Episode 1: Lost Child in the Birch Forest

Episode 1: Lost child in the birch forest Suddenly, suddenly. The cold silence was broken by the sound of small, trembling leather shoes stepping on dry oak leaves and crumbled spruce pine cones. At the time when the red sunset of late autumn began to sink, coloring as thick as blood over the western ridge, the ancient primeval forest 'Lunawood' spread out endlessly in the alpine area 1,200 meters above sea level. There, tens of thousands of huge birch trees with smooth, pale bark, as if coated with silver-white chalk powder, were lined up densely and endlessly, like the white skeletons of hermits who had turned their backs on the world.

Every time the cool north wind passed by the tips of the branches, the dry golden leaves rustled eerily like the whispers of ghosts in the cold wind. “Grandma…! Grandma, where are you…? I’m here… please answer me…!” The thin, crying voice of an eight-year-old girl, ‘Yuna’, spread thinly into the foggy forest. However, all that came back was the cold echo of myself hitting a bare birch tree trunk and bending it grotesquely. Yuna trembled and clutched the sleeves of her old red fur sweater with both hands.

The hem of his old brown overalls that reached down to his knees were soaked in mud and damp moss and frozen stiff, and the bone-chilling cold of the mountain valley was ruthlessly penetrating through the cracks of his small, thin leather shoes. In the small willow basket held in one hand, only a few roots of the mountain bellflower and five or six red rowan berries, which I had lovingly peeled with my grandmother this morning, were lying around in a shabby manner. Until morning, the world was infinitely peaceful and warm. The hands of her grandmother, who carefully raised Yuna in a mountain cabin on behalf of her parents who had gone to the city to make money, were always as warm as freshly baked sweet potatoes.

‘Yuna, let’s eat. This morning, it's your favorite pumpkin miso soup and buckwheat pancakes with soy sauce.' 'Wow! Grandma, it smells so delicious! The buckwheat pancakes are crispy on the outside and so delicious!' ‘Chew it slowly and thoroughly. When you go to the mountain today to dig up herbs, please make sure to take me with you. I'll carry the bellflower basket for you!'

‘Hoho, my good granddaughter is already big enough to carry the basket. However, the days are extremely short in the mountains in autumn, so if you look away just a little, darkness quickly overtakes you.' ‘I promise, Grandma! I will never lose sight of you and just follow behind you!'

'Yes, yes. He's nice. However, you must not enter deep into the tall birch forest. 'It is a sanctuary of moonlight where no human being can reach.' Yuna stopped using her chopsticks and her curious eyes sparkled. ‘Grandma, why? Those white trees are dazzlingly pretty, so why can’t I go in? Are there goblins coming out?'

'A goblin is a goblin, but deep in that forest lives the white wolf, the guardian deity of moonlight, a huge silver wolf that has protected the forest for thousands of years.' ‘A wolf… … ? 'Isn't the wolf in children's books a scary monster that eats sheep and devours grandmothers?' The grandmother smiled kindly as she gently stroked Yuna's head.

‘No, Yuna. It is a fearful beast that delivers bloody judgment to hunters with bad intentions and guns or iron traps, but it is a holy mountain spirit that gives a warmer embrace to pure and good children than any mother in the world. Long ago, when your great-grandfather was shipwrecked in a deep snowstorm, the white wolf saved his life by lighting his path.'

'Really? 'Did Baekrang save my great-grandfather?' 'That's right. However, the divine silver wolf absolutely hates the noisy energy of humans. And deep in the forest, there are also dark shadow goblins that hate sunlight. If you get lost, you may never come back, so always hold on to the hem of your skirt, okay?'

‘Yes, grandma! I will never let go of grandma’s hand! Promise, stamp, copy!' Yuna smiled brightly, pressing her thumb against her grandmother's rough, wrinkled thumb as if stamping it. Before leaving the door of the hut, the grandmother put three dried jujubes carefully wrapped in white Korean paper and two spicy and sweet ginger candies in Yuna's pocket.

‘If you get thirsty or lose energy while climbing a mountain, gnaw on this. 'It makes my body warm.' ‘Thank you, Grandma! I want to share it with my grandmother at the top of the mountain later!' Although I had promised so bravely, I lost my step for a moment while chasing the brilliant purple Sangujeolcho flowers blooming in the crevices of the rocks late in the afternoon and the large mountain butterfly flapping its silver wings, which was an irreversible disaster.

“Butterfly, where are you going? Your wings shine like mirrors… Let’s play together!” Yuna easily jumped over the slope chasing the butterfly. The butterfly fluttered into the birch forest as if it were bewitching a child. And while I was looking away for a moment, a thick, milky mountain fog rolled in from the bottom of the valley, as scary as the sea. Cold steam blocked my vision, and in the blink of an eye, my grandmother's voice and the familiar dirt road were all erased without a trace in the white fog.

“Grandma...! Grandmother! Where are you?” At first, I thought I would find it quickly. When I scream, my grandmother says, “Yuna!” I thought you would come running. But no matter how much I shouted, all I could hear was the sound of the cold wind. “Ugh… Grandma… I’m scared…!” Yuna tried to go down to the southern village, looking in the direction of the green moss on the tree bark.

