The Wings of Dreams

the caravan had changed.
    Most of the caravan still gathered around a big bonfire in the center of the clearing. At some point, though, a growing number began spacing themselves out more, if not to the same extent as Gankyuu, than at least with the same general idea.
    As dusk fell, they could be seen here and there around the grove of trees. They didn’t have tents. Using ropes weighted with stones, they pulled down branches to use as shelters or as makeshift stockades surrounding the fire. They slept close to their kijuu and pack horses. They laid out their sleeping areas very much the same way as Gankyuu.
    Wondering if these were the guardians, Shushou returned to the campsite with her bucket. Gankyuu was filling a bowl with steaming rice gruel.
    This again. Shushou suppressed a groan. Gankyuu flavored the gruel with wild herbs plucked from their surroundings and shavings of dried meat, but it still had hardly any taste at all. She sensed no inclination on his part to change the recipe or the size of the servings.
    “I’ll be skin and bones by the time we reach Mt. Hou,” she grumbled to herself. She said aloud, “I fetched the water.”
    Gankyuu raised his eyes, but no words of praise would be forthcoming, not even a gruff “Attagirl.”
    “Good job,” said Rikou, though he wasn’t the one who’d told her to. Shushou appreciated the thought anyway. Gankyuu’s surly attitude since they’d entered the Yellow Sea was growing oppressive.
    “You know, Shitsu-san said we could share his tent.”
    Gankyuu answer was as unadorned as usual. “No.”
    Rikou chuckled. He didn’t know how to put on a grumpy face. “Are you tired, Shushou?”
    “I’m not necessarily tired. We haven’t traveled all that far.”
    “That’s true.”
    “It’s nice not being cold.” She said to Gankyuu, “I heard the Yellow Sea is pretty warm.”
    Gankyuu nodded as he wiped out his bowl with a handful of grass. “For now.”
    “It gets colder?”
    “It gets hotter. So, yeah, the Yellow Sea is pretty warm.”
    “Huh,” said Shushou.
    Gankyuu finished wiping out the bowl, added a little water from a leather canteen, swished it around, and emptied it on the dying fire. Shushou was taken aback by this crude housekeeping at first, but getting worked up over a little dirt here and there wouldn’t accomplish anything. This was the Yellow Sea, after all.
    “Hey, why do you have to put out the fire?”
    “You scared of the dark?”
    “Not at all.”
    “The smaller the fire the better. On a moonlit night like tonight, there’s no need for any other illumination.” Gankyuu glanced at the clearing. Shushou and Rikou did as well. The bonfire burned brightly and the people chattered on in equally bright voices.
    “Why?”
    “Because they are clever creatures. They know full well that where there’s fire, there’s people.”
    They, Shushou repeated to herself. Youma, he must mean. In that case— She glanced over her shoulder. “Shouldn’t you tell them?”
    “Don’t go sticking your oar in. They’re not interested in anything I have to say.”
    “How do you know if you don’t try?”
    “If something needs saying, one of the guardians will do his duty and say it. A corpse hunter has no business telling them how to do their jobs.”
    “But—”
    “Quit complaining and finish eating and clean up and go to bed.”

Chapter 15
    [2-7]  A cry awoke Shushou in the middle of the night.
    At first she was sure she was dreaming, and it was her father doing the shouting. Shushou was inside her house, surrounded by lattice walls, staring at something in the middle of the shrubbery in the nearby garden.
    Her father’s shouts came from beyond the neatly tended grove. And screams. Her father was being attacked. I have to go rescue him, she thought, but no matter where she went in the house, more lattice walls surrounded her. She couldn’t make her way outside.
    I have to hurry, she fretted with growing impatience. There weren’t any doors or exits. Even as she cursed the lattice walls, a part of her was grateful. Being unable to run to the rescue meant she didn’t have to watch her father die.
    Shushou clawed at the latticework. She wanted to shout or weep but couldn’t do either.
    And then she awoke and knew it was a dream. She didn’t have time to feel relieved. A moment later she realized something much worse was happening. When she opened her eyes and tried to bolt to her feet, she found her mouth covered and her