Don't Cry (Shuu)

"Shuu"

"Shuu"

"Shuuuu!"

I swear one of these days. Those mimic monkeys are going down, Shuu said as he was getting ready to leave the village to collect firewood.

Though the morning air smelled refreshing, It had been a day since Shuu spoke with Emmett at the temple entrance. Emmett has not come out of the temple since, and Elder Mari and the other elders take turns to heal his wounds.

The children have not been allowed near the area since the screaming began. Shuu was found sitting on the roof the day before. That is when Elder Mari told him to return to his daily chores and training.

"Shuu did something."

"Shuuu! --"

Will you shut up!

The silence washed over the mountainside, and Shuu jumped down the cliffside toward the jungle.

He kept replaying his conversation with Emmett in his head before Elder Mari and the other elders rushed to take Emmett away.

Emmett spoke about his family more and more, and no matter what Shuu asked or said, he did not stop. He ended up simply listening to the words of a broken man. What happened to the man who played with the children? What happened to the man who breathed fire from his butt as a legendary dragon to make them laugh?

It seemed the more he thought about his family, the more agitated he became, more so when he spoke about his daughter.

What was strange was the details seemed to disappear the more he spoke, and with each disappearing detail, the more pain he felt from his wounds.

- Shuu began to pick up the firewood on the jungle floor -

He remembered he tried to shake Emmett out of the trance-like state he was in as he spoke, to no avail. Emmett began to twitch from what seemed like sharp bursts of pain, and that is when it started. His body --

A moon deer shot out of the woods and sprung past Shuu.

Shuu fell to the ground. Where did that come from?

He turned to look around him, and through the bushes, he saw a black bear twice the size of the brown one he had eaten in the jungle four days ago.

The size was not the problem. It looked hungry and angry. One would say it looked H --

The bear began to run toward him, practically salivating at the mouth.

Shuu ran in the same direction the moon deer went.

How is it so fast? he screamed. The black bear was quicker than any horse he had seen.

He noticed the moon deer ahead, majestic in its stance with antlers the shape of snowflakes. It had stopped running to protect a young moon deer, much too young and too weak to escape the predator right behind them.

Shuu jumped toward a tree in front of him, shifting his momentum to change direction as he kicked off the tree.

This way! Shuu said. He was taunting the black bear by flailing his arms.

The bear ignored him, ultimately rushing directly toward the moon deer.

The bear, with its teeth bared and aimed at the deer's neck, the deer did not budge one inch. It was whiling to die to protect the young deer.

Shuu stopped and crouched with a single knee down. He pushed into the ground, propelling himself toward the black bear.

Shuu slammed into the black bear's rib cage headfirst, knocking it out cold.

He watched the moon deer leave with its young deeper into the jungle.

Thank you, human. You are welcome, Mr or Ms Moon Deer, Shuu said to himself.

Shuu continued to collect firewood.

Later that day at the temple, Shuu heard the unyielding screams coming from Emmett, the sound alone carried so much pain, but at the same time, they did not sound like the screams of a man in pain. They were sharper and more precise.

He was in the middle of trying to remember his daughter's name. The last thing he said stuck inside Shuu's head. "I am coming home, Am--" he started convulsing on the ground. That was when the elders rushed in and took Emmett to the temple. The screaming started soon after that.

He decided to see how Emmet was doing even though Elder Mari had told him not to set foot inside the temple.

As he entered the temple, he found two elders invoking Asa's Aspect; the mist teal fluid stretched over his body and covered it in a semi-transparent bubble.

His wounds seemed unnaturally larger than before. Could they be getting worse?

"Shuu! why did you come in here? " Mari asked.

What's happening to him?

He had never seen such a thing before. Not only were the wounds much larger, but his veins were all black, running across his entire body with a black ooze where blood should be.

This was the worst Emmett had been in the five days he had been in Tethys Village. Emmett began to scream the screech produced flooded the room.

Shuu gripped his chest and fell to the floor.

You see, from inside the room, the screams did not come from Emmett's mouth. The scream tore through his entire body, creating new wounds as it escaped.

The wounds that appeared to be larger were not simply getting larger. His own body seemed to be attacking itself from deep within his soul, and no one had to explain this to him. He could feel it in his own soul as those screams passed directly through him.

"Do you understand now," Mari said.

Shuu was unable to catch his breath.

"The barrier around him keeps the fractured void essence trapped, but it's getting stronger; that is what you felt."

What is going to happen to him?

"This is what a Touched looks like before it turns."

Shuu shuffled on the floor away from him, with his back to the wall, asking If the treatment they were giving him would work. Upon hearing the answer, his body locked up with only his legs to push him as far into the wall as possible and away for him.

- Emmett screamed -

What's... - Shuu's vision blurred -

The silence in the room sounded further away, and a screeching approached.

He felt long-nailed fingers of something gripping his soul and dragging it toward Emmett's body. He could no longer feel the coarse floor on his hands. The blur in his eyes deepened.

Shuu temporarily lost consciousness, though the sheer terror that passed through his body would be enough to make anyone lose their mind.

Elder Mari helped Shuu off the floor, "Go wait outside," she said.

Shuu could not speak or move on his own.

"Prepare Emmet for the next shift. I will be back."

Elder Mari took Shuu out of the temple and walked him home.

"We had hoped that you did not have to experience such things until you were ready."

Though Shuu did not speak, she told him that she had sent word to her sister Nima who lives in Ananke north of the mountains, when Emmett arrived. She said she recently received word that Nima has sent her son to escort Emmett to the Aether village in the Dream Lands.

I didn't know you had a sister, Shuu murmured.

"I do, and I want you to deliver a letter to her."

She put him on his bed, sat next to him, reached in her robe pocket, and wrote something on some paper she found on his side table. She folded a larger piece of paper around the one she wrote on and sealed it together with the mist teal fluid.

"Rest now. It is important that this letter reaches her."

She told him that the letter would guide him there and stayed with him until he fell asleep.

***

A fire burns, children, dance, and an injured man cries. He watched the back of a man standing in the fire. He runs to see his face, but his shoulders are too wide to walk around and his back too far to touch now. The children dance to stories of far-away lands, their eyes wide and filled with wonder. An injured man cries, his shadow lies, he is guided to a majestic moon deer with piercing blue eyes and fur like snow, an injured man cries the fire burns out his in the dark alone Don't Cry!

***

Shuu woke up in a cold sweat. He noticed that the sun had gone down. He picked up the letter Elder Mari left on his bed and felt the magic that covered it. It felt warm in his hands.

Wait, would Elder Mari's sister know something about my father?

Shuu felt a sudden surge of energy and optimism coming from deep inside him, not to mention he would finally get to see the world beyond the mountains.

He began packing a sack with some supplies, tied it to a short staff and placed it by the door.

He sat on his bed, waiting for morning to come.

Though his eyes closed briefly throughout the night, he never truly fell asleep.