It was a strange and haunting night, one that I will never forget.
Linda, later on, in the sea of Corsair and in the tower of Mongol, Remus, between the silken shrouds of Paros, and perhaps even the warrior Guin, often recalled in their minds that strange and mysterious night, which could be compared to the Holy Night of the Birth. To spend the night in the depths of the frontier forest, relying only on the blazing fires and protecting oneself from all sorts of demons, evil spirits, and ghoulish demons, was the kind of experience that even the mercenaries of the frontier guard, who loved to seek blood and adventure, would prefer to avoid.
They had frost-coloured hair that shone brightly in the fire, violet eyes that looked silver in the darkness, and slender limbs that were as if they were pearls. The remaining one is a deformed warrior with fearsome Leopard-headed masks and eyes burning with dark fury.
At Linda's suggestion, Guin had taken from the corpses of the Black Knights of Gora he had slaughtered, a well-fitting body armor, iron baskets, shin guards, and leather boots, girded his waist with the most comfortable danhei, and finally thrown a light and sturdy black cloak over his shoulders. Only the helmet he did not wear--not only because to wear the black helmet of the Gora would be a fatal misunderstanding in case he came across the soldiers of the barbarian tribes and nations hostile to the Gora, but also for the simpler reason that no helmet large enough to contain a huge leopard's head would be able to hold him. There was no helmet big enough to hold a huge leopard head.
When he was fully clothed and fatigued, he looked as if he were a different man from the one who had a frighteningly masculine physique. When he was fully clothed, even his bizarre leopard head reminded me of a demi-beast warrior rather than that of a horrible beast, and he looked strangely fearless and possessed the mysterious power of a wild spirit.
What a fantastic sight it was - a fire, flickering orange and burning incessantly, thanks to the oily branches and grasses that one of the three of us was constantly replenishing to make sure that it would never run out. It was a beautiful, shimmering noon around them.
The circular expanse lit by the fire was a small but solid territory that protected them from all manner of demons, and from the night itself, which was a remote place where demons lurked. Linda and Remus, the holy twins of Paros, both wore their cloaks on the grass and sat on their knees like mischievous children, snuggled close together. Their eyes were often turned towards the hostile, unlighted darkness, and towards the huge, deformed companion, who was cowering in the flickering light of the fire. As the fire flickered, its glow reflected off the metal fittings of the leopard-headed warrior's armour and made him dance the dance of a kobold, so that the warrior's nightmarish apparition appeared even more bizarre to their eyes.
Outside, in the darkness, there were signs of all sorts of wickedness, angry at this small, fearless challenge and invasion of the night, which was rightfully their territory. Even in this frontier, there was a clear boundary between the demons and the humans, and as long as it was clear that fires were being lit there, that the humans were awake, and that human rule was being enforced, the demons could not interfere unnecessarily. The forest of the Ludes, which was still and uninhabited, regained its original buzz and bewitching life with the darkness, and in the darkness were all sorts of unearthly creatures, but they dared to make a circle of light and fire, and to stretch out their hands against the three living intruders. But they dared not reach out their hands to the three living intruders, only because of their faint boundaries.
But outside the reach of the fire, those who dwelled in the forest were at their best. Linda and her companions heard the slithering sounds and the whooshing, whooshing breaths of huge, slimy things crawling through the undergrowth. And there came many dim things with small glittering eyes, just outside the light of the fire, and they made strange noises in their ears. And sometimes, in the darkness, there would be a rustling sound as something with large wings flew away, followed by the sound of a wild struggle, the crunching of horrible bones, the squirting of blood, and the horrible noise of fighting over prey.
Whenever Linda and Remus heard a strange sound, they would lean in close and clasp hands together. They had lived together like this for fourteen years, and now, if they did not embrace each other, they felt as if they were losing half their bodies. and that if we are close to each other, no matter what happens, we will not worry and we will be able to get through it with each other.
"It's awfully dark in here. The fire's dying down, isn't it?"
But even so, it must have been a night too harsh for children who had not yet completed the "ritual" to spend.
Linda could no longer bear to remain silent and listen to the strange and frightening noises outside and opened her mouth.
But immediately, he looked at Remus with a shocked look on his face.
I thought you said the fire was dying down.
You're not here, are you?
No?
No?
The forest was all around us, and our voices should have been sucked out, but they were mockingly quiet, and the spirit of the trees came back.
The warrior put his hand on Danpei and almost raised himself. His voice was full of malice and mockery.
"It's okay. He's just an imp from the impersonator's shop. You can't do anything."
Linda said, glaring into the darkness and ignoring the malevolent spirit that arose again.
"Don't fall asleep, Remus. If you drift off, the dreamer will take advantage. Pinch your knees when you get sleepy."
"It's okay."
"I haven't slept for two nights. I know it's hard, but tomorrow we'll ..."
"No one knows if tomorrow will come safely, Linda the Oracle."
Remus replied sulkily. Linda was annoyed and thought about keeping quiet, but when she thought of the dark noises she heard in the silence, her brother's defiance and his teasing "Mono mo mattsu neka ya" were easier to bear.
"Tomorrow will come."
She said back, leaning her proud silver head back.
