Fire Carp 4
Hwa-eun and Sister Seol’s eyes went round with shock when I suddenly lunged forward, snatched the lantern, and lowered it right to the water’s surface.
But the moment they saw the lantern’s flame skim across the water and get sucked into the tadpole’s mouth, both of them cried out in sheer disbelief.
“The fire’s being pulled into the tadpole’s mouth!”
“The tadpole is eating fire!?”
The tadpole paid no mind to their shouts and simply kept gulping down the flames. A thin ribbon of fire rode the rippling surface and vanished, gulp after gulp, into its tiny maw. The sight of a tadpole drinking fire stretched on and on—something no one would have believed without seeing it for themselves.
Insane!
The unbelievable spectacle of a tadpole swallowing fire made sparks practically leap in my own eyes. Of course they did. Fire is every man’s romance, isn’t it? Passion, fighting spirit—those are symbolized by the color red, and flames, blazes, and fire itself are the purest crystallization of that symbol.
I still had no idea what creature this tadpole would become, but the fact that it treated fire as food meant that once it grew up it would almost certainly turn into some kind of frog or toad that commanded flame. Naturally I shuddered with excitement. On top of being a symbol of manhood, this thing was fire-attribute!
How am I supposed to resist a fire attribute?
Watching the tadpole devour the blaze also made me realize that the nuns’ earlier comment—the one I had dismissed as unimportant—was actually crucial. They had said that whenever they came down after bathing, the oil in the lamps always ran dry and caused them trouble. The culprit had to be this little guy secretly siphoning off the heat. It was supposed to feed on real fire like this, but the nuns would never bring a lantern right to the water’s edge. So it had been barely surviving by drawing what little warmth it could from distant lamps.
That also explained, dimly, why the creature had stayed this small for a full decade. If fire was its food, then outside of volcanic zones or wildfires it would be nearly impossible to find in nature. Therefore it must possess the ability to gorge itself when the chance finally came and then metamorphose into its adult form all at once.
Some desert toads can go from tadpole to toad in the mere ten days of the rainy season. This one was probably the same sort of creature.
You poor little thing. You’ve been barely scraping by on scraps… wait, fire-scraps?
Just then, while I was watching the tadpole frantically gulp down the stream of fire with pitying eyes, the ribbon of flame snapped off with a soft tuk. I quickly held the lantern up to the moonlight. Sure enough, every last drop of oil inside had vanished.
“You must have been starving.”
“Did the lamp oil run out?”
“Yes. It looks like it was so hungry it sucked the flames down in a rush.”
“Oh, the poor thing.”
All three of us were the sort who adored venomous creatures and beasts. Sister Seol and Hwa-eun were just about to start gathering sticks so we could give it a proper meal when I spoke up.
“Should I go fetch some oil? Or should we just build a big fire by the water?”
“Shall we? Should we light a big fire?”
Having finished every last flame, the tadpole swam straight toward me, then began hauling itself up onto the rock with determined little wiggles.
“My goodness! The little one is climbing onto the rock!”
“Oh, how adorable. Is it thanking us for the meal?”
“So this guy can climb rocks too?”
I had thought its only trick was swallowing fire, but the creature had all sorts of talents. I was about to peel it off and put it back in the water when I felt its belly slap against my hand and stick fast.
“What’s this!?”
“What is it?”
“What is it, So-ryong?”
Both of them rounded their eyes at my startled expression and demanded an explanation. I rubbed my hand as I answered.
“Its belly stuck to my hand.”
“It stuck? Then maybe it climbed here by clinging to rocks and such?”
Hwa-eun wondered aloud whether that adhesive belly meant the tadpole had crawled all the way up to this pond from somewhere else. But the ability to stick was probably evidence of something else entirely. I shook my head and explained.
“No. Most likely its parents used to carry it around on their backs.”
“Carry it around?”
“On their backs?”
The concept was unfamiliar to Sister Seol and Hwa-eun, but amphibians have an astonishing variety of breeding methods.
The female of the Surinam toad, called the pipa frog, tumbles underwater while laying eggs so that the eggs stick to her back. Her skin then grows over them, and the baby toads eventually emerge from holes in her back as if sprouting from her flesh—the exact scene that sometimes circulates on the internet as trypophobia bait.
