The living town and its howling wind

"In this wide area where sounds could not be heard, despite being populated, you can feel like the place is mourning itself.

It has been ravaged and has been drained out of its inhabitants.

The very inhabitants that are the only agents giving the place its liveliness!

The howling howl of the wind as it oscillates on this wide road is pulverising my heart. I feel like it is looking for its dwellers that were just causing joyful voices that were echoing and lively, but suddenly turned astonishingly and totally quiet!

The echoing and lively voices are gone!

And now the town is looking for it with a mournful tone, wondering where her inhabitants have gone.

It's like my chest is being gripped so tightly that it makes it hard for me to breathe.

To think that this howling of wind that I enjoy too much will sound like a helpless person that is abandoned by its trustful companion and comrades. The town is like a little girl that was abandoned and now has no way to look for her comrades, weeping as she walks directionless on this wide road, Hoping they were just hiding somewhere as an extremely ridiculous joke.

The howling wind I am hearing as I stand numbly with Ayrimir and three others (uncle, aunt, and their daughter) is very spirit-draining.

To think she is looking for her inhabitants, hoping they were just hiding somewhere. This wind oscillates around the wide road, HOWLING as if it is searching meticulously for every perfect hiding spot.

While I am dramatising the situation, I give a thought to the howling wind.

Your sound is beautiful, and the play you do as you roam around these great distances of the town is magnificent. Your sound is cheerfully rejoicing with the townspeople's lively echoing conversations. You live your days blissfully as you run joyfully with your playmates, which are the town dwellers.

The town is brightly shining at night, and it makes you more happily active as you louden the noise of your beautiful howling sound. The cool touch of your air as it caresses my skin the moment I am relaxing in the shed to enjoy the stars is filled with a friendly, caring intent.

The whooshes of your excited, joyful run are refreshing the whole town!

No one will ever reject you, oh, howling wind!

I keep following the sound of the wind as it enters the great distances between those giant buildings.

I talk to it in my thoughts.

I keep following its howling sound's movement, for I am astounded.

At the moment, my eyes ooze tears. "

Niriyir let out a breath.

Huh... Well, I can't even tell the difference in your face now.

Is what I said to myself as I saw her condition.

Niriyir is filled with sadness, but she has no tears at all. But I can very much tell that she is now crying.

I sipped my coffee and then let out a breath.

" sigh"

As a nature lover, I can really relate to the way she describes how lonely the town has become.

The town is lonely, huh? And its wind is now searching for her inhabitants.

The beautiful, peaceful sound of the howling wind has become a sad, long sound of search.

A situation that is both very heartwarming and, at the same time, very heartbreaking.

I narrowed my eyes with a slight sad smile and thought to myself.

I wonder how my apartment is doing now.

"sigh"

Niriyir continue.

"The howling wind keeps searching for the echoing sounds made by the joyful conversations of people, but it finds none.

What is to be heard are the sounds of noisy steel plates in the road and billboards.

The howls loudened as if they were desperately calling out for the people that were hiding in the whole town.

Whooo...!!! Whoooo..!!!

Is what I am hearing as I am seeing the residences that are in between the gigantic buildings.

I then replied to it in my mind.

What are you calling for, oh, wind? What hide-and-seek game are you deluding, oh, abandoned town?

I feel like you are looking for your friends. I feel like you are looking for your parents that raised you, oh, wide, cheerful town!

Your creators are there; your makers are on the road, just as they always were.

Your inhabitants are not hiding. They are not playing hide-and-seek. They are not playing ridiculous jokes on you.

As I am thinking those things, the whole town whooshes a very sad, long cry. A heartbreaking howl of wind has filled the peaceful town.

I turn my eyes to the wide road where we are standing.

There are the bloodstains of the town dwellers smeared all over the place.

There are those running people that were once chitchatting groups on the main road, but now...

Only a few figures are visible that are running in an uncertain way.

