Thanks for reviewing! It has been so long since the last chapter, I admit to being amazed that some people have kept up with this story at all. ;) Like last time, this chapter is also, sadly unbeta-ed (where is my dear Greenflower?!) but I was hoping you all would be so eager for more that it wouldn't matter very much. I... I thought it turned out pretty good! So please enjoy the next chapter of...
In Ruins
chapter nine
There hadn't been much to say after Shigeru's shocking announcement. Satoshi, for his part, was trying to better understand the implications of what it meant to be isolated - to be really isolated, and not by choice. He had little time to think it over, though; the Chief interrupted that with a clap of his hands and the decision that they should all 'retire to a more pleasant location.' Satoshi could feel the implications in that sentence, even if he couldn't understand it fully. He did get the impression, however, that the Chief's decision from this morning had been over-ruled. He and Shigeru would at least for the time being be allowed to stay at Alph. What a relief!
Satoshi hadn't needed to whistle a full bar of song before Staraptor's great wings appeared in the sky, and the pokemon swooped down and spun out of a neat dive before landing in front of him. It nuzzled the tip of its huge beak in Satoshi's palms.
"It's like Staraptor was waiting for me to call it," Satoshi laughed, mussing the top of its crest.
As the rest of the assembly called their bird pokemon to them, Satoshi was surprised to hear Shigeru voice some amount of gratefulness that Satoshi had 'somehow' obtained his own staraptor. Firstly, the bird was absolutely, frighteningly huge, so both of them could ride it; secondly, Haruka had an Altaria, and he wouldn't be caught dead riding an altaria if he could help it.
But, Satoshi added, "I don't really understand what's wrong with altaria."
Shigeru glanced at him disbelievingly.
"I mean, they're really strong. You've always liked to train strong pokemon, like your Arcanine, Nidoking, Umbreon..."
"Altaria are different," Shigeru protested.
"How?"
"They're just so fluffy," exclaimed Shigeru. Satoshi couldn't help laughing, and completely ignored Shigeru's scowl.
"Yeah, I'm not really sure if I can imagine you riding an altaria," he snickered. "But I'd still rather ride an altaria than a delibird."
Shigeru looked over at the chief's lumbering counterpart with a look of hesitant disbelief.
Satoshi at least could understand that; to be honest, he had never even considered riding a delibird. Seriously, up to this point in his life, he had never even seen a delibird who knew the technique 'fly' but everything about Alph was - for a lack of better words - kind of exceptional.
It only took a moment of adjustment, and then Satoshi was seated on Staraptor's back. He felt the heat of the pokemon underneath him, and loved knowing that he could actually control the pokemon from where he sat, even though he was more at the pokemon's mercy than anything. He figured that that was Charizard's influence - getting on the back of the beast for the first time after nearly a year of no respect, no obedience - it had been a heady experience, to say the least.
Shigeru climbed up, and slid behind Satoshi onto the bird's back. Satoshi looked ahead, and saw that Altaria was just taking off, so he began to instruct Staraptor to do the same, but Shigeru was practically fidgeting in his seat. First he was trying to push himself away from Satoshi, but the bird pokemon's wings fluffed behind him and he felt the feathers starting to ruffle in the wrong direction. Satoshi winced for a moment at the agitated 'bawk' that the pokemon gave.
"Hey, come on," he twisted around from his seat and looked at Shigeru as best as he could from the corner of his eye. Shigeru had put his hands in front of him, as if prepared to grasp Satoshi by the waist, but then at the last moment took them back, and rubbed his temples instead.
"Seriously, you'll fall off of Staraptor if you don't hold onto me," said Satoshi.
"With the way you handle pokemon, I'll probably have to hold on for dear life," complained Shigeru, though he did, finally, put his hands on Satoshi's shoulders.
Last time, when Shigeru had taken hold of him, he'd been shaking a little bit. At the time, Satoshi had guessed that he was just in shock from the earthquake, the new 'world'... everything. But he had that restrained sort of shudder again.
He's afraid of heights, isn't he? Satoshi realized. Who would've guessed?
He patted Staraptor as close to the top of its head as he could. "Follow Altaria for us, okay?"
The pokemon flapped it wings powerfully several times, lunged forward, and the sand stirred around them.
Then they were flying.