Likewise, with the golden poison-dart frog of the Amazon, once the female lays her eggs and leaves, the male takes over. He carries the hatched tadpoles on his back, searching out little pools of rainwater until they become frogs. Poison-dart frogs are so tiny that they hide their eggs in water trapped in plant leaves to avoid predators; since that water can dry up, the father hauls the young to a safer puddle. In the tropics, after all, water evaporates fast.
“Then where did this one’s mother or father go?”
“Hard to say. If it has the habit of being carried, the parents normally care for it until it becomes a frog or a toad… Judging by the way it’s been abandoned in this state, they probably both died during a typhoon or something.”
“Oh, the poor little thing… We have to feed it a proper meal today at least.”
The tadpole kept trying to climb out of the water, so I kept gently pushing it back in while Sister Seol and Hwa-eun prepared to go look for firewood. I stopped them both.
“Hold on a moment. Let’s stop feeding it for today.”
“Why? This child hasn’t eaten properly for ten years!”
“She’s right! So-ryong, it’s so pitiful. Let’s give it more.”
They both fretted over how sorry they felt for the creature, but if we stuffed it full today and its hind legs suddenly sprouted, we might not be allowed to take it home at all.
“Some frogs and toads can reach adulthood in just a few days if they eat well. If it grows up here, Putuo Temple might refuse to let us take it.”
A frog would be fine, but a toad was considered a major sacred beast in Buddhism.
“Ah… if it’s a toad, then yes…”
Even if a toad is not a true spiritual creature, Buddhism still treats the toad itself as one. People say that while a toad remains underwater it moves as freely as a fish, but the moment it climbs onto land and appears before humans it takes on human responsibilities and duties. Toads are also painted as guardian deities who protect the Buddhist Law.
And that isn’t all. The toad that “spits coins to people” is a classic symbol of wealth and good fortune. So if word got out that this little one was a toad, Putuo Temple would never give it up easily. Even if the Princess asked them to hand it over, ownership still belonged to the temple.
“Ah… true, a sacred beast living on a sacred peak…”
“Exactly. Even the nuns might grow attached.”
“Yeah… if this child turns out to be a toad, the temple won’t let it go.”
Hwa-eun and Sister Seol both nodded at my words. I stroked the head of the little creature that kept climbing onto the rock as if begging us to take it away, and spoke gently.
“Just hold on a day or two. I’ll come get you soon, and then I’ll feed you until you’re full. Got it?”
The tadpole slipped back into the water, poked its head up, stared straight at me, then turned and vanished beneath the surface.
“Do you think it understood?”
“It’s a spiritual beast, so it probably did.”
“So-ryong, we have to rescue this little one as soon as possible.”
“Looks like we do.”
Just as we all resolved to save the creature that had barely scraped by on fire-scraps for ten long years, the sun began to rise over the eastern horizon far in the distance.
“We’ll take Hwa-ri as soon as our ship is ready.”
The moment morning broke we sought out Geomhu and told her of our decision to take Hwa-ri at once. She nodded as if she had intended to give it to us from the start.
“Of course. Ji-ryeon already promised, so it is only right we hand it over. How do you plan to transport it?”
“Our ship is currently at the largest island in the Zhoushan Archipelago, so one of us will go fetch it. Would you permit us to moor at the pier?”
Our plan was to bring the ship close to the pier, then use Cho to ferry water in leather pouches the way a firefighting helicopter would. When I asked whether we might dock, Geomhu readily agreed—though she attached one condition.
“Very well. Just see that no men set foot on the island. I worry my disciples might grow restless at the sight of them.”
So that was why men were forbidden. She was afraid the nuns would get excited. It made sense; in my previous life, when I once carried an umbrella to my older neighbor’s all-girls high school, the upperclassmen had gone completely wild.
A man! There’s a man! one of them had actually shouted.
I nearly jumped out of my skin that day.
“Understood. Ah, and I need to draw some water from Moon Reflection Pond on the sacred peak. May I have my daughters disembark and climb the peak?”
The ship issue was settled; next I needed permission for Cho to ascend the sacred peak. Geomhu looked utterly puzzled by my request.
“Your daughter? As long as it is not a man, that is fine. But how much help could a daughter of yours be? How old is she?”
Given my age, she clearly assumed any daughter of mine would still be a nursing infant.
“Ah, she is young, but she is not human, so it should be all right.”
“Not human?”
“Yes. She is a centipede. I suppose I should explain so your disciples are not startled.”
