Tsuki took out her lantern, its soft blue light melted the shadows of the forgotten temple. The group hadn’t tarried inside the entrance, the disturbing door worried them greatly. They were currently exploring a long corridor with mess rooms, lavatories, infirmaries, and a few bedrooms on either side. The once pristine pieces of furniture were seemingly fused with the walls or floor, which upon seeing deterred anyone from exploring those rooms.
The deeper they went the more disturbing everything was. The once rare body melted into the walls that were reaching out for something became more prevalent. But with this increase of oddity, small oozes began to appear. They were all trying to escape Tsuki’s light, but their slow crawling almost held them up in place; only their viscous body like mucus made sounds that were all too loud in the completely silent temple.
They were those who lost their souls after Yama didn’t intervene quickly enough.
Vergeltung took his burning rod, which Tsuki didn’t know how he managed to keep on himself, and poked an ooze that was glued to the severed torso of a woman. The thing let out a cry akin to a small baby as its outer shell melted and forced its inside out until the wound coagulated.
The poor cat was taken aback, the cries of distress of his kid were still fresh in his mind. He had tried to keep it together as he was in a life-or-death situation, but it was now all resurfacing. His eyes trembled, same as his paws which dropped the weapon, and said with a broken voice, “It…sucking her breast…” The cat, lower to the ground, could see the face of a child in the ooze.
“Let’s go,” said Tsuki. She didn’t care much about those things. The thing she felt outside looking at them worried her more than this place’s history. “If you’re still sad about your kid, then we’ll make a good funeral for them. But only after getting out of here.”
Vergeltung wanted to bark back for her to be more considerate but kept it to himself. He wanted to put the ooze out of its misery, but seeing it was already reforming and the hundred more in the distance proved that it was a foolhardy plan. “Yeah… ‘Let’s go’…”
Tsuki began walking, lantern in hand, the only source of light other than the snakes which were no better than cheap glow sticks, and forced everyone to follow her. Squishy vines or crying sludges, the girl moved forward until she reached an outdoor room with a large pool in the center.
The water, considering they were surrounded by pure filth, was surprisingly clean. The water came from a nearby vein which fed into a lofty waterfall in the distance. It is to say that the water reserve was the only thing still in good condition; alas, some pipes were broken and caused a basement to be flooded that in turn gave a sticky humidity to the temple.
The pool was one of the rare things still intact and the cause of it could be seen within the two rakshasas who hesitated to step onto the rune-laced floor. It was a wonderful pattern that could banish any undead waiting for their judgment.
After a push from Fi, the two boys entered the open room. They looked at one another with tears in their eyes; their punishment for being rakshasa was finally over. They only looked to be around 12 years old (even if they lived a millennium in Naraka), and the sight of them crying warm tears broke the small detective’s heart. He moved awkwardly toward them and said, “Ha! If you boys want to talk about anything, know that you can come to me.”
His delivery wasn’t the worst, even if it wasn’t the best, but the brothers did understand his intention, and both gave him a sweet smile. Still, for the two rakshasas who lived like savages for so long, they had a hard time distinguishing food from friends. The smiles gave Vergeltung a chill down his spine. They looked so adorable…
On another note, Tsuki was the only one making use of this water. First of all, she jumped inside after putting her things to the side; she couldn’t handle the disgusting smell and sliminess from the river. It put her mind at ease even if what she saw back then was just an illusion. She also took this chance to feed the mouths in a flower pattern on her leg. They only drank a gallon, which was nothing to them.
Also, she filled some waterskins. She didn’t feel thirsty herself, probably because of the mouths, but the others would. And finally, she wanted to see how the things on her shoulders would react. Would the flower die if she took a bath? What about the fleshy fur on the other side, would it smell like a wet dog? There were so many changes with her body that she needed to rediscover it again (even if she hadn’t understood most of Alice’s particularities).
The pig which had followed them was eating something it dug up from an elevated garden just to the side of the pool. How’d he got up there, Tsuki didn’t know. Thus, after filling the last waterskin, she picked up one of the snakes and changed into a bundle of petals that jumped up toward the pig.
