They laughed yet again and continued through the area. As they walked through a suburban neighborhood back towards the looming dorm building Oku stopped in front of an inn. It was old but fairly nice.
“Buy this for me someday.”
He just kept walking, looking forward to avoid egging her on.
“You act like we’re married or something…”
“Oh come now, you’d be ecstatic if you were married to a powerful and beautiful Youkai like me, wouldn’t you?”
“Ecstatic isn’t the word that comes to mind.”
“Very happy then.”
“The best I can do is possibly content.”
“So you wouldn’t be opposed?”
“Well, it would definitely be better than getting killed and eaten like you talked about.”
He chuckled and kept walking, Oku lagging behind. She’d wanted to keep on the subject for a few more minutes but that idiot couldn’t take a hint… maybe he didn’t think about Youkai like that? No… the real question was what the hell was she thinking! Oku quickly caught up to him and stormed past him, causing him to wonder what was wrong.
“What did I do this time…”
“Nothing, I’m angry at myself.”
“You can’t storm away from yourself you know.”
“I can try, idiot.”
He smiled and looked past her towards the spiral. Having her around wasn’t so bad, it was like having a friend that nobody else could see or talk to unless she was in human form. So she was like an imaginary friend… Great…
Another of these days, and another Youkai on campus. For a few days he had seen a large furry creature trying to ask for help among the humans that could not see him. He was harmless, but it looked like he had no idea the humans couldn’t see him. About five days had passed, and Lawrence decided it was about time he talked to him to find out what the problem was. He couldn’t really just walk up and start talking to the furry guy though… Instead, he waited until classes had started, and sat next to a tree. Then he started slinging pebbles at it. He didn’t want to hurt the thing, but getting its attention without yelling was tough.
Finally it looked over at him, large eyes watering. It came over and stared him right in the face.
“Help me!”
To avoid the few people still mulling about, Lawrence brought him to a picnic table a few feet away, and brought out a drink. He didn’t know where that fox was… she seemed to find classes she liked and sat in on them, leaving him alone most days until they got back to the dorm. It would be so much easier if she could just talk to the furry guy for him though and he was feeling a bit sleepier without her around.
“So. What’s the problem.” He said in between sips.
“It’s Grogs! He took my friend!”
“Grogs?”
“He’s enormous! Taller than the trees!”
“Is Grogs a Youkai?”
“Grogs a half god!”
He’d have to ask Oku what that was later.
“So Grogs took your friend?”
“Doro is gone!”
“Is Doro your friend.”
“Yes! Grogs took him!”
He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed either.
“Where did Grogs take Doro.”
“The rushing waterfall! He eats Youkai there!”
“Eats them?! You think I can help with something like that?!"
“Come to forest!”
“Well I..."
He looked down at the furry Youkai, and decided that he could at least try. His friend's life might hang in the balance of his decision after all.
"I can try. Meet me right here after class, alright?"
By this time he was almost late for class, and made a point to ask Oku about Grogs. A half god didn’t sound like a walk in the park, even for something as fearsome as Oku, and he didn’t really want to see her get hurt again. What was he getting into...
Oku sat with Lawrence as they ate lunch in the cafeteria, drinking some sort of energy drink infusion. She liked to keep her energy up as well, which she said lessened the strain on Lawrence in the long run. When she heard the name Grogs her eyes opened a bit wider and her gaze met his.
“Grogs? He’s a fairy tale.”
“Fairy tale? I thought Youkai were the fairy tale…”
“No no, he’s the Youkai fairy tale, kind of a bogeyman.”
“The Youkai I talked to seemed to think that it was real, and that it took his friend.”
“What did it say?”
“Well that part was a bit hard to understand. He wasn’t very smart, just to come to the forest to help get his friend from Grogs under the waterfall.”
“You’ll probably go, won’t you.”
“Well yeah.”
She sighed and looked up at him inquisitively from the meal in front of her.
“And why do you feel the need to keep helping them? I can’t say that I disapprove, but you’ll get hurt. It’s only a matter of time.
“I’ll be fine, I help them because I have such a good bodyguard! Now... do you think Grogs even exists?”
“While I don’t think Grogs himself is out there, the furry one may be mistaking a more powerful Youkai for a monster such as Grogs. So, in order to keep you from getting offed, I’ll have to join you as well.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Thanks Oku.”
