Where The Dead Ones Go Book 4 -Union-

Chapter- 2

"The Howling Forest piqued your interest?"

I looked above and saw the bartender of the rundown pub that I found in a small settlement at the edge of the forest near the beach where my husband led me.

"You could say that," I answered quietly as I looked down on my glass of rice wine called lambanog.

It seemed that Vaski left me in one of the islands of the fragmented Republic of Anoixi called Luzon coming from the word lusong. A name of a native rice mortar they use to dehusk rice.

The only crop they can tend after the world ends.

The other customers looked at me as if I have a death wish.

"If I were you, I would stay well away from that cursed place," the bartender advised as he leaned on his creaking wine cabinet made of used planks and rusty nails, "We don't call it Howling Forest for nothing."

I raised my right eyebrow at him as I got more interested in that rather forlorn patch of green woodland amidst the dead and rotting trees around it.

"If it's a cursed place, why build a village near it?" I asked pointedly that made him blink, "Shouldn't you all stay well away from it if it's that dangerous?"

He heaved a sigh as the customers continued their drinks rather dejectedly.

"We tried, missy. After this damn Second Fall, we tried in vain just as many as our scattered remains of countrymates did before us," he answered quietly as he looked around his falling apart establishment, "And every single time we tried to build a semblance of a home, monsters arrived in droves to try and kill us all."

I nodded slowly after I drank from my dusty glass, "And this forest?"

"For some reason, monsters avoid this place," he said in a hushed, barely audible voice as if he is afraid whatever it is inside it will hear him, "What few spawns of Typhon who dared enter it are brutally killed. As if its a monster who also did it."

I furrowed my brows when I heard that from him, "Any human casualties?"

He shook his head slowly, "None. Not even wayward children who managed to get themselves lost inside that labyrinthine forest."

"Now that's just odd," I said matter-of-factly after finishing the drink that gave me a burst of energy and a bit lightheaded, to say the least, "Monsters don't discriminate. If anything that is moving and not their kind, they will relentlessly pursue it until its dead. Nobody dared to check on exactly what is inside?"

The bartender glanced outside his broken window, and I saw several makeshift graves with stones as its marker, "We already lost so much. Clinging on this fleeting lives of ours is more important than our curiosity, missy."

I nodded slowly as I get up from my seat and put down a piece of silk scarf weaved by my fallen siblings as a birthday gift that seems to be nothing but a fading dream now as payment for the drink.

"I don't have any money with me, but I guess that will be enough for the glass of wine and information?"

His trembling hands carefully touched the end of the scarf and nodded, "This is a cloth from the hands of the wisdom goddess," he whispered as he looked at me with utmost interest, "Who are you?"

"I am Gala. Gala Wilkins. A survivor like you all here," I said simply as I looked around at the men, women and children wearing nothing but torn clothes and hopeless expression in their tired faces, "But unlike you all, I am still willing to hope. Hope that someday, I can be so much more than a hopeless widow waiting for the end to come."

And with that, I walked towards the unhinged door and into the gloomy light of the seemingly perpetually setting sun.

-0-

"Show yourself!" I shouted loudly when I heard a sudden rustling behind me, and the moment I turned around, only a blurred gigantic shadow was all that I ever catch in my eyes, "I know you're here!"

A loud and angry growl was the answer that I received, and before I can even react, a four-legged creature of immense size and proportion jumped out of a bush and is now barreling towards me.

"Athena: Pallas Shield!"

I thought that nothing will happen as I am also under the impression that with my mother now gone, I wouldn't be able to summon her powers but lo and behold, the gorgoneion shield she held as her prized possession appeared before me and the creature before emitting a grey light that blasted away my aggressor.

It let out a huge howl that almost shattered my eardrums and brings the emotions of fear and oddly, grief, in my heart.

"Athena: Pallas Spear!"

I grasped the silver spear above my head before using it to parry the sharp fangs of the creature that is now clearly trying to kill me.

We brawled and fight several times before he overpowered me with sheer rage as my spear flew into the air and landed far behind me.

It lunged for the kill, and I was pushed to the ground as his fangs are inches away from my neck while I feel his heavy and laboured breathing.

But instead of screaming for my life, I just look directly at his awfully familiar yellow canine eyes defiantly.

"I already died twice, you have nothing to take from me anymore..."

It suddenly stopped from ripping away my throat as it blinked and looked at me carefully.

My muddled memories suddenly became a little clearer, and I finally remembered whose sad eyes this thing reminds me of.

"Asher?"

The large regimented and the scarred dog slowly let me go as it took several steps back as if it can't believe what it is seeing.

I took a step forward with great enthusiasm, but it just bowed its head in seeming shame and guilt.

"It is you, Asher, right?" I asked once more as the great brown dog more than the size of a human slowly looked up to me, "Do you still remember me?"

As if to answer, it walked towards where my spear has fallen and picked it up using its mouth before handing it to me meekly.

Tears fell from my eyes as I grabbed his furry neck and cried out loud his name, "Asher! It is you! You are here! You're really here! I know entering this forest is not just a drunken mistake! Oh, gods, you're really here with me."

He rests his head on my shoulder as I sobbed in his neck quietly, "If only Estelle is here. She'll know what to do."

Asher howled in sadness and grief as he stepped away from me and began walking towards the inner part of the forest before stopping and looking back at me as if asking to follow him.

And so I did.

We walked in complete silence for several long minutes before reaching a clearing where ten makeshift stone grave markers are located side by side.

"No. Not them..."

I broke into tears when Asher howled as if to confirm what I feared.

His siblings and father dead.

