The Bridge To Nihon (BOOK ONE)

Chapter 26 - Shadows

The stage at the Big Tree was shaped like a half-circle. The screen was spanned between two wooden poles, as close to the tree as if timidly hugging it. To illuminate the shadows of the shapes Mica conjured up behind it, candles were floating in-between the trunk and the screen. They were moving softly, swaying in the wind as if dozing peacefully, resting before their big performance.

The candles were supposed to be moved by Kaido. He had asked Sofia to be very quiet during the show so that he could concentrate.

"Did you ever drop one?" Sofia asked.

"Once or twice," Kaido grumbled.

Mica chuckled.

"Try twenty-seven."

Sofia gasped.

"Twenty-seven?"

"Out of more than a thousand," Kaido protested, then accusingly to Mica, "I thought you were meditating."

"I can still hear you," Mica replied, her eyes closed.

She was sitting behind the screen, cross-legged, with her back very straight, yet appearing completely at ease, as if she was barely touching down on the ground.

"Are you ready?" Kaido asked, and when she didn't move a muscle, as if she hadn't even heard him, he said, "okay," and nodded towards Sofia.

She accompanied him to the stage as if she were his assistant, then walked a few steps backwards and crouched next to the screen. She had no specific tasks, but she felt as if Mica and Kaido were benefiting from her presence, that they were glad to have an ally, a friendly face.

Sofia suspected that theater life was quite lonely. Mica and Kaido knew many people all over Nihon, but they never stayed long enough to forge real friendships. After the first jokes and pleasantries were exchanged, silence fell, and they would move on to the next one. Neither the people they met nor Mica and Kaido knew if the other were to be trusted. They had grown accustomed to relying on themselves. They were used to it and clung to each other more than any other two people Sofia had ever known.

The audience tonight was seated on the enormous roots of the Big Tree that spread out from the trunk like the legs of a giant sleeping centipede. There were at least a hundred people in attendance, and more were arriving still. There was a happy, easy atmosphere, but as the Big Tree's shadow elongated, night fell early, and the audience sat more attentive.

Kaido was wearing his red cape, and the horn on his forehead was shining and gleaming in the dark. He waited for the noise to cease and started talking, his voice dark and low as if coming from inside a grave.

"Welcome to the Shadow Theater. We are happy that you have all come out here to the Big Tree. As shadows darken and cool the day, we will witness Part Eight of the Talareduh, our most beloved tale, filled to the brim with intrigue, love and magic. As all of you surely know, the Big Tree plays a very special role in this part.

We witnessed in Part Seven, how Prince Tala and Princess Reduh, still unaware of their true identity and believing themselves to be siblings, discovered their love for each other. Fearing this love to be forbidden, they decide to leave the only home they have ever known, fatefully, on the night before their eighteenth birthday, when their adopted father had been planning to reveal everything to them.

We start with the young lovers as they make their way through the woods."

With these words, the sphere around the screen darkened even more, and the candle lights revealed a long dark path, shrouded by trees and hedges. Far away, two riders appeared. They were Tala and Reduh.