Chapter Text
It‘s been almost two months since the Spanish mission had arrived to Japan, embarking on the port of Nagasaki and greeted by the somewhat timorous looks of locals, yet the sights of an unexplored foreign land were still hard to get used to for Javier Fernandez. He had joined the mission as a member of an expanding merchant guild, getting a chance to bring home the unknown and so desired goods. Many others had declined the invitation to spend half a year in the land of mountains and unpredictable natives, he as a young man who had always set his sights farther that his motherland took the offer with growing curiosity.
The land was enchanting, otherworldly even, some might say. It had its secrets and its wonders seen in the crevices of people‘s faces and the outstretching mountains in the horizon. It was both terrifying and utterly tempting, and never letting go easily.
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The party had been on the sixth day of the pilgrimage trip to Kyoto, travelling though the rough countryside of the mainland, about half a week away from reaching the destination. A group of twenty five men and horses laden with goods were set to spend the night at a neighboring town, and the dusk was setting in fast as they stepped out of the rocky forest into a field leading through a shallow valley.
The sight opening before his eyes was quite a charm for Javier‘s eyes. The paved road followed a rather steep slope going down over the green field, stretching out a few miles ahead to the mountain sides. A thick fog was starting to settle further in the distance, enveloping the greenery around them.
Javier followed the the somewhat enigmatic act of nature, slowing down his pace and taking a deeper breath. A horse he led by its harness made a disgruntled noise by his side. The fog he observed made a faster move towards the path, covering almost the entire valley and slowly creeping up the road. The group of men were obviously tired after the day long journey up the mountain, so there wasn't a single sound other than the horseshoes monotonically hitting the dirt disturbing the eerie silence.
An unexpected jolt of his horse was what made Javier leave the trace-like state he had entered, as he felt the sack originally tied to its side slip off. The horse neighed audibly, stopping in its tracks. Rubbing his palms over its back in a calming motion, Javier tried locating the lost cargo, looking behind him. Just a few moments later, his eyes noticed that the brown bag had rolled down the slope into the wet grass.
Eyeing the moving party in front of him, he cursed behind his breath. The thick mist had already reached the road and traveled over it in an explainable speed, turning the people a few meters ahead of him into shadowy figures. It would only take a few seconds, mostly a minute to pick up the cargo and load it back on the horse. According to the leader of the party, the village they were supposed to stay over night wasn't more than a kilometer away. The worst that could happen was him arriving the last and having the worst spot to sleep.
He took a step on a muddy slope, feet barely clinging to the dirt, hands trying to balance himself out. From here the lost sack seemed to have rolled down even further into the grassy field, almost covered by the tall blades of grass and a milky veil of fog. The cold wetness of the evening dew seeped through Javier‘s bottoms, sending a shiver down his spine. The chilling dampness of the air clung to his skin like bewitching fingers, and Javier halted as he approached the cargo.
It was then when he realized that all he could see around him was sheet of white. His heart thudded loudly and another curse slipped from his lips as he took the bag and turned around, trying to locate the slope. All he could see was the suffocating mist, covering the tracks like a well-woven blanket.
Javier shut his eyes and took a breath, trying to settle his mind. It was close. Just a few steps. But then again, a few steps in a wrong direction and he‘s lost. If he could be any more lost than he was, that is. It took a minute, frozen in one place, for him to realize that he could just call for help. The party couldn't have gone far, and if they answered to his call, he could trace them by their voices.
However, the echoing of his voice seemed to fill the void without any being hearing it. The only sound around Javier was the drowning silence, as if he had gone to some inhumanly place and it absorbed all that was alive. Throat raspy and in pain, he stopped in his tracks, dropping the cargo. Never in his entire life had he felt such rush of fear come over him. Hands hugging his frame, Javier kneeled down, familiar words of praying resonating in his mind with a completely new meaning.
Moments passed like hours, turning to days and months, decades and ages, as he rocked back and forth, desperately trying to keep himself warm, staring into the blank distance. He felt as if he had fallen into complete trance, the cold numbing his limbs and making his mind weary, when his eyes started making out a shadow in the distance.
Javier blinked, clearing his sight. It made no sense. The fog was too thick to see more than a meter in front of him, and yet he was starting to make out the features of a human figure standing in the distance. It was just there, not moving, as if it was inspecting him. Javier squinted, trying to make it out, hand instinctively reaching out.
The next thing he remembered was the ache in his throat as he screamed as loud as humanly possible. A rush of cold sweat creeping up his spine. The figure moving closer. A face, so pale, skin like marble. Red eyes and bloody lips. Black hair, a serene expression. And the sudden and strangely calming warmth on his wrist, It leading him through the fog.