I was homesick. More homesick than I had remembered ever being in my life. A sinking feeling had begun to blossom inside my chest, and I couldn't help but think of my mom and dad's faces. They were probably looking for us right now.
"Come, I will show you where to stay," Shinji ordered, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I followed him out into the courtyard. No matter how weird everything was, this place had a sense of beauty in it. More blooming cherry blossom trees were scattered across the open area, their fallen petals were strewn across the ground. Their bright colors were a stark contrast against the dull browns and greens beneath them.
"Sakura blossoms for good luck," said Shinji, as if reading my thoughts. "The trees, they're symbolic for the goddess of love, Benzaiten. When the petals fall, it is considered the season of love," he explained.
I feigned a look of interest. Learning about that sort of stuff was Lisa's thing, not mine.
We came to a fork in the dirt path that we were walking down and Shinji turned left, so I followed him. In the distance, I could see a large building that was much bigger than our apartment back home. In fact, you could probably fit two of our apartment complexes in there. It was a simple building, yet beautiful, paneled with light oak and cherry wood, with sliding doors that were made out of a mysterious substance that looked strangely like paper. But who the heck makes doors out of paper?
"This is where the apprentices sleep. You will be staying here until we can strengthen our magic to create a portal back home for you and your sister. The bunks for the female apprentices are just across from here, and that is where your sister will be staying," Shinji explained, pointing to a similar building that was at the other end of the fork in the road.
The inside of the bunks was just as strange as the outside. A woven mat lay at the entrance and Shinji instructed me to take off my shoes and place them there. I did so and looked around. I noticed the many other slipper-like shoes by the doorway and guessed that these were the shoes of the other apprentices that slept here. The entire building was all one room, with no separate rooms, even for the bathroom. The toilet and showers were hidden behind a wooden partition near the back of the room. That would take some getting used to. About thirty or so cots lined the wall to my left. The rest of the room was filled with cushions, tea sets, bowls with a strange liquid in them, and hundreds of books, scrolls, and paintings.
Several people sat on their cots, filling the air with the murmurings of conversation and the rumblings of laughter. All of that died away the second that we entered the building. My skin prickled and I could almost feel it as every single head turned in our direction and every pair of eyes looked me over. Shinji ignored the stares and began to make his way towards the back of the building. I followed him, trying to brush off the stares like he had done. But no matter how hard I tried to ignore them, the gazes of everyone in the building still followed me.
After what seemed like a lifetime, we reached the back of the building.
"You will sleep here," Shinji said, pointing to the very last cot in the row. It looked comfortable enough, with a small plush pillow and a woolen blanket that had Japanese characters sewn into it. He picked up some folded red silk clothes that had been perched on the pillow and handed them to me.
"Uh, why?" I asked.
"In the event that you do become an apprentice here, these will help you channel magic. Besides, silk is what our ancestors wore. It is the favored material for clothing, as it possesses magical protection abilities," he explained as if this were perfectly normal.
"O-kay," I said slowly. Well, this hadn't been on my New Year's resolution list. Get lost in a weird forest? Check. Meet weird superstitious people? Check.
Shinji smirked at me as if he could read my mind.
"Soon enough, you shall see," he said. With that, he turned on his heel and strode out of the building, his footsteps reverberating off of the walls. I wasn't sure what he meant, but I laid my stuff on the floor and sat down on the cot with a fwoosh.
A wave of exhaustion washed over me and I realized just how tired I really was. I laid down on the cot and pulled the blanket over my shoulders, letting out the biggest yawn that's ever come out of my mouth.
I had been laying there for several mnutes, trying to get to sleep, when the blanket began to itch. I closed my eyes, hoping that if I just ignored it that it would go away.
It didn't.
I shrugged the blanket off, letting it fall to the floor and immediately the itchy feeling went away. Comforted by this fact, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
My dream-self decided to take a little trip. I was surprised at what I dreamt. I mean, i know some pretty crazy things had happened to us today, but I didn't know I had that good of an imagination.
Anyway, I rose up into the air and turned over, but the creepy thing was that I could see myself. I was curled up into a ball, fast asleep on the little cot, the itchy blanket strewn on the floor beside me. It was as if my dream-self was my spirit or something. But my dream-self didn't feel like my normal self. In fact, my dream-self didn't even feel human. I looked down to find lizard-like claws where my hands and feet should've been, and I could feel a set of powerful wings unfurling on my back. My tongue was no longer the fat, pink tongue of a human, but the slender, forked tongue of a reptile. I could feel the slight burning sensation of certain chemicals in my stomach, and I knew that if I tried, somehow I would be able to breathe fire. I didn't know of any other creature that my dream-self could be except a... well, a dragon.
