Sometimes, life forces you to do unpleasant things in order to survive. It's unavoidable; sooner or later, you will have to take actions you don't approve of, go places you don't like, and cooperate with people you don't trust. That last one always gave me the most trouble. I'd imagine you have the same problem. ---- Wings of Fate created by Ardweden and John Evans Chapter 15: Bird of Ill Omen by Roger Maleski ---- "We're almost there," said Judou. "We must be. I clearly recall a road sign with the words 'seven kilometers' on it." He had repeated this twenty times within the past two hours. I'd kept count. It helped to keep my mind off the dull ache of my forehead and hands, the emptiness of my stomach, and... other things. "That means that we must almost be there. Average walking speed is around six and a half kilometers per hour, right? So if it's seven kilometers away, that means that even if we walk slowly, it still couldn't take much more than ninety minutes to get there. We have to be practically on top of it." I didn't waste my energy on a reply. By now, it was obvious that he wasn't really talking to me, anyway. "Any minute now," he went on, "we'll come to the top of this rise, and we'll look down, and there will be a town right in front of us." At about that time, we came to a clearing at the top of the rise. Judou stopped. I stopped. A few dead leaves swirled past us in the wind. "Well," Judou said quietly, in a voice that was not at all the confident, optimistic one he'd been using before. He paused for a long moment, then turned to look at me, the defeat clear on his face. "It seems I may have been mistaken about that road sign." I just nodded. What was there for me to say? The forest below us showed no signs of human habitation. To be fair, there was another rise up ahead, and it could have been blocking our view. But from where we stood, the only manmade object in sight was the highway stretching along to our side, and off to the west, the sun was easing its way down to the horizon. The reddish light cast long shadows across the forest below us, and turned the clouds magenta edged with molten gold. I like sunsets. Before, I used to watch them almost every evening, even though doing so is sappy and romantic, and those two adjectives rank right up with "vulnerable" as concepts I would rather not have associated with myself. Sometimes, when I was looking out across my forest and the light fell in just the right way, it was as if every tree had suddenly burst into flame and was burning. I squeezed my eyes shut. Suddenly, I was acutely aware of the fact that I _was_ hurt, hungry, and tired, and that there was no way we were going to make it to the next town before night fell. I put an arm out behind me and groped around until my hand touched a tree trunk. The skin of my palm was still tender, even after the healing Akari had worked in Kamakura, but the discomfort was a welcome distraction. I slowly lowered myself to a sitting position with my back against the tree, dry leaves crackling under me. Letting my head fall back against the smooth bark, I took a deep breath. Leaves rustled nearby. "Are you okay?" Judou sounded concerned. When I didn't answer, his voice took on a slight edge of panic. "Shuukou, are you all right?" Obviously, I wasn't 'all right.' I think you're clever enough to figure out the reasons without me spelling them out again. I cracked open my eyes and saw him kneeling there next to me, his hand half-raised like he wanted to touch me, but was afraid he might lose fingers if he did. I opened my eyes all the way. "I'm fine," I lied. As I mentioned earlier, vulnerability is not a quality I aspire to. It didn't look like Judou fully believed me, but he nodded and sat down. For a while, neither of us said anything. Then: "We won't make it to a town by nightfall," I stated. "Even if we did, what good would it do us?" "Someone would have a telephone," said Judou. "We could call Kenchi, and they could come pick us up. I know the number for his... car... phone... damn." He sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Okay, so we'll find some friendly townsperson who's willing to give us a lift." I gave him a very flat look. His hair had twigs stuck in it, his face was dirty, and his clothing sported several obvious rips. I probably looked even worse. Any friendly townsperson who saw us walking down the road would probably call his friendly neighbourhood policeman, and Judou and I would spend our night in a friendly jail cell. "...right," he said sheepishly. "I guess that plan isn't too well- thought-out, either. But what else can we do? We aren't safe if we stay here." "Why not?" I asked. Judou blinked. "Well," he began, "I mean... in a town we would..." He sighed again, and slumped forward, covering his face with the palm of one hand. "I'm not thinking, am I?" "It's all