For the Prisoner

4. Caught in the Snare

Seonghwa resurfaced from the stinking bog water with a violent cough. The vicious liquid had penetrated his airways, scratching at his lungs with its pests and diseases. He gagged it all out until his throat was raw and even then he felt it still festered inside. Tears clogged his eyes, for he had been in the water only for seconds, but he had believed he would die. His heart, racing in his chest as it desperately struggled for his life, had yet to calm down.

Underneath his palms, he felt the rough and cold surface of the wet stone ground. It ached up his knees, so he shifted to fall to his side, exhausted by the shock.

His eyes adjusted to the dim light of the cave he sat in. Behind him, water dripped into the pool he had come through, leading through a submerged cave system out into the marshland. The light of a torch danced on the glistening stone, adding depths to its bleak grey.

Bars kept Seonghwa from the source of light, though he heard it crackle on the wall just beyond his cell. When he sat up to touch the structure, his heart stopped for a frightful moment when he realised his cage was made of bones. They melted together in a macabre framework that had stray ends of knuckles and curves sticking out left and right.

He doubted it would break as easily as bone did. Whatever held it in this formation was more powerful than steel.

"Lord, protect me," Seonghwa whispered as he grabbed for his necklace. He prayed the cross would support him, but the familiar shape seemed cold on his skin.

A voice rumbled from around the corner, inside the hollow room ahead that Seonghwa could only see bits of. It should have been soothing, finding someone capable of human speech out here, but something about that voice chased a shiver down Seonghwa's spine. He sat up straight and wiped his face of residue wetness. In his soaked clothes, he trembled pitifully, but he tried to uphold a strict facade.

"Your god won't hear you here."

Impossible. The Lord's presence was almighty, undefeated. Only in the pits of hell where the devil played his immoral games, he couldn't reach. As hellish as a cage of bones and a stranger in a cave seemed, Seonghwa doubted that was true.

Was this the person who had dragged him under? Or had they saved him?

"Who are you?" He asked when he couldn't come up with a reply. His voice was slurred as his mind still cleared from his fright. It sounded far more vulnerable than he liked. Alone and cut off from his friends, Seonghwa had little but his wit to defend himself.

Steps drew closer. A shadow danced over the desk pushed into the shadows. It was cluttered with books and parchments crammed with dark symbols. Feathers and the skulls of various animals made for morbid decoration. The yellow wax from the candles formed little pools at the bottom and dribbled along the stem.

When the silhouette of a person blocked all light from Seonghwa, he had to look up, much farther than he had expected. He had presumed to have stumbled into the lair of a grumpy hermit, judging by the voice, or perhaps a troll about to eat him for dinner.

The man in front of him was neither. He was tall and lean, his body under the patchwork of his clothes that of a hunter. Nets and chains assorted around his frayed garbs in no apparent order, and feathers adorned his boots.

The belt around his hips held a jingling collection of charms. Pearls wove around strings of hair to dangle in the skulls of snakes, rabbits, or crows. Some bones on the almost decorative tassels looked scarily like human fingers.

Over the slim spread of a bare waist that peeked between the pants of muddish colours and the fitted top in the same fashion, Seonghwa found a necklace that spread over the man's shoulders like a cape. It covered his chest with the same freakish decorations, and the bones shone pale next to the inky feathers of crows and the grey of a speckled owl's coat.