Tales of Heaven

New Hope

The day finally came. The village all awoke to the sound of birds. "Morning everyone!" yelled a girl as she stepped out a house near to the village gate. The girl was about 16. She had blue eyes and tanned skin. She wore her jet, black hair in a ponytail and wore what looked like a school uniform which comprised of a grey skirt and a white shirt. Two other girls walked out of the house. One of the girls looked like the first one, but had short hair and the other girl was shorter and roughly 14. She had light brown hair, long and loss, her fringe flowed over her face. "I hate bed head, it makes my fringe all messy," she said all flustered, and tiring to fix her fringe. The village was alive with people. Small puffs of grey smoke came from the blacksmith's work shop down the main road, and slightly further was the open market. The three girls walked towards a building on top of a hill on the west side of the village. "Hey, what's that?" the girl with the pony tail shouted pointing to behind the group. Plumes of black smoke rose into the sky in the distance. "That's near the plains. Mia, you run and get master Hwan!" the girl with the short black hair commanded, the girl with the pony tail was off up the hill. "Let's go Anna!" she commanded again and dashed down the hill leaving Anna standing there. "Hey! Wait for me!" Anna called running behind.

A few minutes later, the two girls were standing in the field staring at a fire bigger then they have ever seen. A boy was kneeling in front of the fire. The whole area was immersed in the black smoke born from the inferno. The smoke was thick and dense. "Anna! Hold on to me, I don't want you getting lost or hurt." "I won't get lost. Can't you see that it's a boy?" Anna gasped, and then coughed as she swallowed some smoke. There was a boy sitting in front of the fire. He looked as if as he was crying. His face was dull and his eyes filled with grief. The fire started to burn itself out. The boy was sitting next to what looked like a gored. This large container was big enough to strap to a person's back. It was a chocolate brown colour and painted blue and orange. The boy grabbed it and opened the lid. Laid it so it open end was facing the glowing ashes that remained. He mumbled something and like magic the ashes drifted into the gourd. The boy put the gourd down and continued to mumble. "He is praying..." Anna said staring at him. "Hey kid! What you doing here?" the short haired girl shouted. The boy didn't move. "What are you doing? He is praying. Mira, it's not nice to shout at strangers in the first place." Anna called letting go of Mira. "I don't care." Mira walked up behind the boy and was about to put her hand on his shoulder, suddenly the boy grabbed it and pulled it down. "To be honest, you should listen to her. Besides I'm leaving anyway. Need to find the place where thunder sleeps." he said casually. "Do you ladies know where to find it?" he asked turning his head slightly and letting go of Mira's hand. "Well I do. You look tired. You should rest then we can talk," Anna said smiling. Her sweet smile won the boy over. "Okay, whatever you say. My name is ..." he paused, stood up and looked at Anna. "Ren." he bowed. Ren strapped the gourd to his back and started to limp towards the village. Anna walked beside him making sure he didn't fall. Then Mira followed soon after.