Chapter 134

Chapter 134: Little House in the Dark

After calming down, Squirrel began to tell Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood what had happened in the Black Forest: “She came in a few hours ago. At first I didn’t even notice her. She didn’t cry or make a fuss, not like the other kids who first arrive. This might be her first time really entering the Black Forest, but before today she probably had long, long nightmares about it.”

Little Red Riding Hood cut him off and said: “Which way did she go? Take us.”

Squirrel lifted a paw toward one direction, then shook his head and said: “This way, but I don’t think chasing her matters. It’s too deep over there, and there are no paths and no Little House lights. Without shelter in the dark, you’ll just get swallowed by wolves for nothing.”

Little Red Riding Hood did not care about the second half and stepped forward as she said: “We’ll judge for ourselves.”

Squirrel yelped, bounced on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, then suddenly lowered his voice and said: “You do know your condition, right?”

Little Red Riding Hood stopped, glanced back, and said: “I know.”

Yu Sheng followed her toward the depths of the Black Forest, and Squirrel kept chattering the whole way. It hopped from Yu Sheng’s shoulder to Little Red Riding Hood’s shoulder, looking both nervous and impatient as it said: “You’re taking a risk! If you head toward the unlit places you will run into the Wolf Pack. Even the Big Bad Wolf will find you soon!

“At least go back to a path or rest a few minutes in a Little House. Get your state steady first, especially you, Little Red Riding Hood. You need to stabilize.

“Hey, you over there, lord, aren’t you her friend? Talk some sense into her.

“You’re freaking making things hard for one little Squirrel like me! Nobody cares about a Squirrel’s opinion!

“Why is this world so cruel to a Squirrel, even one as cute as me!”

Squirrel raised its paws and shrieked, but before it could start another fit, Little Red Riding Hood reached out, grabbed the noisy rodent, and said: “You’re too loud. Keep it up and I’ll throw you into the bushes, the thorny kind.”

Squirrel went silent at once, then after a few seconds muttered: “You can’t choose the road of giving up.”

Little Red Riding Hood pressed her lips together and said seriously: “I’m not giving up. I mean it. I’m calmer now than I’ve been in any of my recent dream entries.”

Squirrel stared at her, then looked up at Yu Sheng walking beside her, as if it wanted to ask something but could not get the words out.

Yu Sheng barely spoke. He simply walked quietly at her side, yet kept his mind sharp. He tried to sense everything, the brush of wind on grass, the blood-born link that might exist, the movements of the Wolf Pack, and the presence of the biggest and fiercest Evil Wolf.

Faint howls rose from the dark heart of the Forest, one after another, coming from everywhere.

The last smudge of dusk in the sky had faded at some point. Night settled over the Forest, but it was not pure black. A more sinister gloom filled the trees, and the gloom held a cold, watching stare.

Squirrel began muttering at a frantic pace and said: “The wolves noticed us, the wolves noticed us,” then pulled a stiff pine needle from who knew where and said: “This is crazy. We are going to be eaten by wolves in a place with no lights! It’s too scary, too scary.”

Yu Sheng narrowed his eyes and, within the chorus of howls, sensed delicate currents, little flows in the dark.

A gaze swept past the area. For a moment, he even saw his own figure from within that gaze.

But the master of that gaze still did not appear. The Evil Wolf hid in the Forest and seemed to be waiting for something.

Yu Sheng kept his attention on that gaze, then noticed Little Red Riding Hood’s steps slowing.

Her body was trembling without her noticing.

Yu Sheng asked at once: “Are you okay?”

She answered in a steady voice, her face and eyes almost unchanged, and said: “I’m fine. I just need to be on guard when we reach the Deep Forest.”

Yu Sheng watched her calm expression.

That gaze from the Deep Forest watched her too.

A sweet kind of fear, rooted deep in childhood, grew in the dark, swelled by memory, and spread through the Forest.

Yu Sheng stepped forward, took her hand, and said: “Don’t be afraid.”

She looked a little awkward and said: “I’m not afraid.”

He met her eyes and said quietly: “Pretending can’t fool the wolf. It can see your fear. It’s staring straight at you.”

She blinked, puzzled, and could not help asking: “How do you know?”

As the fear around her thinned a little, the Evil Wolf kept waiting with care. Yu Sheng blinked and, though he knew the wolf was still watching, he was watching it too.

He said to her with his usual frankness: “That wolf is stained with my blood. You don’t need to be afraid now. Sooner or later it will be my prey.”

Little Red Riding Hood did not speak. She only looked at him, a bit dazed.

She doubted him and hesitated. She could not fully understand or believe his words, but the fear did keep slipping away from her.

[That was enough.]

Yu Sheng let go of her hand.

[He knew he could not blame her fear.] In the Black Forest, that fear was already more than an emotion to her. As a seasoned Spirit Realm Detective, she could walk into the Otherworld without flinching, stand against twisted Entities, even face life and death. But her fear of the Evil Wolf had taken root years ago, becoming part of her childhood. It clung to her like poison and grew up with her. The wolf larger than a house was the image of that fear.

No wonder the Cursed Children of the Fairy Tale could never escape its curse.

Perched on her shoulder, Squirrel glanced between them with shiny black eyes, thinking who knew what, then broke the silence and said: “She has rushed into the Deep Forest before. Most Little Red Riding Hoods have an experience or two like that, at the beginning. Their first fear often comes from it.”

Little Red Riding Hood said dully: “Don’t say extra things.”

Yu Sheng could not help his curiosity and asked: “Was it because of the temptations off the path?”

Head down, she walked without answering.

Squirrel sighed in a very human way and said: “What else could it be? The flowers and mushrooms by the roadside, and some bright shiny things. They’re so tempting, but in the end they’re only the Evil Wolf’s teeth and claws.”

Little Red Riding Hood shot it a fierce glare and said: “I really will throw you into the bushes.”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then said to her: “I ran into temptation too. Nothing to be ashamed of. Look at me, a lord. Last time I came in, I almost lost control. If Squirrel hadn’t warned me, I might have walked into the dark.”

She looked at him with surprise and asked, half in disbelief: “You got tempted by what was off the path too? There are things that can tempt you?”

[He suspected she was thinking something not very polite about him, but he had no proof.] He waved it off and said: “It’s normal. People get tempted.” Then he asked without thinking: “What tempted you to walk into the Deep Forest?”

He meant nothing else by it. He just wanted to shift her focus and learn more about her past here. That might help him free her from the Black Forest’s grip.

But she pressed her lips tight, not wanting to answer. Even Squirrel, who usually ignored warnings and chirped nonstop, shut up for once.

Yu Sheng let out a breath and said: “All right, if you don’t want to say it, then don’t. Let’s-”

He stopped in mid-sentence.

Little Red Riding Hood also stopped at once.

A hazy shape appeared ahead in the depths of the Dense Forest.

It was not the “lost” child. It was a small wooden house.

Squirrel tensed at once, its big tail trembling, and said: “Don’t get close. Something’s off. Squirrel feels something’s off.”

Yu Sheng peered at it and muttered: “It looks a lot like the Little House I saw last time. The shape is almost the same.”

Squirrel spoke fast, clutching the pine needle as it said: “The shape is the same, but it’s not the same. See? No light. This Little House isn’t lit. No light, in the dark of the Deep Forest, yet it hasn’t been swallowed by the dark. Strange, very strange. After the lights go out, a Little House should fall apart and vanish. Is Granny inside? No, no, if Granny were inside, the Little House would be lit too.”

Listening to Squirrel’s anxious rambling, Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood traded a glance.

Then they carefully stepped toward the Little House standing silent in the dark.