Mama, Hold On

Chapter 1

5002 AD 

Due to an alien invasion and a long painful war, lasting an entire century, human kind has lost the ability to control free will. As in, the ability to freely think and choose the course of your life. Too much of it only leads to corruption. There are only three ways to avoid the mental consumption of the mind. One, witness it and be able to prolong mental clarity and straddle the border of insanity all your life with extra caution. Two, be brought up by sane people and avoid any contact with the corrupted. Or three, have all free will be taken away and be told how to live your life by a single sane human.

A majority of the world has chosen three due to the lack of free willed clean, or not corrupted, humans. A few corruption witnesses have banded together and through procreation created small free willed towns like Gyran.

Located on the Northern shores of District Two, formally Northern South America, Gyran is a small town, quickly growing with its ambitious residents. First generation free willed humans--better known as Lents--have to have inhumane amounts of luck to not end up barely surviving by the borders of the Districts. None of them can stand to go back to home's routine and usually are on the brink of insanity and corruption, so Lents follow the horizon sun until they reach towns filled with Lents and Lenties. Towns like Gyran. There, they attempt to contribute to the town's industry, start a family, and build their own life. They give birth to children known as Lenties, who have more mental clarity and control over the power their parents earned along with their free will. Gyran itself strives off of its strong leg in the equestrian industry.  The perfect place for a wanderer to stop by when he wanders with nothing more than a horse, a sac, and a series of poems.

The perfect place for someone like me. North Bu, son of Fijeral and Wavusavesh Bu. Just three years ago my father, Fijeral, was a victim to mental corruption. Though, he was afraid of facing what his wife had faced nearly two decades ago and stabbed himself to death before the transformation was complete. When he'd first felt his sanity slipping, he'd equipped me with a horse, a sac, and a series of poems written by my mother after her own corruption. During the early stages, her mind remained clear enough to communicate to my father and I through her poetry. Eventually, even that wasn't enough and she ran away from us. 

My father told me not to worry as she left no longer my mother and instead a monster, but I believe that deep down, my mother still lies within that beast. Ever since, I've traveled along the borders of districts, only ever popping in the forbidden lands to steal some food and supplies. When I come across a Lent town, I ask around, searching for clues. However, I tend to be sent away before I get far enough.

So now, Wavu and I are galloping in the direction of the well-known equestrian-heavy Lent town of District Two's Northernmost shore, Gyran. District Two was known to be one of the hottest Districts of the western world. Wavu would've preferred we didn't gallop through these parts, but we had climbed aboard a cargo ship from Twenty and stowed away down here, so it really wasn't my decision.

The two of us have spent almost four years traveling along the borders of Districts Twenty through Thirty. We've stolen from the unsuspecting rich, befriended the desperate naïve, and gathered info from the nearly one hundred Lent towns we've cut through.  

Now, Gyran.

As Wavu and I neared, I could already catch a glimpse of a bluish outline of the town's tallest building sitting under the merciless sun. I tipped my hat over and off my head, allowing it to hang around my sweaty neck by its string. On the very outskirts of town was a small stone well. Since Wavu was probably exhausted, I jumped off her back and led her over to the hole. As luck would've had it, the actual water source itself required a bucket to be tied to the string hanging down and lowered into the well.