This was one heck of a dream.
Suddenly, I felt something pull me forward, as if I weren't in control of my own body. I realized a little too late that I was heading toward the wall. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the impact, but it never came.
To my surprise, I melted through the wall instead of crashing into it. But wheN i came through on the other side, I wasn't in the courtyard. I was hovering near the entrance of a palace made entirely of obsidian and ebony. Dark storm clouds surrounded the entire building and I don't mean, like, on top. The clouds floated all around the building like a heavy mist, if mist is gray-ish black and has lightning flashing inside of it. It was almost as if we were in the sky. I'd seen enough weird things today that I didn't even blink when I saw the strange palace.
Again, I was drawn forward, as if there were a magnet in the palace. I spread my wings and soared toward the looming building, each beating of my lizard-like wings drawing me closer and closer.
At last, I reached the doors, which were carved entirely of ebony. Just as I had done before, I soared through the door, as if it were permeable and I was nothing but air.
The inside of the building was just as grand as the outside. The floor was carved from polished obsidian and the walls were a mix of polished marble and onyx. The doors opposite of me that led into another room were made of ebony, outlined with a strange black metal, and carved with intricate details of storm clouds. Statues covered every inch of the room, but they all depicted the same person, just in different poses. Just when I was starting to wonder what crazy person would have enough money to build a huge mansion from gemstones, obsidian, and costly wood, the magnetic-like feeling propelled me forward through the doors in front of me.
The room topped even the entryway. Think about how big the White House is and multiply that by five. Every dark metal, stone, anything black or gray or lightning-bolted, this place had it. An uncomfortable-looking throne that was roughly carved from polished obsidian stood at the far end of the room, looking lonely without someone sitting in it, though I wondered who would be crazy enough to sit their butt on that seat.
Just as I was thinking that, the large ebony doors at the end of the hall flew open, banging against the wall with such force that I could feel the entire building shake slightly. Two men entered the room, arguing heatedly. The first man was big and burly, with tan skin and long, black hair and a tattoo of a storm cloud and a lightning bolt on his upper arm. One look into his dark, storm-like eyes told me that this was no man to be messed with. A black energy radiated off of him like some kind of aura, as if he weren't human.
"My Lord, it's too dangerous," the other man argued, his figure still entrenched in the shadows. The burly man's nostrils flared and the black energy that radiated from him seemed to darken even further. Thunder boomed in the distance, adding to the mood quite nicely, I thought.
"Do not presume to tell me what is and is not dangerous! I am Susano, god of storms!" the man thundered. The other man trembled and backed into the light. That's when I saw that he wasn't a man at all, but similar to the demon-thing that I had beaten up at school what seemed like a lifetime ago.
"Y-yes, m-my Lord. What is y-your plan?" stammered the demon. Susano smiled malevolently.
"I have a special plan for the four of them, and you can help me with that, Oni," he mused. I realized that must be what the creatures were called- Onis.
"But first I must take my long-awaited revenge on Amaterasu," Susano added. A quiet rumbling began, that started to grow into intensity until I realized that it wasn't rumbling at all. Susano, god of storms, was laughing mirthfully.
With that, my dream-self was pulled downwards and suddenly I was traveling at the speed of light through storm clouds and flashing lightning until I arrived back at the apprentice's living quarters. My dream-self descended back down on the last bed at the very end of the room where my sleeping form lay, drooling unceremoniously on the pillow. I woke with a start.
Of one thing I was sure: Susano, god of storms and violence, was after four people, and I was sure that two of those people were Lisa and me.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: From here on out it starts to pick up! The next few chapters will be pretty action packed, so stay tuned! As usual, the next chapter will be released next Friday.
Leave a review, let me know what you think! Make sure to subscribe if you would like to see more of this story.
Also, if you would like to follow me on my wacky adventures on the road to becoming a published author, you can support me on my patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/kmanderson
I give out lore and character backstories as well as character drawings on there for people who are subscribed and donate to me!
Thank you to everyone who has read and supported this story so far!
~K.M. Anderson
Comments (0)
See all