Underwater Savior

Chapter 15: Rage, Disease and Prophecy

by: LadyRainStarDragon

Not mine. I can only wish. If you've seen the movie, then you know which characters aren't in it. Hey, at least the plots in my stories are mine!

I will now be dedicating this story to my cat MoonBeam, who passed away the night of January 8, 2005. He lived 12 long years, 11 years longer than we had ever expected him to. My child, my friend, my confidante, my muse, you shall be missed, but I know we will never part.

One of his favorite things to do was to sit in my lap as I wrote, and this is the last chapter we did together, before we went to bed last night.

The men above the spring were in confusion. The water had begun rising, forcing many of the slabs of concrete and rocks of granite being used to cap the depths out of their places. Finally, only one was left to stem the flow, and just barely at that. Then, the waters attained a weary kind of peace again.

It only lasted about an hour though, only giving them enough time to improve the size of the pool in case of overflow. Already, the pumps were hastily drawing water from the river, transporting it in trucks to a holding facility. The men, including Mr. Ogino, did not understand why it was to be done this way, but it was the orders.

A worker, wedging a rock in the restraining wall, noticed the uneasy waters beginning to foam again. He barely had time to shout a warning as they swiftly began to rise. In answer, the river itself had foamed as well, and strangely risen. As the waters reached the peak of their fury, the reservoir overflowed, and the curling tide took the shape of a dragon for those who had active imaginations.

Including Mr. Ogino. Shaking off the thought, he was about to bark to the others to get back to work. What stopped him was the feeling that if he did, he would never see his little girl again. It wasn't like harm would come to her, but it was like the very river itself would feel no guilt in swallowing him up. It was as if he had done some great transgression, with no way to repay it.

The flood waters rose higher, flooding the engines of the machines, sending the men to sit on the tops of whatever the highest object they could reach was. Akio was currently on top of one of the trucks. In the water though, for a brief instant he thought he saw some steely eyes glowing with righteous anger, shielded by the pain of betrayal.

Akio would feel guilty if he didn't think those eyes were just an optical illusion. The illusion had scared him none-the-less, frozen caresses running down his spine while eating away at his heart with dulled teeth.

His mind replayed his daughter's screams in his mind.

'Chihiro. I'm sorry honey, but you need more friends than Lily and the river.'

Like the iron ore, he had not been tempered and forged, gaining in strength. No, due to his own choices and renouncing his innocence for the second time he had fallen into the bottom of the smelter, mixing in with the slag. Instead of losing impurities, he only picked them up. Like the foolish ore deep in the mountains, he too, thought he was pure.

Kohakunushi frothed the waters, giving the humans a warning to escape before it was too late, then let them settle into wary state, listening to see if his warning was taken advantage of. They only continued to build the walls up more, hoping the contain the overflow. He thought it a silly sentiment, since water would flow whether you tried to stem it or not. At last, he grew tired of waiting.

How dare they not listen to his warning. How dare they cause his little jewel such stress. And finally, why the hell wasn't her mother taking care of her like a mother should?

It was that last thought that whipped the waters enough to escape the prison they were contained in, white fingers of rage reaching out to sweep away the cause of pain. Half-way water and half-way dragon, he roared over the wall, the force of his passage knocking much of it down and scattering the stones around.

Climbing up the ugly yellow machines, the water herself eagerly set about her master's bidding, flooding engines and sweeping away what it could. Humans scrambled like the monkeys they were up to the tops. Unlike the dragon who was after a monkey heart though, the dragon of the Kohaku river would not be tricked. He was furious and his waters roared so the mortals would quake in their fear.

As Kohakunushi circled about one truck, seeking a way to incapacitate the hateful thing further he spied the one who was triggering this rage. There, cowering upon the highest reaches, Akio huddled. Turning his twin pools of molten feelings too jumbled for him to understand, filtered only with the pain of the betrayal by his one-time friend and charge, he swore his vengeance. Somehow, the human would pay for what he had done to him and to Chihiro. He projected a thought of how easily the river could sweep him away. Another thought, one of how under other circumstances the human child he had become bonded to would have been taken to where he could protect her forever from the pains humans inflicted on each other.

If his river were not besieged.

