The tall, lanky man continued walking down the spiral path that was loosely hugging the inner circumference of the chasm. A muffled jangle of many pieces of clattering wood dully rings out with every step the man takes, the almost absurdly large pack on his back swaying from side to side with each movement. Except for the crunch of loose dirt and rocks beneath his worn-through, oak-brown leather boots, there was no other sound in his world right now; save for chipper birdsong around him. Staring up, his hand rose to cover his eyes as the bright rays of sunlight shone down upon him, finding its way through the eye-holes of the wooden mask he was wearing. It was hot today.
He sighed. The same breath however, turned itself into a prolonged yawn and he quickly found himself stretching in the heat of the dying summer, grunting as his old bones cracked pleasantly. He looked around the road, the edge of the path was just over there, behind a waist high stone wall and he tried to avoid looking at it, once he caught himself staring. He could see his destination if he dared to peer down. Turning his head the other way instead, he saw a large heartwood tree, its telltale dark-red leaves billowing calmingly in the ambient current. Walking towards it instead, the man placed his cloth bag against the tree and sat down, leaning against it facing the shining sun above. The wooden mask shifted slightly upwards beneath his hood, provoked by some subtle movement on his lips.
Again he yawned, deeper this time and he felt his eyes grow wet and dewy. The gentle touch of the sun above, once again compelled him to close them and this time he left them that way for a while. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” the man thought to himself. “It’ll be fall soon.” And with that idle thought, he drifted off to some place deeper still.
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A subtle touch of light began to show itself between the trees, just barely illuminating the dark canopy, giving it an eerie glow. The crunch of rocks was the only noise filling the thicket, as the excited child bounded down the otherwise dark path. Jumping over roots and the odd fallen branch, Esper was motivated to not lose a second of time, burning the energy given by her full heart and stomach. The edge of the clearing was just before her now and the ledge not ten seconds further off. Esper stopped with her hands on her knees to catch her breath, the heavy morning dew and sweat collecting on her face, setting her too pale skin alight. It was just about bright enough now for her to see clearly and she looked around the familiar ledge for her day’s work.
She saw one body laying near the ledge again, by the broken fence. It was small this time. A girl, just about her own size. But that was it as far as bodies went. “Yes!” she silently cheered to herself, rising up, pumping her arm with an over-exaggerated movement. Today would be an easy day, she could move small ones like this in a minute flat. She looked up to the sky, towards the rays of the light beaming now ever brighter down towards her and cheerfully cried out a loud “Thank you!” into the shining ether above. But work could wait for a minute, she threw down the heavy rope, reached into her dress and pulled out the dangling necklace, holding it up just a few inches away from her curious, wide eyes to bring it into focus. Her gaze locking on to the hollow sockets now staring back at her. Imprinted on the grooved metal surface, was a shape that reminded Esper of a skull. But it was different. This one was pointy and elongated with a weird hook thing on the front. “Hmm,” she had never seen any corpse with a skull like this.
It reminded Esper of a bird almost. Her smile continued on as she thought of the word. “Bird. Bird. Biiiird. Bird. Bird.” It was such an odd word. She continued on several times, the long-skull necklace running through her fingers. It was a strange word, wasn’t it? “Bird,” she giggled again thinking of the one time she gotten to eat a bird. Her stomach rumbled at the thought. She shook her head, bringing the focus of her mind-space from her wandering thoughts, back to her vision. The necklace and chain shared the same color of a deep, blue-gray and it shimmered with keen intensity in the sunlight. Esper had never seen anything like it before and wondered if it was some kind of silver perhaps? Maybe it was gold. Or even copper! She wasn’t sure. She didn’t know what any kind of metal looked like, she just knew what some of them were called. “Mama would know,” thought the girl, remembering that the woman also always wore a necklace too. Esper beamed pridefully at the notion that she now had one as well.
Was metal always this cold? Her fingers began to tingle slightly. The pendant was very light, but it was perfect for her, she thought. After all, who better to wear jewelry with a skull-thing on it than the town grave-digger? Well, temporary grave-digger. Just until papa got back. She turned the locket to the side, there was a slit running along it lengthwise. Did it open? She pried at it with her dirt-caked fingernails, leaving a smudge on the surface which she quickly wiped off with her dress, but nothing gave way. Fumbling with the odd thing for a while unsuccessfully, she picked up a small sharp twig from the ground and tried to leverage the seal to no avail. She sighed, having lost the battle.
