Silent Echoes

Kas, standing by the window, nodded with great difficulty, understanding what Ancestor meant.

The Zagwell Clan's totem was a Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer.

Legend had it that Ancestor Voon had gained his powerful physique, strong enough to grind granite into dust, thanks to the life-giving milk of a doe that had raised him.

Totems were an extremely complex concept among the Reshman. Clans chose the totems they worshipped based on their habitat, history, and legends.

But this worship wasn't idolatry, as if the totems were gods. Rather, they believed they had some mysterious connection to the beings represented by their totems.

Clans that made their living by fishing chose sturgeon as their totem, hoping to catch more fish every day. It was a prayer for a good harvest.

Clans renowned for hunting bears revered and tamed them, but also hunted them to prove their mettle.

Totems came with all kinds of taboos. The Zagwell Clan believed Voon had been raised by a doe, and that all deer were kin to them in another form. Killing one's kin was a sin neither gods nor humans could tolerate.

In Morse's eyes, the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer Nosa rode was of the same blood as him. It was so rare that he doubted there was another one anywhere in the Sorrow Mountains.

As Nosa continued to howl, Morse banged his head against the wall and grumbled,

"Damn it, this isn't right. Even that woman Dagmar couldn't tame a Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer. How could some wild girl in the woods manage it?

"No, no, that's impossible. I've only ever heard one legend about someone becoming an ally to a Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer..."

He kept mulling it over, the fire in his eyes flickering wildly. Suddenly, he sprang into the air and smacked into the back of Kas's head, his voice full of excitement.

"I've got it! This was all Hadi's plan. He knew there was a Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer here and hoped you'd free it from the Beast Speaker's control.

"Yes, yes, it must be! We have to save it from Little Red Riding Hood!"

Ancestor had talked himself into believing his own logic, but Kas thought it was complete nonsense. The Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer was nothing like the other beasts. It was graceful and seemed one with nature, with no sign of being controlled.

He shrugged. "Well, there goes our chance to fight, too. When the time comes, use that nonstop chatter of yours to talk her into letting us go."

"Let's see what she wants first." A fervent light flickered in Morse's eyes before his voice gradually faded.

"I'm still here, kid..."

With Ancestor's promise, Kas headed for the door, but a furry hand caught him by the arm.

Seneya shook her head gently, her rosy eyes full of worry.

He raised a hand and gently stroked Seneya's slender cheek. The woman, luminous as moonlight, seemed to overlap with the werewolf before him.

Kas, Kas, have you been eating too many mushrooms? How could that cool, moonlike woman possibly be the silly Miss Aowu standing right in front of you?

"Seneya, if anything goes wrong, you have to leave at once... You went through so much to escape the Forgotten Grassland. You can't end up locked in a cage again."

Kas patted the werewolf's cheek, jolting her reddening eyes back to attention. He took a dry piece of antler from his tool bag and forced it into her hand.

"If I die, take this antler to Her Tribe. The Old Shaman will help lift your curse...

"Remember, you were born free."

"Aowu~" Tears glistened in Werewolf Lady's eyes, as if she were asking, If I leave, what will happen to you?

"Me? Heh. Don't worry too much. Maybe death is my way home."

Kas meant that the past few days might have been nothing but a dream, and that if this body died, he might return to the familiar, ordinary world and go back to being an ordinary wage slave.

But Seneya clearly couldn't guess what he really meant. Her eyes trembled, and her round nose gently touched Kas's lips.

"Aowu~"

Kas pushed Seneya away, raised both hands in a French salute, and stepped out of the house, facing hundreds of terrifying beasts.

He saw the Iron-Bristle Pig, as tall as a person, bristle with steel-like quills; the Frost Wolf exhale a dense chill that could freeze steel into shards of ice; the Saber-Toothed Tiger bare its fangs among the trees; and the Blood Vulture circle overhead, screeching mournfully.

Yet amid the oppressive atmosphere, he spoke to Nosa, perched on the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer, in a flippant tone.

"Looks like the little pig heard you."

"What did you do to my family, Kas?!"

Nosa's face, visible behind the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer's crownlike antlers, twisted with fury. She drew her bow to its full length, and her arrow cut through the silent night, striking Kas squarely in the shoulder.

This time, in the material world, Kas couldn't deflect the arrow fueled by her anger.

His body jolted. He paid no mind to the arrow buried in his shoulder, wearing a thoughtful expression.

"Let me think. I burned your father's spirit and smashed his remains with an axe... Yes, that's right. He was still trying to kill me right up until he was annihilated.

"And your mother—I have to apologize for this. I found the umbilical cords connecting you and your brother in her remains. There's no doubt the voice you heard came from your blood calling to you."

Kas took the desiccated umbilical cord from his tool bag. Time had made this symbol of selfless love fragile, and after his handling of it, it looked like a twisted, wrinkled length of sausage casing.

"You're saying that call came from my mother?"

Nosa looked astonished, as if she hadn't expected that at all. Her gaze darted around, searching for her mother in the little house she had built with her own hands.

She drew her bow again, and another arrow pierced Kas's left shoulder.

"Lies!"

Kas's body jolted again. If he kept going, he might end up looking like a porcupine...

Pinching one end of the umbilical cord between his thumb and forefinger, he slipped a nail into one of its greasy folds. A broken piece barely half a centimeter long fell onto the dusty ground.

"You..." Nosa had just begun to speak when a sharp pain surged from her abdomen. It was so intense that it seemed to spread from her core throughout her entire body.

She pulled open the soft linen lining of her clothes. A strange, dull red blood seeped from her navel.

She wiped it with her hand, but found not a trace of blood on her fingers. Yet the blood flowing from her navel down her body gleamed on her skin like gold.

A soft murmur echoed in her ears, a tender voice she had never heard before—the voice of the woman who had only ever appeared in her memories...

"Mother..." Nosa released her bow and clutched her stomach. Her face, hidden beneath the red velvet hood, let out a low, muffled sob.

Kas tossed Nosa the umbilical cord Angeli had entrusted to him. That kind mother had never appeared before her daughter, but she had watched her grow up all along.

Unlike her husband's twisted love for the false promise of prophecy, Angeli had always held on to one simple wish—to be with her.

Even though fate had mocked her and made her a victim of the shaman's prophecy and the witch's curse, she was still Nosa's mother...

This umbilical cord was the only way a mother could discipline a child who had gone astray.

And Kas chose to put this deadly tether, as far as Nosa was concerned, back into her hands.