The cerulean sky was distorted by a tremendous black hole that sucks all of our nous and sins into the unfathomable abyss. God, showing his last providence, revitalized the world by calamity and sacrifices. Without mercy, the ground is breaking into pieces and gradually slurp into the endless hole. Don’t forget the negligible human beings, who can only hold the hands of each other and wish everything is over. All of them looked at this collapsing reality and stared at the two diminutive dots on one of those pieces of land that steadily drew into the sky. The dots, hugging each other and shouting out each others’ names.
“I will not let you go!” The boy said. He holds the girl’s hand but she is ready to be sucked into the hole.
“Remember what I tell you? The world will automatically balance the powers everybody has! And NOW is the time I will be balanced out from this world!” She screamed, using all her body to try not to lose his hand.
“I need you! You cannot just say you love me then leave me!” The boy drags the girl to his side, but she is going to deplete all her energy and unloose the person she cherished most.
“I swear to the zephyr, the star, and myself that I will never forget your face, your memories, and your gentleness.”
“Don’t say that…… you are not going to let go of your hands right?”
“All the things I can do now is telling you that I wished you could live a happy life. And……”
“Stop saying things that sound like your last words!”
“Promise me, you will not live in sorrow.”
“......I promise you.”
“Promise me, you will not delay your life because of me.”
“I promise you.”
“Promise me, you will not spend time in your tears.”
“I promise you.”
“ Promise me, you will…...not be afraid of losing me.”
“......”
“I will take away your sorrow and tears, so promise me you will live your life without me.”
The time stopped, and everything stopped moving except the two of them. She drags herself in front of him and gives him a gentle last kiss on his forehead. Both of them didn’t realize their hands are not holding each other anymore, and all the things that the boy can remember are her last smile before she vanished in the brutal abyss.
This story of the boy and the girl has been passed down by the minstrels to the children, and they believe she is somewhere in the night sky who gives deliverance to the boy in the endless gloominess.
Chapter 1:
Awaking from a dreadful nightmare.
I find myself lying in an ancient temple. I don’t know how long I’ve lain in here, but I remembered I was sweeping the floor in front of an altar and murmured about how awful our school is. I sit up and look at the surroundings, and I realized that I cannot recognize anything. The whole building was covered with vines and trees which you can see the roof is already covered with gigantic roots of oaks. The violet vine intertwined with the stone columns in which the curved-shape on them is already weathered. I stand up and try to figure out where I am, but I immediately fall down due to the cement floor that breaks into pieces by roots of unknown trees. The birds sing along with the rustling leaves as if they’re mocking at me, so I try to stand up in an unembarrassed way with my bleeding knees. Although the whole place feels strange to me, the scent of fendofine makes me relaxed a little. Just a little.
“How long have I been lying here?” I murmured.
If I only took a nap here, it would not be possible that the whole building is covered with trees and plants.
“Strange,” I said to myself, “Too strange.”
I walk through several columns and find myself standing on the stairs covered with moss, and it is kind of cute that I find a yellowish daisy standing on one of the little lichens. Down the stairs is the pathway formed by grass that linked to the forest 5 meters away. Am I going to walk through that ghastly forest? I think the answer is “Yes!” because I have nowhere to go. I have no choice so I took a step forward.
As I walk in the forest, I start to wonder when am I getting out of this weird place. It seems the forest never ends, and it seems like I will be dying here.
Hapless enough, the sky started to rain.
Now I realized that my memories are all gone. I don’t even remember who I am and what my identity is. I can’t remember when I was born and where I live.
The rains pour on me heavily, but it doesn’t wash away my depression and sorrow. Thanks to the rain, the gigantic tree roots become slippery. To make myself walk SAFELY on the muddy ground that is mostly covered with tree roots and grayish stones with coats of moss on them, I manage myself to hold firmly on every vine I see.
Now my stomach is struggling deep inside my body, and I think this is a sign of hunger.
“Shit, I’m going to die here, this forest doesn’t have an end,” I say to myself. “I’m going to die.”
