Chapter 8 (1/2)

This is the 8th chapter of the fantasy novel “The Rainlands” (雨の国) by Haruka Asahi (朝陽遥) which I a from japanese with the author’s permission It is about a man’s journey to a enous customs there

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You can see a synopsis and table of contents with other chapters (as they are posted) referencedYou can find the original japanese text for this chapterBecause the original story ischapters, I have broken it up into shorter ones, and this chapter coinal chapter 3,

“The Rainlands”by Haruka Asahi:Chapter 8

That night the clouds finally dispersed When I went outside and sat a brilliantly in the sky

Of all the places I'd been to in e

In contrast to the cave's interior, the wind outside was daust blew and found a few others like me who had come outside to watch the ether, perhaps lovers Far away, separated fro up at the sky as if lost in thought

I heard the soft voice of so As I listened carefully, I had the realization that I’d never heard anyone singing inside the cave before Maybe to these people singing was so only to be done outside on clear days

It was a si with a monotonous rhythm, yet possessed a certain sole, but rather a type of prayer

I wondered if those boys would survive

It terrified me to think about that If they didn't survive, would I ever be able to forgive the people living here, not to mention myself?

Gazing at ht, I remembered Yakt's warm hand

Some part of me knew that sensation well

One day when I was young, I had led h a dark forest The soil in iven the amount of rainfall there When the crops were bad, children went out to the mountains to search for mushrooms and other edible plants

Wolves would sometimes appear deep in the forest that teemed with poisonous snakes and insects Unfortunately, the part of the forest closest to the village had already been tapped dry of anything edible, so if one aimed to find food they had no choice but to set foot in the deep forest The dense, dark woods were frightening, but fear of starvation surpassed any dangers that ht lurk there

Eventually ot lost so on an indistinct ani off branches and placing rocks strategically But e realized it, we'd completely lost track of these landmarks

Soon night fell Thinking back, I noe should have just stayed in one place untilcame and wait for the adults to find us But at the ti blindly as we held hands, soht path ould eventually reach a fah the pitch black forest as I pulled alongbrother

As alked,too uess the reason he kept on, teary-eyed the entire time, was because he was too afraid to stop in the loomy forest

I lacked sufficient energy to carry hi his shtly

In the end, we e safely But after all that, my brother suddenly died several months later from starvation caused by the massive flood

I remembered my brother's tiny hand, which I'd held the entire time in that eerily dark forest; it just like Yakt's: slim, bony, and very warm

Lost in thought, a shadow suddenly entered irl standing there

”Did so happen?”

She ignoredurgent in those a with me

Gazing back at the girl in the ht, I realized she had become much thinner since I'd last seen her

This girl, who had laughed so cheerfully on that clear-skyed afternoon, had begin to show signs of despondency right around the tiht be one of their relatives

Did she know about what I had tried to do? Or perhaps she thought that an outsider like me, not bound by local laould be able to help-that it would require soe of e their ways Or was she expecting me to escape with the boys from these lands?