Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia (天幕のジャードゥーガル)

Jaadugar

25 Years Ago

My lady!

My lady!

Gosh. What are you doing out here?

It's time for you to get ready to leave.

I'll be right there.

Farewell, Naiman.

As a member of the Naimans, a nation far to the west of here,

I was to marry into the Merkits, with whom we shared an alliance.

I wonder what the Merkit tribes are like.

They live in the woods to the north, and many are skilled bowmen called Mergen.

Mergen?

They're the Mergen people, thus the name: Merkits.

In other words, barbaric hunters.

Well, it matters not.

I am no more than a valuable gift.

No different from a precious gemstone or a fine fur pelt.

That's fine by me.

I take pride in that fact.

The Mergen People

So this is where the Merkits live?

It's much drearier than I expected.

Why are there so few men?

Töregene.

Merkit Tribe Chieftain Dayir

I see you made it here safely. I'm sorry this isn't much of a welcome.

Taken aback at learning your husband is so senile?

Oh, no.

Well, so be it.

Marrying a much older man is by no means a rare occurrence.

However, Dayir made no advances after we were wed.

On the contrary...

You're away again today?

I'm sorry for always leaving you behind.

And we're moving camp again?

We only just arrived here.

We can't stay in one place for very long.

You'd best get going.

Chuu!

Let me know if you ever need anything.

Y-Yes.

Um—

Mistress. What shall I do with these?

Oh, for those...

Do all of the other tribes relocate at such short intervals?

No, there's something strange going on here.

It's as if we're fleeing from something.

Well, I suppose there's no use in me worrying about it.

My only role is to be a gemstone.

What good would it do for a gemstone to worry?

I want to return to Naiman.

No one will notice if I go missing.

Chieftain Dayir won't. Nor will anyone else.

Wait!

Don't move!

That was a close one.

Are you unhurt?

Qultuqan, you live up to your title of Mergen.

Not really. Anyone could've done that.

Oh?

You must be Töregene...

my new mother!

I'm Khulan, Dayir's daughter.

Qultuqan. My name, I mean.

Khulan was Dayir's child, and Qultuqan was the child of another chieftain.

Look.

If you go down this river, it splits into the Qara and Dal Rivers.

Go further downstream still, and they feed into the Selenge River.

That's where both Qultuqan and I were born.

Oh?

And if you go all the way down the rivers, do you know where they end up?

You know the star to the north that doesn't move?

Underneath it, there's a great big hole, into which all of the world's rivers flow.

Wow, I never knew that.

It's not like you've seen it for yourself.

Hey, Qultuqan.

Is that right?

Neither of us have the power of kams to converse with spirits.

Father's a kam, and he's been to where the rivers end many times.

His soul turns into a bird and flies there.

A kam?

I wish I had kam powers, too.

Or I was more skilled with a bow.

You really are a dreadful shot.

Hey, hold your tongue!

You said it yourself!

Hey!

"Hey!" What?

You're laughing.

Oh, pardon me.

Something changed within me that day.

It felt as though the very world around me now stirred my soul.

I experienced laughter and joy.

Discontent and sorrow, too.

I came to love the days I spent here.

Then I understood for the first time.

Wake up, everyone!

Extinguish your hearths!

We need to flee at once!

What's happened?

Our chieftains' armies have been bested!

The enemy will be here soon!

Into the forest!

Khulan! Töregene! This way!

Qultuqan!

How much did they plunder?

Qudu's family is gone, as are Chilaun's wife and children.

Töregene!

Father!

You must have been scared.

Thank you for protecting Khulan.

She was the one who protected me.

What exactly is going on?

So the Naimans told you nothing after all?

I suppose I don't blame them.

Our people have an enemy.

Temüjin of the Mongols.

The man they now call Genghis Khan.

Genghis Khan?

We Merkits have long skirmished with the Mongols.

They've deprived us of many of our family and riches,

as we have done the same in kind.

But that changed with Temüjin as leader, and the balance of the steppe was lost.

The reason you were given away to become the wife of an old man like me

was for the sake of our alliance against the Mongols.

However...

The end may finally be near.

Say, Brother. What will become of us if we lose to the Mongols?

You need to ask? They'll slaughter the men and take the women and children.

I'm scared. I don't want to die.

Fool. And you call yourself a Merkit man?

Usun.

Usun.

Usun. The word for the "flowing river."

The title bestowed by the earth upon Father in his role as a kam.

Listen well. No one is to intrude until I have finished.

I shall beseech the spirits to tell me our future.

Spirits, lift me up to the heavens.

Show me what lies in our future.

Usun!