XXVIII - A Hint of Home

When they set out again shortly after sunrise, none of them had slept much.

Pan yawned as they picked their way through the marsh, her fur still damp.

“I’ve never slept so badly, mm…”

“Your snoring suggested otherwise,” Elda remarked.

“I-I don’t snore at all!”

A few steps ahead, Katz glanced back with a smirk.

“What are you grinning at, mm?!” Pan hissed.

He quickly faced forward again.

Haku, meanwhile, gave Elda a curious look.

“For someone who had the night watch, you don’t look tired at all.”

Elda shrugged.

“I don’t really experience tiredness.”

He blew cigarette smoke toward a swarm of mosquitoes, scattering them.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t need sleep. I’m still half-alive.”

Katz glanced back once more at the strange trio behind him.

“...Really curious how she’s gonna react to this bunch, nya,” he muttered under his breath.

By early afternoon, the marsh began to give way to firmer ground.

Slender trees rose from the peaty soil, and the narrow path wound between moss-covered rocks and through dense ferns.

After a while, it descended into a hollow and opened onto a small clearing.

Katz stopped and let out a long breath.

“Here we are, nya.”

The others stepped up beside him, looking around.

A small timber-and-clay cottage with a steep, reed-thatched roof stood among the trees.

Behind it lay a gravel garden raked into wave-like patterns around mossy stones, while a narrow stream wound past a fenced vegetable patch.

Round wooden figures holding tiny lanterns were scattered throughout the clearing, their lights flickering even in daylight.

Something about the place tugged at Pan’s memory.

Somehow, this feels familiar.

And yet foreign...

“So you really did bring us here,” she murmured at last.

Katz gave her a skeptical look.

“Did you think I was leading you into a trap or something, nya?”

“Actually, yes,” Pan replied deadpan.

He folded his arms.

“The boss keeps his word.” His voice dropped a little. “Most of the time…”

They made their way down into the hollow.

As they passed one of the wooden figures, its lantern briefly flared brighter. 

Haku slowed.

“What are these figures?”

Katz shrugged.

“Some kind of protective statues. Supposedly they keep monsters away.”

Haku bent down for a closer look at one of them.

“They look cute.”

At last, they reached the cottage’s covered veranda.

Elda leaned against one of the wooden support posts and was already reaching for his cigarettes.

“What’s this guy’s name, anyway?”

Katz opened his mouth.

But before he could answer, something whistled through the air.

ZIIING!

Elda turned.

A slender metal spike had pinned his cigarette to the post inches from his face.

Behind them came a raspy voice.

“My name is Aki.”

They all spun around.

“And smoking... is strictly forbidden here.”

A woman stood on the path behind them, with several more throwing spikes fanned between the fingers of her hand.

Gray-streaked black braids hung beneath a conical reed hat, and a dark sash cinched her high-collared robe at the waist.

Elda blinked.

“The recluse is a woman?”

Katz shot him a sideways glance.

“What were you expecting, nya?”

“No idea,” Elda muttered. “Some bearded old codger, I guess.”

Aki slowly made her way down the path.

Her gaze passed over Elda and Haku before settling on Pan: her face, the dark markings around her eyes, her ears.

“A Panwanian…?”

Pan’s heart began to race.

This… 

This is the first time anyone’s recognized what I am!

She wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was a weak, “…y-yeah, mm…”

Before Pan could regain her composure, Aki had already slipped the throwing spikes into the sleeves of her robe and turned to Katz.

“Katz!”

The young Genetti flinched.

“Who have you dragged to my doorstep? If your boss thinks I’m getting involved in some kind of human trafficking, he’s got another thing coming.”

Katz immediately waved both hands in frantic denial.

“I-it’s not like that, nya! They’re adventurers. They insisted on coming to see you. I just brought them here.”

Aki narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, really…?”

Pan finally mustered her courage and stepped forward.

“Um… my name is Pan. And I thought maybe you could answer a few questions for me, mm.”

She pulled out her amulet and showed it to her.

At first, Aki regarded it without much reaction.

Then she reached for the stone and turned it over.

“Where did you get this?”

“From my grandmother, mm…” Pan managed.

Aki inspected it for another moment, her eyes repeatedly flicking back to Pan.

She released the stone and took a step back, looking at Katz.

“Did you bring me something?”

The Genetti blinked.

“Uh, yeah!” He hurriedly took off his backpack. “It’s all in there.”

For the first time, Aki smiled.

“Good.”

She headed toward the veranda.

“Well then. Come inside.”

The others stared at Katz in bewilderment.

