Chapter 3: Fire
Wind rushes past my face, smacking me with a sharp cold on my skin. I'm standing in an open field. Endless grassland is around me. The steppe. Miles and miles of gray and brown.
"Boy…"
A voice speaks to me. It's low, raspy, and unfamiliar. I look around to find its source, but there is nobody around.
"Tei Ta Ra…" the voice continues croaking. "…you have been lied to…"
"Who are you, hmm?" I ask this out loud. I instantly feel silly afterward, remembering there is no one around me. Am I going mad?
"…your chakra is strong…" the voice sounds like it's getting closer. "…but your will is weak…"
"What the hell are you on about, hmm?!" I'm getting angry now. I don't understand. And I hate not understanding.
"…listen to the one-eyed one…" the voice is so close I can practically hear it inside my head. "…and you will find the truth…"
Suddenly, there's a fire. I have no idea how I didn't notice it before. I'm surrounded by fire, burning the steppe around me into smoke and ash. I turn to run, but there is nowhere to run. I start coughing, feeling the smoke crowd my lungs.
"…remember these words…" the voice is booming in my ears. "…remember…su…" it's so loud that I can't even understand it.
"What?" I choked out, bewildered and confused.
"…whe…nee…ay ka…"
"TEI TA!"
My eyes shoot open. The ceiling is covered in smoke. I jump up and see Saah at the foot of my cot, holding what looks like a makeshift knife made out of yak bone.
"What's going on?!" I demand, my voice half-shaking.
"Raiders! The camp is on fire. We need to go now, rrrr!" Saah takes my hand and yanks me forward. I put my feet forward on the hard ground, still adjusting to reality after that strange dream in the steppes. Saah leads me out of the tent and my eyes struggle to comprehend what I see. Bodies are everywhere. Men who had voted in the Kuurulgai just a few days ago were strewn out on the ground, their entrails scattered. I was used to brutality. But I had never seen the inside of a body before.
"Wha—" my train of thought halts when I hear a new sound. A strong wind blows across the camp. But this wind is different. It's sharp. The tents are cut and the wood for the fires are thrown up into the air.
"Get down!" Saah pulls me downward as the wind approaches us. I fall flat on my stomach and cover my head, hearing the gale brush over our heads and rip my tent to shreds. My ears ring for several seconds until the sound of cutting fades away behind us.
"Is this a dream, hmm?" I muttered to myself as I get up with Saah to survey the damage. Several of the fires were put out by the wind, but the camp sight was torn to pieces. It was a miracle that we escaped the violent wind unscathed.
In the distance, behind the disappearing smoke, men are fighting. I recognize several of them to be our clansmen. The others are clad in gray armor. Instead of swords, they seem to be wielding knives of some sort. And with a wave of their hands, the same violent wind from before emerges, ripping our clansmen into pieces.
"C'mon, rrrr!" Saah yanks me back to my senses and we immediately start running before the winds can reach us. I look down at my hand, grasping hers as she leads me. Then my eyes fall to the yak bone in her other hand. She's prepared to defend herself. I don't have any weapons on me. Two slaves on the run. If we get found, we're goners.
As if reading my thoughts, fate had one of the armored ones appear in front of us. We skirted to a stop. Whoever he was, he had a small black knife in hand and an ivory-colored mask over his face. The mask looked like an animal of some sort.
We stand there for what feel like hours, hearing the slicing winds from the camp travel far past us. Then, the man takes a step toward us, knife raised. Saah raises her own knife in response. "Stay back!" she shouts. I look at her, my eyes wide at her courage. But I realize her arms are shaking.
The man is silent as he raises his knife to take a swing. Without thinking, my legs start to move.
"No!" I scream so loud that it pierces my throat. But it's too late.
I taste metal. Saah's body is on the floor next to mine. I look down, seeing her blood splatter on my ragged clothes. My legs weren't quick enough.
