The cicadas filled the air as I walked away from the ocean. It was early enough that I could head into town without everything being closed down. I’d have to take the shortcut I’d learned of the other day.

At first I had thought it was an abandoned road— that was only half right as I passed a graveyard, temple, and two lived in houses. Otherwise, the land was quiet on the human front.

The forest along the path to town is too thick with bamboo for someone to walk in. But that didn’t stop the man that stride onto the path before me.

I stopped. The man kept his head down. His gloved right hand on the sword that ran across his body.

“What are you doing walking through my forest?” The man asked.

“I’m trying to get to town,” I said trying not to cry.

“There is no town. There’s only forest out here. So, I’ll ask again. Why are you in my forest?”

My head spun as I wanted to tell the man that we were three hundred yards away from the beginning of town. That the port stretched from here all the way to Mine.

But my lips wouldn’t move. Neither would my legs.

A ring of metal sounded as he withdrew a long blade and leveled it at me.

“You’re not supposed to be on this land.”

“Are you a sleeping or resting god?” the words sprang from my mouth without thought.

“I had slept for centuries— but this,” he spread his hands towards the decaying road. “Is not right. Things are not in harmony as they should be. I will change that.”