I tried to observe any fruits or plants that I can eat, but all I see are trees, trees, and trees. They are all big as giants and as tall as the sky, the tree leaves cover the sunlight and any hope of escaping out of this middle of nowhere. Maybe it’s a wrong choice to try to walk through this forest; I wish I can reverse the time and do the RIGHT choice again. Yes, choices, and I hate them. Even though I lost all my memories, I can still remember the taste of regret after making any choices. I also remember someone told me that life is full of choices and the choices can affect my life deeply although I don’t know how DEEP it is.
The sky started to turn dark, and I know it is the time when the wild-ferocious beast came out to hunt for a juicy human like me. I feel my feet are stuck with mud and stones because each step I take becomes heavier and heavier. I don’t know whether it’s the muds or frustrations that make my feet so weighty, but all I know is I need food.
Suddenly, I smell the scent of BBQ from my right side. I ran unintentionally to the direction where I found a slice of gigantic meat hanging on the tree branches. My natural instinct tells me I must grab that meat before any animals eat it, so I just pull the meat and the ROPES from the branches and bite a mouth of juicy meat.
“Fuck! What the hell is she doing?” I heard someone whisper in the bush, it's a woman's voice that sounds incredibly firm.
“Who is she? I didn’t see her before, is she the NOVUS?” another woman’s voice said, her mild voice disappears in the wind.
“Fuck, can she just get out of our way?” I hear the third woman's voice and all I feel is angered linger in the words she speaks.
Is there anybody hiding in the bush? Did I do something wrong? Where are they?
I stopped eating and staring at the bush that has the darkest leaves, and I saw a diminutive red banner behind it.
“Who’s there?” I shout at the bush, and no one replies to me.
Suddenly, an enormous iron net arises from the ground I stepped on and traps me into a gigantic iron-netball. Everything happened so fast that I don’t even know whether I am hanging on the tree or laying on the ground because all I can feel is dizziness and sharp pain on my right butt.
“Shit,” I whisper, “something stuck in my butt.” There’s literally a stitch stick in my right butt, and I notice it when my finger touches something wet and warm, just like what blood is like. JUST LIKE WHAT BLOOD FEELS LIKE!!!
The three women come out the dim bush and they giggle like old witches who are ready to tear me into tiny pieces.
“Her butt is bleeding hahahahaha! Who the fuck will hurt their own butt with stitches?” The mild woman’s voice mocked.
“Hey, don’t laugh at her, it might hurt.” The firm voice sounds calm like she just keeps everything in control.
“Don’t you think it’s funny when people hurt their butts with stitches? Doesn’t that sound funny?” The mild voice giggled again.
“Only YOU will think this is funny.” the firm voice muffled,” and keep quiet! There are beasts out there!”
“Yeah Annie if you’re attacked by Basilisk I’m not gonna save you.” the angry woman's voice muttered.
The women who laughed at me is called Annie, and the abomination towards this woman is starting to root itself profoundly in my heart
I struggle to escape from the nets, but they are indestructible like any other iron net I’ve seen before. Now I want to ask for help, but the women sound so ridiculous and it seems like they hate me. I probably broke the traps they made, and that is why they mocked me.
“Just bring her down, her butt is bleeding.” the firm voice commanded.
“I’ll shoot the net down and you go and catch her.” the angry voice sighs, and I saw her hand raise from the bush and holding a violet bow that accentuated with carvings of lycoris radiate.
“OK!” Annie whispered, then she stood below me and expanded her hand.
How do people use bows and arrows to break the iron net? This is impossible!
When I tried to shout at them in order to stop their absurd acts, I saw the arrow becoming a fox-shaped azure flame that flew towards me speedily. The agile fox opens its mouth and munches the net furiously, then its teeth become vermilion blaze ignites the iron into melting lava. Its eyes, like the crescent moon in the blank night sky, burning fiercely with the reflection of calmness. Its fur illudes into the gentle breeze and vanishes in the obscurity of emptiness.
“Now! Catch her!” Shouted the girl with the bow, while the fox evaporated into a smog of cyan blue.
I now realize myself is falling down on to the ground, and I have lost almost all my consciousness and energy to make any movement. I just let myself fall freely, waiting for Annie to catch me.
I closed my eyes, hearing the sounds of the silent forest.
I feel a warm hand touching me softly and a sound of familiarity whisper in my ears.
Then my world turns dark.
I lost all my consciousness.
ns 172.69.58.200da2