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Description
Her legs were aching by nightfall. Almost every part of her was in pain…her legs ached from walking all day, her head throbbed from thinking nonstop, her eyes were burning from crying, and her heart felt as if it were being squeezed…perhaps her heart’s ache was from crying as well. She was alone in the world now. That’s how she felt: utterly helpless, and completely alone. Alone in a forest that was much too quiet. She would gladly have traded all she owned to have even Jaken, and his continual bantering and scolding, with her. It was the silence of the forest around her that frightened her the most.
She longed to be with her lord again. To have his protection, his assuring presence… but she knew it could never be like that ever again. She had angered him to the point of hatred…yes, he hated her now. Hated her for being the foolish girl that she had always been. He had tolerated her for years and she had taken that small kindness for granted. But now, she feared his wrath. That was why she had to leave him. To be away from his side was better than being on the wrong side of him…wasn’t it? It didn’t feel that way now.
Her belly growled. She had neither eaten nor slept since she left. The only thing keeping her going forward was the knowledge that she could never turn back. She slumped to the ground, exhausted and frightened, leaned her back against a tree, and closed her eyes. Sobs escaped from her throat, shaking her frame violently. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she buried her face in her hands.
“Umm…Excuse me, Miss?”
She started and jerked her head up. An inquisitive face met her tear-stained one. He was a human boy who looked no older than she. He had long black hair that nearly hid his light brown eyes.
“Are you hurt, Miss?” he inquired.
She shook her head, not wanting to speak to the stranger. He smiled kindly at her.
“You know, it isn’t very safe in these woods after the sun sets, my good lady. There are demons out here that would be overjoyed if they found a tasty looking woman just sitting around waiting to be eaten.”
At the mention of the word “demon” tears welled up in her eyes again so that when he had finished speaking, a whole new wave of hysterics spilled from her body.
Unsure of what to do, the boy placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
“Oh! Er, I-I’m terribly sorry, Miss! I didn’t mean to frighten you. Truly, I-I-…I didn’t mean to upset you…more than you already are, Miss!” he tripped over his words and tried to get her to look at him again.
“P-please…” she started,
“*sniff* j-just…leave m-me alone!” she cried.
The boy smiled softly and tilted her head back up in his hand,
“No. I’m sorry, but I can’t leave you here by yourself… I won’t.” His eyes were full of pity and he smiled sadly at her.
She set her features stubbornly, wiped her eyes angrily, and glared at him as lord Sesshomaru would.
“I don’t need your help!“ she said through her clenched teeth,
“I am doing just perfectly fine by myself!” Her stomach growled louder than ever and made known her desperate situation.
The boy smiled yet again,
“So I hear. Hmm…I’ll make a deal with you, Miss--”
“My name is Rin! Stop calling me ‘Miss.’” she snapped. She did not like the manners of this boy.
“Miss Rin,” he compromised, “allow me to feed you tonight…and keep you until morning at my house out of harm‘s way. In the morning, if you still wish to leave, I shall not make any attempt to stop you. Do we have a deal, Miss Rin?”
She pondered his offer. A hot meal and a warm bed sounded wonderful to her.
“I won’t accept help from a random stranger,” she began.
He looked at her with a mixture of hurt and confusion.
“Tell me your name.”
Another kind smile lit up his handsome features.
“My name is Akatori. It means ‘red bird’. So then, do we have a deal now?”
She lowered her head, deliberately not meeting his eyes,
“…Deal.” she muttered.
She felt as if she had just been conned by this boy, but she allowed him to help her up. He led her away from the woods onto a path. She walked a few paces behind him, just in case that he was not to be trusted, she would have an opportunity to get away to safety. They walked in silence, so she took this time to study him.
