The wind of Wanabumi did not feel like the wind of the palace.
It carried no scent of garden flowers, no drifting smoke from temple incense. Instead, it brought the smell of wet soil, rotting leaves, and something older than the forest itself—something that made the skin prickle before danger had even revealed its face.
Sarwendra stood alone at the edge of the forest.
Behind her, the stone gate marking the border of Darmawyata had already closed with a heavy thud that sounded uncomfortably like the lid of a tomb. The soldiers who escorted her here said nothing as they left. None of them turned back when the sound of their horses faded along the stone road.
A princess of the kingdom should not be abandoned like this.
But tonight, Sarwendra was no longer a princess.
She was simply a nineteen-year-old woman left behind in a place that appeared on royal maps under a single, blunt name:
The Death Zone.
A gust of wind swept her long black hair across her face. The royal dress she once wore with quiet dignity was now torn in several places, its fabric heavy with mud from the long journey she had not been allowed to rest from.
She looked at the forest ahead.
Dark.
Too dark, even for a moonless night.
Ancient trees stood tightly packed together like silent sentinels. Their roots clawed out of the earth like bones trying to escape a grave, and thin mist drifted low between the trunks.
Sarwendra exhaled slowly.
"So this is the place."
No one answered.
Of course no one did.
Wanabumi was infamous throughout the kingdom as a land where monsters roamed freely. Even the bravest royal hunters rarely dared venture too deep into its interior. Every story told in the palace ended the same way—those who entered never returned.
Sarwendra stepped down the slope toward the tree line.
Her steps were slow but steady.
There was no reason to run. If monsters truly lived in that forest, running would only make her look like prey.
The soil beneath her boots was damp and slippery. Several times she had to steady herself against tree trunks as the slope grew steeper. The forest felt quiet in a way that was unnatural—not the peaceful quiet of night, but the tense silence of something waiting.
The wind stopped.
The leaves stopped moving.
Even the insects fell silent.
Sarwendra halted.
Instinct.
Something deep inside her whispered that this silence was not accidental.
She slowly lifted her head.
Within the thin mist hanging beneath the trees, something moved.
At first, it was only a shifting shadow.
Mist swirling a little too slowly.
Then two lights appeared within it.
Green.
Faintly glowing, like embers breathing in the dark.
Sarwendra did not move.
Even as the shape within the mist began to form.
A long body.
Dark scales gleaming faintly with moisture beneath the dim night air.
A serpent.
No—far more than a serpent.
The creature was enormous. Its body coiled between the trees in a way that made the ancient trunks appear small beside it.
Its head slowly rose out of the fog.
Those glowing green eyes fixed directly on her.
The air felt colder.
Sarwendra could hear her own breathing now, quiet but uneven.
A monster.
She knew about them from stories, from hunters' reports, from old records in the royal archives. But none of those stories truly captured what it felt like to stand only a few steps away from one.
The creature moved.
Slowly.
Its immense body slid across the ground with the dry, heavy scrape of scales against soil.
The mist seemed to follow it, as if the creature itself was the source of the fog.
Sarwendra stepped back.
Then another step.
Her heel struck one of the thick roots rising from the earth. Her balance broke, and she fell hard onto the damp ground, the air leaving her lungs as her back hit the soil.
The monster drew closer.
Its head lowered gradually until those glowing green eyes hovered only a few meters from her face.
She could see the details of its scales now—dark like wet stone, faint patterns reflecting the dim green glow of its own eyes.
Its mouth opened slightly.
Long fangs glinted within the shadows of its jaws.
Something warm trickled across Sarwendra's palm.
She looked down.
When she fell, her hand had scraped against a sharp stone hidden in the soil. A thin line of blood now ran across her skin.
A drop fell.
Not onto the ground.
But onto the jade pendant hanging at her chest.
The pendant had always been cold.
Since childhood, she remembered it that way—a piece of green jade given to her by her mother, Ratnaelara, many years ago. She had never understood why her mother insisted she must always wear it.
But the moment her blood touched the stone—
The pendant changed.
A soft green glow ignited from within the jade, faint at first, then steadily brightening.
Sarwendra froze.
The light pulsed gently, reflecting green across her face and into the surrounding mist.
The monster stopped moving.
Its glowing eyes narrowed slightly, like someone who had suddenly recognized something unexpected.
The jade's light intensified.
Sarwendra felt an unfamiliar heat spreading from the pendant across her chest and into her throat, like something buried within her blood was waking for the first time.
The monster lowered its head slightly.
A small motion.
But enough to steal the breath from Sarwendra's lungs.
The creature… had stopped attacking.
Its glowing eyes shifted toward the pendant, then back to Sarwendra's face.
For a moment, the world fell completely silent.
Then something happened.
A voice appeared inside her mind.
Not something she heard with her ears.
More like an echo forming directly within her thoughts.
The voice was heavy.
Ancient.
Like something that had waited too long to speak.
"Ratnaelara."
Sarwendra's entire body stiffened.
That was her mother's name.
The monster moved closer.
The mist swirled around its massive form.
Those green eyes studied her differently now.
Not like a predator studying prey.
But like someone who had finally found something long lost.
The voice spoke again inside her mind.
"At last."
Sarwendra swallowed.
"What…"
Her voice barely emerged.
"What are you…?"
The mist thickened around the creature.
Its head lowered slightly further.
"Four hundred years."
The voice rumbled like shifting stone.
"I have waited."
Sarwendra's heart pounded violently in her chest.
The jade pendant shone brighter.
The monster stared at her without blinking.
Then the voice spoke the words that made the world feel as though it had stopped turning.
"At last, someone with that blood has returned."
The mist of Wanabumi curled slowly through the ancient forest.
Sarwendra still sat on the damp earth, her breathing unsteady, the jade pendant casting its green light across the silent trees.
And before her—
the ancient monster that should have killed her
lowered its head.
Like a guardian finally greeting its queen.