Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe

Author:Miyuki Miyabe [Miyabe, Miyuki]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Young Adult, Childrens, ebook
ISBN: 9781421527734
Google: WA8NPwAACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 123557
Publisher: Viz Media
Published: 2003-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

The Swamp of Grief

Wataru shot across the sky, wrapped in winds, flying so high it made his head spin.

He saw stars through a gap in the clouds below. But they were not stars; they were the lights of various towns. It was strangely quiet here in the eye of the cyclone. A constant, gentle updraft cradled him like a baby in its mother’s arms, ensuring he would not fall.

He descended gradually, at last breaking through the clouds. He had no way of knowing how far the storm had carried him—everything below was shrouded in darkness. He could see no signs of where he might be—no roofs of houses, or pastures, or mountain ridges. It seemed to him as though it wasn’t the cyclone that was descending, but rather that he was slowly moving toward the bottom of the funnel. It was like he was going down an elevator in the sky.

He touched ground. Released from the cyclone’s embrace, his right calf suddenly throbbed with pain, and he fell to the ground. The soil beneath him was wet, sodden, like a sea of mud.

He looked back around to see the silvery tail of the cyclone disappearing up through the clouds. The sky was still dark, and studded with stars.

Mitsuru had warned him that the cyclone wasn’t quite under his control. But the storm, ultimately, had been quite kind. Wherever he was now, it was certainly better than where he had been moments before. When he had seen that guillotine, it was like death had been staring him in the face. It had even been worse than the night he spent in that Gasara cell.

His life had been saved two times along the way.

The mud where he lay was cold but soft. Chilly air wrapped around him. Realizing he couldn’t sit there forever, he tried to stand, but the ground was so slippery even that proved difficult. He looked around for something to hold on to, but the only thing nearby was a patch of thin reeds, and they provided little in the way of support.

By the time he was standing on two feet again, Wataru was covered in mud. The bandage around the arrow wound on his calf was black and filthy. He knew he had to change it soon. What was that horrible disease Mom was always saying I’d get? Tetanus or something?

Wataru parted the stand of reeds with his hands and saw a flat black expanse of ground ahead. A clearing, he thought. But when he approached, he found it was less of a clearing and more of a muddy lake. The water rippled faintly in the night breeze, reflecting the starlight. He stood at the quiet shore, and the cold night air enveloped him.

Wataru sneezed. He began to shiver.

Where am I now? It’s so dark here, so cold. I’m practically freezing.

He examined his surroundings by the starlight. The muddy lake was so large that much of it faded into the dark distance and he could not see the far shoreline.

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