Kazuko was a merchant from the southern lands; he had raven-black hair and tanned skin. Sometimes he stuttered, and according to the customs of the southern people, he had a few tattoos on his hand that indicated his profession and family lineage.
He had a sixteen-year-old daughter who accompanied him on his travels. Her name was Patricia. She was a nimble and petite girl who didn't look her age. Her eyes were lifeless, and she seemed to be resentful of the world.
The mother of this family had passed away years ago; she had been brought to this land as a slave from a distant country. She had brown hair and large, beautiful eyes. She was a slave who had worked in various households for a long time, but eventually, Kazuko bought her and became attached to her.
This attachment led to their marriage and the birth of Patricia; however, she died from a chronic illness, leaving Kazuko alone. After his wife's death, Kazuko chose a new identity for himself. He had a different name before, but he forgot everything and left that city.
When he buried his wife in a small cemetery, his gaze was on Patricia. Now, they only had each other.
With this situation, what choice was there but to leave?
In those sorrowful moments, Kazuko was born; an identity built on the ruins of his previous persona.
Now, Kazuko was almost sixty years old, or at least he appeared to be. He was a cheerful and humorous person. He never stayed in one place for too long and always prioritized his daughter.
An old road passed through the mountains. Spring had brought a special vitality to the mountains. The slopes were green, and ice flowers could be seen on the cold, blue rocks.
When they reached the middle of the mountains, they took a break. But it wasn't just Kazuko and Patricia who were covered in the dust of the road. The horse accompanying them needed fodder and rest. So, when it was unhitched from the cart, it neighed and devoured all the fodder with insatiable greed.
Patricia gave a half-smile and patted the horse's mane.
Kazuko sat on a rock, staring at the grandeur of the jagged peaks as he slowly packed his pipe.
Patricia moved away from him and searched the slope for some firewood. She collected dry wood, thorns, and anything flammable.
However, gathering dry wood wasn't an easy task. Patricia had to climb the mountainside to collect the dry wood, where she encountered a path blocked by a large rock.
"So there was a path here too? I guess the old man wasn't hallucinating about the old highway… but this rock… it doesn't look like it fell from the top of this mountain, there's no trace of it, and besides… it's clear that it fell and…"
Patricia looked at the rock a bit more. Then, as she looked down the valley from that height, she saw their horse as a tiny dot. Kazuko was equally small.
"Well… I guess it doesn't matter; whether it fell or whatever, it's not my problem… I'd better get back before the old man finishes his pipe, so maybe I'll look around a bit more and then return…"
The cool spring breeze ran like a startled deer over the cold and desolate mountain plains. It passed over the tall, ungainly rocks and chased away the wandering clouds. It trampled the grass that rarely grew among the broken stones and clawed at the smoke from Kazuko's pipe.
In the silence of the mountains, there was a feeling as if no one else existed on earth except Patricia and him. A strange loneliness and sorrow weighed on his heart, but Kazuko had promised himself that he would no longer let the sorrow of loneliness trouble him.
A thin strand of smoke rose before him, trembling and moving upwards. As he took a light puff from his long-handled pipe, he heard Patricia's voice, terrified, coming towards him, clutching the firewood tightly, her eyes wide open, running towards him without looking at her feet.
Kazuko jumped towards the cart and immediately drew his dagger. Patricia dropped the firewood and hugged Kazuko. She burst into tears. Kazuko looked around but saw no one.
"What happened???" he asked anxiously and worriedly.
"There… there was a…" Patricia replied, sobbing.
She pointed to an indistinct spot in the heart of the mountain.
Kazuko looked closely but saw nothing. He thought to himself, "What did she see that scared her so much??! Could it be a ghost from the past? Oh my God… what am I saying… if she saw a spirit or ghost, it could be trouble for us. I'd better find out what's going to cross our path."
Ghosts or wandering spirits were mostly seen in legends. Although few had encountered them, the reason for this lack of encounters was the limited number of these beings and their habitats.
It was said that wandering spirits were beings who still had a deep attachment to the world and couldn't move on to their next life. Others believed that these beings were actually unfortunate souls who had been trapped by dark magic during their lifetime. Similarly, there were several other hypotheses trying to explain the existence of these spirits.
Kazuko accompanied Patricia to the entrance of a cave where the frozen body of a mountain raven was visible.
"By the gods, this is not a good omen," Kazuko said.
Patricia clung tightly to Kazuko's sleeve and pointed to a spot inside the cave.
Kazuko looked more closely.
A cobweb-covered figure sat at the end of that small cave.
"A statue…?"
But he looked more closely.
"Those clothes… no statue has such clothes… it's a corpse…"
He stood in front of the corpse. He examined the surroundings. At least three months had passed since his death.
"He must have been passing through this path in late autumn but got caught in a natural disaster… poor man, the mountain lords are not kind in winter…" Kazuko said.
