"It smells like blood," I announced, licking my lips. The air was saturated with it—someone had to have been killed nearby. I'd been coming across death quite a lot in the past few years due to the war, but it was rare here, on this island with only the lady beside me as company. Death could be good. If the recently-deceased was healthy, they might have a delicious liver that they wouldn't mind me taking.

"I think I just saw another water ghost," my companion whimpered, completely ignoring my statement. She and I had been walking along this path all evening to get to the next town, and I had been hearing her complaints the entire way.

I bit back a sigh at my irritation. "It's an island, surrounded by the ocean. Of course there are going to be water ghosts," I snapped. "We've been here for two weeks already—I would have thought you'd be used to it by now."

The woman pouted. "But—"

"You're starting to get on my nerves, Ra Wolsoo," I warned. "And I assure you, that is the last thing you want to do."

"Everything gets on your nerves," Wolsoo grumbled.

"Not true," I shot back before I could help it. Then I scowled as I realized what I was doing. Bickering with a human? It was beneath me.

But the argument was started, now. "Oh, really? Name one thing that doesn't annoy you," she challenged.

"Humans who don't drink, travelers who stay off my mountain, and shamans who don't argue," I snapped. "That's three."

"Hey! This shaman is trying to help you."

"Oh, don't pretend like you wouldn't make a break for it as soon as my back is turned," I said. "I'm making you help me. There's a difference."

Wolsoo scowled, but didn't dispute the claim. "And why humans who don't drink?"

"Keeps their livers fresh," I explained, flipping my dark hair over my shoulder. Unlike the shaman's frizzy updo, my hair flowed loosely to almost my waist, without any unnecessary ornaments or braids. "They smell tastier, too."

"Remind me to buy a bottle of soju at the next town," Wolsoo muttered after a grimace.

"Don't worry, I won't."

"I'll remember anyway." Her glare was frightening by human standards, but I had seen far worse.

"If you do, you won't drink it, because you still have to stop the Japanese from crawling all over my mountain," I countered. It was the reason I had left my beloved home in the first place—with the war, nothing was safe anymore. Luckily, I had a long line of shamans at my disposal, who for some reason were averse to leaving their family shack on my mountain to go live with the rest of civilization. Each generation had tried to get rid of me. But until they succeeded, I had decided I would use their skills for my own purposes, like bringing peace and quiet back to my home.

"I know, I know, we have to find the reincarnated spirit of the great King Munmu and summon him to uphold his dying vow and protect our country. I'm working on it." Wolsoo's grumbling was enough to rival the storm clouds above.

"For all the stories about him, I'd have thought you'd have no trouble finding him by now," I told her.

"He's been a dragon since the Three Kingdoms period," Wolsoo defended. "Do you realize how long ago that is? He could have forgotten everything about being human, and his promise."

"You're the one who suggested we find him," I said. "I don't know anything about dragons."

"I'm just following what was in my great-grandfather's scroll," she said, continuing with her excuses. "I don't know anything about it personally.  Besides, that one rock guardian I talked to said the summoning flute became a goblin a long time ago. Since we lost that lead, I'm just guessing that he traveled south to this island before winter comes."

I sighed. "Of course, I would end up with the shaman with no skills."

"Hey! Sea dragons migrate, so it makes sense." Wolsoo crossed her arms, offended by my insult. "I'm starting to see why my family's been trying to get rid of you."

"I wouldn't say that to someone who can rip your heart out," I said with a growl. "Especially when you can't even make a spirit trap properly. What kind of shaman can't even do that?"

"I was trying!"

"Serves you right, then, for trying to catch me," I growled. "What would you have done if I hadn't come along? You'd have probably just hung there, upside down, until some wild beast found you."

Wolsoo shot me a look. "A wild beast did find me."

"You really want to die, don't you?"

The shaman was spared from replying—a retort that might very well have been her last—when we rounded the bend up ahead and the lights of the town came into view.

"Finally," Wolsoo sighed, quickly forgetting our argument. "Come on, let's go find a place to stay."

I however, do not have the attention span of a gnat, and was therefore still glowering at her.

She glanced at me when I didn't reply. "What?"

"Did you suddenly forget why we came here?" I said. My voice was calm, but there was a bite to my words that made the shaman flinch back. "Our first priority is to find a way to win this war. Then we'll rest." It was the term I had made the shaman agree to back on my mountain, in exchange for me freeing her from her bungled attempt to capture me.

Wolsoo sighed again. "Fine, I'll do one more spell. But let's hurry."