“What are you looking at? You didn’t think the boss would send me here empty-handed, did you, nya?”

But before anyone could answer, Aki’s voice rang out from inside.

“Make sure you take off your shoes before you enter!”

***

Inside, they sat around a low table beside a sunken hearth, a blackened kettle hanging above it. 

Paper-covered sliding screens partitioned off the cottage’s other rooms, while unfamiliar tools and ornaments crowded the shelves.

“Fascinating…” Haku remarked quietly, a gentle smile on her face.

Pan felt differently.

Did home look like this too? Then why does it still feel so unfamiliar?

While the others took in the room, Katz began unloading his backpack in front of Aki.

“For these, we’d need to know what exactly they are for, nya,” Katz began, pointing to the first pile of eastern goods. “And with these, it’d help to know what material they’re made of.”

Aki turned to Katz.

“Did you bring my payment?”

“Y-yeah.” He emptied the rest, producing tea, writing paper, an inkstone, several small necessities, and finally a carefully wrapped bottle.

Aki uncorked it, took a sniff, and smiled.

“Good. I’ll look over your boss’s junk. But first...”

She turned toward the others.

“…I won’t keep my other guests waiting any longer.”

Pan immediately straightened when Aki’s eyes met hers.

***

Long after their cups had been emptied, Aki was still turning the amulet slowly between her fingers, studying its cut and lotus-shaped setting.

“You say your grandmother gave this to you?”

Pan nodded eagerly.

“Y-yes. When I was little, mm.”

Aki regarded her for another moment before handing the amulet back.

“I’ve only seen this cut and lotus setting once before.” She leaned back slightly. “As far as I know, this kind of craftsmanship is unique to the monks of Mao-Xiong-Shan Monastery.”

Pan froze.

Mao-Xiong-Shan… Monastery?

Something stirred deep within her memory.

That name…

For one fleeting moment, she thought she could hear the distant toll of a bell and feel cool mist settling on the tip of her nose.

Haku leaned forward with interest.

“And where is this monastery?”

“Far to the south of Panwan.”

Elda raised an eyebrow.

“And where exactly is Panwan, anyway?”

Pan looked at him.

“I’m not sure myself, to be honest.” Her ears drooped. “There aren’t any maps in Vadonia that show more than the coastline of the eastern continent…”

Aki gave a quiet snort.

“That’s not entirely true.”

She rose and, without another word, disappeared behind one of the paper-covered sliding screens.

A short while later, she returned carrying a long roll of paper and unfurled it across the table.

The others bent over it.

An enormous continent took up nearly the entire sheet, the map covered in unfamiliar characters, mountain ranges, rivers, and borders.

Pan stared down at it.

“The eastern continent…”

Aki nodded.

“Most of it.”

She placed a finger on the western coast.

“Animsaka lies here.”

Aki moved her finger onward.

And onward.

And onward.

Only when her finger had passed well beyond the middle of the map did she finally stop.

“Here.”

Pan stared at the spot.

“That’s… Panwan?”

“More or less. I’ve never been there, but I knew plenty of Panwanian merchants when I was younger.”

Pan looked back toward the western coast, then at Panwan again.

“It’s so far away…”

Elda let out a low whistle through his teeth.

“And here I always thought the central continent was big.”

Haku’s gaze rested on Panwan, her expression grave.

“If it’s that far east…” Her hands curled slightly on her knees. “I hope the Demon Emperor’s darkness hasn’t swallowed it yet.”

Pan froze.

Oh.

Her eyes darted toward Aki.

Oh no!

The hermit slowly raised an eyebrow.

“Demon Emperor?”

Haku blinked.

“You haven’t heard about the Demon Emperor?”

Pan felt the blood drain from her face as Haku looked at Aki in surprise.

Suddenly, Elda’s voice cut through the room.

“No one knows exactly what’s happening over there right now. That’s why these two are heading east. To find out.”

Aki nodded understandingly.

“Well. I’ve lived here for more than twenty years and have had hardly any contact with the east in all that time.” She traced a finger across the map. “News travels slowly. Sometimes it takes years. And even then, you never know how much of it is still true.”

She pushed the map back slightly.

“Who knows what calamity has taken root there by now.”

Pan slowly exhaled, only to notice Elda watching her.

Why is he looking at me like that...?

At last, Aki’s attention returned to the amulet.

“In any case, this amulet most likely came from that monastery.”

Pan’s ears perked up again.

“Mao-Xiong-Shan…” she repeated.

If the amulet really came from there, then at least it’s a lead.

She looked down at the map again.

Finally.

Finally, I have a real place.

A direction.

Maybe even… a destination.