Honesty Is The Best Policy
1481 Words
When Klaus reached the house, from the outside, he could see the shadow of someone standing over Ash. He immediately went inside and shoved her away. The woman who invited them was well dressed and beautiful, but now she was ugly with torn clothes. Ash was in deep sleep that he was not awake yet. Klaus kicked him, which made him gain consciousness.
Upon looking at the woman, he screamed.
Ash: Who the hell is this?
Klaus: Well, whoever she is, she was trying to kill you.
Ash: I should have known. Who would live on a mountain? Who are you?
Woman: I am a Yamauba.
Klaus: What is a Yamauba?
Ash: Yamauba are the old hags and witches of the Japanese mountains and forests. Yamauba were once human but were corrupted and transformed into monsters. They usually appear as kind old ladies but in our case a kind woman. Some sport horns or fangs, but most often they look just like ordinary elderly women, with no sign of their evil nature until they attack.
Yamauba lives alone in huts by the road, occasionally offering shelter, food, and a place to sleep for the night to weary travelers. Late at night when their guests are fast asleep, they transform into their true shape – an ugly, old, demonic witch –and try to catch and eat their guests, often using powerful magic. Stories of encounters with Yamauba have been passed along and spread by those few travelers lucky enough to escape with their lives, and are frequently told as bedtime stories to disobedient children.
Sometimes Yamauba are created when young women are accused of crimes or wicked deeds who flee into the wilderness and live out their lives in exile, transforming gradually over many years as they grow older. In some cases, though, their origin can be explained by an old custom from times of famine or economic hardship. When it became impossible to feed everyone in the family, often, families had to make a hard choice: remove one family member so that the rest can survive. Often this was the newly born or the elderly. Some families led their senile mothers deep into the woods and left them there to die. These abandoned old women, either out of rage or desperation, transformed into horrible monsters who feed on humans and practice black magic.
Yamauba: You have heard it right. And now I am going to eat you.
Klaus: I will slice you into two before you lay a finger on either of us.
Yamauba: You will not get out of here alive.
Ash: Yamauba, listen to me. Your identity is revealed. If one of us manages to escape, your existence will come to light, and no one from the surrounding villages would ever come here. I believe you don't want to risk your future over two humans.
Yamauba remained silent for a while.
Yamauba: Even if I let you go, you will not be able to cross this mountain. You shall perish.
Ash and Klaus immediately left the house and after a lot of travelling they found the path on which they were travelling before they spotted the woman. They found many caves on their way, but they didn't want to stay because of fear of the Oni. In the morning, the snowfall was not as harsh as the previous day. They could now travel with ease. When they reached the tip of the mountain, they could see the forest again at a distance. They were delighted that they were close to overcoming the mountain.
Klaus: Why didn't we stop Yamauba? Why did we flee instead?
Ash: When I was around her, my senses did not heighten. It was normal. Like how I felt when we first started to trek. Also, the surroundings around her did not die when she turned into her true form which suggests she isn't one of the monsters who lead the demons.
Klaus: Makes sense.
Ash: And what about our horses?
Klaus: They are not tied, and they remember the path better than us. So we don't reach out to them soon, they will go back to the treehouse most probably.
Ash: All we had to worry is about our next monsters then. I can now distinctively sense four locations. One of which is this mountain. We somehow missed it.
Klaus: It is difficult to search for the monsters in this mountain. It is advisable to go find our next monster.
They were now very close to the foot of the mountain, and just as they were about to step out, the ground started to tremble, and the surface beneath them elevated. Klaus and Ash grabbed a rock closer to them for support. And when they looked at the mountain, they realized that it was not a mountain, after all, it was a monster itself, Daidarabotchi.
Ash: I think this is the reason why we couldn't see the creature.
Daidarabotchi's voice was so loud and intense, and their ears rang when Daidarabotchi spoke for the first time.
' No unworthy shall pass. The unworthy shall perish, and their wretched soul is mine. '
Klaus: What to do now?
Ash: I hope he sees us as worthy individuals.
Daidarabotchi: You both have a noble cause and are willing to sacrifice anything for it. That alone would be enough to prove that you are worthy in Daidarabotchi's judgment. But in order to pass through me, the one who is holding a secret must reveal it. And only upon then, I will release you and grant you a wish.
Ash: I don't have any secrets, Ash. The moment I came here, I had shared everything with you. And I also know that something happened to you when you visited your home. Since you were not willing to share with me, I kept quiet. But now it has become an obstacle and we don't have time for this.
Klaus wasn't good at sharing things except with Sylvie. He didn't know how to share it. Just thinking about the incident made him feel weak. Klaus remained silent for a while.
Ash: You don't need to go through it alone. I am here to share your burden and if I can, I will try to ease your pain. You said that you trust me, just trust me once again.
Klaus finally adjusted his voice and said, ' My father is dead. He was killed by the Emperor's son. And a woman to whom I promised something was also killed by the same man. My father's last wish was to save Solaris and here I am executing it. '
Ash: I would be lying if I said I know how you feel. But I can definitely relate to it. The moment I decided to come here, I had lost everyone and everything I cared about. I don't know if I would ever be able to see them again. From the moment I came here, we were busy killing monsters and I didn't have enough time to properly think about my world. I am afraid that once all this is over, all I could do is think about how much I miss them but couldn't do anything about it. You might feel the same, but whenever you think of this journey, you will think about your father and your father would live on in those memories.
Klaus: I don't need comforting, but that sounded nice. Thank you.
' Now it is time to ask for your wish. '
' We know that your power feeds the demons. So we request you to stop exploring and cut off the energy supply to them, ' asked Ash.
' I don't hold any peace for being the source for those wretched creatures, but it is my duty. Instead, I can place myself in front of the demon land and make sure none of the demons could pass through me except for the ones that I feed. '
' That is better than we have proposed. We accept it, ' replied Ash.
Daidarabotchi immediately placed them both on the land and when it completely stood up, it felt as if Daidarabotchi was touching the sky. The sight of a mountain walking was breathtaking. As soon as Daidarabotchi went away, the place looked like flat land, and within an hour, the horses caught up with them.
Klaus: Why did he even grant us the wish?
Ash: Because he can. I don't know. But it was helpful to us. Now we only have to fight one portion of an entire army.
Klaus: We don't need to stop the remaining monsters because they can never cross Daidarabotchi as they are unworthy. We can head back to the Treehouse where the army of all the kingdoms might have gathered and plan our next move.
Ash: You are right. Let's go back.
- Writer
