1- The Past Is In Front Of Us

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In the darkness, a warm light will be born.

In hopeless times, he shall see it through, a soul forlorn.

A dragon, the horizon, love or obsession.

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"Rise and shine!" the thick curtains opened, letting in warm, dark, orange rays which enveloped the small and cozy room of a young boy, but to that boy, it felt like it hit his closed eyes with a flash.

It woke him up, but still feeling tired, he reflexively turned to his back, away from the annoying light with a groan.

"Oh, don't be like that," the comforting, motherly voice said. "You know you have to get up early for your chores. Your friends are waiting for you," she said gently.

Moments later, the boy began to move around in his bed. "I assume you're waking up. Your father's already done making breakfast. Prep up, Kairo dear."

And so, the woman left the room. The boy, whom the woman called "Kairo", turned back around to take a peek at the sun to try and get a glimpse of the time, but instead saw the sun peeking back at him sharply, driving him to close his eyes. From what he gathered in that split second, he surmised it was still dark and early outside.

He sat up on his bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. His dark hair reached to his plain, charcoal eyes, so he swept it away from his face. The strands returned right atop his eyebrows since that was its natural place. He stretched for a bit before standing up from his bed.

Still rubbing the dirt off of his eyes while lazily walking out of his room, he took a whiff of the air and smelled something warm and familiar.

It was the pleasant scent of bread and cooked fish. It was probably reheated bread from yesterday as it was still too early to bake anything.

Before eating, he took a wooden cup and went outside to fill it with water. He used the water to wash his face and gargle. He never felt like his day had started without doing that routine first.

"Hmm?" he found himself pausing. Something felt off. Did he used to have such a habit?

He met with his father right outside their house as Kairo was just about done with his morning routine.

"Io," his father greeted him.

His father has short, dark, grayish hair and a big nose. His build is thin, but not sickly. He has prominent eyebrows resting on top of his determined eyes and a considerably clean-shaven face.

"Io, father," Kairo greeted back respectfully.

"Io" is a greeting commonly used in rural and remote areas, a foreign expression to people that lived in settlements close to modern kingdoms and cities.

He saw his father reply with a nod. His father's forehead was wrinkly, but Kairo knew that it was a result of his father's hardworking character. He was proud of that fact and always wished to be as passionate as his father.

"What're you doing with that cup?" his father asked.

"Huh? For gargling and washing my face. Like usual."

"Really?"

"Huh?" Kairo scratched his head in confusion.

"Well, anyway, the other two're already eating. After you finish your meal, you'll be using this to collect dry sticks with them," he handed Kairo a makeshift container made out of thick branches and rope.

Kairo's eyes widened with interest at the new contraption before looking back up at his father. "With this, you'll be able to hold more dry sticks before having to go back. As usual, get a lot, but not too much. Save some for the future and so your back may thank you. Now giddy up, Kairo," he said, slapping his son's back vigorously with hearty laughter.

"Ow," Kairo muttered with a chuckle as he almost clumsily fell frontwards but was able to catch himself. "My back won't be thanking you, Father," his father ruffled his dark hair before heading back inside with a vase of water.

After Kairo finished his breakfast, he went outside and wore the wooden container on his back. He felt a bit chilly so he rubbed his hands together and blew a warm breath at them. He hopped and skipped towards the fence gates leading to the outside of his humble village, the container on his back was sturdy enough to weather his enthusiasm.

There, at the end of the wooden fences encircling the village, awaited his two friends, who were also equipped with the same contraption his father gave him.

Nayani and Kayal are siblings. The older one, Kayal, is a smart and good-natured girl. She is quite mature for her age and usually leads the trio as the eldest. The younger one, Nayani, is a righteous boy. He is always seen telling their drunkard neighbor to stop drinking so much booze because he is worried about the poor guy.

Nayani is the same age as Kairo, but younger than him for a few months. Kayal is a year older than the two of them.

Nayani usually looks as if he is filled with boundless energy while Kayal ordinarily has a calm demeanor. They virtually look the same, as they have the same height and shade of dark hair, but when they bear the same expression, it is almost impossible to figure out who's who since they are still quite young.

One way to distinguish one from the other is by looking at their eyes.

Kayal has dead fish eyes, but she is always smiling to compensate for it. She frequently reasons that it's to erase any possible misunderstandings about there having ill will with her gaze.

Nayani was born with beautiful, expressive eyes, they were so pretty that everyone initially thought he was a girl. That was until one of them thought to look at the genitals, but it was already too late, as he was already given a name.

"Let's go?" Kayal asked.

"Yeah!" Kairo and Nayani answered diligently in unison.

And so, they started their march, following the pathway that started at the forest entrance.

"What did you eat for breakfast?" Nayani asked as they strolled further in, looking for dry sticks.

"Fish, bread, and eggs today!" Kairo replied while looking around the forest floor littered with leaves and grass. "You?"