They were flying, and Shigeru was holding onto Satoshi so tightly that he could feel Satoshi's laughter as they took off, and his legs were clamped against Staraptor's sides, and that was the first moment when he wondered to himself if, maybe, nothing was real.
He didn't voice the thought. Satoshi seemed content enough to hum to himself and not converse, which made Shigeru adverse to mentioning anything at all - at least for the time being. The worry lingered at the back of his mind, and returned to him only briefly as he felt the need to pop his ears upon Staraptor's ascension above the city of Alph.
He hadn't been out at night before, nor had he seen the village from the sky. He wished that he had sooner, for it was beautiful and fascinating. Lanterns hung like a ring of starry constellations encircling the town's edges. Inside homes and spilling from the doorways, the flicker of fire light could just be seen, illuminating but not overwhelming the homes and the city like smog and neon lights. It was like the crisp fall wind for his senses, but to his eyes.
Haruka and Masato rode ahead of them on Altaria, and although they neared the town, they didn't make any moves to descend.
"That's strange," commented Shigeru. "I would've thought that we would attract too much attention by flying bird pokemon into the village. I mean, no one else seems to be doing it."
"Maybe we aren't going into the town. Do you think we're going up to the Mountain again?" Satoshi wondered.
"You mean that rocky outcropping? I doubt it. That would be far too dangerous for us to take off or land from at night."
"I don't know about that. Staraptor have great night vision," said Satoshi.
"But delibird don't... And think about what it would be like with all of us piled up there. I doubt there'd be much space."
Satoshi nodded his agreement and shifted his weight forward, more up against Staraptor's neck. He sighed. "I wonder if we're going to a party."
"You're always wondering; you're so impatient," said Shigeru, rolling his eyes. Then, he actually paused to think of what Satoshi had said to him. "A... party?"
"Yeah, like a festival or something. Don't you see that place with all the lanterns and people?"
Shigeru hadn't. He'd been too busy thinking about stars and home, and Satoshi was looking over his shoulder at him and grinning.
"You were staring off into space again, weren't you?"
"Was not. Besides, what do you mean 'again'!?"
"You always used to do that when we were kids. You think too much."
"Better than thinking too little," he sputtered.
Satoshi turned back around, but not before Shigeru could see his fondly upturned smile.
Staraptor chose the next moment to keen out a cry, and suddenly swooped down, jolting both of them into holding on tightly. It swung above the crowded town plaza for a full circuit before landing right outside the edge of it, on a long, oddly painted roof. Haruka, Masato, and Altaria were on top of the building already, standing by in wait.
As they dismounted Staraptor, Shigeru took a moment to look around him. The flat rooftop had a flooring composed of packed dirt and clay, with bright colored stone work near the staircase, which must lead to the second and ground floors of the building. The other roofs nearby had a similar shape, though generally smaller and more square. Nor were they lit up with torches like this one. However, all of the panorama of the town felt festive and bright, even in the middle of night; though maybe that was due to the golden light of lanterns on the street below, and the shadow castings of people walking there.
Shigeru wanted to walk over to the edge of the roof top and peak down at the people below, but he could hear Satoshi, Haruka, and Masato talking, so he turned to them instead.
" - but I don't know how we'll repay you," Satoshi was finishing.
"Repay what?" echoed Shigeru.
Masato didn't seem to have heard Shigeru enter the conversation. "Would you just take the clothes and not complain about it?"
"I'm not complaining," argued Satoshi. "I just-"
Shigeru's brow furrowed. "What are you even talking about?"
Masato spun around and pointed a finger at Shigeru. "If you don't know, you should be paying attention!"
Shigeru was easily a full head taller than Masato. He had no problem emphasizing this fact by folding his arms and looking down at the green-haired boy with a glare.
"Want to try saying that again?" he growled.
"Shigeru," Haruka weakly cut in, "We - that is, Masato, myself, and the Chief - recognize that the two of you will be staying in Alph for a while. Our village will be holding a festival tonight, and we were hoping that the two of you might be interested in coming."
"Of course," said Shigeru. He hadn't been expecting to hear that, and wasn't adverse to the idea. He liked festivals - always had. "Satoshi, were you seriously not interested in going?"
"What? No! I wanna go to the festival!!" he protested.
"Then what's the problem?"
"He won't wear our clothes," Masato sneered. Shigeru looked and, sure enough, there was a pile of folded clothes in Masato's arms.
