Episode -5 B

Suddenly, from one of the village’s many huts, a young-looking Kurak came ring out in a rush and shouted. "Elder! Mom… my mom!~" In the eyes of the young Kurak ring frantically, sorrow and despair swirled.

The elder and several Kurak hurried to that hut and began examining a Kurak woman lying inside.

Her breathing was very rough. And she was gradually losing consciousness.

It looked as if the flame of her life was slowly going out.

The young Kurak pleaded desperately. "Please… please save my mom." As he spoke, the young Kurak burst into tears, and the neighbors around him held him and mourned together.

The elder shook his head and said, "It seems there’s nothing more we can do now…." A moment later, Pai arrived at the hut and spotted Rogi among the despairing crowd.

Pai quietly approached Rogi.

Rogi was holding the endangered Kurak woman’s hand, suffering deeply.

Pai, who knew Rogi’s situation well, could tell that Rogi was sad because she was thinking of her mother lying in bed.

But Rogi’s state was strange.

Rather than sadness, she looked afraid. She was trembling so hard her teeth were chattering.

Pai: "Rogi… are you okay?"

Rogi: "….. Pai…." Without a word, Pai hugged Rogi. Held in Pai’s arms, Rogi said, "I’m going to be so sad…. It’s going to hurt so much…." At Rogi’s words, Pai opened her mouth with warm eyes. "No. It won’t hurt, and it won’t be sad…. We will pray…." Pai closed her eyes, clasped her hands, and began to pray.

Seeing that, Rogi quickly straightened her posture and clasped her hands to pray with her.

Some of the Kurak found the two girls’ behavior strange and were flustered.

And then something happened that shocked all the Kurak.

From beneath the hut, something like tree roots stretched out and wrapped around Pai and Rogi as if embracing them.

A few Kurak fled in surprise, and their cries made Rogi open her eyes. Startled, Rogi called to Pai. "Pai!" Pai opened her eyes too.

She was slightly startled by the unknown plant surrounding her.

Soon calming down, Pai began a conversation with the plant that no one else could hear. "Help us. Please…." At Pai’s words, the Kurak looked at one another, wondering who she was speaking to.

When Pai’s conversation with the plant ended, the plant moved again.

Two root-like strands formed a shape like clasped hands. It was as if it were telling her to copy it.

Pai said, "Like this?" and immediately clasped her own hands, shaping her palms as if ready to receive something.

Then from the tip of one root, a sprout emerged, bloomed into a flower, and soon the petals fell and in their place, a small fruit formed…

The small fruits grew quickly.

Before long, they swelled into grape-like shapes—three enormous fruits appeared, holding a green, shimmering liquid inside.

Then the fruits detached from the root on their own and landed into Pai’s clasped hands.

The fruits were faint, but they were glowing on their own. "They’re giant grapes!" Eti, who had come up beside them at some point, picked up one fruit from Pai’s hands and examined it from side to side.

Then she plucked off the stem and brought the flowing liquid straight to her mouth.

She tasted it, and then immediately gulped it down.

Startled, Pai scolded her. "Eti, you can’t just eat anything like that!" But Eti shouted.

Eti: "Whoa, it’s so good! And cool!"

Pai: "Eti, are you okay?"

Eti: "Yeah, it’s really good!"

Eti: "… Ah!?" [Eti makes a shocked expression]

Rogi: "Eti, what is it?" Eti suddenly screamed and ran out of the hut. Startled, Rogi hurried out and chased after Eti.

Eti began ring frantically, and after spotting Poppy, she climbed onto Poppy’s back and roared even louder. "Kraaaak!!~"

Rogi: "Eti, what’s wrong? Does it hurt? Was what you ate strange? I told you not to eat just anything~"

Eti: "All over my body… in every corner… it feels like power is surging up like crazy!"

Leo: "What is going on?" "Kraaaah!" Eti shouted once more, jumped down from Poppy’s back, and started ring through the village again, endlessly. "Power is surging?" Rogi, shocked, ran back into the hut.

She took one of the fruits in Pai’s hands, plucked off the stem, and gently poured the juice into the mouth of the woman lying in bed little by little, helping her swallow.

The Kurak elder approached Rogi and asked, "Warrior, what in the world is that?" Rogi, startled, looked at the elder. "Huh? Warrior? Me? Who?" Behind her, Pai let out a sigh.

In that moment, astonishingly, the Kurak woman who had been unconscious opened her eyes. Quietly, she searched for someone. "Moring… Moring…" Hearing her mother’s voice, Moring ran to her side. "Mom, Mom~" As Moring clung to her, his mother wrapped her trembling arms around him. But her breathing was still poor, and her strength remained weak.

Rogi hurriedly removed the stem from the remaining fruit, approached Moring’s mother, and helped her drink again.

A little later, Moring’s mother recovered greatly and sat up, leaning against the wall on her own. "Thank you, everyone. It doesn’t hurt anymore." "Thanks to you, I lived." Moring, overwhelmed with gratitude, ran to Rogi and hugged her. Rogi cried as she rejoiced with Moring.

Pai was very happy too. So she tried to thank the plant that had helped them—but it was strange. The plant would not respond at all.

Rushing out of the hut, Pai followed the limp, drooping roots to find it.

Those roots led to the largest tree located behind the village, where the forest grew thick.

Pai approached the tree and kept calling to it, but there was no response.

Something mysterious happened. The massive tree began drying out little by little, then with a cracking sound, it split vertically from top to bottom.

