Ink Portals

Twin phoenix

15

The next morning Arthur snuck outside just before daybreak. Light snowfall was coming down as he stalked the forest behind the temple. He tilted his head back and opened his mouth, waiting for a couple of snowflakes to land on his tongue and melt away. He felt a sense of raw wildness inside him as he drew in cold air and watched hot breath leave his lips.

A troop of Macaque monkeys were bathing in the hot springs behind the temple. Arthur had heard them earlier that morning, before he got out of bed and decided to pull on some warm clothes and see what they were up to. Arthur spied the monkeys, jabbering and splashing in the steamy water; the moisture made their fur look like wet clumps of brownish cotton. The alpha male sat brooding in the hot water, his comical pink face relaxed in dream-like bliss.

Arthur watched from his hiding place as the alpha suddenly rose up, splashing wildly, as he chased away lower-ranking males trying to enter the pool. The rejected males sat sulking at the edge of the water, looking on, as the alpha and his females groomed one another.

One of the shunned monkeys dug around in the snow. It tugged at something hidden beneath the soil and broke off a root of some kind. The monkey held it up to its nose, sniffed at it, and took a bite. Then a raven swooped in and snatched the root from the startled monkey's fingers, unceremoniously slapping it across its face with a wing as it passed by in a blur of black plumage. The monkey jumped up in a fit of rage and bore its little white teeth at the bird. The raven glided along and landed on Arthur's forearm, then dropped the root at his feet.

"I'm starting to get the hang of this," Arthur said, stroking the velvety black feathers on the bird's back.

Arthur was startled by a bout of laughter coming from behind him. He spun around and the raven flew off and disappeared.

Kazunori was sitting on a bamboo mat at the backdoor of the temple, chuckling as he watched the enraged monkey dart back and forth at the edge of the water.

"You seem to be getting used to them," Kazunori said, amused.

"Yeah, but the nightmares are pretty disturbing," Arthur said, coming out from his hiding place and brushing snow from his knees.

"I am curious to know," Kazunori said, "what did you see in these nightmares?"

"Looked like Vikings," Arthur said, averting his gaze to the monkeys frolicking in the water. "They were raiding a village and raping women. They killed all the children and put dead men's heads on stakes. It was brutal stuff."

"These creatures come from a merciless time in history," Kazunori said, his expression becoming grave. "They have seen things that we are not accustomed to in this day and age. I imagine the work you and Jack do, shipping drugs for the cartels, must end with similarly horrible outcomes for the end-users. The only difference is you don't see the end results, the broken lives and families, up close like you saw in those nightmares; but that doesn't mean they don't exist."

Arthur kept quiet. He felt a pang of shame wash over him.

"These birds have an intriguing past," Kazunori said. "The scrolls, left behind by the great warrior, tell tales of their origins."

"Where did they come from?" Arthur asked.

"It is said that they are the direct descendants of Huginn and Muninn; the Viking god Odin's pets. Perhaps you've heard of them?"

"I saw something about that in a documentary once," Arthur said, his eyes sparkling with recognition, "memory, and something else..."

"Yes, they represented thought and memory," Kazunori nodded. "The birds flew great distances around the world, surveying the earth and reporting their findings back to Odin. The warrior, while out on one of his expeditions, paid a guide to take him up into the Barbarian mountains; once there he hunted these prized creatures for their god-like pedigree."