‘Thank you, young man, you can drop it there,’ an old man said.

‘You are welcome,’ Huno replied, putting down a traveling bag. ‘Bye sir,’

‘Alright bye, thank you again,’ the old man said and watched Huno walk away.

Huno walked out of the train station with a paper in his hand.

‘It’s so early,’ he said, staring at the sky and walking up to a board map. ‘Let’s see which way is it,’ he said.

    ~Two Months Ago~

    ‘Hey, Huno, how are you?’

‘Ms. Stephanie, you came,’ Huno replied with tears in his eyes. ‘She’s gone,"‘

‘Stop holding your tears back. Let it out, Huno,’

Huno looked at her and shook his head and closed his eyes. ‘I promised myself I won’t cry. She’s in a better place now, and she isn’t suffering.’

He opened his eyes, and the tears gathered in his eyes were gone.

Ms. Stephanie smiled wryly. ‘Alright, I wanted to ask what you think about coming to live with me?’

‘You mean?’

‘You need a new environment. My place is a pleasant idea of one,’ she replied.

‘Have you told the sisters?’

‘No, I wanted to hear what you think first,’ she replied.

‘Is it okay for me to do that after two months? There’s something I need to do.’

‘Alright, here is my address,’ she said and bought a pen and book out of her bag.

After writing, she tore a page out and handed it over to him.

‘Wow, it’s quite far,’ Huno said.

‘Farther the better, right?’

‘Probably, please don’t tell the sisters, okay,’ Huno said.

‘Why?’

‘They probably wouldn't agree. Tell them when I’m already there,’

‘Okay, I understand,’ she smiled.

Huno nodded and looked at the address again.

‘I should get going. Make sure you take care of yourself.’

‘I will,’ he replied and watch her leave.

    ~The present~

     ‘I can’t find it,’ Huno said to himself.

He held a paper in his hand as he stared at the map, looking for a location. After a while, he didn’t find it. He looked around and walked forward.

    ‘Excuse me, do you know this place?’ Huno asked a security man.

The man held on to the paper for a while and said, ‘I’m sorry I don’t. Go over there take the left turn. The first office is our traveler’s guide office. They would help,”

‘Thank you,’ Huno replied.

‘You are welcome,’

Huno followed the man’s directions and arrived at the said office. There was a window and behind it was a desk. Someone was sleeping on it.

Huno knocked on the glass softly, ‘excuse me,’.

     The person rose her head up and yawned a little. It was a lady.

‘I’m sorry, welcome. How may I be of service to you?’ the lady asked.

‘Can you give me directions? I’m looking for this place,’ Huno replied and handed over the paper.

The lady took it and had a look. ‘Please give a moment to search for it,’ she said and opened a book.

     After going through it, she turned to a map on the wall and also went through it. She frowned before standing up and moving to a bigger map on the wall.

‘Oh, sir, I think you took the wrong train. This is Phoenix town, where you are headed is Phoenix city, in another state,’ she said.

‘Oh, how far is it from here?’ Huno asked.

‘Quite far? About a month by train, you’ll need to cross a state, so you’ll have to make several stops,’ she replied.

‘Oh, thank you,’

‘Here I’ll write the several trains you need to take, so you won’t have a problem again,’ she said and picked a pen.

‘Thanks,’

       When she was done, she gave Huno back his paper.

‘Thank you,’

‘Welcome, have a safe trip,’ she replied as Huno left.

Huno walked back absentmindedly, smiling as he was lost in thoughts.

‘I’m traveling to new places now Mia,’ he said as his smile depleted.

      ~Bump~

 

     ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there,’ Huno said.

He had walked into someone and so he apologized.

‘You must be blind then,’ the person replied and walked away.

‘I’m sorry,’ Huno said as the person left.

He continued walking and went back into the train station.

‘I’ll like to board train A3,’

Huno said and put his hand in his bag.

‘Okay, sir, that will be…,’

‘Huh? no way,’ Huno said, interrupting the cashier.

He put his hand in his pockets and frowned.

‘Where did I put it?’ he said and checked his bag again.

Still, he didn’t find what he was looking for. His money was gone.

  

     He rushed out of the train station with the paper in his hand.

‘Sorry,’ he yelled as he rushed forward, bumping into a few people as he ran.

‘Pray I don’t catch you,’ Huno yelled angrily.

He ran as fast as he could while he cursed in his heart.

‘Hmm, hmm, hmm,’ he came to a stop and grabbed his knees as he panted.

‘Curse you,’ he whispered.

He stood up straight and looked around. He was currently at a four-way junction and there was no one in sight.

…

     After a long while of cursing angrily and being frustrated, Huno picked a random direction and walked forward. He didn’t know what to do. It was still quite early, and at the moment all his money was gone.

