InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Seven Feudal Fairy Tales ❯ Courage ( Chapter 49 )

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and other associated companies.

 

 

Chapter Forty-Nine: Courage

 

 

“Momotaro-sama!”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Momotaro-sama, wake up! Wake up! You need to wake up!”

 

“Are we there yet?” Kagome mumbled tiredly as the persistent chirping slowly roused her from her surprisingly pleasant nap. The unexpected peace of knowing what had become of her on the island had warmed her cold and unsettled dreams and she had greedily indulged in the first restful sleep that she could boast of in a long time. Yet, with everlasting cheerfulness inundating his tireless warbling, the still half-asleep school girl was slowly being deprived of this elusive luxury. Mind awash in a groggy stupor, she hazily considered feeling around for the noisy bird and flinging him righteously overboard in the gratifying hope that he could float as well as the boat.

 

“Almost,” he replied enthusiastically, oblivious to the vengeful plotting brewing in her thoughts. “You must wake now, general.”

 

“Ugh,” she grumbled irritably, her head lolling from side to side against the waxed wood of the high railing. After her animal soldiers had assured her that the ogre stronghold was still many hours away, Kagome had reluctantly returned to her former seat on the smooth deck at the stern of the boat. Between her exhaustion and the soothing sounds of the sailing ship, sleep had found her swiftly thereafter. Arms tidily crossed against her chest, it was the perplexing weight upon them and not the pheasant's chattering that finally persuaded her to open her eyes.

 

A black-dotted, yellow eye framed with red, wrinkled skin greeted her sight and the school girl bit her lip to muffle the shriek of surprise that escaped her. Green and tan feathers ruffling and his head ducking to near invisibility against his body at her sudden exclamation; the usually flappable Fe-San remained determinedly perched despite the excited flailing of his commander underneath him.

 

“Are you awake now?” he asked shyly from beneath the meager protection of his conical hat.

 

“Yes! Of course I am,” she answered loudly and indisputably, her body shaking with her racing pulse to match her rapid breaths. “So, we're here? We're at Oni Island?”

 

“Almost,” he quietly repeated his earlier reply, bravely raising his small head from the downy security of his bosom.

 

“He's right, wa-ah. Look at the sky, Momotaro-sama,” Mon-Ki added from the rail overhead, his long tail curled happily around the blunt post he crouched upon. His tiny forefinger pointing beyond the bow, the confident primate gestured to a darkened gathering of clouds. A churning swirl of feathered and shadowy grays, a raging storm grew, swallowing up the benign, blue sky as the enchanted vessel stalwartly sailed toward it.

 

“It's like a hurricane,” the school girl remarked in whispered astonishment, absently finding her feet with the contented bird still cradled in her arms, “Only smaller and without rain.” With slow steps, she walked forward, her worried eyes lost to the whirling anger whose tattered vapors blackened the heavens and illuminated rarely with sparing flickers of lightning. Frigid winds stirred as the ship broached the waves beneath the furthest tendrils of the storm's spiraling reach. The wooden koi rocked unsteadily against the surging turbulence, but its crimson sails remained taut and its way true.

 

Freeing a hand to grip the water-slicked rail, Kagome steadied herself against the erratically shifting vessel, her ebony hair whipping violently in the rushing air. Blacker than the menacing storm that overlooked it, the jagged silhouette of an island broke the horizon. Twin, angular mountains jutting from its crest, the lonely crust of earth haunted the sea as a severed head crowned with twisting horns. With the empty shadows of its barren cliffs marking its dark, glowering eyes and the rock strewn cove at its fore granting it sharp teeth, the sinister isle smiled a deviously fanged grin at the venturing invaders who approached.

 

“It's time for me to go,” Fe-San stated evenly, wriggling out of the school girl's shielding embrace. Talons raking the rail as he grasped it firmly, he twisted his head around to preen his dense plumage.

 

“Wait,” the school girl protested hesitantly, gripping the rail with one hand while she reached out for the seemingly unafraid bird with her other. “We're still too far. You might get blown out to sea. Can't you wait until we dock?”

 

“It's not my role to wait, Momotaro-sama,” he explained between wiggling pecks that groomed deep into his feathers, sealing his stout body from the elements with the oil of his skin. “Like the original tale, I am the brave trumpeter that announces your arrival and I cannot do that from your side. Without me to distract their attention, the ambush on the ogres would fail and your battle will be that much harder.”

 

“Then let it be harder,” she insisted. “I don't want to follow the original fairy tale if it means you have to go by yourself. Something could happen to you and there would be no way we could save you. Is there another way?”

 

“He's stronger than you think, general,” the monkey cut in before the pheasant could respond. “He's an anxious and annoying bird who squawks all of the time and fidgets in his sleep--”

 

“Hey!” Fe-San squawked in flustered offense.

 

“But, he's a good flyer and the best fighter I've ever known. Believe in him, because he deserves it.”

