The shrine

It was during the late hours of the morning that we reached the forest. The woodland started at the bottom of a hill. Looking over the treetops, we saw that it stretched on for as far as the eye could see. A misty haze hung above it, and birds were chirping in the distance. The forest had a very calming atmosphere. I found it hard to believe that a creepy shrine would be in there.

Chiyo was in a good mood, the events of yesterday didn’t seem to weigh on her anymore. I wished I could be as easy-go-lucky as her. 

Now that the adrenaline rush of running away had worn off, I thought of the conversation I had had with Alicia. The nature of witches, the Devil, Chiyo appearing out of nowhere. I couldn’t make heads or tails of their connection to each other.

I was quickly pulled out of my contemplations by Chiyo though.

Noticing my withdrawnness, she suddenly ran ahead and hid behind a tree. Confused, I followed her until she suddenly jumped back out again.

“Boo!”

This girl may be an idiot.

But I played along anyway.

“AAAAAH”

We laughed sheepishly at our own silliness whilst continuing to walk. It was shaping up to be a nice day.

“Ahh, this feels just like that one anime. About that girl and her motorcycle. They traveled from city to city and got into all kinds of adventures.”

Two more terms I had never heard of.

“I’m not sure what you mean. Anime? Never heard of it.”

A melancholic gaze crept over her face.

“Of course you wouldn’t have heard about it... They’re these moving pictures that come together to form great stories. It brought me a lot of comfort in difficult times. From heroic tales with monsters and magic, to the boring everyday life. I watched it all.”

“Moving pictures? The technology in your nation must be very advanced, or is it magic I wonder?” I wanted to learn more about Chiyo and what she liked but this conversation was confusing me way too much.

“A-ny-way, I was just feeling nice about experiencing similar situations like in those, so don’t go ahead and ruin it by overthinking, alright?

“Uh, sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. I get that this must be confusing for you. Aaargh, but this whole situation is just as confusing for me as well! Let’s just go to the shrine and see if we find out anything new.”

It took us another two hours until we came to the river. From there we headed north until we came across the ominous shrine Chiyo had mentioned. The building’s architectural style was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was a one-story rectangular building made out of wood. The planks were rotting and overgrown with moss, giving it a dark gray appearance. This building was old. The roof was covered in black tiles and at the ends of the roof stood two black dragons, each three foot tall. In front of the building there was a large red gateway, also out of wood.

“See, doesn’t it give you the creeps?”

She was right. Something was off about this place. While the rest of the forest had been tranquil and beautiful so far, there was something different about this place. Fear started welling up from the pits of my stomach. My brain was telling me to run away, but I stood nailed to the ground.

Don’t come any closer to that building.

It was as if my body was suddenly screaming it out. My breathing became jagged and I was unable to think. Chiyo didn’t notice it. She just chatted on and walked through the red gate while I was frozen in fear.

“…Plus, it looks so familiar, almost like the shrines in my home country!”

I momentarily suppressed the looming panic inside me and tried to speak. Only a mumble came out.

Chiyo turned around.

“Are you okay?”

No I was not. I tried to make that much clear.

“I need to take a walk, this place feels wrong.”

So I went to sit by the river, looking at the shimmering stones beneath the water, trying to calm my nerves. Chiyo came over to sit with me. She uncomfortably looked around while playing with her hair. I was too busy getting the overwhelming feeling of dread under control to notice her awkwardness.

“If you, like, want me to stay with you until you’re okay, that’s fine y’know?”

I thankfully replied: “Just talk to me about something, anything’s fine.”

I needed to stay grounded in reality.

The topic she decided on was more anime.

She talked endlessly and animatedly about concepts I couldn’t even dream of like character design, sakuga, her hate for one-note characters cutting their hair to showcase development, and so on. Despite not understanding half of it, I enjoyed seeing Chiyo talk about something so passionately. After about ten minutes of just looking at her and nodding along I felt a bit better.

“Okay, that’s enough out of you. Let’s not waste any more time. I’ll stay here, and you can investigate the shrine in the meantime.”

“Sounds like a plan!” She gave me a thumbs up. “You’re good now?”

I nodded with a blush. Seeing her care this much made me feel a bit fluttery for some reason.

Chiyo went off to the shrine while I watched her from the riverside. She went into the shrine, and came out again a few minutes later with a disgusted look on her face.

“What’s up?” I asked her.

“There was a little relic box in the shrine’s inner chamber. It…contained a single mummified toe.”

“That’s everything? Did you make sure to check the whole building?”

“I did, it’s pretty small anyway so there wasn’t much to see except for that box in the middle, should I go get it?”

“No, I believe you.”

Was it the shrine that gave me the chills, or did that toe have something to do with it? I honestly didn’t feel like finding out after what I’d just been through.

“Let’s go Chiyo, we still have a lot of ground to cover today. And I don’t feel like setting up camp close to here. We need to follow the river back south. That will bring us closer to Indestria.”

As we were following the river we came to a clearing where we decided to rest. We hadn’t even properly put down our gear when we were both stopped in our tracks by an unmistakable sound.

Hooves

As the sound approached us, I told Chiyo to position herself out of sight, behind an oak. Whoever was riding through these forlorn woods couldn’t be friendly. I unsheathed Alicia’s sword, Serpens, and stood in the middle of the clearing to meet whatever was coming head on.

It was an impossibly huge man, dressed in red, wearing a flat-brimmed hat.

The man dismounted at the edge of the clearing, while I stood with my back to the river. There was no getting out of this.