TBML 49

Three days had passed since Yiyeon had been left lying in a remote thatched hut deep in the mountains, but not once since the first day had his voice been heard coming from the room. Although he had occasionally opened his eyes over the past three days, perhaps due to a severe fever and shock, he repeatedly rambled incoherently, saw hallucinations, and then fainted.

Although he was the one who had been lashed by the world, he would shed endless tears, apologizing for things he didn’t even know he was sorry for; at other times, he would cry out in agony, calling for his mother or Dusoe. There were even times when he couldn’t breathe properly and had to be roused. And as soon as his eyes opened, they would roll back, revealing the white of his eyes, and drift back into unconsciousness.

His condition was very poor. Over the past three days, Hyunhak and Zao had been tending to him, going through various trials and errors and making adjustments along the way. Since Yiyeon was unconscious and completely unable to chew or swallow medicinal herbs, they tried every possible method – from boiling herbal tea and feeding it to him to crushing berries to extract their juice.

Though their efforts were commendable, Yiyeon, sadly, still couldn’t muster the strength to get up. As Hyunhak watched over Yiyeon, his gaze turned toward Zao, but the fact remained that, aside from the crow, he had no one else to rely on. In the end, Hyunhak had no choice but to do as Zao instructed without complaint.

True to form, Hyunhak had hunted through the night to fill his belly, rested in the form of a tiger, and returned to the house in human form before sunrise. The moment he stepped onto the weed-choked courtyard, the crow, who had spent the night by Yiyeon’s side, immediately urged him to get dressed and bring some herbal tea.

Checking to see if the embers in the hearth were still smoldering, tending to the firewood and flames, and boiling water brought from the valley to brew the herbal tea for Yiyeon, he now looked quite human. It was a peculiar double life for a tiger. But since he didn’t know when Yiyeon would wake up, he had to be careful with his behavior and pretend to be human.

“Is he awake?”

–No, not yet.

As Hyunhak craned his neck to ask while bringing the yellowish herbal tea,l into the room, Zao shook his head. The crow’s head turned from side to side, and his black feathers gleamed

Not yet today. Whether he had fallen into a deep sleep last night or had simply lost the strength even to ramble, Yiyeon hadn’t moved a muscle since dawn. Although he hadn’t been able to explain it properly to Hyunhak, Yiyeon was currently teetering on the brink of life and death.

There were limits to what Zao could do. Just as he had first told Hyunhak, humans were meant to live among other humans. That unauthorized copy was the wisest way for everyone to avoid suffering and injury.

Crows were traditionally regarded as omens of misfortune to humans. Among such crows, Zao – the most mystical, jet-black, and biggest – sat atop a stacked pile of books, at the highest point in the room. He quietly watched Yiyeon as he hovered between life and death.

Perhaps it would actually be better for the black tiger if that human were to bid farewell to this world right now. If he left before spending any more time here, even if he felt regret and suffered, he would be able to move on quickly.

The crow’s jet-black eyes glistened. As he watched Hyunhak head out on his own, without being told, to fetch water to wipe away the sweat, Zao shook his head.

His stubbornness was formidable. Zao knew that ever since he was a tiny cub…no, from the moment he was born, that stubbornness had been nothing short of tenacious. After flying through the mountains for so long, he inevitably came to learn many things. It would have been better if they hadn’t become entangled in the first place, but once the two of them were bound together, whether it happened sooner or later no longer mattered.

Splash, splash – Hyunhak, who had brought back a bowl of crystal-clear fresh water, asked Zao again if Yiyeon had woken up yet, wondering how long he’d been away.

“Well? Has he woken up yet?”

–……Stop asking!!

The sun hadn’t even reached its zenith yet, and this was already the tenth time he’d asked. By the end of the day, even if Hyunhak didn’t say a word, Zao felt as though he could hear questions like “Has he woken up yet?” or “Did he say anything?” echoing in his ears.

All of Hyunhak’s attention was focused on Yiyeon, but since he’d issued an order to keep him from crowding into the cramped room, he couldn’t stare at the curious Yiyeon with his own eyes for twenty-four hours straight. And the frustration was driving him to the brink of madness.

Ignoring Zao’s words and just looking at Yiyeon was not an option he knew, unlike Zao; keeping him away from his sight drove him crazy with curiosity, yet not looking at him made his insides unsettled with anxiety, it was a maddening situation.

When Zao shouted at him, Hyunhak – unable to shake off a habit from when he [visit our site]was in the form of a tiger – bared his fangs. At the sight, Zao sighed and shook his wings to preen his feathers.

In this chaotic situation, the tiger was acting so thoughtlessly, oblivious to the crow’s headache. What was so endearing about him that he had to help him like this? Zao let out a sigh, loud enough for him to hear.

“Hmph. Huh-uh… Ugh…”

While the two spirits exchanged wary glances in silence, Yiyeon suddenly clutched his chest and tossed and turned. It was a sight he’d grown all too familiar with over the past three days. He seemed to be tormented by hallucinations or nightmares, trapped in a high fever that raged hotter than the fire Hyunhak had stoked in the hearth.

As if he was reliving moments he wanted to forget or times of great pain, he would twist his body, unable to breathe properly, and claw at his throat and chest in sheer desperation. Afterward, vivid handprints remained on his pale skin.

