In a dark place, a boy was walking to nowhere to nowhere. The sky was dark as the deep depths of space, and the landscape was the color of burnt ashes. Any people would think the sky and earth was the same thing when they look at this place. But one thing was certain; this place, this world was full of hopelessness and loneliness.
The boy was walking through the dark landscape while mumbling, and sometimes laughing silently, to himself. He looked like Jeffric, with his smooth and long brown hair that reached the back of his neck, short and bony body, and his hallow cheeks.
But his eyes were different.
Instead of green, the boy's eyes were red. And it was filled with anger, hatred, and insanity.
"You're a stupid guy, Jeffric," he mumbled to himself. Then he laughed bitterly. "Why? Just why won't you release me on them? Why, Jeffric? I know that you want to release hell on those miserable bastards."
He walked through the dark land for days, weeks, or even months. He'd been walking in this place for years now, and he got stronger and stronger when days passed on.
Then, he suddenly noticed something strange. Faraway from the place where he was standing, a faint blue light was gleaming in the horizon, like a sunrise.
"What in the name of misery is that?" The boy asked himself.
That was when he started to walk toward the horizon faster than before. Step after step, the light started to become brighter and brighter. And sometimes, a beam of blue light streaked from the dark skies above and onto the horizon, as if it was a string.
The boy started to come closer to the source of the strange blue light. Then after some days or weeks, the boy was finally standing in front of the source.
It was a gigantic blue orb. It was emitting magic and something . . . unusual.
The boy cautiously walked up to it until he was only standing just a step away from it.
It was shimmering and glowing with warmth. And its surface was swirling around, making the boy go dizzy. The boy shook his head, getting rid of the dizziness, and just stared at the strange object, this time, not trying to focus at one place. Its presence stood out in this dark and empty place, like a white marble in the sea of grey marbles.
The boy reached his hand toward the magical orb and touched the surface.
Suddenly screams and wails exploded out of the orb, as if billions of damned souls were burning in the inferno of hell.
The boy just stood there while still touching the orb with his hand. The expression of his face didn't change at all, as if he wasn't affected by the screams and wails.
After some minutes, the loud noise stopped, and silence returned to the dark landscape.
The boy tilted his head at the magical orb, his mouth spreading into a wide grin like a gleeful demon that found a human to prey upon.
"Well, well, well," the boy chuckled in a spine-chilling way. Then he broke into a loud laughter filled with insanity. "Finally! A way to escape this damned place!"
Then he looked up toward the dark skies. "Hey, Jeffric!" He yelled. "You've stopped me multiple times from getting out. But, soon, you will not stop me!" Then he thrust his fist into the air. "Soon, I'll be freed!" After that, he started to roar with laughter, which would drive listeners into madness.
A month had passed since I'd decided to stay with Ahri. We decided to stay in a cave that we had found near the village (which was about 30 minutes of walking distance). It was located at a bottom of a mountainside which was mostly consisted of rocks.
We spent few days on decorating the cave (which was kind of big for several people to live in) to be inhabitable; cleaning the place and making the place more comfortable by spreading countless plucked leaves on the floor (they'd turned dry after some days), except the entrance section where the campfire was placed (we didn't want to start fire, so the leaves were spread many steps away from it. We also made a table out of a log and two beds out of tree branches and covered it with these leaves that didn't dry even though they were plucked out of the branches.
Thankfully, the cave was high, so we didn't have to worry about hitting our heads on the rocky ceiling.
We finished eating dinner just half an hour ago and through the cave entrance I could see the sky turning into black. I was playing with a curious flower which I found in the magical forest while Ahri was sitting in the entrance of the cave, staring up at the darkening sky.
The flower that I'd found was kind of unique. The petals were arranged into a shape of a trumpet and the petals were purple. The fragrance of the flower was nice, but the most interesting thing about this flower was that when I shook it, these small glitters fell out of the stamen of the flower. I'm not talking about flower powder, I'm talking about really small and shiny crystal-like things that tasted like sugar and spices (yeah, I tasted them).