"There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing!" Satoshi pulled at his shirt emphatically.
"Your clothes are weird," said Masato.
"I think that the other people in our village might accept the two of you more easily if you wear something that stands out a bit less," said Haruka, kindly. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah," Shigeru nodded. "But I see Satoshi's point. We've been intruding on your kindness a lot lately and haven't been able to do anything for you in return.."
"We can worry about that later," said Haruka. She took the clothes from her brother's hands and passed them to Shigeru. "Would you go to the second floor to try them on? We'll meet you on the first floor when you're finished changing."
"Sure," said Shigeru. "Satoshi?"
With a parting glare at Masato - one that Shigeru certainly felt was deserved - Satoshi answered.
"Fine. Let's go," he said, and strode to the door. Shigeru followed, breathing out a sigh of relief. Finally, a change of clothes! A bath would be nice too, but this would be enough for now. He'd do anything to get out of his dirty work clothes - and if it meant wearing a scratchy tunic and trousers, then so be it. The garments weren't that bad really, and Shigeru liked the dusty purple color of his top. His loosely fit trousers were an unsurprising shade of tan. They only could be seen from the top of his knees and down. With the brown belt encircling his torso, over his tunic, and a long tan coat over that, Shigeru imagined that he must look really similar to anyone else who would be in the village. He would find out soon enough.
"So... I heard about a festival?" he ventured, his back turned from Satoshi as he slipped off his shirt.
"That's right!" said Satoshi, happily. "It sounds like so much fun."
"I thought you were tired." And mad at Masato, he added internally.
"Just my arms. So if there's any big drums, I guess I won't be hitting them with the other villagers." Satoshi pressed down his shirt to fix the pleating around his belt. "I hope there's food."
"It wouldn't be a festival without it," said Shigeru. "Or at least not a good one. Did Haruka or Masato tell you what the festival is for?"
"Nope! But it doesn't matter. I'm really excited to meet some of the people here."
Shigeru was puzzled. "Really? Why?"
"Well..." Satoshi pulled a thoughtful expression. "I keep seeing people I recognize. Obviously, you know about Haruka, Masato, and your, err, grandfather. But earlier this morning I'm pretty sure that I saw Kasumi and Takeshi - I traveled with them a long time, you know - and I was hoping to talk to them. Maybe."
"Just a guess, but judging from what we've seen so far, they're not going to be like the people you knew back home," warned Shigeru.
"I want to know how much they're different," said Satoshi stubbornly. Shigeru shrugged his shoulders and went back to idly studying the wall as Satoshi finished changing.
However, Satoshi wasn't done talking.
"Shigeru," he began, hesitantly. "When I said that the story of Alph was familiar, earlier, what did you think I was talking about?"
"Greensfield. And the whole incident with Entei, and Molly, of course," Shigeru immediately replied. "After all, she asked the Unown for a world with just 'momma, poppa, and me;' where no one could bother her. Alph's isolation sounds like the same sort of thing, doesn't it? It's another world where no one can bother it... but at a cost."
Satoshi silently ran his hands over his folded clothes.
"The truth was, I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking... I was kind of thinking of myself."
Shigeru's mouth opened. "Are you serious?"
"Well, yeah. It was sort of natural to," said Satoshi defensively.
"Natural?" Shigeru asked, flummoxed. If Satoshi immediately thought of himself in the middle of a crisis encompassing a whole town, he couldn't be anything but incredibly self-centered. Maybe being self-centered was natural, but to be that self-absorbed.... really? Satoshi didn't seem really vain. He always helped people. And pokemon. And stuff like that.
"Why did you think of yourself?" Shigeru finally managed, turning around.
"Well, because it's kind of ironic, you know," replied Satoshi. "The whole reason I came to Alph was to see you. But I didn't really want to leave my house in the first place. My mom kicked me out. She said I was using her house as a barrier to the rest of the world. But as luck would have it, I'm isolated anyway. I guess that fate has got some reason for it."
Shigeru couldn't think of anything to say. All he could seem to do was stare at the place where Satoshi's hands were still adjusting the fabric at his waist. He wished he could look at Satoshi's face instead, but as he couldn't bring himself to, he waited for the moment to pass. Soon enough they were being urged downstairs, and there was plenty else to mull over. The conversation was quickly buried in the back of his mind.
