Somewhere distant in the west, mountain ranges would stretch far across with their peaks reaching above the skies, and the ground would cover the entire land with the thick leaves and branches of enormous upside-down trees. The many trunks of the trees grew half the height of the mountains, and their roots spread wide and touched the skies. Some trees grew irregularly, having grown more leaves and branches, as their trunk reached higher than the rest. Among those trees, inside looked inhabitable by how compressed the leaves and branches were and the thin dappled sunlight in the darkness. But within its core, a secret remained. A mysterious, mossy wall from the past stood mighty before anything, then a little boy wearing a basket in his arm passed through it like an illusion. He casually walked into a place where all eyes would get confused. But the sounds of footsteps were familiar for those who had walked through many times. Ahead of his destination, there was an afternoon light shining at the entrance of an area.
“Hmmm,” he hummed and said, “I wonder if they are already ready?” He came out from the darkness and into the light, and there he was on a sandy, small farm. The boy, dressed in a farmer’s outfit, checked his surroundings: a fish pond, a garden of vegetables, a barn of cows and sheep, and a large chicken coop. He stopped and stared at the chicken coop.
“I checked the schedule,” he looked up to remember and said, “And I think there are enough deviled eggs for tonight.” He talked to himself and started to walk towards the coop. In front of the doorway, he took a glove from the basket and wore it to his left hand.
“All right,” he said as prepared. He slowly opened the door, and an intense heat escaped from the inside. He carried a block of rock beside the wall and placed it near the door to avoid closing itself and cool the inside. He then stood in front of the doorway and started to sweat a little on his forehead.
“Ah,” he wiped the sweat off and whispered, “Okay.” He continued to do his job and entered. And when he looked around, there were no chickens sighted anywhere. There was only hay in the nesting box. He then grabbed a large cup of rocks of colored ice in the basket and shook it. Because of the shushing sounds of the ice, the head of a chicken popped out from the hay. Then, a couple of more started getting out one by one, and some of them scanned the area with their wolven two front eyes. The coop became noisy as some of the chickens were growling with their toothless beaks at each other.
“Ey, hey, hey,” he looked around the commotion and spoke to them like children, “it’s an unusual time to feed, but all of you are eating more than enough today, okay?” The farmer talked to the chickens, and they seemed to start growling quieter. The boy spread the ice around him, and the chickens ran and flapped their wings to the ground like four-legged creatures. Then they became calm as they started pecking and eating the food.
“Okay, let’s go for the eggs,” he said as he breathed with a strong exhale while sweating profusely already. His back, chest, and armpits were already wet, and he walked near the nesting box and stuffed his gloved hand inside. He was searching as his eyes guessed the location of the eggs.
“Huh. There’s nothing here,” he said when he didn’t sense any egg in the area, so he pulled his hand out and started another place to search. Then, he excitedly grinned when he held one and said, “Here we go!” And he pulled it out carefully from the hay. He placed the egg upfront to his face and touched it with his other fingertip. It was steaming hot, so he quickly retracted his finger and noticed the temperature. He blew air to it and looked satisfied with the quality.
“I can’t tell if they are good or not,” he responded thoughtfully and continued while carefully placing the egg in the basket, “They’re just too different from the ordinary chicken eggs.” He resumed harvesting the eggs one by one and storing them in the basket, but then he held an unusually shaped egg with his fingertips.
“Huh? What is this?” he said in surprise that he felt something that was not like an egg. He was curious that he kept on touching it. And then, he identified the egg on what he was sensing, “Why is it squishy with something squishy inside?”
He stopped feeling it and started to figure things out with a conflicted face and eyes moving. Seconds after, he shrugged, “Eh,” and continued, “I’m just going to give it Popped. I think he-” When he grabbed it, he felt a sudden throbbing movement that glanced his eyes at it while saying, “What? It moved.” He was disturbed by what happened and stared at it as his curiosity grew. Then suddenly, he clenched it with a tight grip and pulled it with great force. After that, he felt a stretch that carried something weighing underneath.
Then, a stranger shrieked in pain, “Aaah!” and screamed, “Aaaahhhh!”
The farmer released his fingers and pulled his hand out quickly. He squealed from the jump scare, “Waaah!” and ran uncontrollably backward, causing him to fall on his butt. The chickens were not spooked as they continued eating. The eggs were safe as he locked tight the basket handle with his arm, and the boy was not in terrible pain; however, he was now freaking out that an unknown person was hiding in the nesting box.
