Chapter 2
A week after Kei asked Popuri to marry him, they head over to the church of Flowerbud Village to say their vows in front of the pastor. Everyone in the village attended the wedding, and cheered the newly weds. Kei finds the fact that the villagers didn't mind them getting married so soon a bit odd. He was expecting some people to be against it, but everyone was okay with the idea that he is marrying Popuri less than a season after they met.
About a year has now passed since Popuri and Kei had gotten married. So far, they have had absolutely no problems with their marriage. In fact, it seems like a perfect pairing to most people. Not once did they argue or fight over anything.
It is now the middle of Summer of Kei's second year living in Flowerbud Village. He waits patiently outside of his home, as his wife is in labor inside the house. Their first child is about to be born. Kei feels a bit nervous hearing his wife lets out painful screams as she gives birth to their child. His marriage has been successful so far, he can only hope that being a parent will be as successful as well.
After waiting for some time, Kei hears the crying of a newborn baby inside his house. A moment later, the midwife walks out of the house, and allows Kei to come in to see his newborn baby. He walks up to Popuri who is smiling cheerfully holding their baby in her arms.
Kei walks up to them, and asks his wife how are they doing. Popuri is a bit tired from the blessing of childbirth, but she is healthy. She then shows Kei the baby that she had brought into the world, a beautiful baby girl. Popuri has rocked it to sleep, so it's eyes are already closed. She looks a lot like Popuri, but with brunette hair just like Kei.
“She's so beautiful.” said Kei as he caresses his daughter's cheek. “I am kinda surprised that she doesn't have pink hair like you and your mother does. I was almost sure that she was going to be born that way.”
Popuri rocks the baby some more, then says, “Don't worry about that. Her hair is going to turn pink later on.”
“Are you sure?” asked Kei in a surprised tone.
Popuri nods and responds, “I was born a brunette as well. But my hair turned pink about a year later.”
Kei thinks for a moment. Even though he is not studied genetics in his life, he has never heard of someone's hair changing color naturally. However, he has never heard of natural pink hair either before he met Popuri or her mother, so he doesn't ask.
“So what are we going to name her?” asked Popuri.
Kei snaps his fingers and says, “That's right, we need to think up a name for her! I was thinking of a name like a flower. Like Rose, or Anemone, or Daisy. . .”
“I wanna name her Mint.” suggested Popuri.
Kei looks at her awkwardly and asks, “Mint? That's quite an unusual name. Are you sure you want that name?”
Popuri then shows off her sad red puppy eyes to Kei. This is a tactic she uses often to convince Kei to do what she asks without a fuss. She then asks, “You don't like the name?”
Seeing that Popuri has shown him the face, he couldn't help but to give in. He then pats the baby's head, and says, “I guess Mint will be fine then. I guess it's cute when you think about it.”
Popuri then smiles cheerfully, and kisses Kei. However, it doesn't take long before Kei notices that there is something unusual about his child. When her eyes finally opened the first time, he notices that her eyes are green, just like Lillia. Even though he pays no mind to Mint's eye color, sometimes when he's feeding her, he can sometimes see her eyes glow red for a split moment.
He pays the flashing of Mint's eyes no mind, he only think he's imagining it. However, Kei has heard stories from other parents in the past that taking care of a child is supposed to be a nightmare. Constant crying, waking up at night often, and other inconveniences that comes with caring for a newborn. However, Mint doesn't seem to exhibit these problems. She always sleep silently at night, especially when the full moon is out. She only cries when she's hungry, and only once per day, which is pretty infrequent for a baby.
Even though his baby is unusual, he only assumes that he was blessed with a perfect child. So he pays it no mind. As time continues to pass, Kei continues to feel that getting married to Popuri was the best decision he ever made. Popuri helps out with watering the crops, or shipping the eggs in the coop. Kei takes care of the harder work like caring for the cattle and sheep.
It is now the end of Summer. Mint is a couple of weeks old, she is growing pretty fast, but nothing unusual. Popuri is giving her milk from a bottle, and bouncing her around which makes her giggle happily. Kei packs his tools, and is about to start his work in the farm. Before walking out the door, he turns around and says, “Popuri, I'm heading out now! See you later!”
