This story is part of the Wanderer series.
“It didn’t work…”
Teetering to the side to look over her friend’s shoulder, Nozomi blinked with genuine curiosity. “It didn’t?”
Rin tried again, waving the ancient stone around in circles in front of the gateway.
“Why didn’t it work?” Nozomi wondered, looking up along the wall at the stone carvings.
Knitting her brows, Rin withdrew her hand and examined the gemstone embedded in the stone.
“Maybe… try rubbing it around in there,” Nozomi suggested, pointing at the indention in the wall.
“That shouldn’t make a difference…” She thumbed the smooth surface of the gem as she mused. Then, a realization lit up on her face. “I actually don’t feel any energy resonating from this gem. Do you?”
Moving forward, Nozomi gently tapped the gem a few times. “Is it supposed to?”
“Don’t tap it, hold down your hand.”
Nozomi obeyed just for a moment. “But, I should be able to feel it either way.”
That was true. She was very sensitive to energy signatures. This sparked a sneaking suspicion in Rin.
“Let’s go back.”
“Huh?”
Turning tail, Rin briskly set off. “Let’s go back to the village.”
“Wha— Why?”
“Something’s not right.”
The two girls retraced their steps through the thick shrubbery, back to the waterfall. Nozomi glanced back, the sight of the wall already lost behind its foliage cover.
“Are you sure?” she wondered.
“If we can’t feel any energy touching it, then it’s not going to penetrate that wall and unlock it.”
“What if it doesn’t shoot its energy until it touches the wall?”
Considering this, Rin wavered for a moment, her steps shortening. But she quickly recovered. “No… I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Backing off, Nozomi shrugged, but followed along behind her friend. Pushing their way through the dense undergrove, they navigated in silence. Rin was still lost in thought, her fingers still rubbing the smooth gemstone, feeling the absence of any lifesource, as if it were dead.
As they approached the gorge, Rin noticed something and stopped. She held out an arm, whispering a warning.
“Wait.”
Nozomi stopped, curiously eying her friend without a word. Then, her expression changed as she realized there was a strong presence nearby. Gazing outwards, towards the waterfall, she could see in the distance, on the bridge, the silhouette of a cloaked figure. There was someone here.
“Ah…” she simply uttered, without a further word.
“It’s…” Rin started, her voice low, the hairs on her body raising. “It’s him…!”
They saw the man they met at the village out in the middle of the long bridge that ran alongside the waterfall. He was slowly making his way across.
“But… how does he know where this is?”
In that instant, Nozomi remembered when she first met him, out along a bridge, also along a waterfall. She could not remember if it was along this particular waterfall; there were so many in the area.
“Did he follow us?” Rin continued.
“Indeed.”
They both jumped as they heard the man’s voice loud and clear, as if he were right in front of them. Somehow, the man heard them. Rin took a quick glance backwards to check if anyone else was there. However, they were alone, and it was clear the man had noticed them.
Turning his head away from the waterfall, he looked out towards the abyss, towards the cliff face where they were hidden in the shrubs. An arm reached out of his cloak and opened its palm, hovering in the air, menacingly.
“How…”
Rin’s words only just left her mouth as the ground began to rumble.