Beyond The Unknowns

The beginning

In a far away distant place, in the middle of nowhere, there stood an isolated village. Beneath the tall and mighty snow caped mountain ranges, along the riverbed, stood the isolated village named Himal. With only few hundred peoples living it, the village was as peaceful as the night sky. Hustle and bustles of people continued during the day, while the night was fully reserved for eating and sleeping only.
Among those bustling crowds of people living in the village, there lived a boy of age around seventeen named~Zan Ryu. Shepherding cattles and collecting firewoods during the day and gazing at the night sky at night is what he did day in and day out.
With the isolation of village the people living in it were ignorant of the outer world. Food, clothing and shelter would suffice their lives and so did they not ask for anything else. Outer worlds meant nothing to them and so did they never wondered about it.
But Zan was somehow different from the people around him. The night sky filled with stars made him wonder about the world. Curiosity of that like a newly born, he always wondered about the stars, the sky, the clouds, the vast lands and the unknowns of the world.
"What would the world outside the village would look like? I wonder if there'd be stuffs that I have never seen. I wonder what surprises might the unknown bring."
Zan mumbles while being lost in his reverie.
Everyday the only thing that he could do was to think and think with no answers as there were no people in his village that would provide answers to his questions. Even when he tried asking all sorts of people including the elders of the village or even his parents, they could never provide him any answer and thus only scolded him for asking such absurd questions. Hence he stopped asking them questions anymore and kept what he had in his heart never letting it out again.
But the more he tried to hide his thoughts, the more his thoughts hunted him. To the point that he could no longer hold it in, and so did he decide that he'd venture out in the unknown to seek for his answers which others couldn't provide him. And thus on his seventeen birthday, early in the morning with the first ray of sun, he leaves his home without saying a word to anyone.
After walking far enough, that he could no longer see the sight of his village, he starts noticing the changes in the sceneries. The changes are little but not on the scale of being unnoticeable. Much more wild animals starts appearing along his way now that he had come far from the village. Sweet aroma of flowers and green leafy vegetation of the different flora and fauna excites him. And thus he gets more motivated to move forward.
After walking for quite a while, the warm rays of sun makes him long for water. With a dry neck and heated forehead, he wanders out in search of water. Despite all those green vegetations there's no any sign of water in that vast land. Seeing no source of water despite searching for quite a while, he gets frustrated. Constant searching with no definitive results tires him out. Hot rays of sun starts getting on top of his head and thus he starts suffering from heat stroke. With the constant depletion of his bodily fluid, he starts to show symptoms of dehydration.
He falls down and just when he was about to give up he notices a sudden shift in the atmosphere. The atmosphere starts getting humid, thus indicating that it was about to rain. He looks up in the sky and notices black clouds swarming all over the place. As the black clouds engulfs the whole sky, droplets of rain starts pouring all over the surface. He desperately opens his mouth trying to catch as many water droplets as he can to prevent him from fainting out of thirst. But the tiny rain droplets were simply not enough for him to quench his thirst. But even so the tiny droplets of water gave him a hope, a hope to survive just a bit longer and a hope to look for water again.
As be quenches his thirst just enough to let him walk again for a short while. He wakes and sets out again in search of water. This time he manages to find a water source.
"It's a pond, he exclaims and rejoices with joy."
The sight of water makes him lose his reasoning. He who has been on the verge of death because of thirst, rushes towards the pond. With his whole head emersed in water, he drinks as much as he wants. After quenching his thirst, he lies down with his belly filled fully with water being unable to move. As he was lying down, he feels a burning pain in his leg.
"Ouch... Ouch... What is it? What happened? Why am I feeling such burning sensation in my legs?"
He screams in pain...
He quickly raises his leg up, trying to see what caused the pain. As he raises his legs up, he notices a bite mark in his leg. Ignorant him, only sees the blood coming out from the bite marks and fails to recognise it. He quickly grabs his legs and tries to block the blood flow and prevent anymore blood loss. Just when he was grabbing his leg trying to prevent the blood flow, he notices a snake in the pond. Looking at the passing snake, he concludes that he must have been bitten by that snake.
"What an unlucky day to get bitten by a snake this far from the village. Now I can't even ask for help from anyone. But since it was in water it must be a water snake. So I'm sure that I'll not die and this sensation of pain will wear off after a while. So let's just rest for a while and move forward"
Releasing a deep sigh, he exclaims.
