Fire Hunter Series 1: Fire in Spring
Hinata Rieko
Part Two : Animal Trail
The bright sky above the village vanished into darkness after Touko and the others entered the Black Forest. Obstructed by trees and branches, Touko lost the morning sun before it could rise. They were all riding in Akira's cart. Although the cart was small, most of the contents had been sold to a glass-making village, so there was room as long as no one took up too much space for themselves. There were no seats other than the driver's, so the others sat on bare wooden boards with their knees bent. The canopy was patched in places and the texture of the wooden boards was inconsistently rough, showing the wear and tear of the cart.
"Is the, um, horse really okay to carry all of us?" Touko asked, leaning forward toward the driver's seat where Akira was.
"Don't worry. Your friend fixed up the cart before we left, so we should do fine."
That wasn't what Touko meant. The animal that Akira managed to procure to pull the cart wasn't a horse, though she called it one for whatever reason. It was a bear, huge and hulking, crimson-furred with shining red eyes. The bear was a Fire Fiend, of that there could be no doubt. Akira said that she often used Fire Fiends that she captured to pull her cart, as if this were a completely normal occurrence.
"The cart is on loan from the village," Akira said. "Since Fire Hunters are on good terms with the villagers, we make use of it when we're in the area. And don't worry about the Fire Fiend; it's already had a taste of my scythe so it's terrified. It won't attack you. I'm a Fire Hunter, after all." She looked back at Touko and Kaho, who silently held their knees to their chests as the cart moved.
Temari didn't seem to be afraid of the Fire Fiend lashed to the cart. She stood facing forward on the driver's seat, her small back parallel to her master's. Kanata seemed very perplexed by the shaking of the wooden cart, and sat down firmly against Touko's side.
"You can grab breakfast from whatever's in there," Akira said, patting a section of the cart's wooden floor. Apparently there were supplies underneath. Touko located a latch and lifted a small door in the floor.
"So," Akira said, "I heard that you were going to the capital, but do you even know which way you want to go?"
"Uh..." As Akira spoke, Touko clung to the shaking cart with both hands. Shouzou opened his mouth, and then closed it.
Akira pulled up on the reins and whipped the Fire Fiend along its flank. The Fire Fiend moved faster than expected, based on its size. If it flouted Akira's control, it could break the reins and dash the cart to pieces, but it didn't. The touch of the whip calmed the Fire Fiend so that it pulled more gently, panting heavily from exertion. Touko still didn't understand how taming a Fire Fiend was possible.
"Once we get through the forest, we'll follow the bay all the way to the capital. From here to the bay, it's, hmm... would you say it's about seven thousand miles to the south?" she asked, facing Shouzou when she asked her question.
Shouzou looked up, staring at the patched ceiling of the cart. He seemed to be drawing a map in his head. "I think that's about right," Shouzou said.
"Well, if we let this guy run the distance, we'll be there in half a day. From the bay, we can take a boat to the capital."
"A boat?" Shouzou asked. "Only one boat leaves the capital every year, doesn't it? We'd have to land on the island in the middle of the bay, but I thought that port was gone. The forest overtook it."
"I'm not talking about the research vessel that leaves the city every year, idiot. There's a ship that Fire Hunters can hire when we get to the bay. Of course, you have to pay to take it." She glanced at Touko. "How many pieces of blessed paper do you have left?"
Touko spoke carefully so that she wouldn't risk biting her tongue as the cart rattled all around her. "I had six, but I paid for the inn with one." At the inn, Touko had pretended to only have one sheet of paper, but that was because it really was all she had, and the capital was very far away. Akira was a Fire Hunter, though, so there was no reason for Touko to hide what resources she had from her.
"So we can only use four, then, to keep one to spare. That's not many, and we don't want to waste them. No matter; I'll hunt along the way."
Touko crawled on all fours along the cart's floor and leaned forward. "Um, you're a Fire Hunter. Do you know this dog? I mean, have you seen him before, and do you know his owner?"