Satoshi had never been very observant, to Shigeru's estimation, and that's probably why Satoshi wasn't usually right about things. But he had been right about their odds of meeting new, yet familiar people at the festival.
As soon as they had walked into the busy plaza with Haruka and Masato, they had been the focus of a lot of quiet, huddled conversations. Thankfully, while he and Satoshi had changed clothes, the Chief had already made a sort of announcement about their presence in the village - and that they would be staying for a while. Most of the expressions were hesitantly accepting and wondrous rather than combative and/or afraid.
After weaving through a bit of people, most of whom had been staring at them already and were thus more than happy to clear themselves from the path of traffic, Masato came to a sudden halt. Haruka instructed them to sit down on a rectangle of ground covered with grass mat. and quickly they were surrounded by a mass of food; spicy pastry, roasted meats, seed and nuts, cornmeal, persimmon, shell soup... Satoshi obviously didn't know where to start, so he took everything he could reach. Shigeru snorted at it, but picked up and poured about the same amount of food onto his own dish as Satoshi was doing. It had been a long day, and although he had gotten breakfast, he'd skipped lunch -- and they hadn't eaten dinner the night before.
Screw it, he was starving. He ladled even more food than Satoshi did onto his plate.
"This festival begins with an opening dance to thank the Protectors," said Haruka, as if the topic were not completely a non-sequitur.
"So there are other festivals?" asked Shigeru. "Then what is this one for?"
She didn't seem to hear him, having already risen to her feet and begun addressing someone else who was seated nearby and opposite to them. Shigeru sighed and continued with his food.
After a few minutes, Haruka took her seat near them. The plaza quieted. It was probably Shigeru's imagination, but it seemed as if the lanterns had been dimmed. All of the village people - young, old, whatever - had formed a wide circle around the bonfire wood, leaving maybe twenty feet of distance between themselves and it.
"Look - there! In the sky!" Satoshi swallowed his food quickly, as he pointed upwards. Shigeru realized that all of the people around him were doing the same thing, and he peered into the sky as well. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, and in doing so, he registered some sort of moving light among the stars.
"What is that?" Shigeru wondered aloud.
It seemed as if he were watching twin stars shot out from heaven. Then, after adjusting his eyes, he could see instead that the two points of lights were not falling through the sky as much as they were dancing through it -- quickly, no question that it was happening at a rapid speed, but not as rapid or sharply as comets. After a few seconds further, however, he realized that the spots of fire were not only growing, but circling each other in ever close orbit, like satellites of some invisible force in the vividly dark night sky.
He and Satoshi realized at the same time:
"They're people!"
The outline of their bodies, and their stratospheric dance partner pokemon were lit by the glow of the torches in their hands. They only slowed in their ascent once they came about 40 feet from the ground. Midair, with their feet hanging off of their bird pokemon in elegant folds, they stilled -- and so did their audience.
Then the two figures reached out to each other with their free hands, linking them; in that instant they dropped both of their torches above the center of the circle... and the kindle-wood below crashed into light. The Skarmory beat their wings and let out shrill cries at the sudden influx of heat; Shigeru's heart beat rapidly in his chest. The soulful, draw-out notes of a reed pipe played by someone down below wrenched straight inside of him and squeezed his soul painfully, and he had no idea why.
The flames had spread out to consume the edges of the bonfire wood, casting a stronger glow than any of the lanterns had before. The performers, now nearly a few feet above the ground, leapt from their side-saddles off of the birds (which in the half-light of the fire, looked very much like a pair of Skarmory) and landed in the middle of the cleared circle. The pipe's music continued to undulate and the two people who had come from the sky -- they were clearly girls, Shigeru could see that from the length of their undressed hair, the shape of their bare midriffs, and their skirts -- were closing their eyes in preparation for something.
Shigeru was still reeling from their arrival, and the sudden burst of flame. But they only delayed a moment before the music shifted to an introductory sort of sound. A song began, and with the song, a dance.
He couldn't compare it to the traditional dances he had grown up with in Masara town, or seen on the mainland; it was a far cry from the slow, elegant, elongated and practiced movements of a fan dance. This was unpolished, tribal -- a somehow more genuine expression of feeling. What feeling, Shigeru couldn't say for sure.
