A red desert bathed in the light of a red sun stretches out infinitely. Kumiho sits alone in a fetal position on the red sands with dark eyes. As the wind blows red sand around three figures appear before her: An older woman, older man, and a teenage girl all with black hair, their faces are blurry from the sand and incomprehensible. Kumiho stares at the figures before the wind blows in her eyes. While her eyes are shut from the wind she starts to hear voices. Yelling. Screaming. And banging all resounding in her ears in a cacophony of noise before all of it is silenced by a large crackle of thunder. Her eyes quickly open and she finds herself in a gray room with a black-haired female teen’s head resting on her lap, staring at Kumiho with cold eyes and a hole in her head. The blood pools over Kumiho’s lap and she looks at her shaking red stained hands with trembling eyes. The only perceptible sound being Kumiho’s rapid breathing before another crackle of thunder rings out and her vision is covered in yellow.
Kumiho quickly sits up straight on her bed clutching her chest and her breathing rapid and broken; her breath occasionally catching and retching within her throat as she stares at her trembling hands. Her breath slows and so too does the trembling before she completely calms down and drops her hands, clutching and clawing at the sheets in a continued effort to calm her racing heart. She looks around taking in all the room’s details: Fang is sleeping soundly to her left and Sune is practically laying on top of poor Hollie as they sleep, but the strange man, Oswin, is gone, his bed empty and Kumiho suddenly hears a noise from outside. She sneaks out of bed and slowly tiptoes to the door, opening it ever so slowly with a low creaking sound. Walking down the steps into the quiet tavern, she scopes the area out for any stragglers, but the room is dark and motionless. She continues on out the side door and looks down a dark alley at a cloaked man with scarlet red eyes being pushed against a wall by a black-haired man.
“Who sent you after me?” The black-haired man asks in a rough voice that Kumiho barely recognizes as Oswin, but his face and body are so different she has trouble seeing the two figures as the same person.
“I-I-I was sent by some rich guy down in the scraef. Said he would pay a large sum to anyone who gave him the whereabouts of a black-haired gleamer in the area. Thats all I know I swear!”
“What did he look like? The guy who wanted my location.” Oswin asks as he pushes his forearm harder into the man’s neck.
“I don’t know man! He wore some strange white mask with a fanged face on it. Other than that, he was just a basic wealthy man. I swear that's all I know; you have to believe me man.”
Oswin sighs and takes his forearm away from the cloaked man’s neck before talking in an exacerbated tone “Tell that guy to just send a letter next time he wants to talk to me, and that we can meet in one week's time at this address.” He writes down an address on a piece of paper and hands it to the man before sending him off with one last piece of advice “Oh and kid, maybe you shouldn’t take jobs like this anymore. This could’ve gone much worse for you if I hadn’t bothered to question you.”
“I don’t know who you’re calling a kid when we are both twenty something, but I think I agree that I’m in way over my head. So, thanks for not taking my head.” The man speaks quickly and erratically before running with a little too much enthusiasm through the dark alleys.
Oswin laughs at the young man’s actions and turns around just in time to notice Kumiho’s forest green eyes staring at him from behind an open door as an audible “oop!” can be heard from her direction. Oswin stares at her small face as his own face slightly falls before asking “How much of that did you see...”
“I didn’t really see much. Just you well, threatening some cloaked guy pressed on a wall before writing something down and letting him go. But I don’t know what either of you said.”
“Oh... Well would you believe me if I said I was threatening him for a good reason?” Oswin asks with a playful voice.
“I wouldn’t care.” Kumiho answers tersely with her face not changing even a little bit. “My family weren’t very friendly to strangers either.”
“You don’t care that I was beating some guy up in an alley? Not even a little bit? He could be innocent and I was just taking my anger out on him.” Oswin retorts with a bemused voice.
“No, not at all really. You saved us from harm, and even if you are lying about the Church wanting to hurt us; I still wouldn’t like them just because they worked with that ‘man’.” Kumiho’s voice stays quiet and steady but strong disgust starts to show in her final words.
