09 – You are not alone

The village of Rimeria was small, barely a hundred people. All its hunters were already out before the sun even rose, to secure enough food for everyone to eat today. The warriors, instead, were all gone. The few who survived the last monster attack were forced to choose between protecting the village and providing enough food, and eventually all of them had to become hunters.

Lumia watched the rest of her people slowly wake up from her room. The sun was about to appear on the horizon, from the vantage point of her house on the tree, and soon enough its warmth would spread to all the people below as well.

From her window she could peer into the other room, and her sharp eyes looked upon the sleeping figure of a man. He was in her bed, looking at peace as he slept, almost heedless of what happened to him last night.

The hours passed and she, just like him, did not move. Well, at times she went in his room and nursed him, but time and time again she found herself back in the other room, gazing out of the window. Eyes falling back to the sleeping man as the sun went to the zenith and then slowly fell back down to plunge into the green horizon of the forest.

She opened her eyes. They stung a little, and her body felt a bit stiff. She had fallen asleep; she remembered the amber color of the sunset while now all she could see was the dark blue of the night. Her mother was back home, in the kitchen again, the rattling of pots and cutlery the telltale sign.

“Did you spend all day there?”

She could not answer this question, because even though she knew the answer she did not know the reason why she did so. Gazing in the distance, the edge of her sharp vision always keeping to the tiny window and the face of a man she didn’t know.

It was the first time she saw a human, so maybe that was the reason. There was nothing worthy of note about that person, brown eyes and hair, quite tall and muscular but completely forgettable. So much so, that he had the opposite effect on her.

She looked at his room. He wasn’t there.

“Mother!” She called, the first warnings of panic setting in. “He’s gone?”

“What do you mean—is that music?”

They both stopped to better listen, and indeed found that there was music coming from somewhere. From above, it seemed.

Jacob woke up, feeling the soft and warm embrace of the bed he was in. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around. This was not his room, was the first thought that came to his mind. And this, he looked at the warm sheets, was not his bed.

So foolish of him to think he was back.

He rolled to one side, finding the broken armor piled up on the floor. His eyes lingered on it, on the torn apart metal where the beast bit him, and he stored it distractedly. Looking around, he found himself in a strange wooden room built upon a tree, the branches invading the ceiling and growing out of the walls.

From the small window, a village was below. He exhaled, the edge of mouth curling upwards almost imperceptibly. What a strange twist of fate, and yet this place felt so good, so warm and hospitable. It reminded him of something he did not have anymore.

Finding some stairs, he went up. It was dark but the moon shone its pale silver light and lit the shallow steps through the layer of leaves above. Small shapes and fractals played on the floor and the walls, until he was sitting on a lone branch near the top of the tree.

He could see below, through several lush branches of this enormous tree. He placed down a 3x3 workbench, impossibly hanging on the side of the trunk. As he was done, he destroyed it and watched the floating dropped item fall down below in silence.

He slumped back against the trunk, legs dangling down. He placed the crafted item, and inserted the disk.

The music started, soft, low. He didn’t know the song, but the feel tasted like home. Like Earth. Somehow this music belonged to his past world, somehow it was a little remnant of what was there, but here.

He felt a wetness in his face. The world itself got foggy and his eyes strained to stay open. Home, his family. His life. He missed it.

The world here was so big, so scary. He was alone and there was nothing, nobody waiting for him at the end of the day. His family was back home, waiting for him, perhaps. Or maybe they had forgotten about him, his existence barely a grain of sand in the universe.

Light on her steps, Lumia climbed the winding staircase going upwards. She saw him, the man she saved, next to a cubic construct of wood. Out of it, golden notes floated out in the air, dancing and joining together in a melody she had never heard before. Gorgeous, melancholic.

Jacob felt a hand on his shoulder. Soft, caring. He closed his eyes.

Lumia just sat next to the man, gazing upon the village below. Many others had come out to see what was happening, but all just stared in silence as the melody played out and swept through the village like a soft wind. The golden notes illuminating the night like fireflies made of soft sound. Delicate, fragile.

She too felt like she wanted to cry. What had happened to him, to make him so sad? What did the poor soul have to live through, so far from home and all alone in a forest?

She didn’t know. She just looked in the distance, the village once again going to sleep in the silence of the night. The wind died down; the birds stopped chirping. She too felt all alone, alone with all the world.