right," I said distantly. "You're still doing better than you did during exams back in university." I paused. "But yes, you are acting the fool." "You never did believe in tact, did you?" he asked, but he was smiling as he said it. "No, not really," I replied. "And I DO get rattled by stress, don't I?" His smile turned rueful. "Socks," I said, and, "psych midterm." It's an inside joke. You wouldn't understand it even if I did explain. "Heh. That one almost drove me to pure psychotic madness." "I think Kenchi still has the socks, too." "That son of a...!" He laughed, and I surprised myself by joining him. For a minute, it was possible to pretend that the past few days had all been an elaborate hoax, that any second someone would yell "Surprise!" and everything would be all right again. Unfortunately, this was not the truth, and our laughter had an edge of hysteria to it. The sun was halfway below the horizon now, and the breeze was becoming distinctly chilly. I hugged my knees to my chest, only now realizing that I had left my jacket in Kenchi's car. "I bet we could get away with just staying here for a while, at that," Judou's voice rose above the sigh of dead leaves and the chirping of crickets. "The others wouldn't just leave us behind. Akari wouldn't let them. And Kenchi and Soshi are both really clever guys. They'd find some way of figuring out where we are." I nodded. It was a nice idea. I didn't believe for a second that things would work out that neatly, but it was nice. "Whoever is after us is probably watching the roads and the towns, so we're actually safer out in the woods. We have Soshi's charm" -- he pulled the necklace out of his pocket and hefted it in his hand -- "to keep anyone from sensing us with magic." I knew what was coming next, and I didn't especially want to hear it. "Plus," Judou went on, oblivious to my discomfort, "you can talk to the trees and get them to make sure no one sneaks up on us. Right?" I drew my legs in a bit closer, my arms tightening around myself. I'd known when we fled into the woods that, sooner or later, the issue of my skills would arise. It was perfectly reasonable, and I couldn't fault Judou for bringing it up. "Can you do that kind of thing?" he pressed. I looked away. "I'm not sure." I wasn't. I'd never actually used my powers anywhere but my forest and the Tokyo area before; there was never any reason for me to. I didn't know if the trees elsewhere would immediately accept me, or if I'd have to spend weeks building up their trust like I had with mine. Maybe other forests would become angry if I tried to force them to listen to me. Maybe it was only the special magic of my forest that had allowed me to communicate with it in the first place. That was all rationalization, of course. The real reason was that letting the trees of this place into my mind would make it completely impossible to ignore the gaping hole that had been torn in my psyche. Kenchi had patched it as best he could, and because of that I'd been able to survive the trauma and start rebuilding myself. I knew I could handle houseplants and a few tame city trees, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to cope with touching something which I was sure would be hauntingly similar to the forest I'd once been a part of, so soon after it had been lost to me. You obviously don't understand. See if this helps: Imagine that your spouse was killed before your eyes. Now imagine that you met someone who looked and sounded exactly like them. Would you want to have a conversation with this stranger whose every mannerism reminded you of someone you'd loved, but was an utterly different person? Do you see what I'm getting at? So... "I just don't know," I repeated softly. "Are the trees here any different from Tokyo's?" Judou sounded puzzled. "No," I whispered. "If you're too tired --" he began, but I cut him off. "It's not that." I forced myself to look at him, carefully keeping my voice calm and level. "I know that I can speak with the trees here. The issue is that I don't know if I CAN speak with the trees here. Do you understand?" I met his eyes, willing him to see what I meant so that I wouldn't have to explain, and verbally acknowledge my own weakness. The confused look in his eyes shaded into comprehension, and for a moment it looked like he was going to say something, but then he simply nodded very slowly. I inclined my head slightly in acknowledgement. Say what you like about Judou, at heart he is a good person, and for that I was grateful. "The past couple of days have been pretty rough for you, haven't they?" he said quietly. He's also a past master of stating the obvious. "All right." He stood up, brushing leaves off the seat of his jeans. "We can make do with just Soshi's necklace, at least until we come up with a better plan." I wasn't convinced of the soundness of his