Mountain

After my talk with gramps, I picked up my things and finally left the mansion. 

The contents of the sack I had over my shoulder included some rations from the kitchen staff and bandages from the physician. The weapons gifted by the cadets remained neatly tucked away under the floorboards of my room, gathering dust and rust.

I took one last glance at the garden from the roof, taking in the dazzling purple hues of the wisteria trees still softly glowing despite the daylight.

I ran along the roof, reaching the wall surrounding the estate in a couple of seconds. The man standing guard at the gate shot me a scornful look before allowing me to step foot outside.

'Sucker. He's still mad about the time I knocked him out.'

I took a deep breath and walked out the gate and into the surrounding town. 

'No smell of freedom. Smells like shit.' I noted after a horse drawn carriage rolled past me, leaving a trail of manure in its path. 

I sighed and continued walking, eventually reaching the outskirts of the town. The rice plantations were fully submerged in a heavy sheet of pure white snow and only a few sparsely placed houses and pine trees broke the monotony of the monochrome backdrop.

I knew no one else besides my family, meaning I didn't have to make any stops along the way to my destination, making my journey quite short.

I reached the foot of the mountain I would be traveling across and was instantly greeted by a cold air carried down the mountain as carried by the wind, as though the mountain itself was welcoming me into its domain. Or warding me off.

Walking through the narrow and twisting paths of the mountain, I couldn't help but stare blankly at the snow crunching below my feet while my mind wandered.

'I hate the cold. Why did I have to leave during winter? I wish I could find a place with central heating, maybe I'll invent the technology a few centuries early.' Were just some of the thoughts I encountered on the mind numbing journey through the rising sea of white.

'Naoko is probably dead, or worse, a demon. It makes sense that Hanabi wouldn't know. Actually, I don't even know if anyone else in my family knows about the existence of demons. Seeing as they kill so many people, you'd think it would be common knowledge. I have to ask someone about it.' I tempered my expectations of finding her, yet I couldn't help but feel remorseful. I never knew Naoko, yet I felt this unexplainable, burning desire to keep the promises I made to Hanabi. 

'I'll definitely find her. Dead or alive isn't my problem. At least my family will have closure. That's all I care about.' I wasn't a protagonist, doing things for others didn't come naturally to me, I couldn't even empathize with the gripes of my own sister. Yet I couldn't deny that I cared. I cared enough to promise her such a thing after all. This realization burdened me greatly.

*

I kept mindlessly wandering along the mountain path, exhaustion and fatigue now only an afterthought with the help of total concentration. I had learned to keep it activated through most of the day, yet I still couldn't do it while sleeping.

Arriving in front of an old, worn out wooden sign with characters that were almost impossible to decipher, I sighed in relief knowing I wasn't lost.

"Fuck yea, I did it, I'm almost there! I actually managed to navigate with this shitty old map" I groaned while shuffling the dusty old map in my hands.

Yet my excitement quickly dissipated as I looked at the snow covered trail.

"Fantastic." I sighed.

I didn't know if that shitty path went right, left or center so my journey came to an abrupt halt as I was faced with a difficult choice. Either keep going and risk getting lost, or turn back now and wait for… the snow to melt. 

"Yea not happening." I said while thinking about the snow covered landscape and the ever grey sky that the sun could barely pierce through. So I soldiered on. 'A little snow can't hurt, after all I'm named after it, the snow gods must favor me.' I coped.

It didn't take long to get lost. My skills with a map were about as good as my skills with a threading needle. And judging by the small scars on my fingers, neither were very good. With no path to rely on, I was forced to climb on the nearby trees and look out for any signs of life. 

Yet there were none. I decided to keep heading straight, but regardless of how long I walked, I couldn't seem to find the way down to the village.

I kept walking, periodically climbing the nearby trees to check for.. anything really.

The sun began to set and I was yet to find anything. As nightfall arrived, I started getting desperate, frantically climbing as high as I could to look for anything to guide me in the right direction.

Ultimately, I decided to give up and sleep on a tree branch placed high enough so as to not become prey to some animal that just happened to pass by.

'I'm probably not gonna get much sleep tonight. The guy must be worried, grandpa said I'd arrive by now.' I thought while trying to fall asleep. Though eventually I did fall asleep, clutching my sword tightly even while unconscious.

*

I was woken up by a soft shriek, coming from far away. My body reacted by abruptly getting up, causing me to fall off the tree branch and onto the ground, my landing only softened by the soft snow.

I got up, brushed my clothes of snow, and began running down the mountain towards the scream. It didn't take me long to locate its source.

What I found had been most unfortunate, to say the least. 

A man, barely taller than me, hunched over a young looking woman. The woman screamed and begged for her life with a voice of absolute terror. Two small children, standing behind a tree, witnessing the scene frozen in fear.

It didn't take me long to realize what was happening, even in the darkness of the night.

'Demon.' 

I drew my sword and dashed forward, appearing behind the demon in the blink of an eye with my blade now back in its scabbard. Before he even turned around to face me, his head was already rolling on the ground next to my feet. The blood spurting out dyed the snow a deep crimson. 

I opted for the safe approach, kill the enemy before it sees you. I didn't want to give a demon any opportunity to overwhelm me.

I looked over at the children, my previous assessment was wrong. They weren't frozen in fear, only their heads remained at the base of the tree, the rest of their bodies completely missing.

I averted my gaze and looked back at the dying woman before kneeling down next to her.

"Listen to me. If you tell me where the village is, I might be able to save y-" I began explaining before being cut off.

"Koutaro? Is that you? You're alive." The woman looked at me with a warm gaze, tears streaming down her face. "Thank God you're.." She coughed. "Alive."

"No. Listen to me dammit. I am not your son. Look, I'll try stopping the bleeding." I said as I reached toward the bandages in my sack. "All you have to do is point me to the village, I'll get you to a proper doctor."

"What.. happened to my kids?" Her warm smile faded, now replaced with a look of confusion.

"That's not important right now! Tell me where the village is. Are you really gonna die like this?" 

"No. You.. can't go. We're here because.. we ran. The village.. by demons" She said, her voice barely a whisper.

"Shit." 

"Where.. are my kids?" She asked again.

I didn't reply. I only kept applying bandages. I knew my biology well, so I knew trying to bandage up exposed organs was a lost cause. Yet I tried anyway. I didn't know this woman but to let someone die without doing anything was sickening.

Even more sickening was seeing the light drain from her eyes, her pulse growing weaker with every heartbeat and her lungs taking in less and less air with each breath. 

'She's dead.' I stopped bandaging. I wasn't a trained medic. My work was sloppy at best. I probably only hastened her death with my meddling.

I looked up and sighed with a tremor. The sky always seemed to be clear during times like these. The moon hanging in the sky like a stage light, drawing focus to my every blunder.

"She didn't even show me where the village is."