Tempus Edax Rerum. Prologue

3. worlds of ripped clouds

chapter 3. worlds of ripped clouds

where do all lost clouds go? just following the wind?

▲ Okinawa. 2011, unknown time

the songs of the waves always accompany the ocean's admirable feats, but for certain young girl, she was more intrigued by the variety of petals around the nearby garden. 

"Rosa Alba white, Nymphaeaceae..." she was immersed in her own world - taking photographs of flowers and comparing them with her encyclopedia data. yet her brown eyes shone golden during the hours of sun, and even turtledoves stopped to gaze her beauty. 

seo youngeun, however, focused on her work as always. 

picking up the seashells with a tiny flower growing inside, the smile crawled the girl's face in delight. informed by her watch shaped like a sunflower, she readied by wiping off dust across her black dress and turned around to greet Thao. 

confusion took place on the young girl's mind, as she didn't find anyone at the spot. Thao, was supposed to be watching her during her 15 minutes of flower study. and as a matter of fact, she could remember Thao casually talking with her every once and while - and she was recently there. 

screaming around her name only caused echoes in the ocean. amidst the frustration, the sky followed the chameleon to change colors, the white clouds began ripped, the clear blue canvas dropped into black roaring storm. heavy rain started to fall without any warning. 

"fuck" youngeun signed, now there was two problems that she had to solve. as rain started to dissolve on her clouds, she decided to play the obvious first, and ran away from the shore to the nearest shelter. 

Okinawa was a big city; however, we were in a remote part of the coastline - and thus took her around 10 minutes to find a safe shield from the weather. when she rushed inside the small greenhouse, she was already soaking wet, her pretty dress was now drench and her shoes were eroded with mud. thankfully, her encyclopedia was very much untouched thanks to its plastic cover. but she had a bigger mystery to solve, where is Thao? 

the greenhouse was not large in any scale at all, it was even tiny for a person and a couple of flowers to fit in. coincidently there were some flowers starting to bloom their very first petals. the white stalk growing towards the blue flowers, each patterns showed a distinctive color pattern of gradients consisting of shades of blue, eventually get lighter at the top.  youngeun flipped her encyclopedia yet found no details of a particular flower in sight. 

intuitively, youngeun extended to pick a lone flower - but she was interrupted by another hand, gripping her. 

"still too young to be picked, don't want them to lose out on beauty" 

she turned her head; a Japanese girl was smiling at her. wearing a white dress with such gorgeousness, she resembled a doll. 

"what are these flowers called?" youngeun voice was filled with curiosity, "they are extraordinary"

the other girl faintly smiled in response to the compliment, "N' oublie pas de vivre" she answered, her other hand playing with its petals. 

"and they are not from this world" 

the shear of wind gently kissed my cheek, my eyes began to roll back on again, the brain began to reload its functions, i lost track of time - but this sudden evening nap felt forced, and long. there must have been a rain - observed by the very badly soaked attire of mine and a rain filled half-opened basket. it was calm after a storm now - my garden bed was filled with several red and blue petals of flowers, occasionally some blue petals showed a gradient pattern. 

stretching my hands, i slowly stood up. fixing my clothes and grabbing my backpack, i was ready to be productive for the time that I have wasted napping. but first and foremost, i did have to relocate youngeun, who was - in a fair sense, no longer in the flower garden near the beach shore. 

i departed to look for the young girl. but funnily enough, both of us looked like some lost clouds pushed by the wind. 

chapter 3. end