reasoning. The wolf that had chased us on the highway hadn't seemed very inconvenienced by the ward, and I had the sneaking suspicion that it also wouldn't do us much good if someone tried to track us through the woods the normal way. However, I'd never made a habit of lying down and accepting defeat before, and I wasn't about to start now. Whatever our pursuers threw at us, we would evade, until the time came when we were reunited with our friends. Then, we would uncover who our enemies were, where they laired, and there would come a reckoning. That was what was going to happen, and I would not allow anything or anyone to stand in my way. Rising to my feet, I grimaced when I felt how stiff I'd gotten in only a few minutes. "I can find us someplace we can spend the night out of the wind," I said, concentrating on small, immediate goals. "We can see if there's a stream somewhere we can cross, in case something tries to track us by smell. I'll try to --" I broke off when I realized that Judou wasn't listening to me. Instead, he was staring off into space, a glazed-over look on his face. I was just about to reach over and shake him out of the vision, or whatever it was, when he flinched and stumbled to the side, grabbing hold of a small tree as his knees buckled under him. His eyes were very big, and even before he said anything I could tell that something was extremely wrong. My aches and pains were abruptly forgotten. "Got to get out of here!" gasped Judou, grabbing my arm and dragging me toward the underbrush, ignoring my indignant protest. I could almost smell his panic, like a jolt of lightning aimed directly at my hindbrain. "It's a... like a... something really bad! Here! Now!" I shook free of his grip, fight-or-flight instincts in full swing, my gaze darting around wildly, my mind screaming THREAT THREAT THREAT and Judou frantically babbling something that I wasn't paying attention to anymore. Reflexively, I reached out to the trees around us, realized what I was doing, tried to stop, but it was too late and-- The forest's consciousness found my brain and exploded across it, racing along neurons and ganglia like branching vines, roots tangling around my spinal column, ten thousand tiny flowers blossoming across my cerebral cortex. For a moment, it felt just as it had before my old forest had died, but then, as I'd feared, the differences became apparent and the emptiness threatened to swallow me again. I teetered at the brink for a period of time which couldn't have been longer than a fraction of a second, but seemed to span days. I barely managed to claw my way back from the edge before the forest's being found its way into my conscious mind. CHILD. YOU ARE NOT UNWELCOME HERE. The thought was brown and musty, and echoed with the ghosts of a thousand years. It was level and precise, nothing like the visceral, almost incoherent quality that I was used to, but the power behind it was still nothing short of awesome. It was different from anything I'd ever felt before, and I saw then just how limited I had been, when I had imagined myself to be connected to all nature across Japan. THERE IS NO GRUDGE AGAINST YOU. OR AGAINST THAT WHICH FOLLOWS YOU. BUT MARK WELL THESE WORDS. The last thought was directed both at me and at something else, something nearby. I caught a fleeting impression of black wings, driven by an inhuman and frightening intent. THIS PLACE WILL NOT BE YOUR BATTLEFIELD. EVER. With that, the forest disentangled itself from me, and the outside world jumped back into focus. I slumped to my knees, feeling the tears leak out of the corners of my eyes. The pain was intense. But not unbearable. I had purpose, and I clung to it. I took the desolation I felt and fed it to my hatred, drawing strength from the loss. When I found the ones who had done this to me, my suffering would be as nothing compared to theirs. I vowed this to myself once again, and again it was enough to keep me sane. Judou was still panicking, saying that we should run, but I had an idea of what he had seen, and if it was the same thing I had perceived through the forest's eyes, running was not an option. No sooner had I thought this than I felt something trying to get inside my mind. Judou must have sensed it, too, because he stopped trying to pull me back to my feet and just stood there, his mouth hanging open. "Wha?" he said. When Kenchi uses his 'Gift,' as he calls it, it's like an army of creeping vines attacking a stone wall. At least, that's how I thought of it when I was on the receiving end, that second time. He spreads a million little tendrils across your ego, each one looking for a fracture in your defenses. Then they push down into those cracks and slowly spread. The cracks get bigger and bigger as the vines grow, until eventually the whole wall comes tumbling down. Even if you had the strongest will in the