Popuri then asks, “Kei dear, could you do me a favor? Could you go to the forest and water the Blue Mist Flower? The flower will die if you don't water it every day, and I want to see the petals turn into a blue mist soon.”
Kei nods, and leaves for his day of work. Just like routine, he waters the crops, and harvests the ripe goods. Popuri usually helps him, but since she is caring for the baby, she has a harder time finding time to help him. Kei is fine with that, he would rather have Popuri care for his child over helping with farm work.
He then heads over to the barn and coop, where he cares for his animals. He is quite amazed that he has gotten used to the farm work so soon after he has arrived. It almost feels like instinct in a way. He feels that he must have inherited his talent for farm work from his grandfather.
After the work is done, he heads into the forest to water the Blue Mist Flower that he and Popuri planted together at the beginning of Spring. Even though he doesn't mind doing Popuri the favor of watering the flower, he feels a bit awkward going deep into the forest. He is unsure why, but he almost feels the presence of spirits inside the dense and dark forest. And the place they planted the flower is in the same spot that he saw Elli last, by the spring that Elli asked to run away with him.
As he waters the flower, memories of what happened that day flood his mind. He knows that Elli was trying to tell him something, but she vanished before he could get any answers. The part where he blanked out also seems to disturb him, why can't he remember the few minutes before Popuri arrived?
His mood improves as soon as he sees something new. A butterfly enters the clearing, and lands on the flower. It's a very large butterfly with blue wings, he has never seen such a variety before. As he watches the butterfly from a distance, an unusual man rushes in and bumps into Kei. He then starts to take pictures of the butterfly without even saying hello.
Kei was about to tell this man off, but he notices something unusual. First thing that he notices is that this man is not a villager of Flowerbud Village. With his green clothing and hard had that camouflages with the grass, Kei can only assume he must be some sort of scholar, especially for insects.
“Hello? Who are you?” asked Kei.
The unusual man turns around, showing off his white mustache and coke bottle glasses. He then replies, “Hello there, my name is Louis, an entomologist. I study rare insects for a living.”
“I see. I'm Kei, it's nice to meet you.” greeted Kei. “You don't live here by any chance, do you?”
“No, I live in the next town over. It's a small town called Moondrop Village, you might have heard of it.” he answered.
Kei quickly recognizes the mane of the village. “Moondrop Village? Do you know a girl named Elli who lives there?”
“Who?” asked Louis.
“Elli. A young girl who moved over there recently. She's pretty cute with short brunette hair, blue dress, she has a talent for baking.”
Louis stares at him awkwardly and says, “I think you may have gotten confused with another village. We don't have anyone named Elli living in Moondrop Village.”
Kei is in shock. Even though it has been about a year since Elli left, he distinctly remembers Jeff saying that Elli left for Moondrop Village. So he asks, “Are you sure? Maybe you didn't meet her yet. She only left to go live there about a year ago. Didn't you at least hear of a bakery or a restaurant in your village hire someone new?”
Louis shakes his head no and says, “It is a custom in Moondrop Village to hold a festival for any new villagers living in Moondrop. There has been no new villagers in Moondrop Village for the past five years or so.”
Kei's eyes widen, and his skin turns a little pale. Even though he always wondered why hasn't Elli written him any mail the past year, he always assumed that she was doing fine, and she completely forgot about him. But now he's getting word that Elli has never arrived in the village Jeff said she went to. He begins to wonder if maybe Jeff was lying to him. Or something else probably happened to her. Elli was a bit upset the last time he saw her, and she was acting very strange.
“Is something wrong?” asked Louis.
Kei snaps out of his trance, and says, “Nothing really. I was told that a friend of mine was going to live in Moondrop Village. Now that I know she never arrived there, I'm getting a bit worried about what might have happened.”
Louis thinks for a moment and says, “You know, it could be the Yaminochigo curse.”
Kei raises an eyebrow and asks, “Excuse me? The 'what' curse?”
