just that. She had waved her hand around and told him that she owned the place. Her husband made this for her, and she didn't need any youngsters coming onto the property and ruining it. And then that tiger had to come out. Why was there such an animal like that in Japan to begin with? She hated him for coming, and hated him for making her feel bad. Whatever happened to courtesy with adults?
The boy had made the place nice, and that in itself was sort of all right because she was supposed to keep it that way for her husband when he came back-or was he? She couldn't remember-but the boy didn't belong, and it was very inappropriate for someone like him to live in the same place as her.
She blushed properly. Kami! Where was her daughter? If she had been there, she could help her get rid of these horrible pests! Ghostly tears appeared in her eyes as she remembered her daughter's fate. She thought wistfully of the boy and wondered if she would ever have a son like him. He did seem noble and caring, but when she looked at him, why did she always get the impression of fire?
A raven called out in the forest and hopped from one branch to another before settling down and watching the house with glinting red eyes.