First it was just a movement of their ankles, and their feet, lifting up quickly as if they were on a bed of hot coals. Rather than see it, he could feel the girls' close-lipped smiles and glittering, playful eyes as they began to move with the rhythm of drums.
Shimmying their shoulders and hips into the center of the circle, they spread out around the ever-brighter glowing bonfire. The pace of their dancing was fast and the motions of their many bangled and braceleted hands was - almost cute, even boyish, which seemed strange considering that their clothingwas meant to accentuate their figures. Their energy, though, was entrancing as the fire they had dropped in the center of the circle. As if by being warmed internally, the pulsing drums, the soulful pipes, and the charming, beckoning dancers pushed forward from the fire a tangible and present change in the very character of Alph itself. Very soon Shigeru heard clapping from all sides - and the villagers were rising to their feet. Satoshi and Shigeru joined them.
When one of the girls came closer to them, and they began to sing as they danced, Shigeru could see her face. She didn't seem any older than fourteen, even with the shimmering powder around her eyes.
As she flitted away, Shigeru asked Satoshi if she looked familiar.
"I don't recognize her - not any of them, I think," Satoshi replied. He was clapping merrily with everyone else. Even Shigeru realized that he, too, had joined in perfunctorily without even realizing.
Then, abruptly, the music changed, and the drums took rest; the girls retreated to the sides, like shadows of flames, and waiting.
She appeared to him at first from the other side of the bonfire, her back to them; as she rose, her arms came out from her in a languid motion, but with sudden flicks of her wrists as they reached full extension. She rose to her feet like a snake unwinding. Her hips swirled in a slow circle. Her outfit was different, that was immediately clear; rather than being suggestive like the younger dancers', her scanty garments were provocative. Her skirt had a slit exposing her full leg from both sides. Her top was not much better; but more surprising than that was her face.
Shigeru knew this woman.
"Hikari," he stated, more than asked. "Hikari is here."
"Wow, I wouldn't have expected that! I mean, you're right, but..." Satoshi's voice was incredulous as he looked at the illusion of his childhood friend.
She was approaching them, each striding step of her dance reminiscent of a predator stalking its prey; as if she knew that they were discussing her and intended to meet them eye to eye to demand explanation, or some sort of tribute.
He broke away from the connection of the dance to his soul just long enough to glance at Satoshi from the side. The boy was watching her, too. In the darkness, and with the strong light from the fire extending the shadows over them both, it was difficult to read anything other than surprise in Satoshi's face. Shigeru returned his stare to Hikari.
The sparks of fire and ash shot out from the crackling wood behind her, reflecting in the jewels of her rings and the chains in her hair, and in her eyes. Shigeru wasn't straight, but he wasn't an idiot. In her eyes, a passion burnt, threatening to spill out with every writhing motion of her body. The suggestive pauses in the music of the reed pipe gave him the immediate impression of a snake charming its prey, preparing to pounce-- and even if it didn't make him long for sex with her, he couldn't help thinking of sex, and how very much he was in want of it.
He felt his face flushing with heat and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
As she paused her dance in front of them, and the music made the audience whistled and clapped. Satoshi also clapped appreciatively- but didn't seemed moved by it in the least.
"It's a really pretty dance," said Satoshi.
"Unbelievable," muttered Shigeru. "You are unbelievable."
Hikari seemed to agree, and as the music changed again, she joined the two younger girls in a lighter-hearted dance, but with a sort of pout evidenced in her face and attitude. It was petty, but Shigeru felt kind of smug after watching her get completely brushed off by the impossibly oblivious Satoshi. He was glad that he wasn't the only one whose motives Satoshi had completely misunderstood.
When the show, performance, or whatever-it-was had concluded, the music didn't. The lanterns flared to life again, and the townspeople collectively resumed their positions from earlier, crowding and wandering around each other animatedly. Shigeru looked around for direction of some sort, but Haruka and Masato were no longer beside them. Their platters of food were gone, too, which Shigeru found to be at least equally regrettable.
Satoshi had already started making new friends in Haruka and Masato's absence, and one of them offered him and Shigeru a cup of rice wine. Shigeru wasn't as eager for their friendship as he was for the drink. Rather than trying for one rather than the other, Shigeru poured the alcohol down his throat and received a congenial slap on the back for doing so. He showed the couple an effort for friendship by giving them a quick, tight-lipped smile, and took another proffered wine off of their tray gladly. He looked at the couple, trying to pin down why they seemed familiar, but gave up quickly, content to be lost in his own thought and observation.