world, you probably wouldn't be able to resist for very long because it's so subtle. What was happening to me right now was more like someone attempting to break the same stone wall by ramming a truck into it. On the one hand, it was tremendously powerful. On the other, it was easy to see coming, and because of that, it was possible to defend against. The probe crashed up against me once, twice, and a third time, but I managed withstand it. Abruptly, the assault ceased. I shook my head to clear it. "What the hell?" Judou wondered. "Was that someone trying to find us with magic?" His fear was still there, but it was beginning to be overridden by curiosity. "Some kind of psychic attack, or something?" I shrugged, allowing him to help me back to my feet. I quickly wiped my cheeks on a sleeve before Judou could see how deeply my brief contact with the woods had affected me. With luck, he'd think I'd collapsed because of the attack we'd just weathered. "It wasn't like Kenchi." I shrugged again. "I don't know what it was. But I think we should get far away from here before it comes back." With truly ironic timing, it chose that moment to return. I could sense it winding up, getting ready to bash against my defenses again, and mentally braced myself, concentrating on keeping everything that wasn't me OUT of my head. Then, suddenly, it reversed. Or something like that. I had no idea how to resist it. How do you resist having something's shadow fall on you? Everything went black. Then white. Then green. I was standing in a field. Judou was next to me. The grass came to above our ankles, and all around us a battle was raging. It was like an 'historical epic' movie, but instead of samurai fighting each other, it was wild-looking gaijin men wearing blue facepaint and not much else. Horses were screaming, men were screaming, and blood and dirt were flying through the air. I smelled smoke. I was standing in a field. Judou was next to me. The grass came to above our ankles, and it was soaked with blood. All around us, rolling hills stretched off into the mist-shrouded distance. We were alone, except for the corpses strewn all around us. I was standing in a field. Judou was next to me. The grass came to above our ankles, and rustled softly in the breeze. All around us, rolling hills stretched off into the mist-shrouded distance. We were alone, except for the woman standing in front of us. She was at least a head taller than me, with glossy black hair bobbed off well above her shoulders. Her outfit consisted of a black t-shirt and blue jeans, but the garments' cut and appearance seemed subtly wrong. It was like they'd been made by someone who'd heard what modern clothing looked like, but had never actually seen any first-hand. Her eyes were green, the same deep emerald color I liked to pretend that mine were. "What... is this?" Judou spoke slowly, obviously not believing what he saw. "Where are we?" The woman smiled. "Nowhere in the world of men, young crow." She had a very slight accent, but I couldn't place it. "And I do not believe that is the question you truly wish to be asking." "Who are you?" Judou's furrowed his brow. "You seem... familiar." Again the irritatingly superior smile. "Macha is not my real name, but it is the only one you need know." I could feel the wrinkle forming between my eyebrows as they drew together in annoyance. This situation was absurd. Tracked through the forest and mentally assaulted, just to play twenty questions with a strange woman whose smug arrogance would make Soshi green with envy? Judou, on the other hand, seemed more than willing to play the game. "Why did you bring us here?" he asked. "So we could speak undisturbed, of course," she replied. So very, very smug. Soshi wouldn't just turn green, he'd probably burst into tears. "Young crow, you are not very good at choosing questions. Let me help you." She sauntered towards us, like a particularly egomaniacal housecat given human form. "The question you want to ask," she informed him, "is 'Why do you wish to speak to me?'" "Fine," I said flatly. "What's the answer?" I wasn't about to let Judou embarrass himself by repeating her words back to her like a parrot. The woman who called herself Macha shot me a dark look. "I was under the impression that this was a land of respect and courtesy, little one." I snorted derisively. "Only for those who deserve it." She glared. I defiantly met her gaze. Her eyebrows went up ever so slightly, and the smile slowly spread itself back over her face. "Well," she breathed. "It seems I misjudged you, little one. Your will is your own, after all." I bristled. She laughed. It was an unsettling, perversely beautiful sound. "Such spirit! Very well, little one, I shall no longer play games with you." Judou stepped quickly into the lull, no doubt anticipating my angry response. "So, what is the answer