[達人專欄] Red Thief【英翻中再創作】

　　There was one time that my mother told me she wanted to be a butterfly. I could not remember when it was, maybe it was when I was helping her in the kitchen, maybe it was when we were walking to the village outside of our forest, or maybe when we were gazing at the beauty of the lake together. When I said I could not imagine her as a butterfly, she gave a wild laugh in her favorite crimson dress. That was she, a tall and strong woman, who inherited the blood of dragons. I never saw her as a dragon, but if she said so, I would trust her anyway. The villagers, however, did not call her a butterfly or a dragon– they called her the “Red Witch.”

　　 “So, you must be the daughter of the Red Witch.”

　　

　　 A deep voice pulled me from the memory back to reality as I pushed the big and heavy door open. It shocked me; I definitely did not expect it. The owner ofthe voice was right in front of me. Right behind the door. Right inside the room of darkness.

　　Hangman.

　　Or hanged man.

　　That was my impression as the dim light from the gray sky shone into the house, weakly projecting onto the man. If my information was right, he was the only person living in this house, which meant it was him that hanged himself. It should be right to call him a hangman, since he was not only the one hanging person, but also the one being hanged.

　　However, it was not all that shocked me. Different from a normal hanged man, both of his ankles were hanged by a rope instead of his head. Adding to that, he was wearing a suit, which made the whole image looked more bizarre. The inverted strange figure made me think about a resting bat. I felt a strong disgust as soon as I saw the man, although I was not sure if I would feel the same way if seeing a normal hanged man.

　　“Come in, daughter of Red Witch,” the hangman invited me in.

　　I did not want to move, not even a little. It was true that my original purpose was to go into his house; at least I had tried to climb the hill just to get into the house. However, my first instinct told me to run away – my task had failed since the moment he saw me. A cold wind attacked me from behind. My body and legs started to tremble.

            

　　 “Come in, it’s quite windy outside,” he giggled. “Wasn’t it something that brought you here?”

　　I hesitated, not knowing what to do. My mind stopped me from accepting the invitation, but my heart forced me to give it a try. I did not know if I would have theopportunity to do it again. Under such pressure, I looked back to the sky; it was still as cloudy as yesterday, the day before, and a week before. I had not seen real sunshine for a week, but only the fake light that showed vaguely from the clouds. Some crows were wheeling in the gray sky, looking for the next prey. Realizing I had no other choice, I stepped a little forward. One step forward, two steps forward, until I fully walked into the shadow.

　　At the same time, the door immediately banged behind me in a speed that I could not even stop. Along with it, something grabbed my ankles and pulled them high up onto the air. My whole body was hanged like the body of the hangman. Gravity pulled mylong dress down and almost covered my head. I screamed for help, and tried to use one hand to put the dress back into the right place, while my other hand waved helplessly in the air.

　　“What is this?” I cried.

　　“Trap.”

　　“What do you want to do?”

　　“Well, I always like to talk to people face to face. Since I still don’t want to get down, you should be the one that comes up.”

　　He giggled again. I doubted if he could really see my face in such darkness, at least I could not do that. What I could do at the moment was to keep swaying my body and hand, trying to escape from the string trapping me.

　　 “Actually…”he said. “That is the question I want to ask you – what do you want to do?Oops, let me correct myself. It should be…what you wanted to do?”

            

　　His tentative question stopped my waving hand. I knew my face turned pale.

            

　　 “…Let me go,” I begged.

　　“And let you steal something from my house?”

　　He snapped his finger, all of a sudden the candles on the two sides of the wall lit up. Magic, I thought, mother could do the same thing, though I didnot usually see her using it. My stomach began to panic. The light of the candles climbed onto his smiling face and the rest of the room too. It looked like a warehouse,with many ropes growing from the ground, and behind him, a staircase led downward. No, that was not right. The ropes should be drooping from the ceiling and the staircase was supposed to go to the second floor. Everything looked weird in the opposite direction. Now the hangman looked like a vampire, greedily watching me for an answer. I bit my lips. There was a slight smell of blood, possibly from my lips. I released them.

　　“…Why? Why do you know I am coming to steal?”

　　“I have the feeling that the Red Witch will want the ‘Treasure from the Sky,’ and I have heard that she has a daughter. I was just not sure which would come, or if neither of you would come. There were still some chances, don’t you think so?”

　　I followed his eyesight, and then found a piece of a pure white object sitting at the corner of the room. It looked like a huge feather, but for some reason I had a feeling that it was actually a wing. It must be the “Treasure from theSky” that I was looking for. I should have noticed it earlier.

　　“So you have been hanging here and waiting for me?” My head started to feel dizzy. I had to get out from this situation as soon as possible.

           

　　 “That’s right. Plus, hanging myself is my interest.”

　　“How did you know I am the person, the daughter of Red Witch that you are waiting for?”

