Ulah sang while deep in sleep.

  It wasn’t a song I understood.

  But it was a song I had always heard him practicing in private. He practiced all kinds of songs, but that one… he always approached it differently. Like it was the most precious thing in the world. Like, for the world to hear it, he had to perfect it.

  It was a song Natasha always whispered in private, or when she thought she was alone.

  Her eyes shot wide open, like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  I don’t think it's good enough to get that kind of reaction.

  She asked, “Where did he hear that?”

  “From you. I heard it from you a long time ago.”

  Back in the village, when she was returning with Marvin, I had been somewhat singing a trash version of it.

  “Oh. I see.”

  “Is it a bad song?”

  “It just isn’t one others should sing.”

  “Does it cast curses… or talk to demons?”

  “I am not some witch.” She sighed. “Is he just saying whatever comes to his mind?”

  “I think he’s thinking of you. He always practiced it. I think he wanted to show it to you when he perfected it. Maybe to impress you.” Or make you show him more attention.

  I couldn’t understand her reaction, but it was complicated.

  She ended up looking at Ulah with exasperation, as if she couldn’t believe him. “I am surprised.”

  Favoring a child was one thing, but finding out that the less favored child desperately sought more love from you… it must hit differently. But it didn’t seem like she was too impacted by hearing that.

  She gazed at Ulah.

  I stood up and told her, “I’m going to check on those adventurers, see how close they are to stopping that monster, and so on.”

  She grabbed my left hand—the bandaged one—and said, “Be careful.”

  “I know.”

  She nodded and then said, “I’m going to rest in that carriage then. It’s too noisy here.”

  “Stay safe.”

  “That’s for me to say.”

  POV: Ulah.

  I stood in a field of wheat. The wind bent them left and right, making them brush against my skin.

  The strangest thing was that on top of the wheat were loaves of bread, as if it were a bread plant.

  ‘I can finally get something to eat.’

  That’s what I thought.

  But every time I broke one of the wheat plants to get the bread and bite into it, it would burst into brown smoke.

  I had been trying to eat for over an hour. It was so painful. My stomach hurt so much. It felt like a rat was chewing its way around my stomach.

  It was sick. It was painful…

  It was…

  Ugh.

  I hunched forward and vomited brown and white paste onto the ground. My eyes watered, and I desperately tried to lick the tears away.

  But it did nothing to quench my thirst!

  I’m going to die. But I don’t want to die.

  I wanted to play with Jake and Gola.

  I wanted to learn division. I wanted to become smart, smarter like Vernisha. I wanted…

  It hurt so much.

  I bit my lips and folded my trembling hands. Then I sang. I sang to distract myself from the hunger.

  It wasn’t perfect, but I sang it: “Balash wed filaen. Swe wjurden schweien, ske windan wyanen, jber iah wuide ihee Tr?ebeu gopie?en. Iah weyude iur Lad genuiken, daür, wve sa mah vuten hin.”

  It made me think of Mom. I wished I could hear her sing it more. I’d only heard it twice, but when she sang it, it sounded so beautiful.

  I heard it maybe when I was eight, two years ago.

  She always had Vernisha with her on her lap, sitting or standing near her. Obviously, I wanted that too.

  So I left my blanket and wandered to her. She didn’t see me and was singing quietly while staring at the ceiling.

  It was like she was remembering good memories or tragic ones. Ones that made her completely immersed.

  When she did notice I was looking at her, she suddenly stopped singing, almost startled, and asked, “What do you want?”

  I was shocked. But at that time, I thought, to sit on you, hug you, be by you. But before I could say any of that, she seemed even more surprised at herself, like she’d done something wrong.

  Mom apologized and smiled gently while moving to pick me up. “Sorry, I was having bad thoughts… You look like you’ve grown taller!”

  I liked the song even if I didn’t hear much of it. Even when she acted like she was singing something else when I asked about it. I wanted to learn it. I wanted to make her proud.

  I wondered what her reaction would be when I could sing it. I wondered how surprised she would be. How proud she would be.

  I swallowed the saliva in my mouth, but it only made me thirstier. The only thing I could do was try to sing that song to comfort me.

  I will get better at it. I will. I will…

  “Hi.” I heard an unfamiliar voice behind me and turned towards it.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The field of wheat that had been behind me was gone, replaced by dry ground. Sitting on it, looking at me, was a black cat.