The dragon smirked to himself as he saw the raw iron before him shiver. His threat had been understood on some level. He allowed himself to calm, waters again responding to the master's emotions, receding back to within their ancient banks as he flowed down the bed to spread the alarm and hopefully get some clue as to were his nemesis was.

Greed had finished his little rest, and long ago had gone to the 'lab' as he had dubbed it in his mind. With the little snake gone, he could be certain of getting inside without an alarm being raised to the other kami. He would have liked to feel as her lifeless body slid down his throat, to land in his acidic pool and then filling his body with sweet sustenance, but it could wait.

First, he wanted to find some new toys. He was certain that he could find many interesting things here.

Stepping out of the bushes, he was pleased that his clothing had imitated the tight white overcoats worn by the weaklings that worked here. His unnaturally white hair pulled itself into a low horsetail, falling down his back to sway behind in imitation of his normal tail.

He was very happy when the security guards merely waved him through, busy with their coffee and lunches. His black shoes tapped out the rhythm of ancient forests frequented by his ancestors, the nearly empty halls echoing and filled with the sound. Holding his breath in anticipation of any who would recognize him as not part of the facility, he was ecstatic when no one challenged his right to be there. After a short time, the samples room sprung up on his right.

Having no need of the protective clothing waiting outside the airlock, he went in, and grabbed several vials of death. Some would be slow, some would be fast. A few could be carried by animals and insects, then gifted to the humans he despised so. Ivory fangs glinted in the lights, pleasured by the fact that with this many samples, he could do damage over a long time, and none could say exactly what disease was the problem. Although most of these were common problems, together in the same area, it would seem an epidemic.

Slipping these into his pockets, he left the room. Again, no one challenged him as he left, and he briefly wondered how a supposedly secret government facility could be so lax. It did not worry him though. They too would pay for their mistake.

'Hmm. Maybe I'll give that girl and her little friend a taste of my new medicine. The stupid dragon loves to play healer. Now to find someone to carry my message.'

As he padded through the woods around the facility, he spied a little squirrel attempting to scramble into a hole much too small.

'Perfect.'

Koji had stopped in a clearing far from the defiled spring. Birdsong lilted through the air, carried aloft by gentle winds from the mountain. Trees swayed back and forth, dancing beneath the kisses of Amaterasu. Soft grass blanketed the area, beckoning the distressed duo to sink onto it and shed their woes. A small cave led from somewhere inside the mountain to the sacred place, either offering or guarding velvet mysteries as it saw fit.

Chihiro was still mourning the loss of her friend. He had been a good dragon, not hurting anybody. What had he done to deserve such a cruel fate? She had seen the pain and confusion in the river. How the innocent had wished to run to him, plunge herself into his depths, and somehow make it all better, the way he did for her! The wails, which once had faded to merely jagged breaths, now rose full force again as broken pieces of a once calm soul struggled to maintain their place.

Keening like this had never been heard by the old dragon before, who had been considerably surprised to hear them upon exiting his home. Tall and imposing in his humanoid form, the snow of his robing stirred in the breezes. His hair was the night sky that the rains would come to him through, snaking its way behind him and past his buttocks in the manner of the spring's runoff down his back. He hesitated at the mouth of the cave, the nature of his golden mother causing him to prefer only appearing at the perfect moment., a trait passed to his own offspring as well.

The child needed comfort though, and as his forest orbs settled on the man holding her quaking form, his decision was made. Whatever the problem was, it would be grave if a priest was taking refuge here with so little. Bare feet passed over the ground, beating out the rhythm found only deep within the caverns of nature's filter, yet still carrying the grace of the rolling sea they had once emerged from.

"Is there anything I can do?"

Looking up through her tears as her grandfather gasped in awe, she saw the figure she was the most afraid for. A shout, then the child hurled her small frame at the kneeling man.

"Kohaku!"

The strange child fell promptly asleep in his arms, as he tensed. He had held no child since his son was young, and the way she called him by his son's name filled him with dread.

"Nigihayami Tatsu-sama, please forgive my granddaughter for her forwardness. She's just suffered a terrible shock, and your son looks so much like you in this form."

