Reizei surprised me with his ingenuity by proposing an idea that allowed me to stay put and yet help explore. He opened a small portal on his camera’s lens, allowing me to see his surroundings and communicate. Then he took to the sky.
Our plan was ambitious, causing the niggle of discomfort inside me to grow. Dread crept in to replace it, and clung. Approaching this powerful yokai had no undo. We’d face the consequences, good or bad.
Would we be able to build rapport with the mountain?
Wind rushed through the miniature portal, startling me. Seeing the lush forest below took my breath away. My perspective had been so limited as a ground dweller.
Then Reizei landed without a sound across the river from the remote peak. Even though the tengu used stealth, the event had been noticed. Bulbous eyes that dwarfed my house opened as if awakening from a deep sleep. The ridge's blink took over a minute.
Reizei waited for several moments before querying, “Master?”
I gulped. Despite earlier rehearsals, my mind blanked. My host tree quaked in protest over the mountain spirit's presence, even though I was on the other side of the portal window. This was my opportunity to influence generations and share this kami’s story if I could just muster the courage to ask.
To my chagrin, my voice emerged as a squeak. “Great mountain spirit, apologies for disturbing your slumber. My associate and I wish to hear your story, to save it for posterity.”
The ground rumbled. Reizei’s cellphone blared a major earthquake warning. So my tengu caretaker took to the sky for safety.
Twilight’s soft hues blotted out as the mountain emerged from the river, cresting higher and higher above the horizon.
All of Japan must have felt the tremors. My heart sank. Did our chance vanish?
The enormous peak leaned to hover over Reizei. Darkness from the giant spirit’s shadow heralded early night and the spirit’s eyes glowed bright, fixed on me through the portal window my tengu friend held in his shaking hands.
The mountain spoke, rumbling like thunder, sending quakes in every direction. Individual words emerged every ten minutes or so. “For centuries, I slept, ignored. Yet you, who won’t even set foot on the base of my vastness, dare to ask me for my tale? Cowardice!”
Reizei perched on a sturdy branch, waiting an hour to verify the spirit finished speaking—lest we be banned from its presence. When I deemed the venting done, I said, “I am kodama, my host tree grew difficult to move. We’re working on a means of transport. ”
“A kodama tied to a bonsai pot? Humanity’s avarice knows no bounds.” The ground shook with such force, it liquefied.
But, my hands waved frantically. “Great Mountain Spirit, until me, no kodama had the pleasure of traveling to record yokai stories!”
The rollercoaster shaking subsided. Reizei fluffed his feathers, settling in as we waited again.
***
Dawn hid inside a thick, misty gloom. A rumbling startled Reizei and I awake.
“I am Hoshi. My tale is one of war.”
Fear could have no quarter. I fetched my notebook, praying all the while the telling wouldn’t shake Japan to pieces.
The mountain said, “I am a celestial spirit, cast down to earth. Hideous from the impact, I was driven out of every province.
“My state was rage against the King of the Moon, the one who condemned me for daring to court the moon princess, Kaguya-hime. He tried to subdue me with tsunami tides. I shot molten rock back and tethered myself to the land with boulders and trees.
“In my pain, I destroyed everything in my path. It led the Moon King to set a horrible precedent. I would have preferred death. For, he cursed me to be this mountain and watch my beloved marry another—in slow motion, over and over.
“Unable to unearth from this spot and free my love from a marriage she didn’t want, I gave into depression. My tears flowed into this stream, morphing it into a powerful river.” As he spoke, enormous drops fell from his eyes and threatened to overflow the shoreline.
Tremors grew gargantuan. The river surged, washing trees and boulders away.
Oh, Kami-sama, I shouldn’t have disturbed this slumbering giant. Would his long-held grief shake apart and flood the Nonogawa River Valley? Would residents be able to reach high ground?
I shouted for the maid dial the emergency number. I bellowed at the poor operator, “Flash flooding at the fork of the Nonogawa River!” The operator kept his wits and soon the civil defense sirens went viral throughout town. I prayed my foolish story collecting wouldn’t cost lives.
The mountain’s eyes swept over me through the portal, just before Reizei took to the sky to escape the raging river. “Danger? Where?” the mountain asked.
“From your angry earthquakes and tears, Hoshi-san!” Reizei shouted with more than a trace of tight-throated panic.
The mountain spirit gasped, spewing a vent of scalding sulfurous air. Reizei, on the edge of the poisonous cloud, lost many wing feathers and plummeted.
“No!” My heart stuck in my throat as my tengu friend fell to certain death. What an idiot I’d been! I had no right to disturb the once tranquil mountain. My actions would reap the destruction of my home and snuff the life of a friend.
An earthen hand raised, cradling a pool of water, and Reizei splashed, head-first, into it. Water gushed through his camera’s portal. I had to close it. At least Reizei would survive, even if I didn’t. Kami-sama, be merciful. Please.
But the flood never came, only violent quakes. When Reizei made it home, I had to navigate his incoherent ramblings.
I just couldn’t believe my tengu friend until we went back to verify. The mountain had thrown itself in the water's way and slurped away the flood, leaving an altered landscape but a safe river. Hoshi, the mountain spirit, apologized and promised to protect the valley. Though, rescuing Reizei and the town had taken tremendous energy. Before he fell into a deep sleep, he made me promise to publish his story, then visit and bring news from Nonogawa in a decade.
Now how could I tell Hoshi the mountain’s story, without revealing too much of my own?
oh what a nice story :)
Thank you so much for reading! <3