Chapter 21 - In a Dark Forest

The long haired, thin girl with delicate features stared into the rain veiled darkness, suddenly feeling very alone.

She quietly evaluated her situation, lying at the side of a muddy, rain soaked path in the middle of the forest. A week ago she wouldn't have dreamed that she'd be out in a storm like this for any reason. But here she was, following illusory threads that only she could see. She was clearly nuts, seeing things that weren’t real, hearing things that weren’t real.

She looked up at the path. Rain fell against her cheeks and she blinked a few times, wiping water from her eyes. A single golden thread hung in the sky amidst a tangled web of black smoke. Her feelings of uncertainty vanished as the haunting vision of her injured, scared friend backed against the shrine flashed in her memory.

"Char Char you idiot!" Yuzu cursed under her breath. With an annoyed expression on her face she pulled herself to her feet, reaching out and grabbing onto tree roots and rocks to climb back to the path. Her eyes still on the golden thread, she made her way once again up the path and eventually found herself at the top, staring out at the plateau. The destination of the web of threads came into view - a lumpy mass of black with a speck of gold hovered over a quiet, lonely stone shrine.

Yuzu approached the shrine, noticing that the tangled knot had grown larger and somewhat more solid in form compared to the afternoon. Even without touching the threads she could hear whispers of snarls and gnashing teeth on the wind. There was an urgency to the energy in the air.

In her heart, she knew that the time of her premonition had nearly come!

Yuzu stepped forward so that she was directly in front of the shrine. It glimmered vividly as she approached it, as if there was golden dust embedded in the stone walls and roof of the structure. She paid it little attention as her gaze was directed upwards to the knot of threads floating in the sky.

With her hands raised up, she reached out to the golden thread that represented Char Char and grabbed hold. A horrible scream of pain and terror ripped through Yuzu's body as she connected with the thread. An unearthly howl bellowed in her mind as her connection to the thread evoked the vision of Char Char's death with incredible intensity.

It was almost too much for Yuzu to bear as she nearly released the thread. Her ears were bursting with discordant sounds as she pulled on the thread as hard as she could. A jarring, screeching storm of noise reverberated through her, making her feel as if she was being torn apart by the chaotic, clashing vibrations.

A wild gale rose up around Yuzu's body, buffeting her cloak and ripping her hood from her head. Thick, sharp raindrops pelted at her face as she let out a cry of effort and frustration. Pain seared through her entire body as she pulled with all her might!

Suddenly, Yuzu’s grip gave way as she collapsed to her knees, chest heaving from exertion. She trembled as she braced herself on all fours, her head pounding with an intense migraine. She retched into the muddy grass, each beat of her heart sending waves of nausea through her body.

It took her several minutes before she had recovered enough to look up at the knot of fate above the shrine. It hung in the air, unaffected by her efforts.

Knot of Fate. Yuzu had decided to call it that on her journey through the darkness. It was a knot composed of fate threads, threads which somehow linked the souls of people to events, places and each other. Threads which foretold the gruesome death of a girl who, though she was spoiled and clueless, nosy and annoying, did not deserve to die.

Yuzu felt her breath catch in her throat as she ground her teeth together. Her clothes were soaked through at this point, but the discomfort and cold barely registered in her consciousness.

She had to try again. She had to find a way. She fought through the throbbing pain of the headache and stood up, steeling herself against the feeling of conviction that had brought her to this point.

As she stared back at the knot above the shrine, she noticed that the small stone structure had taken on a quiet illuminescense. The golden dust that flecked its surface seemed to sparkle under an invisible light.

On top of the stone roof at the front of the shrine a symbol had begun to form in the dust. It was a series of five concentric circles with lines connecting between the rings. The lines were staggered, with the outer rings having more connections than the inner rings.

Her pain and discomfort seemed to melt away as Yuzu realized she recognized the symbol. It was the same symbol that was inlaid in silver on the ornate chest!

Without thinking, she stepped forward, extending her hand towards the symbol.

A pure white light began blossoming between the symbol and her hand. Where the light touched her body, the colours became desaturated and pale. Her skin became white as snow, and her long black hair appeared silver.

As Yuzu touched the symbol, the light suddenly engulfed her completely, flashing with an intensity that lit up the entire plateau!

The flash only lasted a moment, then the light disappeared. Darkness resettled against the shrine as the golden flecks faded to black. The girl in front of it had vanished with the light.

~

As the flash of white light blossomed on the rocky plateau, a young Kumin girl with a diamond face and amber eyes looked up from beneath the forest canopy some distance below the plateau.

Rain poured down in torrents, draping the forest in a heavy veil that swallowed up the light from Char Char's hooded lantern.

