The Officer and the Princess: The Flames Of War

Chapter 22

He was back, back in that forest that started it all. The rain falling. The fog hanging in the air. The dead trees that haunted the landscape. Sung walked through the forest, his feet shuffling across the ground kicking up long dried out leaves. "Father?" He called out. He assumed that's why he was here after all, his father having another message for him. "Hello?" He called out again, his voice echoing over the horizon. Only silence greeted him. He didn't know where he was supposed to go, or even if he was supposed to move at all.

From his understanding the Forest Of Lost Souls as it was called was a type of purgatory. In the book of Amaterasu it was said this plain of existence was only reserved for those who had acted dishonorably in battle, for their crimes they were forced to wander the nothingness for all of eternity where time seemed to stand still, and hour here could mean eons had passed in the living world. The book spoke of monsters that called this plain home. Large red skinned brutes that stood three times taller than a man called bone trolls, that wore armor made of the bones of their fallen enemies and carried the stumps of trees as weapons. They hunted those who wandered this existence. It was said the only way a warrior would be able to leave this place would be to kill one in combat...but to date none had succeeded. Being killed by a bone troll was said to transport the warrior to an even worst agony where they were in constant pain beyond imagination. But why his father had used this place to talk to him was beyond Sung's ability to understand. This was not a place for an honored warrior like Pai Yang, to step into such a place was almost like sacrilege.

He heard heavy foot falls behind him and the sound of trees being ripped from the ground Sung swallowed hard, all his thoughts of Bone trolls seemed to have summoned one. He turned slowly and...his blood ran cold. Exactly three feet in front of him was a pair red leg legs that were as thick as the trees they knocked down. He followed the legs up to see a animal skin loin cloth, a large belly that was covered in so many white flesh stripped bones that he couldn't dare count how many there were if he tired. He looked up even higher to see a hairless red face, two yellow slited eyes looking down at him, the eyes seeming to glow in the darkness. But what horrified him the most were the fangs that hung from the creatures lower lip, two sharp abominations the length of swords. The creatures held a large wooden club that it propped on its shoulder.

It eyed Sung for a moment before inhaling deeply, it's nostrils flaring as it took in his scent. "Shinsen'na kotsuniku." The beast said in a deep inhuman voice that caused Sung's chest to vibrate and his ears to ring. Sung's heart dropped at the monsters old Sun Dao dialect word's meaning...Fresh bones.

Sung had fought many men in his life but this here and now may just very well be the opponent that would do him in...he was afraid actually afraid, more afraid now that he had ever been at the North Pole when the Avatar marched down the streets. "Oh sweet merciful Goddess I beg of you to put a shield of protection around me and keep me from harm. I pray that you forgive me of sins to forgive my transgressions and bestow onto me your blessing."

Hearing the prayer the beast let out a belly rolling laugh. " Amaterasu is not here boy." The things said in heavily accented Han dialect. "You have acted dishonorably in life...this is your punishment!" The thing sounded pleased with it self, excited to add Sung's bones to its macabre suit.

"The boy is not yours to take demon!" A new voice called from behind, a voice Sung had heard before. Summoning his courage Sung turned his head to see Tadashi Yang, perched on an Ostrich Horse. In his hands a bow that he had drawn back, and arrow ready to strike, aimed at the monster. "He still walks among the living."

The Bone troll stared at Tadashi with those glowing eyes, smelling deeply. "The living and the honorable dead have no place in this realm." The troll said in a manner of fact tone. "Begone from here!"