Ciclico: Idyllic, wasn't it? ~ Past

“Ases, it's time to go!”

A young Ases, one with enough years to be considered a man, but still young enough to be treated like a kid by everyone around him, woke up. When he did, he found his older brother watching over him while he slept. He was already fully dressed, and was giving him a very unsurprised look.

“I did it again, didn’t I?”

Ases woke up, jumped out from the bed and looked through the window. Judging by the sun, they were already an hour late.

“Why the hell didn’t you wake up?” Ases growled, getting out of his nightclothes while he walked towards his regular clothes on the chair next to the bed.

“Because I also overslept.” replied Herm, with a smile.

“But you are already fully dressed?”

Then, someone opened the door of the small room they shared. It was their father, Plojem. He was also fully ready to go out, and annoyed by how late they were now.

“This can’t be, do you have any idea what time it is, Ases?” He said, with a tone that was more disappointed than severe.

“I’m sorry, I know, give me two minutes and I’ll be there.”

“And you didn’t even have breakfast. If you collapse out there, I won’t carry you back.” Sentenced Plojem, closing the door.

Ases was still preparing his clothes, while Herm looked at him with a smirk.

“Thank you for being even more late than I was. He didn’t even notice I was here.”

After shooting him a killer glare, thinking of how he would have to ‘return the favor’ the next morning, both of them left their house.

Ciclico was a small village, completely landlocked and surrounded by both the mountains and the forest. Leaving it was a complicated journey, as the closest settlement was several dozen kilometers away in the path down the river. As such, people from there lived in an extremely close knit community, that separated from the rest of the world, found a way to live peacefully by themselves.

The mountains separated the forest in several parts, and thanks to it, several green pastures were present for all shepherds to let their animals roam in. They did not even need to define a place for each herd, as there was so much space that they didn’t need to compete for it.

Ases, Herm and Plojem all walked to the fields, breathing the fresh air, and going up and up until the village could be seen down the mountain in the distance. Already used to walking that kind of distance, they all moved with remarkable speed towards the elevated fields.

“I heard a bit of a commotion in the forest last time, so we have to be careful. If they are wolves, again, what must we do?”

“We shoot them!” Screamed Herm, raising the rundown, haphazardly crafted bow he liked to carry with him at all times.

Ases could do nothing but roll his eyes at the response of his brother. When he started acting like that, he truly wondered who was the older brother.

“Absolutely not. Do you want the wolves to eat you alive or something? The wolves attack in a group, and we must do the same. We are not going to play heroes here. The key is getting the sheep away from the forest, where the wolves feel safe, and returning with help.”

Plojem continued his discourse, going over lessons he had given them time and time again. He was getting old, and soon, his sons would have to take care of the animals by themselves.

Ases was tired from hearing it, not listening to a single word of his spiel after a while.

“But, what if I manage to kill the leader of the wolves? Then they would obey me, wouldn’t they?”

On the other hand, Herm, could not resist to interject with some misplaced stupid commentary, which at least proved he paid more attention than Ases did.

Although, one thing was true, there was something strange going on that day. The wind did not feel exactly right, the normal sounds of nature were muffled, if not completely missing. No bugs, no frogs, it was like a disruption in what otherwise looked like a perfectly normal day.

When things didn’t seem right, that’s when he liked to ask Raz. She always seemed to know everything, and certainly acted like she did know it all. It was frustrating, but he could not deny the usefulness of having someone like that around. Although, maybe everyone would be like that if they were the child of a traveling scholar, like she was.

When they arrived at the green open hill they had their sheep in, with their two guardian dogs, the day proceeded like they usually did. Guiding them, making sure they would not separate from each other, tending them and keeping them safe.

Plojem had worked like this for more than three decades at this point, and although Herm and Ases were so young that they only had started working a couple of years back, they were getting used to it by then. It was simple, honest work, silent, separated from everyone else in the world.

Which was absolutely perfect for Ases. Being in the mountain, with no trace of civilization nearby,, no bustling of the village, people he disliked or any kind of social responsibility. It was not that he hated the people in the village, but truly, he could only find peace when he was in the mountain, tending to the animals. That was precisely the life he wanted to have.

On the other hand, Herm had lost all his enthusiasm by this point, with a lost look, deep in his imagination, counting the minutes until the sun went down and he could return to the village. As much as he respected his father and he appreciated the work, it reinforced his conviction of abandoning Ciclico and starting a new life somewhere else.

It was at some point that afternoon that suddenly, for a reason none of them could understand, that all the sheep suddenly went out of control. It was simultaneous, they all screamed and started to run away in abject terror, entering into the woods.

The shepherd dogs they had with them did nothing to stop them, as instead of herding them back into control, they were acting just as strange. One of them was whimpering, trembling, kept in place only by their loyalty to their master, while the other one was barking to a point in the trees that none of them could distinguish.

It all happened in less than a minute. Plojem tried to herd them, but had to step aside to avoid being run over by the animals, when he tried to oder the dogs around, neither would obey. At the end, the three of them could only look at each other, baffled for what had happened now.

Beyond the growling and whimpering of the dogs, not a single thing could be heard. Not a single bird, animal nor bug resonated in the place, even when they were just beside the forest.

“What can we do now? I don’t see any of them.” Said Herm, looking into the border of the forest.

“We have to bring them back, obviously.” Responded Ases, preparing to go inside.

“No. It’s too late now. It’s too late now, we can’t risk going into the forest by night, if we lose our way, we will never get back.” Concluded Plojem, petting his dogs, trying to calm them down.

“But, what with the sheep? We can’t lose them, if we don’t find them now, what will we do?” Argued Ases.

“Sheep go in herds, they will stick together eventually. They’ll also look for a place with grass, and the forest is far from an ideal place for them. If we let them be, they’ll come out by themselves, that’s when we get them back.”

“Of course, that’s if they are not eaten by every single animal in the forest before that.” Joked Herm.

“There shouldn’t be anything like that in the forest now, but if there was, that’s even more of a reason not to go in. Tomorrow we will return with Dorza, that way we can also try to figure out what scared them in the first place.” Finished Plojem, unwilling to argue further.

Neither Herm nor Ases were satisfied with their father’s choice, but they had no other choice than to follow him back home. But before they went back, Ases looked back to the forest, to that place the dog was barking a while ago.

It was far away, and he surely was wrong, because it would be ridiculous to think otherwise, but he could swear he saw someone in the woods. But this far from civilization, in the place only they went to? How? Why?

And why did she look like a queen, with a beautiful black dress and a silver crown?

Suddenly, the earth shook. It was light, but the three of them stopped for a moment and looked at each other. The tremor ended as suddenly as it came, and as surprised as all of them were, no one knew what to say.

Ases looked to the forest again, but the illusion of a woman vanished quickly, lost between the trees and out of sight. Ases said nothing, thinking that he was only dreaming, but he could not stop thinking about her at any moment on the way back home.