Act 2: Chapter 2

It was slightly on edge that the pair made their way through the canyon, not knowing what to expect – thieves could jump out from anywhere, and that strange melody could come back anytime, not to mention the deep chasm that was less than a meter away from them. With how their last job went, Kyusaku was proceeding more cautiously than ever.

Just when he was starting to think that the canyon was eerily quiet, a faint and distant melody reached his ears, carried by the wind that had just picked up. They both stopped in their tracks. The elf's long ears twitched and his breathing almost came to a halt as he listened closely and tried to determine where the sound was coming from.

"... It stopped," he said in a low voice when it became quiet again.

Miyaji stepped closer, looking around the canyon. "It feels... familiar, somehow."

Surprised, the elf turned to his partner. "You too? I feel like I've heard it before, but I can't remember where..."

With the sun already starting to go down, they didn't have the time to think more about it. The two of them made their way through the narrow paths of red stone until they reached the spot where they'd decided to set up camp just before it became dark.
After dinner, they reviewed the map again and discussed their theories on where the sound could have been coming from, but couldn't come up with anything concrete enough and decided to sleep early.

The sky was clear, full of stars shining brightly. For some reason, Kyusaku couldn't sleep. He kept hearing that melody in his mind again and again.

Another day of walking awaited them, although they weren't really looking forward to it. From here on, the terrain only got more difficult to navigate. Not only did it make their progression slower and more tiring, it was also one more thing to be stressed about.
The memory of falling in the ruins was still too fresh in Kyusaku's mind and he wasn't ready to go through that again. Just thinking about slipping on the rocks and plummeting to the bottom of the chasm was enough to send a shiver down his spine.

The wind rose suddenly, and the elf let out a cry when his foot slipped on the rocks, Miyaji rushing to catch him, his back hitting his partner's chest as he held his shoulder a bit tighter than usual.

"Are you okay?!"

"Yes... Hey, it's that sound again!"

They both fell silent. This time it was a lot clearer, although they still couldn't determine where exactly it was coming from. When the wind stopped, so did the song.

"I only heard a little, but I feel incredibly sad and lonely," his partner commented. "I wonder why..."

"Mhm..." I was right, it does sound familiar. But I still can't remember what it reminds me of...

He didn't have the time to ponder this further; ears twitching at the sound of falling rocks, he turned around to find about a dozen armed men surrounding them. The two of them took a few steps back, only for their assailants to come even closer.
Miyaji instinctively stepped forward, but before he could even fully extend his arm in front of him, an arrow pierced the ground, just barely missing his feet. His expression changed, instantly becoming colder, and both of them raised their eyes to discover about a dozen more bandits atop the cliff.

With his agility, Miya can reach them in no time... Then I should take care of these, he thought, turning back to the opponents in front only to hear them discussing who they should attack first with the one who appeared to be their leader.

"Take out the elf first!" The man declared confidently. "Mages aren't good in close combat, but it would be a pain if he starts casting."

Sighing heavily, Kyusaku casually put down his backpack, and with a flick of his wrist, his battle axe appeared in his hand, the blade's weight immediately bringing it down to strike the ground.

He raised his head and smiled, "Good thing I brought this, then!"

Now less eager to attack after seeing the size of his weapon and the ease with which he wielded it, the bandits took a few steps back, before turning their gaze towards Miyaji.

"T-This guy doesn't have a weapon, let's deal with him first!" They decided, with a lot more hesitation this time.

"A weapon?" Miyaji said with a chuckle. "I don't need one to deal with you!"

The redhead leaped forward before any of the men could react, and even Kyusaku was a bit slow to follow him.

"Hey, leave some for me!" He whined when he realized his partner had already taken down five of the bandits in less than a minute.

It wasn't often that they had an opportunity to beat up people for fun without any consequences, so it was quite disappointing that the battle ended so swiftly. Those thieves were nothing to be afraid of in the end – at least not for people like them.

"Did you see their faces when I pulled out the axe??" The elf asked excitedly. "Ahh, that trick never gets old."

"Right! I wish that lasted a bit longer though. That barely counts as... Kyusaku?"

