Seppuku: Wherein I Try to Write Dark Fantasy

[Victarion]

Chapter 1

I


To hell with the yamabushi's order Saena thought. The tori****i approached a slumped, bipedal creature with a wolfish body and a pair of batlike wings rising from where forelimbs on any other humanoid should have been. The urufutaka's deep, black eyes were focused on the mist-covered valley far below her perch on the ledge.

"You're worried about your little one too, granny urufutaka?" Saena asked.

The urufutaka's lips quivered, revealing her sharp yellowing teeth as a deep growl rumbled up from within her broad chest.

"Let's go--"

The urufutaka sprang from the ledge, her membranous wings working furiously as she seemed to pull herself through the air, toward the misty brown-green canopy of the valley. When she was a wing's length from the canopy, the leaves and branches blackened, shriveled and crumbled away as if being burned by an unseen fire.

Saena jumped from the vine-grown ledge, her grayish-brown wings flaring out to catch the air currents as she coasted along in the warm wake of the urufutaka.

"Oh ****!"

Saena snapped her wings tight against her body as the urufutaka's entry point drew closer. Wind howled in Saena's ears as she plummeted the rest of the way down. Leaves and branches around the edges of the entry point slapped and dug into her body as she crashed on through to the snaps and dull crack until--

"Oooof!"

Her progress was halted by her midsection colliding with a twisting, slightly u-shaped branch. Saena shook the hair from her eyes and pushed herself from the branch, landing on the marshy ground in a crouch. She slowly rose, feeling the aches of her spotty landing, and hobbled along the river bank after the rapidly-moving form of the urufutaka.

"Hey! Hold on!" Saena called as she took in several deep breaths of the moist, loamy air.

The urufutaka glanced over her shoulder at Saena with an appraising eye then dropped back into a crouched posture. Her head was darting back and forth and as Saena got closer, she could hear a fast, wet sniffing.

"Good girl. You've found them?"

The urufutaka stepped off to the side, revealing a set of tracks. One pair was three-taloned, and looked to be a few hours old. The soil in the second pair of five-taloned prints was still damp, maybe no more than an hour ago.

"Lead on, then."

As Saena trailed the urufutaka, she divided her attention between the river and the dense growth of trees to either side of them.

They could be hiding in there. Anywhere. Mudba--stop it! Don't let that mountain rube's ramblings psych you out.

Suddenly a large stand of waist-high reeds rustled, followed by a thick, wet sucking. Saena's head snapped toward the sound and she flung her arms back, ready to spill the guts of whatever was tracking them. She glanced over her surroundings with one eye, keeping the other on the reeds.

"Granny urufutaka?"

No reply came, except for the irritated chirp and buzz of insects. Another rustle and a whine came from the reeds.

They've trapped your urufutaka and they'll lure you right in---no! She's not "mine", and there's nothing hiding in there.

Saena approached the reeds and stopped when they were at arm's length. Talons popped out of her fingers as her right arm flew toward the reeds, hacking a path through them. She darted forward with her left arm ****ed back for another swipe and another few reeds fell away--

"Granny urufutaka!"

The lupine beast's lower half was being rapidly engulfed by a patch of gobble-muck. Her atrophied-looking forelimbs clawed at the edge of the muck puddle in an attempt to find a firm hold. Saena ran to the edge of the puddle and grabbed one of the urufutaka's forelimbs. She dug her feet into the soft soil and began thrashing backwards, throwing all her strength into quick, jerky tugs.

"Aaaaah!" Saena cried as the urufutaka's claws burried themselves in Saena's arms. The urufutaka's eyes widened and she began whimpering. Saena blinked away the tears from her watering eyes and the skin at the edge of her beak twitched in what passed for a smile. "Don't worry, old girl. Its okay, its ok--"

What if this is it, then? My brother and her pup might be turning blue under that gunk.

"Here."

