by K. T. Tomb
Fortunately, for Ryo’s sanity and the adventurers’ quest, the Shinto priest Hando was indeed outside the amethyst temple as they arrived in front of it. Despite the incredible craftsmanship they had already seen in the temple district, all the finery was overshadowed by the Nikkō Tōshō-gū. The building seemed to glow despite the wan autumnal sun, purple hues, gold and red. The effect was slightly maddening to look at and make sense of, and Travis felt that if he had tried to look at the building whilst drunk he would have felt ill from trying to organize the complexity of images and color tones in his mind. His attention was captured by a series of finely wrought carvings depicting the monkeys that infested the town; the three wise monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; monkeys in adulthood, monkeys becoming parents, monkeys dying. He presumed it was some kind of metaphor for the human life cycle. Ryo was speaking in rapid Japanese to the monk, who gave the Americans a quick bow each and a smile. He clearly remembered Ryo from his previous encounter.
“This is Hando-San, I’ve told him why you are here and he’s agreed to answer your questions if he can,” Ryo said.
The two adventurers asked about the amethyst mine, which elicited a non-committal response from the monk. Despite rewording their questions several times, either the monk had no idea of the mine’s existence or he was unwilling to give up its location. The temple carvings they could see were heavily inlaid with amethyst crystals, but Hando could only tell them about the age of the artifacts and not where the precious stones themselves came from. Travis thought the amethysts themselves were far lighter than the Deep Russian stone that Mrs. Richards had shown them.
“Ryo, ask him who Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru and Izanami are, please. If we find out who—”
Savannah was cut off by the suddenly stern look Hando gave her. He had clearly understood something from the Japanese names she had spoken. Ryo translated for him.
“Izanami-no-Mikoto was a goddess, of creation and then death. She made these lands with her husband Izanagi-no-Mikoto, according to legend. When she died, she ate the fruit of the underworld and became the goddess of death. Creepy, huh?”
“Very,” Travis said, “I’m not sure about how relevant that is to our investigation, though. What about the other names?”
Ryo asked the priest, who turned and pointed to the wall behind him.
“Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru,” the monk said, pointing at a different section of the carving on the temple, moving from left to right. Travis and Savannah moved closer to see clearly. The old monk had pointed to the depiction of the three wise monkeys.
“That’s their names, in Japanese?” Savannah asked.
“Hai. That’s them. Sanbiki no saru. I don’t get it, what does it mean?” Ryo was evidently as confused by the riddle as his western companions.
“Where Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru go to meet Izanami with glad hearts, right?” Savannah said, “but it can’t literally mean that the three wise monkeys go to meet the goddess of death, can it? It has to be allegorical.”
“Maybe.”
Travis turned around to regard the courtyard square where they stood. There were few tourists at this time of year, and the place was almost deserted apart from the occasional monk going about his duties and some of the ubiquitous grey-furred primates lounging lazily on the steps to another smaller temple.
“Maybe we should ask them.” Travis pointed at the monkeys.
Apparently there was no need to translate his glib remark, as Hando became quite animated.
“Hando-San says not to pester the monkeys,” Ryo translated. “He says that those who chase monkeys will be reincarnated as one. I think that he’s only half joking.”
“Follow the monkeys to death. Yeah, I think I get it. But when you asked Mr. Iwate about the amethyst mine that is what he said.” Travis pondered for a moment, and then was struck by an idea. “Ryo, ask Hando-San where the monkeys go at night. I think I might have an answer to this riddle, but I need to know what these apes do when they’re not robbing shopkeepers.”
Ryo relayed the message, and Hando simply nodded, pointing up towards the mountain that lay less than a mile away.
“The monkeys climb a mountain every night? That sounds inefficient to me,” Savannah said, “if they’re scavengers and thieves, why not just stay close to the food sources?”
“Sav, they’re smart animals. It’s not like they’re rats or raccoons. These monkeys have their own motivations. Come on, I have to get back to the town; we need to buy a few things and the hour is getting late. I don’t know what the goddess of death has to do with all this, but I’m sure the answer to all this is to be found by following these monkeys. Ryo, extend our thanks to Hando-san.”
