Young-hee and the Pullocho (39 page)

“Bum!” cried Young-hee.

The dokkaebi walked between Young-hee and her brother, his wooden stick hovering ominously. “Now, give me the pullocho, or leave.”

“How do you know about Tiger?” asked Young-hee.

“Eh?”

“Tiger. How would you know I was traveling with him?”

“Oh,
uh
, spies, of course,” he muttered convincingly. “I never trusted you, so had my trees and squirrels report your little adventures.”

Samjogo drew his hyeopdo and took a fighting stance. “He's lying,” Samjogo said. “He's lying about this like he lied about everything.” He wriggled the blade toward the goblin.

The threatening gesture outraged the dokkaebi. With his free hand, he bent low, grabbed the gossamer thread, pulled Bum off of his feet, and dangled him upside down from his outstretched arm. Bum yelled with surprise then began to cry, then wailed with ear-shattering howls.

“Put him down!” Young-hee ordered, digging frantically through her bag. “I have your pullocho here.” And pulled it out.

“So you have.” he said with a massively evil grin. “Excellent. But I told you, no tricks, no threats.” And with that, he tapped his stick twice and said
“Tukdak, tukdak!”
Poof
—Bum was gone!

For a moment, the abandoned market turned unearthly quiet, as Young-hee's crying brother disappeared and everything just stopped.
No, this can't be happening. No, no, no!

“Now, give me the pullocho,” said the goblin, “or I'll do something really nasty to you next.”

“
No!
” she howled. Samjogo spoke and tried to pull her away, but her emotions overpowered her, and Young-hee couldn't hear her friend or feel his hand on her shoulder.

The dokkaebi ignored her shout and grabbed greedily for the pullocho. But Young-hee held on, gripping the magic root with a ferocity the dokkaebi didn't anticipate. With her other hand she reached into her bag and pulled out the white vial. Recognizing the little bottle, the dokkaebi recoiled with fear. She popped it open with her thumb and poured it onto the ground.

There was a brief, painful pause, and then the thorny hedge exploded, wrapping the dokkaebi with thick vines and sharp barbs, enveloping him and tearing him away. The giant stalk tore through market stalls and discarded sundries, smashing wood, piercing furniture, and breaking apart pretty much everything around them. The devastation was total.

Young-hee knelt, clutching the pullocho.
This can't be happening.
Bum is gone, and it is the dokkaebi's fault.

She was shaking, but it took a moment to realize that it wasn't from emotion—Samjogo was holding her shoulder, trying to get her attention.

Finally, his words penetrated. “I said, we have to move. Those thorns won't stop him.”

“
You
,” she said, dripping with scorn. “You did this. I told you not to make trouble. But you had to run your mouth and act all tough, like always. Now my little brother is gone because of you.”

“That's not what happened,” he said, hurt and concerned.

“The thorns stopped two demons by the sandalwood tree, and protected us from that war of the spirits. They should be enough for a little goblin.”

“You really don't understand yet,” he said. “I didn't…” But before he could finish, the sounds of wood breaking and vines snapping filled the air, like something gnawing its way through. “He's almost here.”

Young-hee went digging through her bag again. She found the red and blue vials, so dropped the red one and got ready to use the blue.

“No, we'll need fire,” he said.

“No good against a dokkaebi,” said Young-hee. “They're creatures of the hot coals, practically half-fire.”

“Trust me,” he said. “That's no dokkaebi.”

The thorn bush burst open in front of them, splinters and thorns flying everywhere. The dokkaebi emerged unhurt, eyes blood red with rage. “Silly fairy tricks won't help you,” he spat. “I want my pullocho.”

The goblin swung his cane, but Samjogo stepped forward and parried it with his hyeopdo. The two began to duel, each attacking with full force. Young-hee held the blue vial ready. Seeing Samjogo fighting feverishly for her, she put aside her anger and heartache and decided to listen to him; she switched vials. The dokkaebi tapped the ground with his cane, causing the soil to roll like a wave, knocking down Samjogo and half-burying him. Then the goblin turned to Young-hee and raised his cane, ready to strike.

At that moment, Young-hee tipped the red vial. Even as the fairy water fell, it roared with red and orange fire, pulsing with heat. Fear washed over dokkaebi's face. Then the liquid touched the ground, and waves of thick, oily fire rolled forward in a great curtain of destruction. Billowing black smoke covered the sky as the inferno consumed all it touched. Shops and thorns shimmered and flickered into ash.

As Samjogo lightly pulled Young-hee back, urging her to leave, a dark object strained its way through the flames, trying to escape. Covered in smoke and ash, barely recognizable, the dokkaebi tumbled out. “That
hurt!”
it yelled, its voice breaking with confusion and anger. “You ridiculous humans actually hurt me!” But its voice was higher, less ugly than the dokkaebi's, almost lady-like. The dokkaebi tugged at its burnt ear, pulling it right off. Then its nose came off, too. And its horn. The goblin's entire skin sloughed off in big chunks.

Underneath, a creature obscured by ash and gore, lay breathing heavily. As Young-hee watched, horrified and fascinated, she began to see short, reddish hairs all over the creature's body. A tail burst out, and then another, and another, until nine tails spilled from the dokkaebi's burnt remains. The creature stood in her fox form—red-brown fur and a sharp face full of teeth.

“Gumiho,” said Young-hee, shocked.

“Hmm, yes,” it answered, a mix of pain and boredom and perhaps a touch of respect. “I was tired of that disguise anyway. Now, bear daughter, I will take my pullocho, that you so thoughtfully brought me.” She walked steely, steady, and without fear toward Young-hee,.

