Did I really come back to life?

For a while I kept pacing back and forth near the edge, squinting my eyes at the ocean of mist I just came out of. From here one could not see the other side, nor the current. Where I arrived at was a strip of land that really felt like the end of the world.

I turned around and started to walk deeper into land, feeling my bare feet pressing onto the barren ground. Red sand stuck to my feet. In front of me, the land opened up under the light-filled sky. Something about it did not feel right to me. There was daylight, but I could not find the sun anywhere. Light simply came from all directions.

I see strange-looking, tall grass, far and few between. I really seemed to be stranded in a desert. Curiously, all the grass and protruding rocks seemed to point in the same direction, toward the end point. I tried plucking a bundle of grass just to see what they were like, but only managed to pull two leaves, and they seemed to have broken off in the middle. The root laid somewhere deep below.

I had a feeling, a pretty strong feeling, that this was no Earth. But I was no expert on grass either, and with the thick fog surrounding this area, the sun could be understandably hidden. Fair enough. My body seemed to function normally, and no longer felt as if I was in a dream. If I was really alive again, I would need water and food, and I would get tired.

I'd hate to die a second time by starving.

I needed to move, and faster. I was barefoot and still wearing the same dress I had on as the accident happened, which had a big blotch of blood. I folded up the two grass leaves and put them into my pocket. Souvenirs from my resurrection, not bad. My hand touched the 122 Kar coin, it was still there! The gold coin felt cold in my hand, and glinted under the daylight. That reminded me, what if I could still will stuff into reality?

Would probably work, if I was still in fact dead. If I wasn't dead anymore, well then I'd seen enough bizarreness today, a little magic wouldn't even add to anything.

Flying would be neat. I tried to jump and see if I could float in mid air, like I did on Irkalla's ground, but my feet just immediately hit the ground again with a loud thump. A second and third time, nothing changed. Disappointed and afraid of hurting my bare feet, I settled with walking, but had a brilliant idea: pulling some more grass and making myself a pair of sandals. The leaves were long, smooth and sturdy. My footwear didn't look beautiful, but it worked.

I walked and walked. The rocky mountains came taller and taller, and there seemed to be only one path through the mountain range ahead. The winds rushed between standing rocks; wailing sounds echoed from afar, uninviting. I was growing increasingly tired, thirsty and hungry. The sky remained the same grade of brightness.

Something suddenly charged at me from behind a rock. Startled, I sidestepped and kicked it. The thing uttered a gravelly cry, lost its balance and stumbled. On closer look, it was a person.

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Or was it?

The "person" turned around. They looked like a corpse. No, they were literally a corpse. I was pretty sure there was a big rotten dent in that torso…

I was scared out of my wit, but fortunately I had never been the expressive type, so my face must have simply looked tense. As I lower my stance preparing to run, the undead said:

"No more, Ma'am! Not one more of that kick! Oh! You have got The Mother's hair wrapped around your heels! Clever, Ma'am!"

The Mother's hair? I looked down to my make-shift grass sandals. You meant these?

"Are.. are you a zombie?" I stuttered.

"Zombie? Never heard that word before. But I'd been here a long, long time. Would you happen to have a spare gold coin for me?" The undead pleaded. "A spare gold coin for one unlucky corpse-man."

I'd never heard anyone refer to gold as "spare," but just coming from Charon's boat, let's say I could vaguely guess what it was about.

"Is this still the Land of the Dead?" I asked, and pondered out loud. "I think I might be pretty dead, myself."

"Are you, Ma'am? I don't think so." The undead said. "I know my dead, and you feel like a living to me. A mighty one, I dare say!"

I shook my head. "I have no idea where or what I am, but if I'm alive, I think I'm about to starve to death."

"At the end of the Valley, Ma'am, there is the Namtar Gate. All may come in, but only the living may come out. I cannot come out, but you can. That is, if you can make it through an army of the dead, alive. Beyond that gate is a beautiful field, there you will find the grains to eat and sweet dew to drink. But do not eat nor drink anything on this side."

I raised my eyebrow at the talkative zombie. "You're not fooling me, are you? Why tell me all this?"

"Why, I smell that you have a gold coin by you, Ma'am. I can feel it. If you give me that gold coin, I shall help you go beyond the gate." The undead bobbed their head giddily.

"Why are you stuck here anyway?" I asked "What is this place? This is not the Earth, right?"

The undead stared back at me, then said:

"Well… It was long time ago… We were sent here from Irkalla to cause some troubles, and then they chased us back to Irkalla. But I and a few others got left behind, because we lost our returning gold coins, we couldn't cross the Water! We waited years and years for someone to come by, but no one ever came from the living side anymore. Sometimes there would be one coming from the dead side, but they didn't have any spare gold coins, so my folks got very sad, and killed them. So we ended up having more deads stuck behind the Gate without a gold coin to cross the Water!..."

"Bloody Charon said nothing about this!" I grunted.

"Can't blame him!" The undead inched closer to me. "Can I have my coin?"

"Tell me how to get past the gate first." I sighed. From what I understood, there was going to be a whole army of undead there. "And… does magic work in this land? I can't seem to do anything… out of the ordinary. You know, like when I was really dead."

"Of course." The undead tilted their head. "If it wasn't because of magic we wouldn't have been stuck here! Well, I guess it just takes practice, and some talents. Didn't see many human mages myself, but who knows, maybe you'll be one." The rubs his rotting head. "About the Valley… it's quite easy. Wrap yourself from head to toe with The Mother's hair. The dead can't do anything to her."

"You mean the grass?" I looked around. There were some grass here too.

"They're no grass, they're The Mother's hair."

I had no idea what he was talking about. "Who's The Mother? A Goddess? Mother Earth? A figure of speech?..." I took out the gold coin and threw it to him.

"Yes." The undead answered. Then he caught the coin and started to cry happy tears:

"Oh! Oh finally! Thank you! Thank you!... Ah! Please tell my folks, I wish them well!! But I dare not see them, they'd take my coin!!"

He said and ran towards Point Charon. Yes, I'm just going to call it that.

Come to think of it, he was going to rob me at first, wasn't he? I thought and started collecting the grass and labored to wrap them around myself, from head to toe as instructed. I prayed that the undead was telling the truth, and entered the valley.