“Kyaaa?!” screamed Hoomaikai who was incarnating this specific snake. “What’s going on!?”
Tsuki reformed back and let go of the snake.
“What the HELL was that!?” Cried Hoomaikai.
“Don’t worry about it. Look, the pig found something interesting,” responded Tsuki. She brushed off the snake questioning to inspect her own body. Just that little move had cost about one-third of her strength. She regretted wasting such precious strength in a dangerous location, but she needed to do so to not end up like last time.
The pain was still fresh in her mind. The serrated teeth of the tiger entering her flesh and ripping it apart while the long claws held her in place…It could have gone for her throat but didn’t. She was lucky.
As for the pig, it was eating something strange. Hoomaikai got closer to it, slowly so as not to scare it. The small animal was eating something that looked like a leek with deep roots.
“Hey, Maikai,” said Tsuki. She picked up the pig in her arms which caused it to complain cutely. “Thank you… for everything…”
Hoomaikai was in shock at what the pig had found and was caught off guard by Tsuki. “Ha. No. No. It’s fine! It wouldn’t have sat right with me if anyone went missing.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Yeah…That also.”
“…”
There was a long pause where neither said anything. They simply looked at the ground trying to make sense of things. Tsuki had felt like she knew Hoomaikai for a long time when she first saw her. And the truth was that she did. Her appearance to the way she spoke; her magic to her rapid mind… Tsuki knew someone like Hoomaikai in the past and the mix of confusion, fear, and joy that the dark skin girl displayed back in the cart wasn’t usual.
Tsuki was perceptive, not a boor who couldn’t see her own quirks annoyed people. It was one of the things that allowed her to survive back when she took care of Alice. She understood that Hoomaikai knew her when she shouldn’t have. The small glance Hoomaikai kept throwing at her and the fact that the magic she used to control those snakes ought to be complicated.
Tsuki probed her friend even more, “I’m looking for someone. Will you help me?”
Understanding what was going on, Hoomaikai back at the carriage rubbed her teary eyes with her only arm and said with a shaking voice, “I’ll do what I can.”
She didn’t ask who needed to be found, she had her guess and Tsuki caught on to that. “We were separated only a few weeks ago. The moon was so beautiful back then,” said Tsuki. Small and carefully chosen words. She didn’t need to confirm who her friend was; it wasn’t her right to demand that. But she knew and tried to get information from this person directly.
“I see. My parents are well off. I’ll send them a letter when I get the chance.” Instead, she responded as Hoomaikai – making sure to remove herself from her old name while giving precious information that went against Tsuki’s understanding of her situation.
“Ho, when I saw you, you looked about the same age as me. Aren’t you older? You sound responsible.”
“It’s rude asking a lady her age. Still, I celebrated my fifteenth birthday three months ago.” Thus, the ‘few weeks ago’ was met with the ‘I celebrated […] fifteenth birthday’. There was something Tsuki was missing about her situation. Why would 15 years pass by since she escaped?
It only added to the mystery of how Tsuki appeared in this world but did somewhat confirm that someone was doing things behind the scenes. There was just one thing that confused Tsuki: ‘It’s rude to ask…’. It was either just a simple remark or something with more meat to it. Still, if it was the case, whatever situation it was, the meaning was that there would be things that couldn’t be spoken about.
If her friend was limited in the things she could say, what about the things she could ask? “If it was rude, how about you are the one to ask a question instead?” said Tsuki. If Hoomaikai was really whom Tsuki believed she was, then she would ask a strange question. It was a game Tsuki played in the past: someone asks an impossible question and the other one needs to find an answer.
A moment went by of pure silence. The girl back at the carriage had a lonesome smile while she whispered, “How many flowers bloom in Gehenna?”
Tsuki smiled and put the pig back on the ground. “You’ll have to wait for an answer. I’ll give it to you when we can talk face to face.”
Tsuki stared for a while at the waving pattern of the snake. She wanted to laugh at the fact it fit her little friend so well. It looked dangerous on the outside with lightning strokes dancing around but amidst the chaos was a bundle of feathers ready to explode and fly away. “Wait!” barked the snake suddenly. “Don’t let the pig eat this!”