Akira turned to face her, seeing her eyes limned red in the light of the Fire Fiend. Her flame-red hair fluttered. "What's his name?"
"Kanata."
"Oh. I know a dog with the same name, but it's not this one. Did you name him? Did you meet the Fire Hunter he worked with?"
After a moment's hesitation, Touko knelt down and moved toward the driver's seat. She removed her pack from her back and pulled out the Protector Stone so that she could show the carving to Akira. She told Akira how she had met the Fire Hunter and why she was going to the capital.
Akira glanced at the stone, briefly but with great intensity. She turned away so that Touko couldn't see her expression. "I wonder if that Fire Hunter was really a wanderer," she said.
Touko opened her eyes wide. "What?"
Temari, startled, turned around and looked at Touko with her big black eyes. It was as if she was expecting that Touko would take the reins and control the cart in Akira's place.
"I mean... Kanata doesn't seem to be familiar with traveling by cart. The Protector Stone comes from the capital, right? What does the engraving mean?" Touko asked.
"Only Fire Hunters who register in the capital have Protector Stones like that one," Akira said. "That's why I think the Fire Hunter that you met was not a wanderer. Wanderers don't carry anything so elaborate."
Touko took a deep breath.
Temari kept staring at her, Shouzou and Kaho. Kanata moved closer to Touko, looking at the smooth Protector Stone in recognition.
Before Touko could ask another question, Kaho said, "Do Fire Hunters from the capital ever travel to distant villages to do their hunting?"
Akira's red hair blew back in the wind. "Fire Hunters who get assigned to black carts are different, but they usually hunt close to the capital. If a Fire Hunter finds something farther away and wants to plan an expedition, they need at least four people to sign on with them. But it seems that he was alone in your village. It is possible that he and I have similar preoccupations."
"Preoccupations?" Touko asked as she placed the Protector Stone back in her pack.
Akira's heavy cloak draped over her shoulders and blew in the intensity of the wind.
Touko clasped her arms reflexively around Kanata's neck.
"He wanted blessed paper, same as me," Akira said, sounding more serious than usual.
Touko felt Kanata's gray, furry body brush against her ear. She couldn't tell if it was her heart that was pounding so loud, or Kanata's.
"What will you use the paper for?" Touko asked, timid.
"I want to write letters," Akira said, sounding bright and sing-song. Her tone had changed in an instant.
There was a problem with Akira's theory about the Fire Hunter who had saved Touko. If blessed paper was what he'd wanted, why hadn't he come into the village? He would have been welcomed and honored as a Fire Hunter, and he would have been able to get as much blessed paper as he wanted.
The Fire Fiend kept pulling the cart through the trackless forest. A chill ran through Touko as she remembered how the golden scythe had cut through the Fire Fiend threatening her, black blood burning like sunlight. Kaho shook her shoulder right before she fell backward in the cart, looking pale.
Shouzou yawned in irritation and shook his head. He ran a hand through his hair. "What's wrong now? None of this seems real to me. I'm not sure you're the real deal, Fire Hunter lady. I've never heard of a woman Fire Hunter before today."
Temari looked askance at him, and Shouzou glared back with his usual contempt for the strange dog.
"You're not the first person to say that, and you won't be the last," Akira said. "I'm tired of hearing it. Did you see the name carved into the Protector Stone? Tokohanahime. The name of the goddess that governs this country. She's the older sister of the goddess who forged the fire sickle, who was the first Fire Hunter. Tokohanahime made spring flourish, restored the world to new life, and protected the fire that never dies out. So there's no reason that Fire Hunters can't be women; the first Fire Hunter was a woman. Is there some unwritten rule that says that only men can be strong? If I were to arm wrestle you right now, factory guy, I bet I'd break your wrist."
Shouzou made himself small, glancing between the giant bear monster pulling the cart and the Fire Hunter.
"Please don't fight," Touko said, her voice shaking. This was such a strange situation. They were in the Black Forest again, lacking the protection of Asebi and the Tree People this time. They rode in a cart pulled by a Fire Fiend, of all things--a Fire Fiend under the control of a young woman who was a Fire Hunter. Had they really only just met yesterday? Touko felt that under other circumstances, she would have panicked, but Akira had a way of inspiring confidence. She'd fought off that monkey-shaped Spider without flinching, and she'd won.
