requested drabble: GaaNaru
Disclaimer: Not my boys! Or demons. Or village, etc., etc. And definitely not my money.
Word count: 624. So much for the '100 word drabble' idea...
Note: For stitched_scars. Heh, you are hereby free to write as much or as little as you like!
Also: I've been reading old English fairy tales and my writing style is probably not going to recover from it for a long time.
I am an old story.
The legend of the binding of Shukaku goes like this:
After the battle, there was left a pile of bones that were bare and bound with only the toughest gristle.
Before the bones could knit themselves into a living demon again, they received two thousand brands of the sun, the Sand, and the Wind; for the world, for the village, and for the country. This rendered the demon in the service of the Sand Village - yet what use were they? For the bones of Shukaku had shivered and become powder with the last burning brand.
To the astonishment of the ninjas of old, it seemed that the demon’s spirit remained in the bone powder. Then they made a plan that would allow them to have power like none of the other hidden villages boasted.
The plan would start as the demon had ended, with bare bones; something that could be used as a pure basis from which the jutsu would work: a child would be used.
Those ‘bare bones’ would be covered with power, thick like meat.
Then there would be a skin of sand, as an armour that was like rock.
The power and the armour devoured the first bearer in time, until Shukaku once more become dust; but they found that he was ready to reform on a new sacrifice, and the villagers of Sand would use the demon for many hundreds of years.
I am a new story.
It doesn’t have words like the first one, because it is a young story. But I thought about it, and I can tell the important ways that I am different:
My sand had heart and mind as none of the other bearers of Shukaku had, and it lived to keep me alive.
My skin cracked and fell from me.
My power fell from me like meat from boiled bones.
Then I was nothing and naked, for a moment; and I remembered that moment for all the time that I had to take to rebuild myself.
I built myself again and put others into my bones, my muscle, and my skin with me and Shukaku. The new ones don’t devour me like Shukaku does. They make a good armour, and…
You were first.
For a long time, I wondered about your story.
I thought and thought, at night, at noon, about what made you cry for me. It could have been because of your wounds - but your words were not what someone in that kind of pain would say. Your words would have been mine if I weren’t me.
|I am me now, because I made sure of it in my rebuilding - but I found that I have built you in deep, and your words are in me forever.
I wondered what made you so important, and what made you so full of pain. Then I wondered if I should worry because it was your pain that made you important, because I didn’t think that I should still find pleasure in pain.
I realised eventually that your importance was also because of your companions and the fact that you fought for them and enjoyed life with them.
I kept wondering … about why you were first for me, when my brother and sister were always near to me … about why you smiled so much … about why your body is as small as mine, and holds as much power … about why I think I would be safe with you, even though you won our fight.
Then I realised I wouldn’t have to wonder, because if I come here, you can tell me.
…And I’m glad you smile so much…
…And that you’re smiling now…
…It looks nice.