Hajime, Yul, and Michio stood at the edge of the ancient, dense forest, the air thick and nauseating with the stench of carrion. Above them, huge, glistening silken cocoons hung from almost every twisted branch, swaying faintly in the stagnant air. Yul drew his sword from the scabbard on his back and with a decisive swing, cut open a cocoon closer to them.
A thick, black, rotting fluid gushed out, splattering onto the forest floor. After the viscous liquid drained, bones began to clatter out of the opened cocoon. Michio, gagging, picked up a stick from the ground and began to push the bones away from the putrid, clinging flesh.
As he poked, Michio muttered, "Whose bones are these? They don't look human to me." His heart nearly stopped as he uncovered a skeletal hand from the jumble of gore. "This… this is human flesh…"
Hajime raised his head, his face pale. "I don't know how many of them are human."
"It doesn't matter right now," Yul said, his voice grim, but focused. "We've got to find Abrafo. If we have any chance of saving him, we need to act now."
Michio frowned, wiping sweat from his forehead. "So many…"
"Let's spread out," Yul commanded, "so we can better find him."
"Okay, I'll go to the left," Hajime said, his voice flat.
"Then I'll go to the right," Michio added, pointing into the dense trees.
Yul pulled out the map. The lotus flower on it still pulsed with a faint, steady glow. He folded the map, tucking it back into his inner robe. He pointed to a distant mountain peak. "We'll meet there in two hours. If you need help or find Abrafo, send a signal." He watched the two men begin to walk away. "Hajime…"
Hajime turned, his eyes narrowed. "What?" he asked, a hint of impatience in his tone.
"Be careful," Yul said, his gaze serious.
Hajime laughed, a forced, brittle sound. "Oh, I thought you wanted me to die so you wouldn't have to marry me after completing this journey. You're so heartless, only caring about that white dragon's tail!" He took three steps back towards Yul, a mischievous glint in his eye despite his previous anger. "I promise to haunt you forever if you don't find your true love. You need to forget about marrying someone else, Yul."
"It has not crossed my mind," Yul replied, a slight exasperated shake of his head at Hajime's antics. "We don't have a white dragon tail in our hand yet; therefore, you can't die."
Hajime chuckled, the tension between them easing slightly. "Just teasing. You should also be careful." He then left Yul quickly, disappearing into the undergrowth.
Yul watched Hajime vanish into the distance, then turned and began his own search.
Protected by the shimmering bangle, U-ri watched as Abrafo continued to frantically pull the sticky silk from his clothing, but Abrafo still refused to approach U-ri.
"Why are you in that thing?" Abrafo demanded, his voice strained. "Get out!"
U-ri stood firm. "Come in, Abrafo! Hajime repeatedly told me that I should stay inside this barrier."
"Hajime is the one who asked me to get you," Abrafo insisted, his voice taking on a strange, urgent edge. "We need to get out of here!"
"Why are we leaving?" U-ri asked, a tremor of doubt beginning to form in his mind.
"Hajime is dead," Abrafo said, his voice flat, devoid of emotion. "We need to get out of here now."
U-ri still insisted on letting Abrafo enter the bangle, but the more Abrafo refused to come closer, the more his instincts screamed that the person standing in front of him might not be his friend. He looked at the figure that called himself Abrafo and said, his voice steadying, "I will not walk out of this protective wall. You must come inside." As soon as he finished speaking, a dark arrow, impossibly swift, flew from nowhere and struck Abrafo squarely in the abdomen.
"Abrafo!" U-ri screamed, his last shred of doubt vanishing. "Quickly, come inside!"
The injured Abrafo, clutching his bleeding abdomen, fell to the ground, holding out a desperate hand. "U-ri, pull me in," he moaned in pain, his voice raw. "Help me… U-ri…"
Still being dragged away, Abrafo fought desperately. His body was paralyzed from the waist down, but with immense effort, he slowly reached for the blade he kept tucked into the side of his trousers. After struggling for a long, agonizing time, his fingers finally closed around one of the three small blades. With trembling, desperate strength, he began to slowly saw at the thick, binding dragline silk.
Michio had walked for nearly an hour, finding nothing but silence and shadows, not even a single cocoon. He stood among the towering trees, tilting his head, listening. "I don't think this is the right way," he muttered to himself, just before a sharp, dark spike shot from the undergrowth, whistling past his ear. He dodged, rolling swiftly behind the nearest tree, his heart pounding.
"Come out, come out, don't be shy," mixed voices, thin and reedy, giggled from the unseen depths of the forest. "Come out, come out, don't be shy…"
As soon as Michio poked his head out, countless dark spikes rushed towards him like a deadly rain. He ducked back just in time, the spikes embedding themselves in the tree bark around him.
Michio sighed heavily, a grumble escaping him. "I don't remember who I offended recently? Did those monks follow me? No, they can't cross the endless river of sorrow." He peered out again, just to test them, and countless dark spikes struck him again, peppering the tree around his head. "Hey… hey… why are you shooting at me?"
A high-pitched female voice answered, "He asked why you shot him?"
A deeper male voice scoffed, "No, he was asking you, not me."
The woman shrieked wildly, "No, he asked you!"
The man screamed, a yelp of pain. "No… Let go of my hair! He asked you!"
Michio, thoroughly confused and annoyed, called from behind the tree, "I'm asking you two!"