Oswin stands there shocked by her words left without knowing what to say as the young girl says one final sentence “I don’t see why it is such a big deal I saw you beating someone up when you turned two people into paste in our first meeting.” She says casually, as if she was just mentioning the weather.
Oswin awkwardly chuckles “I’m sorry about that, I just don’t have any cleaner methods of... Taking ‘care’ of people and I didn’t want to let those guys live after what they were planning to do.” Kumiho merely nods in response and turns back into the tavern and walks up the steps back into the room. Oswin stands out there for a while in thought before his body is covered in multicolored lights as his body returns to “normal” and he enters the building. He seems to want to say something as he enters the room but the words die in his mouth as he sees Kumiho has already gone to sleep in the few minutes he was out; lightly shaking his head and smiling he goes to bed as well.
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Morning rays shine through the window as Kumiho’s eyes open and she gets up with a big stretch of her arms. As she looks around, she notices Oswin sitting at the desk reading a book and Hollie leaning against the wall while sitting on a little white pillow on the floor, watching something with amusement. Kumiho looks in the direction Hollie is and notices Fang holding a pillow high above his head doing some starter swings right above Sune’s sleeping form. He swings the fluffy pillow down onto her sprawled out form and hits her right in the stomach. As the pillow hits, a loud “ACK!” sounds from Sune’s lips as she is startled awake and looks around in confusion. As she takes stock of the room, she notices Fang sitting on the ground laughing with a pillow in his hand and quickly realizes what has awoken her. In retaliation, she pounces from her bed onto Fang’s laughing form and a tussle involving lots of rolling around and laughter ensues from the two. After the morning shenanigans are finished, Oswin asks all the children to gather around as he explains his plans for the future.
“I will be putting you kids into a private language course over the next couple of months with a friend of mine who works at a local school. And after that I’m going to enroll you guys into a school for mages. Though you are a little young to be learning—for commoners at least and usually the school wouldn’t allow you in at all because of your bloodlines, but I should be able to pull some strings.” Oswin makes little gestures and exaggerated movements during his little speech to the kids.
Hollie and Kumiho simply nod at the man whereas Sune and Fang in sync yell “Okay!”
“Oh and, the language classes start today and will last... I’m not sure how long but I’ll come and get you when class is over for today. So, let’s go to your first day of class with Mrs. Smith!” Oswin says with some enthusiasm as he leads the kids out the door and down the stairs.
“When will you be returning Sir? If you don’t mind me asking.” The same lady from last night asks politely while smiling at the group.
“Oh. In just a few hours we’ll be back.”
“Well then have a good day Sir.” The woman says happily while waving them goodbye.
Sune waves back at the lady and the group goes on their way down the road and to a large wooden one-story building. Oswin leads the kids through the empty wooden hallways while the morning sun gleams through the green tinted windows of the school and he stops before a simple wooden door and knocks. An older woman with white hair wearing a white button up blouse and a blue knee length skirt answers the door with a smile.
“Hello Aldwin, I do have to say I was quite surprised when you came to my door at such a late night asking to have some children be taught Imperial, and they are Eastern children too.”
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“Oh, you know how I am sometimes Mrs. Smith, but I hope I’m not bothering you in any way coming here on such short notice with a bunch of kids.”
“Oh Aldwin no one ever bothers me and you already know I could never find children to be a bother. Plus, it’s the summer, so it’s not like I’d be doing anything right about now anyways.” Mrs. Smith says happily as she chuckles to herself.
“Well thank you Mrs. Smith and I’ll see you again soon but I’ll have to leave them in your care because I have some errands to run.” Oswin says as he waves goodbye to Mrs. Smith and smiles at the children before walking out the door.
Mrs. Smith introduces herself to the children and quickly begins teaching them the basics of the language, allowing Sune to simply read the book Oswin gave her the night before to study during class since she already knows some Imperial. Mrs. Smith proves to be an excellent teacher as she keeps the kids engaged the whole day through little games and rhymes to help with sounding out words and memorization. Mrs. Smith ends the class with a little lecture and after reviewing the contents of the books Oswin gave them, highlights the specific sections she wants them to read in the coming nights as practice. As the children are led out of the school, they see Oswin sitting on a wooden fence in front of the school holding a pane of frosted blue glass that he quickly tucks into his jacket and quickly greets the kids. After they all say goodbye to Mrs. Smith, Oswin brings them to a different restaurant from before to get dinner and after having their fill are brought out of town and into the neighboring forest.