“I just want to see what it is.”
Thus she followed him back to where the furry Youkai stood, which was standing exactly where it had been left. Actually, he might not have moved at all, but when he saw them he rushed over.
“Forest now?”
“I suppose.”
The furry Youkai mumbled, leading them quite a long way outside of campus. The campus itself was situated near the back side of town and a forest straddled one side of it. The Youkai led them there and walked right in, barely waiting for Lawrence and Oku who was on edge as soon as they entered the wall of trees. Something just wasn’t quite right.
“There is definitely something evil in this forest Lawrence. I can’t tell exactly what or where, but it is powerful.”
If Oku was on edge due to it, it must be pretty damn strong.
“So, where are we going?”
“Follow the river to the waterfall.”
Following the furry Youkai they passed tree after tree along the old trail which sat next to the river. All that was in sight was more treetops. He was hoping the waterfall was coming soon when the furry Youkai suddenly whimpered and ducked beneath the shrubbery. Oku was also on guard, and stepped in front of Lawrence.
“Something’s coming. Stay behind me.”
After a moment of tenseness the threat she felt was gone. It felt as if it was there for a second and gone the next.
“I think we should be safe now. Let’s keep going.”
The furry Youkai came out of the brush, and Oku looked back at Lawrence only to find him was missing. Her head whipped around and she used her fox senses to try and sniff him out to no avail.
“Lawrence. Lawrence?!”
Meanwhile, the person in question was being dragged along the ground by dark hands, twigs and bushes scratching against his skin. His head hit a rock on the way, and he went unconscious.
“Doro… Doro!”
The furry Youkai, back with Oku, was bellowing the name as he looked through the brush.
“Who is Doro?!”
Oku was also looking through the brush, but needed to know who that was.
“Doro is friend! Both man and Doro disappear!”
“In the same way?”
“Same!”
This was troubling. If the Youkai in question was indeed Grogs, it would peel them, dip them in a sauce made of carp blood, and eat them raw. That’s if the old legends were true at least. As the story goes, if you are an evil Youkai, Grogs will come to purify you. If he deems you are beyond purification, he will eat you. Most importantly at the moment, Grogs would be a half god. Son of a god and an Ayakashi. He was very powerful, and right now the stories didn’t seem so far fetched.
Oku grimaced at the thought of saving Lawrence. Why should she care so much? Besides the fact that if he died, she died. At the moment though, even if her life didn’t depend on his, she might still go and save him.
There was definitely something wrong with her if she thought that.
Lawrence woke up in a cave to the sound of rushing water. He scrambled around and felt the bump on the back of his head. It was still pretty tender, so he probably got knocked out recently. Above him there was moonlight coming through a hole, indicating that it was pretty late. He sat up straight and looked around the cave for an opening to escape through. Beyond the section illuminated by moonlight, he couldn’t see any way out. Unless he was able to climb up to the hole of course. Plus, his head still hurt pretty bad from the knock he got earlier. Lawrence stood up and felt around the sides of the cave, discovering that the walls were wet and cold. It felt like there was water running down the sides and made him think about the possibilities of his location. He thought for a second. Could this be the waterfall that the furry Youkai talked about? It was possible, and the chances increased after moving around, faintly hearing rushing water. So could his captor be Grogs? If so, he might be able to find and save Doro before the beast returned. The only problem being that he had no idea what Doro looked like. He could be anything from a human creature to a pile of mud.
“Doro?”
He didn’t want to call out too loudly, the last thing he wanted was for Grogs to return, but he was sure that if Doro was anywhere, it would be here.
“Doro?”
“Nyh!”
As he walked through the cave, he heard a muffled noise coming from far away. That had to be Doro. He ran through the cave to find a Youkai tied in white silky material. He ripped the stuff off it’s face.
“Are you Doro?”
“Please, just focus on getting us out of here first.”
Once he tore off the rest of the stuff he was able to get a good look at it. It looked to be female, pretty human-esque actually. The biggest difference was that she wore a torn half mask on her face, and had dirty wings on her back. On the mask was inscribed some sort of symbol, but he had no idea what it was. Half of it was ripped off after all. The eye that was shown was deep brown.
“Alright then. Are you Doro?”
“I am not mud, no.”
“Mud?”
“Doro. Mud.”
“Wait… Does Doro mean mud?”
