Synopsis: Balsa, Tanda and the warriors search for Chagum; the keeper Gakai sent arrives and tells Shuga they got the Place of Celebration wrong.

Seirei no Moribito is already finished so I was thinking of blogging from the raws. Though I could understand the conversations a bit, I thought it wouldn’t be too detailed compared to what I have done before so I decided to wait for the subs.

Anyway, Chagum runs off into the forest. The warriors follow him. Balsa follows too and Tanda tells her that he will go with her.

Shuga orders the army to calm down. He also orders them to assemble into their respective teams. He tells them that the first and second team will go with him to look for the Prince.

Torogai tells Shuga to wait and not panic. If where they are is, indeed, the Place of Celebration, the Prince will eventually return. The egg is supposed to hatch the following day at dawn, after all. Shuga objects but Torogai tells him to leave the pursuit to Balsa, Tanda and the warriors. She tells Shuga that they should be sharing their knowledge instead. Shuga agrees.

Shuga orders the soldiers to light a bonfire around the lake. He tells them that they cannot permit the La Lunga to attack again when the Prince returns.

After the preperations were complete, Shuga tells Torogai that the tomes contained the same information she relayed to them at Toumi: the Guardian of the Sacred Spirit is destined to be ripped apart by the Egg-eater. He says that, fortunately, the La Lunga can be repelled by fire. Torogai asks him if he can describe what was written in the tomes in greater detail.

Shuga tells the shaman that two hundred years ago, the Holy Founding Father used fire to save a Yakue child named Sigul. However, the water spirit’s egg lay not within the child’s body but it is trapped between Nayug and Sagu. It seems the egg of the Nyunga Ro Chaga is unable to hatch on its own. Torogai says that, as they feared, the egg is unable to hatch unless a La Lunga eats it. Shuga says that the Great Holy Sage, Nanai, monitored the events closely. With the help of a Yakue shaman, he did everything in his power to try and extract the egg but at the exact moment when it appeared that their spell would work, the La Lunga returned from Nayug and tore the child apart.

Torogai asks what happened to the egg afterwards. Shuga tells her that after the La Lunga tore and swallowed the child, a shining blue orb of light was expelled from its mouth. A being called “Nahjil” carried the egg away. Shuga says that the word “Nahjil” does not exist in their language. He asks Torogai if she knows what it is. Torogai says it must be the bird nahji. People sing about it in the Yakue rice planting song. Torogai then tells Shuga that she was hoping the answers he was going to bring would solve everything but it raised more problems instead. Shuga asks if the shaman knows of a spell to extract the egg. She says she doesn’t. She also does not have the slightest idea what to do until she sees it actually happen. Even if they manage to get the egg out, they wouldn’t know if the nahji will actually come.

Balsa and Tanda are looking for Chagum in the forest but not a single footprint could be found. Tanda says that maybe Chagum went through the trees. Chagum did run across the lake’s surface. Tanda says that perhaps the egg’s intent is to act as a bait for the La Lunga while protecting itself until dawn and that perhaps that was the reason why Chagum ate a sig salua blossom. Its scent attracts denizens of Nayug.

The warriors come and surround them. Mon asks Balsa if she also lost sight of the Prince. Jin tells her they pursued the La Lunga but it disappeared and as Tanda said, the Prince leapt through the trees. He moved so quickly that they could not keep up with him. Yun asks if Balsa knows where the Prince is headed. Tanda tells him that he isn’t sure but if the Blue Lake is the Place of Celebration, the Prince will return by dawn and that in any case, the egg is controlling Chagum, so continuing to wander through the forest wouldn’t do them any good.

A warrior asks Mon if they should return to the Blue Lake. Jin says they shouldn’t. Even if the egg is controlling the Prince, he might be attacked by the La Lunga. Balsa says she thinks they shouldn’t return to the Blue Lake either. If the lake is the Place of Celebration and that the Prince will evade the La Lunga until morning, there still must be a reason why Chagum fled into the forest. Mon says he agrees with Balsa. He says that according to Shuga’s findings, the La Lunga weren’t supposed to appear until dawn. There must have been some misinterpretation. They continue to look for the Prince.

Meanwhile Chagum is hiding atop a tree branch. He looks at his reflection in the dagger Balsa gave him. He asks the egg where it is trying to go. The egg speaks to him. It wants to travel farther up a distant river. Chagum goes down the tree and runs towards the river, knowing that the La Lunga will come again.

Balsa and the others still hasn’t found a trace of Chagum. Tanda tells Balsa he’s glad they don’t have to fight the warriors. Jin reports something to Mon and Mon approaches Balsa. He says that there is something he wants to ask her. Mon tells her that when they fought the first time, four of them could not kill her. He asks why Balsa did not kill them then when she could have done so if she wanted to. Yun and Zen come. They hold the hilt of their swords. Balsa replies that there is no special reason why. She says that saving another’s life would be meaningless if she has to take other lives to do it. The warriors let go of their swords. Mon says that they would have been compelled to uphold their honor if Balsa had been looking down on them but it seems that they were bound to be defeated right from the start. Mon then tells Balsa that they will follow her without hesitation should there be a fierce fight. The warriors bow. Balsa tells them to stop it since it’s awkward.