When Fang asks the black-haired man where they are going, he simply responds with “You’ll see” and continues on through the undergrowth. Kumiho and Hollie have an easy time following the man’s measured step through the trees. Fang is able to keep up but at a much slower pace; Sune however falls behind very regularly, her tail getting caught in bushes and her feet constantly tripping on rocks and roots. As the sun reaches just above the tips of the trees, they finally make it to a field of multi-colored flowers: reds, greens, blues, and yellows all coalescing in a collage of colors. As they reach the middle of the field Oswin turns and stops to face the children.
“Alright, now that we are well out of the way of the town and its many eyes and ears, I can explain what's happening. Together in this field each of you will learn to manifest your latent ability to absorb world energy and actually turn it into something more tangible: magic.” He says the last line with much enthusiasm and excitement. But that doesn’t last long as his tone drastically changes from his earlier happiness to sternness, “But I’ll warn you before we begin, gaining power isn’t easy, nor does it ever come free.” Oswin gives the children one final warm smile as they one by one find their eyes and bodies become heavy as they fall into the mass of flowers and straight through it, into the void.
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The children look around in confusion as they slowly stand and examine their surroundings; the sky is a pitch black and where the sun once was is now a large blooming red flower, its white roots spiraling down like large cracks in space itself. They stand on a bed of multi-colored flowers that flows through the abyss and towards the cracks in a wavy line. Fang is the first to open his mouth in confusion, “Where are we? And where did Mr. Oswin go?”
All the children simply look at him as Kumiho is the first to respond, “I don’t know... But all there seems to be here is this path of flowers. So...” She doesn’t bother waiting for a response as she starts to walk down the path. The other children argue for a moment but quickly realize that Kumiho is right and slowly start to follow.
They trek down the bed of uneven flowers for quite a while with no end in sight until the children run into a peculiarity on their travels. A large hole in the path that leads into the void, the children look down into the hole in silence. Kumiho gets on her knees and attempts to bring her hand down into the hole, in which her hand goes down the hole to the void unimpeded and she quickly brings it back up.
Fang after watching the girl’s actions says jokingly with a tinge of fear, “Well it doesn’t appear to be a trick or an illusion, that is really just a hole into pure nothingness and I for one don’t want to know what would happen to us if we fall.” Kumiho simply nods as she stands back up.
Sune speaks up in a frightened tone, “I also don’t want to know and is it just me or is it getting colder?”
The other children stop for a moment before Fang answers, “Yes... I think it is colder than before. But this hole is really getting eerie so can we keep going?”
All the children agree and they continue walking down the path. They find similar large holes but keep going without much conversation on them. As they continue the holes get more frequent and more dissimilar in size: sometimes the path is dotted with many small holes covering it and at other moments there are large holes or chunks of the path taken out by multiple large holes making the path very thin and windy. But regardless of the multitude of holes the children continue on until the come across a hole they cannot simply go around. The hole has consumed the entirety of the path and a large insurmountable gap is created in the bed of flowers. The end of the path is nearly identical to the rest of the path except for a large glowing purple rose coming up from the flowers, its petals remaining tightly closed. The children come closer to it and as they do Hollie’s hair begins to stand on end, her ears and tail erect as her eyes start to glow an eerie purple and she brings her hand forward to touch the thorned rose. The rose upon her touch blooms as purple light glows from its center and cascades in a bright flash of dark purple.
When vision is returned to the children, Hollie stands hunched over with black miasma oozing off her body as the inside of her eyes swirl with purple energy. Her shadow begins to twist and contort beneath her feet, growing and shrinking, one moment it resembles a human, the next a large maw of teeth, and the next a large black flower. The shadow continues its changes as Sune cautiously walks up to Hollie’s hunched figure and touches her shoulder. Hollie’s shadow suddenly reaches up out of itself as a black tendril forms and wraps around Sune’s wrist tightly.
