Chapter 1:

The Journey Begins

Fire Doesn’t Want to Hurt You


One day, a wanderer came.

Neither light nor shadow.

Just walking.


She found the girl.

Brushed the dust from her skin.

Held out her hand.


“Come,” she said.

“You don’t have to stay buried.”


So the girl stood.

Wobbly.

Eyes wide to the world.


They travelled.

The world was not kind.

People stared.


“Why bring that?”

“Shadow ruins the view.”


The wanderer sighed.

Sometimes snapped:


“If you only love the light,

does that mean you must hate the shadow?”


“If you praise the boy,

but bury the girl…

is that fair?”


No one answered.

They just walked away.



One night, under a sky without stars,

the girl whispered:

“I feel lonely.”


The wanderer looked at her.

Eyes full of gentle dusk.

“It’s okay,” she said.with a smile.

“I feel that too.”


They sat in silence,

as the world kept pretending

the girl didn’t exist.


Then the wanderer said:

“I feel lonely…

because I see both the light and the shadow.

And I choose not to look away.”


On her cheek,

where no tears fell,

a light flickered on.


Not from sadness—

but the weight of truth

they shared.


“I see you,”

whispered a nameless light.


So don’t cry.

I cannot erase this mark—


It is proof

that I heard you.

Tu An.
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