Chapter Text
In a small village surrounded by lush forests and deep, crystal-clear lakes, and cold, rushing rivers lived a small, happy family. There was food in the pantry and firewood for the snowy winter even if the father was no huntsman. He was a merchant by nature and traveled far and wide looking for beautiful pieces to bring back home to his loving wife and to sell in the big city of Hallis only a day’s travel from the village. The father Han was known for his excellent merchandise and curious trinkets he was bringing from his trips. He never cheated his customers and for that, he was well-liked and respected.
The mother was a beautiful woman who could have married any of the many nobles courting her hand but she had settled for the kind, charming merchant passing by her village. She never regretted the decision for the father brought flowers, sweets, and dresses from his travels and kissed her every morning he was in their cozy, small cottage filled with love and sunlight. The father would never say it out loud but even in the mornings he woke up on the side of the road, sleeping in his carriage, he kissed the miniature painting of the mother.
When they had their first child, the whole village celebrated. There was food and wine as good as in the fancier houses in Hallis. Everyone laughed and danced the night away under the midsummer sun. They were good times!
In that small cottage of love, the small boy named Yoojin Han grew up to be five. His laugh was contagious and he was a curious boy always running around the surrounding forests searching for animal tracks. He might have been a little mischievous and caused a lot of grey hair to his mother and all the aunties and uncles of the village who witnessed his childish antics but he had a heart of gold unlike anyone. Many thought that the spoiled little son would be angry when he heard that their family was going to grow in size but no one could have been happier than little Yoojin. In his secret heart, he had always wished for a little brother like many of his friends had. Something small and lovable that would gaze up to him with love and trust.
Although their village was a happy one and seldom faced tragedies, no place in the whole kingdom was completely safe from the beasts roaming the darker parts of the forests and the depths of lakes and rivers. Everyone knew of the tales of creatures living right next to them, just hidden in the shadows.
When something unexplained happened, people turned their eyes and pretended that it had always been so. Quietly they left out milk and beer hoping to appease whatever lived out there. They held quiet funerals for the unfortunate lost ones and marked the places where they had disappeared or were their crumpled bodies were found. No one walked near places like those again and with whispered tones they shared the unfortunate locations. For the forests belong to the creatures more than they belong to the mortals.
The village that had no name for there was no need for such a thing, was more fortunate than most. There was an old oak tree where the village elders recommended people to leave offerings. People didn’t move around the old, wise tree until they were rushing to bring their offerings. Even Yoojin, who seldom listened to his parents, didn’t venture there alone.
The Old Wise tree stood proud and tall on the banks of a quickly flowing river. No one fished there nor did they use the water in any other way for it had a way of taking one with it. The strength of the river couldn’t be properly seen from the distance and it had a habit of snatching unfortunate sacrifices.
But other parts of the river were teeming with fish and the forest yielded good meat and berries. The crops were plentiful and the people saw no hunger under the careful watch of the Old Wise tree.
It was proper and good to offer for the Old Wise tree when one was with a child. The family had done so when they were expecting Yoojin and now the family made the trip outside the village to offer again. The mother was holding tightly to Yoojin and telling him that he should never let go of her hand.
“You don’t always see what is there in the forest but they tempt you, my son. They have many tricks up their sleeve and never do they have the best interests of such small boys in their hearts. Remember that, Yoojin.”
The mother had often told stories to Yoojin about the many creatures living in the shadows. She had heard those stories from her mother and from the beautifully bound books she loved to collect. There were exquisite pictures, hand-drawn and beautiful, on the covers and on the pages where there were no curly letters Yoojin was too young to properly understand. Often Mother read to him from those pages and now she was holding one such book in her other hand with a basket of delicious food.
Father was carrying a plump hare in his arms and glanced vigilantly all around as they crossed over to where the roots of the Old Wise tree reached. He was no huntsman but this hare he had shot with his own two hands. Yoojin didn’t understand why they needed to put so much effort into an old tree but already he would have done anything to that little child in his mother’s stomach.
