Ellanor and the Curse on the Nine-Tailed Fox

by K T Durham

  She had been dreaming of that girl again. Though parts of the dream were fuzzy and difficult to recall, some parts were surprisingly clear. She vaguely remembered seeing Christmas decorations, though Christmas had already come and gone. There was a tall boy with a lopsided smile, and there had been some sort of attack in the middle of the night at an old couple’s home. There was something familiar about that couple, but oddly she couldn’t quite recall who they were, as their faces had been fuzzy, too. But this time, she remembered the girl’s name.

  Goldie.

  Why was she dreaming of that girl again? Elly frowned, clutching her head. Who was Goldie running from? More importantly, who was Goldie?

  Then she winced when she remembered her wounds. She looked down and gaped in amazement; both her shoulders seemed to have healed completely!

  How was that possible? She checked Nebulane and saw that only two hours had passed since she fell asleep. She stared down at the second hand ticking away, and she was overcome by an awful, sinking feeling.

  No. It wasn’t possible.

  She tapped Nebulane twice. The date sprang up in a glimmer of silver Yahana runes. And her heart lurched.

  February 5.

  No. It wasn’t possible.

  Her head started spinning. She was positive she had left London and teleported to Seoul on December 24, Christmas Eve. She had stayed for eight days with Jong-Min and his grandmother in Seoul, and teleported to Jejudo on the evening of January 2. She would have been stranded in this petrified forest for almost twelve hours, and it should be January 3. Not February 5.

  It was not possible that she had been stranded here for over a month.

  But then it slowly occurred to her that everything about this petrified forest was outside the realm of possibility. Dark powers beyond her reckoning governed this place, and the same powers must distort time here. If she had indeed been stranded in this forest for over a month, then that would explain why her wounds had healed so completely.

  Reeling from shock, she sank to the ground and dropped her head in her hands. “Noooo,” she moaned, clutching Greymore to her chest. She had lost time, precious, precious time.

  She couldn’t lose any more.

  Marlow was tugging at something at her neck. “What is it?” she asked wearily, looking down. It was then that she realized she had completely forgotten about Grandpapa’s mustard seed.

  It will give you faith and courage when you most need it.

  She’d been wearing it all this time. As she fingered the tiny, yellow mustard seed, something tugged at her heart, and she sat up on her knees and clasped her hands together and closed her eyes.

  “Freya, I am lost, in every way possible. Please help me. It is so very, very dark here.”

  For a long while she stayed still with her head bowed, and she thought about her Mama, Papa, Luca, Aron, and Kaelan. Oh, how she missed them! She thought about Horace and Miriam, Lily and Maddy. She had promised to see them again. Then she thought about Jong-Min and his grandmother, and her eyes teared up. Was the old woman still alive? Was Jong-Min safe?

  Then slowly, something kindled in her heart. Maybe it was anger, defiance, longing, even some bitterness. Anything was better than the deadened nothingness of apathy and hopelessness.

  She kissed the little mustard seed and stood up.

  No, no, no.

  She was not going to die here. She had already gone through too much to give up now. She was going to find Guardian Graille and have the orb restored, and she was going back to Seoul and see Jong-Min and his grandmother. She would see her friends in Gaya again, and she would go back to Alendria and see Aron and her family. She would go to Kaelan and find out what the kiss really meant.

  She would not perish here. No way.

  A flame in her heart kindled, and then slowly, like a fog lifting, she saw that the forest did not look so dark anymore. Were her eyes playing tricks on her? She blinked and looked up and gasped.

  There was a small shaft of light shining through the dark cluster of canopies! She could not tell whether it was sunlight or moonlight. But light it was. The flame in her heart burgeoned, and she jumped up to her feet.

  She was famished and parched. She rummaged inside her backpack and unscrewed the cap on the water bottle and wrinkled her nose when she caught a whiff – the water smelled old, so she took only small sips. She groaned in dismay when she saw that the tangerines had grown disgustingly mouldy.

