Prologue
Rain.
Something completely unknown to the city, but at the same time, appreciative whenever it does rain. Rarely does rain ever fall over the city for reasons unknown, but Bastian likes to walk through it whenever he sees rain.
To Bastian, something about the feeling of rain soaking through his clothes somehow soothes him. Later when he has returned to his hut he will have to ring out his clothes to let them dry for another wear tomorrow, but for now, he will bask in the glory of heavy rain.
Rain brings resources to everyone. The last time it rained, villagers placed buckets outside of their huts to catch the rain for water. But with resources, it also brought destruction. Destruction throughout the entire village, because no one is able to fully protect themselves and their homes from it. But for now, he will enjoy the rain as it is. Without a thought for the aftermath.
Just as he is walking down the old-stone sidewalk, letting the rain fall around him and seclude him in the sound of it, he hears something.
He turns his body around to notice how dark the sky has fallen, with the full moon coming into view and providing some light over him because the streetlights are out. The rareness of the rain means the streetlights aren’t able to handle the wetness nor the heaviness of the rain.
He takes a small moment to admire how dark it looks without the streetlights providing light. To the left of him, he hears a soft crooning noise, but doesn’t fully acknowledge it. Crooning noise like that normally is identified with animals that like to roam around the city in the forest during the night when they cannot be seen. But this is the first time he is hearing them himself.
Without another thought, he continues on his journey back to the village. But again something else stops him. This time it isn’t a soft crooning noise, but a scratching sound. Like something is scratching its nail along the ground. He turns back toward the noise, trying to figure out the source.
Bastian sees nothing but darkness, and somehow that isn’t reassuring anymore as it was before. He makes himself believe it was nothing, and turns back around till he spots his village. The scratching sound continues to sound behind me, but he convinces himself that it is those animals searching for food or lost themselves. He finds himself walking faster when the screeching sound grows and he begins to almost feel the stench of hot breath on the back of his neck.
The screeching sound continues to get louder and louder to the point of Bastian trying to find a way out of the situation when it stops. With heavy breathing, Bastian slowly turns around with his guard up to see nothing. And hear nothing. All he spots are the dark trees and the sound of rain begins to feel his ears again.
After a few moments of no longer hearing or seeing anything, he regains control of his breathing and turns around to finish his journey back to the village.
Fortunately, all too soon, he spots the top of his hut. On his way to his, he greets other villagers returning to their hut or leaving as well. As he is greeting a few of the villagers, he notices that most of them are bulking up because of the rain.
Before long, he reaches in front of him, and once the wooden door opens, he spots his two brothers and how unaware they are of his presence.
Along with neither one of them acknowledging him at the front door, he also concludes that they aren’t wet, meaning they didn’t take the time to go out in the rain. In the household, Bastian only is the only one who is fascinated by the rain while the other two claim it to be a burden because of the destruction rain leaves the following day. Because it rarely rains, neither the village nor the city itself have taken the measures to be secure when it does rain.
The two brothers, Han and Casper, are twins.
As neither of them continue to let his presence go unnoticed, Bastian finds time to gather up some supplies for supper. He gathers everything he needs for homemade stew, a rare thing in their household, and uses some other supplies that villagers were kind enough to lend, with some good leftover bread from the remaining night.
Bastian places everything together, and wipes out of his worn-out wet coat, shaking the droplets of water onto the ancient wood flooring. The brothers still have continued not to notice him at this point, so Bastian walks slowly towards them, until he is behind the two of them. After crouching down behind them, he shakes his head, letting the wet droplets fly all over the two boys. Han shrieks in surprise while Casper whines in annoyance. They both glare at Bastian before Casper demands why did he do that. Bastian just laughs at their reactions without offering an answer.
They continue to watch him, Casper letting his glare turn even darker, but Bastian ignores him and informs them that supper is ready. Han gets up from his spot, passing Bastian to his seat and grabbing a small spoonful. Casper does the same thing a second later, but grabs a bigger spoonful than his twin. As Bastian joins them, he grabs some and asks them about their school day.
Han swallows what’s in his mouth. “I’m getting better at math!” He smiles widely, some chunks of stew stuck in the bottom of his teeth. Bastian looks over at Casper, waiting for his answer.
