The Wings of Dreams

light. His talons caught and dragged against a heavy weight. Trying to shake it free, he leapt and rolled and leapt again.
    Black splotches peppered the veil of white before his eyes. The splotches grew larger. The pain intensified then receded. By the time it gave way to blessed relief, his eyes finally revealed to him the black world of the night.

    The youma bounded away at a terrifying speed. Shoutan sprinted after it. Stumbling over the rocks and bushes, he caught his foot, tripped, and sprawled forward. He looked up to see the ball of fire bouncing into the distance, until it seemed to fall into the earth and disappear from view.
    “Get it!”
    Armed men ran up to him. Shoutan scrambled to his feet. The ground was uncertain underfoot. His knees shook. But the trembling was nothing compared to when the red beast—a shuen, it had to be—first appeared.
    With the shuen entranced by the jewels, the oil came in especially handy. The rampaging shuen made for an easy target when it couldn’t keep upright. Except—
    “Shushou-sama!”
    Of all things, in one of its wild swipes the shuen’s talons had hooked Shushou’s cloak. Shoutan and the men hiding nearby took off after it, practically falling over each other as they raced through the early dawn in the direction they’d last seen the shuen.
    The ground dipped down and slanted away. They came to a halt in a hurry. Thirty feet below them, something glimmered on a descending trajectory, like a ball rolling down a hill. The shuen was still on fire.
    “She must be around here somewhere.”
    Or had been shaken off along the way. Shoutan crawled around looking for her. The sun finally rose, flooding the savanna with light. They resumed the search in earnest and were equally unsuccessful.
    “What in the world happened to her?”
    Shoutan sat down. One of his fellow searchers, an old woman, was hunched over a ways off. She straightened and called out. Shoutan jumped to his feet and ran over. She pointed to a cloud of dust headed their way. A group of at least ten kijuu came into view.
    Shoutan stood there like a statue. A day earlier, how much more reassuring a development this would be. But they were a few hours too late, a few hours that might as well be a lifetime.

Part Five
Chapter 32
    [5-1]  S hushou opened her eyes.
    She drew a breath and felt a fierce ache in her chest. But she was able to sit up so she couldn’t be injured that badly. The only illumination in the dimly-lit cave came from high overhead.
    “At least I’m alive,” she said, staring up at the sliver of light leaking through the crack in the massive rock walls.
    Although she spoke in barely a whisper, her voice echoed off the surrounding stone. She must be at the bottom of a fissure in the shoulder of the bluff. She could speak and see. It hurt when she moved, but she could move. Her injuries were confined to scrapes and bruises.
    “That is a surprise.”
    When the youma, turned into a raging ball of fire, faced her and raised its forelegs, Shushou was sure she was finished.
    On one side of the cavern, a big round boulder slanted down from the stone wall. Opposite it, two boulders piled atop each other to form a stepped slope. Beneath the slanting fissure formed by the two walls of rock, wisps of dead, dry grass had collected over the eons, forming a thick carpet over the damp earth. The space was a bit wider than Shushou could stretch out lying down.
    She got to her feet, placed her hand on the sloping wall, and peered up. The crack in the ceiling was bigger than she’d thought at first. The protruding boulder continued without a break, meaning it emerged above the ground. Water running beneath the boulder had carved out the opening.
    “Huh,” Shushou exclaimed, and climbed the stone staircase. The boulders were smooth and mossy and dusted with dry grass but she made her way to the top without falling once.
    She poked her head out of the hole and was bathed in warm sunlight. Right outside the hole, the base of the boulder was hollowed out like a big grinding mortar, the pit overgrown with weeds. Shushou grabbed a thick clump of grass and hauled herself out of the hole.
    Lying on this circular patch of wild lawn, her spirits lifted. She looked up at the blue sky, took a deep breath, and stood up. She hoisted herself out of the depression and pushed through a thicket of bushes. The broad savanna reached out before her.
    It was a scene she’d become well-accustomed to the past several