When the march began again, the footsteps formed a muffled rhythm over the dry earth.
For a while Yavuz walked just looking at the ground. He was counting his steps.
One… two… three…
This counting habit had formed recently.
To keep his mind from scattering.
To keep from thinking.
Because when he thought… he remembered what he'd left behind, the eerie sky, and the creatures.
There was a slight stir beside Yavuz.
Esen had nudged him with her shoulder as she walked.
"You've drifted off again," in a whispering tone. Yavuz raised his head.
Esen was smiling.
But the tiredness under her eyes couldn't be hidden.
"I haven't drifted off." Yavuz took a deep breath. "I'm just… thinking."
Esen tilted her head. "You're wearing yourself out, don't dive in so deep."
Yavuz let out a faint laugh despite himself; Esen's presence had a strange way of pulling his thoughts together.
He slowly turned around. Sedef was holding Esen's hand with one of hers, walking behind them.
Her eyes scanned the surroundings, the unease plain in every part of her.
He wanted to calm her down; he opened his mouth for a moment but stopped.
He didn't know what to say.
What eased the moment were Esen's curious questions.
"I wonder how these rocks fly? Is it something like magnets? Or are they so light that they float like that?"
Yavuz smiled faintly.
"Let's ask the master, maybe he knows. He seemed to know this place well."
When Sedef's low voice came from behind, Yavuz turned around again.
"Our eyes… when are our eyes going to go back to normal?"
Yavuz began studying Sedef's eyes. They glowed an unnatural green that drew you in, all but saying, here I am.
'Very eye-catching,' he thought for a moment, but then it occurred to him that his own eyes were glowing too. When he'd looked at his reflection in the water, he'd seen his blue eyes glowing a blood red.
Was he turning into a vampire? In the movies, demons, vampires, and monsters like them had crimson eyes like his. Then again, a few other people had red eyes too. Surely they couldn't all be vampires.
Yavuz let out a deep 'Ahhh.'
It was Esen again who pulled him out of his thoughts.
"You've drifted off again."
Yavuz looked; Esen's normally brown eyes were blue. They weren't as vivid and bright as the others', but they had changed and were blue. A pale, dark blue…
"What energy user did the master say you were?"
Esen's lips curled, a deep smile spread across her face, and then, pretending to think, she brought her hand to her chin.
"Yelvi, I think he said—basic affinity." She stretched out her hand and opened her palm:
"I wonder what these energies are even for? Could I be a cool sorcerer? I always dreamed of being a sorcerer who could fly and hurl fireballs."
As she said this, her face bloomed; she seemed to have forgotten reality amid her dreams. Maybe she was the only happy person to have fallen into this place.
Sedef, in her trembling voice, joined the conversation again.
"Me too… I want to be a sorcerer too."
In the middle of the talk her voice rose, more confident than herself. She doesn't want to be left behind, Yavuz thought.
He chuckled inwardly. As if they'd ever leave her behind anyway.
Noticing Yavuz chuckle, Sedef said in an irritated tone:
"What are you chuckling at! I'm being serious!" Her green eyes were locked on Yavuz, though she kept glancing away, unable to look at him straight.
It was Esen who stepped in.
"Heehee! Your voice sounds so lovely when you get serious, there's nothing to be scared of. Why do you hide that lovely voice?"
As she said it she pounced on Sedef, grabbed her by the sides, and began to tickle her. Caught off guard, the girl couldn't help but start giggling.
"Heehee, stop!! Heehee! Stop it!!"
Esen paid no mind to the giggles and kept going. Both Sedef and Esen had tears in their eyes from laughing.
Yavuz's alarmed voice pulled them away from the little world they were in.
"Stop, something's happening."
The two girls flinched and looked ahead. Those in front had stopped, and Yalaz was nowhere to be seen. A deep, deathly silence had settled over everything.
Curious about what was going on, Yavuz advanced with slow steps toward the four at the front. Esen and Sedef stood frozen, watching him go.
The trio of Tunay, Poyraz, and Hak had sat down on a rock and were looking ahead; beside them was the boy who stayed with the master.
"What happened?"
Poyraz coughed lightly and pointed ahead.
"The old man said there were insectified rot up ahead. The ones that attacked us. He left us behind since it could be dangerous and went off on his own. He'll come back when he's done."
Yavuz's heart quickened for a moment. Small as those skirmishes with the creatures had been, for him it was a moment he couldn't forget. He'd killed something for the first time, and a disgusting corpse had been left behind. Even now, whenever it came to mind, his stomach lurched into his throat.
"Actually, I want to see it. I wonder how the old man fights those fake zombies? If we go and watch, will he be very angry?" said Tunay.
Tunay's curiosity-filled suggestion suddenly scattered the heavy silence over the group. His eyes were fixed on the rocks where Yalaz had vanished, that familiar faint smile on his lips.