 

With a final nod of understanding, Kagome relented, accepting the pheasant's fate as it was meant to be. Tipping his head to eye her from beneath his cap, the bird ruffled his plumes in his unique way of flushing embarrassment.

 

“I like it when we get a nice Momotaro, Mon-Ki.”

 

“So do I, wa-ah.”

 

Then without further remark, Fe-San took flight into the blustering winds, his bulbous body veering violently as the tempestuous gusts tested his defiance of their churning. Soon, the speck of his being vanished against the nearing island and the passing sentries of porous rock garnered the school girl's attention.

 

“The ogres,” she yelled as the strengthening storm above stripped the sound from her once gently spoken words. “You've fought them before, right?”

 

“Countless times, general,” Mon-Ki replied in like loudness, his coiled tail tightening around the post lest he lose his grip.

 

“And they always fall for the ambush?”

 

“Some conjurations are smarter than others, wa-ah,” he elaborated with a proud, toothy grin, no doubt referring to himself.

 

“You don't say?”

 

“The Ogre Warlord, however is no illusion.”

 

“So, there is another prisoner.”

 

“The monk is an unfortunate and permanent guest of the scroll, but the conqueror of Oni Island is the real prisoner of this story.”

 

“Do you know who he was?”

 

“No, Momotaro-sama. It has taken my entire existence to remember that, since I was only meant to know the story and my place in it. Anything else is just hard to keep, wa-ah.”

 

“I'm sorry, Mon-Ki,” Kagome apologized, silently chiding herself on her assumptions and prying curiosity. It had been easy to forget that he and Fe-San were only elements of Susanou's magic. According to the thunder god's intent, they were never meant to have a mind or body as they were only simple tools meant for a simple purpose.

 

“Don't worry, general,” the primate soothed when his honey-hued gaze caught her somber expression. “The monk once told us that though we aren't real, our friendship will always be, even after the day we disappear forever.”

 

“Do you really think so?”

 

“Of course, wa-ah.”

 

“Then, he was a wise man,” she added softly, her words nearly lost to the dry tempest as her reminiscing thoughts drifted over her recent adventures in the company of the aloof demon lord who presently napped in his slanted corner at the bow. “This place isn't for forever, is it? One day it will be over, won't it?”

 

“Yes, and you have to relish these times while they last, Momotaro-sama, because in that moment, they will end and all you will have is the memory.”

 

“I don't think the monk was the only wise one.”

 

“I told you some conjurations are smarter than others, wa-ah.”

 

A smile replacing her frown, the school girl carefully released a hand from her tight grip on the railing to caressingly scratch the deserving monkey. However, her prudent caution was short-lived as with one final lurch, the battered ship settled in the calm, teal waters of the small bay. An oval window to the strikingly blue sky beyond, the perfect eye of the whirling storm lay above them and the weathered sails of their vessel emptied.

 

Floating onward atop the constant pull of the surf, the wooden koi drifted toward the smooth, black sands of the beach. Rough and desolate, daunting walls of rock formed the island and nestled high between its raw, earthen horns laid a fortress. Glinting obsidian even in the muted light of the intense storm, its crooked towers and ramparts held a strangely organic appeal without a splinter of wood or a leaf of tree to define it. The remaining lengths of sea growing ever thinner, the earth-fated ship's belly finally scraped against the nearing shore, swiftly beaching the carved fish on the flooded sands.

 

“Mon-Ki, I have something for you,” Kagome spoke up, lifting a panel of her tunic to feel for the hard lump secured at her hip. With a gentle reverence, she held out the sheathed dagger and the monkey shivered with excitement at the sight of his favorite weapon. Reaching out tentatively, he grasped the beautiful tanto, but even with his sure grip, the school girl refused to let go. Perplexed, the little primate peered up at the serious countenance of his commander. “Remember, we have to prove to him how far I have come.”

 

“As you desire, general. We shall do it together, wa-ah.”

 

“I have the bow, so you'll have to go ahead. I'll do my best to provide you cover.”

 

“I trust your aim, Momotaro-sama. Perhaps more than my own strikes.”

 

“I hope that means you're good and not bad,” Kagome responded with a nervous quaking in her voice as she summoned as much assurance as she could muster in the face of the niggling misgivings that crippled her confidence.

 

“Of course,” he laughed raucously, tossing the sheathed blade casually from hand to tail and back again. Embarrassed by her needless self-doubt, the school girl blushed away her paralyzing foolishness while releasing the small knife into his even smaller hands. She was going to show Sesshoumaru her strength and determination, wasn't she? She was going to prove herself worthy of his gift by embracing every lesson he had taught and absorbing every moral she had endured. Grabbing the heavy board of wood, she dragged the gangplank to the opening in the railing and slid it over the edge until it fell at a steep incline onto the shifting sand beneath the shallow waves.

 

“Will you wake, Do-Gu?” the monkey asked apprehensively when she finished stabilizing the ramp.

