As Reinhardt looked for tracks, Mark and Lawrence learned just how useless they were in the situation. The large man had given them a couple vials full of a strange liquid, and told them to injure the thing with this slathered on their weapon. It would be pretty hard for Mark’s stave to puncture skin, but he held onto it anyways. Reinhardt doing most of the tracking work at least gave Mark and Lawrence a bit of time to talk.

“By the way, how did you find out so much about me all that time ago?”

“What do you mean?”

“Back when we just met, you convinced me to give Youkai a chance, remember? You found out about… my parents. How did you do that?”

“Actually that’s really simple, we went to the police and one of the older guys there had the scoop on what had happened to you.”

“Officer David?!”

“Well… maybe, I didn’t catch his name.”

“He was one of the ones that loved to tease me… always telling people about my troubled life and all that. Not that I hated him, he could just be annoying at times. What about you? Didn’t you have problems with Youkai as a kid?”

“Honestly I couldn’t see them very well until a small while before I found out about Oku. They would just be big shadows at best, something I could catch in the corner of my eye at worst.”

“That sounds freakier than actually seeing them…”

“Well I might jump every once in awhile at nothing, but it was better than being able to converse with something nobody else could see, am I right?”

Mark sighed.

“You definitely are… and it took another person who could see them for me to finally come around. Strange isn’t it. At that point I was starting to regret having hated them all that time. Old dogs are pretty damn hard pressed to learn new tricks though.”

“I felt strange as well… Oku had been sucking energy out of me for years to materialize. Honestly she’d made me a bum in that time, I wasn’t good at very much besides sleeping during classes. Once everything started up I finally felt like I could be myself again. Some weight had been dragging me down all that time.”

“That weight’s name was Oku, wasn’t it?”

They both laughed, causing Reinhardt to put his finger to his lips and look back at them. Something was moving in the brush ahead, but a few moments later it was revealed to be a small deer. This didn’t cause the large man to let his guard down however, and a small piece of paper shot out from his wrist. The paper latched onto the deer, which ran away quickly, the paper quickly peeling off and returning to Reinhardt’s sleeve.

“Looks like that wasn’t the bugger after all.”

“It can be anything after all…”

“Exactly young nephew, so if you want to survive I’d suggest checking and double checking every single animal you see from now on.”

“How?”

“Call me over and I’ll send out my paper shiki to check it. They’ve got a spell written on them that will send off an alarm when it touches a magical animal. That’s why it just came back to me after touching the deer.”

“Will it be loud enough?”

“Lawrence if I know one thing it’s that the shiki will be loud enough, but enough of that for now, I see a nice place to set up camp right over there!”

A small ways away was a raised area of ground that looked to be on top of some sort of rock. Maybe not all that comfortable to sleep on, but it was better than getting attacked by some sort of monster while asleep. They started hiking over to the rock he’d mentioned, and the old man started off into a tangent about years past. He was certainly old after all. Once they reached the area it took only a few minutes to set up their bare essentials, and Reinhardt got a fire going.

“I even brought a few cookables! It feels like we’re bonding over a camping trip doesn’t it Mark?”

“Sure… the only difference being a monster that would rip our heads off should it get the chance.”

“Always trying to rip the fun from me aren’t you.”

Reinhardt slathered some sort of sauce on a hot chunk of pork and shoved it into his mouth smiling.

“This feels like a great chance uncle, so I’ll just ask. Why did you dump me off?”

“Dump you off?! When?”

“I was with you for a few months back then, and you suddenly dropped me off at Sayuri’s! All you had to say was that you might be back.”

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“It was a job with the exorcists, and by the time I’d gotten back you were so happy with Mitch. I didn’t want to rip you away from good folk like them.”

Lawrence sat there silently. It wasn’t exactly awkward, Mark probably just needed to get it out. What better time than when you could die at any time?

“Well… you have at least that going for you. Mitch and Elaine are, and even still are, too good to me.”

“Exactly! You don’t want a traveling home like me. They’re better parents than this old man could ever be.”

It seemed as if Mark wanted to get off the subject again however.

“So Reinhardt, what chance of success do you think we have?”

“Here?”

“No, overall.”

“I’d say with the plans you told me about you’ve got a good forty percent chance of success. It all depends on the king. After this all he could just declare war on the exorcists after all! Depends on how damned stubborn he turns out.”

Lawrence was stunned.

“What?! You think he’d declare war?”

“Well, maybe not over something like Oku, but you can never be sure with that one. If he wants her enough he’ll fight tooth and nail to keep what he thinks is his. If he thinks that she’s his hard enough there might be no other way to set her free.”

Lawrence sat back on the rock he was perched on.