“But why?” asked Young-hee, as she and Samjogo backed away. “Why the elaborate scheme? Why not just take what you wanted? Or just ask me for help?”

“Silly bear daughter, that's not really your concern,” she said.

Samjogo swung his hyeopdo, trying to keep Gumiho back. “Because the guardians and other creatures of this realm would never let her have a pullocho. The elixir of life is too precious to be trusted with any creature, especially one as evil as Fox.”

“There's some truth to that,” Gumiho said. “For regular creatures—a witch or dokkaebi—a pullocho grants long life and great powers. But for me? I could do anything. Rival the lords of Heaven. Became a
real person
and cross into your world.” As she came closer, her eyes grew redder, her claws longer, she teeth sharper, and she grinned. “And, to be honest, this way was a lot more fun.”

Young-hee felt a knot of fury choking her. “You … terrible …
rotten
…”

The Fox just arched her eyebrows. “Thanks to you two, there's no one left in this realm with the strength to stop me. Your great war by the sandalwood tree ensured that. Now I'll take my pullocho, and all I need to become human is to eat a human heart—
yours
.”

As the words left her lips, Gumiho pounced, impossibly fast, all teeth and claws. Turning to flee, Young-hee tripped and fell. But before Fox could reach her, Samjogo swung his hyeopdo. “Stay behind me.” Samjogo was without bravado now, focused solely on the evil creature.

Again and again, Fox snapped and slashed, a flurry of deadly attacks. But Samjogo parried and kept her at bay. Young-hee scrambled for her bag, but its contents had scattered when she fell. There were crushed rice cakes, her smashed lantern, and the broken pieces of Boonae's mask, but no blue vial.

Samjogo swung his hyeopdo, sweeping Gumiho's feet then doubling back and aiming for her belly with the sharp blade. But Gumiho twisted away with just a scratch, sinking two claws deep into Samjogo's shoulder. Then she brought up her back legs, clawing at Samjogo's stomach. He just avoided getting gutted by butting her snout with the wooden end of the hyeopdo. Gumiho flipped over backwards, head over heels, landing lightly.

“Why do you care?” hissed Fox, her nine tails quivering behind her. “Let me have her and the pullocho, and I can give you anything you want.”

“You already gave me my freedom, Fox. What more could I want?” he said. “Except, perhaps to save my sister.”

Samjogo swung his hyeopdo once more, but Gumiho dodged. Then, seeing Young-hee sprawled on the ground, Fox bounded over Samjogo, aiming for easier prey. Samjogo shouted a warning, but Young-hee didn't have time to rise or run. She realized she was clutching the three busted bits of wood that once were Boonae. Not knowing what else to do, she squeezed them together, restoring Boonae's face, then rolled over and pushed the back of the mask at the lunging Gumiho. Fox was too close and charging too fast to evade Boonae, and as they met, the mask came to life, sucking itself onto Gumiho's face.

Gumiho's face disappeared, and Boonae came to life once more. Her red cheeks flushed and her eye's bulged, her lips quivering. A voice screamed, but Young-hee didn't know if it was Gumiho or Boonae.

On the ground, Fox shook and shook.

“
Young-hee
, you're all right,” Boonae said weakly.

“You, too, Boonae, you're still alive.”

“Barely, I'm afraid,” the masked wheezed. “Gumiho is far too powerful … even at the best of times and I'm not a fraction of my best self at the moment.”

The Fox's body jerked back and forth, her front paws, trying to rip off the mask. “Off … me!” she hissed from between Boonae's cracks.

Bleeding, Samjogo aimed his hyeopdo at Fox's stomach.

“No,” said Young-hee.

“Why not?”

“Because … I don't know, it doesn't seem right,” she said.

“Young-hee, pour the fairy water on us,” said Boonae. “Wash us away with a great river. I'll be okay, but Gumiho will be swept away.” Young-hee found the blue vial, but hesitated as Fox kept clawing at the mask. “Hurry!”

“Thank you, Boonae. I'll make sure we find you, wherever you end up.”

“No, no,” said Gumiho. “Our pullocho. It's
ours
. We had it.”

Young-hee poured the vial onto Gumiho, nearly the whole thing. As the water touched her body, it turned into a great rushing river, twice as big as the Hungry River. With a roar of churning water, Gumiho was swept away and vanished into the great waterway to parts unknown.

“What happened?” asked Young-hee, near collapse.

“I'm not sure,” said Samjogo, “but I think we won.”

“Won?” echoed Young-hee incredulously. “Gumiho didn't kill us, but that's hardly a win. She killed Bum.”

“No, she didn't kill him. She just sent him away.”

“Okay, she sent him away—but I don't know where. Or when. Or how to even begin to look for him.”

“You don't need to,” said Samjogo. “You already found me. I'm your brother.”

Young-hee flopped to the ground, utterly exhausted by her fight with Fox and the terrible things she had lived through that day. “
You're …?
”

“Young-beom. Bum.”

She looked at his wild hair and angular face. “That's not possible.”

“And yet that's the truth,” he said.

“I… I don't understand.”

“I didn't either, at first. It happened so long ago, and I was so young, I barely remembered any of it.”

“But you're so old.”

“That's because I've been here for years. After the dokkaebi—well, Gumiho, I guess—made me disappear, she didn't just send me far away, she sent me back in time. I was found by the savage fairies, and the fairy king took me as his son. I grew up in this world and became Samjogo. You, mom, the mud world were like a dream, and the fairy king was my father, as far as I was concerned.”