Chapter 2 - Departure

Three days later Jyra was able to move around freely, and Sun deemed him fit to begin their journey. Limping a very little, Jyra gazed into the room that had been his father’s - or, at least, the man who had acted as his father. On the nightstand he found Daemon’s wallet, stuffed with money that had never been used. Jyra assumed it was the man’s alcohol money, and emptied it into his own wallet. Beside the bed he found a bow and a quiver of arrows. The bow had been carved; some kind of Asian writing had been engraved on it. He picked it up and immediately felt this had been made for him.

Returning to the main room - it was a two-bedroom hut a little bigger than his own shack - he showed Sun the bow and asked about the strange writing.
“It’s kanji and katakana,” she told him. She showed him the hilt of her sword, which had similar carvings on it. “ See, Hihane is the same. The kanji - that’s Japanese for Chinese characters - says ‘hi hane’, or ‘day wing’. The katakana - a phonetic alphabet for words foreign to Japan - reads the German word ‘sonne’.”

“‘Sonne’? What does that mean?”

“It’s the word for ‘sun’. My parents, the ones I remember, lived in Germany. Deutschland ist ausgezeichnet, ja#?” she added with a slightly smug expression.

Jyra gave her a blank look. “Um…what?”

“German. I’ll teach you a little, if you want. Now let me see your bow.”
He handed it to her, and she examined it a little. “Well, I know what the katakana says - Jyra. I can’t read much kanji, though, I only learned enough of it to read the carvings on these weapons. So I know the elements and ‘day’ and ‘night’.” She sighed. “This says ‘kaze’ - ‘wind’ - but I don’t know what the other character says, so we’ll have to wait to find out what your bow’s name is.”

Jyra felt a little disappointed, but Sun grinned and clapped his shoulder. “Oops, sorry,” she said as he temporarily lost his balance. “It took me a couple years to figure out any of the writing on Hihane, so you’re lucky to know most of it. Don’t worry about it. At least you know what element you are. But enough of that for now. Since you found that, I think it’s about time we left.”

The two left the house, but just as they were about to leave Jyra said, “Wait here.” He went to his shack and herded Rosie out of it, then grabbed two things: an empty haversack and the pearl pendant that his mother had given him. He then took a stick from the fire and proceeded to spread the blaze around, and when the walls caught fire he came out, taking the stick with him, held aloft like a torch. Sun watched, virtually expressionless.

“I don’t want to have to return here when our journey’s over,” he explained.

“It may end with our deaths,” Sun said quietly.

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Are you sure about this? Once you make this decision, it’s made.”

“I’m sure.” He threw the torch into the front room of Daemon’s hut, and it quickly caught on the mess of torn paper and broken bottles that had previously held alcohol. It spread to the room and up the bed, where under the covers lay a large, bloody figure, which was reduced to ashes by the flames in less than an hour.

*****

“We should head by the shop and grab supplies,” Jyra said.

“I’ve already got food, so we don’t need to worry about that,” Sun answered.
“What we need is a map, maybe a lighter or some matches. I suck at lighting fires without them.”

They reached the shop and explained to the keeper what they needed, and he went into the back room and emerged again with a folded sheet of parchment.

“I’ve had this map in storage for a while,” the shopkeeper said. “It’s rather old and I can’t sell it in this town because it has America on it. Everyone seems to think that even an image of the place will cause another Ragnarok.” He sighed. “This is yours if you have need of it.”

“How much do you want for it?” Jyra asked.

As they haggled the price for the map, Sun looked around (She didn’t like to admit it, but she wasn’t very smart when it came to finances and was happy to leave the bartering to Jyra.). She saw mothers pass with children like toothpicks, men with bruised and beaten wives, and her blood began to boil as she saw a couple of kids tease another, obviously worse off, across the street. Nowhere could be seen anyone over the age of forty. Then she caught sight of a woman in her early fifties coming into the shop, passing Sun to approach Jyra, who had just handed some coins to the shopkeeper and was pocketing the proffered map and an old-looking lighter.

“You leaving, Jyra?” the woman asked.

“Yes, Calliope,” he replied, turning to face her.

“Without saying goodbye, eh?”

“I was going to,” he defended himself. “At least, if I could persuade Sun here to -”

“So you’re the one taking our Jyra away?” Calliope cast a critical eye over Sun, who felt a little self-conscious. “A bit old for you, if you ask me,” she said, turning back to Jyra.

“We’re not eloping,” Sun protested.

“Yeah, we’re going to get the - ow!” He cut off as Sun stomped on his foot.

“It’s an important mission,” she assured the old woman. “I’ll have him back soon, and in one piece.”

“I should hope not!” Calliope exclaimed. “His mother and father dead, house burned to the ground, he had good reason not to return!”

“Well, that’s…er…I, uh…” Sun stammered uncomfortably.

Calliope laughed. “I always thought Jyra would leave someday,” she said. “Here, boy, let me take a look at that bow of yours.”

Jyra handed her the weapon, and she examined the kanji on the side. “Just as I thought,” she said. “Kazehanashi - tale of the wind.” She handed the bow back to Jyra. “I look forward to seeing the result of your ‘important mission’. Perhaps, when it’s all over, you can come back and relay it to me. I could always use a new story.”

The old storyteller clapped Sun’s shoulder. “Try the village to the southwest,” she advised. “You may find someone of merit there.”

As Calliope left the shop, Sun and Jyra stood and stared after her.

“Does she know?” Sun muttered to Jyra.

“Probably,” he whispered back. “That’s the local storyteller, and everyone thinks she knows more than she lets on.”

“Well, then, there’s no hurt in following her advise. Guess we’re headed southwest.”

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