The Bridge To Nihon (BOOK ONE)

Chapter 28 - Arrival

Kaido had urged her not to fall asleep. The journey would take until midday, and Sofia had not yet slept that night, so he was worried. But sleep was the farthest from her mind, and the constant daylight surrounding the boat added to the sensation of immediacy that was buzzing through her whole body as if she were standing on a cliff, battling against adverse winds.

It reminded Sofia of the night she had crossed the bridge into Nihon. Only that time, the elements had actually opposed her. Now, her conflicting emotions pulled and dragged her in different directions.

Part of her wanted to return to Mica and Kaido, only more so because she knew that it was impossible. It was not only because Mica had sent her away. If Sofia was being honest with herself, she knew that she would have left anyway. During the whole time she had been in Nihon, not a single day, sometimes not even an hour, had gone by that her thoughts had not turned to Orì. She refused to picture the pains her friend might be feeling, her desperation and her fear. The fierce shadows who had taken Orì did not make Sofia confident that she was doing well. Therefore, even in the happy times she'd had with Mica and Kaido, even through the fascination of the theater and the joys of being on the road, discovering a new and foreign world, she had felt more guilt than she was able to keep carrying.

Secretly, she pictured that she would save Orì, in some miraculous way or other. Together with her blue-skinned friend, she would find Mica and Kaido, and they would once again travel the lands and play the Talareduh.

Those were the dreams that Sofia let herself indulge in. Inevitably, she would start feeling silly, and a renewed, intensified despair came crushing over her, reminding her that she had no idea what she was doing, that she was only making things up as she went along.

"And yet, I am still here," Sofia muttered to herself.

She reached into a puddle that had formed from water spraying on the deck of the ship. She touched it with her fingertip, and the water changed color, circles blooming green and yellow like clouds in the evening sky.

Sofia swirled her finger, and without any conscious intent, the water took on the shade of Orì's iridescent blue skin. It changed its hue where the rays of the sun touched it.

Sofia stared at it, expecting Orì's face to appear. She thought that this was not her own doing, but her friend's, and that she might be close enough for her to send a message. But there was nothing except the color of the water, and when Sofia lifted her head and beheld the spires of the School towering in the distance, the colors vanished altogether as her focus broke.

*

The boat was slowing down. A stone pier was stretching into the river like a hungry tongue. It was partly shielded by heavy green bushes as if it had been built into a forbidding wilderness.

As the boat approached, the vegetation recoiled, folding into itself like a dangerous animal becoming docile. Yet, there was a shiver running through it, as if it was letting the visitors know that they were only tolerated until their business was completed, and not a moment longer.

As soon as the pier had come into view, Sofia had lowered herself back into the water, clinging to the rear of the boat. She concentrated not to let the icy water needle her skin, and to banish all thoughts about the cold from her mind. For a brief moment, she wondered if her mind's trick would really be enough to fool her body and if she wouldn't catch a cold regardless. As if on cue, a stinging cool sensation crept into her bones, and she quickly pushed the thought away.

With the tips of her fingers, Sofia held on to the wood. She tried to make herself unseen, but together with the illusion of warmth, it was too much, and she couldn't do it. All that was left was to hope that nobody at the pier would see her hanging from the boat.