While father had been desperately hunting for something proper to offer and mother had been embroidering on expensive silk until her fingertips were raw from needle pricks, Yoojin had been collecting things on his adventures outside of the village. He had a full satchel full of different things a child would find beautiful and worthy. Now he was making sure he would remember each step of the way to the Old Wise tree and could walk it even with his eyes closed for he wanted to make his own offering. As children often think that adults are only in the way of truly understanding things, he had left the satchel home and would make the trip by himself as soon as his parents went to sleep. He had a feeling that the Old Wise tree would like it better if he came under the moonlight. He had never seen the Old Wise tree but he instinctually knew that it would hold tremendous power.
The oak tree known as the Old Wise commanded respected. Wrapped around its spindly branches, there were all sorts of jewellery and amulets. In the holes its root made, there were stuffed food and items of all sorts. Eyes wide with wonder Yoojin looked at the splendour and only his mother’s hushed words made him turn his eyes back on his feet and walk briskly next to her.
It was all over too soon. Yoojin would have wanted to see the Old Wise tree properly and hear what his parents told the tree but his parents made them go back just as quickly as they had come there.
“There, now we have done our part,” Father exhaled in relief as the front door closed behind them. He put his nicer coat hanging in its proper place and took out his pipe. Mother served them cherry pie and soon they all went to bed.
The cottage wasn’t big but Yoojin was already at five masterful at sneaking out to his boyish adventures. He was carefully keeping the brand-new satchel from making too much noise as he climbed out of the window. The full moon bathed everything in its light and Yoojin could see almost as well as during full daylight.
The trip should have been too much for a young child to do twice in the same day but Yoojin felt no exhaustion as he made the three-kilometre trip once again. The satchel was heavy on his shoulder but he was proud to carry it for it held all the treasures he had been collecting for months. Soon he started to hear the rushing sound of the river and came to the riverbank where the elm tree stood.
Yoojin hadn’t noticed it during the day when he had been there with his parents but the riverbank was completely quiet apart from the noise of the river and the leaves in the wind.
It wasn’t windy today.
For the first time in his life, Yoojin felt fear. On his adventures, Yoojin had seen and felt his share of strange things but never had he come as close as right now. He felt eyes on him but couldn’t see anything. Gripping the satchel tighter he stepped to the Old Wise. There was a noise like wind chimes coming from the amulets on the branches.
With clumsy fingers, Yoojin opened the satchel and started to place the items inside on the branches and the ground next to the flat stone right in front of the Old Wise tree.
Yoojin had sparkly stones and placed them on top of beautiful leaves he had found. There were eggshells and a perfectly shed snakeskin. There were feathers he had tied on leather cords with strange shells and pieces of glass. He wrapped around the branches as high up as he could without climbing on the Old Wise tree. It felt like the branches were lowering themselves to make it easier for Yoojin to place his offerings. He looked away from that and continued to empty his satchel with care.
“I have a little brother in mother’s belly. He is going to be my own little brother and I am going to be good to him. I will teach him how to climb the trees and how to predict the weather and how to follow the hare tracks better than father. It took him a long time to hunt the hare we gave to you. He doesn’t know that the hare had been coming to our house for a long time, like waiting to be hunted by father. It needed to make it easy for father. He is a better merchant than a huntsman. City-dwellers don’t blend well with the forest he says and now I understand what it means. I must not be much of a city-dweller, then. Neither will my brother. He will be like me, won’t he?
No. No he won’t. He will be better, right? He will be good and kind, better than me. And I will bring him here and he will give his first tooth and I will touch the water.”
Mostly, Yoojin was rambling. He didn’t know how to make an offering but he feared that his meagre trinkets wouldn’t be enough. After a while, Yoojin felt like he was ready to leave and walked back home.
Come morning, Yoojin didn’t remember much from his visit to the Old Wise tree but he felt satisfied. He had a good feeling about it. Everything would go well.
After a month, on the first night of the full moon, the brother Yoojin had been waiting for was born. Pink and wrinkly, it was the most beautiful thing Yoojin had ever seen.