The day had come to begin my training with Elder Zakai. I quickly got ready to leave—I had woken up so early it was still dark outside.

I ran to the pond where he had instructed me to go, that he should find me there. The pond was a quiet place with dull, deep green water. Around it were dandelions, roses and violets and a bonsai tree on one side. Like a sanctuary, the pond had a wall built around it. I had taken the scroll with me, so before anything, I opened it just to see if there were any instructions it could give me, Let’s see…Nothing! Again?! It was almost as if the thing was broken. I couldn’t care much nonetheless—I was enjoying the moment, Junior research harvester here I come.

Before long, Elder Zakai joined me. “Haji,” he said, startling me, “Weren’t you expecting me?”

“I was expecting you, sir. You just scared me.”

He got closer, bending over towards me—to look me straight in the eyes, “Do I look scary to you?”

“What? No, Sir. I didn’t mean that.”

He chuckled, “Let’s start, child.”

I nodded with a drop of sweat hanging on my face.

“Remember what I told you about rhythmic breathing?”

“Yes, sir. You said that it involves taking two inhales in quick succession, then exhaling after holding the air for three seconds.”

Good. He remembers well.

“Excellent!”

I grinned from ear to ear.

“We are going to do that right here, right now.”

Breathing as an exercise? This will be easy.

“Now watch me, Haji. Watch very carefully.”

HUHMPH…HUHMPH

One, two, three.

MPHUH

“There. That’s how it’s done.”

“Now take two quick, complete deep breaths.”

HUHMPH

HUHMPH

One, two, thr-

COUGH!

“Easy there,” he pet me on my back as I kept coughing uncontrollably, “stay calm.”

After I had stopped coughing, Elder Zakai instructed me, “Try again.”

So I gave it another try.

HUHMPH

HUHMPH

One, two, thr-

COUGH!

What?! Again?! He didn’t tell me it was this hard.

“Haji. Do not lose focus. You won’t get it right until you shut off your mind.”

Shut off my mind?

“You need to stop any other thought from distracting you. Just focus on the flow of air into your lungs. Imagine the air filling up your lungs then let go, breathe out.”

Okay. Let me try again. I have to do whatever it takes to become a senior harvester.

“Alright, sir.”

I tried again but tried so hard to stop thinking about graduating from the junior academy, finding The Convergence Point, becoming a senior harvester, stopping the Archharvester—all of which were thoughts that kept me worried. I focused on what the Supreme Harvester had told me. I drew one breath, then another quickly, One, two, three.

MPHUH

I got it!

“Well done.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Now I will leave you here to keep practicing.”

“Right, sir.”

I knew he was going to teach the other kids at the academy, so I couldn’t cling to him. I had to let him go.

After being left there all alone, I sat under the bonsai tree which was near the pond. I practiced rhythmic breathing as many times as I could while sitting in an almost lotus position but with eyes open and my hands resting freely on my knees as I looked straight ahead.

Even though I kept my eyes wide open, I wasn’t able to pay attention at what was around me—not until I felt my head spin and my sight fade.  When I regained clear vision, and my head no longer felt like it was spinning, I looked around, How am I in the library? Wasn’t I at the pond just now?

I looked around and realized, This is where I’d sat last time. The scroll was now open and floating before my face with a vibrant golden glow. I looked down on the table and found the book I’d planned to read for my research on The Convergence Point—Wastelandia: Where is Earth?

What’s this all doing here? What’s happening?

I looked back, and no one was there because the upper section, where I was, hadn’t yet been opened. Did this thing…?

I tapped on the scroll twice as I had a strong conviction that it had led me there.

TAP…TAP

The pages of the book on the table flipped violently and quickly then came to a halt. What I was witnessing left me speechless. I remained silent and just about calm throughout the happenings.

After the page-flipping stopped, a section of the book was highlighted. The section was titled The Convergence Point. I remembered the section from the other time I’d tried reading the book but fell asleep drooling all over it.

I read the text,

The Convergence Point is a meeting place for the leaders of the two nations of Oasisia—Mushi and Coastova. The main meeting place, the base, is built underneath the terrain of the place. Leaders have met there for ages, the president of Coastova and the Archharvester of Mushi, to discuss ideas that would unify their nations.