They didn't survive the Second Fall.

But the last grave to the right was probably the most painful for me for it bears a beautiful mirror on top of it together with a golden cat brooch.

"Estelle..."

I just fell to my knees as reality hits me.

She is gone.

Really gone.

Asher bumped his head to the stone, which marks where his beloved is buried and moaned painfully.

"Life lost is a life that can never be found again. Why am I even trying?" I asked myself in anger, "In the end, for what?! They will never return. Never."

As if to answer my question, my once close friend's golden feather appeared from my chest bathing us all in its warm glow that reminds me of what I am trying hard to grasp but seemingly impossible to even obtain now.

It hovered above the graves and pulsed several times, and to mine and Asher's surprise, ten ethereal forms appeared above the stones.

Eight boys, a man barely old enough to have a child and even hidden by the faceless light, a beautiful familiar girl looking at our direction serenely.

Asher growled in surprise as the eight children made of light ran towards him and hugged him lovingly.

"Estelle..."

Together with the man, the girl nodded at my direction as they carried the brooch and mirror to my direction and gave it to my shaking hands.

I looked down, and tears fell from eyes as their forms began to fade away.

"What for?! This hopeless world, desolate lands and a paradise of rubble and destruction. Is there even a chance?!"

Asher's brother bade him goodbye as they ran towards my direction and with their tiny hands, pushed me up so I can stand with my own two feet as his father gave him a big hug before looking up at the feather that is giving them the chance to appear in front of us.

The goddess of beauty's daughter willed Asher to get up and lead to my direction before pointing north.

But before I can even ask a question, they all banished in one blinding flash of brilliance from the feather as it slowly returned to my chest.

It is as if it is carrying now the wills of my niece and Asher's family inside my very being.

I glanced at the canine beside me, still silently crying while staring at the mirror and brooch in my hands mournfully.

"Your fiance pointed us north," I said after a long silence as he looked at me in surprise when I am putting the memento in the blue bag of my husband, "I've got nothing else to do but die. Might as well follow her wish."

I slung the bag on my back and prepared to leave, leaving behind my feral friend.

However, I stopped walking away suddenly.

As if the feather in my heart caused me to halt and speak the words I never thought I can say right now.

"You can stay here and guard their tombs," I started as I bit my lip in sadness and pain, "Or you can come with me to the northern reaches. It is what Estelle wants, Asher. You do know that she doesn't like her will not be done, right?"

I didn't hear any movements behind me, so I take that as a no and begin walking again with a heavy heart.

He made his choice, and so am I.

I refuse to die without doing anything. If she wants me to go back to our homeland, I will do just that with or without her fiance.

With quiet determination, I emerged from the other side of the forest and into the vast graves of fallen trees and buildings that bear the mark of what the eternally happy nation once was.

Before I even take a single step forward, I heard faint footsteps behind me and true enough, he appeared beside me and howled without inhibition at the setting sun.

A defiant one as if he is done grieving and is now ready to follow the path his beloved and family showed us.

"So you chose death?" I asked meaningfully that made him chortle and nod with tears on his eyes, "Now after all that has happened, I know what Vivet really meant with those words when she said that to us all. To think that it took me two deaths to realize its weight."

He nodded as we proceed to walk towards the barren lands and see if we can really reach the far reaches of my country or what's left of it by foot.

-0-

"What am I thinking? Anoixi was now fractured to an archipelago. If we want to go north, we need to cross this bloody ocean," I said irritably as I throw several firewoods Asher collected earlier on the campfire while I am preparing our dinner made of mushroom, plant broth and wildflowers we found when we are walking the barren lands until we reached a dead end.

More like dead water.

Back in front of the bloody ocean where my husband disappeared into.

We decided to set up a camp and rest when the sun finally sets and is replaced by a moonless and starless night that blankets everything below the unforgiving skies with seemingly impenetrable darkness that the flickering flames barely kept back.

Asher sniffed at my makeshift pot made of driftwood that I fashioned into a crude container and whined irritably before getting more mushrooms with his mouth and dropped it unceremoniously in there while giving me the side-eye.

"Well, excuse me for not being a good cook!" I snapped back as I took two cups from Vaski's bag and throw one at his head angrily, "If you will be so kind as to return to your humanoid form then you can do the cooking yourself as you always did, Asher!"

To my surprise, he looked down on his paws and shook his head that made me stop what I am doing.

"Wait, you can't?" I asked carefully, and a single nod from my furry friend confirmed my suspicions from earlier.

He lost the ability to become human again after the Second Fall.

I just laughed hollowly as I resumed scooping the now admittedly more delicious looking mushroom stew compared to what I am trying to make earlier, "I guess you also paid a high price for survival, huh?"

He barked in response as I handed him over his portion.

Asher then looked at the ring in my finger then sniffing it and glancing at my husband's bag before looking at me meaningfully.

I smiled sadly at him as I inclined my head at his direction, "He's gone, Asher. After we exchanged vows, he sent me on a search for a beautiful seashell," I showed him a beautiful shell that glittered beautifully in the light of the fire, "When I returned, he is already gone. Leaving behind a container of water containing his blood, a bag, few essential necessities and a grieving widow. Some guy he is, huh?"

He grunted a bit as he continued eating with a sad look in his eyes.

"I wonder if we will meet some of our friends, Asher?" I asked more to myself than my companion, "If yes, where are they now? What are they doing and more importantly, are they still clinging to hope?"

He didn't react as we continued eating in silence while staring forlornly in the crashing waves of bloody water.

"I guess the most important question is how can we even meet them if we can't cross this godforsaken ocean at all..."