Blackbird

Chapter Twenty: The Battle of the Gods

I have scoured the depths of my mind in search of a story I haven't shared with my readers and yet i couldn't find one more intriguing than the tale of a little girl called Hanako.The year was 1960, I was on a vacation in Japan in Kyoto and one fine day I decided to leave my guide and travel as far as I could alone. After a few hours of savoring the delightful countryside I realised I was lost and it was getting dark. I could see nothing but thick and tall grass l, swaying bamboo tress around me. After a few minutes of walking and running around, I found an old shack on top of a small hill, a few yards ahead of me. I decided to take shelter in it for the night. It was an old hut with stains of smoke and algae, showing signs of ageing. An old man opened it and I had to explain him with my limited knowledge of speakable Japanese about my current situation. He welcomed me inside, and asked me to take a seat by the fireplace. He had a dog too which lay lazily upon the ground and staring silently at the flames, not at all bothered by my presence.

He offerd me some "saki" which was a bit too strong for my taste. I tried to start a conversation, the only problem was I understood Japanese well enough but couldn't speak the language while he knew some English but spoke only Japanese.

From what he told me, he was a retired soldier of the Royal army, was about 80 years old and now living in total isolation with his dog, he lost his entire family in the Hiroshima bombings. I shared a little bit about myself too and told him that I was in the British army myself and that a leg injury forced me to quit prematurely. We both shared stories of our glorious days and how truly sad wars were. And then he shared me a story that he heard from his grandfather, one which I have never heard before. I looked at my watch, it was half past eleven- we had some light supper, the rain was pouring heavily and the dog inched closer to the fire. The man began his story, his eyes fixed at the fire with a cigarette in his hand...

"It was the year 1608.Those were the times of warlords called Shogun and rogue soldiers called Ronin in Edo now called Tokyo. There was a tyrannical master called Akimoto Hachirou who terrified the entire region with his strict policies and unforgiving nature. Farmers and soldiers were all scared by his violent fits of anger. It was a chaotic time, wars were common, fights were brutal, death was easy and revenge easier...

Hanako-san lived with her father far away from the mainland in a cottage nea the forest. She was a young slim girl of fifteen and loved her father dearly. Her father used to be a Samurai who served the tyrant master but was injured heavily in wars and left his sevice to take care of his family. The master felt insulted and killed his wife to teach him a lesson.Hanako was just a baby then. Her father ran away into the woods with the baby in his hands and built himself a home where he slowly recovered from his injuries. Twelve years had passed but the fire of vengeance still burned inside him.

Hanako grew up carefree in the secluded woods.She only knew her father and a few villagers in the nearby village where she went every week to get supplies. She traded some firewood and wild berries in the weekly market - careful enough not to reveal her identity-that she was the daughter of a Ronin..

While at home she did her household chores, took care of her ageing father and learned to use the katana in her spare time. Then one day every thing changed...

Her father was cutting some firewood while she was looking after the vegetables in the farm. She heard the rumbling of hooves nearby. She stood up and saw Samurais-about seven of them, carrying flags and after them a Shogun who wore a terryfing mask, and another six soldiers followed him on horseback. They were coming towards her, her father came and asked her to simply bow down as they passed. The caravan stopped right in front of them. One of the soldiers yelled at her father, "You there.. Peasant! Where does this road lead to?". Her father replied bowing, "To the city my master, to the city". Then another angry voice yelled, "Raise your head!". Her father reluctantly obeyed. "Ah! Hirohito, my loyal soldier... after all these years we meet again", said the master.. There was a short conversation between the two where the master mocked and insulted him for betrayal and asked that Hirohito gave away his daughter to be the master's servant as a way of repaying him for the loss. Hirohito saw red and snatched a soldier's sword and threatened him to leave. The master only laughed and challenged him to fight.Old Hirohito knew he was no match and so he asked Hanako to sneak away as he kept them busy. "Run, Hanako San, save yourself, run!!"Poor Hanako reluctantly obeyed.

