The Dark Current Spreads Outward

The night wind blew tirelessly, bringing damp chill from the south. Like a ghost, it wandered through the darkness. By dawn, the sky had only just begun to brighten, yet the fog remained thick, pressing heavily against the mouth of the valley like a translucent curtain that hid the outside world completely and made it difficult to glimpse what lay beyond.

The embers left in the fire had long since burned out. At the slightest touch, they crumbled into ash like fragile tissue paper, and even after my fingers touched them, I could still feel a trace of lingering coolness. After breakfast, we quickly packed our gear and prepared to set out along the path on the eastern side of the valley entrance.

The path wound along the mountainside with a gentle incline, like an elegant curve. From the heights, we could overlook the dense belt of forest beyond the valley, as though a natural painting had unfolded before our eyes. The dirt path beneath our feet was somewhat slippery from the previous night's fog. With every step, the soles of our shoes picked up a thin layer of mud, as if the earth were making intimate contact with us.

When we reached the first high point, I stopped, crouched down, and peered outside through the sparse branches. Under the sunlight, the fog at the edge of the forest belt took on a faint gray hue, like a thin veil that lent the entire forest a mysterious air. From time to time, the wind would part the veil, revealing a narrow gap through which we could glimpse the outline of the woodland—a lush green world.

That sweet, fishy smell could be detected here as well, and it was even clearer than in the valley. It seemed to follow the direction