by Jeremy Finn
James reached the top just after dark, and was able to continue traveling due to a decrease in trees and a rising moon that cast a pale glow on the rocks and low grasses covering the hilltop. As he climbed over the summit, a heavy wind rushed by his ears and whipped around the outcroppings of rock. In between gusts, James heard an unearthly shrieking noise and dove behind a large boulder. The ominous noise continued to call almost in rhythm with the wind. After spending some time huddled in panic, James peaked around the edge of his concealment and caught the source of the fearful sound. His shoulders dropped and he breathed a sigh of relief as he watched a long line of ski lift chairs silhouetted against the starry sky swaying on their hinges in the mountain wind.
His fears relieved, James jumped up and jogged toward the evidence of human habitation. As his gaze followed the line of swaying chairs down the long mountainside, though, disappointment crashed in on him yet again. Even from this distance, he could tell the small cluster of buildings at the bottom of the valley was deserted. Of course, he realized, there has not been a snow yet, so why would a ski slope be open? For a moment he contemplated hiking into the valley and breaking into a building for shelter, but the lawlessness of the act and, moreover, the exertion and distance it would take him off his course deterred him. Instead, he decided to seek out a nook among the rocks where he could block out the wind and possibly create a bed with some pine boughs or a mattress of dead leaves.
As he approached a large mass of rocks, however, he noticed a dark object in the distance. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be an ancient building. At least it appeared to be ancient. It was round and two stories high with a sloping roof that ended in a point. The design of the structure appeared similar to the buildings at Hanasan Hold, but the wood was weathered and any colorful paint or carved designs that once decorated it were eroded and erased by the constant wear of the elements on this exposed mountaintop. James tried the door, and it opened reluctantly until its top hinge broke and the door nearly fell on top of James. He entered the building and leaned the door against the frame.
A quick scan of the inside with his flashlight exposed a single, vacant room with a ladder leading to the second floor. After a few minutes of poking around, James came to the conclusion that the building had been deserted for some time, and gratefully made a bed from some desiccated cloth sacks he found in the corner. James sat down against the wall and dined on rice and some vegetables while he examined the map and made a plan for the next few days, in case he would have to keep going for that long. He decided he would get to the final steep ridge by early evening the next day and walk along the side of the road as it wound up the treacherous terrain and through the tunnel. Once he was on the plateau, he could seek shelter and spend the night. The next morning would be his last meal, and he would try to make it down into the coastal plain by afternoon so he could look for a place to barter for some food and possibly stay another night. After that, he would only have about a half day journey to the coast, where his path would have to end.
As he lay down to sleep, he slipped his hands into the pockets of his jacket for the first time since he struck out on his journey through the mountains. As he did so, he felt something flat and smooth with his right hand. When he pulled it out and examined it with his flashlight, he found a wad of cash obviously left by Hyuk as gratitude for his service and to aid him along the way. As he smiled and reminisced about his new friends, he noticed something else tucked in between the cash. He pulled out a pocket size portrait of Sunga in a beautiful traditional dress. James stared at the photo for some time trying to decide which was more pretty – the picture or the girl in person. He finally decided on the girl in person, since her cheerful manner seemed to be more than half of what attracted James to her.
With a simultaneous feeling of self-conscious embarrassment and regret, he tucked the picture into his wallet. The stillness of the dark room brought uncertainty back to him. Though the familiar onslaught of questions and doubts beat on his mind like the wind that beat against the wooden walls around him, weariness held the upper hand, and James fell fast asleep in the relatively luxurious accommodations of the forgotten structure, completely unaware that he was resting in the very same room where the Intercessor once made his commitment to become a servant of the Light.
When he woke the next morning, a glance at his watch told him he slept well into the daylight hours. Very little light succeeded in squeezing through the cracks of the pavilion, so the rising sun failed to wake him. After quickly assembling his things, he was struck with the understanding that he only had until tomorrow evening to reach his destination. After mentally reviewing his plan from the night before, he realized he would only make it as far as the coast if he moved quickly, so he exited the building and blazed a trail south into the next valley.
This day progressed much like the first as James continued to climb and descend repeatedly while keeping the highway to his right. Though he moved quickly all day and hoped to reach the final ridge before twilight, his late start worked against him, and it was nearly dark already when he entered the final valley before the steep ascent up the last ridge. Since he felt it necessary to reach the plateau before bedding down, James began to make his way toward the highway with the intention of walking along it until it reached the top of the ridge.
Night fell fully upon the scene as James cautiously approached the dark highway. There was a small bank running along the road, and he paused to determine the best way to negotiate his descent. While he was examining the steep decline, he suddenly caught a trace of movement below him. Though everything around him was covered in darkness, James was able to make out by starlight the fluid movement of a large dark mass from one cluster of bushes by the roadside to another. His heart skipped a beat, and he froze with his left hand grasping a sapling and his right foot suspended over the edge of the bank. Careful examination revealed two more dark masses nearby the resting place of the first.