"You're a man with no stomach, Tunay," Poyraz said, his face screwing up as he spoke. "I don't think anyone else among us would want to see those horrors. And what are you going to do watching him fight? Learn by watching?"
Tunay stood and spread his arms to both sides.
"When does a chance like this ever come along? And aren't you curious about this 'ill-omened' world?"
Poyraz's lips were just about to let a few words out when Hak's interjection made him pause.
"I think it might be a good idea. I wonder if the old man would be very angry?" As he said this he turned to the boy sitting beside him. "Do you think he'd be angry?"
Erlin, suddenly realizing the conversation had turned to him, faltered and couldn't speak.
"I mean… I don't think he'd be too angry. The master usually doesn't lose his temper, but I wouldn't advise trying it. If he said not to come, it really could be dangerous."
Everyone paused for a moment; a silence had fallen when someone's determined voice broke it.
"I'm going to look. How many times do we get to live? Besides, we don't need to get very close. Heehee!! I wonder how the old man's wreaking havoc?"
Tunay's half-serious, half-giggling voice echoed off the rocks. Then he started forward with quick steps.
Noticing him go, the trio stared for a moment; they hadn't expected Tunay to be so headstrong. They'd thought he'd at least wait a moment.
After Tunay, Hak started walking too. Seeing Hak move forward, Poyraz let out a deep sigh.
"Madmen…" Then he turned to Yavuz and Erlin. "I'm going too."
Erlin, both because he didn't want to be left alone and because he too was curious, started running after them.
Yavuz stared after them. 'Has everyone gone mad?' he wondered. He found himself watching them. Why was everyone being so careless?
In the end he gave up too and started running after them.
"Wait!!"
After a three-to-five-minute walk they slowed. Yavuz didn't understand why they'd slowed.
"What happened?"
"Quiet, we're trying to listen." Hak shushed him with a hiss.
Yavuz focused; from a distance, sounds were echoing off the rocks.
Heavy sword sounds, shrill sword sounds, the noise of insects, the sound of something spurting, the sounds of collision and walking…
A jumble… Out of all of it, those were the only ones he could make out. His heart began to pound. He could practically feel the adrenaline in his veins.
Tunay started climbing up the rock, and Hak after him.
A faint growl escaped Poyraz's lips as he began to climb.
"Fuck it!"
Yavuz put his hand on the stone, trying to gauge it.
The stone's surface looked dry, but when he put his fingers on it he felt a faint dampness.
A cold and sticky dampness.
After Poyraz, he was left alone with Erlin.
Yavuz said nothing.
He started climbing too.
The little boy came after him, grumbling.
The rock wasn't very large, but it was large enough to block the view.
So it was an easy climb for Yavuz.
But the higher he went, the more the smell of the air changed.
The smell of metal, rotted flesh, and wet earth went up his nose.
His throat burned faintly.
He found the others sitting on top of the rock.
Legs stretched out, they were just watching, not speaking.
Yavuz fixed his eyes on the distance, on the place from which the shrill ring of metal and the thin screams came.
A bear…
Or rather the warped mass left over from a bear flung itself at Yalaz with a speed that defied gravity. But the old man's sword split the air with such sharpness that the creature, before it could even reach its target, burst into a storm of flesh and bone.
As dark green, sticky fluids and fresh blood were flung in wide arcs through the air, some of the pieces fell with a heavy thud onto the disgusting heap below. The vile fluids splashing from the corpse pieces reached all the way to the base of the rock where Yavuz and the others were hiding.
Just then a wolf, a deer, even an ox lunged at Yalaz with the same speed.
In fact too many creatures were attacking at once; Yavuz could only focus on the ones nearest to Yalaz.
Countless animals, or whatever was left of animals;
they climbed a small hill of ten to fifteen meters and, on getting close, leaped onto Yalaz.
Some had strange insect mouths, some disproportionately sized insect legs, some antennae.
A few even had wings. They didn't help them rise far off the ground, but they made it easier to climb the hill.
Yavuz noticed the hill.
His breath caught, his throat went dry, and he had to swallow.
This hill wasn't natural.
Corpses piled on top of one another had built up layer by layer.
And every new attack made the disgusting hill grow a little more.
Blood and green fluids ran down from the hill.
In places the streams had formed thin waterfalls.
This horrific ground was both disgusting and dangerously slippery.
Yavuz's stomach clenched.
For a moment he closed his eyes, then opened them again.
He studied Yalaz closely. At least the old man didn't look tired.
At the same speed, the same rhythm, he was mowing the creatures down with his sword, splitting them into several pieces with each blow.
His face, his body, his clothes, and his sword were coated in the disgusting fluid. His white hair had been dyed red.
Yavuz could hear the rhythm of his own heart now. It was beating inside his ears.
"What a wild and disgusting sight, isn't it?" said Tunay. His voice was almost full of admiration.
Yavuz couldn't answer. His throat had gone dry.
He didn't even know what he was thinking.