Back to Torogai and Shuga, the shaman tells the star diviner that her spells would allow her to see the egg within the kid but she’s never been able to touch it. Still, if there was a way to make a compromise with Nayug then perhaps, it would be possible.

The keeper whom Gakai sent arrives. He tells Shuga that he has a message from Gakai: the Blue Lake is not the Place of Celebration. It is Sahnan, a completely different location. The keeper explains to Shuga that a detailed description of Sahnan’s location is in the stone tablets he brought with him. Torogai says that if the lake isn’t the Place of Celebratiom, they would be in trouble. They only have until three bells before dawn. Shuga says that he never thought they could overlook something so crucial.

Shuga reads the tablets. She tells Torogai that the same events they just witnessed were chronicled in the tablets. Two hundred years ago, a child who ate flowers disappeared into the forest, taking the La Lunga with him. In Nayug, the Blue Lake would be the La Lunga’s lair. Shuga says that according to the tablets, Sahnan is 20 nans away from where they are. Torogai says that with that distance, they will barely make it there before dawn. Shuga suggests that they should depart immediately. Torogai tells him that she’d like to inform those who went ahead of them first. Shuga objects but Torogai tells him to calm down. She says they’re lucky Tanda went with Balsa. She also says that if the Blue Lake overlaps with Nayug, then what she is about to do should work.

The warriors have found a track of Chagum. Balsa says that since Chagum descended to the ground, perhaps he intended to lure the Egg-eater to him once more. Mon suggests they try going upstream.

Torogai communicates with the water people the same way she did before. She says hopefully Tanda will notice. She says it would be great if Balsa and the others will reach Sahnan before they do. She asks Shuga if he can ride on horseback. She tells him that they will ride ahead. She also tells him to tell the soldiers to follow. She says they can’t afford to let the egg hatch without her and Shuga.

As Balsa and the warriors follow Chagum’s trail, Tanda notices someone is calling him. He tells Balsa to come for a second. Tanda tells Balsa about it. He submerges his head into the river and sees one of the water people. It asks him if he is Tanda. It then delivers a message from Torogai.

Tanda tells Balsa and the others that Torogai sent them a message: Chagum is heading towards a place called Sahnan, one of the Aoyumi’s headwaters. That is the true Place of Celebration. Tanda says they only have less than three bells before dawn.

Shuga and Torogai head towards Sahnan on horseback. Torogai worries that they would be the only ones there. Shuga tells her that he does not even want to consider that possibility but if it comes to it, he will protect Chagum no matter what.

Balsa, Tanda and the warriors arrive at a clearing in the forest. They find Chagum’s footprints. Balsa says the tracks are still fresh.

Suddenly, the birds in the forest make a noise. The La Lunga has come. Mon says it’s the same two from before. Balsa says that they seem to be looking for Chagum. The La Lunga, however, were more visible than they were previously. The La Lunga, with the rest of its body burried in the ground, is like an upside-down crab with tentacles used for sensing their prey. The warriors shoot the monsters with fiery darts but it passes through. The warriors continue to attack but Tanda tells them it’s useless unless the La Lunga are trying to affect Sagu. The warriors shoot the it with fire and manage to slow down one but the other escapes.

Tanda drinks the nectar from the sig salua and attacks the La Lunga. His weapon pierces it. The monster struggles. It tries to bite Tanda. Balsa attacks. She stabs the La Lunga’s underside with her spear. The La Langa thrashes about and Tanda is thrown. Balsa comes to him as the warriors attack the La Lunga with fire. They were able to kill it in the end.

Balsa asks Tanda what he did. Tanda shows her the sig salua blossom he gathered. He says that when the La Lunga appeared in the Blue Lake, they only affected the sig salua so he brought blossoms with him on a hunch, but it seems he is correct. He tells Balsa that if they eat the blossoms like Chagum did, they can touch the La Lunga but they would risk getting killed by it as well.

Tanda is wounded by the La Lunga. He tells Balsa that the blossoms is their last hope.

This was, once again, an amazing episode. It’s great to see past enemies uniting in order to save Chagum: Balsa and the warriors, Torogai and Shuga.

The tablets that Gakai sent Shuga were similar to the ones Shuga read at the chamber but this time, Shuga read it in the same way a blind person would read Braille. The writings on the tablet can be read with the eyes but perhaps reading with the fingers would be faster.

I was somehow disappointed with how the La Lunga looked. I thought it would be something like a dragon, or reptilian at least but the La Lunga is an invertebrate resembling a cross between an octopus, an anemone and a crab.

Anyway, this was a Tanda episode. It’s nice how they provided an opportunity for Tanda to shine in the story. I also like how Balsa was so concerned about him when he fought the La Lunga.

Two more episodes to go. I hope the subs catch up fas

Similar Posts:

• Seirei no Moribito - 25 “Celebration”
• Seirei no Moribito - 23 “In Pursuit of the Sig Salua”
• Seirei no Moribito - 20 “To Hunter’s cave”
• Seirei no Moribito - 17 “The Water Wheel in Flames”
• Seirei no Moribito - 26 “Departure” (finale)

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