Chapter 9: Yami no Sonata, part 4

My eyes suddenly shoot open of their own accord, and I am fully awake in an instant. The blazing light of the fire ahead fills my vision, and then she falls...

I catch her quickly and set her gently down. Right where she lies, face down, it seems her clothing is suddenly shrinking, and then I realize, it's her body that shrinking, lengthening. Arms and legs slendering gracefully; and hair growing.

The transformation complete, I roll her over. Just as I do, the fire burns itself out and we're shrouded in darkness.

"Senritsu...Senritsu! Damn it, we've got to get out of here." I shake her, still in pitch darkness. No response. In a sudden moment of worrying desparation, I put my ear to her heart. It is still beating, faintly, but still there.

"Hold on, hold on!"

Exiting the small tunnel is easier now that's she's suddenly thinner, but harder because I need to drag her the entire way. The green light shows me the end, as it gets bigger, and I pick her up and put her over my shoulder as we enter the main tunnel.

But the skeletons refuse to let me pass so easily. Grinning with empty eye sockets, they advance jerkily, as though pulled by a puppeteer's strings. They gesture with bony fingers, stretching out towards us.

I reach under my shirt and pull out my tankoban. "Old friends, do not fail me this time," I say, balancing Senritsu as I take them in both hands.

Clatter goes the sound of dismembered bone to the floor. Clatter, clatter! I strike and continue striking, moving forward.

And then something is lifted from my shoulder.

"No!" I turn back and charge after the skeletons which have stolen her away and are making off with her at furious speed down the left tunnel.

I have to run with all my might to catch the gliding beings along the tunnel. At the end is an eerie, orange-red light.

At the last minute, they drop her and she falls...there seems to be no floor...

I reach out and grab her upwards floating hand, my belly to the uneven ground. She hangs there, still unconscious, head drooping. Below her is a living pool of molten lava.

I feel bony fingers clawing into my back, and then all goes red...

A little while later, I don't know how much later, I come back to myself, panting, at the entrance of the cave, Senritsu over my shoulder, my tankoban in my left hand. Bloody scratches claw up my arms and legs, a few on my torso.

I look back. The opening of the cave looks so lifeless, so harmless. Yet I shiver, untying the horse, placing the now seemingly much younger woman on her stomach over the saddle and my knees and begin the journey back, gently but also hastily.

At the inn. I lay her down on her bed, for the first time getting a look at her new face. Even though I know it's what she looked like before the curse, it still astonishes me.

She appears to be no older than sixteen, with sweet, if not beautiful, features. Her hair is a little lighter than it used to be, but, thank heaven, now it looks just like any other teenager's, if a bit mussy from the wild journey back. Long eyelashes gracefully graze flushed cheeks, and I wonder what they look like when she opens them.

The garment she is wearing is still a bit strange on her new figure, very loose, still showing off shapely curves. I swallow hard and force myself to look away. This is very weird. Looking at someone who I've always thought of as much, much older than me, and now...it was like looking at a new person. Someone actually enjoyable to look at.

The doctor comes, the doctor goes. Exhaustion, he says, from what I can pick out. She'll be fine in a couple of days.

Those next couple of days she's still unconscious, but breathing peacefully enough that I feel good enough to make a visit to the only tailor I can find in the area. I've a little idea, from comparing her to me, that what will fit me will be a little bigger on her.

Of course, trying on said clothing at the tailor's only feeds the middle-aged woman's opinion that I am female.

I can't imagine why. I don't even remotely resemble a girl, why would anyone suggest such a thing?

But I figure that getting into a debate in Mongolian is not in my best interest, since I might end up saying, "I am a hippopotamus" instead of "I am actually male", and go with it.

When I get back, she is starting to wake up.