1 | The Terrible Dreamer

Chapter 7

WISH

Mist covers the mountain tops as giant trade ships sail across Akane's horizon. Sky urchins swim within their currents, dipping and diving through the clouds, around the ships mass, grazing them just slightly. Rain trickles off hundreds of twisted trees and drips on my hair. It's cool to the touch and reminds me of home. I wipe my forehead with the back of my hand.

After almost twenty years, I can't believe I'm finally back on Akane. Everything seems smaller than I remember, or rather normal in size and height. As a child, I distinctly recall feeling tiny compared to the twisted trees, an infant among giants. Now, I can reach up and touch a low branch and feel the life flowing through its velvety leaves. Though, at five foot eleven, I can reach a lot of high places that Mom can't. Definitely a trait I inherited from my dad.

I stretch my arms, prep my legs, and get started. In an instant, an emerald cloak covers my body, gold trim woven around sleeves with thorny vines creeping into the material. Since I'm in Norwood territory, it's safer to disguise myself as one of their shrine attendants, blessing and offering to the Ōgini of Treschine Forest. They're harmless spirits, but I can't let my guard down. Who knows what kind of strong hold Norwood's ruler has over their kind.

My fingers spread out, fingerless gloves appear, along with a satchel, filled with items that I can use as emergency weapons. On our drive over, I made a mental check list. I'm hoping these items will be enough to protect me tonight. Since it's been so many years, I have no idea how much preparation I need to survive this nightmare planet. All of my training has been physical. If I weren't doing this job in secret, I would've called Kusanagi Sensei, but that would only draw unwanted attention. The first lesson we learned from Sensei: never go to Akane.

Too late for that. I pull the hood over my head and press on into the forest.

The air is lighter than Earth's, the gravity less dense, enough that when I walk with a slight bounce in my steps. My feet are nimble, stepping in places through the foliage, avoiding the gnarly roots and their twisted trunks. Lucious blue moss pads the trees like mushroom tops, soft and fresh with rain. A perfect place to sleep... or to get trapped.

It's too quiet, too still. There are no insects, no birds. Darkness seems to follow and it feels like I'm being watched. The further I venture, the further the trees twist into empty husks, mimicking beings with arms and legs. Vines suck the life out of their leaves.

An Ōgini pops its bulbus head out from behind a tree. It peers at me with it's dark haunting eyes, empty and soulless, the body is almost translucent like a ghost, small as a child. Long arms flow from their body, feeding into the bark, giving substances to the tree with its own life. They are harmless. Just a forest spirit. There's nothing to worry about... But I can tell Aiya's nervous, there's an itch in the back of my head. Distracting.

'Be careful,' Aiya says, 'Don't let an Augelli sneak up on you.'

I look over my shoulder, 'Afraid I might get eaten?'

She doesn't respond.

Under a treaty with Gens Norwood, Gens Augelli protects the Treschine Forest from outsider like myself from stealing and destroying. It's just like the minds of people, treating me like a virus that's infected their dream, except on Akane they're more real than imaginary.

Everything here is alive and real.

As long as I stay low to the ground and quietly pass through, I shouldn't draw attention to myself. From what I read, the bloody vultures usually fly above the tree line, rarely coming to the ground during the day, except when they spot a meal.