Underwater Savior
Chapter 16: Messages and Diversions
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.
Greed had caught the squirrel easily, calling upon his natural hunter's skills and a little bribery. Enticed by the illusion of the juiciest berry the poor thing had ever seen, he was pulled towards his doom, first eventual casualty of the new death. Death, in the guise of Greed smiled benignly as the small creature took the item from his hand, smoothing a callous hand over its back. The deceived ate its prize as if it would disappear in one second, unknowingly becoming the first bearer of a new evil. The creature then scampered happily away, leaving nothing but a little dirt in the hand of the beast, what once appeared to be the berry.
Pleased with himself, the demon looked at the vial that had been in his hand. Curious about what had been coiled in the tiny prison, the tainted creature read the label.
'Unknown virus collected from West Nile area. Attacks central nervous system.'
He knew not what he had just unleashed on the area, but he knew that it had to be bad. That was all he wanted. He was off to distribute these new time bombs about the area, uncapping some of the monsters while secreting others in areas prone to flood. The guardian would no doubt cause a few floods in fighting back, and would unknowingly release the flus and other plagues that he himself had not.
It would serve the conceited dragon right, for cavorting around and meddling with the lives of mortals.
Faster than any normal current, the River Lord raced through his channel, banners of confusion, fear, indignation, and anger in his wake. As he passed by, the alarm spread throughout the multitudinous spirits that the time was now. Kami of the surrounding area, who had bowed to the Lord as he was their lifeblood, answered the silent call to arms. Trees and plants took on a mysterious new life, dancing with the non-existent winds, confusing the humans who had long ago tuned out the wonders of the natural world. An unseen current stirred and connected all, spirits issuing forth invisibly, pouring along the land and with the waters, sending chills throughout the mortals who only deemed it a passing wind, or fear of the flood.
There was one particular family of spirits that did not answer the call of the Bringer of Liquid Life. The Tsuni family stayed in their corporate stronghold, which also had secret belowground living quarters for the 'special' employees. Tsukaimono currently was restrained in her quarters, unsure as to why the door would not open. At the same time, Ni was a coiled spring tightly wound, nervously bouncing back and forth in his spartan office. His eye was drawn to the window as water and spirit passed by in a flash flood, bent on searching out the second draining station, where some of the river was now passing more hurriedly into irrigation canals.
'All you'll find are irrigation canals running pumps at full speed Kohaku, and those you have treaties not to harm. I hope the distraction of hunting the second unit will be enough to get the work done.'
Koji was on his way home, slumbering child tied securely to her seat. The dragon had been fascinated by the iron horse, and with something within Chihiro that only he could see. What it was though, was beyond Koji.
The ground seemed a little muddier than the last time they had passed. Thanks to all of the grass, it was still firm enough to ride the bike at least. Had there been a flood?
He passed the clearing where the spring was, and found workers hard at work, but not doing as he expected. Instead of securing caps and pumping water, they seemed to be letting water out of engine compartments, leaving them open to hopefully dry. True, a few worked like ants to rebuild the pool wall a little bit, but the others seemed distressed by the non-functioning pumps.
"Kohaku found a way to stall them it seems."
Koji was troubled by the low level and sluggishness of the river though. Where had all the water gone?
Below, Ten was troubled by the high levels of water now entering the underground river. He was sending all he could towards the aboveground river, but the partial blockage had overcome Nature's plan. Only a small portion of the needed water now saw the light of Amaterasu, and he could feel the lethargy beginning to take over the dragon who was as good as brother to him.
There was nothing he could do.
Koji continued on. When the men were finally done desecrating the spring, he would have to go and cleanse it. Exposed dirt between patches of grass slowly turned from overset chocolate pudding back to bonded and packed sand and gravel. It seemed the flooding had been very local, the water dragon probably having taken advantage of a pressure buildup, bound by the laws of nature.
The trees had taken on a different quality, whispering amongst themselves like old women at a festival speaking of the latest gossip or planning some surprise for a lonely sister. They were at once menacing and welcoming, as if they recognized who he belonged to after a moment's consideration. He could not remember them being this active of their own accord, though as a young child he had once heard stories about the activity of tree spirits. A normal person would have thought it just the wind, ignoring the absence of it. It seemed that the expected loss of the river worried more than just those immediately affected.
A twig snapped to the right, slightly behind him, and the trees seemed to be even more agitated, if it were possible, slowly closing branches together behind the two humans as if to shield them from some approaching evil. A gasp issued from the child, warning of the stalking death-bringer thirsting after them, empty breath absent of hope and bleak as a midwinter night.
"He's here, Ji-chan. He's coming for me."
A glance behind as the once strong man circled his feet through the air, conjuring a speed won from foot races of long ago amongst other warrior priests at obsolete shrines, urging the metal horse to gallop upon round hooves of rubber towards safety and away from the grasping cold of half-sensed unknown. Fear ran from every pore of the child, her face half-turned behind them, gazing at what only she could see, the light of hope missing from eyes now dark and brown, staring at the doom crashing through tree.
The wind, having had enough of rest, chose that moment to rise, sweeping up loose leaves to swirl and dance, weaving a weak screen to curtain the fleeing duo, at the same time racing to carry news to the being responsible for the care of his possessions of fleshly mien. A tailwind added emphasis on the speed of the bike, but even with the help of the wind kami, it was not enough. A flash of white, sign of impending death coming gleefully to claim both daitoku and future miko, was all that Koji could see before their conveyance was knocked to the ground. After that, Koji lost himself to the encroaching darkness, unable to defend the child still bound in the rear seat.
The wind kami, unable to touch anything in a meaningful manner in any world, did the only thing it could.
Having no voice of it's own, it carried the child's scream and a snippet of the prophecy it had heard in the Sacred Clearing to the son of mountain and sea.
Reviewer Corner:
Note for everyone! Check your reviewer and author alert lists. The site keeps turning mine off on me, just thought everybody else might be having the same problem.
KatsyKat: 'Rivers Always Claim What is Their Own' was pretty dark, huh? I don't think I'll do a story about the kids, although I might do a chapter about how her brother took the events. They do have a Shrine to run, and things aren't always very exciting at a Shrine (read, you watch the grass grow or scrub floors in many cases). But, we'll see.
KatsyKat again: It was hard to write that little bugger without using details and making it flow decently to boot. My poetry is rusty. At least it worked. The 'rents won't do a whole lot, but hopefully what they do can help. After all, a butterfly in Peking flaps it's wings and Mt. Shasta gets blizzards!
Fyraga: Well, here's the update. Glad you liked.