Silently, the elf crouched down, examining something left lying on the ground. He picked up the arrow, which had distinctive red feathers.

"I've seen this before..." He muttered as he stood up, his eyes still on the weapon.

"... In a dream?" Miyaji guessed, tilting his head to the side.

The elf nodded. "It completely slipped my mind, with all the things we talked about yesterday... But I heard that melody in a dream too. It was incredibly sad and lonely, as if everyone else was gone... I'd even forgotten I had you."

"It does evoke that feeling... Was it another one of those weird dreams?"

"Must be. Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen the exact same arrows," he pointed out with a shrug.

"They really aren't stopping, aren't they? Maybe we should keep track of them."

Miyaji had a point. Of course, he wanted to get rid of those dreams if possible, but since it didn't look like they were going to stop anytime soon, he might as well try to make use of them, especially when he had noticed a recent trend in those dreams which seemed to show him more and more worrying things
The first one that warned him of an actual danger was the one with the king's mummy. Before then, although they occasionally seemed to predict the future, nothing particularly bad had happened, so he couldn't help but be on edge now that he noticed.

The bandits' arrows... That lonely song... How are they all connected? He wondered as the wind picked up again, carrying said melody to their ears.

"... I have a theory," he started.

"I'm listening."

"Some kind of creature passed by the canyon, and the bandits attempted to hunt it. Either out of fear, or of hope to make money from it."

"That does sound plausible," Miyaji approved. "But if that's the case, then we should hurry. Whatever that creature is, as long as we can hear it, that means it's still suffering."

The elf nodding, picking up his backpack before carefully going around the unconscious bandits blocking the narrow path. However, now that things had calmed down a bit and they were getting closer to solving this mystery, something kept nagging at the back of his mind.

"I feel like we're forgetting something..." He mumbled as he passed in front of his partner.

Miyaji didn't reply, though he was visibly trying hard to remember, making all kinds of weird faces. Meanwhile, the elf mentally replayed the day in silence and then the one before that, and–

"THE KID!" He exclaimed, stopping in his tracks as he shot his partner an alarmed look. "We forgot to look for the kid!"

"Oh my god, you're right! It completely slipped my mind..." His partner admitted, bringing his palm to his face.

"You don't think the bandits could have anything to do with this as well..?"

Both of them looked back to the men still lying unconscious behind them, as the sun was already starting to go down, its light becoming redder.

"If that's the case," Miyaji replied with a sigh, "we'll have to wait until they wake up to question them."

"Did you really have to knock them all out..?"

As the sun went down, the pair patiently waited for the defeated thieves to regain consciousness so they could question them before shooing them away. They didn't seem to know anything about the missing child. On one hand, it was fortunate since it meant the boy hadn't run into them... but on the other hand, they weren't any closer to finding him; and if the bandits weren't responsible for his disappearance, he might have encountered a fate much worse.
With the sky darkening, there wasn't really anything they could do at the moment. I hope we can find him tomorrow...

Aside from the missing boy, they had also questioned them regarding the strange melody and if they had encountered anything out of the ordinary lately, but they all vehemently denied any involvement in this situation.

"They sounded more terrified of having something to do with this matter than with the kid," Miyaji remarked.

"You're right. It is a little strange..."

"It's like they know they've done something terribly wrong..."

It wasn't until the next morning that the pair resumed their search. They were definitely going in the right direction, as evidenced by the lonely song transported by the wind that they could now hear clearly.
However, there was still no sign of the missing boy, and it was becoming quite worrying. The canyon was pretty straightforward, so they should have run into him by now, or at least found a trace of him using this road. If he's not at the end of this road, then where could he have gone to...

A moment of inattention and a wrong step on the narrow path later, and he was just barely holding onto the red rocks while Miyaji rushed to his side, extending a hand to help him up.

"I'm starting to feel like you really like falling from high places," his partner scolded.

All Kyusaku could reply with was a nervous chuckle while he climbed back up, when he suddenly came to a halt as he noticed something from the corner of his eyes.

"Miyaji, wait!"

