• Mitsuko treaded carefully on the path towards the nursery. The hairs on her neck were prickling and her heart skipped beats but there was nothing to be afraid of here. Her clan owned this forest and only members of the clan could enter it. Why should she be afraid? She shook her head, hoping that the sudden movement would make her feel less awkward in such a familiar place.

    The wind picked up and stopped her in her tracks. She covered her face as a blanket of dead leaves from last year blew up into the wind. Some leaves and twigs got caught in her long black hair but she didn't try to pick them out, she didn't notice them. She was too busy staring at the pile of rocks a little ways off the road when the wind died down.

    She hadn't even noticed she had came near it until now. This pile of large rocks sitting in the middle of a large forest with flat ground. Mitsuko couldn't help to not be curious. When she was younger, she would often come out here and sit on the rocks to think or just relax. Occasionally, she would hear a faint whisper in the wind and she would talk to it, not able to understand what it would say in reply. But, now that she has grown up, she just sits and listens.

    She adjusted the pack over her shoulder. The fawns could wait awhile longer for her. Mitsuko climbed up the small hill of rocks and sat down on the very top boulder. She felt bigger now compared to when she would sit there as a child. The ground was much closer and she didn't feel like a queen anymore, just the girl that looked after the nursery in the Northern part of the forest. She closed her eyes and began to think of all the possible reasons why the rocks were here, as she had always done when she would visit this place.

    Maybe it was the ruins of an old house? She shook her head. Who would spend the time to take apart a house and set all of the pieces in a nice pile in the forest rather than using it to make a new house? Could it be that the pile of rubble was some kind of shrine? Why weren't there any candles or names written? She felt the urge to get up off the rock and look around but she resisted. Something was watching her every move, waiting to catch her off guard.

    An eerie feeling swept through her body when the last idea that she could ever think of came to mind. What if, this pile of rocks that she was sitting on so calmly... What if it was a burial ground for someone stripped of all humane honor? Someone just killed and tossed into a hole and covered with boulders. She shivered and sat up straight, opening her eyes. Could that be why? She had never thought of that one before.

    How then could she hear the faint whisper in the wind when she sat on the rocks and nowhere else in the forest? There was a secret to this pile of rubble. Ignorant of the forest watching her, she leaped off the rocks and sat her pack down on the ground by the road. Now, she was strong enough to lift the rocks and unearth the mystery that is the pile of rocks.

    Standing before it, she stretched her arms out and up, warming up to lifting the boulders. She decided this will be her project that no one knew about. Every day that she comes out to feed the fawns, she shall pick up and move a couple of stones. As much as she wanted to throw all the rocks out of the hole, she couldn't. It would take more than a day and her absence would be suspicious. She had to get back before the afternoon and had completed the known task at hand.

    The rocks were heavy but Mitsuko focused her energy on each rock, somehow making it lighter by a little amount. She had moved five large rocks as big as her teen-age torso before she decided to complete her chore and head on home in time for lunch. Tomorrow, she shall come back and work on the pile again. She was determined to find the voice of the faint whisper.

    Each day, she would work on moving a couple of rocks before going to the nursery to feed the innocent little fawns. It seemed like the hole was fathomless and she would soon unearth the center of the world. She now had to jump in the hole to get any rocks out. Was this task really going too far? What if someone from her clan found out what she was doing? Would she get in trouble? She hoped not. Only she and the forest knew what she was doing. The wind whispered it to anyone who listened. The fawns had heard the rumors and now everytime she feeds them, they give her a look with their eyes as if they were telling her to live that accursed place alone.

    She could tell she was getting closer as the faint whisper grew louder to a low voice. A moan like a ghost. She wasn't afraid. Something was still alive there. She quickly threw rocks out of the way, tossing them up over the edge of the large hole. She began to find black cloth, torn up and scattered everywhere in between the rocks.

    Was there mud under the rocks? Her foot had stepped on something soft but she didn't bother to check as she examined the cloth in her fingers. Her studies were interrupted by a muffled noise.

    "Hello?" she asked anxiously as she looked around and then up to the top of the hole. She noticed the sun had moved and was no longer providing direct light into the hole. It was a little late in the afternoon, signaling for her to hurry up and get back home. Mitsuko started for the dirt wall to climb up it when someone called out for her.

    "Girl!" it shouted from the rocks that she had just left. It was a loud voice but it wasn't very clear. Mitsuko supposed that's what the voice meant to say but nonetheless, it called out to her.

    "Who's there?" she turned and gazed over her workspace in the pit. It was hard to see anything now that it was getting darker.

    "Hel... Plaz..." it seemed to be struggling to talk to her.

    Mitsuko squinted in thought as she whispered what the voice said to her. "Hel. Plaz. Helplaz. Help lass? Help please?"

    "Help! Plaz!" it shouted, frustrated.

    Mitsuko rushed forward, a habit after working for one of the ladies in the village for a short while. The woman would shout for her and Mitsuko had to run to get there in time before the woman got angry, which was everytime.

    She fell down on her knees to stare into a set of gray eyes. She uttered a squeal but she couldn't move. She was enchanted by her discovery. The gray eyes were surrounded by dried blood and tears, she had never seen such emotion in someone's eyes before. So full of pain and loneliness.

    "Get meh out uf here," it begged, staring back at her with its sad eyes.

    Mitsuko swallowed hard and began to remove the stones surrounding the eyes. She didn't know what she was going to do when she could free this person nor what her excuse would be for being late for lunch. This person needed help, surely her father would understand.

    She gasped when she had removed most of the stone to find a severed head, belonging to the gray eyes. Their white hair was slicked back and stained with blood, turned to a pink tint. The face was disfigured slightly, you could tell there was something wrong with it through all of the blood.

    "Thank Jashin that you found me, I thought I would be in this hell forever," the head said as it gazed at her with gratefulness.