then?" I clenched a fist, angry that I had allowed this woman to get under my skin. Macha took a step back. "I wish to render you a service," she said. "And collect one." Judou narrowed his eyes. It seemed as if his wits were returning. "Before I start asking you about that, I'll need some other questions answered," he said. "Of course." "How did you find us?" His hand was in his pocket, and I knew he was fingering Soshi's necklace. "We're protected from magical scrying." "The same way the hellhound found you. Your friend's vehicle is very distinctive." Her smile grew wider. "And my eyes are very, very sharp." "You're a magician." "Not really." "But you _can_ do magic." "Of a sort." She was playing with him again. I could see it in her eyes. "And you aren't allied with the ones who are sending these monsters after us," Judou doggedly continued his line of questioning. "Most assuredly not," she responded, her shock clearly feigned. "Young crow, much as I would like to humour your questions, I find myself chafing to get to the heart of the matter. Do you wish to hear my offer, or shall I leave?" She ostentatiously made as if to turn her back on us. Judou looked at me, and I scowled back. He nodded, as if to say 'I know, but I don't think we have a choice.' "All right," he said, "what can you offer us?" "Escape from your enemies," she answered quickly. "Reunion with your friends." "And what, exactly, will you get in return?" he demanded. "But a single vision, young crow." She flicked her hand dismissively. "I wish to find someone. You will find him for me." "Who is this 'someone?'" Now that he'd regained his balance, it seemed as if Judou was used to haggling questions and answers like this. It made me wonder what kind of creatures the tengu dealt with besides humans. "The same one you seek," replied Macha. "The one who set the hound after you. The one whose pawn put the torch to your forest." She looked at me. I gritted my teeth and kept my face set in a scowl; I didn't intend to give her the satisfaction of seeing me shaken. "Your interests and mine coincide, little one." "If your eyes are so keen," said Judou, crossing his arms, "why don't you find him yourself?" "Sadly, he hides in shadows into which I cannot see. And his protective wards are much more powerful than yours." "If these wards are so powerful, what makes you think I can penetrate them?" The skepticism was clear in Judou's voice. "I'm not even trained in the use of my power." "Even the greatest magic cannot bar a prophet's eye, young crow." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It affects only the present, and you are free of that restriction." "That doesn't make any sense," I muttered. "Should it?" She raised an eyebrow at me. "Magic and time both have their own rules, and those rules were not made for mortals to understand." My scowl deepened. "You said you're looking for the same people we are," said Judou. "Or one them, at least. Why?" "He sent one of his minions to spy on me," she replied. "I wish to scold him for his rudeness." For the first time, her smile showed teeth. It was the kind of smile you would see on a tiger right before it ripped you apart. "So, are we agreed? I find your friends for you, and when you find the man you already wish to find, you tell me where he is." Judou was silent for a long time, drumming the fingers of one hand on his upper arm. Finally, he seemed to reach a decision. "I'll listen to your plan, so long as you present it to us in the real world." "Done," said Macha, and Judou vanished. She turned to me. "Time to leave this place, little one." I felt something begin to push me out of whatever 'this place' was. "Wait," I snapped. Judou may have been satisfied with her assurances, but I wasn't. "Answer _me_ a question before I go." She blinked, a longsuffering look on her face, and the world stopped contracting around me. "Very well. Let it never be said that I treat my guests discourteously. What is it you would ask, little one?" I looked her straight in the eye. There was one thing Judou had almost asked, but hadn't. "WHAT are you?" For an instant, her face went completely blank. Then she was smiling again, but in a different way. The corners of her mouth were barely turned upwards, but there was a fierce light in her eyes that hadn't been there before. It was not a friendly smile. "Very good," she murmured. "Very good, indeed. You are a clever one. But are you sure you truly wish your question to be answered?" I nodded curtly, not breaking eye contact. "I respect courage." Her voice was distant, almost contemplative. I can't tell you what I saw then. No, I'm not just being secretive. It has nothing to do with whether or not I want to tell you; it's literally impossible for me to do so in a way that you could comprehend. Words don't exist that could adequately depict the vision which