Promise of a River
By: LadyRainStarDragon
Chapter 6: Understandings and Offerings
Rain owneth not ye Spirited Away.
Story guide: Promise to Protect and Provide, Underwater Savior, Promise of a River (in progress), Rivers Never Die (in corrections), Rivers Keep Flowing (in progress), Rivers Always Claim What Is Their Own.
Things had finally settled down around the bath house. The women's cycles had stabilized and they had finally understood he was off-limits. How he had accomplished that feat was very simple. He just stared at them till they squirmed, then walked away.
Today's mission was a tough one. It wasn't that the cargo was difficult to carry, actually that was the easy part. No, the tough part was what I was supposed to do with it..
Him.
That's right, Yubaba wanted me to take a gift to that great god. Something in the back of my mind wanted to head the other way, find a deep cave, and sulk. Ah well, I needed to thank him anyway. It was time to get over this silly jealousy I had. I mean, really, he's ancient. I really don't think he'd try to take her away from me. Then again, we dragons are possessive creatures, and great battles have been fought over the strangest things.
You wouldn't believe what Yubaba was having me take back. A Pearl. Apparently, the last time he was here, when he was getting his chin scrubbed (a past-time that we dragons just LOVE) his Pearl had accidentally fallen out of one of the folds. Whoever it was, they scrubbed too hard. It was a good thing for him that he lived in a river. If he'd lived in the Heavens, that would have been bad. Could you imagine flying all the way to the Gates, and then not being able to get in, just look and go 'I live there, now I'm stuck.' It's terrible!
Who knows how she came by it, but that's beside the point. All I know is I didn't steal it.
The flight was nice. I saw parts of Japan that I hadn't seen in a great while. It was no wonder why he had become a regular customer though. The population growth along his banks was horrifying. I had thought the bathhouse was overcrowded, but his domain was more so.
Shinanogawa-sama was glowering at a sewage treatment facility when I found him. It is very sad to see such an August presence engaging himself by glowering at anything. I can understand though, he does so much for the humans, and all he ever sees as repayment are wastes dumped into his home.
"Shinanogawa-sama?"
His Augustness abandoned his staring match with the machinery and dead ponds, turning tired and watery eyes on me. His silver scales were beginning to dull already, not gleaming as they had been upon departing our bath house. His mane, grey with age, was matted and short, tattered by his battles with pollutants and ecology decay.
"Ah, welcome Young One! What brings a healthy boy to visit such an aged one as I?"
"Yubaba-sama has sent me to deliver this to you, Lord."
"Ah! So that's where it has been. Thank you. You don't have to address me as Lord, my boy. You are a young Lord yourself, so even though you currently serve Yubaba, I hope you would see us as equals."
A dip of my head was my answer. I really had no words for that. The old one smiled at me, a dry crack in the earth of his face.
"You have grown much. Has there been any word yet from that child, Sen?"
A shake and sigh. No one had heard news of her.
"I suspect, Shinanogawa, that she is going to school and has made friends wherever she is at."
The Ancient regarded me silently, weighing something in his mind, judging what words he would best use.
"You care for the child. Her energy is still with you as yours is with her. I felt you, young one, when she fell in that tub so long ago. You watched over her when she was young, and now you feel as the wind trapped in a string that you can not see her yet. You were so jealous! I could feel your eyes even though I am sure your were out running one of your Mistress' errands for her."
His laughter after that astounded me. He found it funny I was jealous of him?
"I see your surprise, Young One. I too, was once in your place. If it had not been from the lesson that I learned from the humans so long ago, I would ravage their villages for what they do to my home. Yet, I do remember, and know that they are only as little children to be cherished and guided. You are forgiven, and you are welcome for the assistance I gave one of your own. You'd better run along now, before Yubaba gets impatient to have you back. Sayonara!"
"Sayonara, Shinanogawa."
Rather dazed, I took back to the air, catching a passing current and climbing high into the sea above me. That tales were right, he was very wise. I only hope that one day I can be as wise as he.
'How did he know what was in my heart without my speaking it? Why was I so jealous of him in the first place?
His words echoed through my brain as I swam the skywaters.
"You care for the girl."
The time she fell into me, so small and innocent only reaching for her shoe. The trust she put into me to save her as I shivered from her touch igniting my protective fire. Playing with her as she grew, the music of my flute guiding her feet in dance as the wind kami fluttered her nutty tresses. The fear and joy that filled me the time I saw her at the bridge. The Joy and sadness clashing within my blood in alternating tides as she slipped through my fingers back to her proper place.
'I don't just care for her though. Do I . . . love her? Is that why I was so jealous?'
So know, you see that quandary I have put myself in. There have been no relationships of that caliber between a human and a dragon in a very long time. It has become a sort of unwritten rule that romance between spirit and flesh is forbidden, as the flesh always gives way to the passage of time. Most things of the flesh leave their mortal shell and take on another after the former has worn out. It can be hard to find the soul again, and they don't always remember. But to me, the most important consideration was her feelings.
'What if she doesn't love me in return? Can I still remain her friend?'
On my return, I paused my thoughts. This was not the place to dwell on such sentiments. Resuming my normal chores, I made my rounds checking that all was as it should be. Afterwards, I was engaged in the account books, checking the week's flow of income and expenses. A very boring night really, which didn't do much to distract me from my thoughts.
So now I close this entry.
Allowing the pen to stop its scratching on his scroll, Haku laid back on his futon. Drifting to sleep quickly, leaving his body restlessly stirring as it worked out the day's tensions, a part of his spirit departed and journeyed. If anyone had been in the room with him, they would have been surprised to see him become a bit less real. Not vastly animatedly less real, just somehow . . . softer, less solid.
Meanwhile, at Ogino-daitoku's home in the Kohakugawa district, a 15 year old in the red and white of a miko stood in a garden, pausing to let the wind caress her slender form. Today, her hair was down, flying in the breeze as the band that normally restrained it wrapped about her wrist. In her hands rested a small wooded tray, loving carved with an image of the family's protector deity, who had also been the river deity. This tray was new, just having been finished by her grandfather a few months ago. Upon it, crouched a pile of mochi, fresh and delicious from the oven.
The wind had finished its play, her robes now calm enough that she could kneel without having trouble standing back up afterwards. Before a small torii, she knelt to place the humble offering, as an imitation river of bluish rocks mimicked the long-gone river, curling around bonsai and one large boulder. On a little island, reached by stepping stones across the river of rock, was a small patch of grass, summoning the little miko to come and meditate, to prepare for her summer's day.
This whole time, she had the strangest feeling of being watched. It was not a threatening presence, but comforting and intensely protective. The feeling had been coming more and more to her lately, more intense as the progress for the river restoration project continued. Always during the day, although once in a while she would wake from dreams feeling someone was thinking about her.
Sometimes, she swore she could feel a touch, or hear her name whispered in her ear. But every time she turned to look, there was nothing there. Shaking off the thoughts, she prayed to the family kami for good fortune for the project and her family. As she finished, Amaterasu, the sun, began to peek over the horizon, bringing the new day.
How, in his dream, he could know what she felt he did not know. He merely accepted it, watched her, shared presence with her.
When Kohaku awoke that evening, he was puzzled to find a plate of mochi sitting beside him, waiting.
