In the mountain village, in the "Fermi's Textile Fabric Shop", the old lady Iris is settling the last bill that has been opened this morning.

She sifted through the most perfect and flawless gold coins with leaf shapes and clearly visible veins engraved on them...... Then put them all together in a small cloth bag.

Pulling open the drawer of the workbench, she took the rest of the "gold leaf" and the change provided by the customers into the countertop, and then slowly closed the drawer, turned around, leaned her buttocks against the edge of the workbench, and took a deep breath.

The old lady looked up gloomily, and her gaze subconsciously came to the portrait hanging on the wall in front of her, and the best times she remembered were frozen in it, and every time she looked at each other, she felt that she had returned to the past.

Iris raised her hand tremblingly, put the back of her hand on her face, closed her eyes, and felt the touch conveyed to her hand, only to feel that it was full of ravines, and it must be unbearable when it meets the eyes of others.

However, if "he" had seen his current appearance, he would definitely not have shown a look of disgust or disgust......

Instead, he would comfort himself and apologize to himself, explain the reason why he had been gone for so long, and tell himself that he did not mean to leave.

Iris slowly turned her gaze away from the frescoes to the various furnishings that adorned the other three walls of the shop—the skins of the prey that the hunters had painstakingly captured, the silk fabrics that the coachmen had acquired from outside the mountains through their own channels, and several long, intact strips of precious cloth and tapestries that amounted to luxury.

There is also no shortage of her own handicrafts, such as the fabric wind chimes that hang from the ceiling and the pair of wind chimes that decorate the doorway as a doorbell.

On the counter are several dolls of different shapes, all of which are vivid, with eyes made of buttons of different colors and styles, and a short line sewn on the mouth, allowing customers to choose their own expressions.

In the past, if a villager came to the door with clothes ready to be eliminated, Mrs. Iris would be happy to remove the buttons and sew such a puppet for free.

On the low cabinet in the corner of the store, there are also several abstract cushions and pillows.

Some look like the red stars that appear above people's heads every seven days, but they have a hideous smile; Some of them resemble fruits that have been cut apart, but the color scheme is like human entrails.

There were also cloth objects in the shape of boats, straw hats, teacups, and love letters in envelopes, which sat crookedly or rested on low cabinets or slipped on the floor next to them.

The shop is filled with handicrafts, but the old lady's heart seems to be in stark contrast to the environment in which she lives, and the vitality is constantly flowing through it, which can also be called "escape", and she feels extremely lonely and cold.

These emotions were all transformed into hatred and anger when she touched something under the workbench with her hands behind her back.

She pulled out a rag doll in the shape of a skeleton, which she remembered as a normal human when winter first came.

At this time, there is only one skeleton left.

Will the cloth head doll also rot and turn into dry bones?

"Legend has it that the 'Grim Reaper', who gave death as a gift to all things, was originally as beautiful as the angels in our minds." The old lady muttered, "But every time He does something that violates his duty, every time he yearns to stop beside mortals, and even every good deed!" ”

"It's going to drop a piece of flesh ......"

She held the cloth human skeleton, and a look of grief flashed in her eyes:

"Over time, the angel is still beautiful, but the Grim Reaper has long since become a skeleton."

"Witch, witch!" Her hand gradually exerted force, and the puppet in her hand became distorted and no longer formed, "Ylan, witch! ”

"Witch Ylan!" A rare color of blood appeared on her face with the old man's verbal anger.

At the same time, a rust-strewn spike slipped from her cuff and fell to the ground with a crisp thud.

The old lady leaned down in a panic and picked it up, making sure she wouldn't be stung and bleeding from it.

She then gently placed the spikes side by side with the bone puppet on the workbench, pulling open the other drawer, which was not used to store her finances, and taking out the tools she needed for her work one by one.

It didn't take long for her to sew the spikes into the body of the bone puppet.

"I'm going to curse her." The old lady spoke word by word, her voice gloomy and terrifying.

"However, she was the lucky one who escaped from hell by the favor of death......" Iris raised the puppet in her hand and gently stroked the place of its "heart" with the thumbs of both hands, experiencing the strange touch, "No curse can make her feel bad." ”

"She's not even afraid of death."

"But she will bring death to other beings who still fear the concept." The old lady seems to be talking to herself, as if she is being seduced by some invisible creature, or communicating with a fantasy "nightmare...... It's like a demon.

