Balance
I awoke from my slumber, refreshed and renewed. Upon opening my eyes I noticed a faint sliver of sunlight streaming through the crack that was the entrance to my little cave. The cold morning air was slowly seeping through my blanket of leaves, and I shivered slightly before resolving to start moving to warm myself up. As a creature not of this world, I have no need of sustenance other than sleep since there is nothing in this world that would supplement my needs. Also, I need not keep track of time since I am endless as long as there are Mononoke coming over from my world into this world. Thus it does not matter to me how long I might sleep.
Crawling out of my cave, I faced the direction of the sun rising above the mountaintops in the east and began the Hav'ar Anca, my relaxing stretches. I rolled my shoulders languidly before meeting my hands and feet while bending my body in half backwards. Flowing through the rest of the poses, I was sufficiently warmed up and relaxed by the time I finished. Returning my thoughts to the boy in blue, whose name I now knew to be Aia, I resolved to spy on the boy until I could figure out his source of information.
Within moments, I found myself at the temple, returned to my invisible form, and I watched as the acolytes and priests performed their morning activities. I was quick to spot Aia, since he was the only one with a purple headscarf. The acolytes then each gathered up a basket given to them by a stately priest I could only assume to be the Father that Aia and the other acolytes in his cabin had spoken about, and each acolyte retrieved a sword from his cabin before setting out, each acolyte by himself, into the woods on the mountain. I wondered what sort of exercise this might be, and silently slipped through the foliage to follow Aia at a distance.
Aia followed a path that only he seemed to know about for what seemed to be several hours. When he stopped, I saw that it was at the same spot where I had first encountered him after my battle with the Mononoke. I silently crept closer until I was approximately ten meters from him. I watched as he opened up his basket, revealing a flint and striker, some assorted herbs, a short dagger, some bandages and a needle and thread, and an assortment of some unique instruments that I had never set eyes upon before, and I had roamed this Earth for several thousand years. They were a golden color, shaped like a spearhead with wings, decorated in pastel blue and purple and having bells at the extended tip of each wing.
As I was watching, Aia tensed before whipping his head up and unsheathing his sword which had been strapped across his back. He stood up warily and scanned the woods around him. Upon seeing nothing, he went back to his basket and withdrew the instruments. He threw them up in the air and they fell downward to settle upright on the ground, each tilting in the same direction. I moved to get a better look at them, and they moved with me. I stilled, and they remained motionless. I moved again, and they moved with me, the bells tinkling. Aia followed the direction the scales pointed in and looked straight at me, though he could not see me. I inhaled sharply at this before stepping forward and shimmering into visibility.
Aia gasped upon finally seeing me with his eyes and took an involuntary step backwards. I held out my hands away from my sides to show him that I did not intend to harm him. He blinked several times at me before whispering, "You came back." I could only nod my head at him. I could see him gathering up his courage as he thought about what to say next.
"I don't know what you are or what your purpose is, but I would like to learn from you," he finally said. I blanched; how could a mortal learn to do what I do? He saw my expression and his face became set in a mask of determination. "You owe it to me for running off on me," he said stubbornly. I nearly laughed at this before coming forward a few more steps and sitting on the ground. He hesitated and finally sat down next to me.
"You ask of things that no man has ever witnessed and lived to tell the tale of before," I began in my deep voice. Our language barrier was not a problem since I was fluent, having lived around his kind for millennia. "You have, of course, heard of creatures called Mononoke?" I asked. He nodded in response.
"And you have also learned of the balance of life?" I questioned. He nodded again.
"I am the force that balances out the Mononoke. Neither of us are of this world; we belong to the life after this one. But since they have broken the barrier that separates our worlds, I am here to combat the destruction that they cause in this world. Hence why I felt different from them while still being like them," I said, referencing the first time we had met.
He looked down towards the ground for a moment before looking back up at me. "So when I first saw you, you had just defeated them?" he asked. I nodded in response. He peered at my waistband when he saw my dragon-headed sword poking out. He looked back up at my face before asking, "What is that?"
I withdrew the maroon sword and sheath from my waistband. He gasped at the snowy beard and mane the dragon bore, tracing his fingers over the jewels encrusted upon the sheath. The bell attached to the dragon's mane jingled as I withdrew the sword from its sheath, allowing the cold metal to catch the sunlight and reflect it across both of our faces. Luckily the boy knew better than to touch the metal, and satisfied himself with merely looking at it.
"The metal of the blade has the power to sever the Mononoke's connection to this world," I explained, "and the dragon at the head acts as a gateway to channel the Mononoke's essence back to the world it belongs in." I was surprised that he did not look the least bit skeptical; rather, he seemed to accept it. He must have sensed how I felt, because he said, "I've known that Mononoke existed for a long time…I guess I've always believed that we wouldn't be completely abandoned to their destruction." I peered closer at the boy, whose face now seemed to be lined with a maturity that I knew was far too advanced for a boy his age. I wondered what had happened to him to make him believe in Mononoke and if that was perhaps why he seemed so much older than he really was.
"What happened?" I asked gently. His nostrils flared and his hands clenched, but he spoke anyways.
"When I was very little, maybe only five years old or so, my parents were killed. I was with them at the time, and I don't know why I was spared. All I remember is hearing this insane laughter and watching my parents die…I remember blood, their blood, soaking the ground as I heard a voice say that they had gotten what they deserved and that I would be spared, though the voice did not say why. I felt a shiver pass through me, and it felt like I was on fire; I could actually sense the presence of this creature, a creature not of my world, and it felt horrible and evil and I remember screaming…when I woke up, I found that my fate had been decided, that I was to become a warrior since I had no parents to care for me anymore, and ever since then, I have been able to sense these creatures. It took me a while to realize that they were Mononoke."
He turned his blue eyes to me. "And then the other day I met you. You felt exactly like them, but different at the same time. I don't think that I have to fear you," he said slowly.
I was astonished at the boy. Never had I heard of a mortal being able to sense a Mononoke before, but then again, I had never heard of the Mononoke sparing a victim, even if the victim was not an object of revenge but merely happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. "I'm sorry," I whispered, genuinely feeling sorry for a boy whose life had been destroyed by those whom I battled. I reached out my hand, placing it on the ground between us, the golden paint on my arms glittering in the light filtering through the clearing. He blinked a few more times at me before placing his small pale hand on top of my own, smiling.