by Ellen Oh
From ahead, he heard the steady approach of horseless carriages. Stepping off the road to let them pass, Jiho stared curiously at the unusual vehicles. These were the larger horseless carriages called trucks, used in Orion, the closest neighboring kingdom. They were filled with men, women, and young boys, none of whom were from Joson. These machines usually couldn’t survive this close to the forest. But like Lord Fairfax’s fancy carriage, they’d all been enhanced by magic. Jiho whistled to himself. Someone had spent a fortune to magic them all.
Suddenly, the trucks came to an abrupt stop and Jiho became keenly aware of the change in the atmosphere of the Kidahara. Jiho had a sixth sense when it came to magical creatures. It was an ability all the members of his family had. He felt an intense chill and became aware of the unnatural silence. He could feel it in his stomach; the churning of his gut. Danger was near.
A few men on the trucks jumped off and started running into the forest. A man in a black suit stepped out of the lead truck and yelled in alarm. “Where are you guys going? Get back here this instant! That’s an order!”
A sickly sweet aroma assaulted Jiho’s nose, causing a wave of dizziness.
“Vorax,” he whispered. He plugged his nose and breathed through his mouth. Running toward the yelling man, he shouted, “Tell everyone to cover their noses and don’t run into the forest!”
“But my men,” the man in the black suit replied. Suddenly his angry expression turned strange and vacant. He swayed from side to side before trying to walk into the forest. Jiho grabbed him and pushed him back toward the truck.
“Let me go!” The man was trying to shove past Jiho. “I must find out who wears that glorious perfume. It smells like heaven.”
“Boy, would you be surprised,” Jiho said as he fought back the struggling man.
“Cover your noses!” he yelled at the Orion workers, staring from the trucks. “Tell everyone to cover their noses or they will run into the forest and be lost forever.”
Two men with face masks came and grabbed the man in the suit and pulled him back into the truck, while another group of masked soldiers approached Jiho. They wore dark green uniforms and carried what looked sort of like a rifle, but with strange attachments like nothing Jiho had seen before. Before Jiho could figure out what they were, the lead soldier motioned him forward.
“Boss man says we need all our crew,” the lead soldier said. “Do you know where they went?”
Jiho sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was enter the Kidahara, but he knew exactly what had happened to the Orion men, and he couldn’t in good conscience leave them to their fate. It was too horrible.
He dropped his knapsack on the side of the road.
“Follow me,” he said. “But be quiet. We don’t want to invite anything else to this party.”
He took in whiffs of the sickly aroma to locate where the Vorax could be. The Vorax’s magic didn’t work on Jiho, but the smell made him nauseous.
“What was that odor?” the leader asked. “Why aren’t you covering your nose?”
“Magic doesn’t work on me,” Jiho explained. “I’m immune to it.”
“Magic?” the leader asked incredulously. “You’re saying magic caused our workers to run into the forest?”
“It’s a Vorax,” Jiho said. “A spiderlike creature that lures its prey with an aroma that bewitches humans into its web and then eats them.”
“A spider? Just how big is it?”
“It’s bigger than your truck,” Jiho said.
At his words, the Orion men grew silent.
Jiho moved swiftly through the forest, easily following the trail of the four men. The sickly odor was so strong he could taste it.
He put up a finger to his mouth to warn the others. “We’re close, please be very quiet.”
Slowly creeping forward, he led the soldiers around a clump of trees and froze. A gigantic web sprawled through a large open space and was woven around the trunks of nearly ten trees that surrounded it. Trapped along one section of the web were the unmoving forms of four Orion workers. But the worst part of it all was the enormous black Vorax in the center, busily wrapping one of the men into a silken cocoon, using six of its twelve long hairy legs.
“That’s the biggest web I’ve ever s—” The voice trailed off as the soldiers took in the horror of the Vorax for the first time.
The legs of the Vorax stopped, and it began to turn its body around as Jiho and the men frantically ducked out of sight. If the back of a Vorax was frightening, the front was far worse. Twelve large red eyes and a gaping mouth, with pincers dripping acid that burned through the foliage below it.
