And the Iron Dog saga resumes.

[camwyn]

For those of you just joining us now, the prior entry in the series was here.

... they found me. They found me. That's a ship that's a sail they got over the Fire Drug they sent a boat they found me I am going to die-

Wait, says something in my head. Wait. Take a breath. Take a breath. Now look.

It's still there. It's getting bigger. I'm a dead-

Look again!

I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm going to die. I'm going to be recaptured. They've found me and I"m going to die and I'm wasting time looking twice at-

looking twice. . . at. . . the. . . sails.

Ainu life is sea life. When they come to an island they send slaves up, or old men, to get what they need. Sometimes they trade things with the Nipponese, who live in houses on legs in the shallow parts of the sea. They get a lot of bamboo that way - some other wood, but mostly bamboo. They make the rafts, the houses, everything from bamboo. Even the boats. They're long and low and narrow and they've got two bodies, to move fast without being knocked over by waves. They've got sails like cone shells, wide and curved at the top, pointy at the bottom. Different raft-villages - different kotan - paint their sails different colours. You can't beat them for speed, not anywhere in all the ocean. Not with sails like that on bodies like that.

These sails... they're red, that's like Albatross kotan, but neither Albatross nor Sun Bear nor Turtle nor any of the others ever made sails like that. Square - no - not square, that's not the word, they're almost like a hand with all the fingers together - Never mind the word! I've seen those sails before. They were in the harbor being burned when the slavers came to my village. That's a Chinese sail!

They found me!

My throat's raw all of a sudden, and the air's gone brown. Ten thousand tiny wings are loud enough to drown out screaming, I guess. It doesn't matter. The ship's too far away to hear me. I don't know if they can even see me. Maybe they see the birds, I don't know, but who bothers checking out something like that? Hunters do, sometimes, because birds circle over the places where whales come up to eat, but these aren't proper seabirds. They probably can't see them. And this is a Chinese ship. The gods alone know why they're out here, where Sun Bear rules the water. Who says they'll stop?

Fire. I need to start up the fire. I need smoke, I need flame, I need something more than birds. They'll stop for fire, right? Nothing burns at sea unless there's a person. They'll know, they'll stop, they'll come this way. Unless, of course, they think it's an Ainu fire. Then they'll run away. Won't they? No, they wouldn't be out near Sun Bear if they were just going to run away. Nobody's that stupid. They must have guns. Maybe they're the Navy. They'll come for fire.

Grasses first. I got a lot of grass for the fire. It's not going to make a big flame, but it'll let me light the twigs from the bushes, and it'll make some smoke. The bushes don't really want to burn, though. They sort of... they just glow, they don't burn right. They give off a thin, weak smoke. It's not even enough to make my eyes sting.

The ship's still out there, but how long will it stay? Nobody sane stays where Sun Bear is.

I can't pull up a whole bush and I don't know why I'm even trying. I know it won't burn. The bits of boat that are left - well - the biggest bit is the fire board, and that's not much. If the ship leaves, I'll need the fire board again. I can't burn that. What else? I don't have anyth- no, that's not true, I have got something else that'll burn. It's torn in places and it's not enough to keep the sun off my back, but my old master's attush robe will burn! There's a few loose bits here, I can tie those around a stick - there, like that. Now, into the fire pit... ah, there. Lovely fire. Good fire. Please, please, be enough fire. Let it be enough fire. Let them see it. It's all I've got. It's all I have left.

Are they hesitating? Were they still before, or is the ship stopping now? I can't tell. They don't seem to be moving. I'd wave harder, but the robe would burn faster, and I can already feel it trying to get at my knuckles. . .

No, they've stopped. I can tell that for sure now. They haven't moved at all. I hope that's a good sign. Please let it be a good sign.

I start waving the robe a little harder. Maybe it'll - there! There, there's a smaller boat! I haven't heard guns so it can't be an Ainu canoe attacking them. It's got to be one of their boats. They're sending a little boat to the island! They're coming! "Here," I yell-

And stop, because the word is coming out in Ainu. Think. Breathe. Try the word again. "Oha-" No, that's Nyiimin, or Nipponese. One more try... Great gods of my fathers, I don't remember! It's all gone! All the Cantonese is gone! No, oh Gods, oh no, no, you can't do this, not when I'm so close, even if I did curse the lot of you for that stupid storm.

"Give me back my words! You bastards, I'm Chinese, not some stinking Ainu! Give me back my words!"

The words come tumbling out in Hokkien, everything I ever heard my father say when the iron had him angry, everything the fishermen said when the catch was bad. I can't stop saying it, I can't stop screaming, not even when the fire burns itself down to the sticks and starts licking at my knuckles. Not even when the boat makes its way through the rocks off the shore and the men splash their way up onto the scree-slope. Not until the biggest one, tanned and flat-faced like the Tong'an men who used to come to my father for forge work, comes up to me with fear-wide eyes and puts his hand on my shoulder. Then the words stop and all I can do is cry.

Comments

[cadhla.livejournal.com]

You may want to consider linking back to the previous installment when you post one of these, since being sequential = being confusing, and it takes a while to find things in your calendar view. (There's a reason I back-link all the 'Dance Macabre' installments.)

Nice to see you taking up the reigns again.

Re:

[camwyn]

Okay, I'll give it a shot. I've actually put all of them in their own Memories entry, so anyone who clicks on my 'memorable posts' stuff can find them under 'Iron Dog - VicMage.Asia', but the linking's probably simpler.