Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [54]
Then he broke through the clouds into an azure sky. Far beneath him lay a vast bluish-green grassland.
“Aagh!” Wataru screamed.
I’m falling!
Suddenly everything sped up. He plummeted toward the ground like a stone. Puffy clouds zipped by in a blur. He felt nothing, only brightness. Still he sped downward, his velocity increasing relentlessly. He fell, and fell, and fell…
And landed on his back with a thud, the impact knocking every last thought out of his head. He lay with his back flat against the ground, and his legs sticking straight up into the air.
How embarrassing, he thought at last, and then, at least I’m still alive to be embarrassed.
He was looking straight up into an impossibly bright sky. He had never seen such a beautiful, pure blue sky in his life. Except perhaps the photographs on posters in travel agencies, advertising tours to places like Hawaii and Guam. They were all doctored using computers to make the colors appear brighter, his father once told him. No sky is that blue, he said, not even in Hawaii, or Guam, or Saipan.
Except here one was: an unblemished blue sky.
Where am I?
He looked around, but all he could see in every direction was desert. The sand underneath him was coarse and dry, and it trickled through his fingers when he scooped some up.
Did this sand cushion my fall?
The sun shone down on him, hot enough to make his cheeks and the back of his neck prickle. The vast grassland he had spotted during his fall was nowhere to be seen. Questions raced through Wataru’s head. Had an air current carried him off to this place? He was in a desert, but a desert where? All he knew for sure was that he was on the other side of the gate. Which way should he go? How might he find that grassland from before?
And Mitsuru, is he in here too, wandering around?
He stood up shakily and, before he could get his bearings, was enveloped in a swift desert wind carrying a vortex of sand through the air. Holding back a cough, Wataru waved his hand in front of his face trying to see through the flying grit.
Behind him, an inverted cone like an ant lion’s trap appeared in the sand. Soundlessly it grew, larger and larger, quickly gathering in the spot Wataru stood. He spun around, and hurriedly jumped back. The edge of the cone had almost reached his heel. Had he reacted a second slower, he would have fallen straight into it.
“What’s that?!”
Before his disbelieving eyes, something appeared in the deepest part of the cone: an animal with pitch-black fur. It burst into the air, spraying sand everywhere. With effortless grace it vaulted over Wataru’s head to land softly upon the sand behind him. The creature had four legs and a tail. It reminded him somewhat of a dog. A cloud of sand flew up around it, and it let out a single yap. Brushing away the blast of sand from his face, Wataru almost fainted in surprise.
The beast had the body of a dog, a sleek, black Doberman, but in place of its head was a…what are those things called, that thing in the kitchen that Mom uses once in a blue moon to open wine bottles…a corkscrew! That’s it! This animal’s head is twisty like a corkscrew!
The monster tossed its screwy head in Wataru’s direction and let out a snarl.
Garrrrrraaar!
The thing’s head vibrated with the discordant howl, but for the life of him, Wataru couldn’t fathom where the sound was coming from.
“How’re you supposed to eat me,” Wataru asked with a forced laugh, “when