"We both had fish, bread, and vegetables," Nayani said with a smile. "Although, of course, I gave some of my vegetables to sis, and then she gave me some of her fish meat in return."

Kayal was a bit flustered by what Nayani had exposed. "I just dislike the smell of fish! There's nothing wrong with that..." she argued with a pout. "And you should eat more vegetables like Mama and Papa always say!" she teased back.

"Grr... only if you start finishing all the fish they give you!" Nayani replied, putting on a cheeky smirk. He spotted a couple of dry sticks nearby and went to pick them up.

"Ahh, sibling fight in the morning. Music to my ears," Kairo said, placing his open hand at the back of his ear, exaggeratedly gesturing himself as if listening to a sweet tune, before returning to his search for sticks.

"Jealous? Just ask for a sibling from your mama and papa," Nayani mindlessly suggested, to which Kayal flinched at the idea.

"Hmm... I'll go ask Father and Mother if I can have a sister. Then our set will be complete! Elder sister and brother," Kairo pointed to Kayal and himself. "younger sister and brother!" he cheerfully pondered aloud, pointing to a blank spot and to Nayani, who put the sticks he picked up in the container on his back.

"I... don't think it's that easy," Kayal said sheepishly.

"Huh? Why not?" Nayani asked, both he and Kairo looked at Kayal with absolutely puzzled faces as if it was inconceivable that it wasn't a simple matter of asking their parents.

"Y-You'll understand when you're older..." she said timidly. "Oh, look! More sticks!" she pointed in a random direction with nervous laughter.

The two boys continued to look clueless as they observed her run in the direction she pointed at, clearly not finding any sticks at all but acting as if she did, pretending to pick some up while laughing strangely.

"Anyway, just ask 'em, alright? I think a sister is a great idea! If it's anything like me and my sister, it'll be funny to see a girl-you," he chuckled before heading to his sister, who was still acting odd.

The three continued their search for dry sticks and firewood until their backs were feeling heavy from their haul. They felt like it was enough, so they agreed to head back.

With the wood they collected securely sitting in their makeshift containers, they marched back to the village through the pathway they came from. There, on their way back, they saw an elegant view of the orange sunrise engulfing their village from afar as they were surrounded by rows and rows of trees at their sides.

However, it was still quite dark as only a fraction of the sun was visible over the horizon. Their quiet village's tiny silhouette looked as though it was welcoming them home.

It was still a long way back until they reached the end of the forest, so they chatted along the way when suddenly, Kairo felt his heart beat a little too strongly.

He felt it echo from his chest to his outer limbs, making him freeze. The other two were concerned about him stopping so suddenly in his tracks as he gripped his heart.

There was another echo and it felt instantaneous and long at the same time. Grief, anger, relief, joy, longing, weariness, and other complex emotions he'd never felt before swirled inside him. The intensity made him weak, making him fall down on his knees screaming.

But before long, they were starting to get washed away from him. The two went to his aid to see what was wrong with their friend. They were confused by his sudden behavior. He was no longer being haunted by that powerful sensation, though there were still lingering remnants of those feelings as his heart thumped loudly and rapidly.

He tried to catch his breath, but before he could start to process what happened, for some reason, he felt like he expected to hear a noise in the woods.

As he turned his head around behind him to his right, as if on cue, they heard a stick crack coming from behind the trees. He saw what seemed to be a small, hooded figure hurriedly run away like a dark blur melding into the shadows before the other two were able to turn to where Kairo was looking at.

"What was that?" Nayani asked with a cautious peer.

"A... rabbit maybe?" Kairo responded, still not fully back to his senses.

"I don't know. It might be dangerous to check. It looks like it went away anyway, so... let's just continue on our way back home," Kayal suggested.

"Yeah," Kairo replied as he caressed his chest, still rattled about that abnormal experience. It seemed that it was nothing too bad after walking it off.

As they grew closer to the village, they began to realize that there was something wrong with the view in front of them.

"Does... the village seem different to you?" Nayani asked, slowly pointing in front of them, their eyes following the direction of his finger.

The three of them squinted as the silhouette looked as though it was swirling ever so slightly. Indeed, the village seemed to be engulfed not by the rising sun, but by growing flames. It wasn't apparent before, but now they see the huge smoke coming from the village under the dark sky.

They looked at each other with worry and rushed back home. After a few minutes of running, they were close enough to hear and feel the raging inferno eating away at the once-sturdy wooden buildings, which were now falling apart one by one, causing more destruction and spreading fire.

The three were taken aback and awfully distraught that one by one, they dropped their containers on the grass. The wood they leisurely collected spilled on the ground, rolling a small ways away from them. Nayani fell to his knees, his face frozen. Kayal stood still, speechless.

Out of indescribable shock and with his eyes wide open, Kairo could only let out a single noise from his mouth.

"...Huh?"