She had stumbled in the brush for almost two hours, nearly getting lost as she navigated her way through the pitch black forest. The only thing that saved her from being hopelessly lost was the trail of yellow ribbons that she had tied around the trees on the return journey that afternoon. Even though their bright colour reflected the light from the lantern, making them stand out in the darkness, Char Char found herself wishing that she had placed them closer together. More than once she had misjudged the direction of the next ribbon and had to backtrack to recover her bearings.

Still, she was in a good mood as she hummed a soft tune to herself. Her hooded cloak was thick and completely water proof. Her leather pants kept her legs dry, and her feet were taken care of by tall, thick soled boots that nearly went up to her knees. She wore a pair of leather gloves and carried a small sack of supplies in a waterproofed leather satchel bag hanging at her side. In her left hand she held her black iron lantern, and in her right she had a sturdy walking stick.

In the satchel she carried a small flask of water, a length of rope, matches, an extra flask of oil for the lantern, citronwood incense, a small knife and a spool of yellow ribbon. Most importantly she had also brought a smoothly polished crystal orb. It was Edwin's lodestone, which she had pilfered from his guest room just prior to dinner that evening.

Her plan was to attract spirits to the shrine using the orb to gather spiritual energy!

Her motives for making the journey were simple - to find adventure. To see something exciting or mysterious or unusual! It was not that she truly believed that by bringing the orb to the shrine she would get a mystical response, but rather that she allowed herself to get swept away by her imagination. She imagined herself the heroine in a story, taking the plunge into a new and exciting world. If she woke up tomorrow and nothing had changed, she would simply find another adventure to latch on to.

Making a solo journey through a pitch black forest guided only by a hooded lantern peaked her imagination. She wasn't afraid of being attacked by wild animals this close to the city, but in her mind she imagined herself fighting off a bear or a wild boar with her walking stick. The fact that it was storming made the excursion more legitimate as well. It set the mood. Of course, she was well prepared and dressed for the adventure so she was quite comfortable and hardly wet at all.

As for why it had to be tonight - her impatience drove her to action. After coming up with the idea of bringing the orb to the shrine, she simply couldn't wait for the next day. Edwin's insistence that she not use the orb in the shrine simply increased her excitement. After returning home and eating dinner she packed her bags. She had planned to sneak out earlier but had accidentally taken a nap and woke after it was already dark.

As the flash of white light dissipated, Char Char's eyes lit up. That was no lightning strike! Although she couldn't really tell how far she was from the shrine, or the exact direction of the plateau, her imagination convinced her that the strange light had to have come from the shrine.

Due to the darkness and the rough terrain, she couldn't proceed any faster than she already was. She made sure to still carefully follow the trail of ribbons - they were her guide, after all, and led to the same place as the light. She pretended that the ribbons were actually left for her by the spirit that lived in the shrine.

As she reached the narrow stony path that led up to the plateau her heart quickened in anticipation. Before long, she ascended to the top. Holding her lantern high in front of her she approached the shrine that was situated at the far end of the plateau near the cliff.

Lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the boulders and patched grass. The shrine seemed smaller in the darkness, a black geometric silhouette against a black backdrop.

She knelt down in front of it, not minding the mud on her boots and knees, and placed the lantern on the ground beside her. The warm flame illuminated her and the shrine, casting long, dark shadows along the ground that Char Char found most aesthetically pleasing. Unslinging the bag from her back, she pulled out the sticks of incense, taking care to keep them dry.

"Good evening, Lady of the Shrine." She said, bowing towards the stone structure. Her eyes caught sight of the fruit they had left in the cracked stone bowl. Two of them were in the bowl with bite marks, one was missing and one was lying in half eaten chunks in front of the shrine next to her knees.

She ignored these details.

Taking out the matches she tried to light the incense. However the humidity of the air and the random gusts of wind and rain caused her multiple attempts to end in failure.

Her lips went taut in a brief flicker of annoyance before she reestablished a pious expression. She pulled out the fist sized crystal orb from her bag and held it aloft towards the shrine in both hands.

"Lady of the Shrine, please accept my spiritual offering!" She bowed deeply again.

Cupping the ball in her hands, she closed her eyes and concentrated. Sparks of lightning began emitting from the center of the globe, bouncing off the inside surface of the orb. At the end of her breath the sparks faded without congealing into a steady white light. She took a deep inhale and tried again.

A long, haunting howl echoed through the forest, breaking Char Char's concentration.

A wolf? She thought, frowning as she peered out into the darkness past the shrine. Wolves were not uncommon in the forest. She had heard howls before, but there was something unearthly about this howl that disturbed her.

A feeling of unease welled up inside Char Char's chest as she began to feel the cold bite of the wind for the first time that night.