Tsuki, as if on the ready, lifted back the pig who was about to nibble on the strange leek. She looked questioningly at the snake who slithered closer to the plant. The pig had dug a bit around the stalk such that the upper part of the roots could be seen.
“It’s a mandragora. Pull it out and you can die. The part above ground is addictive and pushes its prey to dig it out so that it can ambush them. It’s a vicious plant that feeds on flesh and can gain sentience after some time. You need to stab it with a compound that makes it go dormant before doing anything with it.”
“Is it used for anything?” asked Tsuki.
“Potion and such. But you don’t have the compound. So, leave it there. You need to focus on leaving this place anyway. Also, I want your answer as soon as possible!”
Tsuki didn’t have any reason to tarry here anyway and found a set of stairs leading back to the pool down below. She walked toward them, with the pig crying as he was forced to abandon the tasty stalk, and turned left at the stair to go down and froze. It was just for a split second but there was a tall man down the stairs looking at her. He had disappeared without leaving a trace.
“What’s wrong?” Asked Hoomaikai, who was behind Tsuki. She had yet to get in the set of stairs and thus didn’t see the stranger.
With the walls starting to softly melt around the border of her vision, Tsuki thought it was just the curse messing with her. She was pretty tired and stressed out after all. “Nothing,” she said and walked down the stairs. In her mind, she imagined Alice cursing at her that it was impossible that it was nothing. As such, she pulled her dagger, which caused the pig to stop crying.
In the end, there was nothing.
She joined back the group that took this chance to get to know one another better. Only Fi remained stoic and cold to any interrogation, which lit a fire in the detective’s soul. The two boys were looking at them with great interest as if they were looking at a play.
“Let’s go. We need to finish the hunt and not let our escort wait for us!”
҉
Riding in the forest at an impressive speed was a group of seven individuals. They were those who chose to participate in the rescue of the missing girl. Two people were each riding a dire wolf except one man who was able to keep up by himself.
The one leading the pact was Luk. His orange hair danced in the wind while his sharp facial features were turned toward a small snake made from lightning looking in the distance.
He then winced at sharp talons dug into his shoulder as a strange eagle landed on him. “Nothing ahead for seven leagues,” said the bird. He was the headmaster of Hoomaikai’s academy. So many of his students had been killed when Scylla attacked, and it was critical that he did everything possible to protect those who survived. The promise of food was too alluring.
Luk rolled his eyes at the bird and glanced at the other with him. He found them quite interesting compared to the bird who only cared about saving his own skin(feathers).
To his left was the odd scorpion-like man Tsuki had talked with while looking at the pyre of wooden rabbits. He was the only one not riding on anything and ran with his short legs at a surprising speed. Apparently, he was a chronicler who was sent from his home country to learn what mistakes and successes happened around the world. If his country could learn from his findings, maybe it could be saved. His opinion of the situation was that a lone girl went out to find food while people sat in place hoping someone would feed them. He respected the girl in that sense and couldn’t allow her to be punished because of her goodwill.
Behind was a weird fish-like creature with a breathing sac on its head. The poor guy was basically blackmailed by young kids to help with the rescue. He was the weakest in the group. His skin could be cut by a simple twig and infected instantly. If someone was to poke his breathing sac, he could die outright…it was still better than his cousins dying after bowing before someone else…
Hugging Totopo’s back was Alphonse. The boy with a disfigured face that helped Tsuki back in the village had always been a fan of Totopo. He still had a headache, but his joy made him forget everything.
Then, Luk glanced at the only capable person to have joined them. With ashen-white long hair on a head protected by a metal helmet, a breastplate with the wear of a thousand bout, and dark leather armor was lady Kriemhilde. She looked to be wearing funeral attire which the sword by her side contrasted. It shined like a star and was so sharp that no scabbard could hold it.
In her lap was a young boy named Fionn. He was the one controlling the wolf reins under the woman’s supervision.
Suddenly, the snake that was guiding them proclaimed in a worried tone, “We found its nest. We’ll proceed forward…” And then the snake became silent.
The group above ground glanced at one another and proceeded onward in the forest of dreams.