Travis spun on his heel, feeling energized and enthused for what felt like the first time in an eon. Savannah and Ryo trailed in his wake, leaving the monk and the amethyst temple behind.
“Travis, care to fill us in? What’s the plan?” Savannah said when she had caught up to Travis’ brisk pace.
“All in good time, all in good time. We need to get some fruit, and there must be a hiking store in town. I saw some sign posts that looked like trailheads, points of mountain trails earlier.”
“Ok, look. I know we’re clutching at straws, but do you really think that climbing a mountain at night is such a good idea? We’re not mountaineers, we have limited equipment.”
Savannah only slightly deflated Travis’ mood with her reasonable assessment of the probable insanity of the plan.
“Wait and see. If the first stage of my plan doesn’t work, then there’s not going to be much point in following the monkeys anyway. Have some faith!”
Travis gave his most winning smile, accompanied by a wink. Savannah didn’t look like she bought into it at all. Within an hour, Travis had assembled the items he needed. Savannah and Ryo both carried three full shopping bags full of bananas, and thanks to the Thyri-backed credit cards all three were freshly equipped with new hiking boots, coats, gloves and hats. Travis held a hessian bag with dozens of plastic rods about six inches long and half an inch thick.
“Now, my friends, let’s hunt some chimps!”
“They’re macaques, Travis. And this is a really, really bad idea.”
Savannah looked about as enthusiastic about approaching the monkeys as she would if asked to get into a cage with a tiger.
“Just do as I told you, and it’ll work out fine. Trust me.”
The trio had taken a position at the beginning of the mountain trail that led out of town, where they had seen some dozens of macaques camping out in between their pirate raids on the shopkeepers. At Travis’ word, Savannah and Ryo began throwing bananas into the no man’s land between the humans and the primates. A handful of larger macaques, clearly the dominant males in the troop, immediately snatched up the fruit and ran back to their fellows. Another volley of bananas, and several more macaques joined the gathering crew. Savannah and Ryo kept up the launching until four bags of bananas had been thrown, and Travis called a halt to the salvo.
“Okay, nice aim, guys. Now check this out.”
Travis pulled out a handful of the plastic rods and tossed them where the bananas had landed. As he hoped, the rods were collected by the macaques and carried back to the group. In the fading sunlight he could see the macaques biting the rods, and disappointed cooing noises arose when they discovered that they were inedible. Travis stepped slowly into no man’s land, and thirty pink faces turned to watch him. The macaques in Nikko did not overly fear humans, but nor did they trust them not to be carrying a broom to beat them with.
Travis held up one of the plastic rods. Sixty simian eyes followed his hand. Taking one end in each hand, he bent the rod down, curving the plastic and cracking the ampoule contained within and allowing the two reactive chemicals to mix. Green semi-luminescent light burst forth from the glow stick, and Travis saw several macaque jaws open comically in astonishment. He threw the rod closer to the macaques, which scattered around i
t, unsure of the bright light, presumably anticipating heat. Travis repeated the process four times, and orange, pink and yellow joined the green light. The rest of the glow sticks he placed on the ground at his feet, and casually walked back to rejoin Ryo and Savannah on the human side, grinning broadly.
“Ok, so you’ve given the monkeys glow sticks, Prometheus. What happens now?”
Savannah still doubted that anything would happen, but still spoke in a hushed voice to keep from spooking the primates.
“Sav, are you familiar with the ‘Hundredth Monkey’ theory?” Travis said.
“Of course, but that was discredited. New behavior is learned through observation and repetition, not through spontaneous primate mysticism.”
“Yep, and what we’re going to do now is witnessing exactly why the theory was wrong. Observe. We have given these macaques a tool, and shown them how to use it. Eventually one of them will- ah, look! There he goes!” Travis pointed to the macaque troop. One of the monkeys had succeeding in bending his glow stick the right way, and was now hooting with pleasure at the yellow light he had created.
“And, for his next trick, The Great Monahan will demonstrate the amazing speed of observational learning in primates! Ta da!”