 

“To prove it to him, I should do it on my own. Whenever I had a problem in the past, I relied on Do-Gu to save me. This time I'll save him and maybe he'll understand that all he's done for me has meant something more than words. That it has become something bigger. After all, this isn't the deserted island where I didn't have a choice but to get stronger. Here, if I defeat the Ogre Warlord and his minions without him, then there's no way he won't feel better. There's no way he won't realize that his gift will always be cherished.”

 

“And you got on Fe-San for going ahead, wa-ah.”

 

“Maybe I am a hypocrite, but I'm still the general, right? Let's go, Mon-Ki, before I change my mind.”

 

“Yes, sir,” he agreed with smile and a sure nod before slipping his dagger under the belt of his red pants and leaping lightly onto her shoulders. Taking a fistful of her mandarin collar into his hand and wrapping his tail around her upper arm, the primate gave her a second nod of assurance.

 

“I'll be back soon, Sesshoumaru-sama,” she whispered, turning her head to catch the downy fur and silk of the dozing tai youkai. “And hopefully you'll be able to put your doubt behind you when I return.” With a deep, calming sigh to bolster her resolve, she teetered on the rim of the deck. Then without ceremony, the school girl side-stepped down the slippery plank until her sandals sunk into the sand and her calf-length pants soaked in the ocean.

 

The dark currents tugged at her legs as she waded through them with the grit of abrasive sand slipping between her feet and the wooden soles of her shoes. Arriving with the rhythmic lapping of waves onto the dismal shoreline, Kagome trudged over the dark, water-logged sand and toward the cliff face.

 

“That way, Momotaro-sama,” Mon-Ki directed, casting a small finger toward a hidden crevice shielded by warped, barren trees and jagged rocks. Narrow and dimmed by shadow, she could make out the faint lines of a stairwell cut into the rock as she neared. Without hesitation, the school girl ascended the steps, trusting in the primate's experience and her knowledge of the story. Momotaro and his soldiers had found a secret entrance into the fortress and if there ever was a path that would lead to such a place, this would be it.

 

Endless in appearance, Kagome plodded up the flight, her guiding hand slipping over the roughly chipped wall whose uneven edges had been barely smoothed by time. Beads of sweat glistening on her forehead and cheeks, she was nearly exhausted before she had even begun to fight when the way opened up to the oval sky amid the reaching storm.

 

Bubbling as it cascaded down the litter of rock faces and then lingering in current-sculpted pools, a clear stream flowed across her leveled path. Beyond its trickling lay a set of large, stone doors engraved with a haunting visage of ogres ravaging the countryside. On its stark relief, the demons slew villagers as they set their homes ablaze and toted away riches and women as their spoils of unrivaled war. Disgusted by the imagery, the school girl looked to the monkey on her shoulder for his guidance and distraction.

 

“Mon-Ki?” she called out when saw the concern that etched his slightly protruding brow.

 

“They're not here.”

 

“Who's not here?”

 

“The princesses.”

 

“I had forgotten about them,” she murmured thoughtfully, recalling the tale from her memory. “They were supposed to find a way to let us in, weren't they?”

 

“We can get in without them, wa-ah.”

 

“Then why are you worried?”

 

“The Ogre Warlord has been lapsing into a sickness lately and during his worst bouts he does that which he should not.”

 

“I don't understand, Mon-Ki. Are you trying to say he does something to the princesses?”

 

“I should hope he hasn't, general, but their absence does not bode well.”

 

Leaping off her shoulder before she could press further, the primate bounded over the water and scaled the broad door using its carved surface as handholds. Over the crest, he flipped and with his disappearance came a clattering and a steady grinding. Worried over his unseen fate, Kagome crossed the stream and approached the sealed entrance.

 

“I have unlocked it, Momotaro-sama,” he whispered through the seam where the two doors met when she arrived. “Pull on the handles so that you may enter as well, wa-ah.”

 

“Okay,” she answered quietly, grasping the rounded handles sculpted into the heads of demons endowed with twisted, demonic faces. With a determined grunt of effort, the doors bellowed their creak while the school girl forced them open. Sitting back on his haunches, Mon-Ki awaited his general, unconcerned by the racket caused by her exertion.

 

“Let's go, Momotaro-sama,” he finally said when she had cracked them far enough for her to squeeze through. “We shouldn't leave Fe-San waiting.”

 

“But, the noise,” she managed between panting breaths. “Wouldn't they have heard that? Shouldn't we be careful?”

 

“Perhaps,” he replied and followed with his characteristic, toothy grin, “But then again, Fe-San is louder. Listen carefully, general.” Faint on the breeze, the nearly imperceptible, rough squawks of derision floated to her ears and a similar smile found Kagome's lips as well.

 

“Let's join him, shall we?” she offered cheerfully, unslinging her bow from the security of her back.

 

“By all means, wa-ah.”

 

 

A/N: I wasn't kidding when I said this story is long. The pacing on this arc is much slower than the others, so I'm happy if any of you are staying with me throughout it. There will be fighting for sure next chapter, so look forward to it.