Alone now, Kyungsoo allowed the tears that had been threatening to overflow to spill over his face. He braced himself against the nearest tree, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hold himself upright for much longer anyway. Sobs wracked his body, and he tastes salt. He'd lost everything: his friends, his family, his livelihood. Nothing mattered anymore.

He was possessed by a demon.

Or at least, that’s what his leader had thought. Despite being protected by the owl spirit, the wisest entity in the forest, a dark spirit had entered his body and forced him to commit a crime. He had hurt a young girl who had been courting him insistently. He had pushed her away, and she had lost tooth in the fall, and caused significant damage to her face. He had apologised the moment it happened, but by then the damage was done; the young girl was already on the floor, angry tears cascading on her no longer pretty face, blood dribbling from .

Her father had called for retribution of course, distraught over his daughter's misfortune. She would have great difficulty ever finding someone to mate now. But since Kyungsoo had been declining her advances for a considerable amount of time, a few people had argued in his favour. The girl should have known better than to keep trying to force his will.

In the end, since Kyungsoo claimed partial amnesia, and inability to control his previous actions, the shaman had suggested the presence of a demon, which sent everyone into a flurry of panic. The cave's shaman tried to exorsise the demon, using rituals and revolting potions made from herbs he had never heard of. Nothing worked, and when Kyungsoo said that he felt no different after every attempt, the fear in the cave continued to rise.

Until the leader had finally snapped. On his command, using an almost unheard of ritual, the cave’s shaman had put a curse on him that disallowed him from being seen by anyone. He was dead to them, a mere ghost.

The moment it was done, nobody would look at him anymore, for fear of inviting the demon into them now that Kyungsoo was officially dead. It was the only thing they could do that was more painful than death itself.

Kyungsoo had tried everything, from waving in their faces to screaming. He even tried throwing a stone at his sister, but she had only burst into tears, and clutched at her mate, devastated. Kyungsoo and his sister had always gotten along well, and she had never liked the girl he had injured. This was going to be too much for her to bear: he hoped that she would be ok with him gone- her mate would need to take good care of her now.

Aghast, he had stood and watched as they burned his belongings; his clothes, his spear, his, sleeping furs. Anything that had belonged to him Even the carving of an owl his sister had made for him, to represent his chosen spirit. The main hearthfire's smoke plumed in a tall black column, billowing across the sky. he had nothing now, spare the clothes he he’d been cursed in. There was nothing left for him there, and the longer he'd lingered, the more ovious it became. The more it hurt.

So he'd left. He had no choice now but to keep on walking, and hope that the owl spirit would still defend him.