  The cat had blue eyes and clean black fur. Its fur was so clean. It probably had a servant to always tend to it. There were no scratches or bruises from hunting or escaping from predators.

  Is it the one that…? No, that sounds silly. What am I thinking? A cat? Really?

  …Can I eat it? I want to eat it.

  It smiled. “No, you can’t eat me.”

  I blinked in surprise. “But I didn’t… Did I say that out loud?”

  It replied, “No. Did you?”

  “You’re weird…”

  “I think you’re weirder.”

  “What do you want?”

  “What do you think I want?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to know too.” I backed away and started to flee.

  I’d only heard of legendary monsters being able to talk, which meant it must be one!

  “I want to know. Do you want to live?”

  I stopped running almost immediately and turned to the cat.

  Is that a trick question?

  It asked the same question again.

  I answered, “Yes. I just want something to eat and drink. I feel like I’m starving. I am starving.”

  “I wish I could soothe your hunger, but I can’t.”

  “Are you… a monster?” I asked.

  “Do I look like a monster?”

  “No, but you can talk. So you must be one.”

  “Perhaps I’m just a ‘moon cat.’ You know, that’s a popular Julioes folklore.”

  “Oh. I didn’t know that.”

  “Yes, yes. So, no need to fear me.”

  “I don’t know. What do you want?”

  “I’m curious about a lot of things in the world, especially the people of it.”

  “What does that even mean? You’re curious about me?”

  “Yes.”

  “…Am I dying?”

  “Are you dying?”

  “I don’t know. I’m asking you.”

  “I also don’t know. That’s why I asked you.”

  I don’t think I like the cat.

  It continued, “If you were to live, what do you plan to do with your life? Why should you live? What grand purpose does your life have?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “What don’t you understand?”

  “The questions… I want to live because I want to live.”

  “Well, what do you plan to do if you live?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Then do know. So, what do you plan to do in the future?”

  “I don’t think I want to answer your questions. You’re creepy. So go away. Go!”

  “I don’t want to go.”

  I rushed and kicked, but my leg passed through it like a stone through smoke.

  It ignored my kick and said, “Does that song have something to do with your purpose?”

  “I’m not answering your questions!” I kept trying to kick it, hoping for some kind of luck.

  It was terrifying. The hunger returned, worse than before.

  It… hurt.

  I dropped to my knees, clutching my stomach in agony. The pain was so intense I began to sob uncontrollably.

  I wanted Dad to comfort me. To tell me everything would be okay. But he wasn’t here. Why isn’t he here?

  Whenever I needed him, he always came running to me… Like how Mom always runs to Vernisha.

  Like how Mom always comforts her, treats her like she’s a star, the most precious thing. I wanted Dad to come to me like that now, because… Mom wouldn’t.

  She wouldn’t do it the same way.

  The cat stared at me, and I asked, “Am I going to die?”

  “You could. Or something worse could happen to you.”

  “Like what?”

  “Becoming a threat to your family.”

  “Why would I hurt my family?”

  “Because you’re hungry and thirsty. And perhaps because this is the fault of your sister.”

  “No… I wouldn’t, and stop lying! It isn’t her fault!”

  “But she gave you that bread. She isn’t sick, but you are.”

  “It must have been an accident.”

  “And what if it wasn’t?”

  “It was. Vernisha loves me! Why would she ever hurt me?!”

  The cat blinked at me a couple of times, then said, “I see.”

  POV: Village Chief

  The chattering and worrying of everyone echoed around me. Many were mute, staring into nothing, unable to process what they had seen and heard today.

  I should be planning with them on how we would recover, but… I didn’t think anyone was ready to move on right now, not while they were still processing their trauma.

  Even I… I didn’t want to do anything but dig a hole and hide in it, never to reveal myself to the world again.

  I had seen things I would trade my only child to forget.

  Before the monster attacked, my assistants and I were discussing how we would allocate 10% of the village’s budget to acquire better materials to reinforce the walls and protect us from bandits.

  The idea of a monster attack was foreign to us. In my fifty-six years of living here, this was my first encounter with one.

  Most of us only knew the dangers of monsters through stories, but that was all.

  Three hours ago, at 6:30 in the morning, it began.

  There was a sudden, strange voice, barely human: ‘Hana… where… are you…?’

  It sounded like when twin-tailed cats try mimicking the chirping of birds to lure them, or the echoing of burnnight flowers, which repeat whatever they hear.