‘You said that moss grows towards the north. So, just walk to the other side of the moss... … !' However, no matter how many times I walked, only the same white pillars appeared endlessly. There were small stone towers that someone had built at the base of each tree, but even those stone towers did not tell us where to go. It was a 'goblin maze', as if a giant invisible hand of the forest was playing a trick by spinning the child around in place. The autumn days in the mountains were cruelly short. The red glow of the sunset in the western sky quickly turned gray, and soon a deep, pitch-black darkness, as if ink had been poured in, swallowed up the entire birch forest in one go.

The temperature suddenly plummeted below zero. White frost began to sprout from the tips of the branches like ice blades, and with each breath Yuna exhaled, pure white breath froze and froze into cold icicles on the tips of her cheeks and eyelashes. My toes had already lost feeling, and every time I took a step, it felt like I was stepping on a piece of frozen glass. Rustle- rustle! An owl hooted ominously from among the bare birch branches overhead, accompanied by the sharp sound of flapping wings.

“Woo-hu-u-hu-hu……Cow!” The rough black eye patterns on the birch bark, which had only appeared white and pure during the day, turned into thousands of devil's eyes all at once laughing and glaring at young Yuna.

“Go away… don’t look at me… black… please don’t look at me…” Yuna was scared and took a step back. Crispy - Kwadangtang! At that moment, the slippery rock at the edge of the cliff hidden under the wet leaves collapsed, and Yuna's small body tumbled mercilessly down the slope.

"Kyaaaah—!" Thorns and sharp birch twigs fiercely whipped Yuna's cheeks and forehead. Along with the sound of clothes being torn, dust poured into my mouth. thud-! Yuna let out a harsh scream as she fell into a deep leaf hole at the bottom of the hill. The willow basket hit the rock and shattered, and the rowan berries that had been collected were scattered in the muddy water. My right knee was deeply torn by a sharp ice stone and fresh blood flowed out.

“It hurts… it hurts so much… black… the bleeding won’t stop…” Yuna was curled up like a fetus on the cold dirt floor, shaking her whole body like an aspen. What was more cruel than the burning pain spreading from the wound on his knee was the absolute loneliness and extreme cold fear of being left alone in the world. The fingertips were already hardening like pieces of wood, and the mountain breeze blowing through the thin fur sweater turned into an ice pick, stabbing the child's soft ribs without mercy. Yuna fumbled with her pants pockets with trembling hands. In my pocket, I felt a bundle of white Korean paper that my grandmother had wrapped me.

When I opened the Korean paper with trembling hands, a piece of bittersweet ginger candy appeared. Yuna pushed the candy between her tear-soaked lips. As the sweet and spicy scent of ginger spread in my mouth, I remembered my grandmother's warm hand stroking my head in the morning, and tears welled up.

“Mom… Dad… Grandma… Am I freezing to death here…? I want to go home… I want to get into a warm blanket… Ugh….” It was about the time when Yuna's pleading sobs faded into the darkness of the forest. Riding on the chilly night wind, a strange and sticky sound of laughter began to creep from beyond the deep darkness of the forest. Kihihihi… … Hehehe… … ! It was not the sound of the wind or the howl of a mountain animal. It was the prelude to a horrifying destruction in which night monsters and evil shadow goblins, who devour human souls, crawl out from the darkness upon smelling the scent of a child's blood and fear.

“Baby, you must never set foot in the deep forest of Lunawood alone.” My grandmother always roasted corn by the fireside and prayed for God in a low voice. The warmth from when I stroked Yuna's cheek with my wrinkled hand still seemed to linger in my ears.

“The forest is an ancient territory that no human should ever touch. During the day, the white birch trees are as quiet as a silver cradle, but when the sun sets and the moonlight rises, the ancient shadows that had been sleeping open their eyes. The owner of the forest, the silver wolf White Wolf, rules over them, but a weak human child who has lost his way is likely to become food for that darkness.” At that time, I thought it was just a scary ghost story from an old fairy tale. This morning, when Yuna climbed to the foot of the mountain to dig up herbs and mushrooms to survive the winter, she never dreamed that she would set foot so deep in the forbidden forest.

'I wanted to add money to my grandmother's medicine costs... … While chasing rare snow mushrooms... … .' In the basket, only a few roots of the bluish herb Yuna had crawled through the rocks all day were lying around. A sad growling sound came from my stomach, and my entire body's strength was drained from cold and hunger. Deep blue darkness spread like ink everywhere, swallowing up thousands of birch trees. Every time the wind blew, the tree branches clawed at the air and let out bizarre screams. It seemed as if hundreds of ghosts were reaching out and trying to grab Yuna's small shoulders.

“Where should I go…? Which way is home…?” Yuna put her frozen hands to her mouth and blew loudly, but even the small breath only broke into thin air and disappeared in the cold night air. The feeling in the tips of my toes had long since disappeared. Thump, thump, thump. In the darkness far behind me, I heard the sound of something heavy and ominous stepping on fallen leaves. It was not a human step. It was the sign of a wild beast that made the cold ground tremble slightly with each step, or something much more hideous and evil than that.

Yuna was startled and looked back, but there was only cold fog swirling in the thick darkness.