“Die.”
The word echoed continuously.
Three letters, only three letters could form such a feeling.
The feeling of despair that keeps on growing inside of me.
An expression that I kept on hearing thousands of times, in which made me lose hope.
“Die.”
Even if I tried to look around, everything was black.
My surroundings were all black.
But maybe my eyes were closed, and I just couldn't open them.
All I could hear was-
“Die already.”
-----
I gasped loudly as I opened my eyes.
Sweat was all over my body, and a tear was slowly falling from my face.
My heart was racing heavily, as if I’ve been revived.
I moved my hand onto my chest and clasped it.
Hearing my heavy breath, I was still laying down on the grass, looking at the clear blue sky ahead of me.
I needed a few minutes to recover energy to sit up.
And as I did, I looked around.
Surprised by the scenery in front of me.
“What is this…” I murmured.
A meadow filled with violet flowers, surrounding a giant crystal lake.
I felt the wind behind me as I slowly stand up.
I took a glimpse of my black hair, which was long and fluttering.
Looked down on my dress, which was plain white.
I could feel the grass, as I was barefoot.
But at the moment I was dazed by the panorama.
“This feels nice.” I spoke softly.
Everything that was surrounding me felt so nice.
I felt a sensation of relief witnessing such a scenario.
I looked around, moving my whole body, as if I’m twirling around.
But as I looked behind me, the sight of a city was below me, which made me disorientated and stumble ahead.
“AHHH!” I shrieked.
In a flash I fell from the cliff.
All this time, I was standing at the edge of a cliff.
The whole world was flying pass me, hearing and feeling the wind on my face and the pressure on my whole body.
And every second, I could see the ground getting closer and closer.
“AHHHHH!” All I could do was scream.
I closed my eyes tightly from the fear.
The fear of dying.
‘In a matter of moments, I’ll- ‘
Pak!
I felt two arms around my waist and legs.
Someone caught me, carrying me.
I couldn’t feel the wind anymore, it felt like we were standing still for a few seconds.
“You need to be more careful kiddo! What were you doing?” A man’s voice was heard.
I opened my eyes and saw an old man, still carrying me, with medium red hair, brown eyes and with a huge well-built body.
“Well? What happened? How did you fall from such height?” He looked up, where the cliff was.
I also looked up and was shocked by the altitude of the cliff.
It was humongous.
“I do not know…” I murmured.
“Okay, well where are your parents? Did you go to that cliff all alone without them knowing?”
I looked at him with a perplexed expression.
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“…”
“Sighs, I guess your parents told you not to talk to strangers. But I cannot let you go away on your own.” ‘Especially she might be frightened by what happened.’
He said, with a concerned face.
He stopped to think for a moment, then he looked at me and smiled.
“My name is Exios. What is your name, kid?”
‘Name.’ I thought.
“My name…” I said.
As I tried to answer, i couldn’t find any.
My head was blank.
“What was my name?” I questioned myself, staring at the blue sky, and white clouds that were moving slowly.
“Huh?” The man uttered, confused to my response.
I looked at him, with sudden tears flowing through my eyes.
I didn’t know why I was tearing up, but the tears came automatically.
The feeling inside me was unknown, but it felt like I wanted to rip my heart apart.
“I don’t know my name.”
As I finished talking, my ears got struck by a loud ringing noise and slowly my vision became blurry.
“Hey kid! Are you okay?” The man exclaimed.
And suddenly I couldn’t see anything nor feel anything.
-----
I slowly awoke to the loud noises coming from somewhere.
I groaned and opened my eyes, though they felt heavy.
I sat up and looked around.
"Where am i?" I asked, while sitting on a bed in a small room with walls colored in a white and dull purple, but also decorated with some unrecognizable drawings.
There was also a wardrobe, a desk with a small mirror and a chair.
On my left there was a drawer with a small lamp.
I kept hearing distant noises from somewhere.
Near the sides of my bed I noticed two windows.
I opened the wooden window, and the noises became much louder.
“Ah…” I stared in astonishment.
Not too low from the ground, I could see merchants selling their goods, people buying or eating, kids running around.
Flowers of different kinds all over the place.
Many houses made of wood, lamp streets and nature around them that balanced perfectly to the beauty of the village.
After a few seconds of admiring the place, I heard distant music playing somewhere very close.
I got off the window and decided to walk through the door in the room I was in.
I opened the door that made a creek.
I peeped, but no one was there.
Instead there was a staircase that lead downstairs.
I slowly descended the stairs and arrived at the ground floor that was a hallway with three doors and plenty of picture frames attached to the walls.
I was curious about the picture, but due to my height, I couldn’t see well.
I decided to jump to every picture I was passing by.
“Hup!” I jumped to the first picture; the man who saved me earlier and a beautiful woman besides him. The man was standing still and stiff, with a serious expression on his face, while the woman was smiling beautifully with her wavy brown hair.
I jumped to the second picture. “Huup!” That man, who was all serious a second ago, was now celebrating something with the woman while holding hands.
Petals were falling on top of them, and the man had a formal suit while the woman had a white dress, while holding purple flowers on her hands.
‘I’m getting a bit tired, but I want to see more.’ I was getting curious to what was happening.
“Huuup!” I jumped to the third picture.
The man had tears on his face while holding-
‘A baby.’
The woman, who seemed exhausted, was smiling while lying on the bed, caressing the baby’s head.
I looked at the fourth picture, by jumping again.
The baby grew up slowly, holding both his father’s hand and mother’s hand.
‘oh, he was learning how to walk.’
The fifth picture was the last one.
“Hup!” I jumped.
A bit baffled to what I saw.
The man was alone in the picture, and it showed only him and his tavern.
He had such a joyous expression, but they didn’t seem genuine at all.
The feeling of emptiness, on a happy face.
I wanted to jump again to see if I missed the woman and the little kid, but-
Bam!
The music was louder, and a noise made me startle.
I looked at the three doors and slowly put my ear on each door.
I passed the first door. And I shook my head.
I passed the second door. I shook my head again.
Finally I was at the third door.
I set my ear on the wooden door.
And there I heard all the noises clearly.
I grabbed the handle, it was placed a bit too high, but I managed to grab it.
I turned it and the door slowly opened.
There I saw-
“I need more ale! Give me more Exios! I have a challenge with this bastard right here!”
“I won. Give me fifteen gold coins. HAHA!”
“Look at him! He’s dancing on top of the table, he’s going to break it! Exios!”
Chaos was in front of me.
There were men sleeping in strange positions, even sleeping on the floor.
Others were singing and dancing to the loud music, while some were playing.
There were more who kept on drinking.
I was standing there, looking at them for a few minutes, listening to all sorts of things.
“Ey, there’s a kid.” A man noticed me.
As soon as he said that others looked to my direction.
“Kid? What is a kid doing here?”
“Who is she? Did one of you fuckers bring a poor little child into this misery??”
Then suddenly the man who saved me earlier noticed me, causing him to stop what he was doing.
His eyes widens and started moving.
I looked at him as he walked towards me.
“Hey, kiddo! You’re awake.” He crouched in front of me.
As he said that, the music stopped, and everyone went silent.
“Exios… you- you have a kid?!”