We headed down the hill, through the town to the ocean on the other side. There were a few small docks in the harbor with mostly fishing boats and a few ferries from the mainland. We came to a stop between a decrepit shack used to store boating equipment and a weathered wooden dock that creaked and groaned as the last of the storm kicked up some final turbulent waves.

"All right," I said, nodding my head in the direction of the water. "Do your little location trick." Not that it's worked anywhere else. I was starting to think I'd have better luck fighting off the Japanese bare-handed. Maybe I could enlist the help of some water ghosts.

Wolsoo cleared her throat and with some trepidation stepped out onto the dock, glancing down at the dark water that gurgled and sprayed as it hit the wood. She continued out until she was almost at the end, and came to a stop in the shadow of a large ship moored to the right.

"Well?" I prompted.

"I just need a minute." She took a deep breath, and then held out her hands and began muttering under her breath. Since her back was to me, I could only assume that she had also closed her eyes, just as she had done for her chants at the previous towns we had visited.

The night was black and still in front of us, with clouds obscuring the stars above. While I waited, I searched for the moon and thought I saw a faint crescent outline behind a thin patch of clouds, but it was quickly hidden again.

Behind us, the village was mostly quiet. Just to be sure, I let my ears take on their more vulpine features—and caught the sound of feet running in our direction. Several pairs of feet, actually.

"People are coming," I hissed at Wolsoo. "Hurry up!"

She didn't answer, but lowered her head in concentration as her mutterings increased. The footsteps weren't going away.

"He's here," Wolsoo finally gasped, turning to face me with wide eyes. "For just a moment—I felt his presence."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Last time, His Highness turned out to be a seal."

"I know I'm right, this time," she said, too excited to be angry at me. "It's the king. I know it is."

"How do we summon him, then?" I asked. "How do we convince him to help us? Does he remember his promise?"

She shook her head. "He's a little too far out for me to contact him properly. All I got was a faint reading. But there's a cove just down the road, based on that map the bookkeeper showed us yesterday. I'm sure I could get a better connection there." She patted the bag at her hip. "And I'll light some incense, just to be sure."

"A cove—" I broke off. "We're out of time. We need to hide, now." The approaching footsteps were almost upon us. We'd have to finish the conversation after the group of people passed. It would be difficult to explain why the two of us were standing out here in the middle of the night, right after a storm. The townspeople would think we were up to no good and kick us out immediately.

For once, Wolsoo didn't try to argue with me, and instead scrambled up the gangplank of the large ship beside the dock and crouched down somewhere behind the railing and crates on deck.

I cast a quick glance over my shoulder to assess my options. A small group had appeared at the far end of the street, sticking to the shadows of buildings as they hurried through the gloom. There was no time to go back and hide.

The door of the boating shack was swollen with moisture, but I managed to wedge it open far enough to slip into the darkness inside. My fox instincts took over and I used my nocturnal vision to see through the gloom, only to find that the place was so crammed with supplies that I could barely move away from the entrance to a more hidden spot at the back. I compromised by shrinking down to my full fox form—if anyone looked inside, they would just see a wild animal taking refuge after the storm.

The clomping of boots on wood drew my attention back outside, and shadows flickered past the gap in the shack door. I snuck a glance and saw four cloaked figures head down the dock that Wolsoo had been on just moments earlier...and then board the exact ship that she had chosen as a hiding spot.

I scrunched my nose in displeasure—and at the musty smell of the shack. Of course the shaman couldn't have even picked a safe hiding spot. But I suppose it wasn't entirely her fault, this time. What were these people doing down here at this time of night? And why were they hurrying like that?

One of the men wore the traditional black gat of a Korean nobleman, and was escorted on the ship with a bit of a fuss. Then the others boarded one-by-one, until only one person remained standing on the dock. That last figure was a head shorter than the others and much leaner, with a cloak as glossy as a crow's feather. For just a second, he turned back to look my direction, and I shrunk back farther into the gloom of the shack. He might have been human, but I still didn't want to risk him seeing my eyes glowing in the dark.

One of the men spoke—was that Japanese? It was a shock to hear it, but after all the soldiers that had gone traipsing past my cave on my mountain, it was unmistakable. What were the Japanese doing here, and how had they arrived undetected?

I looked through the crack in the door again, but the last man had boarded, and now two sailors had emerged from inside the ship and were loosening the mooring and pushing off to sea. I hissed a frustrated breath through my teeth.

Well, I had been right about one thing. That useless shaman had taken the first opportunity to escape from me.

Only, she might end up paying for it with her life.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Hi it's me again!  Sorry for the lack of posting last week.  Please let me know your thoughts, and don't forget to vote!  What do you think Moon Sun is going to do?