“I’m not acting!” Jaewon looked offended. “Unlike you, things actually scare me.”
He started packing up their small camp, muttering a litany of complaints that made Kira snicker.
She left him talking to himself and followed the creek downstream, for privacy. Not too far away she came upon a small pond hidden within the trees. She pulled out her soap and took off her jacket, washing up as quickly as possible. She shivered against the cool morning air, sitting in nothing but her bust wrap and trousers. She ran a comb through her short hair until it crackled. As she wiped her face, she sat staring at her reflection. The scar on her face had faded to a thin white line. She hardly even noticed it anymore. Gazing into the water, she wondered what it was that Jaewon found attractive about her. But for her yellow eyes, she thought her face was nothing special. A narrow face and high cheekbones with a jaw that was a little too angular and lips that were a little too big. Even her shoulders were strong and wide and not narrow and rounded. Not that any of this troubled her. After years of being told how hideous and frightening she looked, she didn’t really care about her appearance. But she was genuinely curious to know what about her he seemed to like.
Something was glinting in the depths of the running water. She knelt closer, and an eerie, disturbing feeling crept up her spine as she tried to recognize what she saw. She blinked as she lowered her face closer to the water. The glint was growing larger. Mesmerized by it, she kept staring until she suddenly realized what it was. The milky white of a large fishy-looking eye. Before she could move, a foul creature leaped at her and wrapped its long slimy arms around her neck, trying to drag her into the water.
With a garbled yell, Kira reared back, barely keeping from toppling into the pond. She smelled the evil fishy stink of it. Seizing the monster by the waist, she yanked it out of the water and hurled it away. It landed with a hiss and immediately crawled on all fours back toward her. Kira pulled out her sword and held it at its neck. Immediately it curled over onto itself, shaking in fear.
It spoke in a foreign language that Kira recognized as Yamato.
“Are you a creature of Yamato? What are you doing here? Do you understand me?”
The creature nodded vigorously. “Yes, I speak the language of the Seven Kingdoms,” it said. “Please don’t kill me. I meant no harm. I was merely curious.”
“Oh, no harm at all,” Kira sneered. “You only meant to drown me.”
“No drowning, just swimming.” The creature smiled evilly, creeping ever closer.
Kira stopped its progress with a swipe of her sword. She studied its form carefully. Greenish-gray scales covered its entire body, and its misshapen limbs were attached to its torso in an odd configuration. But the strangest feature was the top of its head, which was concave like a bowl and was brimming with water.
“You don’t smell like a demon. What are you?”
“I’m a kappa,” it replied. “A water sprite. I have lived in this pond for hundreds of years.”
“But how did you come to be here?” Kira asked.
The kappa bobbed its head from side to side but was careful not to spill the water in its bowl-shaped head. “The monks,” it said, pointing its scaly, gnarled finger toward the mountains. “They brought me and my brethren here. I claimed this pond as my own. It is smaller than the ones my brothers fought for. But it is all mine.”
It slithered a little closer to Kira. “And what are you? Are you human or tiger? You have a tiger’s eyes but a human body. It made me wonder which you would taste like. I like tiger flesh, but human flesh is so much sweeter.”
“Too bad you’ll never find out,” Kira retorted.
The creature snarled and looked ready to attack when Jaewon came crashing through the woods, his sword drawn and ready.
“Kira! Are you all right?” he asked.
Catching sight of Kira in her underclothes, Jaewon flushed in shock and turned away, unaware of the danger right before him.
“Kim Jaewon! Watch out!” Kira yelled. But it was too late; the monster had changed course and jumped onto Jaewon, knocking his sword away and dragging him toward the pond.
Kira cut in front of the creature’s path and stabbed at it. The kappa was remarkably fast. Letting go of Jaewon, it leaped out of the way, flailing at Kira with large webbed hands. Jaewon crawled toward his sword and yelped when the kappa ran over him. But no matter where it turned, Kira was there to block its path.
With a loud curse, the kappa tried to storm past Kira and jump into the pond. Anticipating its move, Kira sidestepped and caught it by its long hair. Water spilled out of its head, causing the kappa to visibly weaken. Realizing the water was its strength, Kira forced the kappa’s head down, and then with one fluid move she impaled it through its back.