Seirei no Moribito - Volume 1 - Chapter 3.8

CHAPTER VIII: THE WIND OF SAHNAN AND THE WINGS OF THE NAHJI 

As if the egg were pulling him, Chagum headed straight for the spring. He moved out of the forest down to the river beach and kept on walking as fast as his body would allow. The sun rose and its strong rays beat steadily on the back of his neck, but he did not even feel the summer heat. When the river had dwindled to little more than a stream and he was almost in sight of the spring, he stopped abruptly. 
The world around him, which had been nothing more than a vague dream, came sharply into focus; his body, sensing mortal danger, yanked him out of the dream of Nyunga Ro Im, and he broke into a sweat, the cold slimy sweat of fear. Through the pleasant scene of the river beach in Sagu, he saw before him in Nayugu a huge sea of mud, as if all the water in an enormous lake had dried up, leaving the muddy bottom exposed in all directions. One small patch of grass perched like a floating island in the middle — the river’s source in the land of Sagu. At its center, he could see a large black hole, with the invisible energy of the earth rising out of it. Chagum knew instinctively that this energy was the very thing the egg needed to complete its growth. 
But he could smell only death — the stench of Rarunga, the Egg Eater — and he began to tremble with fear. His stomach tightened and his heart pounded wildly in his chest. His foot jerked. He shuddered and froze, trying to stop it from moving. The egg was urging his body forward, pushing him on, but he reeked of shigu salua. If he set one foot out of the water on that sea of mud, Rarunga was sure to smell it and come after him — to rive his body with its enormous claws and eat the egg! 
NO! I don’t want to die! But his foot inched forward. Shaking, he fought with all his might to pull it back, but like a baby about to be born, bathed in its mother’s blood, the egg was already straining toward life, desperate to outstrip death in its race against time. Chagum could not hope to suppress that primal urge. The egg seemed to burn within him, and again, he felt his foot dragged slowly forward. 
Responding to the terror that gripped the cloud spirit and Chagum, a white mist began to rise slowly above the surface of the river. The water became thick as syrup and gave off a faint metallic odor — the scent of their fear. Chagum’s foot began to move again, and this time he could not stop it. Like a fish seeking air, he raised his head and screamed: “Balsa!” 
 
“It’s just a little farther to Sahnan,” Tanda muttered, then stopped abruptly. 
Balsa looked back at him. “What’s wrong?” she demanded. 
“Shh!” Tanda crouched down beside the Aoyumi River, putting his face so close to the water he almost touched it. He had heard the call of the Yona Ro Gai, the Water Dwellers of Nayugu. Chanting a spell, he opened his eyes to that other world — 
— and gasped in surprise. He was floating on the surface of a great winding river. The riverbank rose in the direction of Sahnan, but beyond that, he realized with shock, there was only a great sea of mud ringed by mountains — the Egg Eater’s nest! And Chagum must pass through it for the egg to be born…. 
Tanda saw several strange creatures swimming toward him — the Yona Ro Gai. “Young To Ro Gai, Land Dweller of Sagu.” Tanda struggled to breathe as he listened. “To Ro Gai the Elder sends you this message. ‘Do not just make torches. Drench them in oil to make a fire that cannot be quenched by water, and fight Rarunga. Take the egg and thro —’ ” 
But Tanda could stand it no more. He drew in a deep, whistling breath and collapsed face up on the ground in Sagu. 
“Tanda! What’s going on?” Balsa cried. She helped him to a sitting position. 
Through a fit of coughing, he said, “Torogai sent us a message through the Yona Ro Gai. She said, don’t just make torches. Drench them in oil so they can’t be quenched by water … We don’t have time! We’ve got to hurry and pour oil inside the torches.” Tanda fixed his eyes on Balsa. “In Nayugu, Sahnan is a sea of mud.” 
At that moment, they heard a faint scream. Balsa jumped to her feet and set off at a run. 
“Balsa! Wait! Are you planning to fight Rarunga without a torch?” Tanda shouted, but she had already vaulted over the rocks and disappeared toward the spring. He frantically stopped the Hunters who had started after her. “Wait! Don’t go yet! We’ve got to ready the torches first. I’m sure Balsa will buy us enough time for that.” 
 
Balsa raced into the river mist — the same mist she had seen before. The dense white fog limited her vision, but she could still make out a small shape running ahead of her: Chagum. She had almost caught up with him at last. 
But suddenly she felt a deadly malice course through her body, oozing through the ground under her feet just as it had before. Right as Chagum neared the spring, huge claws ripped their way through the earth, surrounding him on every side. 
I’ll never make it in time! Balsa clenched her teeth. 
And yet the claws moved ever so slowly, as if they were cutting through rock. The egg … It changed the water from the spring! When she realized this, Balsa jumped onto the river; it was firmer than ice, a road glowing with a pale blue light, and she raced forward as fast as she could. But the claws could still break through it, and with loud cracking noises, they closed slowly, inexorably, upon the frozen Chagum. 
 