She ran into the forests, through the tall grass which came up to her chest. She ran as fast as she could until she stumbled upon a rock and fell. Three men with swords were approaching from behind. She tried to pick herself up but her foot hurt badly. One man came up to her and was about to strike her with his sword and then something unusual happened. The wind grew stronger, the bamboo trees swayed swayed violently, the tall grass touched the ground and a loud thunder cracked the skies. The soldiers were amazed at the sudden change of weather and were trying to stand straight, never before they have witnessed such violent winds.Hanako laid down on the ground trying to hold on to the grass. "Get her! Don't let her go..", cried one soldier. Suddenly they saw a bright light in the woods, a beautiful lady was approaching them walking so gracefully, that it seemed she was floating over the grass. The men were awestruck, the girl felt a strange sense of calmness,she felt safe now. The strange lady stood calmly infront of them, she wore a traditional Kimono and her face was painted white. She smiled at Hanako and looked at the men. The men asked heer who she was and why she was there, the lady didn't reply and simply stood there. They warned her and asked her to leave, she didn't move. Seeing this one of them walked up to her and was about to grab her when the lady simply raised her arm and made a strange gesture, time froze, thunder cracked and the men simply collapsed to the ground. " Go home, Hanako, your father needs you!" said the lady and walked away strangely as she came. Hanako looked at her injured leg, it was healed. She ran to her father and saw him standing, scratching his head, the master and all his bodyguards lay unconscious on the ground. Hanako hugged her father, he embraced her in his arms, "Oh!Hanako san, are you allright? Fid those men hurt you?" asked Hirohito. "I am fine father!", said Hanako crying.

Thunder cracked again, the winds blew and a loud buzzing echoed throughout the jungle. They saw a strange glowing, bronze orb leaving the forest and flying towards the skies. Hanako held her father's hand, thanking the strange lady in her thoughts..

After struggling through the dense sss forest for an hour me and my three local guides and Alicia arrived at the fabled-"city of the dead" built by the ancient aztecs. Huge ruins of pyramids, broken stones, pillars and pathways lay ahead of us in a clearing. Alicia was awestruck, "We did it - we finally found it!", she said,her eyes shining through her glasses. Our Incan friends too seemed relieved at the thought of finally getting the job done and returning home,but I for one was sceptical. 'Was it really supposed to be so-easy?',I thought staring at the vast ruined pyramid which was now covered with algae and wild plants.The lost city of the dead was supposed to be filled with immeasurable treasures and hence most difficult to find.Nevertheless I asked Paco one of our guides to lead the way.

We struggled to keep up with him as he climbed up the stairs swiftly. "Slow down!", I shouted, as he kept climbing ahead. He seemed to be in some kind of frenzy as if he were possessed. "Paco! slow down !", I yelled again, fearing we might lose him in the ruins. Paco looked back at me and I could swear I saw his face had gone grey and his eyes were green...a chill ran down my spine as I stared at that little boy running madly to the top of the ruined pyramid. "My friend", said Sergio one of the elder guides, trembling with fear as he placed his hand on my shoulder "the king has finally returned home".

A chill ran down my spine and I could feel beads of sweat dripping from my forehead.

I froze for a moment as I looked at the sheer madness ahead of me.Paco was relentlessly moving forward towards the top of what was once a pyramid like monument,which during the old days was most probably used for human sacrifices.He raged on like a mad bull, mumbling gibberish, occasionally slipping down,barely able to hold on to the flimsy rocks. The four of us hurried to stop him but the boulders of algae ridden rocks made it very hard for us even to step foot on them.

"The King-the lord-of Mictlan-has returned?",I wondered trying to remember the history of the place-which wasn't depicted in any map.It was once used as a temple dedicated to the God of the underworld -Mictlantecuhtli.Human sacrifices were performed by great priests of the temple who wore large skull like hats and painted their faces red as they carried out brutal acts of murder on top of the pyramid platform and hundreds of spectators would watch from below as they hoped that these inhuman acts would somehow please the deity.What a dreadful sight it would have been!

Paco had almost reached the top by now and as he laid his feet on the platform he let out a horrific scream and fell into some kind of hole.We could only observe helplessly from below."What on earth!- cried out Alicia-did you see that- he got swallowed in- he-", words failed to come out- we were all dumbfounded,but we had to reach the top.The old stairs were broken and we were holding on to crumbling rocks as we scaled the hundred metres tall ruin.Our hands and feet got covered in a strange slime like substance which seemed to ooze out from the cracks,and wild grass and climber plants wrapped round the stones made it harder to climb-still we had to move on.Sergio almost fell trying to hold on to a block of stone.Alicia was the one who reached the top first and we all stood there not knowing what to do.