Akira didn't look like much of a fighter. Shouzou was taller and looked stronger at a glance. Touko wasn't sure how Temari would fight, since the dog appeared far too small to pull down a Fire Fiend. Kanata, in contrast, likely could defeat a Fire Fiend on his own.
How had someone like Akira become a Fire Hunter, and why? She usually sounded cheerful and normal, not like a warrior who hunted monsters for a living.
But sometimes Akira's voice changed. It darkened, showing loneliness--or fear.
Touko pressed herself against Kanata as she gazed out at the Fire Fiend pulling the cart.
***
In the forest, it was hard to tell east from west. Touko, Kaho and Shouzou had no idea what direction they were facing. After traveling for some distance, Akira pulled up on the reins. The Fire Fiend stopped moving and the cart rattled to a halt along a forest trail.
"Why are we stopping?" Shouzou asked, frowning.
Akira faced him placidly with a smile, then put a finger to her lips. Her eyes were as sharp as knives when she whispered, "There's prey nearby. I'm going hunting. Stay in the cart. Protecting you all would be too much for me." She rummaged around in a pack at her waist, obscuring half her face with her sleeve.
Akira, carrying her sickle in one hand and Temari on the other arm, leaped out of the cart. Before she left, she drove a long, thin spike into the reins where they were attached to the Fire Fiend. The Fire Fiend made a sound, claws scrabbling in the dirt as it tried to resist.
Tension filled the air. There was a Fire Fiend right there.
Shouzou gripped a large iron tool and raised it as a weapon. Kaho and Touko flinched, looking away until the Fire Fiend pulling the cart went still.
Silence, for awhile after that. Temari's bark broke it, though Touko heard no other sounds: not footsteps, not fighting. Touko wondered where Akira was and what kind of Fire Fiend she was fighting.
Kanata jumped into the driver's seat, ready to move at any time.
"Don't try to leave, you stupid dog," Shouzou whispered. Sweat dripped down his forehead.
Kaho went white. She bit her lip, holding back cries so that she wouldn't alert any Fire Fiends to where they were.
Touko felt herself trembling and held her hands together in an effort to keep still. Then she thought of something: the sickle. If she'd been armed when she'd gone to help Kaho, then she might have been able to get the huge ape-like Fire Fiend away from her. If Touko had been faster--and if she'd been armed--then Kaho wouldn't have gotten hurt so badly.
Temari's bark grew louder: more ragged, more wild.
The mighty roar of an animal shook the trees. It was close, and heading this way. Touko couldn't see into the forest; not through the fabric that covered the cart.
Shouzou held his breath, clenching his jaw. "Is that dog good for anything aside from making a racket?" he asked in an undertone. He clasped his iron tool tight in one hand.
Temari barked, frenzied, making Touko feel the need to move. But I can't use the sickle again. This belonged to a Fire Hunter. It isn't mine, Touko thought. Even so, she had used it to kill the Guardian God of Kaho's home village--the white dragon that had gone berserk from the influence of the Spider's poison.
Blood pounded in Touko's ears as she looked to Kaho. Kaho's scars were stark white across her face and hands as she repressed a scream. There were so many scars; how had she not noticed that after the steam bath in the village?
Without realizing it--with no conscious direction--Touko's hands fumbled on the knot of cord that kept her pack closed. If she used the sickle now, she could protect everyone in the cart. She might be of help to Akira, who (she hoped) was still fighting outside. Kanata was with her; he would help.
But the sickle was not hers. She had not received it as a gift, but as a penance.
Touko's hands froze on the knot and didn't move. The Fire Hunter who had owned the sickle was dead because he'd gone into the Black Forest to save her. Touko wasn't trained as a fighter. If she interfered, Akira might die.
