"Chiyol"
"Yes?"
"Chi – yol"
???
What was it?
"Yeah??"
"CHIYOLL"
Chiyol signed, pinching his nose.
"WHAT?" The sound of his voice echoed throughout the narrow halls of the home where he had lived in for most of his life.
A head peeked from the very corner of the room door, a small toddler with pigtails and a cheeky smile with mud stains on her shirt.
The girl chuckled and patted her hands on her cheek. "Chiyol! Granpa said to come outside! Stop being a bun!" Before Chiyol could respond, the girl covered her mouth using both hands, giggling as she ran away.
Chiyol signed. its bum, not bun...
He waited for her footsteps to completely disolve into silence before turning to look back at his notebook and resumed to writing what he had dreamt that night.
Since young, Chiyol have always had imaginative dreams, that were mainly theoretical to an extent, as they simply werent possible in his world.
He would dream of whole worlds, visit large societies, experience all sorts of stories and meet many unique types of people.
And always, always, for some reason, it would always end with the world, being engulfed by a traveling darkness. A void.
But this time, instead of full dreams, he had only dreamt of two scenes. The first scene, showed the sky opening up through shining cracks, spreading across the entire world.
The second scene, well...he didn't quite remember. He just knew that in the second scene, he was in a sort of void, and he was staring at someone infront of him. The person was clenching their fits, as droplets dripped from their eyes. Someone that stared directly into him, with a mix feeling of rage, sadness and confusion. Oddly enough, he could feel it too. Those emotions, mixed and etched into their tears.
The more chiyol thought about it, the less he seemed to remember, but this one was different. He could sense it.
He scratched the back of his head and leaned back into his chair, staring at the grey-coated sky outside his window.
In Chiyol's world, there were no distinct colours. Most things were mainly shaded in black or white, with the exception of varrying shades in between these two colours. However, despite the mediocracy of his world, chiyol didn't believe that this was it.
He belived that there was a beyond, something more than just this plainless background and weightless being.
He believed this, because in his dreams, there was colour. He would dream of a vast array of shades that he had never seen in his life, set in places he didn't know existed.
It was almost like he had caught a glimpse of what could be, rather than what was. He believed, that a dream was a reflection of the universes consiousness. Thus, he believed that it wouldn't be possible to dream of such things, unless it were true in some way or form.
Chiyol sat staring at the clouds, remembering that his grandpa had called him, he placed back the pen in a box where he kept stationary and other things alike, then quietly tucked his notebook in a square-sized hole in the wall, hidden behind a potrait in his room.
Chiyol made his way to the front of the house, where his grandpa and little sister were waiting for him outside. As he stepped out the door frame, chiyol was greeted with a threat to 'hurry up faster or else' by an old, raspy voice. Still as inpatient as ever.
"Grandpa, i came as quick as i could." Chiyol said joking.
"You took so long, the seed i planted after i called you already started sprouting fruit!" The old man huffed.
Chiyol rolled his eyes.
The person that chiyol referred to as 'grandpa' was not his actual relative, but a caretaker that had raised him since young.
Chiyol did not know who his parents were, as 'grandpa' had one day randomly found him as a toddler lost in the forest infront of his house.
He had felt pity for the poor child that was crying on the ground, and didn't have the heart to simply leave him there, so he took him in.
Fastfoward 15 years later, and that little boy was now almost 20 years old.
However, no matter how hard Chiyol tried, he couldn't remember how he ended up alone. He had no memory before his grandpa had taken him in, nor how he ended up in the forest.
The little girl on the other hand, is the actual granddaughter of the old man. In a world that lived day to day, just barely scraping by, an entire family disappearing to illness was no uncommon thing.
By luck, the little girl was the last remaining relative of the old man that had managed to survive, so he was more than willing to take care of her after her parents passed in a sudden plague.
Chiyol stood slightly lost in thought before the old man quietly crept behind him, and –
*Smack*
Chiyol fell foward, squinting his eyes as he processed what just happened.
"Grandpa?? Did you just hit my back ?!"
"Hmph, What are you thinking so hard about ?"
"I- i was just thinking! You didn't have to hit me!" He groaned, rubbing his sore back.
"Tch, its just a light tap from your old man. You don't have to be so dramatic..." the old man scoffed.
"Wha-?"
"Ahem, back in my days..." and the ramble began.
Ahh he will take a whole day to talk about his youth if i let him....this is a perfect chance to escape!
Chiyol took this moment as an opportunity to
quietly slip away and head to town, in hopes of finding something interesting to do.
He pressed his index finger vertically on his lips, signaling for his little sister to be as quiet as possible, as he slipped away. The little girl nodded, before shouting, "Be safe, Chiyol !!"
Chiyol sighed, but could only move faster to avoid his grandpa's wrath.
Upon hearing the girl, the old man immediatly turned his head to the direction of where chiyol was heading, and screamed, "CHIYOL, how could you let this old man talk to himself?? " but Chiyol was already too far away to hear his screams.
The old man grunted, as he rubbed the back of his neck "ah...well, i will give u an earful when u get back." he turned to look at his granddaughter, who was picking cherries from the bushes and directly shoving them in her mouth, handful after handful. "And you,... ah, i'm too old for this" he placed his hand on his forehead in defeat.
...
Phew.....i almost didn't make it. chiyol grabbed the handle of his bike and turned it to face the direction of the town. He got on the bike and smiled before whispering, "Don't worry old man, i will be back before you start to miss me".