“You never heard of it? How unusual, I thought that everyone who lives nearby knows about that curse.”
Kei is now curious. “I just moved into this village last year, so there is still a lot of things that I don't know about.” He then takes a deep breath, and dares himself to ask, “So, what is this curse you were talking about?”
Before answering his question, Louis resumes taking photos of both the flower and the butterfly. As he is taking the photos, he answers, “It's only a rumor going around, however, there seems to be a pattern of deaths and disappearances in this village. About every 20 years or so, there is usually one person who dies, and one person who vanishes without a trace.”
Kei shrugs nervously. He remembers that about a year ago, his grandfather died. Not too long after that, Elli left the village, but she is not in the village where they told him she would be in. At this point, he feels that maybe Elli was trying to say something to him about it.
Kei wants to know more, so he asks, “That's pretty unusual. My grandfather died last year, and Elli vanished about a season later. Could this be the work of the curse you were talking about?”
Louis stops taking photographs, and looks at Kei unusually. “Your grandfather you say? That's quite strange, usually a young man dies every 20 years or so, and the person that goes missing is a young girl. And usually the vanishing occurs first, and the death happens about a year later.”
Kei takes a sigh of relief. For a moment, he felt that the curse might be real, but if the pattern has changed, then it only means that it's only a coincidence. He knew deep inside that he doesn't believe in superstitious things like curses.
Louis then continued to take photos, and continues on with his story, “How strange, it has been about 20 years since the last young man died. He was a good friend of mine, he came into this village looking for rare flower seeds. He was a botanist who studied in the same school that I did. He then married a beautiful young woman in this village, but he died not too long after his daughter was born.”
Even though he doesn't believe in curses and things like that, he is still curious about the stories that Louis is telling him. “So tell me, how did all this start?”
“Oh, it started many years ago, all the way even before this village was founded. Everyone from the neighboring villages knows the tale, and some people even stay clear away from this place. Mainly because this village was once called the Village of the Demons.”
“Demons?” Kei asked curiously.
“Yes. The original settlers of this village were a strange bunch. They all came on a boat under a strange crimson colored moon. They all were beautiful females. They had pink hair, many of them either had green or red eyes. Some people even claim that their eyes glow an eerie red color when the full moon shines.
It is unsure where they came from, but everyone believes that they were thrown out from a far away country. These women were beautiful, but many people thought they were either witches or demons. After they settled here, many people tried to ask them to go back to where they came from. Men of all ages would go to drive them out. They all came back, oddly married to the young pink haired women. What is even more odd is that most of the men who left to drive the women away were already married. Something happened to them, like if they were possessed or charmed.”
“That's quite a crazy story.” said Kei. “But why were they called demons just because some guys were not loyal, and married a prettier face? That doesn't seem fair, does it? I also married a girl with pink hair, and I was not forced, possessed, or charmed into it.”
Louis thought for a moment, and continues, “I also heard a strange rumor that the men that got married with these women would often have bite marks on their necks.”
Kei then laughs and says, “Okay, now that's just silly. You mean to tell me that these girls are like vampires or something?”
Louis shakes his head no, and says, “That's not what I meant. There is a saying in my village that goes, 'If a Flowerbud girl bites you, she will steal your heart, and you will think about anything but her.' It's almost like an odd form of marriage.”
Kei sighs and says, “Thanks for the interesting story, but I have to go home to my wife and child. See you later!”
Kei then turns around, and leaves the forest. On the way back home, he talks to himself about how silly the villagers from other villages have to be to come up with a story like that. Demons, curses, and other things like that are things he does not believe in. However, halfway back home he stops to think about something.
When he last saw Elli, she whispered something to him. She warned him about the “crimson moon”. In Louis' story, he mentioned about a crimson colored moon. He also mentioned about people having glowing eyes. He did have a dream about shadows standing under a crimson colored moon with glowing eyes. Whether or not something is related to this is unsure to him.
After he returns home, Kei sits in front of the television, and watches the news. He likes to know if there will be rain, or a possible hurricane coming, so he makes a habit to watch every day. Popuri is in the kitchen making some dinner.