James was jolted out of his state of shock by two bright lights rounding the corner below. For an instant, he froze like a dear in the headlights, then jumped back into the forest and rolled up in a ball in the bottom of a dry stream bed just big enough to conceal his form. After the car passed, James saw through the bushes one of the dark masses rise into the air and hover above the bank’s edge. Its long cloak fluttered in the wind, and it whispered to its companions in a voice that sounded like steel wool moving across metal. Just when James believed he was discovered, the monster rose above the tree line and slowly began moving uphill along the roadside.
After lying still for ten minutes, James very cautiously crawled along the stream bed until he was out of earshot of the bank’s edge. Then, he very carefully walked deeper into the woods and turned toward the steep ridge. The road was obviously out of the question, and he would have to negotiate the dangerous incline in the darkness of the forest. He believed the nefarin were guarding the road at this ridge. They rightly guessed he would be inclined to choose the road over the steep ridge if he were to travel along this route. Were they arrayed like this along all the roads in the south, or did they have some sort of tip off that he was moving along this route? For a brief instant, he suspected Hyuk of treachery, but immediately put the thought out of his mind. Distrust without evidence was a poison that grew more deadly when tolerated, and Hyuk had only shown him kindness and loyalty.
Since he dared not use his flashlight and was forced to move slowly to avoid excess noise, the climb up the ridge took the entire night. Nevertheless, the deadline in his head pushed him onward. He reached the cliff at the base of the plateau as the eastern sky was beginning to gray. He was exhausted, and his clothes were tattered from falls and uncontrolled slides down jagged inclines. Twice during the night he was forced to hide in a nook for some time when he sensed an evil presence or thought he saw a shadow moving over the canopy of branches overhead.
James walked along the base of the cliff that shot straight upward about sevent
een meters high, and realized after an hour he was going to have to try to climb the rock face. Too much traveling to the east would greatly damage his chances of reaching his destination, wherever it was, by this evening.
His heart beat rapidly as he ascended to a point four meters above the ground. He realized a slip from this point on would at least mean a serious injury, if not sudden or eventual death. The rock face here was still sheer, but offered more tiny handholds than previous spots he examined. So, ascending cautiously he wedged his fingers into the crevices and dug the tips of his boots into cracks until he managed to reach the top of the cliff with only one close call when he was forced to make a small leap to his left onto a tiny cleft in order to continue the path of nooks and crannies to the top. His heart leaped for joy when he grasped a tree root and began to haul himself over the edge and onto the plateau above. In his exuberance, though, his backpack slipped off his left shoulder, and the surprise caused him to reach for it with his right hand. For an instant, he teetered on the edge of the cliff with both hands grasping air before he shot his left arm out and grabbed a branch of the same little tree. This action, however left his right arm extended, and his backpack slipped off his shoulder and fell silently to the base of the cliff below. James watched in disbelief until it hit the ground with a thud and tumbled down the hill before snagging on a fallen tree branch far below. It only took him a second to decide to abandon the precious bag, only because he deemed his life more valuable and feared he would not be able to successfully negotiate the cliff again even if he managed to complete the far more difficult task of descending unscathed.
With disappointment torturing his mind and fatigue assaulting his body, James struck a path toward the highway and tried not to pay any attention to his grumbling stomach. What would he not give for that cold, stale rice ball that lay just thirty meters below him! Since the map and compass were also lost below, James realized his only hope would be to link back up to the highway and follow the pull in his mind until he reached his destination. Fortunately, he told himself reassuringly, the sun was growing bright and as warm as the season would allow, and the land was finally considerably more level. At the same time, though, he chose to ignore the dark blanket of cloud he noticed hanging ominously in the sky to the southeast. He only had until tonight to reach his goal, so he could not have much farther to go, he hoped.
For some time he walked away from the ridge and toward where he believed the road would be in the west. Just as he felt as if his precious point of reference would be just over the next little fold of land, a distant cry stopped him in his tracks. At first, he could not comprehend the strained call, but at length it drifted again through the still, cold air. James was certain this time it was a cry for help. For a moment, a conflict raged within him. He knew he only had hours left to reach his destination. A detour could cost him precious time that would result in missing his deadline. But the goal might be just steps away, for all he knew, in which case he could afford the distraction. On the other hand, he might need to go nearly to the coast by nightfall. What would happen if he arrived late anyway?
James’ mind was made when the cry pierced the silence of the sparse woods once more. If he was not going to help someone in need, what good would he be to the Light anyway? Is not that what it was all about – helping others and denying yourself? With this in mind, James turned and ran east in the direction of the call. Every step was taking him farther from his destination, but he felt an urgency to help whoever it was who was pleading for assistance so desperately.
Once he covered the distance that seemed to put him at the origin of the call, he looked about hastily, but could only see the low grass and random small trees covering the rolling ground. Then he heard the voice again. To his surprise, it seemed nearly as far away as when he first heard it, but perhaps just a little nearer. Maybe the undulating land played tricks on the ear, he thought as he took off at a slower jog than before.