unfolded around me. You could hear me say that it was an ocean of blood and a raven whose wings spanned the sky and blotted out the sun, green eyes burning with the true death, talons rending a thousand screaming souls, and that wouldn't even begin to describe it. It was only the briefest flash, but that was more than enough. Then it was gone, and the real world dropped back into place like a bad metaphor. The interlude had apparently taken no time at all, as it was no darker than it had been before. The sun still hovered halfway below the horizon, casting its deep orange light over us. Judou looked at me with wide eyes. "Did you...?" he asked. "Of course she did," replied Macha. We both turned, and there she stood, looking exactly the same as she had in the dream. "Now, let us discuss the bargain. I know where your friends are, and I can travel there rapidly. But I fear they will not trust me." "_I_ don't trust you," said Judou. I'm sure my feelings on the matter were clear, even though I didn't say anything. "They will trust you, however," she pointed out, blithely indifferent to our hostility, "and where they are now is no more than an hour away... as the crow flies." Judou stiffened. "You and I will go, and then your friends will return to collect her." She gestured at me. "I am certain that if the proper precautions are taken, they will not be tracked. Your other vehicle is not nearly so noticeable. What do you say?" It sounded like a better plan than the one we'd had before. I didn't like it, and I especially didn't like its source, but I had to admit that it beat sitting around and relying on the others to find us. And I was curious about one part of it in particular. "Can you?" I asked Judou. He looked away from me. "Turn into a crow," I clarified. The ability to become an animal was something I'd always daydreamed about. The idea that my friend might actually possess it intrigued me. "I didn't think tengu could do that." "Based on what? Legends?" He laughed once, scornful. "Humans don't know the half of our secrets. But as for me..." He shook his head, the uncharacteristic harshness fading from his voice. "As for me... I don't know," he muttered reluctantly. The conversation suddenly seemed very familiar. After a long pause, I asked, "Is it like... what we talked about earlier?" I could feel Macha's eyes on my back, and had the feeling that any weaknesses I mentioned around her would come back to haunt me. "Not really." His voice was soft. "I did it all the time when I was a fledgling. But I've spent so much time being human since then... I'm not sure it's possible anymore." His hand went to his chest, and closed around some kind of amulet. I hadn't noticed it before. "Is that all?" inquired Macha, in the tone of voice one would use when talking to a small child. "Look!" Judou rounded on her, eyes flashing. "If I could, I would move the earth to make my friends safe. But I can't! You have to accept your limitations. I chose a different path from the rest of my family, and because of that, I can't do what you're asking! It's not part of who I am anymore, and wishing won't help that!" When he said that, I realized his situation and mine really were the same. "Do you truly believe what you are saying?" The wonder in her voice seemed almost genuine. "Your nature can't be changed, young crow, not by you or anyone else. Whatever path you walk on, you are what you are." "Fine," he snapped. "So I'm not limited by anything but my own mind. That's really cute. If that psychobabble is true, then why don't you just show me how to think outside the box? Should I try meditation? Psychotherapy? Maybe acupuncture? Banging my head up against a tree until my chi gets knocked into the correct alignment?" "No," she replied patiently, "you just need to stop thinking about it. Let me show you." "Great." I'd very rarely seen Judou truly angry, and it was not a pretty sight. "Free your mind. Be at one with the universe. Let your heart guide you. You sound like a damn self-help b--" His tirade was interrupted as Macha stepped forward and touched him on the forehead. Judou's clothes fell in a heap on the ground. Judou the crow gave a startled squawk and tumbled ungracefully onto them, landing on his back. After flailing about with his wings for a moment, he managed to right himself. "See," Macha addressed the bird, "the power is still there." "Caw!" replied Judou. I blinked. Hard. "So," she continued, "do you accept the bargain? You can easily follow me to your friends, and by the time day breaks, you will be together again. I'll even promise to restore your human form, if you can't manage it." She sounded even more patronizing than before, if such a thing was possible. "Caw!" repeated the crow, more angrily this time. I knelt down in front of him. He cocked his head and peered at me sideways. "Judou," I asked, "are