  That monster clearly had no understanding of those words; it was simply something it had heard and tried its best to mimic.

  When I heard it, along with the three men in my office, we all froze, confused. But staying frozen meant nothing.

  The first victim was Daren’s daughter. His eldest son told me what happened. The family had been planting red cabbages in the garden.

  Daren's hands had been deep in the dirt, setting the seeds. That was when half of his daughter’s body was suddenly ripped apart by the fangs of a red shark-like creature that had the feline legs of a tiger. Six legs.

  Blood spurted everywhere. The screams of his eldest son and wife were drowned out by the sounds of his daughter’s flesh and bones being torn apart and devoured.

  Daren tried to make his family run, desperately attempting to retrieve the mangled remains of his daughter.

  Then, Daren became the target. The monster’s claws ripped his legs from their joints. He screamed in pain, and the monster cruelly mimicked that sound with a chilling laugh.

  It wasn’t just eating them; it seemed to be enjoying their suffering, but not enough to keep them alive for long.

  It ripped open his stomach, exposing his guts to his wife, who couldn’t tear her eyes away from his mangled body.

  Once Daren stopped making sounds, a fire shot from the creature’s mouth, turning his body to ash.

  His wife was split in two, vertically, by its aquatic tail. Her sides fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Her bodily waste followed, painting the earth brown and yellow.

  The monster didn’t care. Her left side was devoured first, and then the right followed.

  The only thing left behind was half of her jaw.

  The daughter wasn’t even eaten.

  By then, chaos had already erupted. People were running, trying to escape. Of course, I was no different. I tried to grab the only green lizard in the village and flee alone.

  The monster screamed loudly, and that was it.

  It moved like a blur.

  In an instant, a man’s face was pulverized, his shattered eyes scattering in every direction. In the next moment, a beam of fire reduced another to ash.

  It was a torrent of blood, flesh, brain matter, and broken bones.

  Even the lizard couldn’t withstand it, throwing me off. And for some reason, the monster ripped off Jackson’s genitalia.

  I was confused, but then I remembered that monsters were also capable of reproducing with anything. When pressed for time, female monsters would use different methods to harvest reproductive organs.

  Well… What a fucking way to die. I nearly started to cry. At least the pain would knock me unconscious, and I’d die from blood loss. I’d take that over being fucking violated by a monster. That was the thought I had.

  I did nothing. I wanted to run. I thought:

  I just want to live.

  How the hell am I going to survive this?

  Fucking hell… I don’t want to die.

  I... I... And I...

  That’s all I thought. And then, those giant armored figures fell from the sky.

  They were like heroes. Legends.

  I saw them summon monsters that seemed connected to them on a supernatural level. Without a word from them, their monsters would attack, defend the village, and act as a third hand to them.

  They overwhelmed the wild monster in no time.

  These memories...

  I folded my hands together and muttered, “May the stars bless me.”

  May the future be kind to us. May the request I am about to make be agreed to. May they not think I am trying to trick them.

  I exhaled, feeling like I had just given a speech explaining why fathers and mothers should be happy to gift their children to wealthy men and women for a ‘gift’ of money.

  I took a deep breath, licking my lips, also tasting my white beard. Tastes like blood.

  Then, I walked over to the man. By his side were the little girl and the Julioes woman.

  It seemed they knew her before.

  He noticed me and I heard him click his tongue.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  The Julioes woman said something in her native tongue. By the tone, I felt like it was a threat.

  I stood before them. Holy shit, are they big.

  Calm down. Calm down.

  I forced a professional smile and said, “I want to say I appreciate your hard work and sacrifice, first. If it weren’t for you all, we’d all be dead.”

  The man replied, “Sure, but we get paid for it.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Cut the bullshit and get to the point,” the woman snapped.

  This was hell itself. Why the hell do I have to be the village chief at times like this? Nothing was scarier than talking to a pissed-off adventurer.

  I swallowed and said, “I’m sorry. I request permission for us to get to our houses—” I noticed the anger in his eyes. He was probably pissed that someone was asking him a stupid question again. So I hurriedly finished my sentence before he could respond. “—So that we can gather food ingredients to make something to eat.”

  Shit. I talked way too fast.

  The man’s anger seemed to dissipate and he said, “Oh. Yeah, I guess.”

  He… AGREED!

  My heart slowed, and I slumped to my knees in relief. “Thank you… sir.”