Travis raised his hands and waved his fingers in a jazz-hands manner, as more and more macaques solved the puzzle and began waving their glow sticks around.
“Well done, you are clearly a genius,” Savannah dripped sarcasm, but in good humor. ”What’s next? Introduce them to techno music?”
She considered the primates for a moment. It did look like a miniature rave was taking place.
“I do have to say, I think this may be some kind of world record for learned behavior. You should write a paper when we get back.”
“What the researchers always miss,” Travis said, “is that a system of reward does not necessarily have to be food based. Here we’ve rewarded the monkeys twice, once with food and again with entertainment. Now we’ll be able to follow the macaques in the dark, see? They’re having too much fun to put the glow sticks down, and I’ll bet good money they won’t even care that we’re following them.”
A moment later something else happened that must have been as infuriating for Savannah as it was rewarding for Travis; because as if on cue a small macaque scampered across the gulf between the groups and held his hand out. Travis complied with the silent request, handing a glow stick over. The macaque activated it, and ran away. The largest of the troop were moving away, lit gently in neon as they began their ascent of the mountain.
“Guys, this is the coolest thing I have ever seen.” Ryo was looking at Travis with an expression of wonder.
“Good. Now we just have to find a goddess of death and an amethyst mine, up on a mountain, in the dark. Easy!” Travis laughed as he spoke, and for once it was infectious.
Chapter Twelve
Despite the assistance of their macaque torchbearers the climb up the mountain was unforgiving, and got only ever more so as the light finally faded.
Luckily for the adventurers as Travis had not actually made plans for the return trip down the mountain by torch light alone, several of the monkeys evidently got bored of the glow sticks they had and dropped them on the mountain path, where they lay like downed fireflies. There was a subsequent altercation amongst the group as the macaques that had dropped their glow sticks perhaps decided that they did want a glow stick after all, and attempted to purloin their neighbors’ toy. Fortunately Travis had plenty of spares and he was soon in the surreal position of being mobbed by inquisitive primates.
Despite the levity this provided the group of humans, the macaques were far more comfortable moving up the rough terrain than the humans were. The path had led them through beautiful cedar woodlands which were as iridescent in the setting sun as the artificial lights held by the macaques, but as the party climbed ever higher the way became steeper and eventually the trees gave way to bare rock. Winding back along the top of the trees, the macaques led the way for a good hour along a route that humans never trod and Travis, Savannah and Ryo were in constant danger of slipping and falling off the side of the mountain. Despite this perilous journey, the trio kept up with the monkeys at a distance of fifty feet or so. The macaques didn’t seem interested in the humans at all, and Travis thought it was a strange place indeed where these animals had the run of a human town and a mountain both. While the people worked their businesses and fretted over their human concerns, the macaques went where they wished, did what they wished, and stole what they wished. He was pondering as to who was really the dominant species in Nikko, when Ryo attracted his attention.
“Hey look! The lights are going out!”
He was right, Travis saw. The glowing rods of plastic were disappearing, one by one. Ignoring the risks of falling, Travis broke into a run as he saw there were only ten lights left, then five. As the last light went out, he found his progress immediately halted by something taller than he was, and apparently solid stone. As the lights had gone out he was left running at close to top speed up a mountain in the pitch black. Knocked flat on his back after banging his head heavily, he noticed that included with the sharp pain in his forehead was a glaring bright explosion of lights. As he recovered Savannah caught up with him, torch in hand.
“Travis, you fool. Forgot about these, did you?” She waggled the light beam in his eyes.
“Thanks, hey! Stop that. What did I run into?” Ryo helped him to his feet, as Savannah shone the light on the rock that Travis had collided with. The rock turned out to be a worn and faded statue of a woman brandishing a large spear in her left hand. “Huh. Do you reckon this would be Izanami?” Travis rubbed his forehead, and winced at the bump he had given himself.
Savannah ran her fingers over the features of Izanami.
“This statue must be centuries old, look at how worn it is! I wonder why it’s so far up here; no one must have seen this in decades.”
As they examined the statue, falling smoothly back into their scholarly manners of assessment and theorizing, it fell to Ryo to point out the obvious problem that faced them.
