'Flame of the Ocean' - Chapter XI
“You could have told me.”
Satoshi was wrapped in three blankets and an old bear fur. Hot tea was in his hands and the fire was still burning in the hearth. All that heat seemed baked into Satoshi’s bones. The color was back in him, his hands were bandaged, and he felt fit enough to find the pearls all over again. But his voice was still weak, so Kasumi wouldn’t let him up.
It was just past midday, and the sun was shining in through the window. It had been very early in the morning when Satoshi and Kasumi first reached his home. The house was in disarray, something Satoshi had never seen before, and Mama and the horse were both gone, which had never happened before. Satoshi had been worried then, more worried than he had been at any time in the dragon king’s palace, but Kasumi wouldn’t let him do anything but bundle under layers and sleep, the heaviest sleep Satoshi had ever known.
When Kasumi roughly shook him awake, someone else was in the house, one of the village boys. He said that Mama was out with half the village, searching for Satoshi, and that they had been searching all night. Satoshi noticed that Kasumi looked very guilty over that. As she should, he thought, but he felt no better. He asked the boy to run and tell his mother that he was home and safe.
“And maybe you can tell me what all that was about while we wait,” he said to Kasumi after the boy had left. And so she had, though she could never bring herself to look Satoshi in the eye while she told all. She kept rising, pacing, and sitting back down. She inspected the bowls in the cupboard and played with a set of chopsticks. All the while, she seemed very small and scared, and nothing like a dragon.
“You could have told me,” Satoshi said again. “And you could have let me try on my own.”
Kasumi laughed, a shaking and unsure chortle. She still wouldn’t look at him. “That’s what has you most upset? I risked your life for my freedom, Satoshi, but you’re bothered that I set you up to win?”
“I could have done it on my own!” he said. “You didn’t think I could, did you?”
“I guessed.” She laughed again. “But you did plenty of it on your own, more than I thought.”
Satoshi folded his arms and huffed. “You don’t know I couldn’t have played along, about being your suitor or betrothed or whatever it was.”
“I didn’t need to guess that,” said Kasumi. “You’re too easy to read, Satoshi.”
“I am not! I could’ve played along with whatever you needed me to. It wouldn’t matter to me.”
Kasumi finally turned to look at him. “Do you mean that, Satoshi?” she asked softly. “You still would have helped me?”
Satoshi wanted to tell her what a silly question that was, but after last night, he thought he knew why she would wonder about things like that. So instead he just nodded.
Kasumi looked down at her feet and rubbed at her eyes. Satoshi tried to focus on Denko, sleeping in a bowl on the floor, until she spoke again. “They would only let me out of one betrothal if I had made another,” she said. “And what other name could I give for a suitor?”
Satoshi looked up. “What do you mean?” he asked.
Kasumi finally met his eyes. She walked over to his side. “Who else would have Denko to help them, sea beasts warned to guide them, tools given to aide them – and me to save them?” She took the back of the fur and pulled it over Satoshi’s head. By the time he pushed it off, she was at the other end of the house, making faces at a safe distance.
Satoshi made one back, then asked, “Where will you go now?”
Kasumi looked out the window. “I don’t know,” she sighed. “You heard my father. I suppose I’ll have to find a sea somewhere. Somewhere far from his waters. Quite far, perhaps.”
“Do you need a whole sea?” Satoshi asked. “Our lake isn’t big, but you like it. And why live in the water? You could stay with us. I know Mama would let you.” He was sure of that, even after they told Mama all that happened – or as much of it as they dared. There was no point worrying her with everything.
“That is sweet of you, Satoshi,” Kasumi said. “And perhaps I will stay, for a little while. But a lake doesn’t have the ocean’s turning currents, the bottomless deep and the endless stretches of water on all sides. The ocean has the jellyfish, the pink water flowers, the red and white coral. The ocean is the home for a dragon. And your lake feeds my father’s ocean. It is a part of his realm. I must set out to find my own soon. But –” she said, seeing Satoshi’s frown – “I won’t ever forget to visit here. Once a week, if I can manage it.”
“I’ll bet you can,” said Satoshi. “You are the flame of the ocean, after all.”
“And a dragon too – don’t forget that!” Kasumi rose again. She paced up and down the room, then went to the window. “I think I’ll seek out a great treasure while I’m looking for my new sea. I did promise you one, after all. And I’ll make it a hidden or guarded treasure, so you can have a challenge.”
“If Mama ever lets me leave home again,” said Satoshi, but he could already see in his mind sunken ships and ruined temples.
“And who knows?” Kasumi went on, in a teasing sort of voice. “At some point or another – when I’m old enough for such things – I may decide to seek out a suitor for true.”
Satoshi scratched his nose and ruffled his hair. “Why would you do that?” he asked, unsure why it mattered to him.
Kasumi gave him a proper smile then, before she went over, scooped Denko’s bowl up, and turned her back to him. “I’m sure reasons will come to me,” she said. “Of course, when the time comes for a suitor, it may turn out I’ve already found one.”
And for all that Satoshi asked and guessed and pleaded, Kasumi would say no more until Mama was home.
THE END