A huge hole was in the middle of what was supposed to be a flat platform.We stared down into the dark abyss and shone our torches yelling out Paco's name.Strangely our lights couldn't even reach the bottom and all we saw was a slime and moss covered wall and an endless dark pit below.At this point I vaguely remembered some line I read in an obscure book -"He shall feast upon blood on a moonless night,he shall dance upon the bones of the dead...he shall rise..."I couldn't remember much but I knew it was a prophecy related to this place - Mictlan!

It was almost sunset and darkness would soon fall,we had to return to our camps,but we also had to look for the lost boy.Sergio and the other local guide weren't much keen on finding him as they only kneeled down and offered their prayers.I was furious at this behaviour at first but Sergio explained to me that he was taken as a sacrifice by the deity and that we could have done nothing to help him.Their superstitious beliefs saddened me-surely everything had to have a logical explanation, but I thought it would be more reasonable for us to go back to our camps now and look for the boy tomorrow.We all agreed to head back but as I stood there holding my satchel,I looked at the majestic scenery of the jungle.It would be dark soon and the dense forest was eerily getting silent.I could no longer hear the howling monkeys or the occasional roar of the jaguar nor the majestic birds of paradise,who are known to be notoriously loud with their shrilling annoying voices trying to impress their mates.It seemed as though nature was shying away creepily into sleep and the only thing that could be heard was the monotonous shrilling of crickets and cicadas.

The sun had now crept behind the mountains as the four of us tried to find a way down this dreaded place.Sergio was the first to climb down,Alicia and I were going next.As he made his way down,Alicia drew a sharp breath and pointed towards the ruins that lay below.A thick fog was engulfing around the pyramid.It was strange and unnatural as winter was months away.The other guide started to tremble in fear and hurried to climb down the slope.I tried to stop him but something must have spooked him,for he wouldn't listen and was determined to leave the place. Suddenly the pyramid began to rumble as though it was hit by an earthquake.The whole thing was falling apart brick by brick.Alicia screamed and grabbed my arm as I called out to Sergio-"Come back up!Its not safe...grab the other guy!".Sergio quickly held out his hand to his friend who was a few feet away from him holding on to a broken piece of boulder which would likely give away at any moment.But before he could reach him the boulder broke away and fell down taking the poor local with it.We could only hear a fading scream and a dull thud as he was quickly swallowed by the strange fog below.Sergio knowing that he couldn't do anything else had now quickly climbed up.The three of us were barely able to hold on to each other as the rumbling continued and the fog was getting thicker.Behind us was the dark abysmal pit and the way back home was engulfed in the ever growing sinister fog.All we could do was to hold on to our dear lives.But then the rumbling stopped.

We were shaken with fear and awe.Alicia was still holding on to my arm and Sergio was trying to catch his breath.I for one was trying to get a hold of the bizzare events that had just occurred and I couldn't make any heads or tails of it.We were stranded in the middle of nowhere with no help from the outside world and this horrible place wouldn't let us leave. Somehow my scientific beliefs were completely shadowed by the paranormal.

It was completely dark now and we decided we had to make another attempt to leave.I shone my torch at the pit behind us -it was dark,but I noticed that the walls of the pit were now completely covered with slime and it was moving as though it were alive! It moved slowly but steadily-outwards and upwards towards the edges-through the cracks- towards me-my heart began to race and my ears were filled with the screams of our dead companions. Impossible! - I murmured.But then I heard Alicia calling out to me which broke my trance.She and Sergio had found another way down ,through the broken stairs-parts of the stairs that broke off had now piled up below us making a crude platform towards the ground,but we had to jump.We shone our lights and jumped one by one,onto the platform and a few moments later onto the ground which was still surrounded by the fog.We held each other's hand and moved ahead carefully as we could barely see and the light from our torches reflected back from the thick fog.Still we moved on,the ground below us cracked and I felt as if I was stepping on bones and empty skulls.Alicia kept repeating that the place was cursed and once we were out of here we would never come back.

It was almost midnight, I was thrilled by the amazing story, and believed it to be some old folklore until I saw a painting of an orb and a lady, hanging by the cracked wall.