“Ohhh… Ahhh. It hurts. That’s a bad good morning. Ahh. Why’s it still hurting?... Wait, something happened?” the stranger said while agonizing inside the hay. Then he gradually lifted his upper body from the hay and got his attention on the chickens; after that, he stared at the farmer on the ground. The pain slowly subsided, and he raised his skinny arm and rubbed his squinting eyes with his hand as the light outside the door hit his face. The boy on the ground froze, looking at every inch of the stranger’s identity. Then the stranger’s head started to feel itchy from the dried grasses in his hair. He scratched his head and brushed his hair off to remove the grasses.
“Hey,” he said in a friendly manner.
“Who are you?!” The farmer screamed in response as he pushed the ground with his hand and feet to move back away. The stranger looked confused by the emotions of the farmer and placed his legs out from the nesting box for his bare feet to dangle. The stranger slowly squinted his eyes, and the farmer saw him as a threat, looking like a predator ready to pounce. The farmer prepared himself to run away when he focused his eyes on the stranger’s body movement, and a single action would trigger to execute of his plan.
The stranger opened his eyes and replied, “Wait, who am I?”
The farmer quickly moved instinctively to the door, but he also was quick to stop when he realized what he heard and said, “What?”
The stranger looked away in realization when he did not know anything about himself. But the farmer argued, “You’re lying. I know you know something about yourself.”
The stranger looked down and corrected him, “But I’m sitting.”
The farmer thought the stranger used the other meaning of the word, so he explained, “No, I mean that you are making up your words that are false and deceiving.”
The stranger stared at the farmer to try to understand the words, and seconds later, he replied seriously, pointing the tip of his little finger at him, “Hey, I don’t lying.”
The farmer quickly saw his hand gesture and locked his eyes because it was unusual. Then he looked at the stranger’s eyes and said, “Wait, what?” He looked shocked and confused when he noticed the incorrect grammar. He continued, “No, the right word you should have said is lie. You don’t lie.”
“Yes! I don’t lie,” the stranger said as he pointed his finger upward.
The farmer stared at his finger again and complained, “Wha- why are you using that finger as a gesture to point out the words I said were supposed to be yours to say?”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Huh? What do you mean?” the stranger asked when he didn’t know what the farmer was talking about.
The farmer answered, “I learned that there are innate body languages during an interaction. So, you’re supposed to use your index finger because it acts as the best extension of your arm in emphasizing a statement.”
The stranger still didn’t understand everything, so he just stared at the farmer while he was talking but blinked his eyes multiple times when he knew some parts and understood them in his own comprehension. So, he put his little finger down and gave the farmer his middle finger.
“Oooh, so it’s like this,” he innocently said while smiling and thinking like he had learned something he thought was valuable.
“No,” the farmer shortly shook his head and said, “That’s the middle finger. Use the next finger.”
The stranger looked at both of his hands and flipped them, saying, “Uhhh,” while finding which finger the farmer said to be. So, he used the other hand and gave the farmer another middle finger, giving him two middle fingers.
“Uhh, this?” he said unsurely.
“Oh, my goodness, I mean this!” The farmer had enough of the confusion and instructed as he leaned forward with a straight back. He showed the stranger his index finger.
The stranger looked happy and said, “Ohh! That one.” He lowered his middle fingers and one of his arms and raised the index finger with his remaining arm. He continued, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know which finger was my index.”
The farmer looked suspicious and questioned, “You know where your fingers are, yet not their classification for each?”
“I…” the stranger looked away a second to think and answered, “Yeah. But I know now thanks to you. So, thank you.” He observed his hand like a discovery and continued, “So it’s supposed to be like this during our conversation.” He pointed his finger at him correctly and said, “Hey, I don’t lie,” then raised his finger upward and continued, “Yes, I don’t lie.” He smiled at the farmer excitingly and said, “Did I do it right?”
“Yeah, yeah, you did it right,” the farmer answered while standing and cleaning himself up, but then he remembered something recently. He was surprised to say, “Wait, wait a second.” He recalled his memories and thought of the stranger’s first answer to his question. He pointed at him aggressively and shouted, “You lied! And you lied about your lie!”
“Wh-,” the stranger looked confused and said, “What? No! I already told you that I don’t lie.”
The farmer argued, “Oh, yeah? You could’ve told me your name even if you don’t know anything about yourself. That’s how anyone would have answered the question when someone has something important to deal with you.”
The stranger replied, “Wait, uhh,” then looked around with his eyes and continued, “Name?” He looked at the farmer in more confusion.
“You don’t know the word name? Then how am I supposed to call you?” the farmer questioned and started getting confused because of the stranger’s confusion.
The stranger gripped the edges of the nesting box and said, “Uhhh,” while slouching, thinking, and moving his eyes from side to side. Then he looked straight into the farmer’s eyes, friendly replying, “Hey,” with a smile.
The farmer just stared at him expressionlessly with a couple of blinks because he didn’t know what to do. And in the back of the farmer’s mind, he thought, “Wait, is his name Hay or Hey? Or he doesn’t know what a name is, so he casually greeted me with a hey because it’s what anyone would call someone?”
