Now with plenty of golden apples, Udo took two and placed them on the silver tray.
Two more of the adult Ki-Rin trotted over to nibble up the delicious treats – and strangely, seemed to be racing to see who would finish theirs first. The winner then bolted over to Yuki with a triumphant whiney and the loser more or less moped over to Udo.
Udo meanwhile, eyed the Ki-Rin that had come to him and somehow got the feeling it too was eying him back, as if to complain that Udo was too big and ‘why did it always have to be the one to carry the Sumo guys’.
“I am not a Sumo guy,” Udo stated flatly, as he mounted the magical beast. At that however, his Ki-Rin snorted loudly and the rest of the Ki-Rin seemed to whiney laughingly in response.
“What about me?” Kioko asked, as she saw the Ki-Rin assigning themselves riders and that she was left without. Apparently, the younger Ki-Rin were not going to carry her at all.
Udo then took out another golden apple, but Kioko, fled away from it.
“Oh no, I want to ride with Yuki!” She protested.
Perhaps that was a better plan, since a fall from as high as the Ki-Rin could no doubt fly would kill a person. It wouldn’t do to have Kioko go through that again.
Yuki helped Kioko up in front of her and hopped onto her Ki-Rin’s back. As she did so, she couldn’t help but notice that the little cloud spirit with Kioko seemed extra excited by the prospect of riding on a Ki-Rin and seemed to glow a bit brighter than usual.
Once settled, Kioko smiled; “I like horses, but I never saw one on fire.”
At that comment, the Ki-Rin all whinnied lightly in unison to each other, as if chuckling at the little foxgirl’s innocence.
The Ki-Rin that approached Rai meanwhile, readily allowed him to mount up and stamped at the ground impatiently once Rai was seated. Rai got the feeling that his mount considered itself the fastest and was eager to prove it once the group was on its way. When Rai asked the Ki-Rin its name, the image of wind howling violently down the walls of a canyon came into his mind.
As Miya climbed up on the Ki-Rin that had chosen to serve her, she noticed that the Ki-Rin’s horn was somewhat shorter than the others’. Looking closely, it was apparent that the end of its horn had actually been broken off in some kind of battle – though not too recently.
Roka then mounted the Leader of the Ki-Rin. Once on its back, he noted that the Ki-Rin seemed exceptionally muscular and sturdy, though not too uncomfortable to ride upon. Its long soft mane seemed strong as well, providing a more than adequate handhold, and was a strange mixture of hair and flames.
Asking the Leader its name, Roka saw in his mind an image of colorful streaks of neon light dancing across the cold night sky (the aurora borealis) and he could tell that this was how the Ki-Rin was known among its own kind.
Lastly, Udo mounted up – to the loud groans and wobbly legs of his own mount. Great. He had to have drawn the comedian of the lot…
“Honorable Ki-Rin,” Roka said to the leader, “we seek to visit the Ancestral Palace in the Sky and thank you for your help in this matter.”
Then, when everyone was ready, the leader of the Ki-Rin whinnied loudly and reared back, pawing at the air with its forelegs. A cascade of iridescent sparks flew from its hooves and again the clouds were parted; opening before the Samurai like a curtain.
Kioko gasped in giddy surprise as the Ki-Rin reared up, and Yuki of course shifted her weight appropriately to remain on the beast’s back, but noticed in doing so, that something was holding her and Kioko in place – it was the magical fire of the Kir-Rin that now enveloped them – and Yuki realized that it was impossible to fall off a Ki-Rin’s back, as long as it wanted you to remain there.
Rai’s mount meanwhile, fidgeted and snorted in anticipation of a race, but waited for its leader to enter the sky first. As it did so, the younger Ki-Rin trotted over and crowded around the older Ki-Rin, apparently trying to nudge their way in front of it. Rai’s mount stamped at the ground a few times and then backed up, allowing all of the younger Ki-Rin to line up ahead of it.
At that point the Ki-Rin leader dashed suddenly through the sky and into the clouds, followed by the rest of the Ki-Rin – last of all, Rai’s mount – that seemed to intentionally linger after all the others had passed through the portal.
As they went up, Kioko began to glow softly for some odd reason – though she did not seem to notice the glow herself.
The Ki-Rin meanwhile, took to the air, flying up higher and higher like shooting stars at tremendous speed. As they did so, the younger Ki-Rin broke from the pack and galloped up ahead as fast as they could, until they appeared as little flecks of fire on the horizon.
Then came by Rai’s mount – a blazing fiery streak that shot past like a bolt of lightning – crossing the distance between the Samurai’s mounts and the younger Ki-Rin in the blink of an eye and a moment later doubling that distance again.
Rai meanwhile, had never experienced such incredible speed – It truly was like being a bolt of lightning! When his mount finally slowed and began trotting leisurely through the air to wait for the others, Rai found himself trying to swallow his heart back down from his throat and was wiping the tears from his eyes – that and he was pretty sure his hair was now spiked back…
As the rest of the Ki-Rin climbed to reach Rai’s mount, the Samurai on their backs could look back to see the land growing larger and larger below them. It was an amazing sight, so high above the World; able to see from one side of Creation to the other. But it wasn’t over Nippon, it was somewhere else – a place they had never been, yet somehow hauntingly familiar.
Then, as they continued to climb, the land seemed to shrink away, getting smaller and smaller below them, until it no longer was at all. Lost in an endless expanse of cloud-filled sky.
Author
Topic: Mythic Nippon Adventure IV (Read 230443 times)