Chapter 16 - Tangled Threads

It didn’t take long before the trio lost sight of the path. With the mountains ahead of them they forged forward, climbing over fallen trees and stepping over thorny, leafless bramble. Despite there being no signs of civilization, it was fairly easy to tell which direction they were headed. In addition to the mountains rising up to the north, there was a steady incline to the north and east. If they really did get lost, all they would have to do is head down the hills and they’d eventually bump into the east side of the city.

“I think it might be this way?” Char Char pointed uncertainly towards where she saw might be a vague path in the trees.

“It’s up there.” Yuzu said, pointing up a steep incline about twenty metres ahead of them to the right.

“Really?” Char Char glanced up the slope, and then settled her eyes on Yuzu with a thoughtful look.

Yuzu had a decisiveness to her demeanour that gave Edwin the impression that she was a very straightforward and confident person. However to Char Char, this was completely atypical. The Yuzu she knew never took the lead. She had been in a strange mood all day.

Yuzu noticed the curious look from Char Char and ignored it, trudging up the hill with a sour look on her face. The unsettled feeling in her gut had lightened a little, but still there was something compelling her forward. Golden threads seemed to guide the way ahead, their wispy trails leading up the ridge. Something up there was beckoning her, something up there was pulling those strings.

As they approached the rocky hill, they found the remnants of an old, worn out dirt path. It wound up in a steep manner that Yuzu and Char Char recalled with familiarity from their memories, back when they had discovered the shrine by chance.

“This is it!” Char Char looked excitedly to Yuzu.

Roused with enthusiasm, Char Char overtook Yuzu on the path, which rose at a quick but not unmanageable rate up the side of the hill. The terrain on either side of them became gradually more steep. It felt that they were climbing up a small mountain in the midst of the forest. After a short climb, they reached the top, where the ground leveled out to reveal a grassy plateau.

Unlike the hilly forest terrain below them, the top of the plateau was relatively flat and clear of trees. Large boulders jutted out of the ground, some twice as tall as yuzu. To the east the ground continued to rise, with the faded path meandering its way out of sight into the trees.

At the north end of the plateau the ground dropped off sharply forming the edge of a cliff, providing a clear view of the forest beyond. The mountains seemed much closer now, their white peaks clear and sharp in the distance.

In the center of the plateau a single small shrine had been erected out of stone. It was only a meter high, with a square base made of the smooth dark grey rock that was common in this region. It had three walls, each with a round circular window in it, and shingled triangular roof. The front was open, with a stone bowl sitting in the center of the sheltered structure.

Leaves and dirt were piled up at the corners of the shrine, and the bowl inside was cracked. The shrine had clearly not been visited for quite some time, but aside from the bowl, the structure was sturdy and showed minimal signs of wear.

By the time Yuzu and Edwin climbed to the top of the path, Char Char had already reached the shrine. She was leaning down, brushing off leaves and branches from the roof. Yuzu paused for a moment at the top, giving Edwin time to catch up to her. With a silent inhale, he put on a smile as he pulled alongside her.

“Wow, there really is a shrine out here.” Edwin said with forced cheerfulness. The girl didn’t even acknowledge him as she started walking towards the shrine.

“She’s just like that, huh...” Edwin muttered as he watched her back, wondering if he really should have come. “It’s like I don’t even exist to her.”

He walked over to a flat, wide boulder near the shrine and set down the bags and basket, taking his time as he stretched his tired shoulders. The two girls had started tending to the shrine, with Char Char animatedly reminiscing about the past.

At one point, Yuzu glanced over to him, then said something to Char Char, who glanced over as well. With a smile and a sigh, Char Char stood up and brushed off her knees, then headed over to Edwin.

“What do you think?” Char Char asked.

“It’s amazing that there’s a shrine all the way out here.” Edwin said, “There doesn’t seem to be any path that leads here, so I wonder what it’s for.”

“There’s a legend that this shrine was built for a young maiden who had gotten lost in this forest, long ago.” Char Char said, sitting down on the wide, flat boulder. “She had disappeared one night, searching for moon lilies, which are apparently a kind of flower that glow at night as if they were reflecting the light of the moon. Her whole village went searching for her, but she had been swallowed by the mists. Her father built this shrine, to help her find her way home.”

