Ryuhiko - 04

Ryuhiko -04-20150122

Shinmasa's heart sank when he walked up to the research base camp and Mary's tent was not there. He had no idea why he should have expected it to be there. It was just that he wanted it to be there. He wanted her to be there.

'You've got to get it together, man,' he said to himself. 'You have work to do and you're not getting it done this way.' Shin picked a good spot and pitched his tent. Adrien and Jacques were there, as was Trevor. He could almost count on them. Actually he wondered if they ever left. There were also three or four people from the University of Idaho's Environmental Science Department and one lone person from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin.

Shin knew Northland. He had lectured there once. It was probably one of the top, if not the top, environmental science schools is the country. He remembered how impressed he was that environment studies was not just a major but was a required part of all the college's curriculum. He wondered what this student was studying.

“Hey, man. How's it goin?” Trevor interrupted Shin's thoughts about Northland.

“Very well,” replied Shin looking up at the ruddy complected young man who stood almost above him. Trevor was in his late twenties and was frantically trying to finish the data gathering part of his doctoral research on the effect of global warming on Ochotona princeps or American Pika. The Pika is a small animal that lives in the high Rocky Mountains. They appear to be driven higher and higher by global warming. Since the Rocky Mountains in Idaho and western Montana are among the lowest mountains in the range, it is a perfect place to see what happens when these poor creatures run out of mountain.

“Did you find Mary?” asked Trevor.

“No,” said Shin plopping down on his bottom and crossing his legs. “I really blew it, Trevor.”

“Maybe she'll show up here again,” suggested Trevor in a very positive manner.

“As they say, 'we live in hope.'” Shin did not look very hopeful.

“Boy, don't I know that.” Trevor looked concerned.

“What's wrong?”

“Awe, I'm just worried that I won't be able to get enough data before my deadline.”

“What deadline?”

“If I can't produce enough data to keep my committee happy, I might be forced to scrap the entire project.” Trevor looked totally lost. “I don't know what I'd do. I'd be back at square one. I believe in my project. It isn't just a doctoral dissertation. It's my life's work. I've spent more of my life over the past four years out on this mountain than I have at home. This should be my home address. I don't think I could handle being forced to start over.”

“What will it take to make your committee happy?” It was Mary. Shin and Trevor spun around as the young woman approached.

“Am I glad to see you!” Shin exclaimed. Then he wondered if he had gone a bit overboard.

“I'm glad to see you too,” Mary dropped her eyes a bit.

“About my committee,” Trevor interjected. “They don't feel that I have nearly enough data and I can't say for sure exactly what will make them happy.”

“What if I told you that I know there are some Pika making nests on the northeast slope of Twin Peaks North?” Mary smiled.

“You wouldn't kid a poor desperate grad student, would you?”

“No. I have it from good sources.”

“Those being . . . ?”

“How about snowfinches?”

“Awe, snowfinches!” exclaimed Trevor. The snowfinch is known to share nesting with the Pika.

“Start across the ridge between White Mountain and Twin Peaks North. When you start to come out of the tree-line on the Twin Peaks North side you will see the steep rocky slope on the east side of the ridge. A large hemlock tree will be just about the last tree before the barren climb to Twin Peaks North. Sit down under that hemlock and be quiet. I'll guarantee you'll get all the data you need.” Mary patted Trevor on the head.

Trevor smiled. “Do you know how many times I've been across that ridge?”

“But have you ever stopped and watched?”

“Well, no,” Trevor conceded. “But how do you know? How can you guarantee?”

“This is my field,” said Mary. “Just trust me.”

Trevor stood thinking for a moment. Finally he said, “Thank. It's definitely worth a try. Can I ...”

“The hemlock tree,” Mary said and laughed as Trevor wandered off muttering “the hemlock tree. Just that hemlock tree. No other hemlock tree. Gotta find that hemlock tree.”

Shinmasa had been watching and admiring Mary during this exchange. She was so beautiful, he thought. She was so alive. He couldn't find the words to describe the sense of life he felt with Mary.

“That was very nice of you,” Shin said with very sincere admiration in his voice. "I don't know how you can be so certain the Pica are there, but if you're right, you will have saved his research."  

“He cares about the Pica,” said Mary. “Not many people care about them.”

“Not many people know about them," Shin laughed, "but, yes, he cares about the Pica and what they can tell the people of the world.”

“Yes,” Mary smiled, “and what they can tell. But what about you?”

