Story 5 - 'Premonition in Flames'
or 'A Younger Sailor Mars'
Rei walked through the halls, annoyance evident in her stride. Samoa-san had left the Shinto Temple today, just upped and left with no words, leaving Rei to make tea on her own. She'd done it before, but after waking late, getting no warm water for her shower, fighting the wind in raking the cherry blossom leaves and having Samoa-san leave her without telling Grandfather so she would have to, Rei was in no mood or patience to make the tea. She'd struggled in the kitchen endlessly, nearly allowing some foul language to escape her, which only agrevated her further for her lack of control.
She breathed deeply trying to force the overwhelming feeling of WRONG down and away. Everything had felt WRONG lately, she couldn't put her finger on why.
Rei held the tea tray stiffly, as she stood in the doorway watching her grandfather bow before the fire alter. He sat strangely silent, looking straight into the flames without feeling what-so-ever. Rei slowly extracted herself from the doorway of the room and set the tea beside her statue-like relative with a satisfying thunk.
Turning around after a brief bow of respect, she began to leave her grandfather in peace. A hand shot out and stopped her motion. She started at the unexpected movement, for the elder had not moved another part of his body, and was not the least distracted from his praying.
They stood like so for a minute or two, the old man continuing to stare into the fire's heart. Rei held totally still with a practiced art of self-control, although on the inside she quivered with impatience and an internally flaring temper. Along with everything else and that overwhelming feeling of WRONG, Rei hated waiting. Waiting, for anything and everything made her extremely edgy. No matter what. And that feeling of WRONG, why she had that feeling, she didn't know, was slowly stoking the burning vexation. That feeling, deep within her prodded at her gut, that feeling something was happening . . .
The tension in his bones relaxed and Rei watched her grandfather fiddle
into a more comfortable position.
"Rei-chan? The fires have told me that you're ready." He said in the
odd tongue that he always used. "How old are you now, my child?"
Rei held her tongue of the smart reply that just ached to come through.
This round-the-mulberry-bush cryptic way of talking he used was only
igniting the over flowing temper that reigned inside her all over
again. She forced it down. "I'm nine now, Grandfather. You know that"
The wrinkled man smiled.
"Ah yes! Yes, yes. Then you are indeed old enough to learn to read the fire. Do you want to learn Rei-chan? According to the Sacred Fire, you have a gift for fire reading and you should learn to use it." He said quietly, half to himself instead of the other
She stood thoughtful for the briefest instance, the irritation gone
momentarily. The other priests always turned to the fires, saying
special chants to look for answers whenever they had a problem. This
edgy feeling that poked at her . . . Maybe she could find an answer in
those great flames also.
"Sure Grandfather, I'd like to learn."
"Alright then Rei-chan. Just sit down here next to me and cross your legs like I do. We'll begin in just a minute, okay?" She nodded her acceptance as she slipped into a sitting position identical to her relative's. He fell trance-like again for a moment as Rei thought. Her insides mixed painfully, the prodding nerves pushing at her harder, begging her to start this fire reading. It was almost as if this was why she was so tense, something wanted her to read the fire, to see what was there. What? What do you what? She screamed inside herself, her nerves responded to her internal call, to her great surprise and intrigue. A few, odd words past through her mind, like a chant used to call on the fire. Her grandfather snapped her out of her reverie.
"Very good Rei-chan. Now first you need to put some of this on the fire. It'll brighten at first, but you'll be able to read after adding it. It's mostly for your aid, soon, you'll be able to read without the powder to soften the Great Fire."
He took a little pouch out of the folds of fabric around him and placed a small amount of fine, brown powder in Rei's cupped hands. She carefully tossed it into the fire, blinking hard against the glare that currently arose from the flames.
"Now just say the chant I taught you when you first started tending the
fire. Then look deep into the flames, not at the flames, but past them,
beyond the light and into the heart of the fire. I'll do the first one
with you." He calmly told her. Rei looked back to the fire from her
grandfather's wrinkled face. Concentrating hard on not watching the
flickering lights, but staring through them, they began.
