The only difference was that the wind was not carrying the glowing dust away with the winds. It just kept on floating higher and higher towards the grey sky with every passing moment, before slowly disappearing into air. Almost as if mother nature itself rejected that existence from its cycle and sent it off somewhere far away.
On the other side, the boy was unconscious from exhaustion and was dreaming. He was standing in darkness that stretched far beyond horizons. A huge dense white star with outlines that looked like liquid waves. It was in the sky emitting just a small amount of light enough to see around him, he was on a flat plain with no sign of end.
He found himself wrapped and entangled in thorns in those empty planes. The thorns were embedded deep into his skin, feeding on his blood and tearing through his flesh.
He tried to free himself but the thorns just embedded themself deeper and more stronger into his flesh. Causing him to bleed more and the thorns kept on feasting onto him as a prey.
It seemed hopeless to escape them but for him, he would rather die than to stay stuck here being fed upon for the rest of his life. After all, if he dies, so will the thorns which will have nothing else to feed upon.
'Do not take me for granted' thought the kid in his mind and his voice echoed throughout the plains themself, far and wide.
He tried to free one of his hands but it seemed hopeless as just when he was about to forcefully break it up with his arm, the thorns grew stronger and entangled him further. He dropped his head and stared into the ground to catch his breath while bleeding badly.
As he stared at the ground, he saw the smoke starting to creep in followed by some light and the thorny veins started to ease up and unwrap themself upon this. Just then he heard footsteps in front of him, he looked up to see a shining white shadow figure of a tall man inside smoke whose whole left hand was missing. He stood there with a blurry face and most of his features were hidden and blurry but he had medium sized white hair, vivid shining sky blue eyes which had a pattern of a dot in the middle with scribbled lines around it. He had no left forearm.
A simple string hanging from his ears with nothing attached to its end but had a tie as something had fallen off or removed. It was the noticeable thing despite being ordinary looking since it was the only thing about him that was not blurry compared to his blurry face blurred like a hazy mist and smoky appearance.
The other was he had blue lines shining on his body which resembled scars made by years of torture on his body and endless struggle he faced yet they shine brightly. Some scars were extending towards face but its trace faded near the neck as if his face was protected against all scars except one. A single scar curved on his left cheek which was not made by a sword or a weapon but something rough.
One may try to hide scars but he did not mind them as if it had some meaning as they beautifully shined. He was almost calming to look at as if he proposed no threat. While his face was blurry, it seemed as if he was smiling warmly at the kid. He just looked at him from a distance and waved his hand as if he was saying his goodbyes for the last time.
He had a large scar on his left cheek, as if something had tried to gouge off his face.
The smoke and light from the man made the thorns unwrap themself and creep away. The kid who was freed from thorns tried to call out to that man as he yelled 'Wait' but it was of no use as he disappeared into smoke as if he turned into smoke himself and was forgotten among it. The kid just blinked and when he opened his eyes, the man was nowhere to be seen or the smoke.
He found himself freed from the thorns and in a different place. He looked around him and thought 'Where am I?' as he tried to inspect his body which had no marks of thorns or blood. As if it was a dream.
'Just now I was wrapped in the thorns…' wondered the kid to himself as if he forgot what had happened after being wrapped on the thorns. No, it was the existence of that man that was forgotten itself… Maybe it was all just a dream.
He looked around and found himself in a hallway made of stone like from some old ruins which were covered in moss, roots and veins. The hallway was floating in space with many stars around him. There were 5 doorways in total connected to the hallway leading to some space that were completely in different place like sub-spaces and right in front of him, after the 5 doorways, the walls and ceiling vanished from the path.
Only remained were ground stones which may barely be called a path. It led towards the pure black star that was surrounded by shining dense pure white fluid like a ring around the dark star. There was a path but the stones bricks that lead towards it were decreasing with distance and almost impossible to walk on as one would need to balance himself and land perfectly to even attempt to take a single step forward on that never ending stones towards the star.
There were 5 doorways in total. Two of the left and three on the right. They were all aligned in front of another and seemed like pathways. At each door, there were stairs in them surrounded by a dark void like an endless fall and at the end of the stairs flickered a different color of light but behind each door was surely some path and flame except the one closest to the right.
