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Feeling a little restless again. Had fun with that last little job with my old partner Jigen--nothing spectacular, just a sweet little operation that netted me a hunk of useful cashflow. Not that I'm hurting for money--far from it. But it was good to keep the hand in.
But I'm feeling the monkey on my back again. Don't really have time right now for the extended leave of absence an actual job would entail--and besides, now that Tottsan, that ol' dog, has managed to find his way into Gaia, I gotta keep a low profile if I don't want my cover blown here in Over30Ville.
But in the meantime, I gotta do something with this restlessness. So ... I take a hike. There's a lot of spooky-interesting back-country just a little ways beyond the borders of town--so like Japan in so many ways. So I throw on some rugged civvies and go traipsing up into the hills.
Beautiful up here. Unbroken forest, no paved roads or other marks of civilization. Remote. Peaceful. Maybe the tiniest bit spooky.
And then, when I pause for a breather at a little bend in the trail overlooking a narrow ravine, I see it. A most exceedingly weird bird's nest, all ragged twigs and big enough to brood a buzzard, perched in a gnarled tree right out of an old Japanese woodblock print. And standing upright in this nest is a huge green egg marked with the kanji for heaven.
I come closer. Whoa, is this what I think it is? I ask myself. Of course I'd heard all the folk tales from my mama's side of the family when I was a kid, but while I'd seen some pretty out-there artifacts in my time, I never thought I'd ever see one of these babies. Heh. So to speak. Needless to say, this is not a treasure I'm going to be putting in my pocket. But at least I can take a photograph--assuming it'll show up on the memory chip ...
As I go to reach inside my jacket, I hear the sound of an arrow being released.
I spin out of the line of fire just in time to see the arrow hurtling past my cheekbone. My hand is up and snatches it out of the air almost of its own volition.
I turn to address the archer: "Now why the hell did you go and do that? If that arrow had hit the tree, it could have knocked your precious egg right out of its nest."
As I had expected, the archer is a tengu -- and I've caught him with his beak-like mouth gaping. He pulls himself together quickly--in an eyeblink he's got another arrow nocked and aimed at my heart--but I don't sense he's on the edge of firing this time.
"Heh. You're a bit more with it than the typical human," he said with a snort. "But why don't you show me what you were about to shoot at our egg?"
Slowly and non-threateningly, I pull out my camera phone and show it to him.
"Sorry, dude, photography is a no-go," he says. "Disturbs the subject's ki and all that. But I won't take that off you if you promise not to use it."
"Agreed," I grin, putting it away. "Though I'd like to see you try and take it away from me."
"Hmph. I'd like to see you try and stop me." But he grins too, and lowers his bow. "So--who the hell are you?"
"Some people call me Rupan Sansei." I execute a modestly-polite bow.
"You mean there's three of you?" He snorts. "Well, you can call me Enkai. You eaten recently?"
"Yeah, but I'm always in the mood to eat more."
He gives a jerk of his head to indicate I should follow him. I do. Somehow I feel that my feelings of boredom are about to receive a very entertaining cure.
Loopy-chan · Thu May 07, 2009 @ 12:19am · 0 Comments |
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