  Now she understood why the food tasted so bad – they had all gone bad because time moved faster here. Nevertheless, she forced herself to eat a stale rice cracker. She needed to eat something for sustenance.

  She put a hand on her Royan. Greymore was still silent, clamped shut by whatever dark forces were at play in this forest. Her stomach protested louder when she thought about the ample supply of food and drink that Mama had prepared for her, all of which was stored in her Royan and inaccessible as long as she was stuck in this macabre forest.

  It was ironic. She had tried so hard to make sure she was well equipped for this mission. But it didn’t matter; in the end, so much hadn’t gone according to plan. She had not accounted for the remote possibility that she wouldn’t be able to use magic and be stranded without food or water in such a terrifying place as this. She had to get out of here. Otherwise, she would probably die of hunger and thirst sooner than anything else.

  Then she heard something, and her heart did a somersault as her ears pricked up. It was unmistakable, a faint tinkling in the distance, and her heart leapt high on that somersault.

  Water!

  She swivelled around and around, trying to locate the direction from which the sound was coming. Where was it? She took out Nebulane, and her heart jumped when she saw the blue and red dots blinking up at her. She was being beckoned to the northeast!

  Quickly, she climbed up the ravine and swung herself up onto the ledge. She walked for over an hour, taking care to focus on Nebulane and not be daunted by the petrified trees that seemed to be laughing and mocking her: “You’re going in circles! You’ll never get anywhere!”

  You’re not going to break me, she thought defiantly, fingering the mustard seed.

  Then she heard it before she saw it, and she cried out and started running. Yes!

  There behind a cluster of petrified trees were two large waterfalls gushing into a large lake, and nestled between the waterfalls was the mouth of a cave. At the centre of the lake stood a very tall, rocky pinnacle perched like a skeletal finger, ominous and foreboding. The sight of the water was such a welcome contrast to the monotonous repetition of dead trees that she started laughing and jumping up and down with joy.

  Then she froze when she saw two blue dots blinking at her from the mouth of the dark cave.

  Guardian Graille!

  But she had no time for a second thought when something red, thin, and slimy shot out from the water and encircled itself around her right leg, and she screamed.

  Elly screamed as she was being yanked high up into the air. The thing that had wrapped itself around her leg was some sort of red tentacle covered in ugly, foul-smelling sores, and the stench was so overwhelming that she felt sick. With a cry, she grabbed her dagger from its sheath and sliced blindly, and then there was a shriek so terrible that it seemed to ricochet throughout the forest. Then she was falling, with the severed tentacle still attached to her leg.

  She plunged into the ice-cold water, and the shock of it made her gasp; water filled her mouth, her lungs were on fire, and her arms flailed madly as she fought her way up to the surface.

  But then another tentacle grabbed her by both legs this time, and she felt for sure she would die right then and there; there was no way she could overcome this monstrous thing in the icy water. She would surely drown or freeze to death first before it pulled her apart.

  Then there was a roaring in her ears
as she felt herself being yanked upwards again, and then suddenly she broke the surface, sputtering and coughing. The next thing she knew, she was being flung towards the rocky waterfalls, screaming and flailing like a ragged doll. She would not be able to stop herself from hitting against those rocks –

  She tucked herself into a ball to minimize the impact. She slammed against one of the rocks, and she cried out as she felt something in her body fracture. She tumbled and slid down, landing painfully on a ledge close to the waterfalls. “Ouch,” she cried out with a gasp, the right side of her body searing. Thank goodness she was made of much sturdier stuff than humans. Otherwise, the impact would definitely have broken her body and killed her.

  Dripping wet and trembling from the adrenaline and the cold, she whipped out her bow and arrow, wincing at the burning pain in her right side. To her horror, she saw that the water monster had multiple tentacles, and at least half a dozen were thrashing about as water rained down on her. She narrowed her eyes and got ready to make a dash for it in case one of them came for her again.