Down by my feet is the bone knife, fallen from her hand without even an attempt at a swing.
And in front of me was the masked man, raising his arm once again. Ready to strike me down like he did my only friend.
My only friend.
Saah.
Was this my end? Seventeen years a slave, beaten and mocked by violent men? Only to wake up one night and be slashed to death? What a stupid death. Life on the steppe was a harsh thing. I'd heard stories of raids where entire villages were slaughtered. Nameless men, women, and children gutted by animals posing as men. But I didn't think anything of it.
Yet here I was, about to die the same, boring, stupid death I heard about in the stories. Would anyone remember my name? Or would they forget it like so many of those pitiful villagers my clan had killed off over the years?
My name. I paused on it for the short milliseconds before the masked man's knife rapidly approached my body. Does anyone know my name?
Tei Ta Ra. God of Misfortune.
Suddenly I remember that dream. I remember what the voice was telling me. It knew my name. Tei Ta Ra. And it told me something at the very end, when the flames surrounded me. Remember these words. It said. Remember, when needed, say…
"KATSU!" I scream that word so loud my throat feels like it'll burst. I feel that sensation all over my body. Bursting. My hands are raised as the same cold sensations on my palms that I'd endure every night suddenly heated to an unbearable temperature. The bandages wrapped around them loosen and fall, as a bright light take over my vision, clouding my sight completely for several seconds.
Then I hear it. A bang. Even louder than the slicing winds from before. A screeching boom that makes my eardrums rumble.
The sensation is over almost as soon as it started. The light is replaced by the stark darkness of night around us. The masked man is nowhere to be found. My ears keep ringing as I struggle to maintain my balance. Looking down, I see Saah. Except she's moving. Just barely because of her wound, but moving. She's pushing something off of her. Something…
An arm.
It's the arm of the masked man.
Saah meets my gaze, her pink eyes I was so used to shining brightly back at me replaced by pure terror.
"Tei…" she mumbles. "What did you do?"
A sight in the corner of my eye catches my attention. I look and my eyes rest on my hands. The bandages with strange writing are no longer there. Instead, sitting in the middle of my palms, are two gapping holes. The skin around each hole is wrinkled and pale, almost like the bottom of feet that've been underwater too long.
And the holes open, revealing rows of sharp teeth. And a tongue, redder than any red I've seen, emerges. Sparks dancing on their tips.
"What…What am I? Hmm?" My scratched voice barely escapes my lips. I stand there, ears still ringing, staring at the gross abominations in both my palms. Is this the big secret that Guk was so afraid of? This is the secret I've been sleeping with for all of my life?
Just then, another figure appears in front of us. I look up and meet another mask. Except behind it glows a single, red eye. Three black dots dance around their irises, like a spinning wheel.
"Your chakra is strong, boy." Chakra. That was the word from the dream!
"Who are you?! Hmm?!" I raise my hands again, ready to unleash whatever demonic power I used before. But this stranger places his hands gently on top of mine. His skin is soft against my rugged, dirtied knuckles.
"Don't worry, boy. I'm not here to hurt you." My arms are stiff. I stand there, apprehensive of what this red-eyed foreigner would do next.
It was then that he reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a scroll. Slow and steady, he gingerly placed the scroll in my stiff hands and guided my fingers to grasp it. My eyes darted between him and the scroll, confused.
"Take this." He said sternly. "It's a map. Mount Itugan is north from here. On the other side is a village. Go there and you will find the truth."
Without pause, the man turned to leave as soon as he finished speaking. Find the truth. Words just like my dream.
He took several steps before I called out to him. I needed to know.
"Wait!" I mustered. "You didn't answer me, hmm! Who are you?"
He turned, his red eye seeming to glow in the night.
"You can call me Madara. Uchiha Madara."
He never left my sight. Yet, just as quickly as he appeared, he vanished.
Uchiha. I never forgot that name.
Or that eye. Hmm.