Beyond the North

There's is (no) hope

"I... was never accepted by anyone..."

In the present, snow obscured Tel's vision as he drove the motorcycle at top speed, but not being very skilled at driving, he soon crashed. The three of them fell, but without a second thought, they got up and started running again.

"I wanted attention, so I turned in my parents. But that only served to show that no one really cared about me."

"But..."

Rejto then noticed Tel's leg trapped under the motorcycle; it was quite heavy, so he couldn't remove it alone. Cynna and Rejto went to help him.

"I have... now I have someone to trust. But still... what is this... emptiness I feel in my chest...?"

They continued running, and soon Rejto noticed that there was slightly hilly terrain ahead, which would help slow down their pursuers. Without hesitation, they started following the difficult paths and places. They heard the sounds of motorcycles behind them, but also noticed that some of them stopped, so they probably managed to shake them off. However, the young Asian soon noticed that they were all tired, so they would need to find a place to rest soon.

Time passed; fortunately, the snowstorm subsided a bit, so they could see sparks of sunlight appearing on the horizon. It was already dawn, and yet they kept walking. Rejto looked back, and realizing that there were no more footsteps or motorcycle noises, he finally thought they had lost their pursuers.

— "Rejto... there..." Cynna pointed.

They looked and saw a small mountain; it was already morning, but they were so tired that they should stop there, or they would probably collapse. So they climbed up and realized there was a good view from there. They set up camp, and realizing that no one was following them, they finally relaxed.

So, they quickly fell asleep from exhaustion, but Rejto tried one last time to search for something in the letter. He couldn't tell if they were at the end of their journey or still at the beginning, so at least he would try to solve one of his concerns. He began to search the dictionary again, but really found nothing more; that was it.

But there was something. Something that bothered him. The map on the first pages of the dictionary highlighted a location. Rejto couldn't identify what it was, but in that highlighted place was the word "Finland."

— "I don't know what it is..." the man continued to observe intrigued, "But... could the map be wrong?"

Suddenly, he felt tired, too tired. He felt nauseous again and wanted to vomit, but he held back, closed the dictionary, and lay down...

When he woke up, the girl noticed that it was already dark, but she noticed a strange light coming from the sky. She slowly opened the tent...

— "Are you awake already?" Rejto surprised her.

— "Since when-!?"

— "We were awake too, just standing here."

— "But what is it? Did someone arrive?"

— "No, but..."

The three then opened the tent, being careful not to make too much noise. They looked around, but found nothing; instead, they looked up at the sky. There, they saw a green light that caught Cynna's attention.

— "It's..."

— "An aurora borealis," Cynna interrupted.

They went out, climbed a little higher to the top, and saw that not just one, but several lines tore through the sky. To their eyes, it looked like they were dancing. With that sight, they sat down; it was the first time they had seen it in their lives.