But Chagum was no longer scared. Although he could see the terrible Rarunga, he was looking at Nayugu, at the floating island beneath his feet. While his calm was partly due to the egg’s desire to be born, it mostly came from Chagum himself, his deep internal will to survive. 
He felt the egg inside him begin to move, rising from his chest to his throat, his throat to his mouth. Before him lay the hole, a deep, deep pit from which the earth’s breath rose. Instinctively, Chagum crouched down on all fours, looking down into Sahnan, urged by the egg into the position that would allow it to be born in Nayugu. 
Whoosh! A warm, moist gust of energy wafted upward. This was where the sacred life force of Sagu and Nayugu merged together and rose to the heavens. Exposed to such concentrated energy, the egg completed its final stage of growth, its shell hardening to protect it in both worlds. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Chagum thought, and as if it were responding to his urgency, the egg slipped into his mouth. 

At that very moment Balsa reached his side. Rarunga’s claws cast their long, sharp shadows over them; there was no time to think. She bent over Chagum, wrapped her left arm around his body, and tried to pick him up. He kicked out and twisted frantically in her arms, fighting to stay near Sahnan. While they struggled, Rarunga’s claws closed tighter, until Balsa realized their opening was gone. Filled with a premonition of death, she hugged Chagum tightly, feeling the warmth of his body against her. 
Chagum opened his mouth — and as he did so, the invisible egg dropped from his mouth into the world of Nayugu. Instantly, Rarunga vanished from Sagu to find the egg in that other world. Down the egg fell, deep into the hole of Nayugu. Then, as if the earth had exhaled suddenly, a blast of energy rushed up from the bottom, caught the egg, and carried it, revolving and dancing, up into the sky. Rarunga’s tentacles reached out to grab it, but just before they touched it, the egg left Nayugu. 
Balsa had no idea what was going on, but she did not waste the precious time afforded by the monster’s disappearance. She tightened her hold on Chagum and picked him up. A blue light appeared in front of her at the very instant she sensed Rarunga’s return. As Chagum grasped the egg, which danced in the light of the energy from the hole, Balsa leapt into the air and Rarunga erupted from the ground beneath her. Still carrying Chagum, who now clutched the egg, Balsa shot between the claws that surrounded them like a cage. Tentacles whipped after them, chasing the elusive egg. 
Balsa flipped in midair and swung her spear with lightning speed, pinning the end of a tentacle to the ground. A voiceless shriek resounded, shaking the earth. She stepped on the tentacle and pulled out her spear before the next one could reach her. But in that brief moment, claws ripped up through the ground beneath, aiming straight for them. There was no time to escape. Balsa jumped onto a claw, clamping its hard shell sides between her feet, and used its upward momentum to propel herself into the air. Somersaulting, she whirled Chagum by his belt and let him go just before she landed, throwing him clear of Rarunga’s claws. All of this she did without thinking, her body reacting instinctively. 
The instant she let go, she regretted it: If he hit a rock, it would kill him. But the training that Balsa had given him saved Chagum’s life. As he landed on the roots of a tree, he rolled his body into a ball, protecting his head and absorbing the shock of impact with his shoulder and hips. Balsa ran toward him, dodging the tentacles that came snaking through the air like whips and knocking them aside with her spear. 
Suddenly, a tentacle snagged her foot and slammed her hard against the ground, then with a vicelike grip, it raised her dangling into the air. A shining claw, keen as a sword, raced toward her. The tentacle swung her high, clearly intending to smash her against the claw, and she could do nothing to stop it. 
She gritted her teeth, waiting for the blow, when suddenly the tentacle jerked violently. The point of the claw passed beneath her shoulder, and she felt a burning pain cross her back. Twisting around, she caught sight of someone wielding a torch — Jin! He pressed the blazing brand against the tentacle, billowing dense black smoke in every direction. Tanda and Zen stood behind him, guarding his back. 
A horrible stench enveloped Balsa, and with a shriek that rent the air, Rarunga threw her into space. She tucked her knees up and curled herself into a ball, somersaulting twice in the air. Hitting the ground in a spray of gravel, she rolled sideways and flipped herself upright immediately. Her clothes had been slashed open and a deep gash ran down her back, yet the wound barely bled, and she felt no pain. Battle fever seized her, stronger than anything she had ever experienced before. 
Behind her, Tanda and the others swung their torches, pressing the flames against Rarunga’s claws and tentacles. But they knew it was next to impossible to destroy the monster with torches alone; whenever it felt the sizzling heat, it vanished into Nayugu, only to reappear in Sagu and attack from a different direction. Still Tanda and Jin and Zen fought on. Drenched in sweat, the three torchbearers looked like they were dancing, but it was a dance on which their very lives depended; one slip, and they would die. 
And all the while, the tentacles, which were highly sensitive to smell, kept searching for the egg of Nyunga Ro Im. Dodging the flames, they groped along the ground, sniffing out the scent that drove Rarunga, whetting its appetite. At last, they found Chagum, curled up at the base of a tree. 
 
