Change

"Wind of Eden?" the boy asked, just as surprised as the girl. "What's that?"

"I don't know," she uttered, pausing between each word as she touched her temple. The boy was about to inquire about it further; but before he managed to, he watched her sway. And she fell.

The boy rushed to her, shouting her name in concern. She seemed to have passed out of tiredness. He took her to the cottage and allowed her to rest, and slept by her side.

---

The wind before heralded a change; a new era of adventures and mysteries was dawning. The landscape took its time before changing, but it did change eventually.

After that incident with the wind, the girl pondered what she had said, "the Wind of Eden." Apart from the fact that it had come to her mouth as naturally as the wind that had blown that day, she didn't know what it was. And the boy didn't ask her about it either.

But eventually, she began remembering things. The first thing she remembered was her name. She didn't tell the boy about it, however. She loved the name he had given her. And besides, she had had that name in another world. In another life. Now she was living a new life. In a new world, along with the boy. It was normal that she had a new name too.

Another thing she remembered was that she had been in a different place that didn't look like this lifeless world: it was brimming with life everywhere. She recalled lovely green lands, a relaxing breeze swaying her hair, and a beautiful blue sky. The rest of the things were vague. She couldn't make anything out of them.

The girl urged that they make a new journey. "I believe there's a better world out there, which has many people to meet and talk to, many foods to eat, and many lovely places to visit," she said and persuaded the boy to search for that world. She didn't know how they would do that, and if it was even possible in the first place, but dreaming was better than doing nothing.

So the duo left their cottage and headed in a particular direction. The boy told her they should try another direction as he had already walked this way. But the girl insisted this was the right route. She seemed to know what she was doing. It was as if she was ushered by a mysterious force that was guiding her to a new adventure. So the boy decided to follow her lead.

*

The boy observed a recurring pattern in the wind: it always came from the same direction and traveled with a low initial velocity before gradually shifting to a maximum velocity, then again dropping back to the initial velocity in the like manner. He could sense the velocity of the wind very precisely somehow, which amazed his friend, Lina. She suggested they call the wind direction "north" and derived the names of the other three directions accordingly. "It'll help us to keep track of our way," she said.

The boy estimated the time it took for the wind to complete half a period — the duration between when its speed was highest and when its speed was lowest — by counting at a steady rate. When it came to such things, the boy discovered that he had an extremely keen sense. He counted to approximately 43000 for the first half period. He repeated this experiment several times and got the same result. He then did the same for the second half period — the time for the wind to decrease its speed to the minimum from the peak. He arrived at the same result again: he could count to about 43000.

*

That's how the boy came up with a time measurement system, without even realizing it. According to this system, they had been traveling for 7 seven periods so far, each period approximately being equivalent to one counting to 86000 at a natural pace. He didn't know what he was calling "one period" was essentially the same as "one day" because he didn't know the units of time — second, minute, hour, day — that existed in the world where the girl had previously lived. The girl figured this out when one day she was contemplating this magical number the boy had discovered as she couldn't sleep. She quickly told the boy about it.

By that time, most of her memories had returned. She learned about the mansion she had lived in, the faces of her family members and the comrades she had journeyed with, the monsters they had killed with magical powers, and all the things she had been taught by her dear mentor. The only things she couldn't yet remember were what the Wind of Eden was and how she had arrived in this lost world. Although it was also possible she had always been in this world, her intuition said otherwise.

But the boy, on the other hand, couldn't remember anything at all. The only thing he knew was to communicate effortlessly with the girl. And how fast or slow the wind moved or to count seconds with precision. He went on doubting if he had a past life, to begin with. But the girl believed he did. Intuition again. And she pitied the boy for not remembering anything. It must be very scary to lose all your memories and forget your identity, she thought. It's like dying. Or even worse.

"What's the day?" the boy asked one day when they were gazing at the lights.

"In simplest terms, it's a way to keep track of the time and measure it," she answered. "One day is equal to one period or counting to 86400."

That brought another question to the curious boy's mind. "What exactly is time?"

At first, the girl didn't know how to respond to such a philosophical question, but then she remembered her master's words. "Time is the collection of one's memories and dreams. The memories are the past, and the dreams are the future. And finally, the present is somewhere between the two." She said these words to the boy.

The boy seemed oddly satisfied with the answer.

---

The drastic changes in this world began with the onset of winter, one month after they took on their journey. The grass-like things slowly disappeared. It seemed as if the ground had sucked them in. The light intensity diminished to the point where the two adventurers found it difficult to see. The wind was cold and stronger than before; it threatened to freeze everything it touched. The land was the color of the sand before turning to the color of the mud when water suddenly and mysteriously appeared from above, like those lights, which were now more than before. They sort of look like snow falling from the sky, the girl thought.

*

The boy could feel the cold through his bones. "How much more do we have to walk before we reach our destination?" he asked, fighting the winter wind, which was getting more and more challenging by the second. They were in the middle of nowhere. There was no place to take shelter in. The cold took over the entire world. The only place that might have offered them protection was the cottage, the only shelter in this world. But it was too far away.

"A little more," the girl replied, who could barely walk by now.

The boy knew how weak and fragile this girl was, but he didn't have enough energy left in him to carry her on his back. He could barely manage to walk himself. Soon her legs froze, and she couldn't advance another step. She dropped to the boy's arms.

The cold was ever-increasing: the boy felt it could assassinate him at any moment. And he wouldn't even know it. He was about to lose his consciousness soon. He tried his best to tug the girl and move on, but he could only go so far. His senses became numb, and he collapsed. It was just a matter of time before the cold drew out the soul from his body.

The boy heard the girl's voice from behind. She was feebly uttering some strange phrases that he couldn't understand. In fact, he could barely hear her. So I'm going to die without knowing a single thing, huh? the boy thought as he was ready to embrace his fate.

He wished he were stronger. Stronger enough to survive against all odds and protect the one he cared for. He now no longer heard her. He wondered what her last words were. He slowly closed his eyes.

To the boy's surprise, he felt a sudden rush of energy inside him. It was just like the wind incident. The energy he felt was so enormous that he felt like he could carry Lina and walk for an entire year without stopping.

He leaped to his feet, and before his eyes were lying an unconscious Lina. He tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't respond or move. He removed his shirt, covered her with it, and carried her on his back. He didn't know how long he still had to go, but he knew what direction to go in: southeast. The cold appeared much weaker now, and its dagger too blunt to kill him. He could fight. And win the battle.

It had been six months since then. The boy hadn't taken his eyes off Lina for a single moment. He was still fine after not sleeping or eating for that long. He didn't know exactly what had happened that day, but in his heart, he knew Lina had saved his life.

Over these past months the world had changed so much that it was hardly recognizable. The land took on some strange color. The boy didn't know what this color was called. It was somewhat a mixture of yellow and pale green. The texture of the land looked much lovelier. Gigantic lavender clouds floated beneath the cerulean sky. There were rocks and sands and rivers. Sometimes the ground shook, and the sky shuddered, whose purpose, if there was any, the boy didn't understand. The strange lights were still there. There was yet no sign of a new life.

The boy waited and waited for his dear friend to open her eyes again. When he was impatient, he would shake her with all his might, shouting her name for hours as streams of tears made their way out of his eyes.

But she never awoke again.