Prologue - “Where is everyone?”

“Where am I...?”

“Where is everyone…?”

The thought of being all alone is scary but I’m afraid I can’t find anyone anymore.

Before getting into how I got here, let me introduce myself.

I’m Roy Wings and I come from a village of pilgrims or so my parents say. Folks from my village used to travel a lot, long before I was born. But I haven’t seen anyone go anywhere even near the village border.

I don’t remember the day I was born. It was the night or so as my grandmother say with a half-moon Spica in the sky and it was beautiful sight to behold nonetheless. When I was five I realized more about the place I live in. We have got our own set of rules for even the smallest of the things. We were obviously never allowed to leave the village and they even scared us with the stories of evil spirits for us to stay and not wander off. They say “When we are together, we are safe forever”.

Our village had a huge female statue at the center of it. She was our goddess “Tucana”. We worshipped her every morning and evening without miss. Everybody said she protected us from evil spirits but I have never seen any evil spirits in my entire life.

Once I got a cut on one of my fingers and I cried like crazy. I was scared of the blood and the pain that comes with it. It made all the adults in the village to rush towards me, but only to find that the ‘wound was gone’. It looked like I never got a cut in the first place. It didn’t bother to me about how it healed up this quick but the look on their faces was priceless.

When time went on, I realized how everyone in the village had a certain job to do. Us as children never worried about such things but it had always made me wonder how my aunt was able to bring water from thin air or how my uncle could split the ground up with bare hands like it was nothing. Not everyone could do something like that and so I noticed everyone was special at something.

“What are you special at grandmother?”, I had asked her once.

I don’t remember what she said. But knowing her, it would be something like “Raising you will definitely need special skills.”

I don’t remember her face anymore and nor do I remember the face of anyone else now.

It was a half-moon night just like the day I was born and I had turned 14 that day. I remember arguing with my parents on something. Something so irrelevant that I don’t remember now.

“I was sad… I was angry.”

I just wanted to leave the place and leave everything behind.

This was what I thought when I sneaked out of the village border. Our village usually had guards on the border, but on that day they were none. It wasn’t easy but I left my home enclosed by the woods and ran into the forest will all my might.

This was the first time I left the village borders. I looked back a couple of times to see if someone was following me. There was no one.

Soon after the village was out of my sight. The woods were beautiful and each tree had a different kind of glow.

‘Everything was different’

‘Everything was magnificent.’

I have never seen any of these in my life. Why did my family or the folks at the village miss out on something like this? If they really were travelers once then how could they not enjoy any of these.

For a second I thought I should never go back.

‘Wait! But that’s never gonna happen, they will come looking for me sooner or later.’, or so I thought.

I was very sleepy and I made myself a comfy bed with the leaves and branches from woods and I slept.

I had a nightmare of some sort when I slept there. It had freaked me out but it didn’t wake me up. I saw everyone in my village vanishing in front my eyes. One by one everyone was gone until only my parents and grandmother were left. My parents hugged me tight and they were crying for some reason. As for my grandmother, she said something out of ordinary, which I don’t remember either like so many things right now.

“I might be a fool to disobey the village rules and leave my family behind worrying in village.”

“I should go back as fast as I can.”

I had already woken up and I was sprinting through the woods like crazy to reach my home.

I already thought of all excuses that I had to make and I wanted to tell them how beautiful and colorful was the world outside. It would have been a lot funnier if all my folks were there with me.

“I can already imagine my uncle making fun of me for running away like that.”

But now when I think about it, I can take all of that because they were my family and nothing can replace them. Everyone in the village knew me well and saw me grew up.

I just wanted to see them now.

I ran fast as I can. I don’t remember the entire way but I remember the little landmarks here and there.

“I should be almost there.”

“It should be… It should… have been here.”

I was at a loss of words. There was nothing.

“I might have taken the wrong route.”

I ran back to where I came from. I circled all around the woods and I found no sign of my village or any of my folks.

“I might be at the other side of the forest.”

“I have taken the wrong path again.”, or so I said to convince myself at that point.

I started running again, but I tripped… and… I fell.

“Ouch…”

Something had caught my foot which had made me to stumble.

I realized what it was at my first glance. But I didn’t want to believe what I saw. I had to prove myself wrong no matter what and so I started digging. It didn’t make much time and I didn’t have to dig it though since all the answers were right in front of me in a short time.

What made me to stumble was none other than the tip of the statue of Tucana which was at the center of my village. But it was so huge that when I was a child, my hands would just reach its feet.

“How can something so enormous be buried under the ground?”

Now I knew for a fact that whatever happened last night had made my folks disappear. The statue was right under my foot and that means so is my village.

I was losing all hope this time.

“Even Tucana looks so old… just how much time had passed?”

“Where am I...?”

“Where is everyone…?”

The thought of being all alone is scary but I’m afraid I can’t find anyone anymore.

Tears started coming out of nowhere.

I was crying after losing all hope.

“What I should do?... How can I find them?”

And there was downpour afterwards if I remember right.

I cried and stayed put under that rain for god knows how much time. The rain eventually stopped but two things changed for me from that fateful incident.

“One being the fact that I don’t see anything colorful anymore.”

All the new colors that I craved for, were lost along with the ones which I already had.

“This world seems dull and not beautiful anymore.”

The woods which was glowing with life the previous night was already dead in my eyes.

I ran away from that place once again and I didn’t want to dig that that place up because I was afraid. I was afraid I would find them dead and lose all hope entirely.

Since we used to be pilgrims, they must have moved somewhere far away and I wanted to believe in that.

“I know for a fact that I will meet them someday.”

That’s what kept me moving till today. Back then I had to go through a lot just to get out of the forest and finally find a world which was totally unknown to me. But to this today everything is still dull for me or so I thought.