At times like this, the only solution was to hold Yiyeon’s arms tightly until he calmed down. Since he had more than a few broken bones and injuries, it was difficult to restrain him for fear of making things worse.

“Do something. He’s going to die at this rate.”

Hyunhak was right. If left as is, that man would die right there. Since crows were ill omens for a reason, Zao knew that if left unchecked, Yiyeon would cross the River of the Dead, never to return.

Zao was briefly overcome with hesitation as he watched Hyunhak, who was struggling to hold Yiyeon down with all his might. It wasn’t that there was absolutely no solution. He had even prepared for the possibility that it might come to this, but since it was a method Zao didn’t want to choose, he hesitated again and again.

“What should I do!”

–…Caw.

“Zao!”

Zao deliberately let out a meaningless caw. As he pretended to be a senseless crow, Hyunhak acted as if he were about to hoist Yiyeon onto his back and head down to the village.

Zao flapped his wings hurriedly. Since that was a choice that would lead to the self-destruction of both the human and the tiger, he had to stop it at all costs. Since Hyunhak had brought Yiyeon here and attacked humans – and had even spared one of the humans who were there – Yiyeon’s village was in an uproar over the tiger incident.

In particular, the county magistrate had offered a separate bounty to capture the tiger that had turned his son into that state, so all sorts of people – from random strangers to those who claimed to have hunted tigers before – were flocking into the village.

Although he was too busy caring for Yiyeon to spare a thought for such matters, this situation forced him to restrict Hyunhak’s movements to the immediate vicinity of the house, and whenever they had to go somewhere frequented by humans, Zao would deliberately step in.

Under those circumstances, taking that human back to the village was tantamount to suicide for both of them. Though they were of different species, the tiger was a unique being to the crow, like a friend and a child.

–Stop! If you take that human now, he’ll die before we even reach the village.

It was true. He was a critically ill patient who could barely lie still, swallow water, or even breathe. To take someone in that condition down the mountain meant looking for a burial site along the way and laying him to rest there.

Hyunhak, who had intended to take Yiyeon back to the village, hesitated at Zao’s words. When Hyunhak stopped moving and glared at him, Zao had no choice but to reveal the method he had been hiding.

Zao pulled a crumpled sheet of paper from between the pages of a book. It was a letter covered in ink, filled with human characters, though crow footprints were scattered throughout. The handwriting was a bit crooked, and while it couldn’t be called calligraphy – with a few characters written incorrectly here and there – it was sufficient for communication.

After rummaging through his nest for a moment, Zao flew over to Hyunhak, who was watching him, and delivered the letter along with a rather big bead. It was a bead that Zao occasionally carried in his beak and kept carefully hidden in his nest; it was quite big and heavy, making it a burden for the crow to carry around.

Even for Hyunhak, this was something he had never easily parted with. When the object – which Hyunhak had never imagined would end up in his hands – was placed there, he rolled the bead in his palm with curiosity. [unauthorized copy]The pinkish crystal bead had a reddish thread-like pattern running through it, as if it contained strands of hair. Even at a glance, it was clear this was no ordinary item he had simply picked up somewhere.

Hyunhak looked back and forth between Zao and the bead, wondering if it was alright to accept it and why Zao had given it to him. In response to that look, Zao shook his body vigorously from side to side and stretched his neck out long before pulling it back in. Giving away the crystal bead was a significant act for Zao, but since he had a few spares left, it wasn’t something he’d dwell on for a long time as if he’d lost a precious possession.

–Take that and cross two mountains to get to the village.

“Two mountains? All the way to the white bastard’s territory?”

Spirit beasts weren’t limited to crows and tigers. Hyunhak knew of one other besides Zao. Unlike Zao, this one was prickly, but that didn’t mean he was capable of ruling over Hyunhak.

No matter what anyone said, the Mountain Lord of Yeongsan was the tiger. However, since he inhabited a region quite far from Hyunhak’s territory – meaning there was little chance of them encountering or getting entangled with each other – they simply ignored and left each other alone. Even Zao wasn’t particularly fond of the creature, yet he was telling Hyunhak to go all the way out there for no good reason.

–Right, and in that village, a human’s house where you can see a pond with a crape myrtle tree reflecting on its surface.

He knew which village Zao was talking about. Though it was said to be quite a distance away, it wasn’t a distance Hyunhak couldn’t cover. However, it was the crow, the one who would swoop in like a hawk to sabotage his attempt to get even slightly close to humans, who was personally telling Hyunhak to go find this house all by himself.

–Pretend to be a human. And just give that to the people in that house.

“Is that all it takes?”

Hyunhak trusted Zao, but his instructionsstill made him feel uneasy. Hyunhak still had his clumsy moments, and no matter how powerful a tiger he was, this meant venturing into the very heart of a human village. When he noticed Hyunhak’s anxiety, Zao nodded his head and replied, “Yes.”

“I don’t know what it is, but does that mean ‘Yeon-ah’ won’t die?”

–That’s right. That’s all it takes.

As soon as Zao’s reply came, Hyunhak wiped the anxiety from his face and his eyes shone with determination.