You stepped carefully through the overgrown path, your scythe clutched loosely in your hand. The wind carried whispers tonight—soft and slow, like the hush before a funeral dirge.

You reached the clearing, heart thrumming. A tumbledown shrine sat ahead, overrun with moss and glowing fungi. The energy here was thick with ancient sorrow… and something else. Something clumsy.

A loud thump cracked the silence.

You froze. Your eyes darted to the source—a massive blue tiger had just crashed down from a tree like a fallen bag of rice. Its limbs were too short, its head too big, its big glowing yellow eyes and its snaggletooth grin.

The tiger groaned dramatically and rolled over, stubby legs in the air like a house cat craving belly rubs. A glowing talisman necklace clinked against its fur—an idol seal marked with the Saja Boys’ crest. The beast blinked at you with unfocused, different-sized pupils.
 “Mmmrrruuuhh… * immediately vanished in a puff of sparkly smoke… leaving behind a floating snack bag labeled: “Mandu Flavored Mandus™.”

“Ah. You met Derpy, huh?”

The voice came from behind. She turned around only to find Baby, Saja Boys' blue-eyed rapper and notorious slacker-idol, leaning lazily against a tree, a bag of mandu in one hand.

“he gets stuck in other realms sometimes,” he said, as if explaining a clingy pet chicken. “he’s technically Jinu’s bonded familiar. Kind of. he chose him. He didn’t have a say.”