“My dad told me about it, when I was young, and took Yuzu and I here to see it. We used to come here and play, and keep the shrine clean.”

“That’s very honourable.” Edwin said, “Too few people these days show respect to the spirits.”

As they spoke, Yuzu was quietly walking around the shrine. To her two companions, she looked like she was daydreaming, taking a break after the long hike. However, Yuzu was actually extremely tense, to the point that her hands were shaking out of fear. She had sent Char Char away with the excuse of entertaining Edwin, to hide her current state of mind.

~

From the moment Yuzu had climbed up to the plateau, she noticed that the illusory golden strands of smoke, which had been fading in strength the farther they went from the city, were increasingly vibrant in the vicinity of the shrine. There was an aura of energy that seemed to radiate through the air.

Just above the shrine floated a churning ball of golden and black strands. It was as if a whole number of the illusory threads were drawn to the same spot and tangled with each other in a knot.

Neither Edwin nor Char Char had acted like anything out of the ordinary, so Yuzu could only silently acknowledge that she was the only one who could see them. She had approached the tangle of threads with caution and trepidation, while trying to hide the fact that anything was out of the ordinary from her companions.

As she brushed idly at the dirt and twigs at the shrine next to Char Char, she noticed that one of the bright strands tangled in the knot was directly attached to Char Char’s heart. It extended from her body, floating up in the air and looping lazily around the area before getting tied up by a number of black and charcoal wisps of smoke.

Inside the knot of smoke, it appeared that Char Char’s vibrant golden thread lost its lustre and faded into nothing.

Yuzu felt a cold bead of sweat form on the back of her neck as she shot a quick look at Char Char, who was happily humming to herself. Clearing her throat, Yuzu glanced overtly over to Edwin, who was sitting on a boulder.

“That guy looks really bored.” She said in an accusatory tone. Char Char glanced over as well.

“Yeah. I guess - I guess I should talk to him, huh. Since I invited him.” She sighed and put on a smile. “Be right back.”

Yuzu waited for Char Char to start talking to Edwin before she stood in front of the shrine. The knot of threads was floating above her, just out of reach of her hands, but she felt intuitively that she could reach out with her consciousness - her spirit? Perhaps that was the better term.

In her mind’s eye, she reached out to Char Char’s golden thread and touched it.

A crashing of thunder and rain beat down upon her as Yuzu found herself enveloped in the midst of a dark storm. Discordant howls and snarls surrounded her as the image of a soaked and bleeding Char Char backed up against the shrine, clutching her mangled arm.

Though Yuzu was standing in front of Char Char, her eyes stared straight through her. Those often bright and jubilant eyes were now intensely focused and alert. She was shivering fiercely, but her lips were taut in defiance of the enemies around her. In her hands was a heavy walking staff that was broken in half, its jagged end dripping in thick, black blood.

“This is it.” Char Char muttered, lips trembling. “I’m sorry, dad. I’m sorry, grandpa.”

At least a dozen wolves circled the lone, injured girls, their orange fangs bared, lips curled in snarls. They were bigger than Yuzu imagined wolves to be, nearly a meter and a half long from nose to tail, their muscular bodies thick and heavy. They did not look healthy, with patches of diseased flesh showing under their mottled fur. Most disturbingly, sinister looking fern-like fronds were growing out of their bodies, their leaves oscillating as if of their own will. Some of the fronds were more tendril-like and curled around the limbs and bodies of the wolves. Others grew out at strange angles, with the largest fronds ending in a bulb that looked like a human eyeball.

The wolves limped and growled, clearly in great pain from the strange parasite that was eating away at their bodies. But they were also hungry. Without warning, they pounced towards Char Char as a group. Her stab with the walking stick had no effect as the wolves bit down on her shoulder and legs.

Yuzu backed away in horror as Char Char’s body disappeared under the wolves. Her screams were quickly replaced by the snapping of frothing jaws ripping apart flesh.

Yuzu fell to the floor, losing her spiritual connection to the knot of threads. The darkness lifted as she found her awareness return to the physical world. She was breathing hard, trembling in fear and dismay.

She suddenly understood the meaning of the first set of the illusory sounds she heard while in the white world.

They were a premonition of her friend’s violent death!