　　“Ms.Thief, you should at least remember to change your dress before coming here. Your red dress is as bright as the red that your mother loves.”

　　“She made it for me,” pressing the bottom part of the dress to my knee, I said with a higher volume. Mother told me it was my birthday present, although I did not even know when my birthday was at that time. It was my first present. It wasnot that I forgot to change it – I was wearing my favorite dress to wish that my mission would succeed.

　　“I need the ‘Treasure from the Sky,’” I whispered. “She is…”

　　The image of the tall woman in red falling to the ground appeared in my head. The red dress on her was like a deadly flower, withering. I closed my eyes, saying with a quivering voice.

　　“My mother is dying…I need it to help her recover.”

　　Since the day that the sky became gray and cloudy, her body had become worse and worse. She was not the strong woman that I knew anymore, but only a patient.

　　“I see. But why?” The hangman asked.

　　“What why?” I cried to the cruel question, swaying my body more hardly. “She is my mother. I want to save…”

　　“But she is not your real mother right?”

　　He interrupted me successfully. He knew it.

　　

　　 “Is she really worth you to become a thief?”

　　My hand held my red dress tighter. I could never forget the time when we encountered each other. I was in the forest, abandoned, hungry and tired. She was wearing that red and beautiful dress, walking through the forest, and discovered me. I could never forget the warmth of her hands, the taste of the soup she gave to me, the smell of the flowers we later picked together, and the soothing voice that called my name. I could never forget, the feeling of a real home.

　　I nodded. Up to down, or down to up; it did not matter.

　　That was my conclusion.

　　Warm tears flowed out from my eyes, passing my burning forehead and dropped to the ground.

　　“We saw it…the day it fell from the sky to this hill.”

　　That was one day after the sky became strange.

　　I used my numb finger to point at the huge white feather.

　　“She said there is a strong power on it…the most powerful magic on it…that is something from the other world…She pointed the house on the hill at the other side of village, and said it is at your place…and you won’t give it to her…These two days she was feeling very bad…she could hardly stand up…I ran away when shewas sleeping…I thought if I could get the ‘Treasure from the Sky,’ she won’t have to suffer like this. So please…”

　　I continued weeping.

　　“I really want to do something for her…She is a not a bad witch…she is harmless…she is my mother…I know she won’t want me to do something like this, she would never let it happen…but I cannot lose her…even if I have to become a thief. Please…if I can give anything or do anything for you, I will try to satisfy you. The only thing I need is…Ah!”

　　My body suddenly fell onto the ground heavily. The rope on my ankles must have loosened or disappeared. I coughed and tried to stand up, but the parts of my body knocked on the floor were so painful.

　　“The cost of it is way too high. You won’t want to pay for it, even I don’t want to pay for it.” The male voice in front of me said.

　　My ears were buzzing, but I still could hear the sound of some other thing dropping onto the floor. While trying to turn my head to the direction of the hangman, I saw a pair of black leather shoes on the ground, reflecting the light from the candle flames. The hangman had come down. He was walking to me; his weight made deep sounds as he stepped on the wooden floor. While lying powerlessly and listening to his footsteps getting closer, I started to curse myself internally. I regretted not bringing anything to protect myself, or at least learning some magic frommy mother in the past, though she had never mentioned anything about teaching itto me. If I had asked her to teach me, would she teach me? Would I be stronger to at least pay something for her?

　　It was already impossible to escape at this point, even if I was able move, he still could catch me easily using his magic. Nobody could rescue me, not even mymother. I wished I had chosen to stay beside her. I wanted to close my eyes,but I did not even have the energy to do so. The image in front of my eyesbecame vague.

　　The hangman’s feet stopped a foot away from my head.

　　“I changed my mind, daughter of Red Witch,” softly, he said.

　　I could not digest the message coming above me. What did he say? What did I hear?

　　 “…What do you mean?” I asked, trying to gather all my energy to focus myself.

　　“Since you have come and shown your determination, daughter of Red Witch,” it was hard to tell his intention from the expression on his face. “I will let you decide if you want to use it, use the ‘Treasure from the Sky.’ You should be the person to decide whether to pay for the cost or not.”

　　“You are giving it to me?” I could not believe my still-buzzing ears.

　　

　　 His face contained no happiness and anger; there was only heaviness on it. I swallowed. When I was thinking if I should just stand up and pick the “Treasure from theSky” and leave, his voice stopped me.

　　“I don’t know if she has ever told you, little girl, but there is some invisible thing called ‘void’ encroaching our world. If we don’t care about it, the world is going to be destroyed.”

　　I was confused. Why did he want to tell me about it? What did it have to do with the “Treasure from the Sky”? Seeing my puzzled face, the hangman bent down and got closer to me.