Sune screams in pain, “Hollie please stop...” She whimpers but Hollie continues to stand there like a stone statue. Kumiho runs up and kicks the black tendril with the bottom of her foot, causing it to dissipate into black smoke as she quickly pulls Sune by the hand. But as she does, Hollie screams in pain and lurches back; her hands gripping her head in pain as she screams in agony and her tail shoots up. Her shadow twists and spirals around her, consuming her figure and forming into a large black flower with a long and thorny stem and a glowing purple center nestled within its large black petals. Kumiho pushes Sune back as a bladed tendril grows out from the flower’s base and strikes towards them, but upon missing Sune by a hair's breadth changes its attention to Kumiho herself. It lunges at her at a fast speed but not impossible for Kumiho to react to. She quickly dodges to the side but loses balance and falls to the ground. As she lays on the ground a second blade comes falling down on her as Fang suddenly grabs her arm and pulls her up and out of the tendril’s strike.
She barely breaths out a thanks to him through her panting breaths and they look at the many tendrils growing out of the flower and whipping about madly. “What do we do?” Asks Fang while breathing heavily, his breath occasionally hitches.
Kumiho looks at him and notices a strange deep red rose situated right behind that slightly glows within her vision; this one is much smaller than the one Hollie touched and is barely larger than the other flowers. But within Kumiho’s eyes it feels all important; she feels her eyes drawn to it like a moth to a flame and believes in its importance with all her soul. She pulls away from Fang’s grip and runs towards the red flower at the fastest pace she can manage. Sune and Fang yell something but she doesn’t hear their words as she continues running. She drops to the ground as a tendril lurches at her head and without missing another beat instantly springs back up into a full sprint as the tendril whizzes harmlessly above her head. Another tendril swipes down at her and she dodges to the left at the last moment as it slices a lock of hair off but otherwise leaves her unharmed and she continues her sprint. As the next tendril comes lashing at her chest, she finds herself unable to stop in time and puts her arms protectively over her chest as a large cut forms across both her arms and she falls forwards onto her forearms with a crash.
She pants as blood flows from the cuts on her arms and covers the bed of flowers she has fallen upon, puddling in front of her face that is barely kept off the ground. She struggles to keep her eyes open until a voice breaks loudly through her mind like thunder “Watch out to the right!” Fang’s panicked voice echoes out as she rolls to the left, barely dodging a tendril that inserts itself deep into the ground. With renewed clarity she quickly pushes off the ground and stands back up. Her arms covered in patches of scrapes, dirt, and crushed flowers glued to her arms from the flowing blood seeping from the large gashes in both arms and continuously dripping from her fingers. She continues her run and with the added help of Fang and Sune’s call outs she becomes better at dodging the blades. One above, duck your head. Swiping to your right, stop and back up. She starts to get into a rhythm of dodging and ducking the swipes, small scratches and cuts in her skin slowly accumulating. When she finally passes by the large black flower, she lunges for the red rose that is finally within reach. As she grabs the flower, she feels its thorns pierce into her skin before she violently yanks it out of the ground, and it begins to bloom with a red light within her hand. Feeling her body rejuvenate as it fills with power and energy, a light red aura begins to surround her body as she stands up and begins shaking all the dirt and debris stuck to her off. She feels her muscles relax as her tail falls limp and her ears slowly droop down. She sees the world with enhanced clarity and increased slowness, the once fast tendrils now move at a snail's pace, and she calmly dodges one after another. She looks at the center of the flower and tenses her entire body, bending her knees before springing up to the flower at inhuman speeds, her arm outstretched as it pushes its way into the glowing center and grabs a fist sized orb at its center.
She feels something sting her arm as purple vines crawl through her veins and towards her face. Without wasting another moment, she pulls her arm back and rips the glowing light right out of the flower, but as she does, she feels the power leave her body and she begins to fall from the flower in exhaustion. Her limp body falling to the ground with a hard thud. The last thing she sees is the dark flower dissipating into the wind and the faces of her companions worriedly standing over her; their mouths moving but no sounds can be heard until her eyes finally lose strength and close, letting her mind and vision fall into darkness.