“You got it. Now can we get out of here?”
“If you aren’t the one the furry Youkai was looking for, I’m afraid I’m going to have to search for him before I leave.”
With that he walked away from her. He knew some random Youkai wasn’t going to help him save another’s life. They didn’t especially care about each other like humans did in his opinion. That’s one of the reasons he was helping some of them. None of the Youkai thought to help each other.
“Doro!”
By this point he didn’t really care, as long as he found Doro before Grogs returned. If it didn’t hear the exchange between the bird Youkai and himself, Grogs wasn’t here.
“Mff!”
There. That had to be Doro. He rushed towards the sound to find a small salamander creature tied in the white silk. Ripping it apart, he brought it closer to his face.
“Are you Doro?”
“Yes! But hurry, the spider will be back soon!”
“Spider?”
Lawrence looked around. The white silk was everywhere. Of course. He had been an idiot. It was a spider Youkai. The hole in the ceiling was truly most likely the only way out. They were stuck.
“There’s no way we can climb to the top!”
“Doro, do you know of any other way out of here.”
“No, the spider can easily climb back up. This is how he traps his prey! He sucks the spiritual energy from other Youkai, an absolutely evil one!”
“But-”
As soon as he said this, he heard a noise near the ceiling. A scraping noise. Horrified, he looked at the opening.
Yep.
This was where he was dying.
No doubt.
He put Doro in his pocket and rushed to the side of the cave. He wasn't sure if spiders could smell or not, but he was willing to bet he’d have a better shot at living if the thing couldn't see him. He was also praying on Oku and the furry Youkai finding him.
Very little to go on.
Oku was damn scared. She had no idea where the hell that idiot had gone. The furry Youkai was worthless in helping her find him. It just kept after the river. That was the best lead they had though, and she ran right alongside him like an idiot.
Suddenly she smelled… was it him? She bounded along the river on all fours, ready to spring into her self-proclaimed “combat form” if needed. She heard the rush of waterfall and bounded up the hill before finding the place.
She couldn’t be sure if he was there, but that was all they had. She would save him. She would.
The spider scratched around the cave, trying to find the prey it had lain there hours ago, shouting out curses as it did so. Lawrence was still trying to come up with some way to get out of this hell. As he was contemplating he felt a hand on his shoulder. He almost cried out, but felt a hand over his mouth. It was the bird Youkai he had saved earlier. She pointed to herself, then to her wings, and at the hole in the ceiling.
She could fly them out!
Lawrence shrugged and mouthed “why?”
She just lightly punched him in the shoulder with a smile and brought her mouth to his ear.
“As soon as we start flying he’s going to hear us. We have to be quick.”
“On my mark, we’ll get a running start.”
He looked back at the spider and slowly crawled out from behind the rocks. He motioned for her to follow and she did so. Once he realized they weren’t seen, he started counting down with his fingers. Once he reached zero, they ran for it, and he felt the bird Youkai grab him under the armpits. As soon as her wings flapped once, the spider turned around.
Shit! It was faster than he thought! It crashed against the floor and came at them with a speed unfitting of a giant monster. One of it’s sharp legs jutted out towards the bird Youkai.
It was his idea to just run for it.
If she died.
It would be his fault.
Before he could even think, he had a spider leg inside of him.
"No!"
The spider threw Lawrence’s unmoving body towards the wall, and he landed with a thud. The bird Youkai was horrified. He saved her, but she hadn’t wanted to save herself. It was then she decided.
She took off her half mask as the spider brooded over her, and crushed it in her hands while whispering some sort of spell. The pieces of the crushed mask came together, and formed a small white dove.
Seeing this, the spider cackled, and drove another leg towards the dove. However, that leg was stopped abruptly by some sort of shield. The dove simply cocked it’s head and tweeted towards the monster. Then it’s eyes went deep red, and the force field turned into an arrow. By this point, the spider was scrambling against the wall, to which the dove tweeted once. The arrow didn’t pierce it, it simply enveloped it. All that remained was a small spider, which scurried away into the darkness. Once it had finally finished, the dove combined with the winged Youkai, and she fell over. Her half mask reformed, but even more of it had disappeared. There was about a fourth of it left by now. The dove Youkai crawled over to Lawrence, and tried to wrap some cloth around the wound, but there was so much blood.
He was dying.