The two started the chant, looking into the fire. But Rei was curious, instead of using the words her grandparent did, she used the chant that had crossed her mind so recently. As Grandfather chanted the easy intonation loudly, Rei began a softer version of the more complex chant, using the strange words, so unfamiliar to her, words that would someday open her destiny to her. As the words past her lips, she felt her irritation begin to subside. This was what it was . . . she had needed to do this, now she knew, she'd done the right thing.
With the final words of both chants spoken, the two fell silent to the
crackling of the fire. Slowly Rei felt herself fall into a state of
meditation. She never had done so before, but simply knew that she was.
Rei saw a glimpse of herself, chasing a butterfly, remembering the day
well. But the image quickly faded black, startling Rei, who
acknowledged the changes only by blinking, her eyes widening at what
revealed itself afterward.
The black was fought away by a swirling mass of flying fire, red color,
white color and dark hair. It flashed to an image of a dark haired girl
in a school uniform, but the uniform was too stylized to be that of a
school's. She stood momentarily in a battle-ready stance. But before
giving Rei a chance to study the familiar-seeming figure closely, it
flickered and changed, revealing the same girl, many times, doing
different things in different places, but always the same girl. The
image of the dark haired warrior faded, revealing other figures that
had been in some of those passing scenes with the brunette.
Cats. Blue haze, followed by a girl with short, blue hair. Orange and gold, followed by a curtain of blond and hearts. Green leaves, blowing around fiercely, a great dragon, both flung from the hands of a tall female figure. Black, darkness, preceding the arrival of a great lavender key, wielded by another indistinct figure, heaving pink and lavender spheres through space. Two figures now, one falling from the sky, the other ascending from the sea, mighty spheres of gold and aqua ringed energy appearing from both. The sharp cut of a silver weapon, followed by the fading lines of a violet clad girl. A great cape, sweeping away to reveal a dark and formally dressed man, protecting another blond girl in white. A glare of pink falling from above.
These images swirled together, creating short-lived scenes that moved so quickly, Rei couldn't even make out what was happening in them. Most of them were marked with brightness, more hurtful to the eyes than the fire's intense glaze itself. Dark images of figures came and went with the passing of brightness. It glowed fiercer with each second. As quickly as the scenes flashed they stopped. Marked by the fading lines of a woman. Tall and dignified. Lying infront of a great castle. The earth in the background.
Fading . . . fading . . . fading . . . into the fire's face. Rei could see the butterfly as she dove at it, missing it's gossamer wings as it fluttered past her. She fell to a pile of freshly raked leaves, poofing around her as she plowed into them. This image also faded, much in the same way the first had, back into the depths of the fire. As if nothing had been revealed to her at all. The crackling of the fire returned her to the world she currently knew. She blinked.
The elder sat back a bit, heaving a deep sigh. Her turned to the younger and spoke. "Well? What do you think?" He asked.
Rei wrinkled her nose, "I don't know . . . That was neat, but are there other things that I can see in the fire too? Besides the butterfly?" she asked. She knew the answer, but maybe her grandfather would reveal something that would tell her who those people were. The old man just laughed.
"My dear child, the fires reveal many things to those who can make them yield to them. You can see the past, the future, dreams, far away places and the destinies of others. Oh so many things. It all depends on the chant and your strength of mind." He touched a finger to her chest to impress his last words. "It all depends on you." He smiled. "How about we have a cup of cocoa, and tomorrow I will teach you another type of chant."
Rei grinned, "Sure!" The two got up and Rei began to leave the room with her grandfather ahead of her. At the door she turned back to the crackling fire. Was it the future she saw? Or maybe it was a dream, Grandfather had said that you could see dreams in the fires too. It all depended on her. She stood there, wondering with childish curiosity for a few more moments, all the irritation from before having vanished. Her bottled temper had vanished. She felt normal again.
"Rei-chan! Are you coming dear?" She heard from down the hall. Internally dismissing her fire visions, Rei called back.
"I'm coming Grandfather!"
---