Just below him, he caught sight of the missing boy, lying unconscious on an overhang. It seemed the boy slipped on the rocks, much like Kyusaku, and fell down the cliff, hitting his head. Kyusaku noticed he also had a sprained ankle – perhaps the reason he fell in the first place.
Very carefully, the elf lowered himself on the platform, checking on the boy's condition. Fortunately, his injuries weren't severe, and it looked like he hadn't been here for long. I don't know if he's extremely unlucky all of this happened to him, or if he's very lucky that overhang was here...

Without much effort, Miyaji jumped down after him and carried both of them back up while Kyusaku contemplated how unnaturally strong he was. It was one of those things that he had noticed in the decade they worked together, but stopped questioning after a while. After all, he was also much stronger than he looked, so compared to the other stuff, it wasn't even that strange.

After tending to the boy, he finally woke up about an hour later; but they were almost at their destination, and if this melody was really a cry of pain, the elf didn't want to go back to the village. By the time they'd reach the creature, it would be too late; so, they took the child with them.

"Hey, do you know what's making this sound? Did you come to our village just for that?"

The boy, as curious as children were, seemed very interested in the song as well, and excitedly explained it was the reason that he went into the canyon as he hitched a ride on Miyaji's shoulders. He kept asking about their job, what kind of mysteries they solved, and what that song was; and frankly, Kyusaku was getting a bit annoyed and unconsciously started filtering out his blabbering.

As they made their way deeper and deeper into the canyon, the lamentations carried by the wind only became louder. They were getting closer.

Until finally, they found it.

Kyusaku froze when he saw the creature, eyes widening in shock. "A pipe whale?!"

A giant creature with a snake-like body was lying there, its shimmering green scales a stark contrast with the red of the canyon. Its large fins trembled as the wind passed through the multiple holes on its long dorsal fins, producing a melodious sound.
Countless arrows pierced its skin; a golden, glowing liquid trickling down from the numerous wounds to the ground where it formed a puddle from which grass and flowers sprouted.

"What's that?" The boy asked, more curious than scared.

"It's a kind of migratory spirit that uses the energy of the wind," Miyaji explained before he could say anything. "I've seen one when I was little. I knew that melody sounded familiar..."

"You've seen one?" The elf noted, surprised.

"Only once," he said, eyes filled with sadness as he looked at the spirit covered in arrows. "They used to cross the desert where I was born every few decades. In the end, your theory was correct..." He added, lowering his head.

The mention of the desert being his partner's birthplace didn't escape his ears. Miyaji revealed so little about himself, it felt like he had found an oasis in the middle of the desert; but now was not the time to ask, so he mentally made a note of it for later.

"No, not quite... Spirits can't feel pain, so it's not crying in pain. It's calling its kind. It knows it's dying, and it doesn't want to go alone."

"What? And it's still alone after crying for days? That's too sad..." The boy said, sympathizing with the creature's loneliness.

"There are no spirits left to answer now..." Kyusaku replied with a sigh. "They've been on the decline for centuries... It was only a matter of time."

"No way... Isn't there anything you can do?"

"It's too late. Even if we arrived earlier, we don't know enough about spirits to be able to save one..."

Biting his lip in frustration, as the spirit was still singing, the elf rummaged through his backpack and took out a beautifully decorated, cobalt-colored flute. He brought it to his lips and started playing, matching the melody sung by the spirit.
For a moment, the spirit's voice seemed to become louder, and the elf swore he saw its fins moving, before both the wind and sound slowly died out. Only then did he lower his flute.

"It's over..."

Or so he thought, but to his surprise, the spirit's green body darkened and collapsed, before exploding into dust with a huge gust of wind, spreading all around them. The canyon's red ground turned green with moss, flowers sprouting between the rocks, and trees taking roots in the dust, growing rapidly until they were even taller than them.

Walking up to him with the boy still on his shoulders reaching for the leaves that had miraculously appeared around them, Miyaji stopped to look at the vegetation left behind by the spirit.

"Born from the earth, spreading life where they go until they turn to dust, and return to the earth, where new life is born. Who knows, as long as this world is alive, we might see spirits again one day."