In the end, I stuck to keeping my mouth shut. The samurai was a simple man from a different time, and I feared my gratitude would be seen as a sign of weakness.
It was a long while before woodland came into view. It was a clutched and crackled barb shimmering black over the green, with every possible route inside protected by a thorny outgrowth of branches. The sky above seemed to die before and above these woods. Bright blues were whisked to damp greys and boggy browns, almost as if the sun's rays were prohibited from shining upon it. 'Wait!' I said, trying to disguise trepidation as Kat turned around. 'Just…hold on a sec.'
'What?' he asked, irked by my interruption.
'I ain't going in there,' I replied, resolutely shaking my head. 'Those woods are a maze; any idiot can see that. It's stupid, it's nuts, and I ain't going, you hear me?'
'It is the way,' he returned, obviously.
'You're sure? And what about all this pretty grassland growing in every other direction? Go through the big scary woods if you want, but I'm going around them!' I set my foot on the grass, and firmer than I would have liked, Kat yanked me back to the path.
'Never stray!' he growled, his eyes tense and penetrating. 'This is a cursed land; inhabitants are treacherous devils. The woods are our road, our way. Stay very close.'
I shook off his grip and gave him my best sulk. 'And if something should happen to you, samurai?'
'I will not fall,' he replied, as if an absolute certainty.
My granite-faced leader then lowered eyes to a procession of ants crossing the tip of his boots. I waited for the warrior to press his sole down on top the helpless colony, but there was no satisfying crush of insects. Instead, the warrior took an unusually large step over them, and I did the same.
***
The dead wood loomed. It was a beached ship left to rot, a building abandoned to natures mercy or vehicles left to scrap. The trunks were rooted thick and unmovable, with crisping, parched bark. Branches resembled spindly spider legs, and the wind whistled us a most haunting tune through the cracks.
Kat remained still, and searching for my nerve, I found something else, a figure on the field to my right. This object struck out from the grasses: a black scarecrow-like form with arms strung out in a crucified manner. 'What is that?' I said, squinting hard. It was no scarecrow, but a man. Living or dead, there was only one way to find out. I stepped into the grass, which reached my thighs and coiled around my legs.
My shuffling movements alerted my protector samurai, who turned, absolutely outraged. 'You! Come here! Never leave me!'
Taking no notice, I waved a casual hand back at him. 'Just wanna check it out! You stay here, I won't be long!'
Wading through the pretty field, I reached the body in no time. It was a man barely out of his teens, strapped high to a post and held in place with ropes around his chest and wrists. He was wasting away here, with slashes down his clothing and clotted blood seeping out the tares. Flesh flaked from his muscles, and bloated bruises covered what was left of his face and arms. I gawked at the bloody spittle oozing from his bottom lip, his feet like draping curtains before me.
'Do not touch!' ordered Kat, his voice closer now. 'Do not!'
I kept my hands to myself and averted my eyes from the wet, red mess. 'Kat!' I cried. 'You need to come see this!'
However, the samurai warrior was already behind me, pressing an excruciating squeeze on neck and turning me on the spot to meet his reeling glare.
'Never leave my back!' he bawled. “Never!'
'Get your fucking hand off!' I grimaced and shrieked. 'Who do you think you…What's wrong with you? Let go of me! This man needs help! I'm cutting him down! I'm cut-' I yelped as Kat dug his nails deeper, so deep that I dropped like a sack of spuds.
'Settle,' he said. 'The man is done for.'
I strived to contain the agony glowing red on my face. I would not give this brute the satisfaction of seeing it. I could stand it — I had been through worse — I would show this Kat how strong I was. Forcing against his hold, I rediscovered the strength in my legs and attempted to stand, but the more I fought, the harder Kat turned his vice.
'Settle.'
Reluctantly, I surrendered. A futile exercise, I stopped the fight and Kat relinquished. However, our meager quarrel was forgotten immediately when, to our surprise, the young man spoke from his lofty position, popping blood bubbles from the mouth. 'I…I…'
'What!' I gasped, scurrying to his feet. 'What are you saying? Stay with us!' I searched for help, but there was only a callous-looking samurai scratching his own neck
'He,' the boy grunted, 'is…n-'
'What?' I whispered. 'Who?'
'Sca…' His head slunk, and the life in him was gone. Thick foam dribbled from his nose and both eyes rolled to leave a pair of dull ghosts behind. The gruesome sight did not upset me; the holes in my memory had yet to be completely filled in, and I could not recall if I had seen similar horrors in the past.
'Sca?' I pondered. 'What do you think it means?'
'Stand back,' said Kat.
I did so without question, moving to Kat's side as he scrutinized the dead boy. The samurai seemed to be waiting, expecting. I didn't know what and he wouldn't tell me, but in no hurry to enter the woods, the samurai could daydream as long as he wished.
An abrupt wind gave me a fright. It arrived from nowhere to stick up our hair and whip the grass, but oddly, was only located around the bloodied post. 'What's going on?!' I yelled, over a rapidly growing gale.
The samurai nudged at the boy, who was now emitting a dreamy blue light from his insides, escaping his eyes, nostrils, and every cut over his young body. This force was neither hot nor cold on my skin, in fact, it had no psychical effect at all.
Kat remained calm throughout, giving the impression that this phenomenon was hardly a phenomenon at all. He took a composed step backward, prompting me with him as the boy's skin began to wither and fall. This person was being erased by nature, and in less than a minute, the only thing left hanging was his skeleton, and those magnificent streams of light blasting out from the ribs. That sturdy bone cage soon bubbled to a milky liquid, splashing to a puddle in the grass.
Lastly, all the light compacted into one single, fist-sized orb over the post. This singularity did not flake away like the flesh or liquidize with the bone, but remained uniform, effortlessly lingering like a blotch of bedroom dust. The wind went, and a dead calm returned the status quo.
Stunned, I recovered with both hands on my knees, observing that mysterious ball of swirling light. 'What is it?'
'All he has left,' replied the samurai. 'Do not touch. Do not ever touch. He may never let go…'
As if trapped in slow motion, the orb began its descent, and I heard an impatient voice inside my head tempting me closer. 'Go on Danny, take it for yourself! See what he saw! Know what he knows! Take! Take it now!'
Scared, I resisted this foreign voice and took a larger step back. That orb then touched down on the grass and was gone in a blink. I bent to search but found nothing but disordered greenery.
'Where the…' I muttered, my hands parting grass. 'Did you see? Kat?' An instant later, I recoiled slightly at a healthy shimmer of blue light painting itself over one blade of grass.
'His second death,' said Kat, 'and his new home. Follow orders Fox, or share this fate.'
With new eyes, I noticed the hundred thousand blades of grass around me. They couldn't all be souls. Not all of them. Could they? Guilt now possessed my own upon calculating how many blades I had trampled on route to the post.
'Let's get back on the path,' I said, regretfully.
The samurai nodded and we returned, retracing every step.
***
'Don’t like it Kat. Something’s not right.' I felt my ignorance amongst the twisted vines and distorted foliage.
