Fan Fiction ❯ The White Rice Paper ❯ Chapter four ( Chapter 4 )

Stuff you need to know for this chapter:

Hoshi-Matsuri- Japanse star festival

Fukidakae- blow gun

Ya- ammunition; arrows or needles

Amanogawa- River of Heaven aka the Milky Way

Kasasagi- magpie

Lila Aquila- the two stars Shokujo and Kengyu or Veda and Altair

Shokujo- Weaver princess star; actually the star Veda

Kengyu- Heardboy Star; actually the star Altair

Chapter Four

Midsummer is my favorite time of year. The plants are lush and green and the stars are bright in the clear sky. The fire flies dance at their nightly ball to the sounds of contented crickets chirping. Their song not yet tainted by the desperation that autumn brings. For them autumn means death, then end to their songs, to their singing, their playing becomes desperate and takes on a depressing tone. They sing oftener and longer than they would, knowing their time draws to a close. As their times seeps away so does the time of the dancing fire flies. Their numbers lessen as they mate and die, they fulfill their purpose in life and their light fades and dies away, just like the crickets' song.

In midsummer, however, the music is light and the fire flies dance late into the night as I sit outside and watch the moon rise, dimming the stars in the sky. For now I am content just to lie in the grass, weapon close at hand, always wary, but for this moment relaxed. The crickets would tell me if an enemy approached, or even a friend for that matter. This time of year always heartens me. This time of year they celebrate something that I can understand.

Hoshi-Matsuri. The star festival is in one week's time. I have only one more mission to complete in that time, and then, then… Then I can be at peace and relax into the spirit of the festival.

The mission would be an easy one. A poison ya in the throat, a small fukidakae hidden in the folds of my kimono, and the disappearance of a servant girl no one knew much about, or even liked anyway.

It took me three days to get into the compound of the man I was sent to kill, it will take me one more day at the least to remind everyone that I'm dumb and not very happy here. It would be very easy, if everyone thought I was unhappy here they would believe that I ran away and no one noticed during the chaos that would supercede their lord's death. If they believed me to be simple they would never suspect that I was the one who killed their lord, and if they didn't like me and found me to be lazy, they wouldn't look to hard for me. By the time they realized I was gone I would be back to safe grounds and reporting to my sensei.

They all know of my affinity for the stars and nature, how much I adore it, how it calms me more than any meditation would. They've always given me these days off, to sit and talk with those who love to look up to the sky for answers as much as I do. To bask in the starlight watching the Lila Aquila meet from across the Amanogawa. To be together once again.

I've always loved the story of Kengyu and Shokujo, the Heard boy Star and the Weaver Princess Star. My mother told it to me when I was a child. A celestial princess who was an amazing weaver and a very good girl, very industrious was weaving a cloth for the kind, and she fell in love with a cow heard. Because she was so industrious the king allowed them to marry, but the two were so much in love that they both neglected their duties. The king grew angry at this and had the two separated, making each stay on opposite sides of the Amanogawa. The king would only let them see each other once a year. However there is no bridge over Amanogawa, and the first year that they were to meet the princess wept so much over the impossibility of ever seeing her handsome husband that Kasasagi felt badly for her and wanted to help her in her plight. So Kasasagi promised the princess that he would build a bridge for her to cross Amanogawa. To build this bridge all of Kasasagi's people put their wings together and made a bridge for her to cross. But if the weather on the day of Hoshi- Matsuri is rainy then Kasasagi's people will not build the bridge and the lovers have to wait another year to see each other.

I've always loved that story because no matter how old I get I still feel a great sadness if the princess can't see her love. I feel the emptiness that she must feel inside of me. Every year I throw the bamboo branches laden with my wishes and poetry into the river in hopes that my misfortune will wash away with the current.

As the years go by my misfortunes have seemed to multiply, not go away, but every year I throw those branches into the water with hope in my heart, "Maybe this year will be different…" I tell myself. And maybe this year it will be.