Large, scaly hands took hold of her waist. With a sharp jerk and another deep, wet slurping sound, the urufutaka was pulled free of the gobble-muck. Saena fell back onto the ground panting and raised a bleeding arm over her face to inspect the damage. Her eyes caught the webbed foot of her rescuer. She followed it to a thin torso that lead to a broad, brown and pebbly upper body. His head was flat, triangular, and shared a common feature with Saena's: a yellow brown beak. His however appeared to be a much more natural growth than Saena's own.

She jumped to her feet and back away from the kappa. The urufutaka's hackles rose and Saena felt her deep growl reverberating in her own chest.

"We're just passing through." Saena said, her eyes moving from the belt of stakes and rope to the large pack and pickaxe strapped across the kappa's back.

As was I, lady tori****i." the kappa replied. He nodded at the urufutaka. "You might want to tell that to your urufutaka there, too."

"She's from the yamabushi's stock. They've been trained to go after your kind on site."

"I know. Attack the mudbabies on sight." The kappa circled around the puddle of gobble-muck and pulled aside some of the reeds. "Let me at least see you through here. Those pits are tricky to spot if you're new to the Supokino Valley."

The urufutaka took a step forward and finally loosed her growl, raw and full of rage. As she began a deliberate approach toward the kappa, Saena laid a hand on her back.

"Hush, old lady, hush. He'll help us find your pup and my brother."

"Oh, she's lost her little one?" the kappa asked.

"And it looks like my brother got lost on the yamabushi's errand to find the pup."

"An urufutaka pup should be able to hold up against the mangrove-pigs, but we'll want to get them before the hebijin come out."

Saena nodded and approached the kappa, with the old urufutaka following. The old creature kept her eyes on the kappa's back, whcih seemed to be dominated by a moss and mud encrusted shell that rose naturally from the turtle-thing's skin.

Always the tricksters, those filthy mudbabies. the yamabushi's voice said in Saena's head. The tori****i stopped and watched as the kappa proceeded on ahead. He seems decent enough; he did say there were hebijin about. Maybe his town sent him to look into them.

"Any chance you saw some tracks through here?" Saena asked as she ran to catch up to the kappa. "There would have been two sets. One would have two prints with three claw-marks, the other two prints with five talon marks."

"Let me get that all straight up stairs." The kappa ran a hand through a growth of what were short rounded tubes or tentacles on his head. His beak remained slightly open and his tongue moved as if he were mumbling to himself. "Okay: there's some tori****i prints, and a pair of urufutaka tracks, right?"

"Yes! You saw them?" Saena asked.

"Sure did." the kappa replied. "It was off--hey lookout!"

His webbed hand shot out and clutched Saena's arm in a vise-like grip as he pulled her back from the very edge of another gobble-muck pit.

"Grrrrr...."the urufutaka flared her wings causing the reeds around her to blacken and wither away.

The kappa immediately released his grip on Saena and raised his hands in a defensive posture, his tiny eyes on the sharp thumbs emerging from the urufutaka's wings. "Just tryin' to help your lady friend out, 'mam."

"It's okay, girl. Easy, granny." Saena said, approaching the urufutaka cautiously. She extended a hand and gently stroked the thin layer of down around the the urufutaka's neck. Slowly the growl died down and the urufutaka lowered her wings, tucking them back against her body.

Saena turned back to the kappa and they resumed their walk through the once seemingly endless patch of reeds. It was beginning to thin out and the reeds were growing shorter and shorter in height.

"Do you have any idea how she did that?" the kappa asked.

"Did what?"

"They way when she raised her wings, the reeds died."

"I'm not sure. Now what about the tracks?"

"Oh, of course. Forgive me." The kappa grinned ruefully. "The effects primordia has on those around it is something of an interest to me." He clapped a hand to his forehead. "There I go again rambling."

"No, its alright." Saena replied with a smile. "You're one of the only people I've heard refer to the stuff by the proper term since we left Meiyo-Hazumi."

The kappa laughed, a strange wet nasally sound. "Yes, my own don't really care to talk about the stuff either. Oh, the tracks! I saw the very same ones veering off to the west, away from the river banks."

The three finally emerged from the stretch of reeds to a clover and fungus-covered piece of marsh where willows grew thick, their trunks almost knotted together and moss hung from the skeletal branches of some of the other treas in the area.