Touko kept herself still as she listened to Temari's barking. Suddenly, Temari's bark was cut off, and Kanata sat up in alarm. He barked into the forest, cavernous and deep.
The blood drained from Touko's face as she remembered the Fire Hunter as he'd died--bleeding, falling. The Fire Hunter had died before her eyes. He'd collapsed to the forest floor and never moved again.
"Miss Akira!" Touko jumped up, exiting the cart in a flash. Shouzou almost managed to catch her, but she was too fast. Kanata jumped out after her, at her side. They avoided the monstrous bear and sprinted to the opposite side of the cart...
...but Akira's hunt was already over.
"Hey!" Akira said. "I didn't say you could come out yet!"
The black, wolf-like Fire Fiend stood up on its hind legs, fangs bared in threat. Akira's sickle stuck in its neck, dripping blood. The body was frozen still as a statue; the Fire Fiend was dead or close to it.
Then the Fire Fiend collapsed to the ground, and Akira drew out her sickle from the monster's wound. Golden sparks arced out of the wound, following the curve of the sickle. As Akira caught the Fire Fiend's blood in a collection container, the light burning in the Fire Fiend's eyes faded away.
"I told you to stay in the cart," Akira said. "You're an awfully reckless child, little girl." She finished her collection of the Fire Fiend's blood, then got up and patted Touko on the head.
A lump rose to Touko's throat. She shook all over, then burst into tears.
Akira appeared flustered. "Uh, sorry? Did I hurt you? I don't think I used too much force, did I? I guess I don't always know my own strength, since I'm always fighting Fire Fiends or Fallen Beasts."
Touko could barely breathe. Her cries shook her shoulders. She couldn't force out a single word.
***
Akira had the bear-like Fire Fiend run more slowly after the hunt. Kaho tried to soothe Touko, who struggled to regain her composure.
"What are you cryin' about, kid?" Shouzou asked. "You can tell me. I promised my friends that I'd protect you, after all." He glanced over at Akira. "Did she say something to you?" His eyebrows furrowed.
"Nothing worth crying over," Akira said. "If I did say something like that, I didn't mean it." She faced Touko. "I think you might make a good Fire Hunter. Like me."
Shouzou was eating. Akira's declaration almost made him choke on his food. She put up a hand before he could interrupt her. Temari bared her tiny fangs at Shouzou and growled.
"I didn't notice you getting out of the cart," Akira said to Touko. "You were stealthy. And you had the courage to venture into the forest. And Kanata followed you. That's why I think you could be a Fire Hunter. You have the potential for it."
Touko shook her head, leaning against Kaho. Kaho brushed Touko's hair with her fingers in a soothing gesture.
"Don't encourage kids to become unregistered Fire Hunters," Shouzou said. "Are you insane?"
The cart didn't shake as much anymore now that the bear was traveling slower. Touko was able to make out what Akira said, even though Akira spoke quietly. "No. I just want as many Fire Hunters as possible out there in the world. There's something strange going on in the villages this year. Haven't you seen it? Kaho and other girls were given to other villages as brides. The soil is getting worse everywhere--everywhere there are barriers. And more changes are coming."
"How do you know?" Shouzou asked.
"I know that the Millennium Comet is coming back." The words "Millennium Comet" were unfamiliar to everyone but Akira. She trilled them like a song. "Listen. It's not just the soil getting worse. There are more Fire Fiends than ever in the forest now. The forest beasts have sensed the change; that's why there are so many new animals to hunt. The stability we've had until now is about to change. The Millennium Comet is coming--we'll see it in the sky."
"What is the Millennium Comet?" Touko asked, speaking as quietly as Akira. She was about to repeat the question, afraid that Akira couldn't hear her, but Akira responded first.
"A star," Akira said with her usual cheerfulness. "A star that people made. A long time ago."
No one spoke for a long while. What was there to say to such a shocking claim? People couldn't create stars. Was this a lie--something so outrageous and unbelievable that it would shake Touko out of being upset with her?
Shouzou spoke first. "Wait a minute. There's no way. People can't make stars!"
