Dragon Island (6 page)

“Wha-wha-what are you trying to say?” I stutter. “You mean that—I mean, you don’t think that I—?”

Kitsune scowls.

“I can hardly believe it myself. I mean, if you acting cowardly back in the cave was just a trick—”

“A trick? Newsflash, Kitsune! The Oni were going to eat us!”

Kitsune shakes her head in disgust.

“Please, drop this pretense of fright. It is unworthy of an heir of Kintaro.”

“Hey, you look here now, Missy—!”

An especially loud roar sounds outside our shelter, reverberating through the ship’s hull. Dust and dirt rain down on us as I scramble around the fire to huddle in fear against
Kitsune
.

While the word daikaiju (pronounced die-ky-joo) has been adopted as pop-culture slang for the giant monsters featured in the endless stream of B-movies heralding from
Japan
, the term has a much older and more spiritual origin. The daikaiju, or dragons, of Japanese myth were the children of the dragon god, Ryuu (pronounced Rie-you). Like their father, the daikaiju were enormous creatures whose corporeal forms were equal parts flesh, bone, and magic...

—Excerpt from
Dragons of the East
, by Seth Thompson (2008)

“W
hy do you cower so?” Kitsune whispers. “I told you to carry on this joke is cruel and dishonorable. Besides, I have marked the symbol of Gryphina outside the ship.

“And if the kaiju outside our shelter is foolish enough to disrespect it, you have Kusanagi to protect us.”

I’m less than convinced by Kitsune’s words. Sword or no sword, she will have to pardon me if the influx of monsters trying to kill me since I crash-landed on this island has me a little jumpy!

I hear whatever is outside sniffing around the over-turned galleon serving as our shelter. The sniffing abruptly stops and I hear the pounding thuds of something large retreating into the forest. When the thuds grow silent, I allow myself to breathe.

“See,” Kitsune says. “The kaiju found the symbol of Gryphina and left in fear. We are perfectly safe.”

I release Kitsune and scoot away from her. But not too far. That thing might come back!

“Look, Kitsune,” I say, “I’m getting the idea you might think I’m one of the warriors in your people’s prophecy just because my plane crashed. But trust me, you are wrong. Obviously.

“I’m no warrior, just a snot-nosed kid from California. Before I crash-landed on this island, I’d never spent a night alone in my life! Heck, I’ve never even kissed a girl, other than my mother and grandmother, and a few pecks from girls in elementary school, but those don’t count.

“I don’t know how to use a sword. I certainly don’t slay kijoes—”

“Kaiju.”

“What?”

“Kaiju are the little ones—monsters like the Oni.

My jaw drops.

“The Oni are the little ones?”

“Daikaiju are the great old ones—the arms and legs of Ryuu. His children.

“They are the what of who?”

“They are dragons.”

I swallow hard, thinking of the dark shapes I saw in the clouds outside my plane.

And the eye.

I will never be able to forget that eye.

“It is the daikaiju who truly rule these islands,” Kitsune continues. “In fact, we Toho worship one of their number, the dragon called Gryphina.”

“What?”

“Gri-feen-na,” Kistune enunciates.

I close my eyes and rub the place where the bridge of my nose meets my brow.

“But you see, Kitsune, that’s just what I’m talking about!

“I think it was some of your daikaiju or whatever that attacked my plane.

“Everyone died but me. And you know what I did?”

Kitsune stares at me in silence.

“I ran, Kitsune. I got the heck out of there as fast as my legs would take me. And I just happened to stumble upon the sword—”

“Kusanagi.”

“I just happened to stumble upon Kusanagi in the process. It’s not mine. I stole it. I lifted it off some corpse—probably this Kintaro you are so off the chain over.

“So you see, Kitsune, I’m no warrior. I’m a coward. I don’t slay dragons—”

“Daikaiju.”

“Dai-kai-ju! I run from them like any good coward worth the pee in his pants!

“So if you are expecting me to swoop in here and fight through kaiju and daikaiju alike to lead your people to the outside world, you are in for a huge disappointment!”

Kitsune sighs in frustration.

“What about your defeat of the oni?”

“That was a fluke! Somehow, the sword—
Kusanagi
sliced off the oni’s arm coming out of its scabbard. I don’t even know how it happened!

“What are you grinning at?”

“I see what you are doing now, Raymond-sai. You are merely honoring the tradition of the reluctant warrior.”

“It was no different with Kintaro, Raymond-sai. And that is well.

“So I will play my part and assure you my people would not ask you to do—or slay—anything against your will. At least, I doubt they would.

“Besides, we Toho are already well protected by Gryphina.”

Her smile still dividing her face, Kitsune lies down and rolls away so that she faces the ship’s up-side-down parapet.

“Get some sleep, Raymond-sai. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

I stare at her, my jaw on my chest, my eyes twin boiled eggs in their sockets.

“Did you not hear a word I just said? I’m not one of your warriors.”

Kitsune’s only reply is a series of faint, girlish snores. She is already fast asleep.

I’ve been dismissed.

“Unbelievable,” I whisper.

Having little choice, I also hunker down to sleep. I remove Kusanagi from my back and take a spot against the ship’s hull.

Images flicker in rapid succession across my mind’s eye: the pale man, the giant red eye, the plane’s wreckage, the dead samurai’s tomb, the river and its giant gator, the Oni, and awakening in the cave to see Kitsune’s immaculate face.

My stomach rumbles and I realize I’ve not eaten since this morning. But then sleep overtakes me and I’m spared my hunger pangs.