He was taller than she was…considerably taller. Maybe a half of a meter. His dark hair was pulled tightly behind him, and flowed down to the middle of his back. He was carrying a strange assortment of baskets with him between his broad shoulders. All of them appeared to be empty. He must be an artisan of some kind, she thought to herself. His face was sharp and angular like a fox. His eyes were framed by almost girlishly long lashes and had a mischievous spark to them…like someone who kept a great secret. His bangs were long enough that they tangled in his lashes whenever the wind blew. He was wearing a dark blue haori and black loose-fitting hakama. On his feet were a pair of zori wooden sandals. In all, his appearance was like that of a shadow. Like something that wasn’t really there, but a mirage of a sort. A very handsome mirage at that. She wished silently that he wasn’t so good-looking. It was hard to be cross with someone who had charm like his. Just like lord Sesshomaru… He reminds me of lord Sesshomaru! Suddenly she felt sad and lonely again. The all too familiar pain in her chest returned again. I will forget him, she said to herself silently, I must forget him. I’m sure he has already forgotten me…
************************************************************************
So,…She has truly left me, the demon lord was standing beside the smoldering ashes of what was once a small campfire. Ah-Un and Jaken were still asleep…completely oblivious to the absence of their little, dark-haired companion. Sesshomaru tried to find her scent…then stopped himself suddenly. No, it was her choice to leave. He would not look for her this time.
“Jaken, wake yourself. We are leaving now.”
The sleepy imp jumped up almost immediately at the sound of his master’s voice. Then, looking around momentarily, he noticed that Rin was not with them.
“M’lord! Where is Rin?! The little thing must’ve wandered off again, Sire! Certainly the brazen girl must be somewhere…picking flowers no less! Allow me to go and fetch her-”
“No.” Sesshomaru turned his back to his squawking servant.
“N-no,…M’lord?” confusion filled his voice. Since when did his master not care about the well-being of his girl-child?
“No,” Sesshomaru continued, “she has left of her own free will. We will not tarry here waiting for her return. Get Ah-Un and let us be off immediately.”
Jaken hopped over to the dragon’s side and tied on its harness and reigns. Tears blurred his eyes. Little Rin left? Why? She was always so happy and content here with her lord, was she not? He wiped off his face with his oversized sleeve and tugged the dragon along behind him. It certainly will be a sad and quiet day, he thought to himself.
Ah-Un swung its heads around, he was searching for his human child, too. After a moment, the dragon seemed to understand finally that, for some reason, the child was gone. Ah sighed heavily and Un grunted sadly. Sesshomaru tried to block out all of this, but his senses left nothing unnoticed. He smelled sadness and despair looming silently behind him. He also heard Jaken’s hiccupping sobs and the dragon’s sighs. They were expressing the emotions that he could not show: sorrow, and despair.
I will not forget, he thought to himself. I cannot forget, because she will…and someone must remember what was. I will remember.
************************************************************************
After a few minutes, a flower garden became visible up ahead. Rin let out an almost childish cry of delight when she saw it. This startled Akatori, and he looked over his shoulder at her.
“So the lady can show happiness after all? She does not always have a face that could pickle a plum?” he teased her good-naturedly.
She ignored his comments.
“What pretty flowers! Who takes care of this garden, Akatori?”
“Why, me of course.” he stated proudly.
“This garden has always been tended to and protected by my clan. My ancestors planted the seeds of this garden over three hundred years ago. When my father died, this place was passed down to me since…I had no older siblings…no sibling at all actually. I am the only living member of my clan now.” He added the last phrase with a tinge of sadness.
The smell of the flowers’ perfume was overwhelming. Vibrant yellow narcissus and violet hydrangeas lined the pathway through the garden. There were vines of ivy and roses covering a stone wall that sheltered and surrounded the magical place. That’s how Rin saw it: this place was magical. Only mystical powers could cause such loveliness to grow here. Tall wisteria and cherry blossom trees blocked out most of the sun, and their lowest branches reached out inquisitively to anyone passing through. Rin couldn’t help herself. She plucked a stem of the pink cherry blossoms that was nearest to her. A gentle breeze caught the petals and sent them rushing around the girl in a sweet smelling whirlwind. She laughed gaily and spun in a circle just as she did when she was a little girl.
Akatori watched her happily. Yes, my pretty one, dance for me, dear child. Then aloud, he asked her,
“So, do you like my garden, Miss Rin?”
“It’s wonderful!” she laughed, still in a childlike mindset. Then, remembering herself, she stopped dancing and straightened her kimono, embarrassed. She could feel her entire face blushing.
“…I mean,…it’s very nice.” se choked out without looking at him. She couldn’t bring herself to face his smug expression that she knew he was wearing. She heard him chuckle softly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him remove a shallow basket from the load on his back. He handed it to her.
