Chapter 1 - A Paranoid Guy has "Visited" My Village

A paranoid guy "visited" my village and was talking with my father about a secret.

My name is Sydelle Liu. I'm 15 years old. I had a doll which contained a thing. Cotton--of course--was inside it. But the 'thing' that I meant wasn't the cotton. It was a soul, a human soul. I wasn't sure whether it was a calamity or a fortune.

I lived in a village near a forest. My village was far from any kingdoms. From what I heard, there were so many kingdoms in the past--2 were in the bottom of the sea and 3 were on the earth. But one of the 2 kingdoms in the sea had been destroyed by its a-hundred-generation of enemy. That was what they said. Enemy? I'd been thinking, why do kingdoms love to take other kingdoms' territories? They couldn't appreciate what they have. It looks like the kings weren't the type of dads who'll beat their children's butts if they're naughty.

Many had said that I shouldn't mention those things in front of anyone or I should, well, start thinking about what I haven't done in my life and do those things, immediately. What I said was right and I had to run away because of that? Oh, so fair.

Well, I was used to seal my mouth in front of them. But I was still thinking about that in secret. The villagers from where I lived weren't bad people after all. You only have to behave when you're in front of them or you won't be able to get home without having new disabilities, be it physical disability or mental disability. Their wrath could cause the most brawny man kneel before them.

They dare to show their anger in front of anyone except me, my sister Silian Liu, and my dad Zephyr Liu. Well, that's because we were the family of the village head. My sister and I are twins. We always do everything together.

       

When I was 9, a boy who was about 2 years older than me came from the neighboring village only to give me a cute cow doll to me and go without any farewells. It made the villagers stood with their mouths widely opened as if making a new beehive.

       

That doll had been accompanying me since. And well, I've told the doll about everything. I named it "Cow", just like the name of its species in the animal world. It always act as though it was a disabled pet that can only change its expressions. It always do that whenever I was telling a story to it. But it didn't frighten me. Instead, I was happy to tell a story to it.

Blue. That's the color that symbolize my village. Almost everything in my village was blue. Well I didn't object that. I only felt sorry for my sister. Because from what they said, that color symbol was decided upon my birth. They said, when I was born, it was as if the sea was celebrating it. Even the fishes sacrificed themselves so that the villagers could catch them. But those things stopped as soon as my sister was born.

We live peacefully, until one day, a paranoid guy--I called him paranoid because he always tried to spread his charm in front of women, at least that's what I thought--came to our village.

      

It seemed like the villagers welcomed his arrival. Many has joined in groups and mentioned things about matchmaking. Well, as long as he's not paired with me or my sister, I don't care. I admit that he was handsome. But his acts of spreading charms made me felt gross.

He didn't clearly spread his charms. But still, his charms were spread even if no one was bewitched, maybe. Even his skin color looked exactly the same as the skin color of women who only sit around in their terrace. His face was so white as if his friends had just threw bags of flour to him before he came here. Oh God. He was so skinny. Maybe slender is the right word. It made me doubt, was he a real guy or a woman who disguised herself?

      

So, this paranoid guy went into the village head's house, that is my house, for I-don't-know-what. I approached my sister and asked her to eavesdrop their conversation. Luckily, that was my sister's hobby.

       

"What are they talking about, sis?", my sister happily asked me.

"Sstt... We're finding out now, aren't we?", I answered her without even took a glance at her.

"Oh right!", she said, as if she had just realized it. 

But in the end, we didn't even hear a thing except for the sound of footsteps that was getting nearer. I quickly realized that someone was heading to the door. I pulled my sister to hide and that paranoid guy came out. Perfect timing.

 

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