Then he looked at Patricia. Although she usually seemed cold and lifeless, she had a strange fear of death; and now, in the middle of nowhere, she had encountered a corpse.
"What if… it suddenly… opens its eyes…" Patricia said haltingly.
"Ha ha ha … no, dear, eyes that are close to the world don't open again…" Kazuko laughed and said.
Then he sighed and continued, "And that's the greatest misery of life."
In a lowland between two mountains, Kazuko and Patricia found a suitable place and buried the body. Kazuko found some incense among his belongings and placed two pieces of apple on the grave. He lit the incense and remained silent for a few minutes in respect for the deceased.
Then he packed his pipe again and sat a little further away.
Patricia, still filled with fear, sat next to her father.
Kazuko, with a face clearly filled with regret, said, "Look closely, my daughter, listen to the song of the spirits…"
But Patricia heard nothing. The old man was saying strange things again.
"My daughter, you must never let the dead remain on the ground… anything dead must be buried."
Then, as he took a heavy puff from his pipe, a blue cloud covered his face. Kazuko felt a strange pain in his chest. A heavy weight pressing on his heart enveloped him for a moment. The mountain air was clean and refreshed the lungs. A small raven landed on the rock beside them. Kazuko glanced at the small bird.
"Patricia…"
Patricia looked at Kazuko. The old man's face was more somber than ever.
"I want you to promise me something… I don't have much time left, I want you to do me a favor when my time has come…"
Patricia covered her ears.
Kazuko noticed and patted his daughter's head.
"It's okay, Patricia… it's okay."
Then they placed a wildflower on the grave and left.
Years later, whenever they passed that way, they would bring some incense and light it on the grave.
Gradually, Kazuko's health deteriorated. Feeling his death approaching, he told his daughter that he needed to finish an unfinished conversation.
"Patricia… it might be hard for you to understand… but just as the young seek a place to live, the old seek a place for eternal rest," he coughed and continued, "and now… it's time for me to find a place for this rest, although it may seem selfish, but I want to rest in that plain…"
Patricia said nothing, tears slowly streaming from her lifeless eyes, and she nodded.
The path through the mountains was long and exhausting. It was like a labyrinth that never ended no matter how far they went. Kazuko touched his white hair. He had lived a strange life, but now he was nearing the end.
The illness had weakened him, and he knew he would soon die, but he preferred to spend his last days traveling. He wanted to see that great mountain, standing tall behind the blue mountain range, one last time. The small and large rocks on the slope called to him, and the mountain ravens landed in his honor.
However, as he took his last breaths, they had not yet passed the final bend. When his eyes closed, for a brief moment, that scene appeared before him, and he whispered, "Beautiful."
Patricia wore a red dress. It was spring, and the scent of life was everywhere. To distract Kazuko, she spoke of the wonders of the mountains and mentioned the meal they would share. Crying, she didn't dare look back. She feared seeing something that would break her heart. Kazuko had been silent for a while, and his silence scared Patricia.
When they reached the old graveyard, she dismounted very slowly. Her feet had barely touched the ground when she burst into tears. She fell to the ground and remained there for a while.
Kazuko's face was as white as chalk. His half-open eyes gazed at the tall mountain in the distance.
She remembered Kazuko's words, spoken right there.
"My daughter, you must never let the dead remain on the ground… anything dead must be buried."
Then, with trembling hands, she reached for a small shovel.
Digging a grave was not an easy task. The weight behind each mound of earth felt as heavy as a thousand mountains. It seemed as if one's strength was draining away. No matter how much she dug, it wasn't deep enough. How deep was appropriate? Patricia sat on the ground, her eyes filled with tears. A long time passed; so long that the lantern's light reflected on Kazuko's face, casting his shadow on the ground.
Patricia couldn't bring herself to bury him. At least not that night; every daughter deserved to sleep in her father's arms one last time.
Patricia took refuge in Kazuko's shadow and spent the night there.
The next day, when the sun shone on the jagged peaks and the mountain's shadow fell on the plain, she woke up to the sound of a mountain raven.
The lantern's glass was covered in black soot. The night before, it had flickered for an unknown duration and was extinguished at dawn in its emptiness.
As she dragged Kazuko behind her, it felt as if she was taking her entire childhood to the grave with him.
She wrapped Kazuko in a woolen blanket, then sprinkled some dried flower petals in his grave. As the scent of incense mingled with the cool morning breeze, Kazuko was ready to journey to his eternal home.
She carefully arranged the stones on the grave. She placed Kazuko's favorite pendant on his grave and paid her respects.
She offered some food as a tribute. Her gaze fell on the adjacent grave, now covered in grass. She gave a half-smile.
A flock of ravens approached. They ate the scattered food and disappeared like a black dot in the distance.
When the sun reached the middle of the sky, Patricia rose from beside the grave. She gave a short bow and said, "I hope you smile beside Mom…"
With that, she left, leaving Kazuko alone forever.