"It's beautfiul in here." Saena murmured as they made their way west through a what seemed a naturally grown tunnel of moss-strung trees.

"It is." the kappa agreed. "As for your missing brother and pup, they shouldn't have to worry about the hebijin if the tracks keep this course."

"Listen, thanks." Saena reached into a drawstring bag strapped to her belt and drew out a couple of pieces of stone. "I don't have any money, but you might like this."

"Oh? What is it?" the kappa asked.

"Fragments of stone from what the yamabushi called "The Last Egg of Torikaen." I wouldn't put much stock in that, though." Saena dropped the payment into the kappa's hand. "How a firebird could manage an egg is beyond me."

"I can feel the primordia in it!" the kappa said excitedly. "Its a wonder it didn't burn straight through your bag." He dropped the stone fragment into a pouch at his belt and held out a hand.

Saena took the rough, scaly thing in her smooth, almost human hand and gave it a vigorous pump. "I guess you'll be going toward the mountains then?" she asked.

"Mmmhmmm." The kappa glanced back toward the reeds with a distant look, as if imagining his hebijin were sneaking and slinking toward them. "We'll need some primordia in case the hebijin decide to make their way toward our bayou."

"Well, good luck. Watch out for other tori****i, they'll likely have you dead on sight."

"Don't worry." The kappa chuckled. "I'm more than prepared to handle a bit of trouble."

With that, the kappa went on his way back through the reeds and Saena hobbled off through the naturally-grown willow tunnel as quickly as the lingering pain from her crash landing would allow.

Hebijin slithering around what's practically the central region of Raijou. Saena thought as she slowly and steadily gained on the old urufutaka. What in the world would get them out of their undersea catacombs? And for that matter, how the hell are they even surviving outside of the ocean?

II

The tori****i Bokanui Souboujichi sat at a table near the window, from which he could see the distant, misty Supokino Valley. A lantern hung from the center of the cavern-turned-den, casting shadows over a woman laid out on a weathered bedroll. Bokanui’s eyes went from the view of their old home to his hands…

But are they really? The yamabushi wondered. The skin had peeled to reveal a red, leathery hid while the ends of his fingers had cracked and hawk- like talons had emerged. Dried flecks of blood clung to those brownish talons.

“Uhhhh.”

Bokanui turned his head toward a darkened hollow; a talon involuntarily touched the semi-leathery semi-hardened beak that had literally sprouted from where a mouth had once been.

“Her time comes.” The yamabushi murmured. He gathered a pair of belts from beside of cup of watered down drink and pushed away from the table. As he passed his slumbering wife there on the bedroll, he crouched beside her and touched the slight swell of her belly.

We’re growing he thought with a smile. Torikaen will surely smile on this boy.

“Nyuuuhhh.”

Bokanui rose with the belts in hand, continued to the hollow, and pulled aside the dingy old curtains. His daughter lay there on a crudely stitched mattress with a tiny little arm dangling over the side. Not far from her hand lay a small sack of beads with a couple of buttons stitched onto a lumpy round head. The yamabushi smiled as he picked up the doll and laid it beside Kamiko’s head. An aura of feverish heat hung over his sleeping daughter.

“Torikaen’s Wings have embraced you, Kamiko.” Bokanui whispered.

“Unnnnyuuuuuhhh.” Her face froze in a scrunched-up expression. Her hands, lined with cracks as if dried out by winter, started twitching and the groans grew louder.

Bokanui knelt at his daughter’s mattress-side and ran the first belt across her chest, tucking her arms to her sides. Gently he raised the mattress, ran the rest of the belt under and looped it back around. Then he cinched it over her chest so that her arms were bound tight to her sides. He repeated this procedure, strapping her ankles to the mattress.

Suddenly Kamiko’s eyes snapped open and her pupils began dilating rapidly. Her midsection jumped and she let out a shrill cry. Her lips pulled back as if she were snarling like a wild dog. Blood began to flow in rivers from her gums as the teeth began sliding together.