“There are a few fruit bearing trees just over this hill, Miss Rin. If you would like anything from them, anything at all, please, be my guest and help yourself.”
There were indeed fruit trees ahead. Twenty at least! And the boughs of each tree were heavy laden with ripe fruits. Apples, peaches, persimmons, nectarines, cherries, and several more that she had never even seen before, much less tasted. The smell of the orchard was impossibly sweeter than that of the flowers from earlier. Rin’s eyes widened considerably as they passed each tree. Her guide made a point to explain about each tree as they went by.
“The cherries from this tree grow so red, that their juices stain your fingertips as you pluck them. I’ve ruined many a kimono with their “sweet blood,” as my father called it, when it comes time to harvest them. Ah! And the peaches here, why, they are so soft, that if I do not get them off of the branch by mid-summer, the stems will release them, and they all come tumbling down to the ground! That is why the grasses beneath are so green and lush. They drink in the nectar of the fallen peaches and continue to grow until the coldest part of winter. I use this trick on my flowers too so that they can grow until winter as well!
“And here, now, Miss Rin, look closely here at these…” He paused before a great, tall tree and waited for his little sight-seer to catch up. Her arms were struggling to grip the growing bulk of her basket. She had taken three of every kind of fruit she had passed.
“This is called a yuwaku tree. It is the only one in all the western lands. It actually died out over a thousand years ago, but my great grandfather’s great grandfather found a man with a seed of the yuwaku. He sacrificed every last bit of gold and silver he had, and in return, he received the seed of this tree you see now.”
Rin was halfway through a peach, eating as she listened to the story.
“Why would he pay so much for just one seed? Is there something unique about this tree?” she asked, wiping her chin with the hem of her sleeve.
He turned to her with more spark in his eyes than ever. He touched the black bark of the trunk with both of his hands, and peered out from behind it.
“Yes. This tree is magical.”
Rin snorted and then giggled a moment…then saw how serious he had suddenly become. She put down her basket and stood opposite from him so that the tree was between them.
“Oh. You are serious? How is it magical?” she implored with a hint of amusement and a half smile.
His face disappeared behind the trunk and appeared on the other side.
“This tree’s fruit makes people fall in love. Thousands of years ago, if a man and a woman were arranged by their parents to marry, and they did not love one another, the parents of the couple would give them the yuwaku fruit to give to one another. That is how it works. The one who eats the fruit will inevitably fall madly in love with the one who gave it to them.”
“Really?” Rin asked with feigned belief.
“What would happen if someone ate it off of the tree without someone else giving it to them?”
Akatori smiled again and leaned in closer to her until their faces were only a breath apart.
“They wouldn’t be completely affected by the tree’s spell…they would dream of the one that their heart desires…but what fun is there in that? Simply dreaming of the one you love when you could have them in your arms?”
“None.” she sighed.
“None,” he agreed.
And with that, she reached up and plucked a yuwaku fruit from the tree. It was a strangely shaped thing…like an inverted pear. It was as red as blood, and towards the very bottom of the fruit, there was an almost spider-shaped leaf with small yellow berries at the tips of each “leg”.
Akatori had become engrossed in a small green caterpillar that had begun inching it’s way up the tree.
“Nasty little pests! They’ll ruin all the fruit if given half a chance.” he frowned and furrowed his brow in annoyance.
“I’ll have to put out pears around the trunk.” he concluded.
“Pears? Why?” Rin asked, no longer hypnotized by the love fruit.
“The worms will eat the pears and get too full to go after the yuwaku fruit.” he explained.
She thought this over.
“What if they do not get full from the pears? Or if they crawl right past them?”
“They will eat their fill of the pears, and they will not crawl past them. No worm can resist my pears!” he said with a confident laugh and a bright smile.
“No human either, come to think of it. Come! Let me show you.”
She picked up her basket, placing the yuwaku at the top of the other fruits, and followed him. The caterpillar, meanwhile, had reached a ripe yuwaku. He bit into it with silent glee, not caring that this fruit was covered in marks from other worms that had eaten their fill before him. There was so much fruit! Why, a little worm such as he could easily live off of this yuwaku until it was time to sleep and change to its next form! Quite suddenly, it fell from the tree branch to the ground below, landing on a small collection of similar worms. These were the ones that had eaten before him. All sleeping now… All dead.