“Oh, I'm just . . . .” For a moment Shin couldn't even think why he was there. Was he so love-struck by this woman? “Oh, yes. I found a very curious anomaly up by Watcher's Peak. There was a very high concentrations of Putrescine and Cadaverine. I need to check the data collected after we were there a few weeks ago. How are you doing?” He didn't pause long enough for her to answer. “I tried to come back and get your email address but you were already gone.” Shinmasa wondered if he looked like he felt. He felt like a silly boy just hitting puberty who couldn't talk straight in the presence of a pretty girl.

“I'm sorry I missed you,” Mary said. “When was the high reading?”

Shin was caught off by the fact that Mary had completely ignored his obvious admiration of her and had focused on the anomaly he had observed. It took him a moment to reply.

“It spiked about 2am. Would an animal drag off a carcass at that hour?”

“That does seem strange.”

“What made it stand out was that there was no build up.”

“What do you mean?” Mary asked.

“If it was an animal carcass that was rotting, the levels would have gradually risen. That didn't happen. There was just suddenly a spike in the levels and then they were gone.”

“That is odd, isn't it? What do you propose?”

“I'm going to see what the samples show since then. I don't know what I expect or want to find. I just hate not being able to explain it.”

“May I help?” Mary asked contritely.

“Sure,” said Shin. “If you really want to.”

“Your work is very important,” said Mary, “and I do enjoy going along if I don't bother you.”

“No, I enjoy your company.” Shin laughed. “But please don't let me leave without getting your telephone number and email.”

“I won't.”

It was too late in the day to make the almost five mile trek to Watcher's Peak and get back before dark, so Shin gladly spent the time hiking around the lake with Mary. She knew every plant and could tell stories about them that made them come alive to Shin.

Late that night, just before midnight, the lone dark figure sat on a high promontory well down the valley from the base camp. The figure didn't move but kept its head near the ground.

“Mother,” said the figure in a strange language. “is the man, Shinmasa, the one? Everything I see and sense tells me that he is Akai Ryu but he gives no indication that he knows and I haven't seen the sign.”

A gentle woman's voice replied. “Your senses are good. Don't doubt them. He may not know that he is Akai Ryu. But you believe he is.”

“Yes. I felt it when he touched me. I sense it when he talks. And now he's saying that his scientific devices are picking up Putrescine and Cadaverine.”

“Bafu Nama!”

“Yes. And he said that his device sensed him about 2am.”

“Lefu Sefefo has sent him to kill the one.”

“I have sat with the man called Shinmasa every night to protect him.”

“That is good but we must act. We can't wait for him to discover he is Akai Ryu.”

“Yes, Mother. What must I do?”

“There is one way. He seems very enamored with you.  Is he in love with you?”

The lone dark figure sat as though listening. All that could be heard were the sounds of nature but the figure seemed to understand. With a quiet “e, 'Me” it folded its arms and disappeared.

That night the figure again sat at Shinmasa's side while not far away the air was filled with the putrid smell of rotting flesh.

* * *

That next morning Shin was up bright and early. He had almost finished his coffee when Mary crawled out of her tent.

“Is it morning already?” she asked smiling at Shin.

“Yes, and it's a beautiful morning.”

“Wow. Are you full of energy.” Mary laughed.

“I want to get to Watcher's Point to get that data right away.”

“Why the rush. You can't analyze it until you get back to the lab.”

“Au contraire mon ami,” Shin was in a jovial mood and enjoying this. “I brought an analyzer with me. It has been calibrated and certified, and it is ready to go. I have a power converter in the truck to run it. Ta-dah!”

Mary laughed. “May I at least get a cup of coffee?”

“Anything my fair lady desires,” Shin said before he thought. Once the words were out of his mouth and he realized what he had said he froze in terror of what Mary might say.

“My, aren't we being gallant,” Mary teased.

“Seriously, what would you like for breakfast?”

After a quick breakfast of coffee, fruit and cheese, the two headed toward Watcher's Peak as the rest of the camp was just waking up. Shin decided that he might as well take the reading from Spiny Ridge for the same period. He was anxious to run the analysis, so they decided to follow the ridge between Spiny Ridge Peak and White Mountain to a spot where there was a much less steep slope that they could follow down to the road. It would bring them out on the road about a half mile above where the truck was parked.

It was mid-afternoon before they arrived at the truck. Shin had taken the time to put the camper shell on the truck before he left. The shell turned the truck into a mobile lab. Just to be safe Shin started the engine before plugging the analyzer into the power converter that was hooked to his 12 volt system.

“This is strange,” Shin exclaimed looking at the stream of data being produced by the analyzer.

“What's wrong,” asked Mary.

“This shows the Putrescine and Cadaverine at Watcher's Peak every night about the same time during this period. Then there's a gap with no traces at all, and then it showed up again last night, but this time at Spiny Ridge and not Watcher's Peak.”