A large number of the townspeople were dancing now around the fire - it wasn't the sort of sensual dance like Haruka's and her partners had been, but the regular festival fare: free-footed, cheerful, simply choreographed dance.
"Shigeru, why aren't you dancing?" Satoshi asked, unexpectedly. Satoshi shifted where he stood and folded his arms.
"It's not like I have to."
"I disagree," said Haruka, now returned and at Satoshi's side, beckoning as well. "Come on!"
"I can't dance," he said, his lips curling.
"That's such a lie!" said Satoshi. "I remember when you were eleven and your grandfather made you take ballroom lessons! You made me practice with you because I was shorter!"
Shigeru winced. "Satoshi..."
Satoshi seemed to be mistaking his embarrassment for modesty, because he continued, "Don't let him tell you anything different, because he's really good!"
"Really, Shigeru? If you danced that well when you were a child, you must be an even better dancer now," insisted Haruka. "It would be a shame not to join in the dancing."
Shigeru strained his neck to see over some of the crowds. "I'm going to go get some more wine," he declared, and brushed by the duo rather furiously.
By the time he returned, having had two more drinks in his absence, he was surprised to find that Haruka and Satoshi were not only still standing together, but a third person had joined their conversation. Even from behind, Shigeru could recognize Hikari immediately, mainly because the light of the bonfire glowed on the naked skin of her back and caught on the jewelry that dangled there.
As if that weren't strange enough, kind and sort of shy Haruka was like a thing transformed; from the drink, maybe, but he couldn't say for sure until Satoshi turned away for a moment, and he saw Haruka neatly hook the dancer with an elbow in the side. Hikari's breath caught and she faltered backward, while Haruka smiled innocently at Satoshi. Though if he wasn't mistaken, Haruka had a sort of smirk and he wondered if there was some sort of bad blood between her and Hikari. This was quickly answered by Hikari stomping her foot on Haruka's the very next moment Satoshi was distracted.
Through it all, both of the girls continued in conversation with the (impossibly) oblivious Satoshi, donning two equally strained smiles. He listened in for a moment before he realized that they were arguing over whom would be whose partner.
"You can go on and dance," Shigeru cut in. "I wasn't planning on dancing. I'll stay here."
"Are you sure?" asked Satoshi. "I mean, since both Haruka and Hikari are here, we can all dance together-"
"He doesn't want to dance, so I'll just spend my time teaching you," said Hikari, her emphasis heavy on the final word. She took Satoshi by the wrist and led him forward into the crowd of dancers. Haruka looked at Shigeru for a moment, not exactly apologetic, but a bit she stormed after Satoshi and Hikari.
Shigeru looked down and saw Satoshi's abandoned wine cup near his fit. Upon discovering that it wasn't yet empty, he finished it off.
By the next set of music, the sky and the ground was dancing around him, as well as the people. It had been that third and a half cup that had brought Shigeru into a haze of intoxication, just strong enough to make him unsure of his footing but not so much that he had lost his footing altogether.
Which is strange, he thought, the words streaming through his brain so quickly that he could barely process it, It's so strange that my leg hasn't folded beneath me yet.
He frowned. Looking down at it, especially in the darkness with glowing, festive light, there wouldn't seem to be anything wrong with his leg; it looked just like any other person's appendage except that it acted like it had a mind of its own and wouldn't let him do anything. It wouldn't let him stay in any position - squatting, standing, flexing - for too long before it shot searing pain up him; he always had a bit of a limp because of it. He certainly couldn't even stand up like this for very long before needing to sit down.
Shigeru rubbed his forehead, realizing that there was a light sheen of perspiration there. I must be really drunk not to feel anything in his leg. That could be really serious. What if - what if I overworked it so badly that I wouldn't be able to walk again without too much pain for, for a week?
He glanced around, checking that no one was paying too much attention to him, then pinched his arm as tightly as he could. He felt it, definitely; though he noticed that he was feeling it a bit later than was probably healthy, and the feeling reminded him a bit of trying to speak after going to visit a dentist and having part of his mouth numbed.
It was a little unsettling, so Shigeru tried again; the result remained the same. But that didn't make sense. If he was able to feel his arm all right, why couldn't he feel his leg?