I shook the flower, making the unusual tiny crystals to fell onto my palm and threw them into the air. They fell on me like snow, and I tried to catch them by sticking my tongue out.
"Jeffric," Ahri called out to me from the cave entrance. "Can you join me right now?"
"Uhh . . . Maybe later," I answered, "my legs are aching." It was true. I'd ventured out into the forest and returned before dinner.
My back was on the entrance and I was only focusing on fooling around that I hadn't noticed rustling noises of Ahri's feet stepping on the dry leaves. Before I knew it, Ahri had hoisted me up from the ground by clasping her arms around my chest.
I made a surprised squeaking noise when she started to bring me toward the entrance.
"Oh, come on, Jeffric," she said playfully while I struggled. "Just once."
She placed me on the rocky entrance, near the campfire which was making some cracking sounds.
Ahri sat down next to me while staring up at the night sky which was now filled with glinting stars. Her nine tails settled on the ground behind her carefully while swishing slowly from here and there.
"Jeffric, I want to ask you something," Ahri asked. Then she pointed her finger at the stars in the night sky. "What comes to your mind when you see the stars?"
I stared up at the stars while thinking deeply. I always looked up at the sky at night, before I went to sleep, to look at the beautiful stars. They were just comforting and gave me warmth when I looked at them, but I still don't know the reason.
"I . . . don't know," I answered. Then I glanced at her. "How about you?"
Ahri smiled while turning her head and looking down at me.
"Many things come to my mind," Ahri said, "like birds flying across the skies, or pearls floating in the calm depths of water."
Then she turned her head and stared up at the night sky again, smiling blissfully. "But sometimes, Jeffric," Ahri said, "I just imagine myself flying across the night sky, free from all of my worries and my sins while flying amongst those beautiful stars."
Was it just me, or did I saw sadness on her smiling face?
"That's nice," I answered while smiling uncertainly. "I wish I could've thought of that."
Silence settled over us while we observed the stars.
After some minutes passed, Ahri spoke again.
"Do you know that there're several tales about how the stars were created?"
I shook my head.
"Some says that the remains of a war between existence and nothingness became the stars," Ahri said, "some others think that a dragon entirely made of galaxies created them. But some says that the tears of two angels made the stars."
"And," Ahri continued, "there's a song about that story." Then she looked at me questioningly. "Do you want to listen?"
"Yes, please," I said before stretching my arms into the air.
She cleared her throat then started to sing.
Her beautiful voice flowed over me like the warmth of the sunshine and it made me sleepy and made my heart feel fuzzy.
The song was about an angel girl and an angel boy who were living in a kingdom which stood on the tallest mountain of Runeterra. The girl was a daughter of a noble while the boy was a servant. The girl was always lonely, and she'd no friend. The boy was lonely, too, and he was always treated badly by the girl's father. One day, the girl started to pity the boy, and later they became friends. Then, they became lovers. But when the girl's father learned about this, he punished his daughter and brutally beat the boy. They were separated for weeks. But, one day, in the middle of the night, both of the angels escaped their kingdom and flew into the night sky. When they realized that they'd escaped and that they could finally love each other again, they embraced happily while crying with joy. Their angelic tears floated through the night sky and they became the stars.
While she was singing this song, I became so sleepy that I'd lay down sideways on the ground, but without knowing, I'd rested myself on the soft nine tails of Ahri.
Ahri stroked my head with her delicate hand while singing.
I struggled not to drift into sleep until Ahri finished her song. When she finished her song, I instantly drifted into sleep.
Ahri looked down at the boy. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. She moved and arranged her nine tails to make the boy's sleeping body to be more comfortable.
Ahri liked this boy, with his kind heart and his empathy for her. She caressed the boy's cheek gently.
"Goodnight, little one," she said softly. Then, she slowly lay down on the rocky ground while trying not to disturb the boy. Then she, too, drifted into sleep.