CHAPTER 9

I could not quite believe what had just happened. What was this room? What was this figure that seemed to be following me and why was it happening now?

Maybe I had imagined it?

Or maybe not?

You couldn't imagine something like that, could you? Was I already in such a mentally unstable state that I could no longer think clearly? I had always considered myself a rational person, but my dreams and my life had become increasingly more bizarre lately.

I slap my cheeks with my palms. Pull yourself together, I told myself again and again and looked at the wall where I had seen the black hole a few moments ago. Should I go to the priestess and tell her everything? No, I could not do that. She was still suspicious to me. I could not trust her.

I closed my eyes and visualized the scene in my mind. I pictured the figure, the book, the secret passage in the wall. It had happened. And it was real.

Slowly, the fear of being in a dangerous situation subsided. I was safe now. I was safe here, in my room. I was safe at home.

A laugh escaped my lips and I shook my head in disbelief.

No, that can't be right. That's crazy.

A few hours ago I was still a halfway normal person living my life and suddenly some goddess comes along and tells me that another god has taken my soul. On top of that I am told that I could throw the world into chaos, but I can avoid all that by committing suicide in order to live. What was all that fucking bullshit???

I took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall.

This was insane. I had to get out of here.

I left my room and went down the stairs. There was still a dead silence in the house. No one was there.

Behind me, the door slammed shut and the fresh breeze that meandered from the sea to the village made my hair blow in the wind. I looked back once more and made my way to Lito's house. I thought about what the priestess had said about Lito.

I set off to visit him at home. He had been carried to the village very badly injured. Although the priestess said that Eurybia had healed him, I could not believe it until I had seen him with my own eyes.

I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn't even notice that I was already standing in front of his door. I rang the bell and after a short wait, he answered. He looked terrible. His chest was puffed out like a football and his face was covered with bruises.

When he saw me, he smiled.

"You look terrible," I said a little awkwardly.

"Yona, I felt dead when I arrived here. You should have seen me yesterday. Compared to that, this is nothing, you dumbass. Didn't you see me when I was brought here? I looked like a squashed tomato." He laughed and I looked at himwith an evil eye.

"Well, come in then," he said. "Can I offer you something to drink?"

"I'm fine, thank you. Can we talk about you first Lito? How do you feel? Are your wounds healing well?" I asked.

He nodded and sat down on the chair.

"I still don't understand how I survived. I thought for sure that I'd died." He paused and looked at me.

"The divine hunt is also very dangerous. But Chuptri was defeated and the hunt was successful. So honour has also been bestowed upon you."

Lito laughed. "Yona, if only what you say were true, I would certainly be much happier. However, I will go down in history as the fallen one."

"What do you mean?" I asked and waited for an explanation.

"I am the only one who has been almost killed in the divine hunt."

How embarrassing is that?! Everyone will see me as a weakling and all because of your brother, because he..." Lito broke off the sentence and looked to the side. The expression on his face spoke volumes.

"What has my brother done?" I asked worriedly, but Lito avoided my gaze.

"Lito? WHAT DID MY BROTHER DO AT THE DIVINE HUNT?!" I shouted angrily.

Lito sighed and looked at me. I could see tears in his eyes.

"Yona, what do you think? Do you really believe that I would allow him to attack me? If he wanted to kill me, he would have done it without hesitation."

"Lito now stop beating around the bush! What does my brother have to do with you being so hurt?" I asked in a softer tone.

"I was attacked by him."

"What? By my brother?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes. He is a cunning bastard. He pretended to fall unconscious and then attacked me."

Shocked, I looked at her. "My brother did what?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My brother had changed, I didn't recognise him.

"Lito please tell me exactly what happened!"

He hesitated for a moment and then continued, "As you know, there were seven hunters in total. We had all been trained for months to prepare ourselves for the hunt. We were supposed to protect each other during the fight. He pretended to fall unconscious and then attacked me. The knife almost hit my heart and I passed out immediately. He must have kicked me afterwards. All the other injuries looked very much like they came from that."

I stood up from the chair and walked to the window. "Why would my brother do this? It doesn't make sense."

"I asked myself the same question, but I cannot answer it. I just suspect he didn't want me to finish Chuptri off, after all, I was the one who discovered him in the wilderness."

I turned around and faced him. "You're right. But what was his motive? Why would he attack you? He must have known that there would be no chance of defeating you."

"His motive was to pretend that he had found and killed Chuptri. This would bring him one step closer to his goal of soon becoming the new village chairman."

I looked at him with shock. "Of course, he wants to become the village chairman. He has always wanted to be the leader, but I never knew that he had such ambitions... I never thought he would resort to such methods! What a scumbag!"

Angrily I paced up and down at the window. "We have to do something Lito, we have to tell the village chief... we have to tell everyone!"

Lito shook his head. "No, we can't do that anymore! Everyone has told that these are the injuries from the fight with Chuptri. The others are loyal to your brother Zao, so they won't betray him."

"What a shit! I'm so sorry Lito!"

"Don't worry about me Yona, I'll get over it. And I'll do it by winning the next hunt."

I didn't know what to say.

"But let's dedicate ourselves to you Yona." Lito looked at me urgently. "How was your divine blessing... I heard from my mother that it was a disaster."

I swallowed. "Yes I have not received a blessing from the Goddess and.... yes..... my family is a shambles."

"It's okay," Lito said and patted my shoulder. "Take your time and decide what you want to do."

And then he gave me a big hug.

I returned the embrace and rested my head against his chest. It felt good to be held by him again and to hear his heartbeat.

"I don't know what to do Lito. I wasn't blessed by Eurybia but by another god and then I find out I'm a bastard child of some stranger who was in bed with my mother."

Tears rolled down my cheeks. It was his closeness that made me give free rein to my feelings.

