rose nursery rhyme

A star shone above a clearing deep in the forest.

It was dark in the woods, but darkness wasn't a problem for Bryce and Sheedy.They didn't go back to Alex's house, but walked directly through the path in the forest to the cemetery.

Joshua's small tombstone stayed in place quietly, the thorn wreath that Sidi put on was still on it, and Alex's wreath made of wildflowers had been overwhelmed and scattered, and the small white petals fell to the ground.

Sidi stood in front of the tombstone, looked down for a while, and the first sentence was: "He really can't weave wreaths."

It's so weak that no one touches it, and it's okay to wear it on someone's head.

Brace: "Mr. Alex wears gloves after all."

The leather gloves worn by the plague doctor were made of the same material as the beak mask, and they had never seen Alex take it off.

Those gloves seemed to have been burned by the flame of the candlestick just now?But his palm was immediately wrapped in wax oil, not showing much clues.

"I see," said Sheedy. "He's missing two fingers."

The boy's eyesight is very good, and he can see the whole picture of Alex's hands with just a glance.

Not only did he see these, but he also saw how dry and damaged those hands were. They seemed to be able to move barely, but they were not flexible at all.

Also burns.

No wonder Alex had wrapped himself up so tightly, not knowing how much of his skin was still intact under his clothes.

Xidi still thought there was too much dust on the ground during the day, but at night she didn't care about it. She lifted her cloak and sat directly on the ground in front of the tombstone.

Brace sat next to him, with his back against a tree, gazing at the small stone tombstone.

Sheedy asked him, "What did you guess?"

Brice corrected gently: "It's not a guess, it's a guess."

Xi Di: "..."

He curled himself up, took one of Brice's arms around his shoulders, and crawled into his arms, pinching his fingers.

The teenager knew he was a little uncomfortable, but he couldn't explain why.

"Tell me about it." He folded Bryce's fingers one by one, and broke them in the opposite direction - this movement was gently stopped by Bryce, "What do you think?"

Brice let him play with himself, and only stopped when it was too much, his voice was gentle: "...Do you remember? I told you that the plague is a disaster for some people, but for others, It's an opportunity."

Sheedy remembers it well: "An opportunity to get rid of the burdens at home?"

Bryce: "Yeah."

"Families that are too poor cannot afford to raise too many children. If the child suffers from other diseases, they may be abandoned," he said.

"It sounds bizarre, but for some families on the mainland, it's the only option they have."

It's a way of life.

No matter how sad it is.

Sheedy: "But Joshua looks healthy."

Brace reminded him: "He is a ghost, of course he can not be affected by physical conditions."

Moreover, there are many kinds of diseases, and the problem cannot be seen from the outside.

Xi Di: "..."

Sidi fell silent.

He understood what Brace meant, and if what Brace said was true, then Alex would have another reason to go out and study medicine.

His family is poor, he needs to make money, and... also needs someone to treat his brother's illness.

They can't afford a doctor.

Brice is still patiently dismantling this matter for him: "If the other party is an adult, then his family will usually find the items used by the patient and put them near him, waiting for him to catch the plague. But this kind of The method may not be successful, and it is also very dangerous for the implementer himself, so few people use it."

"But if the other party is a child of a few years old, then there are many ways."

Such a big child doesn't understand anything and has natural trust in his family.

They didn't even have to give him the actual plague, they just had to find a way to dump him among the corpses waiting to be burned.

Sidi: "Is this true?"

Brees reminded him again: "This is just my guess, but this kind of thing did happen on the mainland."

Very sick, but not an exception.

Sheedy stopped snapping his fingers and stuffed her own knuckles into her mouth to chew.

——Before the child disappeared, scorching marks appeared on his face, which were indelible marks before death. He was indeed burned.

The soul will faithfully retain the state of the last moment before death, and then it will never change.

Joshua was...at least when he was burned, the kid was still alive.

live in any state.

Sheedy: "Alex has burns on his face too. Was he abandoned too?"

But unlike, no matter how ruthless their parents are, it is impossible to kill all their children.

Besides, Alex was old enough to make money.

Bryce pulled Xidi's fingers out, held them in his hand, shook his head and said, "The scars on his body are concentrated in the front."

Head, face, chest, arms.

Definitely not much on the legs, as his walking ability is fine.

It didn't look like random scars, but more like... he threw himself into the flames.