Because of the silence that the farmer was giving to the stranger, the stranger thought it was the answer to his question, so since there was nothing to do, he pushed himself out from the box with his arms, and the moment his feet touched the ground, his legs quivered, and he collapsed flat to the ground. The silence continued, but a loud growl came from his stomach. He weakly looked at the farmer and said to him, “Uhhh, May I ask for some food here? I’m really hungry.”
The farmer snapped out from his thoughts and answered, “Oh, yeah, sure. You can have some of the food here. You can cool the deviled eggs down.” He walked towards the wall where a pail was hanging and took two eggs from the basket. He placed the eggs in the container and continued, “Fill this with water from the pond, and you can eat them after five minutes.”
The farmer walked in front of the doorstep. And the stranger crossed his feet to sit down and went his hand into his pocket. He pulled out a handful of sands, and the farmer continued as he pointed with his hand holding the pail, “You can take any leaves of the vegetables you want over there, the rightmost part, and eat them raw, but be sure to wash them first over the running water near the pond.” He looked back and asked, “You can stand up, right?”
The stranger said as he opened his hand, “Here. You can have this. It's my thank you for you.”
The farmer had his eyes on the hand with sands falling like waterfalls. As the sands reduced, an object protruded, and the farmer grew curious. He placed the pail down and walked near to the stranger. Upon closing in, he saw a shell. The farmer dropped his knees with amazement and exclaimed, “That a seashell!” with his face up close.
The stranger looked surprised as well and said, “Oh, really? Nice.”
The farmer continued, “A creature that lives on the bottom of the sea.” His fascination with the seashell made him smile, so he murmured, “Whoaaa,” and whispered, “I’ve never seen them in real life.”
The stranger saw his eyes in happiness, so he moved his hand closer and offered, “Here, you can have it."
The farmer felt eager to have it and said, “Really? Are you sure?”
He gave him a warm smile and answered, “Yeah, it's my thanks for letting me eat your food.”
Slowly, the farmer’s hand moved towards the seashell, and then a chicken pounced on the hand, thinking that there was food on it. It caused a commotion that startled the two boys, making them scream in surprise, “Aaaah!” But the stranger continued, “It’s them again!”
The seashell fell on the ground, and a chicken took it. Because of the incident, the farmer got reminded of his task that he forgot. His eyes widened in realization, then he shouted, “The eggs!”
The stranger squinted at the chicken that took the seashell and whispered menacingly, “The eggs.”
The farmer stood up and started panicking, “Oh no, no, no, no!” He pulled the arm of the stranger with one hand, and the stranger looked at him and said, "Hm?"
He threw him like a doll outside the chicken coop, and the stranger screamed in surprised while flying over, “Wh- Ahhh!”
And the farmer continued to say, “I forgot! I do not know what time is it now, but I have to deliver the eggs to Popped.”
The stranger crashed face down to the sands. The farmer rushed his work by taking many eggs into the basket and dashed outside. After that, he finished his job, then ran out, kicked the rock, and slammed the door shut.
“Oh no!” he yelled his regret by closing it and opening it again. He went inside to take the two eggs in the pail and then ran outside. He slammed the door again and shouted, “Let’s go, go, let’s go!” He then ran and grabbed the hand of the stranger, dragging him across the farm towards the darkness.
“Wait, where’s Popped?” the stranger asked.
“Hey!” the farmer sounded slightly irritated, so he stopped and pulled the stranger upwards to say, “Stand up!”
“Oh,” he stood up and apologized, “I’m sorry.”
The farmer continued to pull the stranger then they ran into the darkness. Then the stranger asked, “By the way, where’re we going?”
“Back to our home! What else are we going to do here? I still have to give the eggs to Popped,” The farmer answered, worried and anxious.
“Oh…” the stranger felt the farmer’s emotions and tried to comfort him, “What’ll Popped do with the eggs?” Then the two boys went inside the darkness.
“Uhm, I don’t know,” the farmer whispered from his mind and answered, “But, the eggs are, uh- They, they are a new kind that the customers were waiting for to eat. Because the farmers started raising a new chicken, the customers are hungry to taste it. So Popped cannot finish his dishes without the deviled eggs.”
The sounds of the farmer talking were slowly fading as they went deep into the forest. A second later, the farm became quiet. Then an audible scream was heard from the pained stranger, “Wait! Ah! My eye! Something happened to my eye! I…” And they were the last audible words as their voices were already impossible to hear as they had traveled far from the farm. At last, the only left was the sound of silence and a blink of light from a firefly. The light hitting the farm turned dark slowly as the night approached. And both of them headed into what was inside the wall, a kingdom.