After this same course of events happened several times, James began to despair. He called out to the voice in hope of establishing communication with the person in need, but there was no reply, save for the repeated cries for help that continued to mimic the first he heard long ago. Just as he was considering giving up the chase, he realized the person might be in motion himself. Perhaps someone abducted him or was pursuing him. James decided he must continue.
The sun began to decline in the sky, and the land began to rise when James came to the edge of a thicker forest. He stopped in awe as he crested a hill and observed an endless grove of huge trees. Their trunks were not particularly thick, but the trees stretched high into the sky and bore huge leaves the size of dining tables. For some time, James was reduced to walking - his lack of sleep and hunger caused him to slow. When he entered the forest of giant trees, though, it became worse. Although many of the huge leaves still clung to the branches of the trees, enough already fell to the ground to create a surface that made walking through the forest difficult. More than once, a large leaf fell from the thin canopy above and struck James before hitting the ground, nearly knocking him over as he stumbled on the layers of gargantuan leaves below his feet.
Not long after he entered the forest, though, James sensed he was finally drawing closer to the source of his chase. The calls for help grew louder and seemed closer until suddenly the cry came from directly behind him. He jumped and wheeled around to face the source of the noise. There at the base of one of the trees sat a young man with his legs crossed and wearing country clothes. He appeared to be healthy and without injury.
“What’s wrong?” James asked. “Were you the one calling for help?”
The man looked at him for a moment in silence, smiled wildly, and broke out suddenly, “Help me!”
“What are you doing?” James said as anger welled up inside him. Was this some kind of horrible prank? Then the man’s eyes connected with his and fear gripped James’ heart. He experienced the same sense of danger and foreboding he felt when he looked into the eyes of the old man on the subway.
“That’s right,” the man chuckled as he rose to his feet. “You know, don’t you? No matter, this shell of human flesh has tasted the blood of many like you. There’s nothing special about you.”
“Why…” was all James could stammer.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m just following orders,” the possessed man sneered as he pulled a shimmering black blade from out of the air behind his back.
Without a word more, the man made a quick slash intended to decapitate James’ head from his body. Though weary and surprised, James was not without his reflexes, and he ducked just as the blade swept over his head and severed a few of his hairs. Although the powerful swing missed its intended target, it cut cleanly through a sapling behind James with a hiss and a pop as the moisture in the trunk was suddenly superheated to steam by the scalding blade.
Without any further intervention, James would have been fully at the mercy of his attacker, who stood over his hunched body and raised his sword for a killing strike. Fortunately for James, though, the severed sapling slid to the ground and fell in the direction of the two men. The assassin took the brunt of the blow as most of the branches hit him and momentarily entangled his arms.
James shoved the trunk off his shoulder and ran as fast as his weary legs would carry him downhill. In seconds, the entangled man hacked all the branches away from his body and was in pursuit. When James glanced back to check his pursuer’s pace, he believed he might have a chance of keeping ahead of him since the man was stumbling and sloshing his way through the swamp of huge dead leaves on the ground with the same manner of difficulty he was experiencing. To his dismay, though, the man suddenly leaped into the air and somehow maintained his leap. He was hovering just above the leafy surface and catching up to James quickly.
I don’t have a chance against this guy! James thought as he ducked behind a large tree, racking his mind for some kind of plan for preserving his life even a little
longer. At the same time, he realized even a short reprieve would only mean he would just die tired.
The man’s hand shot toward James and snagged his jacket with a vice-like grip. His momentum still carrying him through the air, he lifted James off his feet and threw him against another large tree. James bounced off the tree and landed on his back fighting to maintain consciousness. The assassin was angered by James’ initial success and now wanted to bring a great deal of pain to James before he struck the killing blow. James curled into a fetal position as the fierce man kicked him about the body and stomped on his back and head. James’ body burned and stung, and tears of pain flooded his eyes as the voice of the being possessing the assassin laughed with derision and made ready for the killing blow.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a bolt of blinding light struck a tree nearby and every hair on James body stood on end. He looked up frightfully and saw lighting had struck a tree next to them and knocked the attacker to the ground. Almost in a reenactment of the previous scenario, James jumped to his feet and flung his battered body downhill as fast as he could. He knew there was no hope for escape, but instinct drove him to run madly away from the source of his pain and fear. The assassin again jumped into the air and began to rush at James with his sword ready. There would be no delay this time. He would finish his job immediately. James did not know whether to rejoice at this as a mercy or weep over his quick end.
Just as all seemed hopeless, though, time seemed to slow for an instant and James was able to see the world around him clearly. For some reason, he felt as if he were reading a profound poem as he took in the emotions inspired by impending death, and at the same time realized the beauty of nature around him. The sun was hidden behind the dark, rolling blanket of storm clouds, which were nearly overhead now, but its light still painted the sky ahead of the storm in merging shades of red, orange, and yellow. The forest was still except for the large leaves, which were falling slowly to the ground here and there as if symbolizing James’ approaching fate. With this thought, an idea snapped into his head, and a tiny flicker of hope ignited in his heart.