He grit his teeth and reached down; he pinched his calf.
After a moment, he realized that it hurt, so he let go.
And after another moment, he realized that his pinch had hurt, but that was all that was hurting. He realized that on the walk up the mountain this morning, and when he had been sitting in that half-squat while rowing the boat, he had had no pain.
The sting from the pinch had already faded, and he realized that he had no pain.
It confused him to accept that his pain - the pain that never left him - was gone; if he were to look at his leg, there would be no scar, as if he had never been in the hospital; as if the course of his life hadn't been changed when he was fifteen years old. And that was impossible.
Shigeru knew it. The worry he had experienced on Staraptor's back wasn't the product of some stupid, idle thought. This place - whatever it was; these people - whoever they were -- None of it was real.
And knowing it set him free.
It was as if the pain in his leg had been a stick in a stream; with it dislodged, something in his heart had broken loose from a flood of feeling. The music pulsed around him, consumed him when it had only just glanced off of him before; he stepped forward and his feet were moving, moving without him, he was shaking off his outer tunic and he felt like he was being lifted from the ground though his feet were still touching it. He entered the throng of dancers around the fire. He hadn't chosen to, but it had just happened, and he let himself be lost in the horde of moving people. People, drinks passed by him; he reached out to take one, and sloshed the red wine in his cup and threw it back. Some of the droplets missed his mouth, and he wiped his face with the edge of his hand, and -
- and saw Satoshi, looking at him with an awestruck expression, standing still in a crowd of moving people.
"Satoshi!" he called out friendlily, and strode through the dancers to reach him in seconds.
"Wh-what!?" Satoshi looked at Shigeru with an eyebrow quirked, and his arms hanging awkward in confusion. "What? I thought -"
Shigeru leaned up to Satoshi, cupping his mouth as he spoke into his ear: "Let's dance!"
"Yeah- sure!!" Satoshi said, though before he had even finished speaking, Shigeru had grasped Satoshi's wrist, and laughed as he spun Satoshi into a twirl.
He could see Haruka and Hikari dimly at the edge of his vision, but they weren't important. He was centered on Satoshi, pulled in by the boy's dancing and centered on his shocked but happy face. That was important.
The dance was ridiculous and it was like freedom. Shigeru threw himself around, pantomimed Satoshi as much as the other villagers in the dance, sometimes clapping his hands together, sometimes shouting with everyone in perfect unison - and like the other villagers around them, spun around once or twice and bumbled through the steps. Though maybe Shigeru messed up his steps a fair bit deal more than the other villagers. He couldn't see straight enough to tell, but he could see Satoshi and since he didn't seem to care if they were doing the dance wrong or not, then it didn't matter, did it?
This was freedom; this was happiness; he was happy - had he ever been so happy before? No, it was impossible.
When the dance ended, and the next one threatened to begin, Satoshi grinned widely and punched him jokingly in the arm. He seemed to be yelling something over the din of the music and the people but Shigeru couldn't hear it, especially not when his own laughter was adding to the noise. He kept dancing.
And Shigeru wondered at the irony of how nothing had ever felt more real in his entire life.
The next morning broke over the town, the sun streaming its hot and unfiltered rays through windows without curtains or shades.
Shigeru woke up with a direct patch of the light creeping across him. As he rested, fully extended on his pallet, he breathed in deeply and felt his warm bones. He could feel his muscles laying loosely on them, soft like water streaming over smoother rocks. Like rivulets of water at the banks of a widened stream, his consciousness trickled to the ends of his digits and his thumbs. He felt a smile float onto his face like a leaf - and then it passed on its way, and his awareness smoothed out. As he swirled into the current of his life again, he could feel the granules of sand inbetween his toes. He didn't mind.
He opened his eyes and light flooded in.
Satoshi lay sprawled out across the blanket beside him, and his arm was thrown out onto Shigeru's space. Shigeru wasn't sure why Satoshi was sleeping next to him, but it didn't matter anymore, did it?
Shigeru took Satoshi's hand and interwove it with his own. He smiled at their joined fingers, and the contrast of Satoshi's tanner skin, then dropped the boy's hand and got up from his bed.
He faced the window and looked out at the crisp blue sky, and he could not keep a contented hum from escaping his throat.
Next chapter: Satoshi's P.O.V., plus the return of Tano! And pottery. Please don't forget to review!