‘Hey, you there? Hehe, why you out by this time?’ a voice came from the left.

He stopped in his track as the voice came again. ‘Young lady, don’t you know it’s not safe here?’

    Turning his head to face that direction, Huno sees a woman being confronted by two men, each holding a knife with their backs towards him.

‘Ignore, just walk Huno, walk away. You can’t do anything,’ Huno said to himself and left quietly.

He kept walking away while looking back in that direction.

‘Not your fault. If you go help, you may end up being killed,’ he comforted himself.

Huno kept walking, and after reaching two blocks away, he saw a police station.

‘Well, at least I can report what I saw.’

      He walked into the station. He saw three police officers behind their desk, two men and a female. After thinking for a while, he walked up to the female police officer and said.

‘Um please excuse me, I’ll like to report an incident,’

‘Hey, what’s the matter?’ the female police officer asked. ‘How may I help you?’ she added.

Huno pointed in the direction he came from and then said.

‘Down that way, about two blocks away on your left, I saw a woman being harassed by two men. I think they are planning to rape her,’

‘Kid, are you serious?’ the female police officer got up while she asked.

Huno nodded and replied. ‘Yes, it wasn’t long ago,’

‘Thank you, young man, officer Gareth, we have a situation, let’s go,’ the female police officer said and rushed away.

The police officer name Gareth got up immediately and followed her.

‘I hope they get there on time,’ Huno said and left the station.

★★★

      After leaving the police station, Huno continued on his path, not knowing where he was heading. He came across a coffee shop, a man came out of the shop and drop a small signboard in front of it.

   ~Employee needed~ says the signboard. 

    Huno smiled and walked over to the man.

‘Um, please excuse me,’

‘Hey kiddo, how may I help you?’ the man who was about to get into the shop stopped in his tracks and said.

‘Do you employ a seventeen-year-old?’ Huno asked.

‘Um yeah, but I have to say the pay isn’t quite high, though. You may not like it,’ the man replied.

‘If I can get a place to sleep, food to eat, and one free day a week, I don’t mind working for you,’ Huno said.

‘Oh! Where are you from, kiddo?’ the man asked.

‘Far away from here,’

‘You ran away from home?’

‘No, I was heading to an aunt’s place. I got my pocket picked and my money was stolen,’

‘Okay, what’s your name, kiddo?’

‘Huno!’

‘Well, Huno...’

‘Good morning sir,’ a voice sounded, cutting the man short.

‘Oh, it’s you, you came. I thought you weren’t coming back,’ the man said.

‘Why would you think so? I really need this, sir,’ the voice replied.

Huno turned around to see a young boy not much different from him.

‘Alright,’ the man said and turned to Huno. ‘Hey kiddo, I’m sorry the lad over here came first, and I have room for only one more.’

    ‘Oh, it’s alright, thank you very much,’ Huno said and turned to leave. ‘Wait here a moment kiddo,’ the man’s voice came out as he walked into the shop.

   Huno stood there for some time before the man came out again with a small bag.

‘Here it’s not much, but you can have it. If you go up ahead a few blocks, you’ll arrive at the town’s market. May be there’s a shop there willing to employ ya,’ the man said, handing the bag over to him.

‘Thank you very much,’ Huno said and collected the bag with both hands.

   ‘Bye kiddo,’ the man said as Huno walked away.

    In the bag, Huno found three packaged snacks and a small purse with little money inside.

‘I can’t believe there’s someone so kind,’ Huno said and looked back.

After which he kept the small bag inside his black one-handed bag and kept walking.

          ★★★

     After walking for a while, Huno came to the market, probably because it was still early. Only a few shops were open. He went to each and asked if they will employ him but found none vacant.

After leaving the last shop Huno pick a direction and left the market. He arrived at a bus stop that had a map on a huge signboard. He went through the map and then waited patiently for the bus.

Huno waited a full one hour before the bus finally arrived. By then, the bus stop had a few people. Two men, three women, and two kids, along with him, boarded the bus.

The bus left afterward and drove steadily. A child cried once a while, Huno ate one snack, and one after another the bus arrived at a different bus stop. When it got to the last bus stop, Huno got off quietly.

He realized that everyone who had boarded the bus at the same time as him was all gone, and he didn’t know when these others got on. He checked his phone for the time. It was already half-past three.

      The bus left and Huno stared at the small town not so far away. He decided not to go into it and finally walked along the busy upward hill road.

Cars kept ascending and descending it continuously as he walked along the road.

       He watched the scenery as he passed by; the view was quite nice. By his right, over the edge, there was sea water and across the road, there was a forest with a few lovely looking flowers. It seems like people live in the forest, there were signs of habitation of people.

      After almost forty minutes of walking, Huno was on the other side of the hill and was almost down.

He kept walking while looking at the sea. There was a small beach at this end of the hill.