Just like what he had thought he lays down and rests for while. But the more he tried closing his eyes the more he felt uncomfortable. It was too much for him to endure the burning pain. But even so, he hold his ground and endured the pain. After a moment, the pain started to subside and he felt relief and thus he closed his eyes.
Upon opening his eyes, he couldn't see anything. Everything around him was pitch black. The more he tried looking around the more darker it got.
"Where? Where am I? What is this place? Who got me in this place? Why can't I see anything?"
A series of question flooded his brain.
With no definitive answers, he continued looking here and there to find anything that might help. But the sight of complete darkness freaked him out. Out of fear, he started shivering.
"No, no it can't be happening. It must be a dream! Right I must be dreaming."
He exclaims out of fear.
Even though he was terrified, he couldn't give up on finding a way out of that situation. So he tried getting up. But he couldn't get up no matter how much he tried. It felt like a chain had strangled his whole body.
" What is this? Why can't I move?"
And just then he looked at his feet but he had none.
"Aaarrrrggggghhhh... No, no it can't be happening. Where? Where are my legs? Why do I have no legs?"
The sight of him being having no legs freaked him out. It added fuel to the already burning fire meaning he was already terrified by the dark space, but to see him without legs made him lose his mind. And just like that he fainted and lost his consciousness.
The time passed by quickly and he gained his consciousness after a while. Upon gaining his consciousness he opened up his eyes all panicked. He quickly checked his feet. To his surprise, he didn't lose any of his legs. The sight of him not being amputated made him rejoice with happiness. Tears started rolling out of his eyes and he started crying tears of joy for a while.
As he let out his tears, a sensation of calmness embraced him. Wiping his teary eyes, he let out a warm smile.
After collecting all his thoughts and with a calm mind, he got up and started his journey. But something felt different after waking up.
"Hmmm..... I'm not sure but something feels really odd right now. Am I thinking too much?"
He exclaims while itching his head in confusion.
"Well I'm not sure about it and may be I'm just thinking too much. But overthinking won't provide me answers either, so no point on thinking too much. Well whatever let's move ahead."
With an ounce of motivation he moves forward.
Just as he starts moving ahead, the sights of the surrounding changes too. The leaves of trees that once were only green are now blue, red, yellow and of many colours. The once tall trees are now even bigger too. But he pays no attention to it and thinks that it's just because he has never been out in the world, so everything feels new to him that moment. And so he marches ahead, but he fails to notice the changes on his body despite noticing the change in the surroundings.
Just when he was about run forward, a reflection of light falls on his eyes. The reflection irritates his eye and thus he looks for the source of the reflection. Upon inspecting for a while, he locates a shiny stone in a distant place has been causing such phenomenon. He rushes towards the stone with lightning speed. While carefully walking towards it, he wonders what type of stone would actually shine. After getting close to it, a terrifying monster gazes upon him. Seeing such he gets scared and runs away far from it. He looks behind but sees no one chasing him, so he again goes back towards it. Walking on his toes, he approaches it with utmost care and silence. But again he sees the same appearance in it. Which in turn again scares him, but this time he doesn't run away. Seeing that monster like appearance only in the stone, he assumes that it's been trapped so he dares not touch the stone and thus decides to leave.
All this events tires him out and thus he decides to rest for a while. He's getting thirsty too and thus he looks around for water sources. In a nearby place he locates a small stream. Upon seeing the stream he walks closer to it and just when he was about to quench his thirst. He sees a terrifying reflection of somebody in the water.
"Aaarrrrggggghhhh.... A monster! It's a monster! Somebody save me. Help! Help!"
And so he cries out for help upon seeing the reflection.
He runs away again. And just when he was running away he remembers that it reminds him of the monster that he had previously seen in the shiny stone. Baffled with thoughts, he decides to go back and look at it again. Upon his arrival he sees the same appearance no matter how many times he looks at it and after a moment of thought he realises that it was his own reflection and that was him.
"Aaarrrrggggghhhh no, no it's not me. It's not me. I'm not a monster. Why do I even look like that? I'm sure it's not me."
With terrified reaction, he keeps denying that he has turned into a monster.
"But, did i seriously turned into a monster?"