I could not tell him what the grey weeping willows in the dungeon-like room said to me. Even less could I tell him everything about my encounter with Eurybia. He was already overwhelmed with his own feelings and was struggling with a shitty situation himself.

"Do what you want Yona, you always do."

I gave him another hug. "Thanks Lito, I don't know what I would do without you. It feels like I've lost my father, mother, my whole family and I'm alone in the world. I don't know what I'm doing anymore."

"You can always count on me Yona. Now come on, I'll make us some tea."

I followed him into the kitchen. We put the kettle on and lit a fire under it. In the meantime, he opened the cupboard and took out a bottle of beer. I could smell the alcohol and I grabbed his arm.

"That's enough, Lito! You shouldn't be drinking. You're still injured!"

Lito laughed. Lito laughed. "Our goddess Eurybia did a good job I'm nearly as good as new."

I had to agree. Compared to where he was carried into the village, he looked much better. "But why do you want to drink now?"

"Because I want to treat myself with all this shit." He drank a big gulp and grinned at me. "Much better!"

I just shook my head, but still gave him a smile.

The water was boiling by now and he filled two cups of tea before putting them on the kitchen table where we sat down.

We drank our tea in silence and my thoughts turned to what had happened to me this morning. Should I tell him that I might be losing my mind? Should I tell him that I would have to leave Niantra very soon? Was I willing and able to tell him all this? The answer was unfortunately no... I couldn't tell him anything.

I had a lot of questions, but I didn't dare ask them. I would just have to wait for answers and hope that they would come.

After a while, I got up from the table and went to the window. I had to think about what I would do next. I had to decide whether or not to stay in Niantra. I had to decide whether to return to my parents' house. I had to decide whether to go to the temple of Eurybia.

I stared outside at the blue sky. A flock of birds flew past me and disappeared behind the mountains. They were heading south towards their wintering grounds.

Suddenly, I noticed movement in the garden. Two figures were walking along the path between the trees. One of them was tall and thin and wore a long black cloak. She seemed to be looking straight ahead, but she kept glancing back every few seconds. Her companion was shorter than her and was also wearing a black robe. He too glanced backwards frequently.

A kind of mist enveloped the faces so that they could not be recognised. "Lito!" I whispered and he looked at me in surprise. "Why are you whispering?"

"Come to the window." Lito stood up and came to stand beside me. He looked out and confusion spread across his face. "What's wrong, Yona?" he asked, looking at me with concern.

Now I was puzzled. Why couldn't he see them? They were hard to miss. I had to make sure that only I saw them. "Lito, do you see anything out there?" I asked and Lito's brow furrowed.

"Well, there's a tree and stones.... there's a bird up in the tree watching us... it looks pretty angry, even though birds can't actually look angry....and then there's our neighbours' house but apart from that I don't see anything.... what am I supposed to see because you whisper like that?"

I swallowed. He could not see them.

He couldn't see them.

My eyes followed the two of them as they glided along. These beings were not of this world. A shiver came over me. Had I met one of them this morning in that ominous, mysterious room?

No, had I? That can't be.

Can it?

My gaze followed the two misty figures as they roamed the garden. Suddenly, one of them stopped and looked directly at me.

Fear.

Pure fear overcame me.

The other strange creature was now looking at me too and more of the pitch-black mist seemed to escape from their faces. Slowly at first and then faster and faster they came towards me. I backed away and Lito looked at me in shock. "Yona?"

The creatures were coming faster and faster towards me - towards us - and my hands began to sweat.

The black mist had now spread throughout the garden. I gasped for breath.

Lito rushed to me. "Yona, what the hell is going on? Talk to me!"

The next moment the figures were at the window and seemed to be staring at me. What the hell were those things?! All of a sudden a loud bang was heard and I flinched. The next moment the creatures exploded outside the window and shrill screams filled the room. The next moment all that could be seen was fog, which gradually disappeared. Shocked, I returned Lito's gaze.

"Yona, you look like you've seen a ghost! Are you all right?"

I swallowed. "Yes," I murmured, running my hands through my hair, "I don't sleep enough and I have panic attacks from time to time because of the lack of sleep."

That was a lie, but I couldn't tell Lito that two misty figures had just exploded in his garden.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

You could see in his face that he didn't believe me, but he didn't ask any more questions and accepted my answer.

***

Later that day, Lito brought me to the temple of Eurybia. My feeling told me that I had to go there. Something literally pulled me there, as if I had to go immediately. I had decided to take advantage of the fact that he was feeling well enough to accompany me.

When we arrived at the temple it felt different from the times before. There were many people here today. Some were praying and some were talking to priests.

There were several priests sitting in the grass in front of the temple. When they saw us approaching, they rose and bowed respectfully.

One of them approached us. "Welcome to the temple of Eurybia," he said smiling.

His gaze fell on me and he seemed to recognise me. His gaze darkened a little. "I will inform the head priestess that you are here. Please wait outside the main entrance." With that, he turned and went into the temple, which I was not allowed to enter without permission, as I was not a follower of Eurybia.

Less than five minutes later, the priest came out with the head priestess. "Yona," she said, hugging me briefly before giving Lito a smile.

"I see your injuries are healing," she said with a proud undertone and Lito nodded in agreement. Her gaze was now on me again.

"I was expecting you Yona," she said with a worried undertone.

"Lito, would you please go to the statue of Eurybia and wash yourself once at the water springs there? That should help your wounds heal faster." Lito nodded. "Thank you very much, I will go there immediately."

Lito winked at me again before entering the temple.

"Come see me when you're done." I nodded and he disappeared into the temple.

"The grey weeping willows have told me something you won't like," the priestess said and my heart stopped for a moment.

Did she know what had happened?