As I left the village with the other water magic users,
my parents came to bid me farewell.
I don't know why, but I teared up a little.
It was an odd feeling.
It wasn't as if I was leaving forever; I was only going away for a few days.
Maybe it was because, ever since coming into this world, I hadn't been away from my home for longer than a day.
Just as I was about to bid them farewell,
a feeling of sadness overcame me, and I hugged my parents tightly.
This sadness felt like a gut feeling.
I remained distant throughout the journey,
but everything changed once I reached the place, because I had a lot of work to do there.
I, along with the other water magic users,
became busy building a canal system and filling it with water throughout the village.
A few days of hard work later...
I had gotten much better at water magic, and I was able to resist reality more effectively while using it.
Maybe it was because using magic now felt more real to me than reality itself.
The work was almost done there,
so I took a rest beneath the shade of a tree.
I relaxed there as I listened to the sounds of nature.
As I listened,
I felt as though I were in the comforting embrace of nature itself.
The chirping of the birds sounded like the chiming of heavenly bells.
In the distance, the sounds of cattle could be heard, and they were in perfect harmony with the tranquility of nature.
As I opened my eyes to gaze at them,
I saw young cattle playing with one another.
This reminded me of my childhood days.
Now, I was finally starting to feel like an adult.
I felt like a bird ready to spread its wings and finally explore the world.
Now that I thought about it,
perhaps it was finally time for me to make some friends and find a partner with whom I could live this peaceful life.
Suddenly, the whole world went quiet.
Not the peaceful kind of quietness,
but like the calm before a storm.
The cattle began running in the direction of my home village,
as if they were fleeing from something.
In my past life, I had read that animals possess a sixth sense for natural disasters,
and this realization immediately put me on alert.
A feeling of dread rose in my heart,
as though everything was about to go terribly wrong.
The world had become too quiet.
And then, suddenly, there was noise everywhere.
Every animal, every bird—
they all began making frantic sounds.
My entire world was filled with the cries of nature itself.
I didn't fully understand what was happening,
but I, too, began running in the direction of the village.
When I reached the village, everyone was panicking.
The elders said that whenever animals behaved like this,
a great danger was approaching—
a danger too horrendous to bear.
After an hour or so, it started raining heavily.
By then, all the animals had already fled the village in haste.
Suddenly, I realized something.
The animals were all running away from the great river.
And with such heavy rain...
I understood,
A tsunami was coming.
It was only a gut feeling,
but I bet everything on it.
I warned all the villagers that a tsunami was approaching.
But they didn't know what a tsunami was,
so I simply told them to get to higher ground.
Normally, they wouldn't have believed me,
but I was a water magic user, and I had helped their village greatly, so they trusted me.
Together, we climbed to higher ground.
In the distance, I could see the tsunami wave approaching.
The wave was only slightly smaller than the mountain we had climbed,
so it passed safely.
The villagers began celebrating.
I, too, felt overjoyed.
But then I saw it.
And my heart was filled with such cold terror
that my entire body began trembling.
A nearby villager asked me what was wrong and why I was shivering.
But how could I make him understand what I had realized?
The water was retreating back to where it had come from.
And I knew what that meant.
It meant that a second wave—
or perhaps a third or fourth—
was coming.
Suddenly, I saw the second wave, and this time the villagers saw it too.
The entire place fell silent.
As the wave approached,
I prepared myself to face it.
Suddenly, a voice called out to me:
"No, you won't survive this.
It would be too boring if you died so early.
Let me help you a little."
Suddenly, my body felt as though it had been covered by an invisible suit of air.
As the wave crashed down,
it swallowed everything in its path like a devouring monster consuming all it could see.
My entire world spun violently within the water.
I couldn't see anything clearly.
Suddenly, a piece of wood struck me on the head.
I lost consciousness.
After some time...
"Argh!"
Satya vomited.
"I am alive,"
Satya muttered.
"How did I survive that? And what was that voice?"
Satya wondered to himself.
Every part of his body ached with pain, yet he still remained clear-headed enough to inspect his injuries.
His entire body was covered in scrapes and wounds.
He tried to stand up, but he fell several times because of his injuries.
Eventually, he forced himself to stand and looked around.
There were only trees—towering trees nearly twenty meters tall.
Satya had arrived in one of the most dangerous places in that world.
He was inside the evergreen forest,
Amarvan.
"The heavenly bells rang for disaster,
A feeling of distant farewell.
The tranquility of nature,
Harmonious like a melodic tone,
Followed by an endless silence,
Leading to eternal disaster.
Tall trees stretched endlessly in sight—
Who knows what awaits
Within this endless plight."