by Paul Kidd
Sura called from the bushes nearby.
“See anything?”
Kuno kept his eyes upon the tree trunks to his right.
“Nothing.”
The Spirit Hunters moved on.
They kept following the little splashing, sharp, clear stream. It was hopefully the one so adamantly insisted upon by the aged villagers. There were no signs of pathways – although a few little trails here and there showed that local game were alive and well. And yet the place was oddly empty. There were deer paths, but no deer – hulled nuts on the ground, but no sign of squirrels. It was as if the wildlife had somehow simply melted away.
There were no birds. Sura – a definite enthusiast of birds, be they wild, singing, fried or roasted – came to a halt, letting the line connecting her to Tonbo draw taut through her fingers. Tonbo knelt down in cover, looking back as Sura searched carefully up through the trees.
A shadow moved – the barest twitch, but Sura caught the motion from a corner of her eye. She feigned interest in a far section of the trees, then quietly drank some cold tea from her canteen.
Tall fox ears listened to the forest air. Through the drip of water and rush of the stream, she heard something: a faint whisper from far off in the high leaves. Soft, childish laughter sent a strange chill tracing slowly down her spine.
The fox made her way over to Tonbo. She kept watching off towards the rear.
“Something is here.”
Tonbo touched her. He pointed down to a strange pile of litter mouldering beside a log.
They were clothes – a small robe, socks and sandals. The fabric had lain rotting in the rain and mould for many years.
Sura knelt and carefully inspected the mildewed old cloth. She rose quietly, took a last careful look into the branches, then signalled the others to move on.
A hundred paces further on down the stream, the woods opened out into a little mossy clearing. An outcrop of rocks rose a little way above the stream, looking out over a small pool.
A cairn stood atop the outcrop – a cairn with a top-stone roughly shaped into a human face. A willow tree grew overhead, shading the cairn and the quiet pool.
Kuno and Chiri emerged from the forest and knelt in cover behind the bushes. Tonbo and Kuno did the same. Bifuuko and Daitanishi settled silently into the underbrush.
The Spirt Hunters drew quietly together. Kuno looked at the little rocky figure set atop the stones.
“A memorial cairn… I thought the villagers did not come into the forest?” Kuno rose and stood gazing thoughtfully at the sculpture. “It is old. Look at the moss.”
Tonbo came forward, his tether slipping through the grass behind him. The big samurai looked up into the tree beside the water.
“Hmmmph, a willow tree.”
Kuno joined his comrade. He ran an armoured hand over the rough willow bark, looking up into the leaves.
“It must have been planted deliberately. There are no willows growing naturally in this forest.”
Chiri drew her robes close about her shoulders. “There is very little that is natural about this forest.” The rat spirit turned to look back into the woods behind them. “Something is watching us.”
Sura had taken quite enough. The fox strode forwards to the centre of the clearing and planted her spear. She gave a great, raucous yell towards the woods all around.
“Oi! You there! Come out and stop skulking! It’s rude to hide! Come and talk to us if you’re so interested! Yes?”
Chiri ran forward, utterly appalled at the noise.
“Shhhh! Sura san!”
“Well really!”
The fox gave a snort of irritation. She plucked up her spear, made a hand gesture, then swept two fingers down the haft. The entire weapon took on an eerie violet sheen.
“One Tao, one sight, one world, one mind.
Let the hidden souls come forth.
Let ghosts appear to mortal eyes…”
Sura levelled the weapon and scanned it slowly across the area around her. The spell made a shimmering ripple far out in front of the blade. The fox moved slowly and methodically, missing neither shrub nor treetop. But she suddenly broke her careful system, whipping about to flash the spear back towards a section she had already searched. There was a flicker as something outlined in an eerie glow suddenly dodged back out of sight behind a tree.
“Ha! Gotcha! Yes! There – up ahead. I knew this would be a spirit.” She had caught the skulking little git red handed! The fox was jubilant. “Right! Let’s go find out why it’s been collecting naked people.”
