A legend says that there was once a cursed forest and a small village.
And into that cursed forest one of the village's babies was abandoned.
The small baby was born to a poor family one dark night as thunder flashed and roared while rain pelted the roofs. The baby hadn't been planned as birth control and knowledge at the time weren't as advanced as they are today. Needless to say, the baby boy should've known the terrible fate that awaited him.
Unwanted babies during that time could end anywhere from ditches to forests. This time it was the latter.
But unlike the other cases, these two young parents didn't have what it took to kill a small baby. Instead, they had a basket, some clothes and a bottle of warm milk and took the baby to a nearby forest that just happened to also be cursed.
The people of the village reported hearing voices, seeing weird lights and even characters. The dense and dark nature of the woods itself didn't help either. There had been at least five children who had gotten lost in the forest during the time the family had lived in the village. Hunters would also often never return from their trips into the woods.
The baby didn't seem affected by the forest and the spirits that apparently lived there. Though, he had always been a weird child. During the short three years he had lived with his parents, the two had seen more than enough to come to the conclusion that the cursed forest would be the best place for their young son.
The child, named Shigeo Kageyama by his parents, was a weird kid. He wasn't fussy, loud or anything. He was just, well, weird. The baby would often stare at nothing for minutes and even smile and reach out to something that the parents couldn't see. The two adults would also often find their child playing alone. He would be very animated and even offer blocks and the other few toys he had to something that wasn't there.
The child never made any move to befriend the other children and they even shied away from the odd boy. It also didn't help that Shigeo's face portrayed no emotion whatsoever. It was rather scary to many of the villagers who believed in the supernatural and such. He never seemed lonely though or then the blank face made it impossible to know.
It was hard for the young couple to understand. Their son was the talk of the whole village. Everyone blamed the young boy for the loss of crops and the poor weathers the village had been plagued with following the birth.
It unnerved the fresh parents to no end and they were always trying to find an explanation to their son's weird behavior. In the end, the only thing they could think of was that their son was indeed cursed as the villagers whispered behind their backs. If the two adults wanted to be safe they would need to get rid of the child. They had even went to the village's doctor and heard the same thing they had concluded. The man couldn't find anything physically wrong with the child even after hours of testing and probing later.
The parents had had second thoughts as they watched their small son sleeping in his little basket. Especially the mother would've almost wanted to take and hold her baby, taking him back home to where it was warm and safe.
The husband told her that they had no money to take care of the boy in the way the wife wanted to. They were struggling themselves. A third mouth to feed these past three years had taken its toll. They hardly had any food in store for this year's winter. He also reminded the woman how they had agreed that the boy was indeed cursed and wouldn't stay with them for any longer.
The parents lingered before deciding to run from the basket and not turn back.
With heavy hearts the two sat by their table when they finally made it home. The home seemed quieter, empty.
Their life did get easier with the third family member gone.
They made sure to never visit the forest ever again. All evidence of there ever being a child in the family disappeared soon after.
It almost seemed like a curse had actually been lifted from the whole village. It was unclear if the small baby was the actual cause or if the belief made it all happen. The last harvest of the year was plentiful and no one would starve during the long and dark winter months.
In the end, everyone seemed to forget that a baby had been sacrificed for them all.
Kageyama Shigeo was never seen again.
Not a body or even a piece of clothing was found. The hunters told that a wolf or a fox might have eaten the small child.
The parents of the child went to live on. Another boy was born to the family but didn't meet the same fate as his big brother. The couple lived in the village until their death after which the son took over.
Life went on and no one said the name of the cursed child again.
No papers or spoken information of the child remained.
The dark stain in the village's history was forgotten.
But unbeknownst to everyone in the village, Kageyama Shigeo wasn't killed by some wild animal or starved to death.
The forest was indeed haunted, but not by what the villagers though.
The forest was full of spirits. Everything from spirits of the trees to the water in the lake. Everything in the forest had a spirit attached to it.
On the top of the food chain was a certain spirit named Dimple. He would manifest as a green dragon to people who would stray too far into his territory and eat them.
On the faithful day, Dimple just happened to be monitoring the forest, making sure to shoo away any unwanted spirits.
A group of small spirits were tailing Dimple, the most powerful spirit in the forest. Suddenly, they strayed from Dimple's shadow and went to see something one of them had pointed out.
Dimple went to follow the small spirits to see what they had found. Pure curiosity. He couldn't really care less.
He wasn't expecting what they found though. A moving basket.
Dimple carefully peeled the sheet off of the basket and poked his nose into the basket.
A hand grabbed his whiskers and pulled hard.
Dimple huffed loud and pulled his face up, taking the thing up with it.
"It's Mob!" one of the small spirits clapped its hands together in joy, "The child from the village who can see us!"
"He gave us the biscuits just the other day!" another one told Dimple who was now eyeing the small child clinging to his nose and cooing loudly.
The spirits dug through the basket for any more information, finding a bottle of milk and a note.
None of them could read human writing so they showed the note to Dimple, who could. He was much stronger after all.
