Aria

Aria´s feet pounded against the damp earth in a desperate rhythm, swallowed by huge trees on every side that reached high into the sky and engulfed her from above.

She breathed in shallow, ragged gasps, the air burning her lungs as though she could not get enough of it. The world, to her eyes, had dissolved into a blur of rough colors and shapes.

The shrill cries of the dying still lingered in her ears as she ran, wandering aimlessly as far away from the battlefield as possible.

She wore a yellow and black dress, the colors stark against the backdrop of the world she now found herself in. The black fabric clung gently to her slender frame, while the yellow, a faded gold, caught the light of the setting twin suns as she moved.

The uniform seemed too heavy for her- too grand for someone who, at that moment, felt as small and fragile as a leaf caught in the wind.

Her chestnut hair, loose and tangled from the rush, whipped around her face, catching the fading light of the day and turning it into a halo of soft, coppery strands. Her amber eyes, though bright, were clouded with sorrow, too many unspoken words buried deep within them.

Her skin was pale, almost luminous against the dark, orange, mournful landscape, and her delicate features were framed by a sorrow that seemed far beyond her years. She was eighteen.

Her lips, soft and trembling, parted briefly as she sang through sobs. There was something ethereal about her- something regal in the way she moved, even in her distress- but also something deeply human, deeply vulnerable, as if she were slowly unraveling at the seams.

It was all her fault. She had been too weak.

Too slow.

Too useless.

The healer, the one supposed to save them, had failed. Now she was just running, running from the only thing she knew how to do- heal- and from the crushing truth that she couldn’t even do that right.

Through her sobs, she continued to sing her song.

"Why does the star above burn so hot?"

Her voice trembled, rising and falling with the effort of trying to speak through the lump in her throat.

"Oh, dear wildflowers that bloom in adversity..."

She sang the question as if asking the sky itself for an answer, but the only response was the wind whipping against her face as if to remind her of the futility of it all.

Her words faltered, her body stumbling over a jagged rock, her foot nearly giving way beneath her as she struggled to keep her pace. She was running, but she didn’t know why anymore.

Where was she going? Away from the war? Away from the battlefield? Away from herself? It didn´t matter. Each step felt like it might be her last. She was running from the fight, but deep down, she knew it was the fight that was chasing her.

Her breaths came harder, each exhale feeling like a fight for survival, but she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t face the truth yet. Not until she could get away far enough.

"Tell me, why do we fight... when we are already broken?"

"Tell me, why do people hurt each other?"

The words escaped her lips in a whisper as if she were afraid the wind might carry them away, leaving her even more empty than she already was. The question hung in the air, unanswered, just like the rest of the broken thoughts in her mind.

In front of her, the land opened up as she kept making her way to the outskirts.

A vast, empty stretch of nothing, stretching for miles. And then, just at the horizon, there it was.

The enclosure. The barrier. A shimmering, translucent wall that pulsed with an ethereal glow, a stark line between two nations, two worlds, two fates. It was almost like a birdcage, surrounding them from all sides.

Aria had heard of it, of course, but she had never seen it so close. Never felt its presence so strongly. The Frontier seemed to ripple like liquid light, a strange, otherworldly force that separated everything from everything else.

She ran until she arrived at the foot of the wall. She stood there, her legs trembling beneath her, her mind still foggy with sorrow, unable to move for a long, frozen moment.

She had heard stories of how it had always been there- this boundary between the warring nations- but she had never seen it with her own eyes. It was more beautiful than she had imagined, but it was also terrifying.

The sheer magnitude of it felt like a cruel reminder of the unending war, of the lines that separated people from each other, from their lives. It was a boundary that could not be crossed, a wall that would never fall.

She sank to the ground, her legs no longer able to support her, her back slumping against the cold, invisible wall.

There was no place for her here. No place in the war.

No place in the world for fighters and healers.

No place in a world where people only ever seemed to die.

And so she sang on in a low voice.

The words were broken, choked. She couldn’t bear the thought of what she had done- or rather, what she hadn’t done. She had sworn to protect them. She had sworn to save her. But she had failed. Her friend was gone. The tears gently streamed down her face, blurring her vision as her sobs wracked her body, each one a reminder of her inadequacy.

"Why do we pretend we're strong... when we are all afraid?"

She wanted to believe that the world could be different- that people could find peace- but the wall at her back, the endless fighting, the lives lost.

It all felt so... pointless.

And as the final notes of her song faded into the night, something strange happened. For a fleeting moment, she thought she heard something- something beyond the boundary.

An animal? She had never seen the other side. Nor had anybody else, for that matter.

A voice, maybe? Soft. Muffled. A whisper coming from the other side. It made her heart skip a beat, her breath catching in her chest. It wasn’t a part of the world she knew. It wasn’t someone from her nation.

She sat up, startled, wiping the tears from her face, her eyes wide with disbelief. The voice came again, clearer this time, as if it was calling to her from the other side. Her heart raced as she leaned closer to the wall, her hand hovering just above its surface.

For a moment, the world around her seemed to fall silent. The wind held its breath, the land itself still, as if waiting.

But she had heard it. It was real. And that was all she needed to know.

"Who´s there?"

Aria’s heart pounded in her chest, her hands trembling as she slowly leaned harder against the boundary, her gaze fixed on the shimmering surface. Her nose touched the wall briefly, and she felt a sudden warmth on her face.

And then, to her surprise, she heard the voice on the opposite side clearly for the first time.

"Who in the world are you?"