Description
Her legs were aching by nightfall. Almost every part of her was in pain…her legs ached from walking all day, her head throbbed from thinking nonstop, her eyes were burning from crying, and her heart felt as if it were being squeezed…perhaps her heart’s ache was from crying as well. She was alone in the world now. That’s how she felt: utterly helpless, and completely alone. Alone in a forest that was much too quiet. She would gladly have traded all she owned to have even Jaken, and his continual bantering and scolding, with her. It was the silence of the forest around her that frightened her the most.
She longed to be with her lord again. To have his protection, his assuring presence… but she knew it could never be like that ever again. She had angered him to the point of hatred…yes, he hated her now. Hated her for being the foolish girl that she had always been. He had tolerated her for years and she had taken that small kindness for granted. But now, she feared his wrath. That was why she had to leave him. To be away from his side was better than being on the wrong side of him…wasn’t it? It didn’t feel that way now.
Her belly growled. She had neither eaten nor slept since she left. The only thing keeping her going forward was the knowledge that she could never turn back. She slumped to the ground, exhausted and frightened, leaned her back against a tree, and closed her eyes. Sobs escaped from her throat, shaking her frame violently. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she buried her face in her hands.
“Umm…Excuse me, Miss?”
She started and jerked her head up. An inquisitive face met her tear-stained one. He was a human boy who looked no older than she. He had long black hair that nearly hid his light brown eyes.
“Are you hurt, Miss?” he inquired.
She shook her head, not wanting to speak to the stranger. He smiled kindly at her.
“You know, it isn’t very safe in these woods after the sun sets, my good lady. There are demons out here that would be overjoyed if they found a tasty looking woman just sitting around waiting to be eaten.”
At the mention of the word “demon” tears welled up in her eyes again so that when he had finished speaking, a whole new wave of hysterics spilled from her body.
Unsure of what to do, the boy placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
“Oh! Er, I-I’m terribly sorry, Miss! I didn’t mean to frighten you. Truly, I-I-…I didn’t mean to upset you…more than you already are, Miss!” he tripped over his words and tried to get her to look at him again.
“P-please…” she started,
“*sniff* j-just…leave m-me alone!” she cried.
The boy smiled softly and tilted her head back up in his hand,
“No. I’m sorry, but I can’t leave you here by yourself… I won’t.” His eyes were full of pity and he smiled sadly at her.
She set her features stubbornly, wiped her eyes angrily, and glared at him as lord Sesshomaru would.
“I don’t need your help!“ she said through her clenched teeth,
“I am doing just perfectly fine by myself!” Her stomach growled louder than ever and made known her desperate situation.
The boy smiled yet again,
“So I hear. Hmm…I’ll make a deal with you, Miss--”
“My name is Rin! Stop calling me ‘Miss.’” she snapped. She did not like the manners of this boy.
“Miss Rin,” he compromised, “allow me to feed you tonight…and keep you until morning at my house out of harm‘s way. In the morning, if you still wish to leave, I shall not make any attempt to stop you. Do we have a deal, Miss Rin?”
She pondered his offer. A hot meal and a warm bed sounded wonderful to her.
“I won’t accept help from a random stranger,” she began.
He looked at her with a mixture of hurt and confusion.
“Tell me your name.”
Another kind smile lit up his handsome features.
“My name is Akatori. It means ‘red bird’. So then, do we have a deal now?”
She lowered her head, deliberately not meeting his eyes,
“…Deal.” she muttered.
She felt as if she had just been conned by this boy, but she allowed him to help her up. He led her away from the woods onto a path. She walked a few paces behind him, just in case that he was not to be trusted, she would have an opportunity to get away to safety. They walked in silence, so she took this time to study him.
