Entwined Destinies: The red string across time

Meeting you was fate

It has been two years since Kubo defeated the dreaded moon king and saved his village. During which, he helped rebuild and expand his village, helped his grandfather adjust to living with him, and returned to performing magical paper plays and storytelling in the village square.

When Kubo wasn't busy with the village, he was cooking and cleaning at home, and tending to his grandfather. Whom he established a very close relationship with, after telling him carefully edited stories of their past.

Every night, Kubo came home exhausted, he barely had time for himself anymore. People seemed to need his help about one thing or another, and Kubo was too kind to say no. The only time he seemed to have for himself anymore was bed time, and he always fall into a deep dreamless sleep until sunrise.

This night however, was different.

Kubo dreamt that he was standing in a dark and vast void. "Hello?" He called out, his voice echoing all over. He looked around wildly, searching for a source of light. Until he noticed a faint glow in his hand. He looked down, and saw a red thread tied around his finger, the thread stretched further and further, it's redness glowing dimly in the darkness.

Kubo hesitated, before following the red string. He deduced that he was in some sort of tunnel.

While walking he kept trying to loosen the string around his finger, but it seemed to only tighten the more he tried to untie the knot. "Owe!" He shook his head and wiggled his finger when the knot tightened too much.

The string loosened a bit, much to his relief.

Soon, he saw a light that grew brighter as he neared it. He had to squint his eye against the light, when his single eye adjusted, he found himself standing in a strange new place.

Kubo was standing in a sunny orchard full of cherry trees in bloom. "But that couldn't be right" he thought to himself. It was supposed to be late autumn, almost winter. It was the wrong season for cherry trees to be in bloom. Yet here they were, scattering their tiny petals on his head and shoulders like pale pink snowflakes.

As Kubo watched the petals dance and twirl to the ground, he saw the red string again. It was in the dirt at his feet making a straight line through the row of trees. It led him out of the orchard and to a winding path on a steep, rocky hillside. He paused to look down at the scenery below him. There was an odd-looking house down there. And it seemed the red string was trying to lead him down toward that house.

Kubo followed the winding path down the hillside and wondered what kind of people would live in such a place. It was unlike any house Kubo had ever seen. It was taller than the cottages in the village back home, but smaller than his father's old fortress. It was painted a garish shade of pink several times pinker than the cherry blossoms. And there was a garden outside of it, filled with colorful plants he couldn't recognize from a distance.

The red string led Kubo straight to the stone wall surrounding the garden and swept up and over it. Whatever it was leading him to was on the other side. So he climbed the stones and pulled himself up to the top of the wall. From here he could see everything in the garden.

There was an old iron gate at the opposite wall, and every space of soil within the walls was filled with strange red flowers Kubo didn't recognize. But strangest of all was the person he saw kneeling among the flowers. They looked to be a child about his age and size, but he couldn't guess their gender from their looks. Their hair was cut to chin length and an unnatural shade of blue, and they wore a pink short-sleeved tunic with long pants. Back home only boys dressed in pants and wore their hair so short, but the boys back home never wore pink. Could this child be a girl? Were they some other gender he didn't know about yet? And why did they have blue hair?