◉ Prologue ◉

Introduction to the world of The XY. It is set around 70 years before the first chapter started(:.

At one cool midday, a boy, less than fourteen, with loads of sweats on his narrow forehead down to his filthy bare feet and smells of undesired places and things; is herding his one and only pet, the aberrant but dear juiyhene, after a long period of feeding it with grains, wheats, and some perished tiny animals, to its own cramped and unbearable stable at the back of his house. He struggles mutely to open the heavy broad door of the stable before leading and settling it in without it fleeing its master's hands smoothly. Before the boy can ever leave to return to his haven, he caresses the juiyhene fondly, along with some sincere laughs and smile. It responds by purring, like ensuring the boy that everything will be fine for them both. He smiles sadly to his pet before closing the stable door and leaving it behind, alone in the confined place.

The boy walks slowly to his house nearby while thinking about his only best friend and pet, and of his outlying mountainous environs. He never wants to live in this horrid place perpetually. The desolate place where winds come and blow causing harsh climate, rugged weighty rocks, dripping heavy streams, frigid barely green grasses, and also where he can touch the clouds in just miles apart from the ground. Instead, he desires to travel the unimagined and ravishing parts of the world he has never been to, like to the end of the rushing rivers' water, and even to the far off snug lands. But when he discerns reality is far worse from what he has awaited, he knows there is nothing he can do to change his fate.

As the boy opens the front doorway, he is welcomed by his hostile family members. His older sister, as tetchy as ever, whilst carrying her newborn, scolds him for returning so late as he needs to concoct food for lunch. She curses unsavory words to his ears piercingly, as she always does every time he behaves not accordingly to her instructions. The boy endeavors to hide his weeps and stay tranquil. He decides to head to the kitchen to secrete his misery rather than hearing his sister loathsome words.

The boy sees that there are no apt ingredients left to prepare lunch on the countertop. He also notices the unwashed dishes on the basin and his sister didn't do anything to wash them. He sighs tolerantly as he recalls that there are still some food that was cached in the top cupboard. He attempts several times to reach it with the tips of his bony fingers by jumping, but he can't as he is too short for the height. He surely wants his sister to assist him but he doesn't want to see the outrage of hers upon him.

As the boy stays in heartfelt silence, ruminating on how to overcome the obstacle without bothering anyone, he can hear her sister's meek voice nearby, subduing her infant as he starts to wail loudly. He imagines dreamingly that their life would be much better if her sister hadn't chosen to do such heinous thing that caused sorrows and teardowns everywhere in the family. He begins to wonder why he insisted to accompany his egotistical, inconsiderate, and grouchy sister rather than staying with his gracious parents, away from this hideous place. He tries not to rue the choice he made and elucidate everything to her face as he has always cared for his sister long enough though she never perceives it well. But before the boy can concern of anything else again, an abrupt loud sound is heard, likely from afar, interrupting every bustle surrounding it, counting them both.

The boy's sister then starts inquiring various insoluble questions regarding of the distinct sound with her trembling voice as she feels terrified. At one point in the boy's mind, he will try to pacify her and apprise her that everything is fine, but now he experiences a slight change, yet a big impact. The boy realizes he doesn't want to be his sister's escort like every time before, obeying every order from her, receiving every vile word from her, serving her day and night with finite resources like some lackey, he would love to vamoose from here if he could, and now is his probable chance. He is also thrilled and feels agog about what's happening, especially regarding the sound. He simply just doesn't mind about her anymore.

The boy then dashes swiftly from the kitchen through the front doorway, toward the freezing breezes of late noon just outside of his house, with a new kind of elation in his face, darting passes his horrified-looking sister in her worst condition. His sister, heeds that he's attempting to escape from his duty, now yelling and cussing him out, striving to cease him from what he intends to do, in particular, not making them food for lunch and probably scramming the estate. She continues shouting his name in rage as she trails him going out of the house in a slower pace, still cradling her bawling little baby in her arms. Whilst searching for her brother outside as he instantly vanishes from her sight, she can see that her brother is not heading for the place where the quirky sound derived from, which is currently covered in smoke, but to the repugnant stable behind the house. After fishing around for that disgraceful tiny creature of her own blood in the mild haze, she knows what he's about to do and she's not letting it occur.