"Shigeo Kageyama? A name perhaps?" Dimple squinted his eyes to see the text better.
"Shall we take Mob back home, Master Dimple?" a spirit asked, "To the cave."
Dimple glared at the small child now safely back in his basket sucking on the bottle one of the spirits held out for him.
The child stared back with no fear visible in his dark, emotionless eyes. He was the first. No human could stay calm after seeing Dimple's form. This child was clearly different. The green spirit couldn't help but feel a strange connection to the child.
The other spirits seemed attached to the child as well, seeing that they kept giving Dimple the worst puppy eyes.
Dimple sighed loudly, lowering his head back towards the basket once more to have a good look at the boy.
"Not much meat on those bones. Eating this thing wouldn't fill me up at all. Let's fatten him up a bit", Dimple told the spirits as he carefully lifted the basket up with his teeth.
The boy, that the small spirits were adamant on calling Mob, didn't even squeal as the basket rose up. He just seemed to snuggle into his blankets more, getting ready to enjoy the ride.
So that was how Mob came to live with Dimple and the other spirits.
He quickly became somewhat of a celebrity in the forest since many of the spirits had never seen a person before.
Mob didn't seem to mind at all and befriended most of the spirits he encountered.
The cave Dimple had lived in peace for years was now a lively place.
With help from the forest's spirits and the materials they brought with them a makeshift house was built. Well, it wasn't something you could really call a house but that was exactly what it was for little Mob who knew no better. The back of the cave had a wood floor now as well as a small fire pit in the middle and a bed tucked away in the furthest corner.
Even if Dimple always tried to show Mob and the rest how irritated and mad he was, he quite enjoyed the child's company. The new bed Mob had made for him was rather nice as well.
"Shigeo! Where are you going this time?" Dimple roared from somewhere deep in the cave as Mob tried to sneak out as he often did. The powerful spirit still refused to call Kageyama by his nickname and sometimes even got pissed off if the small spirits used the name too often. He didn't like the name 'Mob' that much. Maybe it was just his fatherly side talking but the name didn't fit the boy at all.
"We need some firewood! We might as well look for some food as well", a small spirit told Dimple from where he was sitting on Mob's shoulder. It was a small mushroom spirit who would often come to the cave and play with Mob alongside his other spirit friends.
"Hm", Mob nodded, showing Dimple that he agreed with the spirit.
"It's cold out there", was the only goodbye the two got before Dimple turned his side and lied back down.
It was all the spirit's weird way of showing affection. He was worried if the child had enough clothes on to survive the harsh winter of the mountainous forest.
The spirits would often steal the child clothes from the village, but socks without a pair and a random shirt or pants there and there wouldn't be enough. Good thing that they had made a leather jacket just the other month using animal skins they had collected throughout the previous year. Leaves, moss and other plant materials also made quite good insulation when used properly.
The winter was most definitely the worst time for the small family. Food was hard to find and the fact that the ground was frozen solid didn't really help either.
Luckily, after Mob moved in and Dimple made sure that that every spirit in the forest knew not to do as much as even touch the boy with ill intentions, the spirits began bringing them all kinds of things. As mentioned they would bring clothes but also food they would find.
For example, a fox spirit had visited them just that morning bearing a pouch full of berries. Mob had saved the spirit from a hunter's trap last week, leaving the spirit with a strong sense of respect towards the human child.
"What do you think we'll find today?" the spirit asked Mob. The boy had named the spirit Kinoko and the small thing had been quite attached to Mob ever since. It had showed the boy around the forest and helped him learn the skills needed to survive. Dimple would sometimes give Mob a lesson or two as well, but the strong spirit was often too busy or lazy to do so and left it to Kinoko.
"Berries", Mob mumbled as he jumped from an icy rock onto another without slipping even once. He had become quite nimble through the years he had lived in the forest.
"Good morning Mob!" a spirit greeted Mob from a tree, followed by another spirit. Soon the duo was joined by a bunch of other spirits who were there just to help Mob and Kinoko. That was nothing new as Mob was known throughout the whole forest and even the neighboring ones.
There was a pair of rock spirits, spirits of trees as well as mushrooms and other plants. There was even a water spirit present.
"Morning", Mob crouched down and shook a spirit's limb it had offered him alongside yet another greeting.
"What are you looking for?" the spirits asked Mob as they tugged on his sleeves to get onto the boy's shoulders and head. They liked to be higher up and Mob happened to be quite a bit taller than most of them despite just being a child.
"Food and firewood", Mob told his little friends who begun to tell and point out places they had last seen berries, mushrooms and nuts. They would even pull on Mob's hair if they thought that the boy was too slow to move to the place they had told him.
"Do you have a pouch? A basket?" another spirit asked as it dug out a handful of nuts from the frozen ground. It must've been some squirrel's hide. Poor thing would need to go hungry.
Mob took out one made of reed and let the spirit put the small nuts into it. He then moved to crouch next to another one and let it drop some frozen berries in.