Although Chagum had not hit his head when he slammed into the tree, the shock had left him stunned. His mind only cleared when Balsa reached his side, slipped her arm around him, and picked him up. He had been afraid that he had squashed the egg, but it was unharmed, glowing with a bluish light in his right palm. It was as hard and smooth as a stone, and he could feel its faint warmth: It felt alive. 
Balsa saw the egg. “Chagum! Get rid of that thing! Throw it away! Hurry!” 
He looked up at her wide-eyed. If I throw it away, I’ll be saved, he thought. So will Tanda and the others. What’s the point in protecting it if we give up our lives? But many other thoughts flashed through his mind as well: the egg’s warmth, its helplessness. It no longer had any power over him; it could not even communicate its urgent desire to live. It could only sit there silently, gently warming his palm. Yet, to him, that desire was still painfully clear. It had chosen him, believed in him, entrusted its life to him, just because it so desperately wanted to live. 
His thoughts were interrupted by rage — a murderous rage that came from outside him, spilling from the ground and numbing his entire being. As Balsa made to escape with him in her arms, Chagum pushed his feet against the tree roots and slipped from her grasp. “Chagum!” she screamed. The ground split open like a ripe pomegranate, and Rarunga’s claws appeared. 
Tanda saw Chagum racing toward him, the claws suddenly rearing up behind. Yet his mind was distracted by a shrill cry — a flock of birds flying toward them. “Kaw-oh! Kaw-oh!” A light flashed on in his brain. Nahji … The nahji! The warding charm made of nahji bones at the edge of the village; the midsummer festival song; the nahji that flew faster than the devil…. Suddenly he knew exactly what they must do. “Chagum!” he yelled, running toward him. “The nahji! The nahji! Throw the egg up into the air!” 
Tentacles sped whining toward Chagum. One almost touched him, but Balsa, behind him, grabbed it and wrestled it to the ground. Yet another whipped toward him. Jin and Zen ran to his aid, but they could not stop it from latching onto Chagum’s right arm, yanking it with sudden and dreadful force. With a sickening sound, a sharp pain shot through his right shoulder; it had been dislocated. 
The tentacle arched backward, pulling Chagum up into the air, and its tip slithered toward the egg in his hand. The fine hairs of the tip fanned open to reveal a sucker. Screaming, Chagum tried desperately to grasp the egg with his left hand, but with his right arm held high by the tentacle, he could only dangle limply from his injured shoulder. Just as he was about to give up, a large hand reached up beside him and snatched the egg from him. Looking at its owner, Chagum forgot his pain and his face brightened. “Tanda!” 
Tanda threw the egg into the heavens as if loosing an arrow from its bow. One bird separated from the flock of nahji flying south across the Misty Blue Mountains. Through a blur of tears, Chagum watched it dart downward, glide smoothly toward the egg, and grasp it, still glowing, in its beak. Swiftly it sped across the sky and vanished from sight. The egg had finally escaped Rarunga’s clutches. 
It had disappeared so quickly, however, that Rarunga could not follow its scent, and its attention focused on Chagum, who still smelled strongly of the egg. Tanda grabbed him with his right arm and pressed the flaming torch in his left hand against the tentacle that gripped him. With a bloodcurdling scream, the monster released its hold, but instantly, other tentacles swarmed toward Chagum, clinging to him like leeches to their prey. The torch flew out of Tanda’s grasp, and he and Chagum were swept up into the air. 
“Chagum! Tanda!” Balsa stabbed at the four tentacles that held them. Her spear moved with such ferocious speed that it was almost invisible. Jin and Zen jumped inside the ring of claws, using their torches to protect her as the circle tightened. Fluid oozed from the holes Balsa had gouged in the tentacles, and Rarunga writhed in agony: Fire was anathema to a creature accustomed to living in the cold, dark mud. 
Balsa felt the ground buck and heave beneath her. Suddenly, the enormous, slimy body of the monster emerged from the earth, spraying clods of dirt. Balsa, Jin, and Zen were thrown back off their feet. The creature’s giant mouth gaped inside the circle of claws crowning the body, and the tentacles shoved their captives relentlessly toward it. 
Yelling, Jin and Zen threw their torches at its mouth, but the tentacles surrounding the opening knocked them aside. Tanda’s leg was already inside Rarunga’s mouth. Balsa ran over and picked up the torch he had dropped. With the torch in her right hand and her spear in her left, she leapt into the air and threw her spear with all her might. Using the momentum of that swing, she immediately sent the torch flying after it. 
The torch followed the path of the spear perfectly. The tentacles knocked the spear aside, leaving a brief opening for the torch. It sailed past Tanda’s leg and with a horrible, sizzling sound lodged itself firmly in the monster’s mouth. With a wordless scream, Rarunga threw its captives high into the air and vanished. Chagum and Tanda slammed into the ground with a sickening thud, and then there was silence. 
With a sound like a sigh, the stream resumed its quiet burbling. Balsa ran to Chagum where he lay on the riverbank and lifted him up. His face was deathly pale and covered in a sheen of sweat. His eyelids fluttered. Dazed, he opened them and looked up at her, his eyes unfocused. “My … arm … hurts.” 
Balsa breathed a deep sigh of relief and cradled his head in her arms.