Newest Chapters

      The Sorceress' Revolt    Dororo:Choose Your Own Adventure Novel    Fire Hunter Series    Shijukara (Starting at 40)

Those Who Walk the Flame Road - My Fifteen-Year-Old Self - Prologue - Shadows at Dawn

  

Those Who Walk the Flame Road

(Book 12 of the Guardian of the Spirit Series)

Author: Uehashi Nahoko
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
 
My Fifteen-Year-Old Self
Prologue - Shadows at Dawn
 
     Balsas arm twitched as she woke up. There was a chair on the other side of the room. She thought she saw someone sitting there, but it was just a shadow. There was still some time left before dawn.

    The boots next to the chair were visible, and easily recognizable as her own; the sight of them helped Balsa relax. Wind blew through the half-open window, carrying a hint of winter snow that reminded her of childhood mornings in Kanbal.

    The air in the room was clear and clean, but Balsa still smelled blood and smoke. She realized that those smells had come to her from her nightmare. She was a murderer, and her dreams didn’t let her forget it.

    Yesterday--last night?--she remembered sitting next to Chagum; he was talking, trying to soothe her, claiming that hed made an alliance and that she didnt have to fight. He clasped her knee and leaned forward.

    “We’ll have peace soon. Why do you keep tormenting yourself?

    Chagums eyes then had not been the eyes of the warrior and general and world traveler: not the eyes of the man who had taken over New Yogos armies. No. They were the eyes of the innocent boy shed saved, open and defenseless. Balsa couldnt help but think of him as weak.

    Balsa rolled over on her back and covered her face with her hands. I need more sleep...

    She had said too much to Chagum yesterday: all useless petty things that she regretted saying now. She reminded herself that while Chagum was an adult and considered as one, he was still only seventeen years old. He was too young to be responsible for so many lives.

    When I was seventeen, I had more than enough responsibility protecting my own life, never mind anyone elses. Could I have managed even that without Jiguros help?

    Balsa closed her eyes. Jiguro hadnt seen her has a burden. Balsa knew that, but she remembered herself as young and stupid. She looked up at the ceiling of the darkened room, reliving the dream shed awakened from. A dream of herself at fifteen years old...


No comments:

Post a Comment