“That is strange,” said Mary. “When was that period?”

“It was when we were here last.” Shin sat looking very puzzled. This was beyond weird. He had a strange phenomena that only seemed to occur when Mary and he were in the area. There was no explanation.

Shin looked around the camper. “There's a notebook with all sorts of wind and weather data. I must have left it in the cab. It's probably on the jump-seat behind the driver's seat. Would you mind getting it for me while I run this again?”

Mary climbed out of the camper, opened the driver's door of the truck, and pushed the driver's seat forward to gain access to the jump seat. She saw the notebook. She also saw the jo that Shin had brought home from Seattle.

She picked up the jo. At the top was inscribed “Akai Ryu” in Japanese characters. Just below was a dragon. With a sigh of relief she held the jo above her head and said “'Me, o ile a ke e mong.” With the jo and notebook in hand she got back into the camper. Shin looked up.

“Where did you get this?” she asked holding out the jo.

“Oh, it's a Japanese thing,” Shin laughed.

“What do you mean, a Japanese thing?” she gently insisted.

“A Japanese immigrant, whom my parents befriended, left that with them.”

“Why?”

“You see, Mary,” Shin felt a little embarrassed to tell her, “in Asia one of the greatest blessings you can give a friend is to wish that one of their children will be a dragon. Dragons are good mythical creatures in Asia. The man left the jo and said that he wished I would become a red dragon. My Mother just gave me the jo last weekend.”

“Was the man's name Mahotsukai no Ryunake?” asked Mary.

Shin stood frozen. How would she know the name of a Japanese immigrant who passed through Seattle almost thirty years ago? “Yes,” he said. “How do you know?”

“I know Ryunake,” Mary said softly. “I spoke with him not three weeks ago. We need to talk . . . talk seriously.”

Shin just stood looking. He didn't know what to say.

“A great evil spirit named Lefu Sefefo is coming." Mary began. "He has no other objective than to destroy the earth - to turn it into a lifeless ball floating in space. He has already sent his servant and henchman, Bafu Nama, to try to destroy you. Bafu Nama is rotting death. That's why your instruments picked up the Putrescine and Cadaverine at Watcher's Peak the nights you were here. He couldn't try to kill you because I sat by your side. I already believed that you are the red dragon. Last night he came closer but I was there. Ryunake told us that there is a red dragon - akai ryu - who can defeat Lefu Sefefo. He said that he had left his jo as a sign. You have his jo. You are the red dragon.”

Shin slumped down on a stool. “My Mother called me akai ryu. But I can't be. I have no powers. I'm no different than I ever was. I'm not magical. I'm not a dragon, and I can't save anyone.”

Mary could see the struggle Shinmasa was experiencing. He had grown up in a culture that believed in dragons and spirits but he had become a scientist in a culture that believed in almost nothing. What a horrible conflict. But he was their hope. He was the hope for those who believed and those who didn't believe, for those who cared and those who didn't care. Everything pointed to Shinmasa being akai ryu so they had no time to gently deal with his conflict.

“Do you trust me?” Mary asked.

“Yes,” said Shin looking to Mary for a resolution to the battle that was raging inside him but he fear that she was going to make it worse by insisting that he was a mythical and powerful red dragon. 

“My name is not Mary. It is actually Moru Khosatsana, and I'm going to take you where I can show you who you are.”

Moru reached out her hand toward Shin. With a look of total fear and confusion he took her hand. As their hands touched there was a brief flash and they were standing on a mountain that Shin did not recognize. Next to them was a precipice that was so high it made Shin dizzy to look down.

“I believe that you are akai ryu,” said Moru gently. “I know you don't believe it.”

Shin shook his head. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe that he had just been magically transported to some high mountain. Some chemical, some drug must have been in the water when he made coffee. He must be experiencing a drug induced delusional episode. This just couldn't be happening. But for some reason he still trusted the woman who now said her name was Moru.

“You trust me?” asked Moru asked again. Shin again nodded the affirmative.

“You don't want anything to die, do you?” she said.

“No,” said Shin. “Protect and do good to all life, and if you can't do good, do no harm.” Shin recited the Buddhist first rule of life.

“Do you have any feelings for me?” Had anyone else been there, they might have noticed a blush come to Moru's dark skin. She realized that she had feelings for this man and to ask him this caused her to acknowledge those feelings.

Without hesitation Shin said, “Yes. I haven't stopped thinking about you since we met.” He paused a moment. In the surrealistic setting it didn't seem at all unthinkable to say, “I think I'm in love with you.”

“Then you won't let me die.”

“What?!”

“Then you won't let me die.” Moru leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. Then, turning toward the cliff, she jumped.