"I know. Tomorrow will come and everything will be better. Any tomorrow is better than yesterday. Yesterday we spent the night suffocating in the spikes of the vasja tree and the day before that we ran crying in the saddle of a horse and the day before that..."
Linda kept her mouth shut. A horrible sight came to her eyes and she clenched her fists over her mouth.
"Linda..."
"It's okay. We've made it through somehow."
Linda murmured, turning a dark gaze on her brother.
The leopard-headed warrior seemed to have finally stopped dwelling on his own suspicions and begun to recover his interest in others.
"You guys are--"
He said in a growling voice.
"How did you end up wandering around in the woods like this?"
"We are..."
"Shut up, Remus!"
Linda interrupted.
"You helped us, and we helped you, but we still don't know whose side you're on."
"I'm not taking anyone's side."
"Then so be it."
Linda gave a small shudder--the fire was burning brightly, so it was probably less due to the chill in the forest than to the presence of something huge and shadowy passing through, loosening the darkness outside. He drew his cloak around him.
"It's awfully dark in here."
She groaned.
"In addition, isn't there a nasty sound somewhere in the distance, as if ... something is constantly gnawing on the bones?"
"Linda is a soothsayer, a seer."
Remus explained to the warrior with great pride.
"You're closer to the demon world than I am or most people are. When Linda and I were born, the Oracle of Paro made a prophecy about two pearls, one of which would become medicine and one of which would become treasure."
"..."
"I was told that it meant that Linda would become a great female prophetess and mage, and I would be the ruler of Paros."
"Remus."
My sister made a sound of reproach. But Guin was listening.
"Palos--governance?"
"O Paros. Even if you have lost your memory, you know of the Pearl of the Middle Plains, the Kingdom of Paros."
"Paros--the kingdom?"
"There will be no more Paros ruled by the holy monarch, Aldross III."
Linda said to the Leopard-headed warriors, knowing that there was nothing to be done now. Their eyes began to fill with tears that they had been holding back, and their eyelids were filled with the horrible sight of the beautiful crystal city being wiped out and the people being cut down in the fire.
"They burned the Crystal Tower, cut down the King and Queen of the Holy Kings, who were condemned by Janus, and annihilated the Holy Horsemen of Paros."
Linda said in a whisper, with a curse.
"I will remember the bloodshed in the Year of the Dragon and the Blue Moon for the rest of my life."
"Have I fought that battle?"
Guin's interests lay somewhat elsewhere.
"Come on, I don't know."
Linda was quiet,
"But it is not customary in Paros for a sinner to wear a leopard's head, and a man who wishes to hide his face would rather be too conspicuous if he wore such a thing. The Grand Duke of Ghora, General Vlad of Mongol, reigns over Mongol, and though it is filled with all manner of other foulness, there is still no mention of torturing or binding sinners in such a manner."
Linda clicked her tongue as if to say that it was a pity that she could not add that to the list of the Archduke of Mongol's vices.
"I think he's from the South."
Remus gave his opinion. Linda thought about it,
"Maybe you are, maybe you're not."
He looked at the darkness around him, as if he had just remembered something he had forgotten.
"When the minstrels sang to me, I thought how romantic it would be to spend a night roasting over a fire in the middle of nowhere. But never again would I wish to have such an experience as that of a minstrel singing to a kithara."
"We're going to have to have some more amazing adventures."
Guin suddenly turned his head upward and shouted. His barking voice frightened him, and something flashed in the darkness.
"What--why?"
"I can smell the rain in the air . A damp wind has begun to blow. When the storm comes, the fire will go out."
"Why ...?"
She was about to scream, wondering how the warrior could smell the rain in the air, which only a true Leopard could detect, and which even she, Linda, the prophetess, could not sense until she was told.
But such suspicions were quickly dispelled in the face of the terrifying fact that a storm was coming. A damp wind was now blowing in Linda's nostrils, her whole body was tightened by the prospect of evil, and her lips were clenched tightly. The fire was buzzing and shaking in the wind, and in the darkness she could feel the strange things that lived there beginning to rush about, moving left and right in a panic.
"God of Fate Yarn is a damn old man."
Linda raised a small fist to the sky and cursed.
"He's not going to let us sleep in peace, he's not going to let us spend the night in the fire and be safe. Does he really want to end the line of the holy kings?"
"Linda, they say he has a hundred ears."
Remus was careful and rushed to utter a spell of purgation.
"I don't care if each of your hundred ears is as long as a tallis."
Linda shouted challengingly, but finally the clouds began to move ominously fast, the trees swayed from side to side as if in anguish, and she bit her lip when she saw a number of glowing red eyes staring at her.
While the two children held hands and forgot what to do in their peril, the leopard-headed warrior hovered, staring into the fire. The leopard-headed warrior was huddled in the fire, staring at the fire, though it seemed unlikely that he was even aware of the danger he was about to face. Linda and Remus were startled when Guin suddenly stood up and struck the hilt of his treadle.
"Oh, my God, the fire's going out."
Linda was angry and tried to warn him, but when she saw the warrior's eyes, she stopped talking. The warrior's eyes shone brightly, as if he were one of the strange and horrible beasts that were watching them outside the circle of fire, a dark glow that no one thought strange.
"Come follow me. If you want to live through this night, run with me, child."