I-I don't know how much time has passed.
I wandered through lands, across continents—yet the pain never faded. The pain of losing everything I cared for clung to me like a shadow.
The sandstorm was relentless.
My legs ached. But I would not stop.
Through the veil of dust and exhaustion, a settlement emerged in the deep desert.
Shelter. Water. A brief reprieve.
The streets were empty, the villagers hidden away, shielding themselves from the storm's wrath. I sat against a building, using its walls to block the worst of the wind.
At some point, I must have dozed off.
A small hand nudged my arm.
A child.
Before I could react, his mother pulled him away, her wary eyes fixed on me. A stranger in their home.
I pushed myself to my feet and approached the well at the center of the village. The water burned as it rushed down my parched throat, clearing the dryness like a cleansing fire.
Then, a voice.
Soft. Steady. Ancient.
"Young man… your face. You have walked through much in that short existence of yours."
I turned to see an old man. His robes were worn, his figure frail, but his presence felt unshaken.
He smiled.
"Yeah… I guess so,"
I muttered.
He studied me for a moment, then spoke again.
"Why don't you share your story with an old man?"
I hesitated. But what did I have to lose?
So I followed him. Through the quiet village. To a nearby cliffside, where the setting sun bled into the horizon.
And there, beneath the dying light, I told my story.
He listened. Silent. Unmoving.
Even as I spoke in riddles, my voice burdened by memories too heavy to explain, he seemed to understand.
By the time I finished, the sun had vanished.
The night had claimed the sky.
He finally broke the silence.
"Disappearing… what a frightening thing,"
He murmured. His expression was unreadable.
"I have seen much in my life… things lost to time. Some seemed meaningless, but I now know none ever were."
His voice was gentle, yet it carried the weight of something vast—something beyond this moment.
"There is a choice before you,"
He said.
"A hard one."
He paused, then smiled.
"You will figure it out."
And just like that, he was gone.
I was alone on that cliff, left with only his words.
He had given me no answers. But somehow…
A weight had lifted from my soul.
And I knew what I had to do.