  Then there was a loud roaring as water surged and displaced, and she saw its head break the surface. The sight and stench of it made her stomach churn: it was an eyeless and bulbous red thing covered in putrid sores, with a gaping mouth crammed with rows of razor-sharp, bleeding, rotting teeth. The thing emitted another ear-piercing cry that shook her to the core. It was surely the ugliest, most abominable thing she had ever seen.

  Then that bulbous head with its rotting mouth turned towards her and hissed hungrily, and her stomach clenched. Another tentacle hovered high above the water, readying. “Leave me alone!” she screamed, and then she squinted and took aim. The arrow sprung forth with a resounding thwang! It pierced the head just above its gaping mouth, and the monster shrieked so terribly that Elly doubled over and covered her ears. The creature thrashed about, and with a great guttural sputter, it submerged in the water.

  Then all was quiet, except for the rushing waterfalls and the drip, drip of the water seeping from her onto the ground.

  She bent over and began retching, nauseous from the shock of the encounter. Trembling, she checked her coat pocket. “Are you all right, Marlow?” she whispered.

  To her relief, the sodden furry head popped out and glared at her, admonishing: What were you doing, trying to get me drowned? She looked down at her sodden belt; her Royan was not affected by water, but it wouldn’t have made much difference since Greymore was still silent as ever.

  Just as she was getting up, her battered body aching, a low chuckle made her freeze.

  “I see that you have acquainted yourself with my captor, Razunok,” a silky voice said smoothly.

  “Wh-what?” she stammered, astounded to hear somebody talking to her. She had not known, until now, just how badly she would come to miss the sound of another’s voice. It came from somewhere above her, and she turned.

  Her eyes widened at the sight of the gleaming white fur, the nine tails spread out like a peacock’s, glittering blue eyes looking down at her from the mouth of the cave, and she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  “It’s you,” she said softly, staggering back.

  The kumiho. Graille, the Guardian of Light.

  PART THREE

  The Nine-Tailed Fox

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Invisible Prison

  Dripping wet and shivering from cold and shock, Elly gaped up at the nine-tailed fox. “I’ve found you,” she said in wonder, not quite sure whether she was hallucinating. After all that had happened, this hardly seemed real. Marlow crawled out of her pocket, soaked, and settled himself on her shoulder, fixing his eyes on the fox warily.

  Guardian Graille arched his back and sat down on all fours. “Ellanor Celendis. I wish we could meet under better circumstances,” he said calmly, swishing his magnificent tails.

  Elly wished that she didn’t look such a wreck. She sank down on one knee shakily and bowed her head. “Guardian Graille, it is an honour to finally meet you,” she said in Yahana, her voice trembling.

  She had been through hell to get here, but she still remembered the importance of proper decorum. “Always treat the Guardians with the utmost respect,” Grandpapa had said sternly. “Some of them are temperamental. If you so much as smirk at them, they would smite you. So be mindful, my dear.”

  Graille nodded. “Alas, you see me languishing in this dreadful prison. It has been almost 365 days since I last laid eyes on another living creature apart from my charming captor.” His piercing blue eyes darted towards the still water.

  She drew in a deep breath. “Guardian Graille, I believe you know the purpose of my being here. I have been looking for you.” She winced again at the pain in her side. How she wished she had manna! “I’m here on behalf of my people in Alendria. We need your help to restore Graille, the orb of light. Please help us. Without your help, Alendria will fall. Please.” As she put her hand on her belt, her heart clenched at the sudden realization: the orb was stored in her Royan, which had been clamped shut, quelled into silence by some dark magic that gripped this forest. She gasped and grew pale; she should’ve realized this earlier!

  Graille nodded, reading her mind. “I see that you are hurt. But do not fear; once I am freed, my powers will return, and I will break the ancient enchantment that has cursed this forest. Your injuries will be healed, and you will then be able to use magic and retrieve the luthain from your Royan.” He paused. “It injures my pride to say this, but I have not been able to escape this prison in the past year. But every prison has a lock, even magical ones. Though it is not visible, I am trapped in this cave by a lock that can only be seen, and thus disabled, in the light of the full moon. And the burden of freeing me lies on you.”

