Oontab [Episode 2]

The hunter followed, proceeding briskly but cautiously into a thick forest at the outskirts of the village, leaving the ruins behind him and following the pregnant woman, as the creatures dragged her on her back down a path he knew only led to a cliff. If the myth was not myth, then his father who was obsessed with spirit tales was right. As he followed the creatures stealthily, using trees as hiding places and gradually approaching the edge of the cliff, the atmosphere began to change, and his eyes and his nose watered as a thick smoke-like mist almost suddenly appeared. He jabbed at his eyes and resisted sneezing, and when he took his hand off his eyes, he could see clearly again, and there was no longer a cliff ahead, but a path through which the creatures were now dragging the pregnant woman. It was as though a path had appeared and flattened itself out in front of them, yet it looked like it had been there all the while. The things pulled her through absent-mindedly; they were not expecting that they were being followed.

The hunter stood puzzled at first, struggling to let the reality of the existence of the creatures sink into his mind, then he followed. He got the chance to see how the creatures moved, because initially it seemed like they were floating as the head of the pregnant woman obstructed him from seeing their feet, or roots, properly. They had roots for feet and branches for arms; with the roots, they dug into the soil as grip and swung their branches for balance in walking like humans did. They were stumps with contours and holes that served as eyes, nostrils and mouth, like the parts of a human face. The hunter felt an otherworldly presence exuding the atmosphere as he approached the alien space ahead.

The path wound its way through the forest, past odd looking trees. They were zigzag in shape and had no leaves on them, but rotten fruit dropped from them without stopping; it sounded like the footsteps of a conspicuous animal. The air itself was rotten, as the hunter fought to breathe through the choking mist in the atmosphere. It sent a nauseating hurt to his stomach and he found it hard to walk straight, but he persisted and followed, as the head of the pregnant woman dragged against the rough ground, and she sustained injury to it in the process. The woman was still unconscious, but alive, and he was looking for the chance to pounce in and take her back home.

To be continued

- Telsum Bini