“I don’t see why we have to go to school,” he huffs in annoyance.
Bastian watches his brother continue to grumble under his breath. Before answering, he eats some of the stew. He feels it begin to settle on the bottom of his stomach.
To the two wandering boys, impatiently waiting for an answer, more so Casper than Han, he says, “Mother would have wanted you two to get your studies down. It might be too late for me to get mine done, but it isn’t for you guys.” So while the two boys go and get their studies done, Bastian will focus his attention on other things. While he doesn’t mention it to them, it is implied that his other things involve things their parents should be doing. But he has taken over that role after the death of the two of them.
Casper doesn’t allow that answer. “We can help you though-”
“Mother would be disappointed if you didn’t at least try to continue with them.” Bastian cuts off Casper and what he was about to say.
Bastian continues to chew on the stew. Casper still doesn’t seem convinced by the answer because he continues to grumble underneath his breath, but Han gives him a look that quickly quiets him.
The rest of the supper is eaten in complete silence. Thankfully, the sound of pitter rain filled the silence that neither of the three were wanting to create. Han took the dishes from them, rinsing off the remains with water and lightly drying them so they could be reused for the next supper.
Once everything is settled, they each get ready for bed. Because of the size of the hut, there is only the main room. And with no other rooms in the hut for any of them to venture off to, they all huddle the corner of the small hut.
Because of the rain, the air around the village and especially in that specific hut had gotten colder than usual. Between the three of them, Bastian could only afford two blankets, and they each went to the twins.
As Han and Casper snuggled up in the warmth and fell soundly asleep, Bastian fell asleep shivering from the weather.
-
The sun has risen on a new day, clear of rain. And the bright sun, Bastian is awake and alert.
He begins his morning, walking around the small village, asking people if they need help with damages. The rain might have left, but in its wake, it left behind damages to the villagers hut and anything they used to help secure their hut. Most of the people he stops to ask decline his kind offer, but one older woman accepts him.
Bastian smiles at them, walking closer to their hut. Their door has been left wide open, and he catches that they live alone. They had left stacks of wood against the hut and in various other places, so he began to pick them up. Most have been soaked through because of the rain, but some have other markings that gather his attention.
Some stacks have scratches that seem to have gotten through the wood. He turns his attention over to the older woman who is trying to help as well.
He catches her attention, and glances towards the piece of wood in his hand. “Have some wild animals gotten through here?”
The lady doesn’t answer him at first, but he patiently waits. She looks around at the others cleaning up, and leans in closer to him. Bastian remains still.
“There is a rumor going around,” her raspy voice rings out through his ears. “That the Higher Power are planning to allow Goslins to come through and destroy the entire village.”
Higher Power.
The Higher Power are a small group of people who look over the city, and create laws in ways of keeping the city safe. But allowing Goslins to come through - wolf-like creatures without sight but sharp teeth to make up for the lack of sight - to come through the village and destroy it seems outrageous. The village as a whole might be in bad shape, but he never gave it a thought for the High Power to allow creatures to come through and destroy it. Especially with it being occupied with villagers.
“What?” Bastian asks in disbelief.
But the lady isn’t finished yet with the rumor. “But once the entire village is destroyed and gone, and either we are dead or gone, the Higher Power plan on making it into something exclusive.” Meaning something that has not been yet discovered.
Bastian refuses to allow himself to believe these rumors, but as he is looking around at the other villagers, he begins to notice some other pieces of wood that also have either a scratch through it or a bite bitten off.
And there seems to be worry in the older ladies eyes when he focuses his attention back on her. Bastian looks at the other villagers again, seeing none of them worry, but it’s only a matter of time before they are filled with worry.
Bastian thinks about Han and Casper. Since their parents death, Bastian has done everything he possibly could to make sure they all have a roof over their head and are equally fed.
But if Goslins managed to come through the village then he had nothing and there would be no place for the three of them to go afterwards. But what if his brothers didn’t survive the Goslin attack?
Bastian looked around, deciding his next move.
And then it hit him.
He will go to the Higher Power and talk to them.
Himself.