Still linked into pairs by lengths of hairy string, the Spirit Hunters moved away from the stream. Sura scanned her spear back and forth, threading the way cunningly forward – silently gesturing for Kuno and Chiri when her prey seemed to change course. She drew in her cord and kept Tonbo close, lifting up the line to avoid tangling it in countless little bushes.
Sura moved carefully – slowing tracking her prey. Finally she sank into hiding beside the roots of an immense old fallen tree, and drew the others to her for a whispered conference.
The fox took a careful glance at the trees just up ahead, then ducked down to whisper to her friends.
“It’s that way. High up – probably in the trees. It looks pretty small.” Daitanishi was about to fly up and take a peek at the lurking spirit: Sura caught him and pulled him back. “No no – shh! Looks like it thinks it’s shaken us! It’s just off in those flowering trees.” She set the floating rock carefully back in place on Chiri’s shoulder.
“OK – here’s the plan. The little bastard’s been keeping tabs on us. So Tonbo and I will creep ahead and lay down some fu papers, ready to box the thing in – then we’ll both hide. You guys give us ten minutes, then come forward about twenty paces and make some noise – draw its attention. It’ll come closer to see what you’re both up to… Then I raise shields and boom! We’ve got it boxed!” She looked down beneath the roots, across to where a little bush was glowing with dark red berries. “Right – I’ll start the box from that bush, go right about two dozen paces, and then go about two dozen paces into the thicket from there.”
Chiri was at her side, watching carefully. She could see the exact alignment of the shield box in her head.
“Stay together, Sura san. Be careful.”
Both Tonbo and Sura gave a nod. Keeping low, they pulled back and away into some bushes, then slipped from cover to cover, flitting on into the woods.
Sura moved side-by-side with Tonbo, forward through the trees. Tonbo’s armour was laced all in greens – blending beautifully with the leafy underbrush – while Sura’s orange fur seemed to vanish amongst the fallen leaves. But the string that linked them together was becoming more and more problematic. Sura slipped through a hollow in the ground, only to be brought up short by the string tugging at her belt. Tonbo had chosen to go on the other side of a sapling, and the string was now yanking Sura back. There was a brief silent exchange of signals – Tonbo wanted to insist that Sura come in his direction, and she irritably signalled him to come over to her. Sura finally got her way – only to have the string tangle itself about a spikey weed. The fox tugged it free with difficulty, then finally managed to slip forward and reach the bright red berry bush.
She began planting her fu papers, blowing on two fingers and swiping them across each one. She placed the papers carefully on the forest floor, trying to disguise them with the yellowest fallen leaves.
Tonbo crouched nearby, keeping a careful watch upon the treetops. He looked towards Sura, seeing her busily at work, then moved slightly forward, keeping pace with her as she began the next section of her trap. He lifted up the string to keep it out of a bristling bush, then stepped aside to kneel beside a huge, moss-covered tree.
He heard a sudden noise at the far side of the tree – a soft, hollow tap. Tonbo gripped his massive tetsubo and turned his head, focussing in upon the sound.
He heard a faint, drifting hint of children’s laughter somewh
ere in the gloom. Tonbo scowled. Rising stealthily, he moved around the tree, creeping carefully towards the faint source of the sound.
Sura worked her way forward through the underbrush, keeping well hidden from the distant spirit. She laid the final paper in place and sat back in satisfaction, dusting the leaf mould from her hands.
The damned string was caught up yet again, looping back and forth through two saplings and a bush. Sura made a soft noise of frustration and raised herself up, trying to pull the string free without causing any noise.
She tugged at the line, and there was a soft clank of metal in return. The damned cord was stuck, and Tonbo was apparently insisting that it was Sura’s turn to come to him. The fox gave up messing with the string and untied it from her belt. Spear in hand she crept forward through the underbrush, following the string’s path across the ground. She headed up to a great, broad tree, looking back across her shoulder towards the forest canopy.
“Pssst. We’re done! Come on!”
