Present (Peach Mitani)

  Piano Sonata Number 16.

  “It is midnight. Time to go to the enchanted forest,” whispered the head eunuch.

  It was chilly outside, and Peach Mitani immediately felt regretful that she had left her small, comfortable cottage.

  The healing herbs were located on the top of the moonlit-crowned temple.

  Nomadic steppes were flat; however, unlike the steppes, forest areas were infested with mountains and hills.

  Peach Mitani could not hold her breath anymore. Her heart rate was dropping. She was already tired.

  “Are we there?” she asked.

  “Not yet,” answered the head eunuch.

  “But I am so tired.”

  “You are really weak, aren’t you?” he said.

  ‘Hmm… Where did I hear that before?' thought Peach Mitani.

  Being intelligent and smart wasn’t exactly her main forte. Her brain just could not retain information all at once, and she had always felt like her brain was going to explode. If she could time-travel once again, she would have chosen to be born as a jellyfish. Snow-white and wavery, the jellyfish was the perfect vessel for the next metempsychosis. Perhaps she could swim and waver with the wuthering tides of waves. She would feel so free and at peace. But there were other alternatives, of course, and she was talking about the nirvana-nightingale. Nirvana-Nightingale was the most intelligent being in the whole universe, for this creature had 800 billion neurons in one of its brain cells. It was tight and beautiful like a jellyfish, and its natural habitat was the deep end of the ocean.

  Peach Mitani has never seen the ocean. They did not have that in here. It was all steppe and hills.

  “We should go higher,” said the head eunuch.

  They were now climbing higher and higher. There were low steps, and there were high steps. She felt her pulse. She was feeling her pulse, and she knew that she was alive. She was happy to be alive, and that was strange.

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  The call of the wilderness was calling to her. They were at the spot—she was seeing the top of the moonlit-crowned temple.

  It was beautiful… It was beautiful, but its cosmic grandeur made her skin crawl. She was terrified.

  The door of the temple was only three feet from her. She stretched her legs, and she felt weak and humbled.

  The head eunuch got to the door and opened it.

  “Why don’t you go in there first?” he said, smiling. “There are a lot of things to be done.”

  “Right,” she smiled.

  “Oh, and don’t forget to gather your healing herbs right before dawn, or it will be more difficult to dry them,” he warned her.

  “I won’t,” she answered.

  Peach Mitani immediately went down to the tombstone. She heard her echo, and it was eerie for her ears.

  There were different kinds of flower-candies in there: candies, oranges, caramels, and sticky watermelons. She saw the different colors of their inner strength, and it all felt bizarre.

  There was this color—violet. There was the color blue. She saw the color violet and the different shades of purple.

  She smelled the red one. It was sweet and strong, and its smell hung and tugged.

  Peach Mitani touched her nose, and she instantly knew that it was the healing herbs.

  The healing herbs did not look that appealing. It was not astonishingly beautiful, but it looked neat and clean.

  She carefully folded the edge of the healing flower and smiled. That was what she was looking for. That was exactly what she was looking for. So she touched the prickly side of the lower side of the flower lightly when she felt something stuck on the back of her frock.

  She tried to get off the thing on her back, but it would not come off. If it were an animal, there would be a big problem.

  She got up and slowly turned her head. The head eunuch was standing right before her. He was holding a silver dagger.

  It was glistening, and there was blood on it. The blood was red and fresh.

  That was when Peach Mitani realized that it was not an animal on her back that was making her uncomfortable, but her blood sticking like a stitch.

  "Oh, how unfortunate, my frock," that was the only thing that she could think of.

  The head eunuch came close to her. His eyes were round and dark. She could feel his breath on her neck.

  Now she was frightened. She was frightened because she knew that she was not dead yet. She could still survive. She held the head eunuch’s hand.

  “Please,” she whimpered.

  “Don’t move. It won’t hurt,” he said and stabbed her heart. He repeatedly stabbed her heart.

  She closed her eyes, and she felt a sudden desire to fall asleep.

  She was not feeling any pain, but her brain was overstimulated, and for the first time, she knew that she was right to be suspicious. There was really something wrong, and it all felt too easy. She knew that something was missing.

  ‘He must be that assassin who had tried to kill me,’ she thought, and there was darkness.

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