“You’re kidding…”

“Maybe I was too harsh, he probably won’t start a war! No no, he’s at least more reasonable than that! Otherwise the Youkai would have started an uprising against him years ago!”

“Uncle, when you’re trying to help you shouldn’t instantly go to the extremes. Now Lawrence is going to think about war all night. Why’d you do that?”

“Erm… Sorry boy, I’m sure everything will turn out just fine. And if it doesn’t I’ll let ya keep the weapons, deal? Bahaha! You’ll need em in that case!”

“Not helping old man!!!”

Reinhardt chuckled and sent them off to sleep in the tent. To repay Lawrence for the bad joke he’d made he would be taking first watch. Lawrence got into his sleeping bag, the ground still rough beneath him, and closed his eyes. Opening them again, he found himself in a forest. He was young again, it looked like Kazha. It was cold outside, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to run around and explore! The trees were beautiful, greens were bursting and the blues of a few small ponds here and there were amazing.  It didn’t appear to be winter, like it had been when he’d been attacked by the bear, so he had not a care in the world. There were new flowers to be found, and bugs to catch! Critters were everywhere, and he giggled in delight at every new thing he saw.

Yet, the forest felt empty. It was as if something he couldn’t see was there in front of him. Something was missing.

Closing his eyes again, he was in an apartment, not much older than before. It was dark, but moonlight came in through the large window on the other side of the room. A cough and table were in front of him, and he laid down on it. It was soft and warm, but smelled strange. It smelled new. His parents had always brought back something new on their trips, perhaps a couch, or sometimes a new fan. It turned out to be furniture for some reason most of the time. One ding and Lawrence looked up at the clock. Nine P.M. Time to go to bed. He had school tomorrow. He was somewhat sad that mom hadn’t asked him if he’d be alright alone, and mad at dad for ruffling his hair before leaving, not even asking if he would want to go with them. Of course he’d want to go with them… if they asked.

He was tired. It had been a while since he’d felt that tired, but after the bear attack in the forest he always felt this way. Tired. The kids at school would sometimes make fun of him, sleeping in class and whatnot. He was tired during P.E., he was tired in the library, it was really starting to get to him. At least he would always feel rested after sleeping for a night. He always felt a presence when he was asleep. Like someone was watching over him, keeping him safe. Of course that didn’t change that he wanted to feel awake during the daytime, but it was a small consolation in the very least.

He’d always felt alone because of his stupid curse.

The only time he felt like someone was there with him was at night. It was so strange.

Laying in his old bed he realized something. The bed was way too small. He wasn’t young anymore, and he felt energized somehow. Blinking the sleep away from his eyes he was once again in the forest, though this time a large bear faced him. It was only as tall as he was however, and looked like it couldn’t even wrestle him down. The thing whimpered and ran off, appearing scared. But behind him he felt a bigger presence… Something else… something big…

“Lawrence? Hey wake up!”

“Wha?”

“Ah finally, it’s your turn to take watch.”

Mark stood above him with a concerned smile on his face and helped Lawrence get up from his sleeping bag. What was that dream about? So weird. Though dreams often were. He simply thanked Mark and went to stand vigil over their encampment. The fire had died down to a few small coals and he warmed his hands over them, thinking about the strange dream. He’d been young, but had seen Kazha in a time other than Winter. Why? Plus he’d been in the apartment that his parents pretended to live in, while it was obvious that they lived more often in some eastern city than at the place they paid for him to stay in.

They didn’t really want him along anyways, unless it was to show him off.

“Look at how well behaved he is!”, or, “He’s got the best grades in his class!”

Yeah, something like that. They didn’t really care when he’d told them personally, but telling others? It was as if he was the center of their world. But was he? He’d never known. Ever since he’d gotten into college it was as if he didn’t exist anymore. They barely called him, barely even attempted to see how he was doing.

Not that he minded.

He didn’t feel antagonistic towards them, he just thought that both parties needed their space. His parents went on vacations, and he went to college. They were all happy. He didn’t have some weird hope that he would never see them again, but he felt strange about them. It was as if they were family friends looking after him while his real parents were off in a war or something. He loved them, but it was more of a respectful love than anything else. He didn’t want to be mean, but he loved Mitch and Elaine just as much for all they had done. They even offered him a well paying job…

*Crick*

He heard something move in the grass a small distance away and stood up. Could it be the wyvern thing? Taking a paper shiki out of one of the small bags next to Reinhardt’s tent he blew on it and it dove into the bushes. Moments later he heard a thwip and then alarm sounds that rivalled that of an ambulance.

Reinhardt had said that you’d know when the shiki found the monster, and by god it had found it.