Chapter 1

After graduating secondary school, Qiwen was off to spend his summer preparing for high school. Having lived most of his life with his grandparents, he couldn’t spend his summer like other children in a two parent household and had to work to make ends meet. 

At the family restaurant, he would help his grandparents prepare the ingredients in stock and help out with cleaning while his uncle and aunt took turns working the cash register. When the restaurant isn’t busy, he would play games on his phone in the breakroom. Returning home around 10, he would continue to play video games in secret. With no plans for the summer, he would spend the days repeating this routine, except for a handful of days off when he would hang out with friends to play games.

Days passed and his 14th birthday came, Qiwen wasn’t expecting much for this year like any other birthdays for as long as he could remember since it would always be the usual fruit cakes with his family to celebrate with. But for this birthday, he would receive his first present as his grandparents pulled out an old box. The old box contained an hourglass-like necklace. 

His grandparents proceeded to tell him about how the necklace belonged to his father and that they recently found it while cleaning. While they continued to talk about his parents, Qiwen’s mood turned sour because he couldn’t remember what his parents were like except the fire that burned down his house. Taking the box, he thanked them and went to his room leaving his family perplexed.

That night he dreamt about the fires that swallowed his house and how his grandma couldn’t accept that his parents had died in the fire because their bodies were never found. When he woke, he dried his eyes and wondered why he cried for people he didn’t even know. While the sun was still rising, he stared at the necklace in the box pondering about his bizarre dream of a memory. His thoughts were muddled, but he knew he had to move on. Nevertheless, it was a gift, so he would wear it to show his appreciation.

He spent that morning binging videos and one of them had to be about missing people. He thought about how odd the coincidence was as his stomach let out a growl. His grandparents were watching TV and he craved junk food, so he left to go to the nearest convenience store. 

On his way back home, he got a text to meet up with his friends, so he decided to take a detour through an alley. While walking down the dark alley, he ended up in a forest and wondered if it was a park that just got finished building.

As he ventured further into the forest, he was at the edge of a primitive village with people dressed in rags and they were talking in an unknown language. Qiwen tried to converse with the native for directions thinking they were just actors renting the place for a video. Unfortunately for him, they were not actors and he was lost in a foreign land. He tried searching where he was on his phone thinking there was still a possibility he was on Earth, but there was no signal.

Shoot, he can’t go home or play video games anymore. What now? This can’t be it, it must be a dream. He undergoes the usual phases of panic before half accepting his circumstance and tries to converse with the people to find a means of surviving. 

Not being able to converse with the people, he had to first look for a way to survive on his own. Luckily for him, an old lady took pity on him and let him live with her until they can communicate. Initially, he was skeptical of the old woman and was reluctant to accept anything she offered, but after he spent a night in her house, he accepted her charity knowing she isn't a threat.

Of course, the old lady wasn’t just going to let him stay without pulling his own weight, so she taught him little by little. With the help of her granddaughter and the neighborhood kid he first met, he learned how to make a fire, hunt, forage, and various other tasks, not without difficulty of course.

During the time he lived with them, they taught him words orally since they aren’t proficient in writing. He shared with them his knowledge and became acquainted with the villagers. Eventually, he made enough money to get his own house, a rundown house at the edge of the village. Within two months, he learned enough of the language to converse with people and gained a means of surviving.

The days were peaceful, so when tragically struck, he was ill equipped for the atrocities of their era.

Bandits rained down on their humble village at the crack of dawn, leaving trails of fire and cries for help. The children were hidden, the women were captured, the men and elderly were slain. When the chaos reached his house, he ran and looked for the old lady and the granddaughter.

When he found them, the old lady told him and her granddaughter to run and hide deep in the woods. Unwilling to leave, the old lady had to push them away while she defended against the bandit. They ran and met the little boy wandering amidst the chaos crying. They took him along, but before long a bandit spotted them.

Qiwen told them to run while holding off the bandit. The girl, not willing to leave him behind too, teamed up with him and they gained a chance to run away.

In the woods, they stayed hidden with few others that worked to keep each other safe until the bandits passed through and the fire died down.

When the chaos was over, they came out to the ruins with heavy hearts. The sun was still high, but their village was reduced to rubbles. They rummaged through the ruins for any life that remained and took their time looking over the deceased.

While they lamented, they heard a rhythmic march descending upon their village.

Author's Note

Please leave a comment on how I can improve my writing. This is not finalized, so I'll go back every now and then to edit it. The dialogues are still to be determined.