"Is it enough? Are you hungry?" the spirits kept asking Mob, afraid that their friend didn't get enough to eat despite all their help. Mob looked skinny even when he was wearing all his winter clothes. His skin was also pale with a bluish red tint. To put it bluntly, the kid looked sick.
"It's good", Mob mumbled as he secured the pouch to his back. His hands would have to be free but he didn't want to risk dropping and ruining the rare food items.
"You sure? Should we go find more?"
"No need. Thank you", Mob smiled to the spirits snuggling to him.
The spirits often did that to show affection. It was rare of spirits to do so but Mob was a very rare exception. Some spirits had actually gone to spy on people while hunting for food to see how they showed love and other emotions to one another. They had decided that rubbing against each other must've been the way to go.
"Hello Mr. Wolf", Mob bowed his head as the group came across a wolf pack.
The forest was rather large. Everything from wolves to deer lived there. Mob had even seen an eagle couple fly just above his home cave.
The wolves took turns to smell the boy who suddenly looked rather small next to the large animals. They greeted Mob, who in turn pet their heads.
"Boss says that they saw a human downstream from here", Kinoko told Mob.
Boss was the leader of the pack. A huge alpha male with a scar on its face as well as a part of the left ear missing. Legends say that it had been a hunter's bullet that had done those both. The wolf was said to have killed the man and his friend after being shot at, saving its life.
"A hunter", another spirit added, "He's coming this way."
Mob nodded his head as a thank you to the wolf as the spirits told him that the pack would come to see them later and bring them some meat. They were on their way to see if they could find a deer or catch some fish from the stream. Sharing your catch among friends was the thing to do around this forest. Especially with Mob.
"You're going to see him?" Kinoko tugged on Mob's hair, "It's dangerous. Master Dimple will be angry with us."
"Yeah yeah", Mob mumbled as he made his way down the stream to where the man was said to be.
He couldn't help but get curious. Mob couldn't even remember how long it had been since he had last seen one. Usually Dimple made sure to chase away any people entering his place before Mob could catch a glimpse.
But what he could remember was the last time he had managed to meet with one. It hadn't ended well. He had almost gotten shot as the men had begun running after him. It was useless though. Mob knew the forest like his own pockets and quickly outran the men. The spirits might've also helped him a bit by moving the roots, making the chasers trip and fall onto their faces.
Mob quickly came to a halt.
He had seen a man. A blond man.
"Look. There he is!" Kinoko pointed.
Mob sneaked to spy on the clumsy man.
"He looks stupid", one spirit laughed.
Another one snickered as well as they watched the man try and stay on top of the huge banks of snow with his flimsy snow shoes. His weight proved to be too great as he sunk further and further with every step he took. It also didn't help that the man didn't seem to know where all the rocks, holes and roots were. He would often trip and fall face first to snow.
"What is he hunting for? I can't see a gun or anything", a spirit asked.
"True. Maybe he isn't a hunter after all", Kinoko shrugged.
"The wolves know hunters. The Boss wouldn't lie."
"Maybe he has traps", Mob suggested.
He and the spirits would have a search for those and disable them before they could hurt anyone. Mob had just saved the fox and nursed his leg as best as he could. He knew that they had been lucky. Those things could rip the paws right off and leave the animal with an unusable and rotting leg to carry around.
The mild weather yesterday had made an icy cover on top of the snow. And as luck would have it, Mob slipped and yelped as he fell onto a pile of fresh snow. He had taken a careless step as he was focused on the look on the man's face. He usually wasn't like this.
"Mob!" Kinoko screamed as the spirits watched the hunter perk up and close in to where they were hiding.
"The man is coming!"
"Get up!"
Mob quickly got up and shot up onto a rock. He would need to be on the higher ground in case he would have to face off with the hunter. Mob only had seconds to brush off the snow from his clothes before the man was in front of him.
They both stared at each other for a couple of minutes before either one did as much as moved.
Mob was the first to make a move. He had heard from the spirits that people did some things when they met a friend. Mob didn't see the point but he slowly waved his hand.
Too bad that Mob didn't get a wave back.
When Mob looked to see the man, there was only a huge hole in the snow.
Mob tilted his head. Maybe he should've shook hands first. He had heard of something like that as well.
"He fainted", Kinoko huffed, "People really are weak."
Mob only nodded as he jumped down to take a better look at the man in front of them. He carefully brushed off the snow on the man, eyeing the weird colored hair and the clothes.
"Let's take him back home with us", Mob suddenly told the spirits, "Help me carry him."
"Mob! That's a bad idea! Dimple will eat him whole and you'll be in house arrest for a hundred years!" Kinoko cried out as the other spirits flocked around the man tugging at the unknown material of the clothes and the snow shoes.
"He will freeze to death", Mob argued, "He looked lost."
Kinoko sighed and watched its friends lift the poor man up and drag him through the snow.
"Do whatever", it finally waved, "I won't help you when Dimple gets mad though."
Mob nodded as he took the bag the man had been carrying and put it on his back, beginning to guide the spirits on their long track back to the cave Mob lived in.
Sure Dimple would get mad but it was all worth it.
The man seemed way too interesting to pass.