As Aaron stared at the missing pages of the diary, he felt as if at any moment something disastrous could occur.

Closing the book, he noticed a small pouch that was badly stitched to the cover, which contained a small coin without any symbols.

This must be the coin she wrote about in the diary… 

Aaron quickly put the small coin in his pocket, hoping to study it later when he had returned to his ship.

He stared outside at the gentle snowfall that encased the island. He was at a loss for why snow was falling on a tropical island; however, he kept his guard up in case of anything unusual.

After reading the diary, he had his speculations on what had happened on the island. The chief who discovered the ancient horn that belonged to one of the sea terrors off the coast of the island studied it in secret, leading to him cursing himself along with the island itself.

Knowing that he would soon become a terror of unimaginable proportions, he sent everyone off the island, preparing to take his own life to prevent the curse from turning him into a monster. He succeeded in stopping the curse; however, when his body deteriorated, it formed a pool of liquid, which was what he had seen inside the town hall, along with the corpse of the chief.

Aaron, having come to a solid conclusion, decided that the curse wasn’t completely dispelled and that it still posed a threat to him and the island. 

Furthermore, the dates written in the notebook were only those of one year prior, leading to the assumption that if the curse hadn’t activated before, now that the body had seemingly vanished, the possibility of it happening was higher.

With this realization, Aaron decided to quickly return to the ship before whatever was fated to happen left him in deep water due to some old village chiefs' mistake.

Walking out of the canopy, he felt the snow that fell onto his hair with an ice-cold touch.

Aaron’s head began to itch rapidly, with a stinging feeling accompanying it. He reached up to scratch his head, which led to only a moment of relief. He retracted his hand, but what he saw terrified him.

Blood.

His hands were drenched in blood, with it slowly freezing on his palms, causing agonizing pain. The pain from his head rapidly expanded, feeling as if his skull was about to explode, with his arms gaining the weight of a small anvil. 

In terrifying agony, Aaron began to run as fast as he could to the forest to avoid whatever the snow was causing him to experience, yet the pain didn’t fade even in the tree cover. 

Blood began dripping from his head down to his hands in frightening clumps, with hair strewn in. Reaching breakneck speed, he came to a small cavern dug under a tree, taking refuge from the snow that seemed more like acid than frozen water.

The throbbing agony on his skull finally felt relief as the snow began to melt off his head.

That must’ve been an effect of the curse. How terrifying… Something as simple as snow had the properties of acid.

Aaron began to think of what he should do, but before he could come up with a solid plan, he heard a deep growl from deeper within the cavern.

Standing less than 3 meters away from him stood the beastly Manticore that he suspected wouldn’t be as friendly towards him as it was to the previous residents of the island.

“You dare intrude upon my nest, human?” Uttered the manticore with pure malice.

The bloodied-headed boy, in complete shock, remembered that one trait described in old fantasy tales was that a manticore relied on its cunning speaking abilities to communicate with humans, allowing them to co-exist in peace for hundreds of years.

“I-I was s-simply hiding from the poison s-snow,” stuttered Aaron, who was on the verge of complete shock.

“Indeed, the snow is dangerous here, however, this does not change the fact that you have intruded on my nest. You should be well aware of what will soon befall this island. If you were truly intelligent, you would’ve left the second you saw snow on a tropical island,” sneered the manticore as he slowly walked closer towards Aaron.

Aaron, who was frozen in fear, could only slowly inch backwards, not daring to stand up in case the manticore pounced on him immediately.

“M-Mr. Manticore, sir… is there any way you’ll forgive me?” He said as a last resort, in hopes the manticore would let him leave if he did something for it.

“The only thing you have of value is your pathetic life; you would be enough food to sustain me for another week if I conserve my food. All other life on this island is dead, other than the plants, due to the acid snow, so I have been slowly starving. A juicy meal like you might be my last cuisine before ‘it’ fully takes effect.”

“I-It?” Aaron asked.

“The curse, you fool! I watched the humans here flee while overhearing them talk about such a thing. Foolish pests bring death and disease wherever they go. Perhaps I should take your life right now in revenge for them ruining mine…” The manticore said while licking his sharp teeth, changing his expression to a subtle grin.

As the manticore was about to pounce at him, a deep rumble was felt throughout the island, stopping the manticore in his tracks. 

The manticore suddenly turned around and ran deep into its cave without another word, with clear fear struck across its face.

Not missing the clear chance, he hurriedly sprang up and ran outside the cave, even with the snow burning his scalp and arms down to what felt like the bone.

The rumblings became louder and louder, eventually toppling some trees, which distracted Aaron, preventing him from getting back to his ship faster. 

Reaching the edge of the dense jungle, he spotted his vessel floating out in the sea. However, the ocean around the boat wasn’t as pristine as the ship. Waves the size of Aaron himself crashed against the shore, leaving a sticky black substance in their wake.

He noticed the currents around the island rapidly strengthening, attempting to create a whirlpool. 

It must be this island's native sea terror, Gharr the Devourer of Waves!”

Aaron attempted to find an opening in the rough waves; however, to his dismay, they kept strengthening, pushing the black substance further up the beach.

Suddenly, in his pocket, the blank coin he had placed inside began to glow with a deep purple glow. 

“Eh?” Aaron muttered as he gently took out the strange coin from his pants. 

The coin began to spin within his palm as if it had a mind of its own, when out of nowhere it started to float, then shot out of his hand towards his boat, which was being rocked by the rough waves and current.

Meanwhile, on the ship stood a small crab who was atop the cannon facing the island. Its small peg legs, formed of gold, clattered against the rusted surface, leading to the gold being dirtied. As the crab stared at the island, it suddenly noticed a small purple light coming towards it at rapid speed.

The crab looked up and jumped with incredible dexterity, grabbing the coin out of midair. It dropped down onto the deck, vanishing into the cannon with the coin in its claw.