“So if magic doesn’t work on you, then that thing can’t hurt you, right?” the lead soldier whispered.
Jiho glared in annoyance. “That thing doesn’t need magic to kill me.”
“I say we shoot it,” another soldier offered.
Jiho shook his head. “It has an impenetrable shell. All you’ll do is make it mad.”
“So what do we do?”
“I’m going to make a birdcall,” Jiho said.
“A what?”
Ignoring the soldiers, Jiho remembered the training that he had done with his father the first time they’d trekked through the Kidahara. He could hear his father’s voice in his head.
The only thing that a Vorax fears is the Aquila. Even the mere hint of its call will send the Vorax scuttling away to its deepest den.
The Aquila was one magical being that Jiho had never seen in the Kidahara. He knew of it only from books and hand drawings that were in his father’s library. It was the largest bird in the world. An eagle with the body of a lion. With a resolute nod, Jiho turned to the Orions.
“As soon as you see the Vorax enter its burrow, you have to cut the men down as quickly as possible,” Jiho said. “But be careful not to tug at the strings, just slice them with your knife, or the Vorax will be having a smorgasbord for dinner tonight.”
The soldiers pulled out their knives and stood behind Jiho, who moved as close to the web as he dared. Cupping his mouth, he let out a loud piercing caw with a deep shrill. The Vorax froze. But as soon as Jiho let out another round of caws, it skittered backward into a large burrow at the other end of the web.
“Now,” Jiho said.
They all rushed under the web to free the trapped men. Jiho crawled to the farthest man, the one who was being cocooned, and sliced the silky threads free until the man fell to the ground. Jiho cut the dazed man out of the cocoon and gave him a hard slap.
“We have to get out of here,” Jiho whispered, and urged the man to begin crawling out from under the web. But as they reached the others, Jiho noticed the web begin to tremble. He looked up to see that while all the trapped men had been freed, one of the Orion rescuers had gotten her arm entangled in the web.
“Stop moving!” he whispered as loud as he could, but it was too late. They heard a chittering sound and watched in horror as the Vorax emerged from its burrow once more.
Jiho tried his Aquila call again, but this time the Vorax would not be fooled.
“Run!” he screamed as he cut through the threads holding the trapped soldier and pushed her free.
They all fled for their lives, just in time. Jiho glanced behind him to see the Vorax bound off the web and into the trees above them, nearly bending them horizontal with its weight. Then, with another mighty jump, the Vorax leaped in front of them and let out a high-pitched shriek. It stopped the team in their tracks, screaming from the pain in their eardrums. Jiho, unbothered by the magical shriek, whipped out his slingshot, picked up several large stones, and aimed them right into the Vorax’s cavernous jaws. As the enormous spider gagged, Jiho led the agonized Orions away.
The reprieve lasted seconds before the Vorax bounded into the trees again. Its twelve eyes were now fixated on Jiho, and it jumped into the tree directly in front of him.
Jiho screeched to a halt and tried to backpedal as he watched the Vorax readying itself for the attack. But
then a thunderous caw filled his ears. The skies darkened as a mighty wind assailed them. Before the Vorax could move, gigantic lion’s claws pierced through its mighty shell, sending twelve of the spider’s legs flailing in pain. A large eagle’s beak caught hold of a few legs and ripped them off, swallowing them in a quick gulp. The eagle’s head turned its golden eye on Jiho and once again let out its booming caw. It nodded as if to say thank you for the meal and then spread its wings and soared into the sky, carrying the Vorax in its claws.
Jiho collapsed onto the ground.
He had finally seen the mysterious Aquila.
Chapter 3
JIHO LED THE stunned group of Orions back to where their trucks had stopped. The boss man, whom Jiho had pushed to safety, was yelling at a whole bunch of people just as he spotted them returning. He broke into a relieved smile and hurried over.
“Palmers, you got everyone back safely!”
The man he called Palmers wiped a shaky hand across his forehead. “If it wasn’t for this kid, we would’ve all been dead.”