  Elly gulped. The full moon occurred around once a month, and it happened instantaneously, which meant she had only a very small window of opportunity to disable this lock. Her stomach twisted with anxiety. How was she going to pull this off? Everything hinged on whether she could successfully free Guardian Graille. Tracking down the elusive Organoth blue amber to repair the portal was hard enough. And now she had to do this?

  Graille considered her stricken expression. “Do not fret, Ellanor. Worrying does nothing but burden the mind.” Then he paused, and his eyes were sad. “This place was once beautiful and full of life. But when the Beast came to Gaya, it polluted not only the minds of elves and humans but also the very soil that it touched. This forest is just one of many that the Beast tainted and thereby cursed. The Beast literally petrified the forests. So Greymore was right in naming this the petrified forest.” He sighed. “The human inhabitants of this island are not aware of this forest. The moment the Beast petrified this forest, it ceased to exist on a dimension that humans can detect.”

  Elly looked around at the stony forest warily. She could not imagine that it was once beautiful and green. “You mean, there are other … petrified forests out there?” she asked. Suddenly, she thought of the stone Mohawn bears in the Celestan Forest back in Alendria. Had they been cursed by the same brand of magic, too?

  Graille nodded. “Yes. The Beast petrified the forests in mockery of Freya, who loved and treasured every living thing, down to the tiniest blade of grass. Before the Beast was caught for its treachery, it had already petrified a dozen forests around Gaya. Even time is distorted here, as you have found.”

  Elly bit her lip and clasped her hands together. “I’ve lost time here, yes.”

  Graille’s eyes were sympathetic. “The foul creatures that have dwelled in this forest for many ages have long been forgotten by their Beast master. Despite that, they still vie and grovel for attention. That’s why they tried to take you down, hoping it would win them favour. But the Beast has much more important things to think about.” Elly thought about the warflings and the abominable water monster and shuddered.

  Graille swished his tails. “I am much impresse
d by you, Ellanor. Razunok must have gotten quite idle here, isolated and forgotten, with nothing to do but to keep watch over me in the past year. Without stimulation, without challenge, one inevitably decays over time. Even magical creatures. I daresay Razunok did not expect to encounter an adversary that it so underestimated. Right about now, Razunok is skulking in its putrid cave in the deep water, licking its wounds.” He paused. “Once I am freed, the curse over this forest will be broken, and all the foul creatures that haunt this forest will vanish forever.”

  Elly nodded slowly. “So the ancient curse of the Beast is the reason why our magical powers are disabled? Somehow, because the Beast tainted it, everything is warped in this forest?”

  “Yes. Everything about this forest defies what is normal for us.” Graille closed his eyes. “I was lured here and fell into a trap. Only you can break the curse by disabling the lock and setting me free.” He sighed. “As the Guardian of Light, it has been torturous having to languish here in perpetual darkness, with no sound of wind, no smell of grass or flower, for this accursed place receives neither sunlight nor the blessed starlight of Freya.”

  Elly frowned, looking at the Guardian as closely as she dared. Graille hardly looked like he had been caged for a year, so calm he seemed as he lay there, almost leisurely, at the mouth of the cave. How had he survived this long without food or water?

  He smiled, reading her mind easily. “Guardians do not live on food or water, Ellanor. We are sustained by the powers with which Freya blessed us.”

  Elly blushed. Her mind was like an open book to the Guardian. “When is the full moon waxing?” she asked anxiously.

  Graille looked up at a sky that she could not see. “The full moon will wax just a few hours from now, at the eleventh hour,” he said smoothly. Elly checked Nebulane for the time: it was almost eight o’clock. So the light coming through the dense canopies was moonlight.