“A… a centipede? A centipede is your daughter?”
“Yes. She is about twenty feet long and flies through the sky.”
“Wh-what on earth…?”
With every additional detail I offered, Geomhu only blinked harder, looking even more bewildered than before.
Sister Seol went to hail a ferry that would take her to the ship we had brought, while the rest of us hurried to prepare. First we set a large water barrel borrowed from Putuo Temple on the pier, then, with the nuns’ help, began hauling water.
I had planned for Cho to carry the water down, but Geomhu said she would have her disciples do it as part of their training.
“Are you taking Moon Reflection Pond water because it is especially fine?”
“Hm? Ah, yes. Something like that.”
We kept our intention to take Wol-yeong a secret for now. Geomhu knew how fond her disciples were of the little creature, so she had told us to mention it only at the last moment and then leave quickly.
We filled the barrel and waited. Around midday our ship finally appeared in the distance. Cho shot up from the deck and streaked toward us, a leather pouch already strapped to her body as I had requested in advance.
-Chirrr!
Yeah, Daddy missed you too. Hurry over that way.
-Chir?
When I told her to fly toward the sacred peak, Cho tilted her head at the word “Daddy” I had sent through our bond and began inspecting my clothes. I flinched and explained again.
Th-they only let women on this island, so I had to borrow Mom’s clothes.
After I finished explaining why I was dressed as a woman, we reached the peak. Wol-yeong was already waiting by the water’s edge, as if she had sensed that I had come for the water and would soon be leaving.
“Cho, say hello. This is Wol-yeong. Your new sister? New brother? Anyway, she’s older than you, so be nice.”
-Chirrr.
Wol-yeong looked younger, but she was ten years old while Cho was only one. While the tadpole and the centipede stared at each other as if exchanging greetings, I carefully transferred Wol-yeong, along with some water, into the leather pouch.
“All right, let’s go!”
We raced back to the pier. My plan to hurry home and raise Wol-yeong into her adult form, however, hit an abrupt snag the moment we arrived.
“Waaah… Wol-yeong…”
“Master, you’re really giving Wol-yeong away?”
“Sniff…”
A full-blown funeral dirge was underway on the pier. The cause, of course, was that I was taking Wol-yeong. Even sending away a puppy one has raised can bring tears, so it was only natural. Geomhu stood before the pier wearing an awkward expression as she watched her youngest disciples wail and sob.
The older nuns did not seem to mind much, but the little ones had apparently gone into full panic mode upon learning Wol-yeong was leaving for another home.
“What is all this…”
I landed on the pier and stared at Geomhu in bewilderment. Sister Seol came running over at once and whispered urgently in my ear.
[You said it would be fine even if something like this happened. Do something!]
Ha… this is the last resort…
I steeled myself and whispered back into Sister Seol’s ear.
[Sister Seol, please say this for me.]
[Say what?]
[Tell them this one is a ‘male.’]
[!]
Sister Seol’s eyes went perfectly round. She turned toward Geomhu and the weeping crowd and spoke.
“E-everyone. Young Lady Tang So-eun says there is a reason we have no choice but to take this child.”
Questions erupted at once.
“What possible reason could there be for taking Wol-yeong!?”
“That’s right!”
“Why are you taking her!?”
Sister Seol stammered out the explanation.
“She says this one is a ‘male.’ And no males—not even animals—are allowed on the sacred peak, right?”
The young nuns’ faces went blank. One of them demanded in open disbelief,
“How are we supposed to believe that!”
“Yeah!”
If they would not believe it, the only natural response was to show them. I took Wol-yeong out and flipped her belly-up, then told Sister Seol what to say.
[From now on, tell them we’re going to show whether it’s male or female.]
[Whaaat!?]
What else could I do if they refused to believe? We had to flip it and show them.
“She says… from now on she’ll show us. Whether it’s female or male.”
“What!? Show us!? Show us what!? Kyaaaak!”
“Kyaaaaaa!”
I had fully intended to give them a proper demonstration, but the moment Sister Seol finished speaking the nuns screamed and fled the pier in a panicked stampede.
Sister Seol watched them go, then turned to me with an utterly dumbfounded look.
“That was your method? But is it true? Is this little one really a male?”
If I had been able to tell male from female at the tadpole stage in my previous life, I would have made a fortune. I smiled and answered,
“Who knows?”