The Blood-Curdling Myth

The ship we rode, got close to the lands of the kingdom, as close as it can, and not to attract any attention, and in order that we might arrive at land slowly and safely, we decided to pick another starting point to enter the city. While Shou had led the ship to the sea, we got ready to get out and continued our way over the sea.

It was actually good that we were located at such a short distance from land. On the one hand, it was unlikely that any creature would attack, nor we were going to face any other difficulty in this short distance. And besides, we were going to be able to walk decently between people, without creating the idea that we are bare strangers who came from the sky.

*That would pretty dangerous.* So as I thought.

However, minutes later, when the sun reached the top, we finally were able to reach the kingdom. With our heads rising to the very top, every single one of us tried to look at the unspeakable view that we were facing.

The sounds of the people in motion at a distance, the lights of the city, and the great building and edifice attached to it, had greeted us as best they could, and had already left us in a state of wonder.

We were still faced with a big problem, but we're so excited to once again relive the passion of walking in a freshly new city.

Before we finally landed, Shou used the shiny ring one last time, this time bringing us ashore, and docked us as close to land as possible so that we could land normally.

The ship stood on the beach, lying sideways, having set foot on land. And with it being bigger than the half of the beach, it looked like it got stuck to that point very firmly.

It was going to be quite a struggle for us to get the ship back to sea unless the force was applied. But even though, I thought that, Shou, by doing this, was doing the right thing. Because it was not clear how long we would be staying. In addition, the ship's anchor was destroyed during the war, so it was unlikely that the ship would remain stationary above the sea.

We had no other choice than to leave the ship at that unknown beach, because it was our only transportation vehicle. We weren't in a position to judge whether we could hide it or not.

And to our luck, the ship didn't seem to attract much attention from the area where it was located. After all, we were surrounded by a forest, which was covered with trees and bushes, and it wasn't a place for people to just look at it unless it was noticed hardly with something that could catch everybody's attention.

The place was also both a beach and a forest combined to create almost a camouflage, while it seemed to have a complicated surrounding, indicating there was no way ahead.

It was going to be really difficult not to get lost here.

But after a while, I paid no attention to the ship I was looking over my shoulder, and I decamped forward among all my friends who were walking beside me. By swinging a rope down from the ship, we got off the ship one by one in line, and finally set our way towards the city.

We stepped onto the ground, looking carefully, and trying to figure out what kind of place we were in.

We all paid attention to our surroundings, but Hiroshi was the one first to talk. Looking deep into the forest, he talked without turning his head,

"Kid, you'd better have a route in hand. Otherwise, it'll only be a matter of time before we get lost here."

The fact that Hiroshi said these words actually brought me to my map, which hadn't even crossed my mind for a while. I didn't even know how I actually forgot such an important item, even actually in a moment like that. It had been very useful to us since the beginning of our journey, and now that I thought, it might have been able to guide us once more.

So I took the map out of my pocket once more and looked at the middle where we were to follow next. The map had already prepared a path that would take us through the forest, and it shone just like the previous time. That made me quite happy. Because we now knew the route we were going to follow, after we had transmitted it to the map only at will.

Now all we had to do now was follow the path.

Lifting my head off the map, I responded to Hiroshi,

"It shows that we must make our way to the south-eastern part, passing through the forest. It is much closer that way."

"South-Eastern Part?"

"Are we going to go through this big forest?" Babu said, surprised by the landscape we were facing, while Shou looked at the path and simply recognized many of it.

"I think the other footpaths make the rotation we want even more remote. In this way, although the rotation we will follow at the moment is more or less bumpy, at least we will be able to reach it in less time."

"I would not recommend it if I were you." said the prince cutting through the conversation,

"Why not?"

"Because I know this forest. And the dangers it has. This is a place that has a fairly well-known reputation among people, and stayed like that for a long time."

"What makes it so dangerous?"

"From what I've heard, the people who were here to spend the night, got quickly out, running and mostly crying, just based on the screams they heard at night and the friends they never saw again."

"Where did you hear that?"

"The forest is called the endless scream, and as many people as possible have memories of that area. It was like this for many years, since people started to tell stories between them and it became some kind of a popular myth. It is actually a legend if you will say so, but believe it or not, I don't think there's any more real evidence than that."

"So- So it is real..."

"You don't have to look at me like a fortune teller or a guy who tells horror stories. I'm just saying what happened there, that's all."

At first, we all found it hard to believe. It was a zone right in the forest, full of spirits and ghosts, and was just waiting there to scare us as much as it can. How unreal, isn't it? But aside from the fact that we were going through that area, Babu was quite nervous about it too. Thinking that whatever he would do to get rid of it.

We were the same as him too. Confused about the reality of the situation and how absurd it was, not all of us thought there was a way to figure it out either. We were all tangled up about it.

Until Shou remembered something, that changed our perspective on it,

"I thought it would be the other part of the South-Eastern path, but it looks like you are talking about there."

"You know there too!?"

"Very well indeed."

"Then why didn't you say so?"

"I have a very short memory of an area like that, since I hadn't been able to fully discover the parts. But still, to my memory, I have seen many people, falling out to their fear deeply, right in the middle of that forest."

After a brief stop, he continued,

"It was an uneasy experience, even for me. But still, I don't think we should avoid taking a path like that. It will shorten the distance we will take big time, and so on will open us to other ideas to create another path from there."