Sura tugged at the cord, trying to signal Tonbo into action. Much to her annoyance, the man refused to move. Sura looked back over her shoulder then slipped about the buttress roots of an enormous tree.
“Tonbo?”
At the far side of the tree, a pile of armour lay on the ground. Tonbo’s clothes were inside the armour, and his backpack was still sitting in place. The man’s beloved tetsubo lay fallen to one side – his sword and heavy dagger were still threaded through the armour’s belt.
Sura froze in shock. She knelt down and touched the armour, finding the inner robes still warm.
A ghostly titter of childish laughter came from overhead. Sura flashed a hand into her sleeve. She whipped out four fu papers, blew on them, and flung them about herself in a ragged box.
“Shields!
A box of flickering energy shot into life between the four papers, sealing Kitsune Sura from harm. She swept her spear about, thickening up the spell.
“Tao eternal, safe from harm.
Close this wall to spirit forms!”
Safe inside her fortress, Sura lowered the spear. She shouted off through the woods towards the others.
“Kuno san! Chiri! The creature is here!”
The sound of giggles and whispers became louder – and with it a weird sound like a small hollow drum. Sura looked up at the branches overhead, frowned – and cocked her head in sudden fascination.
Kuno and Chiri came racing frantically forward through the trees. Kuno sliced away the cord that led between them, leaping heavily up and over the bushes. The two friends saw Sura standing beside a tree, staring entranced at the lower branches. She had left her glowing shield behind and walked out into the open. Chiri leapt over a log and came to a halt beside Kuno, staring up in horror at the trees.
The branch above Sura held a horrible little shape – a small creature the size of a baby, with a body made from dense black shadow. The spirit had a head shaped like a lumpen ball of white clay, with rough black holes for mouth and eyes. The creature cranked its head slowly sideways, winding… winding… and then suddenly snapped its head back into place with a sudden, hollow ‘thock’.
Sura had a smile of pure joy upon her face. Childish laughter was all around her. She reached out towards the creature in blank fascination, and Kuno shouted out to her in alarm.
“Sura!”
The strange little spirit skipped away and then looked back over one shoulder, playing with Sura – coaxing her onward. She skipped after it, laughing in delight. And then with a sudden flash, she was gone. Her clothing, spear and breastplate fell empty to the ground.
A smaller version of the shadow creature emerged out of the empty clothes. The new creature leapt right up into the lower branches of the trees, joining the larger spirit as it chased and frolicked about. Laughter floated eerily through the air.
Kuno started forward, but Chiri swiftly put a hand upon his armoured sleeve to halt him in place. The rat looked up into the trees, appalled.
In the tree above Sura’s abandoned clothing, half a dozen shadow spirits sat staring at the two intruders. Then one of the creatures slowly cranked its head and snapped it back – then another.
They flowed back slowly into the trees – moving after the other two spirits, off into the gloom. Chiri felt her flesh crawl with horror.
A hollow rap of sound came from up above.
Hardly daring to move, Chiri and Kuno both slowly looked up. In the trees above them, a dozen of the porcelain headed spirits had emerged out of the dark.
The creatures moved in slowly – closing in about the two intruders. The heads cranked and released… and the sound of tittering, mocking laughter wafted from somewhere in the shadows.
They watched Kuno and Chiri with a strange, hungry intensity. The laughter now had a sinister, predatory edge…
Kuno and Chiri moved carefully back – but a sudden presence in the trees behind them brought them to a halt. Yet more of the shadow creatures were there – some in the underbrush, and others in the trees.
The creatures moved in stealthily – closing slowly in upon their prey…
The little drum noises made Kuno’s flesh creep. He tried to circle and look for a gap between the spirit creatures, flicking his sword at shadows.
“Will magic help?”
Chiri looked about herself in fright. Daitanishi and Bifuuko clung close at her side.
“They have no physical form! My magic only effects physical elements. For spirits, we need Sura!”
Rain began to fall.
Kuno and Chiri moved back to back, weapons ready, and still the terrible little spirit creatures closed. The laughter grew louder – sharp and taunting wickedly as water began crashing downward through the leaves. The spirits crowded closer together, tensing themselves as if to spring.
