I'm the only one

Hattori had never, ever ventured this far from Ashen before. He felt as though there was a hand gripping the scruff of his neck, threatening to drag him back the way he came, and willing him to ignore the voices that whispered to him in the night. And yet he couldn't, not any more.

At first he had simply written it off as a symptom of the strange phenomena that plagued the land, but somehow this above all else felt personal and impossible to deny. The words were unclear, distorted and garbled beyond recognition, but the rhythm and phonology was unmistakeable. Try as he might to explain it away there was no denying that these voices were somehow speaking in his native language, calling out to him when the world ought to be peaceful and still.

A trail of blue lights wove across the land, luring him south as the voices somehow grew louder, a little clearer after each region crossed. And thus here he stood, at the edge of the Bamboo Maze with the voices murmuring louder still. All of this, everything that had led him to this moment felt intentional, like he was about to blindly stumble into a trap. The ghosts of his past finally catching up with him. He pressed his lips into a thin grimace, his hesitation palpable, as the voices crooned at him. Their intentions clear enough.

Beyond the voices the lights were clustered within the sea of bamboo, blues slipping in between the slices of wood and air.  Hattori remained right where he was, on the threshold of the Maze, unwilling to cross over just yet. If ever.

"I am here now." He rumbled, his voice taking a deeper timbre in his native tongue.