"The people of the past could," Akira said, seeming certain. "They had no need to fear fire as we do. They could harness fire with just a spark, and not burn from within. I know they could make it. People used fire for warfare in those days--they used it to conquer and destroy. The Millennium Comet was created as a response to those wars. If the wars continued, there would have been mutually assured destruction. The Guardian Gods believe in it--it's supposed to be a mechanical device, humanoid in shape. It's called by many names, Millennium Comet and Flickering Flame being just a few. The Millennium Comet is a watcher from the skies that defends the peace we've made."
That sounded like a lie or a bedtime story. The pressing presence of the dark trees made Touko and the others more suggestible to such a story, so no one disbelieved it outright.
"After the final war, the world was covered by the Black Forest," Akira said. "And the Millennium Comet went off-course. People thought it was lost to the void and would never return, but... well, now we know that isn't what happened. The Fire Hunters rediscovered it ten years ago. So did the Tree People; they grow herbs based on a precise star calendar. The knowledge was passed from Fire Hunter to Fire Hunter until it reached the capital."
Akira pulled on the reins, still speaking quietly. "The Fire Hunters in the capital reported what they'd learned to the Guardian Gods. The Millennium Comet contains ancient technology and fuel. If we acquired it, we could learn much. If we could understand how it was fueled, we would change the world forever. It is like what the Guardian Gods already do--using their powers to create fire that doesn't cause people to combust--but the Guardian Gods wouldn't have to do anything. Nothing other than order the Fire Hunters to bring them a source of endless fuel. Imagine it. The Millennium Comet would be a boon to countless people." She paused. "The Fire Hunters who told the Guardian Gods about the Millennium Comet never came out of the palace again."
Everyone was silent for a while. Wooden wheels turned over the marshy ground as the Fire Fiend pulled the cart forward. Thin ribbons of sky showed through the thick branches overhead, distorted and strange-looking. "The Fire Hunter who brings down the Millennium Comet will be the King of all Fire Hunters," Akira said.
The fur on the back of Kanata's neck rose at Akira's words.
"We won't have to hunt Fire Fiends one at a time anymore after that," Akira said. "Everyone will be able to get their hands on more fuel, more power--whether they're in the capital or the villages, it wouldn't matter. We wouldn't need to fear the forest any longer."
"Then why would the Guardian Gods suppress information about the Millennium Comet?" Shouzou asked. "Why cover it up?" His face was washed-out, colorless. He was from the capital originally and had never heard anything about the Millennium Comet.
Touko bit her lip, nervous, and looked down. The world was a harsh place, and the Guardian Gods were supposed to protect people from the worst dangers.
"If the King of the Fire Hunters appears, there'll be no need for the Guardian Gods anymore. The first Fire Hunters were born of Guardian Gods, but now, all of them are human. They are indentured to the Guardian Gods in the capital and need to turn in their spoils, so they can never become more powerful and influential than the Guardian Gods. The Fire Hunters prop them up. The King of the Fire Hunters would create a world where people rule over other people, with the King at the top.
"But that wouldn't work out well for the Guardian Gods," Akira continued. "That's why the Fire Hunters who know about the Millennium Comet are being silenced. That hasn't stopped Fire Hunters who know from trying to hunt it down. I wouldn't be surprised if the Spiders are going after it, too."
Kaho took a deep breath.
"Spiders want to return the control of fire to the hands of ordinary people. They want people to be able to use fire without relying on Fire Hunters or gods to make it safe. They're doing it for their own sake as well--their leader cannot use fire the way that people of the past could. If they could, they could dethrone the Guardian Gods and change everything in the capital. They must be planning another attack. Them targeting the black carts was just a first step."
Shouzou bit his lip.
Kaho lowered her gaze. "Wait a second. There's something I don't understand." Her scars stood out on her stark white face, and her posture was rigid.
Akira faced Kaho, her expression curious.
"I--I saw someone, just now. A person."
"A person?"
Akira frowned. If Akira and Temari hadn't noticed anyone from the driver's seat, then Kaho had probably imagined what she'd seen.
