Chapter 17: Strange Occurrences - Part 2
With Mari and everyone else avoiding him, Kai sought interaction elsewhere.
The village dogs used to like Kai. They would wag their tails when he passed, nudging at his hands for scraps or a quick pat.
But, as everything else seemed to change, they wouldn't come near him. Even worse, they would run from him.
Whenever he walked through the village, dogs would grow tense. Some whimpered and backed away, tails tucked between their legs. Others growled low and wary, hackles raised.
As he made his way home one night, he passed the yard of an abandoned house near the forest's edge. Behind its high fence a large group of stray dogs had gathered.
They stopped playing and determining who was the alpha between them the moment they saw him.
Then, all at once, they howled. Not one or two of them, but the entire group.
It wasn't the usual baying of dogs calling to one another. It was eerie, drawn out, almost mournful.
Like a funeral dirge.
Kai's breath hitched. A shiver ran down his spine.
He walked faster.
The howling followed him until he was out of sight.
Then, later that night, the shadows moved when they shouldn't have.
While lying on his straw mattress, he stared at the wooden ceiling beams above. Shadows shifted across the walls, projected by the moonlight streaming through his shutters.
At first, he thought nothing of it.
'The wind outside could be making the trees sway, right?'
But then he realised something... there was no wind.
And yet, the shadows in the corners of his room stretched and curled like grasping fingers, shifting even when everything else remained still.
Kai sat up, heart hammering. His own shadow twisted unnaturally, almost as if it was watching him.
The air grew heavy, thick like fog pressing against his skin. Then, just for a moment, he swore he heard a whisper.
Indistinct, like a voice from a dream.
Words that were just out of reach.
Then... silence.
His shadow stilled. The room returned to normal.
But Kai couldn't shake the feeling that something had been there, watching.
Waiting.
Something unlike a shadow.
Something from another place.
Then, another day, something started as a whispering itch in the back of Kai's mind, a feeling or instinct he couldn't quite describe.
While walking home from the from his self-directed training in the forest, he spotted a dead bird lying in the dirt, wings spread limply.
its tiny body... still and cold.
A raven, its glossy black feathers dulled by dust.
His steps slowed. That same invisible thread inside him pulled taut again, drawn toward the lifeless creature. Like a child being drawn towards laughter, song, or the smell of sweets.
Kneeling beside it, Kai hesitated.
Instinctively, his hands hovered over the small body.
A shiver ran down his spine.
It was just a dead bird.
And yet... he felt it. He understood it. Something lingering. Like a faint ember deep inside, waiting to be rekindled.
Before he could second-guess himself, he pressed his fingers lightly against the raven's chest.
A pulse of cold seeped from his fingertips, crawling along his skin.
Then the bird twitched.
Kai's heart pounded in his ears.
The raven's claws spasmed. Its beak parted with a dry, rattling click. And then its wings fluttered, stiff and jerky, like a marionette on frayed strings.
Just like Bert's eyes changed after Kai healed him, the raven's eyes glowed a deep green.
Kai scrambled backward, his breath coming in short, uneven gasps.
The raven's head lolled, its glassy eyes unfocused. It swayed for a moment before crumpling once more, truly lifeless this time.
Kai sat frozen, staring at his own hands.
His entire body felt cold, his stomach twisting with unease.
'I... I didn't mean to...'
For the first time, the whispers in the village made sense. The wary glances. The hushed voices about the Old Magic.
Because this wasn't normal magic.
Kai tried to convince himself for years that Bert's revival was purely accidental, but this proved him wrong.
And if the villagers ever found out...
Kai clenched his fists, his pulse thundering in his ears.
He had to be more careful.
'Much more careful.'
---
On top of all the changes happening around Kai, he began to avoid looking at his reflection.
He told himself it was just his imagination, but deep down, he knew something was wrong.
His ears were next. It started subtly, just a small lengthening of the tips.
Kai first thought he was seeing things, but over the days, his ears grew more pointed.
His skin, once a warm olive tone, grew paler with each passing day. Even though he spent most of the time outdoors, his tan didn't get darker. He no longer had the healthy, sun-kissed shade of his family, but a sickly, unnatural pallor.
In his past life, someone might mistaken him for cosplaying an elf. A sick elf, but an elf nonetheless.
His hair, once as black as the midnight sky, grew grey from the roots, leaving half of his hair grey, and half black.
'Some people would spend a lot of money for that look back on Earth.'
Then, one evening, as he washed his hands in the basin, he looked up into the small, cracked mirror hanging above.
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It felt like his reflection watched him and moved slower than he did, but he couldn't be sure.
Kai stumbled back, heart racing. The reflection still stared, his own face, but wrong.
For a split second, his eyes had seemed too dark.
Too hollow.
Then, as quickly as it had come, the strange vision was gone.
'It's not just a hallucination. Things are happening to me. Around me. Real things. Things I can't control. After assessment is finished, I'll know how to deal with everything happening to me. Someone will help me. Train me, maybe.'
His only saving grace was that it was winter.
He wore more hats to cover his head and long sleeves and pants to cover as much skin as possible without drawing attention to himself.
Sometimes, he'd get odd looks from the townsfolk when travelling between his house and the forest, but nobody spoke anything of it.
He had become like a stray dog, or a homeless person from his old world.
People would acknowledge them, but walk by and pretend they didn't see anything.
'I understand how they felt now. Does it get any easier? Maybe after my assessment, things will go back to normal. I can have a normal family life again and Mari will talk to me and touch me again.'