"Move aside!" The noise came from the plants.
"Get out of there now!" I shouted as I rushed to get to the merchants. I forgot to look into what happened to the last thieves who travelled to Banyue. They must have been buried as fertilizer! "Get out now!"
The merchants and Tian Sheng ran back until they were behind me. I waved my hand to brush away the plants. A human face in the ground could be seen.
"Hehe, did I scare you?" the face asked. veins in its eyes and decomposing skin. The merchants freaked out. "Haaa... I often scare myself, too, sometimes."
"Who are you?" brother asked. This face is no longer human. Maybe when he first came, but not anymore.
"You tell me first."
"We are a caravan," I said as I held my arm out to keep my brother back. he is older, but I will still protect him the best way I know how.
"Oh? the face asked. I looked with a glare. "I was once a part of a caravan as well. But that was about fifty years ago."
fifty... how has this thing lasted this long without completely decomposing?
"At the time, I accidentally entered the city," the face continued, as I felt Kiyoshi latch onto my leg. "And the Banyue soldiers caught me, and used me for fertilizer for the damn ferns."
Honger thankfully didn't get brothers fern from somewhere else.
"haa... I haven't seen living human beings in so long," he sighed with an evil grin. He looked up to us, and his expression grew dark. "Could you all come closer?"
"Uh-uh," Kiyoshi said, shaking his head and hiding behind my legs. The merchants grew uneasy behind me.
"What?" The face made a creepy smile. "You don't want to? that's a shame..."
"How so?" I questioned.
"I wanted to confirm something... I've seen one of you four or five decades ago, haven't I?"
Looking back, the merchants began to panic while Honger and Kohana did not look amused.
"The person's identity?" I asked, glancing down at the face through the mask.
"Come closer, and I'll tell you," he breathed. At this point, I could smell the rotting breath. I backed away, about to reach for my sword.
"Go back," I said. Everyone began to leave. Kiyoshi rushed to Kohana.
"What?!" the face shrieked as we grew further away. "You really don't want to know who it is?! This man will get you all killed! I'm human too!"
"No, you aren't," I said, as I pulled out my sword and was ready to attack. "A human can't survive being buried for more than a year like you. You are no longer living."
"Hey, why are you leaving?" he began, trying to change his tone to make himself seem less of a threat. I was about to turn away when one of the merchants was about to go back into the fern patch!
"DON'T!" I screamed, but I was too late yet again. The face sent his tongue out and pierced the man's head through his ear, ripping away a chunk of him. The face took the piece and ate it in one gulp. cheerful and blabbering. I rushed to the man. His body was covered in blood, and his heart beat silently.
"You...!" I growled. My eyes are going from white and blue to black and blue. My old scars are reopening, and spikes of ice are reaching up from the ground. My brother was beside me just as fast. I couldn't hear what was being said. All I could see was red and black. What shook me out of this was a loud boom behind us. I turned, and there was the general whom I was only able to meet once when I would make trades with Banyue. Kemo. I kept my voice down and held my sword tight in my fist. The entire area was surrounded by them. They began roaring in their native tongue. I am rusty, and only heard enough to hear the words "don't kill them yet, take them away".
"Everyone, don't panic," brother said low in a whisper as the soldiers crowded us together.
"Don't act rashly, they only want to move us, not kill us," I said just as low.
"General!" the face started again. "I'm begging you, let me go! I helped you lure the enemy here! Let me go home! I want to go home!"
The face had blood on its face, and had this crazed look in its bloodshot eyes. Kemo let loose a task. He lifted his mace a little, then moved it over the face before crushing it. He used the mace like a rope to lift the head, pulling up white bones. He launched the face and his bones to the wall behind him. We headed away from the area and were on our way to the sinners' pit. where the preceptor remains. Brother asked Honger in a whisper about Kemo. I already know he was small, and was very similar to a little girl I had interacted with so long ago. They brought us to the pit. The woman from before was there. hanging. not by her neck, but by her waist and arms, restricted by a rope.
"Brothers!" Kemo shouted while we all stood on the other side of the wall. Roaring echoed from the pit. I stood still. Kiyoshi was clinging to me, and Kohana turned away with her ears pinned to her head. Her nine tails stuck the stone and held her in place.
"What's down there?!" Tian Sheng panicked.
"Soldiers' souls," Honger said with an emotionless face and held his arms folded over his chest.
"They must have been trapped for centuries and are howling for freedom," I explained.
"Don't be afraid." My brother said as he stood ready to fight. You aren't going to do that, brother. "If anything happens, I'll be the first to jump."
I knelt and told Kiyoshi to stay with Kohana. I had a plan that would need him to stay up out of the pit for now. I stood and made my way to Honger. I couldn't understand what was being said. But in the corner of my eye, hard enough to see past the mask, I saw Zhao leap towards Kemo with a weapon. Kemo blocked it and threw him down into the pit.
"zhao!" Tian Sheng called out in fear as the guide fell down and fell silent. I remained silent. I heard Tian Sheng screaming and thrashing. I nudged Honger. And we were prepared to jump.
Brother began to speak in the language, and I could only make out the words general and central plains. The other soldiers all began roaring something along the lines of "central plainer" and "something down". Kemo had raised his hand to silence them. Brother began to say something when the ghosts below began to make noises. They must have killed the guide already. The boy was about to be thrown down, and Flower Sword snagged his shirt with one hand to keep him above. Brother was trying to negotiate when Honger and I stood on the very edge.
"San Lang?" he asked when he saw us. "Snow lotus?"
"It's okay, don't be scared," Honger said as the rock beneath my feet became less and less as I barely nudged myself ahead.
"Both of you get away from there," he said shakily.
"We'll be fine," I said to him with a kind smile beneath my mask. "We'll see you again soon."
"Wait!" he shouted as we both jumped, and the soldiers didn't have enough time to catch us. I knew my brother had tried to get to us, but he wasn't fast enough. Kohana and Kiyoshi will most likely end up down here, so it's better to clean down here before they do, as we fell. Ice and snow swarmed me. Shifting my hair into a ponytail, and my clothes became a general's attire. All in blue, white, and black.
"You ready, Honger?" I asked as we neared the bottom.
"Always JieJiie," he answered as we both took out our weapons. He held E-ming, his sabre, while I took out my sword. time to bring the snow general out, after thirty years.