As he cycled through the forest, he passed by the old stone arches, which was said to be a place where portals once stood as gateways to other realms.
Ofcourse now, they were simply landmarks for chiyol to know if he was heading in the correct direction, or if he was confidently getting lost.
He had other landmarks, like the white river that was said to be made from the tears of water nymphs, or the tree of lost relics that had a large hole carved into its trunk, and was said to turn even dirt into gold when placed inside.
But even those, were merely old remenants of past tales that no longer held any significance in a world that has lost its sight on living, and focused more on surviving.
*Ding*
*Ding*
*Ding*
3 chimes, which signaled that the sun was rising. There were a a total of 3 times where the bell would ring thrice in a day. Once at sun rise, once when tbe sun was highest in the sky, and one final time at sun set.
Every town, as to Chiyol's knowledge, had atleast one bell tower. No one knows how the bell towers got there, nor why the bells rang 3 times per day in three sequences.
They just knew that every town was built around the presence of atleast one bell, and no one could question why anymore, because the people who could give an answer to such a question, were long gone.
Perhaps, it was simply just another remanant from the old world.
The world before colour ceast to exist.
As he was cycling, he continued to contemplate the dream he had the night before. There was a feeling he couldn't shake, something was coming. Something was going to change. But what?
Chiyol spent the next 15 minutes zoning in and out of his thoughts, until he reached a small cottage just outside the beginning of town. This cottage was the oldest known building here, besides the bell towers.
Chiyol stopped the bike near the cottage and waited till he saw a silhouette walk outside of the home. A lady was tending to her flower pots.
"Madam!! I'm back!"
The lady wore a flower apron and had small wringles at the side of her eyes. She smiled gently at the greeting.
"My, my , Chiyol. You came back sooner than expected." She blinked slowly as she turned to look at him.
"What do you mean, Auntie? I haven't been able to escape grandpa's cluches in almost a week!" He huffed as he parked his bike near the side of the home where the lady lived.
"Well...that is cause he loves you dearly, you know? He always wants you to be near, that one." A small mutter escaped her lips as she turned to tend to her plants.
"No way!" He shook his head side to side "he just wants me to gather all the crops for him. Its currently the season for corn and berries."
The lady hummed, saying nothing in response, and walked back into her shop leaving the door open for the smell to escape.
Hm? This smell...rasberries and strawberry..pie?
His eyes lit up. My little sister would love this.
"Auntie! Auntie!" Chiyol tumbled as he rushed into the shop.
*thud*
The lady signed before walking towards him and handing him a mop.
"If you want the pie, you are gonna need to work for it, dear" the lady mused.
"Ah...auntie, couldn't you atleast help me up?" He groaned.
The lady simply looked at him up and down, indifferently. "hold the mop, my arms are getting tired, child."
"Yes, Auntie..."
Auntie Elda, Chiyol's most beloved baker and the oldest person in town. Auntie Edla, although having said is well pass the age of 100, still seemed as young and energetic as ever. As if she hadn't age a day since turning 60.
Some say, she was one of the few people that 'crossed' from the other side and ended up staying in this world, after the portals closed. However, these people, the ones who spread such rumors, have not yet lived half of her age, so how could they possibly know?
Chiyol scoffed at the thought, but as if Auntie Elda could read his mind, she replied "Stop thinking of useless things and focus on making the floor sparkle."
Hm? Did i say that out loud?
"Yes....Auntie." Chiyol gave a small smile in response, but his eyes left a hint of bewilderment.
Yet, upon noticing this, all she did was chuckle and resumed to perfecting her pies.
A few hours later, another chain of chimes was heard.
*Ding*
*Ding*
*Ding*
It was noon. When the sun was highest in the sky.
Like muscle memory, Auntie Elda hummed along with the chimes. It was her long-cherished routine for as long as Chiyol had known her, but he knew, that this routine started long before he existed.
When the final chime had finished, Auntie Elda immediatly stopped and checked on her baked goods.
"Mhm.....smells ready. Don't you think so, Chiyol?" She turned towards the young boy for a response, but he was already standing behind her, eyes closed, taking in the scent as he nodded.
"Yes...its definitely ready" his mouth already chewing the imaginary slice of pie.
"Very well" the lady took out the pie and let Chiyol choose his favourite one. Then, she packed it and handed it to him while still warm. "Take it. Quickly, before it gets cold."
Auntie Elda looked around the shop. It was sparkling clean. "You deserve it" she whispered, as she held open the door for him to go.
But Chiyol didn't step out the door. He stood, staring at Auntie Elda in disarray. "Did i do something?" He gulped.
She raised an eyebrow. "No...why would you think such a thing?"
"Well..its just, in all the years i have been here, you have never held open the door waiting for me to leave. You would always just, hold my hand once, and then go back to what you were doing." He frowned and bit his bottom lip.
Auntie Elda just stood lifelessly, before she snapped out of it and looked out the door at the sun, high in the sky.
"Oh.....did i?" She chuckled as she looked down. "Perhaps....i wanted a change of pace". She held chiyols hand, squeezing it tightly before uttering "Promise me, that no matter what happens, you won't forget yourself."
...What?
What was Auntie talking about?
His eyes widened, as she let go of his hands, and looked down. Her eyes dilating slightly, and then almost immediatly readjusting themeselves back to normal.
She looked back up at the confused child, before turning to look at her goods, "oh dear, they are getting cold." She looked at Chiyol, "You should go now." Before rushing to keep the pies warm.