“Savannah, look. The statue totally blocks the path up here. And it’s a really long drop. It’s fine to get past if you are a macaque, but we’re much bigger.” The statue did indeed bar the way, Izanami’s spear jutting out over oblivion, her long skirts carved in stone blocked the narrow path almost completely. Travis dared a look over the side of the cliff face, looking down what looked to be a hundred feet or so of mountainside before the tops of the tallest cedar trees lay, hiding the foot of the mountain completely. They weren’t all that far up, but it was still far enough that a fall would not be survivable.
“Screw this.” Travis said. He had not come all this way after being chased by gangsters and climbing a mountain in the dark to be stopped by a statue. He tested his weight against the shaft of the spear, which held him. He would still need to swing out in a parabola to try and end up behind the statue, where if anything from what he could see the path was all but non-existent. As Ryo yelled something about letting him go first, presumably as he was lighter, Travis swung out, gripping the spear with his left hand. For a moment time slowed as his feet felt nothing beneath them but open air and the friction of his palm on the stone burned a few layers of skin away, he even had time to consider that perhaps this was his last and most fatal mistake before his hiking boots landed and skidded. As his feet touched ground he heard Savannah swearing loudly. Leaning out again, this time with feet firmly on the ground, he managed to peek through the gap between Izanami’s arm and body.
“Hey! That was awesome! You should try it!”
Savannah had a face of fury and Travis dropped his smile.
“Travis Monahan, if you survive the trip back, I’m probably going to kill you myself. You didn’t know this statue was secure! You could have died.” Her usually set features betrayed more emotion than Travis had ever seen on her. He guessed she did care after all.
&nb
sp; “Relax Sav, it’s Ok. Look at the size of this thing, something that’s nine feet tall and survived this long up here has got to be pretty sturdy, right? I guessed it’d hold me, and it did.”
“You GUESSED? Look, we’ll wait here for you. No, Ryo!” Ryo had voiced his wishes to try the leap of faith over the abyss. “I’m not going back to your family with a dead kid, get it?”
Her voice was a little cracked from anger and emotion. Travis turned on his torch, and looked around him.
“Hey, there’s a cave or something here. I guess this is where the macaques went. I’ll check it out, and I’ll be right back, ok?”
Travis peered into the gloom of the cave entrance, but could see neither macaque nor glow stick.
“I’ll be right back?” Ryo said, “You don’t watch many horror movies, do you?” That’s always what—”
“Ryo, shut up. I don’t want to hear it, Goddess of Death or no. Just come back quickly, OK Travis?”
Savannah had clearly been pushed too far. Travis hoped that by the time he got back, she would have calmed down enough so she wouldn’t push him off the mountain herself.
The cave was fairly-high ceilinged, and on the broadest setting his flashlight filled a good portion of the space with light. Thirty feet or so inside, the cave narrowed to a slender passage, which he had to take on sideways. As he moved through, he could hear the chattering of macaques, and soon he could see a few blobs of slowly fading fluorescent light, some of which were still in motion. The narrowness of the passage prevented him from raising his torch to see, so he was all the way through by the time he could properly see. When he finally did shine some light on the subject, Travis was surprised to find that, for once, he was completely at a loss for words. The secondary chamber in the cave system was filled with macaques, dozens of them of all sizes, and every one of them was glowing a deep purple from reflected light from the torch in Travis’ hand. The walls were encrusted with impossibly deep amethyst, which on closer inspection appeared as far as Travis could tell to be of the same hue as the ring Miya Richards had shown him in Atlanta. If Adam’s assessment of the worth of that ring was correct, there was enough amethyst in this chamber alone to bankroll several countries, and that was not including the crystals that lay buried deeper in the rock. He took a few pictures on his Smartphone, and crept slowly back to the narrow passage. The last thing he wanted now was to disturb the macaques, who seemed unsure of what to make of the human in their midst. He was sure that his gifts of fruit and toys had garnered him some credit with the primates, but they were literally backed into a corner, and there were several nursing mother macaques in the troupe as well. Not that he knew much about these particular animals, but generally wild animals were best left unmolested if they had babies to protect.