"A child suddenly found himself thrown into a pile of corpses, surrounded by burning fire." There was not much extra emotion in Brice's voice, his eyelids were half closed, and his eyes were narrowed, "He is very scared. His family members who came here were not around, so they could only cry desperately."

"However, in order to prevent infection, the burning of corpses is carried out in very remote places. People will leave after setting the fire and will not stay longer. No one can hear his voice."

"This is just a hypothesis," he said. "His elder brother is a doctor. He heard that there was a plague in his hometown, and rushed back anxiously. If he happened to pass by that forest and heard the cry for help..."

Sidi: "He wants to save his brother."

Bryce: "Maybe, but unfortunately he failed."

After all, Joshua turned into an undead, and even Alex himself became unrecognizable, and he couldn't even see a human form.

He could only wear a plague doctor's mask every day to cover that terrifying face.

Sidi stopped talking, hugged her knees, and curled up into a small ball.

He disliked the story very much.

Brace patted the boy on the back to coax him: "This is..."

"False." Xidi answered, "It's a guess without evidence, I know."

Bryce: "Yeah."

As for Joshua's wish...

They all heard, the kid just said, 'want everybody to come with him'.

Joshua is a dead man, what are you doing with him?

How can I stay with a dead person forever?

Sidi: "So this plague is also related to him?"

The second plague was not contained in time and killed half of the city.

Bryce: "Although he doesn't seem to remember it himself, but the resentment engraved on the soul is strong to a certain extent, coupled with the catalysis of the holy vessel, it can be done."

And said: "There are still shadows."

The plague ten years ago was caused by shadows. The people who died in the plague were almost all related to shadows. The souls refined with their corpses as fuel, no matter what the child became in the end, they would always be affected by some shadows. Influence.

It doesn't need to be too strong, it's enough to make the plague spread in this town again ten years later.

"He wanted company, and the shadow granted his wish."

So many people died in the city, there must be one or two souls who can be bound, so that Joshua will not be so lonely in the dark night.

Shadows catalyzed his desires in the most extreme ways.

The ghosts behind the team didn't have holy vessels and candles in their hands, which meant that they couldn't take the initiative to find a substitute. As long as Joshua stayed in the world, they had to stay with him for as long as possible.

They were the sad souls trapped by Joshua's wishes, and maybe some of them were the ones who decided to abandon the youngest child in the family and push him into the fire with their own hands.

"He got everything he wanted," Brace said. "Now he just wants his brother."

I don't know if Alex had been to this intersection during those nights, had he seen his poor little brother?

Did he take the candlestick out of guilt for his younger brother, or because he wanted to liberate those poor souls?

How much does he know about it?

The protagonist of the story is dead, and they will never be able to find Alex to verify the answer. They only know that he finally chose to accept the arrangement of fate.

Alex had no last wish, he was stuck in place by Joshua's wish, he could never get rid of the candlestick, he could only walk alone in the dark dead city with the burning holy vessel.

Because Joshua wanted him to be happy, and wanted him not to be troubled by any human sufferings.

"Of course." Brice finally concluded, "These inferences have no factual basis and cannot be verified, so they may not be true, and you don't need to pay too much attention to them."

Sidi didn't speak, he knew it was true.

Brace wouldn't bullshit him.

Bryce asked Sidi for advice: "It's getting late, do you want to go back to town and take a rest?"

Alex would never come back, and they could stay as long as they wanted.

Xidi frowned dissatisfiedly, and shook her head unwillingly: "I don't like it there anymore, I won't go back."

He disliked the town, the people who had lived in it, and the story itself.

The boy's intuition is very keen, and he smelled a little subtle malice from which the source is unclear from the story deduced from these clues.

Like mud that is not immediately fatal, it engulfs people slowly and viscously, suffocating people.

This made Sheedy feel bad.

He never wanted to go back to that place.

Brice had no objection: "Then let's leave now? If the speed is fast, we will be able to reach the next place where we can rest at dawn."

"Walking along the path outside the forest leads to a town, which is a hub, much more prosperous than here."

He has a good understanding of what's around here.

Sidi: "Yeah."

He stood up and didn't rush to leave. He broke a small branch from the tree next to him, threw it forward, and threw the branch out.

Branches dipped diagonally into the dirt next to Joshua's tombstone.

"Tombstone." The boy said into the air, "I'll see you off."

The air ignored him.

The author says:

After "Three Forks", the next chapter is "Elegy of the Holy Tree".

...In short, I want to write an elf story! (makes a sound that has not yet written the outline (hey)