The closest to the right had seemed like a place holder as there existed a path but now filled with empty space instead of stairs, almost inaccessible and unavailable and at the end shined no flickering light as if it had died long ago as the room itself was cold and empty.
The closest one of the left had a bright golden flame at end but its stairs were following a recurring pattern as if it was repeating themself but looked the safest among the rest?.
The second and the last one on the left that was in front of the middle one of the right doorway had a normal flame, light and normal looking stone stairs. The light and path itself looked ordinary but overused and rough around the edges as if it was walked upon by many.
While the other, middle on the right had some unique smell, the kid was always able to smell from birth that only he was able to smell but this time it stinked so bad that it made him uneasy and lightheaded. The stairs were steeper and had holes in its pathways like it was suggesting something. One of the stairs near the end was so steep like it was a wall that one could never hope to climb it without something to stand upon. Its flame at the end was red but unlike the others which had a solid path and stairs, this one had some holes or even whole missing stairs, as if something had to be filled in to cross it. It gave him an odd feeling of uneasiness as if it demanded something in return and the smell was unbearable.
Finally the last path on the furthest right had mist in it. Like foggy mist which made it hard to look clearly but it also had steep paths like the red flame but the stairs were not impossible to climb and it had vivid blue light which shined equally bright and vivid as the red one but instead of holes like the red one, many of its stairs had thorns wrapped on them and the size varied and increased, almost too painful to walk on and climb towards the light.
The kid paused for a moment thinking over them. In summary, the hallway had 5 doorways. One was misty, one was stinking of unique smell, one had recurring stairs in a circle, one was empty and one was simple and ordinary looking. It seemed like it was asking to pick a path between the 5 doorways and it was being forced on him to pick one of them.
Each doorway had something to offer except one which was odd as the door itself led to death yet it existed. The kid was allured to it as it was the most unique among them all. He might be signing his own death with it.
'I would make my own path than the one forced upon me by someone else. What's the fun in walking the path that someone had already laid down for me.' Smiled the kid as he ignored all of them and started walking straight towards the biggest shining flame… the star itself that was in front of him which was furthest away and most impossible among them all yet shined the brightest.
Just as he took a few steps ahead, everything around him started to be covered into darkness, even the stones on which he stood upon.
'Huh?…' thought the kid as he started to fall down into endless darkness. The star started to shine brightly, completely covering him in its bright light.
As he opened back his eyes after the light stopped burning his eyes, he found himself floating in the sky above a floating island, surrounded by nothing but blue sky. Not too big nor too small. It held enough space for a few people.
There existed a weeping willow tree on a higher ground sheltering some of the land with the shades of its leaves and a water stream coming out of rocks that stood on the other end falling into the pond. The silent wind raced against the grass and it looked like a beautiful scene, almost something like a fairy tale story.
He notices weird white characters orbiting around the land, as if it was a barrier made to protecting someone from outside, or imprisoning something inside. The Wind was racing across the land.
'Well I guess I died already…' the kid thought to himself.
He noticed someone under the willow tree. It was a girl curled up on her side sleeping with no care of anything in the world. She had silver hair that reached to the shoulders length and it was all over her face as she was sleeping on a field of flowers under the weeping tree. She looked around the same age as the kid.
Just when the kid thought it in his mind, she yawned and woke up munching the air, stretched and looked around. She opened her eyes and looked at him revealing blue eyes.
Finally the kid and her eye meet. Both of them were confused as they looked at one another with tilted heads. After staring at one another, her eyes widened as he looked at him in realization of something and was smiling. She started to gather her messy hair.
A small and gentle but a bit childish sound filled with excitement coming from the island, almost like a gentle wind whispering in his ear.
'He-lo… Hel-. No- -ou can h-ar me. Hello?' a distorted sound echoed in his head.
Suddenly a green plain field below him appeared that spread to the horizons and the kid who was floating in the sky suddenly fell to the ground, hitting it.
'HELLLO!!!!' she yelled as if checking if she can still be heard. That startled him as the voice rang in his ear. He replied 'I can hear you. Stop yelling'
He thought to himself 'It's kind of creepy how soothing it is.'
'I will take that as a compliment, but how come you ended up here…' said the girl as she scratched her head shyly like admitting some fault.
'I rested my eyes on the road. You tell me'