you... all right?" He fluffed his feathers at me. I couldn't help but chuckle. He began preening indignantly. "I don't trust her," I told him, half hoping Macha heard me, "but at least this way we have a chance." Judou stopped preening and looked at me, his beak still hidden under one wing. I couldn't tell exactly what he was thinking behind that glassy black eye, but it seemed like he was concerned for me. "I'll be all right." I fished around in his clothes until I found the necklace. "I'll have this. And I know my way around the woods." He didn't look convinced. I glanced up at Macha, then leaned closer. "I trust you, Judou," I whispered, barely audible. He blinked twice, then bobbed his head. "Has she convinced you yet?" asked Macha. Judou hopped away from me, and turned to look at her. He bobbed his head again. She gave him a brisk nod in return. "The bargain is sealed; let us be on our way." "Wait." I stood up and marched purposefully over to her. "What is it now?" She looked down at me. I refused to be intimidated by something as petty as her height. "Judou is my friend," I stated, "and if you harm him, if you harm any of them, you will have to deal with me." A futile gesture? Maybe so. But at that point, those four were the only thing I had left. For all their failings, all their irritating foibles, I still knew them better than anyone else, and that made them important to me. They were _mine_ in a way no one else was, and I was not going to just smile and nod and blindly entrust their safety to this woman whose every word and mannerism set my teeth on edge. She peered at me down her nose, her expression unreadable, and for a second I saw the blood-wreathed shadow of a raven in her eyes. I suppressed a shiver, forcing myself to hold her gaze. "I believe you mean that," she mused. "And I do respect courage. I will do them no harm. You have my word." When she said the last, I could feel something settle around her with ominous weight, and knew that this was not a promise she would break. "You are a woman of singular determination, Hayashi Shuukou," she told me, and for the first time her voice was devoid of mockery. "See to it that you are still alive when we return." I am not sure how she knew my name. "You have my word," I replied grimly. "I will hold you to it." She bowed slightly, from the waist. Then she was gone, and in her place stood a large raven. She and Judou turned their heads simultaneously, looked at each other sideways, and took to the air. The wind began to blow, and I realized again how cold I was. Judou wasn't likely to be needing his jacket, so I picked it up and shrugged into it. Taking one last glance at the sunset before I gathered up Judou's clothes and headed back into the forest, I saw two black, winged shapes silhouetted against the dying sun. Suddenly, the fading light spread across the forest below looked a lot like blood. I shuddered, and began trudging back towards the highway. It would be a long night. FIN (15) ----- A Note: It was good to actually write something again, but the stress nearly caused my head to explode like an overheated jar of Prego. Sign up for the queue now, so I will never feel compelled to do this again! _RM Credit Where It's Due: Thanks go out to the prereaders: Lady Chaos, for punctuality, shockingly positive feedback, and a timely memory jog. Phoebe, for pointing out mistakes caused by my ignorance and oversight, and lending her expertise in Shuukouology. If ever you fine ladies find yourselves in need of a prereader, I wouldst fain return the favour you have rendered me. Sean Duggan, prereader-in-spirit. And Ardweden and ravi, doubtless detained by matters of great import. As the clichÇ states, it is the thought that counts. In the name of scrupulous honesty: The description of Macha's wardrobe is similar to one found in Neil Gaiman's excellent novel, 'Neverwhere.' (Thanks to Lady C for making me recall exactly WHY that passage seemed so familiar when I wrote it.) Judou's rant ends with a truncated version of the taunt leveled at Our Heroes by Kefka in Final Fantasy III/VI, shortly before the final battle: "You sound like pages out of a self-help book!" And here's an outtake, courtesy of Lady C: ----- "We can see if there's a stream somewhere we can cross, in case something tries to track us by smell. I'll try to --" I broke off when I realized that Judou wasn't listening to me. Instead, he was staring off into space, a glazed-over look on his face. Unknown to me, Judou had sampled some odd-colored mushrooms while I had been musing. "Judou?" I asked. "Hee hee hee, I'm flying... flying..." Great. Just great. ----- Version History: 0.5 : 9/25/00 (completed outline) 1.0 : 9/26 (first draft) 1.01: 9/29 (minor grammatical cleanup) 1.1 : 9/30 (continuity and stylistic cleanup) Direct comments to the IFF message board, or rmaleski@haverford.edu.