From the forest just beyond, there came a sudden screeching chorus of screams. The spirits spun about to face the bloodcurdling noise, then all bounded away. They vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving Kuno, Chiri and the elementals standing in shock.
Something vast was coming towards them through the trees. A chill spread through the air. Bushes cracked, and trees shook. Kuno and Chiri took a step backwards and away, and then suddenly a frightened teenaged boy came sprinting wildly towards them. The boy leapt over fallen timber, yelling in panic as he ran.
“Run!” The boy flicked a terrified glance behind himself. “Run!”
Exploding out through the trees behind him came a vast, amorphous wave of bones and shattered iron. Hundreds of screaming skulls shrieked and gibbered. The immense monster wrenched saplings aside, lunging forward to lash huge black tentacles at Chiri.
The rat spirit ducked. A tentacle studded with bones and blades whipped a whisker’s breadth overhead and speared into a tree behind her. Kuno flashed forward, slicing with his sword. He cut through the tentacle, only to see the shortened limb writhe and regrow.
The monster loomed, rising upwards – its shadow falling over them as it crushed the saplings aside. The monster was bigger than a house – dripping and reeking, with mouths and faces forming and gaping, snapping teeth made from swords and shattered spears.
The immense corpse monster opened a mouth filled with sword blades, and raged towards them at horrifying speed.
Chiri and Kuno fled.
They raced hard on the heels of the terrified boy, with Bifuuko and Daitanishi frantically forging a path ahead. The elementals ducked and swerved through brambles, while the titanic corpse monster crashed through the trees. Tentacles lashed out, missing Kuno and the boy by a finger’s breadth as they ducked and dodged madly.
The boy shouted, leading the way down a broad creek bed now running with rainwater. They ducked beneath fallen trees and splashed into black, foul water.
A great, slick expanse of swamp filled the forest just ahead. But a rocky outcrop, sheer as a cliff, towered up out of the water, with a great, massive tree growing from the top. The boy plunged through knee-high swamp water,
reaching the rocks and threading through a narrow gap. Chiri was right behind the boy, dropping her pack and diving through the crack. She clambered through a rock cleft, turning back to haul at Kuno’s hand, tugging the armoured man through the narrow gap. He shed his backpack and scrabbled forward, armour scraping at the stones. Behind them the corpse monster shattered fallen timber as it plunged towards the swamp.
A huge, broad tree grew from the top of the sheer rocks. The boy reached and seized Chiri’s hand, helping her towards the trunk.
“This way! Quickly! This way!”
The rat pulled Kuno up after her, and they frantically scrabbled up a narrow crack in the rock. The corpse monster slammed into the base of the rocks below them. A tentacle made of rotten flesh, bones and blades whipped through the rock cleft. The boy reached down with his sword sheath, and Kuno latched hold. Chiri and the boy wrenched Kuno onto the upper rocks as the tentacle smashed sparks and rock shards from the boulders just below him. The horrible rope of flesh reached blindly upwards, and Kuno clambered back and away.
Another tentacle came at them – and another and another. Kuno blurred sideways and parried a massive thrust from a tentacle, then sliced forwards and down. A tentacle tip fell flee, flopping and writhing wildly. The samurai put himself between the enemy and his companions, fighting with immense speed and skill. The boy watched in awe, then tugged at Chiri, pulling her back between two boulders. Kuno retreated step by step, massive pseudopods whipping towards him, rusty steel ripping sparks across his armour. But the monster raged as Kuno sliced yet another tentacle clean through.
When the others were safe, Kuno pulled back to join them.
The youth had found a way to climb the tree – a long, tall crack in the bark that could be shimmied like a chimney. Chiri helped haul Kuno aloft into the branches. Together they looked up and saw a great flat nook between the massive branches, sheltered by tons of timber. The boy was already climbing for the nook, urging his guests to follow. Bifuuko and Daitanishi hovered by the handholds and footholds, helping as best as they could.