The rescued men were finally beginning to recover from their shock. But one was still blubbering and raging about the gigantic spider. He ran over to the boss man and shook him hard.
“Boss, I can’t do it! I have to go home! I’m not going into that hellhole again! They’ll kill us! They’ll kill us all!”
The boss gestured for the soldiers to take the screaming man away and turned to shake Jiho’s hand.
“Thanks a million, kid! You just saved me a whole lot of headaches and paperwork,” he said. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small bag that clinked in a musical jangle. “Here’s a little reward for your troubles.”
Jiho accepted the bag with a bow. He picked up his things and was turning to leave when the boss called out to him again.
“Hey, what’s your name, kid?”
“Jiho Park.”
“Listen, Jiho, we could really use someone like you who knows this place. Why don’t you join us? We pay ten silver pieces a day and three square meals. But for you, I’d give you twenty a day.”
“Twenty? Why so much for me?” Jiho asked.
“Because you know these woods and we don’t,” the boss man said, in all seriousness. “I mean, we got some locals on staff here, but they had no idea what was even going on! I need you. And I promise to make it worth your while.”
Once again Jiho was tempted. He’d made only ten silver pieces for two weeks’ worth of carving.
“I’m sorry, but my family needs me,” he said. But he paused, curious about something.
“Excuse me, how is it that you and all your workers can speak Joson so well?” Jiho asked.
The man pointed at a small silver disc attached to his belt. “It’s the universal translator,” he said with a smile. “It translates Joson, Bellprix, Urcian, you name it, it translates it into good old Orion.”
“But you are speaking Joson now,” Jiho said in confusion.
“Yeah, whatever special enhancements you people put on our universal translators are the most amazing thing! It translates any language into your native language, so that you hear it immediately. Brilliant, isn’t it? If you work for me, you can have one of your very own.”
Unless the universal translator could translate for the magical creatures in the Kidahara, Jiho didn’t think it was that useful.
“Sorry, I’ve got to go now,” he said.
“If you change your mind, come find me in town, the name’s Murtagh. Brock Murtagh,” the man shouted after him.
Jiho shook his head as he continued walking. What was it with people shouting things at him today? He sighed at the idea of all that money. The only thing that really kept him from taking the job was the idea of going back into the Kidahara. Seeing a Vorax and an Aquila in the same day was more than enough for a lifetime. Well, at least he got a reward for saving the men. He looked into the bag of coins the boss had given him and froze in shock. It looked like at least five gold coins.
A fortune.
The exhaustion and trauma of the near-death experience faded as exhilaration filled Jiho. He couldn’t wait to give it to his uncle and aunt. Here was finally hope for surviving the coming winter. With a wide grin showcasing his deep dimples, Jiho sprinted the rest of the way back to his uncle’s farm, only to freeze in horror.
The small farmstead he’d left behind in the morning was completely destroyed.
Chapter 4
HIS AUNT CALLED out his name in relief and pulled him into a tight embrace. His little sisters, Hana and Sera, huddled close to their aunt. Everyone was crying.
“It was a tornado!” Sera, the youngest, cried out. “If Auntie hadn’t seen it coming, it would have swept us all away!”
Hana wiped her eyes, trying to calm down. At nine, she was very serious and responsible. “Uncle got us all down into the root cellar. But we didn’t have time to save any of the animals.”
She began to weep again, and Jiho hugged her tight. Hana had always been close to the farm animals, feeding them every day.
“We’re glad you weren’t here,” his aunt whispered. “What if you’d been taken by the tornado?”
“What do you mean taken?” Jiho asked.
“There was something strange and unnatural about it,” his aunt explained. “Look how it hit only our land and none of the surrounding areas.”
Jiho was struck by the truth of her words. A tornado should have devastated the entire area, but the surrounding woods were completely untouched.
“Where’s Uncle?” Jiho asked.
The girls pointed into the field. They could see a dejected figure standing in the middle of the empty space. Jiho walked over with a heavy heart. There was nothing left. The entire farm had been ripped apart. And the cows, pigs, and chickens they depended upon were dead or gone.
