Absentmindedly following her father to their favorite hunting spot, Mizuki found herself skipping and smiling, hoping with an almost unnatural dexterity over the various rocks, roots, and branches. Seeing the incredibly natural, and fluid movements, even the most seasoned mountain climbers would be amazed.
If you asked Mizuki though she'd deny saying 'it's nothing amazing', and consequently point to her father. Following this train of thought about her father she couldn't help but reminisce about him, for all his beef and muscle, underneath is pure compassion and love. Her Pa' was undoubtedly the kindest soul anyone would ever meet, even a devil king would be able to get along with him, they'd be best bros in a few days, that's just the kind of guy he was.
Suddenly noticing Pa' coming to an abrupt halt Mizuki scans her surroundings, subtly noting the incredibly faint smell of rot and dust, sensing nothing otherwise out of the ordinary she turns to her Pa' only to burst out giggling her eyes sparkling.
"There you go little bird-ling, I'm sure you were worrying about how to get back up, *Chirp* *Chirp* GAHAHA home sweet home am right? Try not to get tangled up in the shrubs and vines next time. Ya?!"
Her Pa' could amazingly be seen on the side of a tree, placing a young bird in its nest, having freed it from its prison of shrubbery and vines below.
Mizuki could practically feel the gratefulness radiating off the bird, indeed for all of pa's muscle, he had an even greater heart of gold. Helping stuck and injured woodland creatures is par for the course when they go out hunting together.
She asked him about the reason for helping them once before, she'd hadn't expected him to reply like he did, the face he made when asked, it was filled with a an immense conviction and such raw emotion she'd never seen him with before.
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He was sitting cross-legged on lush forest floor, the rays of light that broke through the canopy of the forest seemed to envelop him, a man of 6ft'2in' cradling an injured fox in his folded arms, its front left leg bandaged, his eyes caressed the fox looking for injuries, a subtle frown on his face.
Seeing this ethereal scene, I felt guilty, I had recently been working up the courage to ask him about why he always helps the injured creatures, seeing this scene though, it was like god himself was telling me not to continue. However, I had to push on, it would only continue to bother me in the future If I didn't ask now.
"Pa, why do you always patch up the injured forest critters, you even free the ones who trapped themselves, I'm not trying to complain, I just can't seem to understand why it's necessary?"
The look he gave me that day, I'd never forget it, his face that day was unlike any other. I could see the deep pain in his eyes, in the glistening blue abyss I saw the love of someone who had lost so much more than just family, his smile spoke of tragedy, yet it was also bittersweet as if saying the present was all that mattered. I always could understand emotions better than others, they were almost tangible things to me, but I had never seen those feelings in him before.
"Woodland critters, ferocious predators, insects, and even humans, we all have hearts, we all have thoughts no matter how different, but most of all, we all share this world. It is our responsibility as denizens of this world who take it's blessings, to give back, yes our help may mean nothing, and yes, they may inevitably die, but we are hunters, and as hunters we must honor life, we only take their lives in order to support our own, as such we must honor the lives they lived in return, we do this by using every part of them we can, by doing so we make sure that their death helps us and in turn the world itself, even an insect holds worth. Life is valuable, no matter how small, no matter how large, no matter how weak or powerful. The greatest taboo breakers however, are those… Those… T H O S E… w h o trample o v e r life without a s e c o n d thought, they are m o n s t e r s who should have no right to e x i s t!"
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The words he spoke that day, they penetrated to the very center of my heart, the sheer conviction contained within shook me, even now the words linger deep inside my heart.
Approaching our hunting ground, my mood was elevated, the disharmony, the dread that was always present in the air, seemed to dissipate. The *pitter* *patter* of our steps seemed to be in harmony with nature's lullaby, the chirping of birds, the sound of swaying leaves in the wind, the pleasant smell of decay and dust…
'decay' … and … 'dust' … '
DECAY' … AND … 'DUST'…
'D.e.C.a.Y' … A.n.D … 'D.u.S.t' …
My face paled, my breathing quickened into ragged gasps, father gasped, he held a profound dread in his eyes, it was an instant, yet it felt like hours, I saw it... I saw 'IT', just before Pa' picked me up in a princess carry, I Saw 'IT', just before he ran like the devil himself was coming, I SAW IT ... THE... T-THE... 'M-MONSTERS THAT DON'T EXIST'.
It was surrounded by the strangely bubbling bodies of what I presume was previously a pack of wolves, the living-corpses oozed an ominous black liquid and emitted an unbearable stench of decay and rancid meat. The coarse liquid seemed to be slowly covering them, cries and whimpering could be heard as if they were being devoured alive
It stood there, silently leaning over a mass of bubbling black liquid that took the form of a wolf, the land surrounding it seemed to be filled with an unnatural dread. It was tall and lean standing somewhere between 7 and 8 feet, the first thing I noticed though was not it's height, no, it was the skin. It was covered in black veins, its skin a pulsating red, various protrusions quickly grew and popped oozing streams of black liquid, but they did nothing but embellish its most horrifying feature. Hundreds of eyes belonging to various creatures were embedded in its skin, constantly twitching, and wandering. The being that 'doesn't exist' lacked hands and feet, instead it's spindly and thin limbs ended in points.
I tried looking away, but It felt like days, I felt as if my sense of time was being distorted, the fear engulfed me and dread encompassed the surroundings, reprieve would eventually come as I felt Pa' lift me into his arms, and I broke eye contact. It should've been over, but no, me in my infinite wisdom decided, 'hey let's go take one last look the 'imaginary' eldritch horror', oohhh… BOY… wonderful… absolutely genius idea… the Mizuki council is now 'required' to give Mizuki an award for her sheer intelligence!
I spared a glance back at the twisted figure and what awaited me was only pure terror, it's eyes all spun wildly homing in onto me, as it exited its crouch, it's movements can only be described as unnatural, its limbs stretched and contorted, its meaty liquid like body violently contorted making bizarre zig zagging figures, and it followed… I don't remember much of the following escape, I can only recall my ragged breaths, the tears in my eyes, Tedivoth in my arms, and the absolute silence of the nature around us.
It was an oppressive, unbearable silence, the birds that had herald the start of our journey were absent, the wind was gone, the leaves on the tress drooped and shivered without sound, the forest seemed to be mourning. Partway through we exited the forest and the monster seemed to disappear, but Pa' never stopped running, at some point load sirens I'd never heard turned on, they echoed throughout the mountain side. Eventually we slowed down, the haze that covered my mind seemed to lighten, I first noticed the immense pure white blocky building in front of us, I realized that the sound of sirens originated from here. The second thing I noticed was Pa's weathered looks, multiple small cuts littered his now pale face, his previously worn leather jacket was shredded various tears littered the remnants, underneath on his skin were various bleeding gashes of differing sizes.
Guilt, it filled me, it drenched me, I did nothing, I was a weight that was pulling him down, I hurt Pa'. There were many thoughts running wild in my brain but the loudest, most pronounced, it repeated over and over without end, it was like a hymn, 'Everything will be fine and happy, dad, mom, and me will be together forever, we'll wake up tomorrow normal, fine, and happy!'