I
awake to the sound of cicada song and the fleshy, sweet smell of roasting meat. My eyes flutter open and I see that I’m alone beneath the overturned, landlocked boat. It sends memories of the previous night’s confrontation with the Oni rushing to the forefront of my mind.

For a moment, I’m convinced that my would-be savior, the girl Kitsune, has abandoned me. But then I hear her humming softly outside and I breath a huge sigh of relief.

The sound of her humming is sweet. It makes me long for Glee Club, school, and every other simple, routine thing I took for granted back home.

But you make do with what you have, I suppose.

Kitsune is the only kind face I’ve seen since my plane crashed on this island of monsters, and to say I would hate to lose her is the biggest understatement of the century!

I sit up and rub sleep’s aftermath from my eyes. I stand as high as the low ceiling of the ship’s overturned deck will allow and take the sword Kusanagi in hand. I push away the tangle of creepers serving as the shelter’s door and walk outside.

The trees here are every bit as tall and thick as those I encountered beyond the beach. They crowd in around the shipwreck’s remains. In the daylight, the wreckage looks like little more than a mound of earth rising from the forest floor. Like the giant hand in the swamp, the ship is covered by creeper vines and other shrubbery.

It makes me ponder what other ancient wonders might lie hidden just beneath the carpet of the forest’s vegetation.

Kitsune squats beside a cook fire not far from the ship-mound. A deadfall the size of a subway tunnel lies at her back. She is roasting something akin to rabbit on a stick skewer.

“Just in time,” she says. “Your breakfast is ready.”

I come around and sit across from her as she removes the skewered animal from the flames.

“What about you?” I ask.

“I already ate,” she says.

Kitsune reaches up and uses the back of her hand to wipe away what might have been a smear of blood from the corner of her mouth. The gesture is completed before I can see for sure.

I shrug and take the skewer in my hands. I bite into the meat and it’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted in entire my life. Even better than Mom’s homemade chocolate cake!

I tear greedily into the rest of the food. When I finish, my face and fingers are slick with greasy fat. My stomach bellows in approval. I belch in return.

“Oh! Excuse me.”

Kitsune shakes her head.

“Less manners than the Oni!”

We clean up after ourselves, finishing by disassembling the stones Kitsune used to form what looks to me like Japanese kanji spelled out in characters several feet across. I’m guessing it was whatever symbol of safety she claimed she made the night before—something about a griffin-monster? I forget.

“So what now?”

“Now we get cleaned up.”

We leave the boat and head deeper into the forest. As we trek inward, I begin to hear the sound of rushing water in the distance. Then the forest opens to reveal the edge of a small waterfall dumping into a crystal blue pool not far below us. It’s a gorgeous, exotic place the likes of which I’ve only seen on TV.

“I’m not going in there!” I say.

“But you stink!”

“I would rather stink than become breakfast for some dino-gator!”

Kitsune giggles. “There is nothing here that will hurt you. At least not right now, while the sun is shining.

“Come.”

Kitsune begins to disrobe before me. Apparently, the Toho harbor no taboos where nudity is concerned. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same.

Embarrassed for both of us, I quickly look away and shield my eyes with a hand.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I didn’t see a thing.”

A soft splash echoes from below. I look down and see Kitsune dog-paddling in the blue pool at the waterfall’s base.

“Take off your clothes and jump, Raymond-sai,” she calls to me.

I mentally calculate the distance from the ledge I’m standing on to the pool below. It’s only about fifteen feet, but it’s still enough to frighten me as bad as the first time I had to sing a solo in Glee Club!

I grab a nearby sapling to steady myself. “Uh, that’s okay. I think I’ll just walk—”

I catch movement along the pool’s edge from the corner of my eye. A turtle shell the size of a stop-sign is creeping slowly toward the water. I relax until I see the scaly, clawed appendages stretching out from beneath it.

A head emerges from the shell. It’s a gruesome, frog-like thing with large, red eyes on either side.

Eyes just like that of thing that attacked my plane!

I almost expect the thing to bark, “Gollum!” and ask where its precious is.

I try to call out to Kitsune but my voice fails me.

The creature reaches the pool’s edge and slides into the water without making any waves or noise.

“Come, Raymond-sai! Jump!”

Kitsune only has eyes for me. She doesn’t notice the large turtle shell approaching her through the water like the fin of a trawling shark.

Just jump. Just jump in and save her.

But my legs remain fastened to the ledge.

“Kitsune,” I whisper. It’s all the fear clogging my throat will allow me to manage.

“Raymond-sai?” At last, Kitsune realizes something is wrong.

But the realization comes too late.

The turtle monster rises out of the water behind Kitsune and drags her under.

Black roses bloom at the edge of my gaze and I feel my knees buckle beneath me. Just before I faint with fear, I feel the cool rush of wind against my skin as I tumble through the air toward the pool below.

Originating from the older Ainu (see
Japan
’s First People. 7.B.) term ‘kamuy,’ kami is the Japanese name for the spirits said to reside within objects, as recognized by Shinto tradition. Kami are often loosely associated with fairies and other mythological forest-dwelling deities of the west...

—Excerpt from
From Kami to Kaiju: Japanese Myths and Monsters
, by Shigeru Kayama and Takeo Murata (1957)

M
y eyes pop open to see Kitsune kneeling over me, her mouth pressed to mine. The flat rock I’m stretched out on is cool and hard beneath me. I can still hear the rush of falling water close by. This air is thick with its spray. Before I can orient myself further, water comes surging out of my mouth in a series of violent coughs.