His uncle turned at his approach. His usual serious expression had turned pale and grim.
“I’m going to have to send your aunt and the girls to my sister’s place in Iri village,” he said. “But their house is too small to take either of us in. We’ll have to look for work and camp out for a while.”
“What are you thinking of doing?” Jiho asked.
“There’s work at the iron mill over in Naga,” his uncle replied. “Might even let us sleep in the factory if we’re lucky.”
Jiho’s heart sank. The iron mill was a death trap. More men and women died every day in the factories than from bandits or monsters. And at three pieces of silver a day, the pay wasn’t worth the risk. The only place worse was the mines. But the mine owners didn’t use human workers.
“Uncle, you can’t work there. It’ll kill you.”
Uncle shook his head. “There’s not much choice, son. We’ve lost everything. We need money to rebuild.”
“I was in town today and some Orion men were there. They wanted me to work for them in clearing the forest. They offered me twenty silver a day. I can go join them.”
His uncle immediately shook his head. “No way we’re going to work with any Orions. They are untrustworthy backstabbers. Just look at Prince Roku.”
It troubled Jiho that his beloved uncle could be so close-minded. While it was true that Roku was not a good man, Jiho did not believe that all Orions were bad. “But it’s twenty silver per day! That’s a fortune! We would never make anywhere near that at the mill!”
His uncle’s face was grim and unmoving.
“We’re safer at the mill than in Kidahara. You know how dangerous the forest is. No, let’s not take any chances.”
Jiho’s lips tightened mulishly. “Uncle, you can’t go to the mill. You’ll catch iron lung. It would destroy my aunt and the girls. You have to stay here and start rebuilding. I’ll get the money you need.”
His uncle looked uneasy. “It’s not just the Orions that’s the problem. I don’t want you messing with the Kidahara. Remember what your father always said—”
“My father isn’t here,” Jiho said sharply. He opened his ba
g and took out all the supplies, the money he got from selling his arrowheads, and the bag of gold coins.
“Uncle, the reason I’m so late is because I helped save some Orion men who wandered into the Kidahara. They paid me in gold coins.” Jiho handed everything to his uncle. “That means you don’t have to go anywhere. You just need to start rebuilding so that my aunt and sisters can have a home again. I’ll make more money and help rebuild the farm with you. If I go now, I can catch up with the men before sunset.”
His uncle grabbed his shoulders in alarm. “Your father went into the Kidahara, and we’ve never seen him again. Jiho, you’re more than a nephew, you’re like my son. I don’t want to lose you too!”
Jiho smiled. “I’ll be careful. I still remember all the things my father taught me about the forest. I’ll be fine.”
His uncle argued on, pleading with him not to go. But Jiho refused to change his mind.
With a frustrated groan, his uncle gave in.
“You are so stubborn, just like your father,” he complained. He hugged Jiho hard. “Be smart, and be safe. Promise you’ll come home to us.”
Jiho bowed. “Nothing can keep me away.”
He looked toward the wreckage of the farmhouse and watched his aunt and sisters picking through the rubble. He stared hard, committing them to his memory. This was all that was left of his family.
“I’m going to go without saying goodbye to them,” he said. “They won’t understand; they’ll try to stop me.”
His uncle nodded, his eyes sorrowful as he gazed back at his nephew. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”
Jiho studied his uncle’s concerned face and felt a rush of affection and deep gratitude. His uncle and aunt provided Jiho and his sisters with love and a home when they needed it the most. Jiho would do anything to help them now in their hour of need.
Jiho bowed and then hugged his uncle. “Thanks, Uncle. I’ll come home soon. I promise.”
With one last look at his family, Jiho turned and ran for the road.
Chapter 5
WHEN JIHO WAS little, his father would take him into the forest. His father taught him how to choose a tree and pray to its spirit before chopping it down. At those times, Jiho would always shudder. It felt as if an unseen being had walked through him. But he never felt that he was in danger. It wasn’t just that he felt safe being with his father. It was the knowledge that the forest would not hurt them.