Gold Or Gone

Chapter 1 | Humble Beginnings

The sound of train wheels is one i can never get bored of. The heavy metallic but not high pitched sound has a particular melody to it. it flows in a rhythm with the speed of the train as its tempo, without any falters except for when it has to stop. the loud screeching sound of the wheels scratching on the iron tracks is not one i'm particularly fond of though. As for now we have finally arrived in Quebria. A country not so far away from my hometown, now a desolate war ruin. When i was 7 the war started with the invasion of Kapas but it soon spread to my door as well. My family held large reserves of land which we had inherited for generations, but life presides over long history. My family fled the country 2 years and 3 months later and here we were in the next most horrid place.

Quebria was not the most wealthiest of the countries, the streets outside the railway station were barely traversable. This country had been a colony not too long ago, the colonisers reasoned that they could not exploit the people any further and decided to give it dominion status leaving behind deep scars of widespread poverty and corruption. My father sold all he could to setup a paper industry in this country as the resources were cheap and hence why we are now here in Dgarlan, one of the better maintained towns.

The house we got was not a luxurious one. There were 3 rooms with a kitchen and a Dining room situated among 2 floors. There was also an attic to store things. i got a room and they got one. One was made a study. There also were a couple of balconies which the locals used to call galleries. that was one slang i found ironic, looking out of such extravagant galleries one would witness the terrible condition of this province, poorly maintained pavements and a dirty polluted river right there for its glory as if the afflictive sight of the beggars was not one to get us satisfied. Our first day there was quickly over with setting up basic furniture. I never really liked sleeping on beds so i only had to lay down my mattress and a blanket and contradictory to my culture i used to bath before going to sleep as opposed to bathing early in the morning. After all was done i snuggled into my blanket looking at the ever so dormant ceiling. I do not recall when i fell asleep but i didn't wake up past 8 which was quite unusual. Normally I have a habit of waking up before 6 which i had acquired from my grandpa. It was my first time waking up late, the fatigue from travelling must have gotten to me but after waking up and having breakfast the rest of the day flew by with all the arranging that had to be done.

Our third day in Dgarlan started with a Sunday but there was not much to be done that day either. Mother and father were busy with stuff which i could not get involved and as such i decided to just venture off in the town. There were not a lot of people in sight and the area looked almost abandoned. The few houses that i came across had walls corroded and there seemed to be a lot of stray dogs and cats. There were also a lot of abandoned places which had either been evacuated or not been complete. Some showed signs of fire while other looked partially destroyed. By the end of the day i had found one cool place, It was an underpass but wasn't used often. I explored for a total of 3 hours and was back by 8. Nothing much happened for the rest of the day other than preparations for the school i had to go to tomorrow.