The first beat of the drum echoed through the empty streets, and the white sand of the town stirred on its own, as if someone were sifting it from beneath the ground. Snow clutched the windowsill, ears standing like twin flags. "Red, the sand is leaking down!"
Red released a strand of fire from his paw to wrap around a grain of sand, but the moment the flame touched it, the sand instantly transformed into a droplet of water. Inside it, a single inverted eye stared up, blinking once before extinguishing the flame.
"It's not sand," he said, closing the window. "It's an eye."
A chill crawled along their spines. The entire town seemed alive.
Pushing open the door, they stepped into the windless night, yet a sound pulsed around them: "Thump… thump…" like a giant heartbeat muffled beneath layers of earth.
Snow tapped the ground with her Hypnosis Staff, each strike echoing lightly. Red held the treasure tower, letting its shadow cover them like a small lantern.
Following the sound, they reached the stele engraved with "Peace Lasts Forever." The inscription seemed to breathe, tiny droplets forming along its edges. Snow pressed her ear to it and heard whispers clicking like an abacus:
"Visitors today, two demons, one tower. Fire element, spirit element, not yet registered."
Red sneered. "They're treating us like inventory."
The stele seemed to understand, slowly sinking to reveal a spiral stone staircase. A wooden sign hung at the entrance: Inventory Storage, No Entry Without Permission.
Snow raised a paw. "I am not asking permission."
The stairs were slick with moisture, and the walls were embedded with closed-eyed white sand. With every step deeper, their heartbeats grew heavier, vibrations tickling their eardrums.
Red lit the tip of his fingers, revealing carved reliefs along the walls: foxes, rabbits, cranes, crabs, all chained at their ankles, lining up toward a giant maw.
Snow pointed. "That rabbit is me." The rabbit in the relief had its ears tied in butterfly knots, frozen in the same dazed pose she had often assumed.
Red's tail curled around her wrist. "It already knew you would come, and that I would burn it."
Further down, another inverted Snowflake Town hung overhead, people walking upside down, mirrored below. The polished water beneath reflected their forms, missing the tower and staff. The shadows moved independently, progressing into the depths, tracing another life for them.
Snow swung her staff against the mirrored surface. "Return us!"
The mirror shattered into rain. The inverted town fell, dispersing into countless grains of white sand. Amid the sandstorm, a jade slip floated, inscribed with a single word: Register.
The white sand blinked, shrieking like newborn cries. Red summoned the peak of his Sanmei True Fire, forming a curtain that shielded them three feet away from the sandstorm.
He bit his finger, letting blood drip into the flames. The fire turned azure, carving a void in which the jade slip hovered, patiently waiting.
Snow inhaled sharply, ears like lightning rods, stepping forward to touch the jade slip. The cries ceased immediately.
The slip contained only one sentence, spoken in unison by both of them:
"To leave this town, one must leave a name."
Red's eyes widened in realization. The town regarded outsiders as inventory. If a name was etched, they would remain forever as reliefs, guarding it, dreaming within it, slumbering eternally.
"Leave a name?" he scoffed. "I'll leave fire."
He tossed the treasure tower into the air. It grew to thirty feet, the base splitting open as a cascade of blue-gold flames poured into the water mirror. The fire did not extinguish on contact. From the vapor rose a jade seal engraved with the word "Peace," the very charm the town recited during the day.
Snow struck the edge of the jade seal. "Peace my foot!"
With a crisp sound, a corner of the seal broke. The town groaned in agony as white sand peeled from the walls. Light poured from the gap, revealing a teleportation array pointing overseas.
From above, the innkeeper's laughter rang out. "Trying to leave without paying?"
The portly man at the stairway had pupils spinning like two grains of white sand. His hands formed into massive claws from sand, reaching for them.
Red braced the treasure tower against the ground, its shadow forming a fiery cage. Snow pressed the jade slip into the missing corner. Light exploded from the array.
The innkeeper laughed again. "Leave a name, and I'll give you the finest room. Daily sea breeze, nightly peace."
Snow made a face. "You can sleep in the room yourself."
She grabbed Red's tail, and together they leaped into the teleportation array. The innkeeper sighed. "A name may be optional, but the debt must be repaid. Next time, make sure the shadow is intact."
The world spun.
When they opened their eyes, they lay on a snow-covered beach. Snowflakes melted upon touching their noses, real and cold. Far away, the storm clouds over Golden Ao Island churned, as if someone protected them from pursuit.
Red opened the treasure tower. The base had a new fissure and a fresh line of fire patterns, like a signature burned in: Sanmei True Fire, visited here.
Snow inserted her Hypnosis Staff into the snow. The stone bead cracked, releasing a single grain of white sand. The inverted eye finally closed, as if forced into a nap. She wrote both of their names in the snow, then quickly erased them.
"Red, we owe it a debt."
His tail wrapped around her shoulder. "We'll pay it. When we're stronger, we'll return it, fire and all, for a long and peaceful rest."
The snow fell heavier, covering footprints and the path behind them.
Snowflake Town faded back into the misty sea, as if it had never appeared. But they knew, once a name was etched, the town would awaken again.
Then, fire would burn higher, the staff strike sharper, Snow fiercer, Red wilder.Debts must be repaid.No name would remain.