He was taller than she was…considerably taller. Maybe a half of a meter. His dark hair was pulled tightly behind him, and flowed down to the middle of his back. He was carrying a strange assortment of baskets with him between his broad shoulders. All of them appeared to be empty. He must be an artisan of some kind, she thought to herself. His face was sharp and angular like a fox. His eyes were framed by almost girlishly long lashes and had a mischievous spark to them…like someone who kept a great secret. His bangs were long enough that they tangled in his lashes whenever the wind blew. He was wearing a dark blue haori and black loose-fitting hakama. On his feet were a pair of zori wooden sandals. In all, his appearance was like that of a shadow. Like something that wasn’t really there, but a mirage of a sort. A very handsome mirage at that. She wished silently that he wasn’t so good-looking. It was hard to be cross with someone who had charm like his. Just like lord Sesshomaru… He reminds me of lord Sesshomaru! Suddenly she felt sad and lonely again. The all too familiar pain in her chest returned again. I will forget him, she said to herself silently, I must forget him. I’m sure he has already forgotten me…
************************************************************************
So,…She has truly left me, the demon lord was standing beside the smoldering ashes of what was once a small campfire. Ah-Un and Jaken were still asleep…completely oblivious to the absence of their little, dark-haired companion. Sesshomaru tried to find her scent…then stopped himself suddenly. No, it was her choice to leave. He would not look for her this time.
“Jaken, wake yourself. We are leaving now.”
The sleepy imp jumped up almost immediately at the sound of his master’s voice. Then, looking around momentarily, he noticed that Rin was not with them.
“M’lord! Where is Rin?! The little thing must’ve wandered off again, Sire! Certainly the brazen girl must be somewhere…picking flowers no less! Allow me to go and fetch her-”
“No.” Sesshomaru turned his back to his squawking servant.
“N-no,…M’lord?” confusion filled his voice. Since when did his master not care about the well-being of his girl-child?
“No,” Sesshomaru continued, “she has left of her own free will. We will not tarry here waiting for her return. Get Ah-Un and let us be off immediately.”
Jaken hopped over to the dragon’s side and tied on its harness and reigns. Tears blurred his eyes. Little Rin left? Why? She was always so happy and content here with her lord, was she not? He wiped off his face with his oversized sleeve and tugged the dragon along behind him. It certainly will be a sad and quiet day, he thought to himself.
Ah-Un swung its heads around, he was searching for his human child, too. After a moment, the dragon seemed to understand finally that, for some reason, the child was gone. Ah sighed heavily and Un grunted sadly. Sesshomaru tried to block out all of this, but his senses left nothing unnoticed. He smelled sadness and despair looming silently behind him. He also heard Jaken’s hiccupping sobs and the dragon’s sighs. They were expressing the emotions that he could not show: sorrow, and despair.
I will not forget, he thought to himself. I cannot forget, because she will…and someone must remember what was. I will remember.
************************************************************************
After a few minutes, a flower garden became visible up ahead. Rin let out an almost childish cry of delight when she saw it. This startled Akatori, and he looked over his shoulder at her.
“So the lady can show happiness after all? She does not always have a face that could pickle a plum?” he teased her good-naturedly.
She ignored his comments.
“What pretty flowers! Who takes care of this garden, Akatori?”
“Why, me of course.” he stated proudly.
“This garden has always been tended to and protected by my clan. My ancestors planted the seeds of this garden over three hundred years ago. When my father died, this place was passed down to me since…I had no older siblings…no sibling at all actually. I am the only living member of my clan now.” He added the last phrase with a tinge of sadness.
The smell of the flowers’ perfume was overwhelming. Vibrant yellow narcissus and violet hydrangeas lined the pathway through the garden. There were vines of ivy and roses covering a stone wall that sheltered and surrounded the magical place. That’s how Rin saw it: this place was magical. Only mystical powers could cause such loveliness to grow here. Tall wisteria and cherry blossom trees blocked out most of the sun, and their lowest branches reached out inquisitively to anyone passing through. Rin couldn’t help herself. She plucked a stem of the pink cherry blossoms that was nearest to her. A gentle breeze caught the petals and sent them rushing around the girl in a sweet smelling whirlwind. She laughed gaily and spun in a circle just as she did when she was a little girl.
Akatori watched her happily. Yes, my pretty one, dance for me, dear child. Then aloud, he asked her,
“So, do you like my garden, Miss Rin?”
“It’s wonderful!” she laughed, still in a childlike mindset. Then, remembering herself, she stopped dancing and straightened her kimono, embarrassed. She could feel her entire face blushing.
“…I mean,…it’s very nice.” se choked out without looking at him. She couldn’t bring herself to face his smug expression that she knew he was wearing. She heard him chuckle softly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him remove a shallow basket from the load on his back. He handed it to her.