Kaho reached out and tugged at Akira's shoulder. "Please, stop! There's a child right there! Please!"
Shouzou tried to shush her, thinking that she was seeing things, but Kaho was adamant. Kanata twitched one ear and barked.
Akira clicked her tongue and pulled up on the reins, bringing the cart to a stop.
"I'll take a look," Akira said quietly. "And remember to stay very still." She secured the Fire Fiend as she had before, then ran off into the woods. Temari stayed in the driver's seat, spinning around slowly and surveying the trees.
Akira ran out of sight, and an oppressive silence stole over the cart.
Fortunately, Akira returned quickly, carrying someone over her shoulder. "You've got sharp eyes," she said to Kaho.
Touko gasped as Akira laid out the unmoving body of a child in the cart. It was a boy, a human one, just like Kaho had said. He looked to be about three or four years old.
Shouzou frowned, his cheeks flushed, as if he were embarrassed or ashamed.
Akira's treatment of the boy seemed a bit rough, but he was stretched out in the cart before Shouzou or Touko could intervene. Kaho reached for the boy. His eyes were slightly open, peering up a Akira and Shouzou and catching sight of Touko and Kanata in his peripheral vision.
The boy's short-cropped brown hair was filthy with dried dirt; the forest soil left white streaks in it. His face was round, but his lips were badly chapped. He wore a short sash made from Fire Fiend hide around his waist.
"That's... it's from a Fire Fiend, right?" Touko heard herself ask the question, though she hadn't intended to speak. The furred black sash was the same color as the bear-like Fire Fiend's fur, the one pulling the cart.
The boy lay there unmoving in the cart. He didn't say a single word.
"I didn't find anyone else," Akira said. "He must have been abandoned; I don't know why. What should we do? I think he's the child of a Spider."
Touko swallowed down bile. Spiders were hostile to the Guardian Gods. They might have caused the Guardian God of Kaho's village to go crazy and attack the black carts. The image of Benio's face, crushed in death, rose to the surface of Touko's mind.
Shouzou seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Touko. After a moment, he recoiled from the boy, pressing his back into the side of the cart. Kaho pulled her hand away from the boy now that he'd been revealed as a potential Spider. Then she reached out again and touched the sash the boy wore.
"He needs water. I'll get it. And he needs clothes and blankets. His skin feels like ice." Kaho's shoulders shook violently. Spiders would not have been spared or adopted in her own village. The abandonment of Spiders was common practice. Spiders took care of their own; no one else took them in. Touko remembered hearing about that when Kaho had decided to be her friend.
"Kanata." Just by calling his name, the dog seemed to know what to do. Perhaps his training included first aid for injured people. He curled up around the small boy, sharing his boy heat with him. The boy stayed limp.
Touko removed a bamboo bottle full of water from the hidden compartment at the bottom of the cart. She opened the lid and tried to pour it into the boy's mouth, which was dry and half-open.
"Wait."
Akira's tone of authority made Touko freeze. Her gaze shifted to Akira. "We... we can't leave him to die. He's just a boy." She tried to suppress the trembling in her voice.
Akira sighed heavily. "I wasn't going to try to abandon him. You can't have him drink that all at once. Here, use this cloth to drip it into his mouth." She took a clean rag from the compartment under the floor and handed it to Touko. Then Touko used the wetted cloth on the boy's cracked lips.
"Hey," Shouzou said, voice thick with displeasure. "What are we even doing, picking up this random kid?" Then he snapped his mouth shut. Maybe he didn't say more because he remembered Kaho's story. She'd been rescued by a Spider when she was four years old.
The boy's exposed arm was dotted with countless small scars--thorn pricks and insect bites. His whole arm was mottled blue-black with discoloration. He might be sick.
Akira got the bear-like Fire Fiend ready to move again and gripped the reins. She was back in the driver's seat. The cart lurched into motion.
"I suppose in an emergency, we might use him as a hostage."
Not understanding how serious those words were, Touko supported the Spider boy's head on her her shoulder, giving him water a little at a time.
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