"I can't let her continue to deceive others...... Those children, who have not yet been exposed to the outside world, believe in her too much, and will only be pushed into a place of no return by her own hands in the end. ”

Jingle Bell –

There was a sound of the doorbell being knocked at the door of the cloth shop, and the old lady's attention was immediately attracted to it, but she saw that the door had been pushed open through the outside, but no customers came in.

She staggered to the door and slammed it open.

The guy who had just done this "little prank" seemed to have run away, and there was no suspicious figure outside the door.

"This shop is only open in the morning, and everyone in the village knows about it......," she muttered with a frown, frowning as she folded her arms in her hands, "and when it closes, I don't stay in the shop often, but go back to my home to rest." ”

"Who would play such a boring trick that might not succeed?" Instinctively, she wanted to push the black cauldron on someone's head.

Just when she scanned the surroundings with a terrifying gaze that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts, causing the villagers who had gone out in the afternoon to avoid and dare not meet her gaze, she raised her foot and felt that she had touched something.

When I looked down, I saw that it was a somewhat familiar cloth bag.

The inside of the bag was turned to the surface, revealing the embroidery that was so easy to irritate her.

"Sure enough, it's you......" said the old lady through gritted teeth, her voice as if squeezed out of some bottomless abyss, containing a piercing coldness.

"You just keep being proud and continue to enjoy the reverence of the villagers." She retreated into the store and pulled the door open, keeping everything behind the door.

"Days like this will soon come to an end."

"Wait, wait, Witch Ylan, I will show you what 'hell' is again, and I will send you back to the underworld to make you regret that you escaped from there!"

……

Funnor had gone out of his way to summon the human courage to return to the boulder platform to meet the witch and bring back the pile of rubble he had left at the door of the hut.

Finally, the young man, who had been scratched and bitten several holes in his trouser legs, came to the door of the witch's hut, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, cleared his throat again, and made all preparations before opening his mouth, and then was kicked hard by the impatient little beast.

Noka's center of gravity was unsteady and he nearly fell forward.

Fortunately, he stretched out his hands in time to support the door panel, so that he did not owe the witch another debt to repair the door.

Pretending to be something, Fang Nuo disdained it.

He sat down on the grass, scratched the hair on his chin with his back, and when he saw that the young man was still hesitating, he jumped up and threw himself on the door panel to make a noise enough to attract the attention of the people in the room.

He was still looking forward to Noka's visit, if this human could enter the witch's hut, and the witch didn't deliberately put away the documents on the table, then he would definitely see the contents of those papers.

Noka is a mouthless human - despite his introverted personality and only willing to "pour bitter water" on his sister and the critters he thinks can't understand human speech - Fangnuo fits this need and is willing to be the "tree hole" of the human.

Just let him in and take in the information on paper...... Then, all you have to do is "sit back and enjoy it", Fang Nuo thought to himself.

However, just as he was looking forward to the knowledge he was about to gain in the future, a dark shadow unexpectedly fell from the sky, swept over his head, and even overturned him entirely!

I'm X!

Fang Nuo, who had never learned to swear, suddenly became self-taught at this juncture, mastering some venting techniques that he had no intention of learning.

Noka, who had already received a response from the people in the house and was waiting for the other party to open the door, was also frightened by this change, but the shock did not last long, and soon turned into a smile that could not be concealed:

"Poof, haha, six, six, are you alright?"

"Where did you provoke it?" The human was just about to step forward and help the four-legged beast, but suddenly saw two newly-appearing, but familiar birds, swooping down from the sky, one of them landed peacefully on the grass beside them, and the other came to a "chest brake", and finally the whole bird fell to the ground.

The blackbird, which landed too fast and failed to land, covered its face with its wings, feeling that it had no face to see other life.

The one who landed perfectly flew up after a while, flapped his wings, and drove the half-crouched young man, who had not yet given up the intention of "lifting up the snow-white beast", to the door of the witch's hut, just as the witch opened the door from the house.

Two humans, you look at me, I look at you, of course, Noka's eyes are all projected on the witch's hood, and he can only see a few strands of silver hair hanging out, and he can't see the other person's face.

At this time, Fang Nuo himself got up from the grass in embarrassment, and secretly resented, "No clan has ever done this to me, not even a witch has ever treated me like this!" He looked at the strange guy who not only knocked him to the ground, but also picked up a few hairs on the top of his head.

It was also a large black bird, with shiny feathers and a faint blue streamer on it, and instead of having red eyes like Blackie, he had a pair of eyes with a very thin ring of white sclera (which may also be reflective) and dark brown iris, and he was bouncing on the lawn at this moment, very forgetful.

Oh, and there's a handful of snow-white hair in his mouth.