While he stared, he heard a screeching sound from behind getting louder instantly. He turned and found a small truck driving towards him.

The driver’s head seems to be down, resting on the wheel. He reacted, but it was late. A part of the truck caught his dress and dragged him along. Luckily, after a while, that part of his dress got torn, but he fell onto the beach.

   ‘Ah!!!’ he growled in pain.

‘Luckily, I’m alive,’ he said, trying to comfort himself.

His current state was not quite good, his right arm was dislocated. His left arm, which was injured by the truck, bled a little and his left thigh hurt. There was a big scratch on it.

‘Lucky me,’ he said and remained laid down.

‘What the hell am I going to do?’

He stared at the cliff above him. There was no way for him to climb back up in this state. He remained on the ground, not getting up. He was quite tired, and he didn’t even know what to do.

     Time passed slowly. As though it was sad watching Huno’s terrible state, the bright sky cried. Huno struggled to get up, looked around, and strolled under the cliff to shade himself from the rain.

It was as though the sky was angered or somewhat more upset as the rain got heavier.

‘It seems I got on your bad side today,’ Huno said, looking at the rain.

After a while, he checked his right and left, randomly picked the left, and walked forward. He struggled under the cliff and tried hard to keep moving.

‘Ahh!’ he growled from time to time.

The pain he felt was difficult to bear. This situation was a first for him. He kept moving as he hoped to see the bottom point of the hill so he could get back on the road.

Unfortunately for him, he met the seawater. It was too deep to walk through, and he was in no condition to swim. He couldn’t even see any dry land nearby. Disappointed, he rested for a while before facing the opposite direction and struggled back. The rain kept falling heavily. Huno didn’t know if the other side was better but kept going looking for a spot to hide from the rain.

      He kept going and as the rain fell heavily, the already small beach seems to get smaller by the minute. Huno came to the other end of the beach and met the seawater again.

This time seems to be better. The water wasn’t too deep and there was a better beach across it.

Contemplating for a while, Huno walked across the water and as it went the deeper it was. The water level kept rising until it got to his mouth, seeming to have gotten to an equilibrium.

     After walking for a while, Huno got tired and rested on the cliff wall, raising his head so he could breathe better.

Only resting for a while, Huno heard cracking sounds. The sound came too quickly, and before he could respond, a part of the wall behind him broke.

Immediately the sea water flowed in and swept in, pushing Huno into the crack.

After flowing for a while, the water stopped. Huno lay down in pain with half his body in the water and the upper half on dry ground. Too tired to get up, Huno stayed in place, panting.

‘Ah...h,’ a dry growl came from his mouth as he stared at the room, realizing he was in a cave.

The cave was quite narrow and somewhat dark. The little light here came from a blue-colored rock. He raised his left hand and he could barely see it, just the outline of his palm and fingers.

    ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Did I do something wrong today?’ Huno yelled after realizing the water level was slowly increasing.

‘I wish I just went to that town,’ he said and forcefully got up.

He picked up the blue stone from the water, leaned on the cave wall, and dragged his body forward.

     The cave was quite long. After dragging his body for an hour, Huno never got to the end. The cave became narrower the further he went and Huno kept on wishing the cave wouldn’t be a dead end. Because if it was, then he probably will end up dying here.

Time passed, and the cave was narrower, barely big enough for him to walk through. What kept him going was he could see a light ahead.

‘If there’s light then there’s a way out,’ he thought and comforted himself again and again.

  ...

    Huno finally got to the end, where the source of the light was, and what he saw disappointed him.

‘You got to be kidding me,’ he leaned on the wall and said.

The end was a wider area, as wide as a small bedroom. It was filled with huge rocks, stalactites, stalagmites, and some pillars. And at the far right on the wall, there was a blue circle which was the source of the light. The inside of that circle kept turning like a vortex, not having any intention of stopping.

      Huno rested for a while and after deciding, he walked up to the vortex-like wall to have a look. The circle was from the top of the wall to the bottom and was about three meters wide.

     Huno, who stood about ten feet away from it, dropped the blue stone into his hand. He picked up a small plain-looking one and threw it at the vortex-like circle.

As he expected, the stone went into the vortex. Seeing this, Huno rested a while longer. He was still slightly tired and still very much in pain.

    A long time later, he stood up, gathered three stones, of which he kept two, along with the blue stone in his bag, and held one in his hand. After which he walked into the blue-colored vortex.

Everything around was dark for a while and when the light came back, he was in a cold cave, the vortex still behind him.

‘Is this snow?’ Huno muttered to himself.

Snow covered the floor of the cave. After looking around, Huno walked to the entrance of the cave. As he kept going, it got colder, and the snow became denser.

By now he had confirmed that it was snow. By the time Huno came out all around as far as his eyes could see was snow.