As Kei watches the news, the television loses signal, and all he can see is static. This is normal since he does live far away from any broadcast stations, so the television signals are often weak. He walks up to the TV, and checks the rabbit ears to try to restore picture to the television. But even after a few minutes of playing with the antennae, the signal does not come back.
He moves the television away from the wall, and checks the cables in the back to see if something came lose. After reconnecting the RF cables, the picture returns to the TV. But just before he moves the TV back to where it was, he finds something unusual. A piece of paper is taped to the back of the television. He has never needed to move the TV before, so he never noticed it earlier.
He takes the note, and tries to read the paper. But strangely, most of the note is written in a language Kei does not understand. The characters are mostly in Chinese or Japanese, but every once in a while, he would find some English words. The words written on the page were quite unusual, and a bit frightening. The only words he could read said, “. . . Help. . . Dying. . . Beware. . . Crimson Moon. . . Curse. . .”
The rest of the page seems to be blank. But the way it was written seems like if there was supposed to be more written on it. Curious to know who wrote this eerie message, Kei takes the message to his photo album. There he finds a photograph of his grandfather, and himself when he was a child fishing in a pond. He takes the photo out and turns it over. He finds a small message written in the back that says, “Me and my grandson fishing.”
He takes the message and the photo, and compares the handwriting. The penmanship matches exactly, so he can only conclude that his grandfather wrote the message. Now Kei becomes even more curious. This is the third time he has heard of the crimson moon, once from Elli, once from Louis, and once from his grandfather in a hidden message. He wants to know why did his grandfather hide the message, and why is it written in an odd language that he cannot read?
Just then, Popuri calls Kei over to have dinner. He hides the message, and joins his family to have dinner. But as he eats, Popuri notices that Kei is very lost in thought. Rather than eating his meal quickly, Kei plays around with his food allowing it to get cold.
Popuri then asks, “Kei dear, is anything wrong?”
Kei snaps out of his trance, and begins to shovel the food into his mouth. “Nothing, everything is just fine!” he said between bites.
However, Kei knows that Popuri knows something is wrong. Rather than keeping silent, Kei asks curiously, “So, have you heard from Elli yet?”
Popuri shakes her head no and responds, “No, I guess she's forgotten about us.”
Kei places his fork down, and mentions, “You know, I talked to someone who is from Moondrop Village. He has never even or heard of Elli. Isn't that strange?”
Popuri then stops eating, and places her fork down as well. She then answers, “I see. Maybe she went to a different village instead. All I can really say is that I hope she's happy wherever she is.”
“You don't seem too worried about her.” commented Kei. “I thought you two were best friends.”
Popuri then looks at Kei in the eyes, and smiles. “Yes, we were best friends. But that ended when she tried to take you away from me.”
“What does that mean?” asked Kei.
“You don't have to hide it from me.” answered Popuri. “I know that Elli asked you to run away with her about a year ago. She knows that we were destined to get married, but she wanted you all for herself. Now I'm glad she's gone.”
“I see.” sighed Kei. “I'm sorry, I didn't want to keep it a secret, but I thought it may upset you if you knew.”
Popuri continues to smile for Kei, and says, “You don't have to apologize dear. As long as you love me, that's all I care about.” She then continues to eat without saying anything more about the subject. Kei also continues to eat without saying anything about the Elli or the crimson moon.
The next day, Kei returns to the Blue Mist Flower. Like always, he feels awkward when going into the forest to water the flower. He feels that something might be watching him, especially in the spring nearby. After he waters the flower, he curiously walks over to the spring, and takes a look inside. Just as he thought, nothing is inside but clear fresh water.
He was about to return home, but he then notices something unusual in the distance. Deep in the forest, he can see something blue within the green foliage. Curious to know what is there, he pushes himself through the dense trees to get a closer look. After a while, he reaches what seems to be a cloth that is half buried in the grassy dirt. He picks up the cloth and pulls it out of the ground. His heart nearly stops beating when he learns what was buried in the dirt. It was a blue dress, the dress that Elli last wore before she vanished.