“There are a few fruit bearing trees just over this hill, Miss Rin. If you would like anything from them, anything at all, please, be my guest and help yourself.”
There were indeed fruit trees ahead. Twenty at least! And the boughs of each tree were heavy laden with ripe fruits. Apples, peaches, persimmons, nectarines, cherries, and several more that she had never even seen before, much less tasted. The smell of the orchard was impossibly sweeter than that of the flowers from earlier. Rin’s eyes widened considerably as they passed each tree. Her guide made a point to explain about each tree as they went by.
“The cherries from this tree grow so red, that their juices stain your fingertips as you pluck them. I’ve ruined many a kimono with their “sweet blood,” as my father called it, when it comes time to harvest them. Ah! And the peaches here, why, they are so soft, that if I do not get them off of the branch by mid-summer, the stems will release them, and they all come tumbling down to the ground! That is why the grasses beneath are so green and lush. They drink in the nectar of the fallen peaches and continue to grow until the coldest part of winter. I use this trick on my flowers too so that they can grow until winter as well!
“And here, now, Miss Rin, look closely here at these…” He paused before a great, tall tree and waited for his little sight-seer to catch up. Her arms were struggling to grip the growing bulk of her basket. She had taken three of every kind of fruit she had passed.
“This is called a yuwaku tree. It is the only one in all the western lands. It actually died out over a thousand years ago, but my great grandfather’s great grandfather found a man with a seed of the yuwaku. He sacrificed every last bit of gold and silver he had, and in return, he received the seed of this tree you see now.”
Rin was halfway through a peach, eating as she listened to the story.
“Why would he pay so much for just one seed? Is there something unique about this tree?” she asked, wiping her chin with the hem of her sleeve.
He turned to her with more spark in his eyes than ever. He touched the black bark of the trunk with both of his hands, and peered out from behind it.
“Yes. This tree is magical.”
Rin snorted and then giggled a moment…then saw how serious he had suddenly become. She put down her basket and stood opposite from him so that the tree was between them.
“Oh. You are serious? How is it magical?” she implored with a hint of amusement and a half smile.
His face disappeared behind the trunk and appeared on the other side.
“This tree’s fruit makes people fall in love. Thousands of years ago, if a man and a woman were arranged by their parents to marry, and they did not love one another, the parents of the couple would give them the yuwaku fruit to give to one another. That is how it works. The one who eats the fruit will inevitably fall madly in love with the one who gave it to them.”
“Really?” Rin asked with feigned belief.
“What would happen if someone ate it off of the tree without someone else giving it to them?”
Akatori smiled again and leaned in closer to her until their faces were only a breath apart.
“They wouldn’t be completely affected by the tree’s spell…they would dream of the one that their heart desires…but what fun is there in that? Simply dreaming of the one you love when you could have them in your arms?”
“None.” she sighed.
“None,” he agreed.
And with that, she reached up and plucked a yuwaku fruit from the tree. It was a strangely shaped thing…like an inverted pear. It was as red as blood, and towards the very bottom of the fruit, there was an almost spider-shaped leaf with small yellow berries at the tips of each “leg”.
Akatori had become engrossed in a small green caterpillar that had begun inching it’s way up the tree.
“Nasty little pests! They’ll ruin all the fruit if given half a chance.” he frowned and furrowed his brow in annoyance.
“I’ll have to put out pears around the trunk.” he concluded.
“Pears? Why?” Rin asked, no longer hypnotized by the love fruit.
“The worms will eat the pears and get too full to go after the yuwaku fruit.” he explained.
She thought this over.
“What if they do not get full from the pears? Or if they crawl right past them?”
“They will eat their fill of the pears, and they will not crawl past them. No worm can resist my pears!” he said with a confident laugh and a bright smile.
“No human either, come to think of it. Come! Let me show you.”
She picked up her basket, placing the yuwaku at the top of the other fruits, and followed him. The caterpillar, meanwhile, had reached a ripe yuwaku. He bit into it with silent glee, not caring that this fruit was covered in marks from other worms that had eaten their fill before him. There was so much fruit! Why, a little worm such as he could easily live off of this yuwaku until it was time to sleep and change to its next form! Quite suddenly, it fell from the tree branch to the ground below, landing on a small collection of similar worms. These were the ones that had eaten before him. All sleeping now… All dead.