The section had a cropped map showing only the location of The Convergence Point, but it started zooming out as soon as I started looking at it. What the- oh, the directions! I had recognized the small writings that’d appeared on the map that I’d strained to see on the classroom map. This is great! Now everything is adding up. At that point, I had stopped feeling any sort of dread and I noticed that I had subconsciously continued the rhythmic breathing exercise.

Good, I reinforced my now growing courage. I proceeded to read the signs carefully.

Tread through the abandoned village to the north with a guarded head. Rest in the cave of mountain Ethos at dawn…

The directions also remarkably served as cautions for the danger that the journey presented. The abandoned village was notoriously known for its unforgiving rogue harvesters who would kill any common harvester who walked by—as if they were animals.

At that point I had everything I needed for my journey to The Convergence Point in the unlikeliest of ways.

Just as everything clicked, my vision faded as before, accompanied by a dizziness. I found myself again at the pond with the scroll on my  laps, Was that a dream? Everything was the way it was before and I was sitting in the same position as before. That can’t be a dream, it didn’t feel like one. I got up and started running back to the dorms, my hands trembling.

I figured I needed to tell the Supreme Harvester about what had happened, but I couldn’t—he was teaching. I was walking back and forth anxious, stroking my chin with my thumb and index finger like a grown man, and holding the scroll behind me with my left hand. It was not until I bumped into Anna that I came back to my senses. She was struggling to pull a large, deflated tire for a steam truck.

“Ouch!”

“Oh! Sorry, Anna.”

“I-It’s okay, Haji. Don’t worry, I’m fine,” she said as she rubbed her aching forehead with her palm.

I’d never been this close to Anna before. We were the same height, She’s short, just like me. I was intrigued and thought of telling her about the scroll and everything that had happened to me, No, that won’t sound great. She’ll probably freak out and run off. I have to act smart….mmm.

She started walking away after she’d observed my unwelcoming silence. I held her wrist and turned to her, and she turned back to me. Before I could say anything, she quickly shifted her gaze to the ground with her cheeks as red as a peach.

What’s up with her?

I let go of her wrist.

“Anna!”

“H-Haji,” she kept her gaze down-cast.

“Have you ever heard of a place called The Convergence Point?”

She seemed bewildered to what I’d just said, responding, “The what?”

“The Convergence Point. It’s a place to the north of camp.”

“…”

She remained silent, so I sighed heavily in disappointment. I turned away from her and started walking in the direction opposite to where she was going.

“Wait!” I’d heard her shout before I was very far off.

I turned back to her, “What?!”

“Can you umm…can you..”

“…”

“Can you be my friend?”

A friend?

My eyes widened as much as my smile. I hadn’t felt that good in a while.

“Yes!”

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She jumped and jumped around.

Well, she’s happy. Doesn’t she have friends also?

She asked me to help her carry the heavy tire she was dragging to her father’s workplace. So, I did.

As we were dragging the tire, I figured that she had also missed class, “Hey. You didn’t go to the academy today. Why?”

“I got a pass to help dad repair the truck.”

Of course it’s him.

Anna’s father, Mr. Goldman, was a mixed farmer who was in a habit of giving his daughter difficult chores.

“Do you want to know what The Convergence Point is?”

“Yes. You can tell me about it.”

“Okay. So The Conver-”

—“Rogue attack! Close the gates!”

What!

The camp had been infiltrated by rogue harvesters.

Anna and I left the tire and started running back to where we came. Other harvesters and civilians were running to the center of camp where it was safer. Anna couldn’t run straight, she kept trembling as I ran ahead of her. She tripped over a rock and fell to the ground, “Ow!” she screamed.

I ran back to help her up but she had fallen and was crying.

“Get up! We don’t have much time!”

THUD

I looked up and saw a tall man who had covered his head with a black robe, his red eyes being the only visible features on his face, along with his no-good smile. He seemed to be an archer with a large bow hang across his chest and an arrow which he held in his right hand. The man wore something that looked like a black skirt ripped on the lower end, leaving his huge, muscular and hairy legs bare.

—“Two juniors. This should be my lucky day.”

I gripped the scroll tighter, Anna holding on to my sleeve.

A rogue harvester.