Even though he found her dress, there doesn't seem to be a body. No bones, no decayed carcass, or strange smell of a rotting corpse. The dress had no tears or signs of a struggle, so she was not murdered or attacked by an animal. However, someone did try to bury Elli's dress to hide any evidence of what really happened to her.
Later that day, Kei did not return home. Instead, he went over to the graveyard to visit his grandfather's tombstone. He pulls out the letter that his grandfather wrote, and asks, “Grandfather. . . Were you trying to tell me something? Is there something happening to this village that I should know about?What happened to Elli last year? I don't now what to do, what to think. Should I run away with Popuri and my baby?”
Suddenly, Kei hears Popuri's voice say, “Is anything wrong?”
Her voice surprises him, especially since he was not expecting her to appear behind him so suddenly. He turns around, and sees his wife looking concerned. However, she is not carrying Mint with her.
Kei nervously answers, “I. . . um. . . Was visiting my grandfather's grave. But what are you doing here though, and where's Mint?”
“I left Mint with mom. I was worried because you didn't come home yet, so I came looking for you.” Popuri answered.
He sighs. The worry that something strange is happening in the village is weighing in his mind. He is thinking about leaving, but he is not sure if he's growing paranoid, or if there really is something to worry about. As he looks at his grandfather's grave, he thinks about what Louis said earlier. About someone dying, and someone going missing. Even though the story doesn't match with the rumored curse, he still feels that there may be a connection of some type.
“Um, Popuri? How did grandfather died anyway?” he asked nervously.
“He killed himself.”
“What?!”
Popuri then walks over to the grave where Tony rests and says, “Your grandfather was old and senile. He was a good man, but sometimes people just can't handle the pressure of working on the farm by themselves. One day, someone found that he had hung himself in the bedroom. It's a scary thing to find, but it's not the first time it happened.”
“Really? It has happened before?” Kei asked in a near frightened tone.
Popuri then walks over to another grave. She then places her hand on the polished rock that reads Basil on it. “This is my father's grave. He died shortly after I was born. He was a traveler who studied plants for a living. After coming here, he fell in love with my mother, and they quickly got married. However, he died the same way as your grandfather.”
Popuri's story then really begins to frighten him. He can tell that Popuri's father is the friend of Louis who told him the story of the curse. He died shortly after Popuri was born. He wonders what sort of connection there may be with the rumors Louis spoke of, the death of Popuri's father, his grandfather, and the disappearance of Elli.
“Popuri, what do you know of this curse that I heard of?” Kei dared to ask.
“You mean the Yaminochigo curse?” answered Popuri. “That's just a silly story people from other villages made up to make fun of us. Everybody knows that there are no such things as curses.”
“What about the crimson moon?” Kei asks.
“In the country, the moon sometimes changes color. Blue, yellow, red, white. People make up wild stories about the colors or shapes of the Moon. It's silly, just pay them no mind.”
“But Popuri, I found Elli's dress in the forest. She never left this village, something happened to her!”
Popuri looks at Kei angrily. Of the whole year they had been married, this is the first time he has seen her angry at all.
“Why are you so worried about Elli?” asked Popuri in a serious tone. “Could it be that you actually cared for her more than me? Did you want to leave the village with her, and leave me behind?!”
“No, please don't misunderstand!” said Kei, attempting to comfort Popuri. “I'm only worried because Elli was a friend of mine. If something happened to her, I'm only worried that something can happen to someone else, like you or Mint. I'm just scared, that's all.”
Popuri smiles, glad that he is concerned for his family's safety. She walks up to him, and hugs him saying, “You don't have to worry. Nothing is going to happen to me or our little girl. Just don't worry about it too much. All of these things you heard are just wild stories.”
Kei sighs and says, “Maybe your right. I'm just worrying for no reason.”
Popuri then takes his hand and says, “Come on, lets go home. Mint is with mom, that means that we can be alone for a while.”
Kei nods, and follows Popuri home. But even though he feels a bit better, he is still worried about the message his grandfather wrote. What was he trying to tell him? And why in a language that Kei cannot understand?
To be continued.