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Nonetheless, her heart beat faster when she thought about the necklace. She was prouder than she had ever been before of her new prize and her wide round eyes didn’t grow any smaller, as she stared at the beautiful thing entranced, barely blinking. Eventually her joy culminated in an excited squeal, as she clutched the thing close to her chest and jumped up and down, stamping her feet. With careful agency, she placed the locket back behind the shield of her dress, where it once again made her jump in surprise as it coldly touched her skin. She looked up towards the light. There was still plenty left.
“Okay!” she clapped her hands together, shaking her head and then putting on the quasi masculine voice “Time to get to work!” she grunted. She walked towards the corpse and looked at it, making a mental list. The eyes were sunken, the skin was dark and bruised in places. It had painted lines on its face and it was wrapped in the usual overly stained white sheet. Her fingers ran over the material. “Rough,” she mumbled. Esper sighed in exasperation. Just to be sure, she ran her fingers over the slim body that had barely no more meat on it than her own. Nothing. She looked at tattoos on the girl’s face, thin lines ran in circular patterns over her forehead and eyes and Esper cocked her head to the side and knelt down, placing a finger on one of the lines.
Tracing the pattern idly around its face, following the flow of the lines for as far as they went, she stared in fixation for a while. Once she had finished the route, she lifted her finger up and continued staring at the dead, expressionless face. It seemed so blank. Empty. “Bird!” Esper spontaneously cried out loud towards it and fell backwards, laughing to herself. Once she had settled down, she giddily moved back closer towards the dead thing and stared towards the unmoved lips. “Where are you from?” she asked the corpse. “I like your face. It’s pretty. We both have pretty things!” she said with a toothy grin.
Esper laid down on the ground next to the girl and stared up towards the light. After a silent minute, she raised her own arm up in the air and just let it sit upright for a while. “You know what would be nice? If we could fall up, you know?” She turned her head towards the body, no response. She turned her head back, her arm still raised into the air. Idly, she curled her fingers in and out, as the gentle breeze enveloped them, rising once more from the abyss, the air causing the familiar rustle of leaves and grass. It was so warm. “Yeah, I wish you could stay too. But I have to bury you.” The wind ran through the gaps in her fingers and she sighed, turning her head the other way towards the direction the current was heading, back to the Burrow. “Okay, okay,” she muttered out towards it, sitting back up right with a glum expression.
She looked back at the corpse sadly. “Hey, I have to move you now or I’ll get in trouble.” Somewhat unsurprisingly, the dead body lay there still unmoving, as one would expect of a corpse, under ideal circumstances. “I wish you could stay longer too, but it’s not up to me.” She shrugged, getting up and wiping the dirt off of her back. “Don’t worry, there are lots and lots of people down there. A lot of them are really, really nice! I’m sure they’ll take good care of you! You have such a pretty face!”
Bending down slightly, she touched the lines on the body’s face one more time. “You ready?” Esper swung her arms around a bit to loosen up and touched her toes in a stretch. She knelt down next to the girl “Me? My name’s Esper. What? Yeah! We can be friends!” she squealed in delight, but her expression quickly faded. “But we can’t see each other for a while,” she muttered, her glance sinking. “I’m not allowed to go down yet…,” she said, kicking the dirt. “But when I do, we can play together, all day, okay? I promise!” Suddenly the loose ends of the cloth-wrap wave around, as a particularly strong gust of wind now rose from the chasm. “Alright!” Esper cried out sharply, snapping at the wind, clearly agitated at its commanding tone.
She placed her hands on the girl’s side. “This will be a little rough, but it’s the last time, okay? You’ll be at the very-very-very bottom after this.” Her fingers clenched tightly into the girl’s arm and side as she strained to roll her over once, towards her left. She was heavy for someone so small. But Esper had moved larger people and sure enough, the body quickly rolled to the side and fell down into the black chasm, the white cloth, half loosened by the movement, sailing nigh-free in the air. “Bye!” Esper cried as she waved down. It didn’t take more than a second for the body of the girl to vanish into the darkness.
Esper turned around back towards the path home and wondered what she would do for the rest of the day. Oh no! She stopped in her tracks and ran back as fast as she could to the ledge, where she let out an annoyed half-groan, half-yell at her own foolishness. She had forgotten to ask the girl what her name was.