Tatsu shifted himself and the child into a more comfortable position, deep-seated paternal instincts coming into play. Something about holding the child felt so nice, probably due to the absence of the mars humanity usually wore upon themselves. Or perhaps it was merely a longing to be included again.

"I am not worried by her forwardness, she is but a child still, and my own son would be the same way at times. What is it that drives you and she to seek sanctuary here with so few supplies? If you need to stay here, we shall have to procure you more. Another warlord is not sweeping through the area after priests I hope."

The Mountain Lord had not truly been out amongst the others since around the time of Nobunaga's fateful sweeps of the Buddhist Monasteries, so to him, the memories were still fresh, marring the youth of his face. He had never understood the man's need to kill priests, as in his eyes, Shinto and Buddhism had been complementary. Both faiths had drawn from the same eternal source, so why would one have been more desirable than the other?

"No Lord. We were going to the spring, and planned to have a picnic there when we found it being covered, and men were trying to drain the river."

"Preposterous. Why would anyone try to drain a river? Do they not want the water that my son and his friend bring to them?"

"I'm sure they want the water, my Lord. However, they want the land too. The population has grown, and more people move to the area, making housing and land a precious thing. They want to build homes where your son flows."

"Troublesome."

Tatsu fell silent as he contemplated the news. His only son could very well die if he did not manage to stop the humans or to take refuge in the Fukaikohakugawa, the hatching grounds of the Nigihayami line. Knowing his stubborn son, he would refuse to hide, instead doing what he could to preserve his river.

The child in his arms began to cry out again, drowning in some deep nightmare ocean current, calling for Kohaku to save her from the terrible dog spirit. His body now swayed in time with waves of earth and sea, slipstreams of air tangled with fiery tongues of poetry to lull the child into a more restful sleep, thereby giving her a wooden raft to navigate her dream.

"What is this dog spirit?"

"A dog spirit has been interfering with your son's duties, and terrorizing poor Chihiro. I think it went after her last night, but she won't talk about it much, just that your son saved her.

"Very troublesome. It seems that destiny is after my boy already."

"I do not understand."

"When my mate was brooding over the egg that became Kohakunushi, she received a vision. The being singing to her she could not see, but this was the song."

Dragon young shall lose his Pearl.

Water spirit shall save the girl.

River lost, child must guard,

For evil demon plays his card.

Child grows, to Spirit Away,

Choice is made, she may not stay.

Dragon younger, must now grow strong,

To be older, the training is long.

Woman now, the river revives,

to the dragon, are pledged her lives.

By her Pearl, he'll gain his Pearl,

Priestess now, no longer girl.

Love the Kohaku must surely learn,

The gift she gives he dare not spurn.

Love and rivers take many forms,

it is these truths, that strengthen horns.

Silence wrapped her cloak about the clearing as despair nibbled on the hearts of those who were awake. There was no point in it, the river would be lost. Kohakunushi was to fight a useless battle to save his river. In order to save his river, he had to let it die and protect Chihiro, who had played right into the prophecy that even the priest had not known about.

Tatsu was the most aggrieved, for he could do nothing in this battle to help, the river and lowlands not being his lands. Far away, in the sea, a certain k'uh-lung paused in her job of evaporating the sea water to become rain as a certain river's water brought to her impressions of what was happening to her son. In her worry, tears joined the sea as water evaporated faster. The next rainstorm would be very large indeed.

Could Kohaku let go of the river, or would he doom himself by not seeing the real threat to his continued existence?

Words

Smelter - machine used to melt metals and remove impurities.

Slag - leftovers from the bottom of a boiler (ash, wood, coal, stuff like that, it's almost like rock and if it contained enough carbon, one could pressurize it into low-quality diamond)

Nigihayami - lively water (in case anybody needed review)

Reviewer Corner

Aharah Musici: ::Collapses sobbing:: I want to save it, really! But if I do, we have the whole conflict with the inspiring movie AND making 'Rivers Never Die' not come to be. Think of the terrible time conflicts. Hmm . . . Think of the fun with correcting the paradoxes . . .

::Tackled by Kohakunushi:: Don't get any more ideas Rain, and leave Chihiro alone for good measure. ::Stalks off::

Geeze, what an overprotective dragon, it's just a story. ;)