The mixed voices, now filled with a disturbing hunger, replied, "Well, it's because we haven't tasted human flesh for a long time…"
Yul continued his ascent. As he walked further up the hill, he noticed that the land became significantly wetter compared to the drier base. Suddenly, he heard the distinct roar of a waterfall. A waterfall, he thought, there must be a pool or a stream nearby. He slowly, cautiously, stepped forward to investigate.
As Yul approached the summit of the mountain, he found a majestic waterfall rushing down, its waters forming a vibrant stream that flowed down the mountainside. He spotted a dilapidated bamboo water pipe on the ground nearby, clearly abandoned. Yul walked to the edge of the waterfall pool, looking down at the dark green depths. The center of the pond was a darker, almost black, hue, indicating a much greater depth. Yul decided to wash his face, a moment of reprieve, before continuing his urgent search for Abrafo.
While Yul was washing his face, a pair of glowing red eyes watched him from the impenetrable depths of the water, unseen.
U-ri, still within the bangle's shimmering safety, fell to his knees, his heart aching for the injured figure. "Abrafo, crawl beside me…" he pleaded, stretching out his arms. "Crawl to me!"
The figure whimpered, weakly stretching out his hand. "I can't… I feel like I'm dying…"
Suddenly, chilling howls erupted from behind the trees, surrounding them. U-ri turned to look, and his blood ran cold. Hundreds of glowing red eyes stared at him and the prone figure, emerging from the shadows. "Abrafo, you must hurry!" he shouted, his voice cracking. "We have company… lots of company!"
As soon as U-ri finished speaking, a pack of shadowy wolves, their fur matted and their teeth bared, leaped from the side of the road and began to savagely attack the fallen Abrafo.
"Help! Help me, U-ri!" the figure screamed, his voice dissolving into gurgles of pain.
U-ri watched in horror as the wolves tore into the figure, unable to move. He desperately wanted to go out to help, to fight off the beasts, but he knew with a terrible certainty that it didn't matter. There was no way he could beat a pack of wolves, especially not from within his protective barrier.
U-ri closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face, and sobbed. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… Abrafo…" He opened his eyes, seeing the mangled body of what he thought was Abrafo lying in the middle of the old road. "Sorry… Hajime…" He slowly stood up, preparing to step out of the protection of the bangle, unable to bear the inaction any longer, when the mangled figure suddenly stood up from the ground. Its eyes, glowing red, stared at U-ri with cold fury.
"You old fool," the impostor sneered, its voice a chilling rasp. It conjured a dark sword and hurled it at U-ri, but the blade struck the bangle's solid magic wall and clattered harmlessly to the ground.
The fake Abrafo shook its head, its form shimmering and contorting. Slowly, horribly, it transformed into a towering wolf beast, its eyes burning like embers. The beast paced back and forth in front of U-ri, its frustration palpable, yet it hesitated to attack the shimmering barrier.
"I promised you that if you would come out of that thing voluntarily," the beast snarled, its voice deep and guttural, "you would die quickly and painlessly… but if you don't, when I find a way to break through that thing, I promise I will toy with you like a cat toying with a mouse until your last breath…"
U-ri, though trembling, found his voice. "If you want to eat me," he said, his lips barely moving, "you must break Hajime's spell."
The alpha wolf roared into the sky, a chilling, triumphant sound that echoed through the forest. "Children!"
U-ri suddenly saw hundreds of glowing red eyes pouring out from both sides of the road, filling the gloom. Slowly walking into the dim light were hundreds of smaller, snarling beasts, all staring hungrily at him.
U-ri looked at the many beasts standing a few meters away, a wave of cold fear washing over his heart. He tried desperately not to think too much, forcing his eyes off the hungry pack. "Hurry up, everyone," he murmured, a silent prayer.
Hajime had gone to the right, walking for a while, and found himself standing in front of a small, dilapidated village. A strong sense of disorientation washed over him; this was wrong. He was supposed to be heading towards the top of the mountain, not down into a valley.
Hajime put his hands on his waist and sighed, a profound sense of confusion settling over him. "It's funny… I obviously went up, not down," he said to himself, looking at the shabby, decaying houses.
"Over here!" he heard a little girl's voice call, light and playful.
Hajime saw a small girl with a bright, innocent smile, running ahead of him and disappearing into the second house to his left. He walked slowly to the second house and was about to open the door to go in, when another child giggled, running past him and into a different house.
"Over here!" the child giggled, disappearing into the house behind Hajime.
"No, over here!" another child's voice chirped, running to yet another house.
Hajime turned around, bewildered, and saw many children, their laughter echoing eerily, running from house to house. Then a girl ran out from the other side of the street and, with a final, mischievous giggle, disappeared into the house where Hajime was standing by the door. Hajime pushed open the door and walked slowly into the room. As he stepped inside, a sudden, strong gust of wind blew past him. He closed his eyes to shield them from the dust. When he rubbed his eyes and opened them, he found himself standing not in a dilapidated hut, but in the familiar, comforting living room of his old house.
"Hajime-kun," a warm, loving voice said. He looked up. Asa, his father, was smiling down at him, his face filled with tenderness. "It's time for lunch."
Hajime looked up at Asa, who smiled brightly, bathed in a golden light. Tears welled in Hajime's eyes. He held out his hand to Asa, his voice shrinking, impossibly, to that of a toddler. "Papa," Hajime said, his voice choked with raw emotion and childlike innocence.