Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [114]
Right! Wataru ran for the far wall of the chamber, the four Wards bounding after him. The heavy armor they wore clanged and echoed off the walls. Wataru only dared look around once, to find they were right behind him.
Only a few feet away from the far wall, Wataru spun and jumped toward the line of doors along the side of the room. The Dusk-God’s axe swung down, aiming for the place where Wataru had been seconds before. While the axe was coming down, he was picking himself up and grabbing the doorknob closest to him.
The door opened easily. He ran into a small, square room, lit by a soft glow, like moonlight. There were no features in the room, save a bronze statue sitting in the very middle.
Wataru breathlessly approached the statue. He tapped it. It was metal, and very cold to the touch. It looked like the statue of a fawn. It looks exactly like Bambi!
What’s a statue of Bambi doing in a place like this?
There was no exit that Wataru could see. He groped around, but all he could feel was the cool, seamless stone of the floor and walls. There was no ladder to the surface or rope hanging down from the ceiling. He had to assume that he had chosen the wrong door. It was time to try the next one.
Wataru opened the door a crack and cautiously peered out into the chamber. The four Wards, having lost their quarry, stood in a circle at the very middle of the room. Their eye-lights were dimmed. Wataru took a moment to catch his breath. Then, summoning his courage, he slid out through the door. But the moment he took his first step back into the chamber, the eyes of the statues flashed bright, and the chase was on again.
Wataru ran close to their blades, dodging aside at the last moment, then took the few moments while they regrouped to try another door. He did this again and again, but every door he opened was much the same. They all led to small, square rooms with the statue of an animal—each one different. He saw an elephant, a tiger, a great fish, a bird, an ox, a snake, and even a frog.
As he left each room he would leave the door open. He didn’t want to visit the same room twice by mistake. As he ran around, Wataru began to falter—and not on account of nerves. He was exhausted. It was getting harder each time to avoid the swinging blades of the four Wards. If this went on much longer, he would collapse.
By now he had opened every door there was to open. And, he was sad to discover, there was no obvious exit.
This isn’t fair, he thought, gasping for breath. He stopped running for a moment, feeling dizzy, and the Wards immediately turned and charged toward him. They don’t get tired at all. The longer this goes on, the bigger their ad- vantage. What do I do?!
—Remember the song of the birds in the Northwood.
The wizard’s parting words of advice. Wataru remembered the pretty song of the birds, like ocarinas playing in harmony.
Desperately, he tried to remember what they had said. Something about questions and answers…I think I’m past that part, though. And the Wayfinder, yawning. And what was that about going home? Hop on home? What an odd thing to say…
And then it hit him.
Hop.
A light went on in Wataru’s head. The frog! The frog is the way home! He forced his weary legs to move one last time, jumping away from another blow of the Wards’ axes, and running up the side of the room, staying close to the wall. Where was it? Where?! Wataru breathed ragged breaths as he ran, checking the contents of each room he passed.
Found him!
In the last room to the right sat a statue of a massive, plump bullfrog. Wataru leapt into the room and rolled to the statue’s base. Bong! went his head on the bronze foot of the frog. Sparks flew before his eyes. “Ouch!”
Wataru was holding his pounding head in his hands when he heard a heavy clunking noise. The base under the statue began to slide forward. He looked closer and saw something very interesting—where the base was a moment before there was now a large