There are those figures of beasts that are torning the dwellers bodies apart. The fierce way it sways its head to dismember the dweller's body is very infuriating and detesting. We can even clearly see the figures of limbs that are being thrown away as the beast sways its head fiercely to that side. The blood that showers the ground as the body gets crushed by its devouring teeth is so offensive to the eyes that it is even urging us to release a cry of anger. The scene is penetrating our hearts and will surely make us cry loudly for the person's unfortunate fate.

What is absurd is that we can't even give them a mournful cry lest beasts hear us and come to us after.

Oh, the howling wind.

We are hearing this howling wind all over the place. Its sound is an unsteady tone, yet it is very smooth as it changes volume.

The town that kept seeking the joyful echoing voices of the cheerful crowds finally settled herself.

It finally finds its family!

No wonder the howl of the wind suddenly grew louder.

Its playmates are all prone on the ground. Some are limbless, and some are totally ravaged. There are even those beasts that are competing over a single person as they drag them back and forth.

I can feel it—the feeling of the town.

If the town does have emotions, if the town really is alive, then I can very much understand the feeling.

May it be a creator, a playmate, or a family, the feeling will not change. The blissful moments the town and its people share are unforgettable. The way the town grows as its dwellers get older is like a treasure that should not be lost for eternity!

If the town does really have emotions, then this makes sense.

While we gaze at the wide road and the horizon filled with widely separated gigantic buildings, a peaceful, bloody scene is in our eyesight.

And a loud, sad, crying sound suddenly echoed throughout the whole wide town!

Every corner of the whole town is being filled by this loudly whooshing wind, and its sound is howling!

Say, if a town really has an emotion, then

Doesn't this sound like she is mourning over the dead bodies of her inhabitants? "

Niriyir asks us with her eyes, which look worn out and are smiling spiritlessly.

"Ah... Yeah... Maybe? Haha?"

My reply is a mess; how am I supposed to reply to that? Good grief...

"The town sure is hopeless in your perspective at that time. Your feeling is a blessed one, Niriyir."

Oh...

I turn to Sei because I am surprised by her sudden interaction.

"To think that your perspective of the surroundings turns out to be that sad explains how filled with despair the situation was.

The moment you heard those howling sounds of wind in that situation, it might have instantly drowned you in sorrow.

You've probably even felt that you would suffocate every time you turned your eyes. The great distances of the plain vacant places might have caused you to be out of balance. The gigantic buildings heights are too great. However, your distance from it is very far, which makes it only out of your reach, causing you to be engulfed in wooziness.

With all of this in your way, you feel dizzy. Standing on that wide road feels exactly like standing on the top of a very tall post, where there is neither a fence nor security in every direction. It is like a feeling of being numb because of the fear of falling down as the wind keeps pushing you on every side.

Yes,

Standing on that very wide road might have been a complete fright. "

Niriyir's eyes sparkled upon hearing Sei's comment.

It means that Sei completely understands what Niriyir feels, huh?

Well, not that I don't also understand, but...

Niriyir continues,

" Yeah, the place put me in a great despair! I can't help but dramatise the condition of the town. The moment i hear those howling sounds, i suddenly feels like the town is crying over herself. Even though it is absurd to think that way, i still feel like the town is asking for help, i can feel like the town is looking for its dwellers and is crying because they are all dead. How could i ignore that? In an instant it fills my brain with that idea. I can't even resist to think that way. The only thing i know is my eyes are already oozing tears. The sound of the wind and the condition of the town are very lonely. But, at the same time, the wideness of the area and the beasts crawling over them are very creepy.

We have suffered many emotional devastations at the same time. Our emotions are being repeatedly altered from sadness to creepiness, and we don't even have time to rest.

We are utterly weakened and drained of strength.

How can we even accept it?

No, i can't take it anymore. "

Niriyir suddenly stops.

I and Sei just contracted our eyes as Niriyir continued.

"And at that very time,

I suddenly remembered to think about the safety of my OWN FAMILY.

My family is waiting for us at home, which is out of town.

I worriedly looked towards the horizon, directing my gaze to our house, and uttered,

FATHER, MOTHER..."