Why father, those eyes seemed to ask, why is the happening? Why? Why? Why?

Kamiko’s hand grabbed Bokanui’s taloned hand in a vise-like grip that grew tighter as the teeth slowly but surely finished coming together. “I’m sorry sweetie, I’m so sorry. They will pay, do you hear—”

A loud, wet crack of the teeth and blackening gums suddenly jutting out from her mouth in a spray of blood and spittle drowned out her father’s apology. Bokanui felt a warmth in his claw and looked down to see the skin on her hand had started cracking and bleeding as her new skin began pushing its way through.

“Yamabushi Souboujichi!”

Bokanui jumped with a start, his hand slipping free of Kamiko’s grasp thanks to the blood. Standing at the far end of the den over the threshold was one of his pupils. This one’s beak had come through and the boney projections from his back were covered in light down feathers.

“You scared me there, Bugetsa. What—” Bokanui saw his pupil’s eyes looking over his shoulder at Kamiko’s thrashing, screaming form.

“Her beaking…it’s always hardest on the females…”

“You came for a reason other than to point out the obvious, pupil?” Bokanui asked.

“Oh yes! We caught someone trying to sneak back into Supokino Valley.”

“Where are they now?”

“In the square, teacher.”

“Lead on then.”

The yamabushi followed his pupil out of the den and into the cool night. A sound was carried to them on the wind. As their path led downward toward similar cave-dwellings and little old shacks, the sounds—the screams of others in midst of their beaking—became increasingly louder.

The Daimyo and other false leaders are accompanied by a fanfare of instruments Bokanui thought. But not the true leaders.

The crack of beaks sprouting and the cries of adolescents blended together to form a hellish cacophony. The few tori****i whose children weren’t going through the beaking peered through cracked doors and out of their windows as the yamabushi and his pupil passed by.

“Revitalizing, do you think?”Bokanui heard someone whisper.

“Most certainly; why I hear she actually slept with one of the kappas. That ****e’ll get what she deserves!” another said.
“Downright unfair…”

Bokanui’s head snapped to the side toward that last comment; almost immediately the tori****i who’d said it slipped back into his shack with a slam of its wooden door.

Jakusan the yamabushi said to himself.

“Bugetsa, tomorrow you and one of the others be sure to visit the Jakusan house.”

“Yes, teacher.”

The pair reached the town square, where there stood a hastily erected stage built around an outcropping of rock. Upon the rock was a chiseled image of the Firebird Torikaen. Bound to a splintery pole before the outcropping was a female tori****i, her stomach bulging with a new babe. Bokanui’s beady eyes narrowed. Suddenly the motive for her escape from the village was quite clear. A wild-eyed tori****i near the platform pushed through the crowd and fell on the ground before Bokanui.

“Please, please be merciful on my daughter, Yamabushi!” the woman cried, crawling forward and planting kiss after kiss on his taloned feet. “She’s only just gained her wings and—”

“Do you doubt Torikaen’s promise, as given by the tengu?” Bokanui asked.

The girl’s mother looked up at him, her beak quivering.

“Well?”

“Don’t listen to her, Yamabushi!” A male tori****i emerged from the group gathered around the stage. He grabbed Bokanui by the shoulders and spun the yamabushi to face him. “We know Torikaen will watch over our girl, but please, she’s in pain from her wings coming in, can’t you—”

“We have root powder to numb it.”

“Root powder? Dammit, open your ears! Does it sound like that stuff does any good?”

“Uuuuuhhhaaaaaaahhhh!”

All looked to the platform. Blood was running from between the pregnant tori****i’s feather-covered legs. She screamed again, the ear-splitting sound rising above those coming from the houses around the town square. Finally she stopped, heaved, and in a gush of blood, a lumpy thing dropped from the girl, dangling by the umbilical cord.

Bokanui shrugged off the girl’s father and began stepping toward the stage.

“No, you can’t!” the girl’s mother rushed at the yamabushi’s back and managed to get a hold on one of his wings before Bugetsa and one of the other pupils present seized her and dragged her back into the crowd.