The sun, with its increasingly warm light, bathed the Land of Memories in Harmonious Alba. A place where time itself seemed to pause to listen to the whispers of the souls that once inhabited it. Each particle of light falling upon that ground was like a memory awakened from a long slumber, a reminder that even in mortality, an eternity is preserved amidst the dust and the rustling wind. Under that sunlight, life revealed its most honest face: bright yet harboring shadows, warm yet reminiscent of the chill of the coming twilight.
Lian, still sitting weakly on the ground of memories while clutching what belonged to him, felt a clear liquid flow from his eyes as he began to cry loudly. He placed his parents' heads on the ground, while he pressed his own forehead hard against the earth.
"Forgive me, Mother, Father! Forgive me..." Lian banged his head violently against the Land of Memories. Ash from the remnants of the fire began to stick to his bleeding forehead. He didn't care whether he felt pain or not; he only wanted to apologize to his parents, to his entire family.
"Forgive this stupid and stubborn son of yours, Father, Mother. Forgive your stupid and stubborn brother, my siblings!"
Most people choose to suppress their emotions, especially the grief carved deep into their bones. They keep it locked tight within their chests, as if tears were a sign of weakness rather than the soul's most honest language. However, grief buried for too long eventually gnaws at the conscience, turning the heart frozen and alien to itself.
Humans learn to smile while shouldering suffering, to speak calmly while wrestling with emptiness. But in that silence, they are actually screaming, begging to be heard, even if no sound comes out. Perhaps, in the courage to cry, humans find the highest form of strength: the courage to be real.
.....
Somewhere in the depths of the Harmonious Alba Forest, a place with a giant tree towering into the sky. There, right under the shade of the Borbor Tree, were three mounds of earth covered with stones.
In front of those mounds, three names were written on the ground, representing each grave: Rowan, Peona, and Lin.
Lian prostrated himself before the graves, while his younger sister stood to the side. Her emerald green eyes looked blank, like a walking corpse.
Meanwhile, Lian could only worship, begging for forgiveness from his family.
"Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me..."
He then lifted his head and banged it against the ground again. "Why? Why did all this have to happen to me? I only took their whistle, so why did they do something like this? Didn't their houses contain strange objects far more beautiful and exotic than the whistle I took?"
As he said it, Lian squeezed the dirt so hard his fingers began to bleed. In that prostration, he remembered the Captain, Roy, and the people who had destroyed his Land of Memories. He suddenly growled.
"Captain, Roy, and the people who destroyed my Land of Memories... I, Lian, swear on the souls of my innocent father, mother, and brother. I swear to the heavens and the earth, I will hunt your souls to the ends of the world.
"I will not just avenge this. I will become a plague upon your breath, a nightmare gnawing at your sleep, and an eternal curse clinging to every exhalation of your souls!
"I curse that wherever your feet step, the earth will turn into an entangling swamp of flesh, full of eyes that will watch your suffering, and mouths that will eat you inch by inch. Every breath you take will become a mist of scorching metal that burns and corrodes your lungs from the inside.
"I curse that the sun will burn your skin until it melts like glowing iron, while the moon will refuse to give its light, leaving you in pitch darkness where the shadows of the spirits you killed will whisper and claw endlessly.
"I curse that you will fall into the rivers of the underworld and never see the light again, where the water is the tears of victims, and you will drown without ever finding the bottom, tortured by a thirst that can never be quenched.
"I curse that your skin will peel and crumble piece by piece, replaced by scales of red-hot iron that fuse with your flesh. Your flesh will be sliced billions and billions of times, into tiny pieces, rotting, destroyed, and becoming food for maggots born of darkness, gnawing at you from the inside while singing the song of death.
"I curse that your ribs will break one by one and turn into venomous snakes that coil around and bite your own internal organs. Your spine will shatter inch by inch, turning into shards of glass piercing your nerves.
"I curse that I your souls will never reach an end. Every time you approach death, I will pull you back into this circle of torment. Your souls and skin will be torn apart, your flesh and bones will be crushed and I will scatter them to the wind to become food for birds.
"I curse that the blood in your veins will no longer flow, but freeze and rot within your own bodies, poisoning every inch of your existence. Your bodies will turn into walking graves housing the decay of organs. From the tips of your hair to your toenails, only the remnants of rot will remain.
"You will die, but never truly die. You will live, but never truly live.
"This oath will never fade, even when mountains crumble into sand and oceans run dry. I will be the ghost of vengeance watching your torture, and my laughter will be the accompaniment to your never-ending song of pain.
"I curse you to die! Die! Die! Die!"
After a long time of venting his hatred and curses, Lian stood up and made a strange pattern on his chest while staring at his family's graves. "May the Ancestor guide your souls to the golden river."
After that, he crouched in front of his younger sister who remained silent, staring at the three mounds. She didn't cry, only stood with a blank gaze, as if her soul had left, leaving her body behind.
"Meilin, let's go..." Lian grasped his sister's hand, holding it tightly. He then hugged her while crying, "Meilin, listen! Big Brother will repay what they did. Big Brother will hunt them wherever they go. Big Brother will protect you, just as Father and Mother asked... Big Brother will save our sister Heliana from their clutches..."
Getting no response from his sister, Lian loosened his embrace. He then lifted her onto his back and began walking slowly through the forest. He wanted to return to the place where he first met those savages.
In the depths of the forest, Lian was still retracing his steps from yesterday's journey to the "outside world." He believed that by following that path, he would be able to exact his revenge.
.....
The sun was now directly overhead, making the air and light feel intensely hot. His body and soul were still exhausted; Lian no longer had the strength to keep walking. He decided to rest under a large tree that was bearing fruit.
A growling sound reached his ears. It was the sound of Lian's stomach. He looked down at his stomach, patted it, then looked up at the tree.
There, clinging to the tree trunk, hung purple fruits. He shifted his gaze to his sister sitting against the tree with the same blank stare. Throughout the journey of over ten minutes, Meilin had remained completely silent, her eyes open the whole time. Lian didn't even know if she had blinked.
"Hah, are you hungry, Meilin? Don't worry, Big Brother will get lots of fruit for us to eat, and maybe later Brother will make a bow and arrows to hunt rabbits. Isn't rabbit meat your favorite?" Lian tried to talk to his sister, but Meilin remained motionless, silent, unblinking, soundless. It was as if she truly were a corpse.
Seeing this, Lian's heart felt as if it were being sliced by a sharp knife. He let out a desperate breath and slowly stood up. He then climbed the tree and picked several branches where the fruit was mostly ripe.
After coming down, he took one fruit, grabbed the sharp knife at his waist, and split it using the knife. It was the knife he had taken while still in the Land of Memories, the knife his brother used to craft bows and arrows, and to process game.
As the fruit split open, Lian saw that the fruit he picked was rotten, with a worm wriggling inside it.
"Ha. Haha. Hahaha..." Lian suddenly started laughing. "Look, Meilin, there's a little worm in this fruit..." He held the rotten fruit right in front of his sister's eyes. "Do you want to eat it? Of course not, don't worry, little sister. Big Brother will clean away every worm trying to take a bite of your food."