　　“Listen, I am talking about the reason for your mother’s illness. She has been spending years trying to use her magic to fix the voids and to maintain the world. That works because so far she is the strongest witch in the world. She is different from the weak magicians like us; nobody could beat the inheritor of dragon, the Red Witch. However, the problem is, the amount of voids is increasing rapidly this week, I am sure you have noticed the sky has become unusual.”

　　I could only listen silently to the story that I was never exposed to. Mother never mentioned anything about it to me. Was he trying to fool me? If so, he could have laughed at me, or make the same smiley face when I first saw him. Then why was he showing such a serious expression?

　　“Unfortunately, even the most powerful Red Witch cannot afford the burden. She had already output too much energy on it, and the change of the world is still too fast. That is why she is so weak now.”

　　He half closed his eyes, finishing the explanation.

　　“By the way, although it is not the right timing, but what is your name, daughter of Red Witch?”

　　“Garnet.” I mumbled out the name that my mother gave me, with other parts of my mind still remaining blank. I decided to ask the question that I had no chance to ask before.

　　“Who are you?”

　　“Only a friend of the Red Witch,” the hangman answered. I noticed the candle flames around us became unstable, as if they could extinguish at anytime. I had anominous feeling for whatever that was coming up.

　　 “Then, Garnet, be ready,” he said. “I am going to let you make the most difficult decision ever.”

 

　　*

 

　　“Mother, mother…” I tried to wake the woman sleeping in bed. Her arms were now full of scales. They were red, similar to the color of the dress she was wearing. I could feel how crude and cold they were, like the scales of a real dragon. I had never seen her like this. Her body worsened since I left our home.

　　She opened her eyes.

　　“Garnet, what are you doing here?”

　　“Mother, I got it, I got the ‘Treasure from the Sky!’”

　　Her tired face was mixed with a little confusion.

　　 “You have it? How?”

　　“The weird man, the hangman who lives on the hill gave it to me. He sent me back to the forest. We flew on the sky, he said that is faster. He is waiting outside ofour house now.”

　　I rushed my words, trying to let mother understand my adventure. There was also half of nervousness in it.

　　“Hangman? Ah, I see,” After listening to my poor explanation, she smiled. There were somered scales on her left cheek too. “That means now you know the reason that he doesn’t want to give it to me, don’t you?”

　　I suddenly lost my language, but then nodded, remembering what the hangman had told me earlier.

　　Although the ‘Treasure from the Sky’ has a strong magical power in it, it is still not enough to fix all the voids. However, it will be different if the Red Witch decides to contribute herself, including all of her magic and her life to it. That is the cost of the ‘Treasure from theSky.’ You know what kind of woman she is. Once she gets it, she will definitely use it to protect the world, even if she has to pay her life for it. It is only a matter of time for her to die earlier or not. It is just like a “U”, you will go the same direction anyway, the only difference is that you have two different routes to choose from. Now you shall choose to pay for the cost or not, let her end her life earlier or not.

　　“Do you want to let me use it?” my mother asked.

　　After a long silence, I nodded. The hangman told me that he had chosen to let mother stay in the world for longer, but my arrival brought him a third choice, which was to leave the choice to me. I could start to understand why he did not want to give the “Treasure from the Sky” to mother already, but as he said, I knew what kind of woman mother was. She would rather sacrifice herself than live the life she had now. This day must be the day I cried the most. I picked up the hugewing-like feather from the ground and passed it to her. She nodded too, and touched it softly.

　　“Garnet, can you open the window for me?”

　　I followed her instruction, stood up from the chair beside her bed, and walked to the window. I opened it with my face full of tears. Mother sat up on the bed.

　　“I guess my friend waiting outside is willing to help me to take care of you. Did he say that to you?”

　　I nodded. My body still hurt; it reminded me of the unpleasant experience before in the house on the hill. Nonetheless, the hangman eventually gave the“Treasure from the Sky” to me and brought me back to here, plus he was mother’s friend, so I guessed he was not a bad person at all.

　　“As long as he doesn’t ask me to hang myself with him, I guess,” I tried to draw a smile on my face, just for my mother.

　　“You will be fine,” she laughed, made me remember how she usually behaved. She then kissedmy forehead. “Take good care of yourself.”

　　I knew it was her good-bye sign.

　　She closed her eyes. The ‘Treasure from the Sky’ on her hand began to glow. In the brightness of the sacred white light surrounding the feather, her body turned into multiple light particles. Then, the light particles became red, and transformed into the shape of butterflies. The countless red butterflies flapped theirwings eagerly, and flew through the window I just opened.

　　I rushed to the door of the house and opened it, trying to follow my mother. The hangman was there, outside of the house, hanging himself under the eaves with a ropethat I did not know where he got from. He saw me and made a simple greeting,but soon turned to see the sky scattered with red butterflies. I did the same too. Before the clouds dismissed and the sky recovered to its usual clear blue,we both stood there, watching the view of the red butterflies stealing the whole sky.