Watching, Pai could tell the tree that had helped them was slowly dying.

Before long, her friends came up beside her and asked, "What’s going on, Pai?" Pai answered quietly. "This tree… I think it gave us its life…." The children whispered with mixed feelings of gratitude and guilt. "Thank you…" Pai approached the tree, reached out, stroked it, and offered her thanks.

At that moment, small flower buds formed on the tree, then burst one by one as flowers bloomed.

The vivid petals and leaves fell on their own, fluttering down over the children’s heads.

Then the tree fell silently asleep.

Pai stood there, covering her flowing tears with both hands.

The children also placed their hands on the tree, offering their gratitude.

And just as they were about to leave with lingering regret, countless sprouts emerged all around the tree.

Startled, Pai shouted, "Guys, don’t move! Don’t step on them!" Soon the sprouts grew to the children’s knee height.

And from the thickened stems, small fruits formed.

These fruits had the same shape as the fruit that had healed Moring’s mother earlier, but they were much smaller.

Suddenly, Pai shouted in shock. "Really!?" Her friends, startled by Pai’s behavior, asked what was wrong.

Pai: "It says it’s here…."

Eli: "What is?"

Pai: "It says I’m here…"

Rogi: "Huh? What are you saying?" Then quick-witted Eti summed up the situation. "The tree is talking! It’s alive!" Excited, Eti plucked a small fruit and popped it into her mouth. "Kraaaahhh~" Eti roared. "What is it! Why are you doing that?" Yona shouted, startled.

Once again, Eti screamed frantically and began ring through the village.

Yona: "What is that, scary!"

Eat: "Leave her…. so she gets tired…." After that, the children picked the small fruits and delivered them to the injured Kurak,

and the Kurak who ate the fruits recovered at a fast rate.

The children named these fruits “recovery fruits.”

The Kurak approached the children, expressing their gratitude with smiles and tears.

As everyone rejoiced, Moring came forward and said, "Please, warriors, protect us… We don’t know when we’ll be attacked by those beasts again." Dabi and the others exchanged worried looks.

Then Leo answered. "Right. If we leave, you could be in danger at any time." Just then, from far away, Eti came ring, panting, and said:

Eti: "We can… solve… the problem… before we go…. Hek hek~"

Yona: "How?"

Eti: "We have to find a way."

Dabi: "Yeah, that’s a good idea."

Yona: "What’s a good idea? You didn’t say any idea."

Eli: "At times like this, we should ask Eat."

Dabi: "Yeah, good idea." The children began looking around for Eat.

Then they found Eat in the distance, alone, closely examining a small fruit. "Eat, what are you doing over there?" Eat brought the small fruit close to his eyes, examined it from side to side, then dumped it into his mouth.

But he immediately frowned as if disappointed and grumbled. "Tch, why doesn’t it have any effect on me?" Watching, Yona cautiously spoke. "Eat, if we just leave this place, the Kurak left behind will keep suffering. We have to help!" "Hm…… is there a way to help?" Yona finished speaking and looked at Eat.

Then, tossing another small fruit into his mouth, Eat said:

Eat: "A method is the result. We have to find the cause first, right?"

Yona: "Right, we have to find the cause!"

Dabi: "The cause is the Poppies, right?"

Eli: "No, first we should ask the Kurak how all this started!" The children went to the Kurak elder and began prying, asking when the trial that struck the village began,

and what the cause was, this and that.

The elder organized his thoughts for a moment and answered. "One day, stars began to pour down from the sky.

After that day, huge monster beasts like that [pointing at Poppy] appeared, and their rampage began." "Stars fell?" The children looked at one another in shock.

Yona: "What happened where the stars fell?"

Elder: "We also made many efforts to find out what happened there.

Elder: "But as time passed, only the number of injured increased.

Elder: "We don’t know the exact location. We had no way to approach it."

Eat: "Then did the frequency of those giant beasts appearing increase in a particular area?"

Elder: "Yes, there is an area where they are found often.

Elder: "In that place, the beasts are even more violent…. We could not handle it at all."

Pai: "That area is the beasts’ habitat!"

Leo: "Hm… a beasts’ habitat at the place where stars fell is strange."

Yona: "Right, it’s strange. If stars poured down… even beasts living there should have fled and disappeared…"

Eti: "Seems like the place we need to go is decided…"

Elder: "Then… I'll tell Neb to guide you warriors to the rough location."

Rogi: "No. We’ll ride Poppy and go quickly. We can’t bring Neb too."

Leo: "Mm… it’ll be hard for all of us to ride on Poppy’s back."

Yona: "At most, four people can ride."

Rogi: "What do we do…"

Pai: "Why?"

Rogi: "I don’t want to walk…"

Pai: "Ugh… I really hate it… my legs hurt." Everyone fell into worry. There was no suitable means of travel. Not even a small cart could be seen here.

While everyone was thinking deeply, Eti said, "There’s a way. Wait a moment." Eti tossed one recovery fruit into her mouth, looked all around the village, found a sack, and disappeared for a little while.

Then Eti returned quickly, having filled the sack with those fruits.

Eti: "The people who ride Poppy will ride, and everyone else can run while eating these fruits."

Rogi: "Huh?……."

Leo: "Yeah! Rogi and Pai, Eat and Yona will ride Poppy. The rest of us will go while eating the fruits~"

Pai: "Huh?……." -5 B END