The boy arrives inside the stable, finding his only pet is acting obnoxiously; booting the door as if it needs to flee out, beating its gigantic pinions and long tail as if it's trying to wing out through the roof, and yowling as if its skin is blazed by some wildfire. He essays to calm it by whispering unfazed words and stroking its body gently, soon after, it turns composed. Knowing his success, the boy then reaches to its back, trying to arduously mount the juiyhene for the very first time. At first it jitters a bit, likely to be surprised of the sudden mass on its back, sooner, it remains still like nothing just happened. The boy starts riding it out of the dark stable carefully, with hands holding its neck tight, before he sees her sister, standing levelly in his way, obstructing his way to move further. She still expresses that crabby face of hers and her infant in her safeguarding arms while shrieking his name again and again, "Zwerfhi! Zwerfhi!", commanding him not to run away from their sanctuary and quit his duty to fix the food for lunch. The boy turns placid for his sister. He doesn't feel humiliated by her sister's callous words toward him as he has no solicitude for her or his sentiments anymore. Instead of replying her, he utters one assured word to his juiyhene, "'Hyorfazs'!".

After hearing it, the mighty juiyhene now uses its pair of brawny gigantic pins to sprint hasty enough to catch up with the chilly blowing wind as it runs toward the dense black smoke. Completely off with his sister and her condition, the boy animatedly tries to adjust to his new riding experience. He is clasping the juiyhene's nape fixedly because he never mounted it before. Years ago, it was once a teensy life form, too young and too tiny to be utilized as a conveyance, mostly to bear wares and human. Without noting as time proceeds fast, both of them have already scatted from the poky stable and the miserable house, chiefly from the malign sister of the boy and her tot. The boy smiles excitedly as he realizes what is going to happen shortly. Much sooner than he has envisaged, the juiyhene then spreads its brick humongous wings and flaps them, like it can sway the winds above. The potent affair makes them hover and soar high to the sky above, far from the surface, and mostly from their biased embroilment with the complex world down there. Both are yearning to live differently than before.

The now delighted boy with his juiyhene, ride the gale across the limpid creeks, joining into one single huge river, and the everlasting snowy crests of craggy mountains and hills where the panorama is ineffable from up here. They also can taste the damp hazy clouds on their skin and all around them, which are floating nearby, just above the atmosphere. The boy rejoices loudly, appreciating what both of them have done, even though it's wrong, it's still satisfying, which has led them now to their free present. They venture rapidly to the smoke without hesitation and fear inside their heads. They are pretty mindful of what risk they might meet but they solely don’t care that much, as long as they are free.

The boy tautens his clench as soon as they approach the unwelcoming site from the  nippy sky. He can’t swallow what he just picked out, a colossal structure of metal that is totaled, like it just witnessed a neighboring supernova with the smog covered quite half of it. The juiyhene touched down harshly, leaving the boy to be thrown far away from his pet, landing on mires and soots of the mountain range. The boy struggles to arise to see the baffling item upon his eyes and of course, to check on his juiyhene. He’s petrified of what the thing might decide to do sooner as he chooses to stand by upon nothing except for the fumes filling up the chilly air around him. “Mostrobfa? Wsehrgfabn?” he keeps querying, waiting for its next move.

The boy then hears some dubious sounds from nearby the thing. He starts to run hastily toward it and attempts to forage for the sound source as he believes that it has also caused the disturbing booming noise earlier. He touches the pitted metal and sneaks himself to go inside it, where the smoke originated. Inside, the boy can see the glistering little lights like stars surrounding him in a limited place. The unnatural sound becomes plainer. He looks through all the equipments, machineries, and catches his eye to a small gadget attached to a circling long cable. He touches it slowly, hoping it won’t fly away, but it doesn’t, guess it’s really a dead matter. Eventually, he notices that it’s the odd sound source he’s been hearing until now. He seizes it and pulls it to his ears, trying to pay more attention to the sound. No, it’s more like a voice, a voice of a human, but with the range of vocabularies the boy has never heard of. “I repeat, I repeat. Abort Mission 372,” it utters again and again, like the person never gets jaded of saying the same thing all over again. 

The boy, scared of this inhumane thing, tugs the device doggedly to get it detached, making it shuts down its system. The boy who is now more terrified, runs outside toward his pet, the juiyhene, to make a run for the jeopardy he might have let them in. He mounts himself quickly, expresser than before, to avoid what he surmises it might do to them both with one of its properties in his hands. The juiyhene apprehends its master willingness to take wing and escape from the place, then flaps its wings and hovers, lugging the boy who’s holding it tightly. They never look back to the alien whatsit, never moot about it ever again for the rest of their lives.

Author's Note

xoxo