Beatitudes

The dream.

"Huuuh, Huh huh hu..."

A young teen looking to be eighteen years old, bolted into a sitting position as he breathed heavily, as if just he escaped from someone's pursuit. The fact that he knew he just made a loud sound in a place decorated with dense trees didn't make it any better.

'What was that dream... was that even a dream', he remembered climbing up the tree and laying down to sleep the previous night... but it also felt like it was a night many years ago that he had laid down to sleep. ' No, no, I did lie on this tree last night,how could it be so,I can't sleep that long... how am I even having this feeling...' He forced himself to remember the contents of his weird dream, but it was too much information for his head, he was only able to make out a few basic facts from the whole jumble. 'Who's... Jaden... that person felt like... me? who were all those people... what was I seeing." After thinking hard and long enough he ended up with nothing but a strain,so he had to stop thinking since it wasn't helping.

Forcing himself to focus, he climbed down from the tree branch he was on, ignoring the beautiful sceneries around him. He touched the ground with his foot and immediately scampered away from where he was as quietly as possible. It was obvious from the way he moved that he had fully adapted to moving through the forest and even his disheveled hair and ragged clothing that barely covered his body showed that he had endured a lot.

After getting far enough from the place, he came across a lake, it was tiny and a little muddled but it was one of the few water sources he had come across in days, with a slight surprise and a relieved sigh, he walked cautiously over to it. The whole forest was still as quiet as it could be, it was understandable as it was still in the early hours of the morning and the sun had barely began to rise, nevertheless it wasn't something he cared about much as it was a perfect time to move for him, when the day grew older and livelier he'd have to move slowly and move around the beast territories to avoid provoking them, any single one of those beasts could rip a big hole in his body even if he didn't die. He had experienced the terror of almost being eaten by one of the beasts in this forest, if it wasn't for the fact that he had trespassed into another beasts territory and the hungry beast followed behind him, he would have long departed from this life.

After confirming fairly well that there were no beasts lying in wait, he squatted down and took a handful of water and drank greedily, if someone happened to come across this scene he would be heartbroken with pity, underneath the torn clothing he wore on, you could see various scars of different lengths, some looking as fresh as two days ago and some already fading away, he had a frail physique that was obviously hunger induced, with a dirty face soiled clothes he gave off the perfect picture of someone who had gone through lots of sufferings. The boy though didn't mind it, at least he couldn't be chanced to mind it, he had been in this forest for a pretty long time, the least thing on his mind was a clean appearance. After drinking to his fill he poured some of it into a container he hung on his waist, how he got the container in the first place had long been forgotten, so he just took as much water as he could and hung it back on his waist, then after that he finally looked at the surface of the lake as he tried to look deep into the lake and check for anything below, and then two seconds later he stood up and jumped into the lake making the sound of his splash as quiet as he could, he couldn't always have the opportunity to enjoy the relative cool of the water on his skin. Thirty minutes later, he popped out and climbed back up, after the refreshing experience he finally had the time to think back to the dream he had and what in the world was happening to him.

He had had terrible dreams before, dreams he actively didn't think to avoid the fear and pain that came with it, but this one felt different, for one he didn't feel pained or afraid, it was a terrible dream but he couldn't feel afraid, and another reason was the fact that it seemed more like a recollection instead, it was a puzzle he couldn't understand. He didn't understand how he had experienced something like that when he had only been living a life that's just a few years long, he had spent a lot of time in this forest and infact could call this forest his home. Thinking about it made his head ache so he decided to put the thought aside. After sitting on the ground for a while, he stood up resolutely to start his daily journey to wherever he could go, he didn't know where he was going but he had to keep on moving in the least.

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He walked down the path he could find for a long time before he noticed something, the trees were getting fewer and the grasses were getting shorter with more light coming in through the faint canopy of trees, it reminded him of when he first entered the forest as it was the same thing he saw. After so long it looked like he would be leaving the forest soon, he couldn't help but feel melancholic and happy at the same time. He was happy he was leaving and could see something else other the than the trees he had always been seeing and yet he was sad because he was going to miss seeing the trees and the air the forest had. He also couldn't help feeling anxious, he hadn't met anyone through the years he walked through this forest, he had almost forgotten how to speak and he wondered how he would feel meeting with other people. He had noticeably grown in most aspects far beyond his peers, that he didn't realize, but he also had almost no knowledge of how to socialize or even communicate again, that he realized. After pondering over he decided to leave it all and just move with the wind or was it go with the flow....

And finally after another two hours of walking he reached the end of the forest, he didn't know exactly how long it took him to pass through this forest but he definitely knew it was a long while, it took him years to cross so it'd be hard for him not to realize. Still feeling a tad bit reluctant, he doubled up on his resolution and turned his back to the forest taking a step and another till he was standing far from it, he looked ahead and noticed he could see buildings and figures moving around far off in the distance and he knew where he was moving to. Without taking another look behind him, he walked calmly to the city like he was some Noble royalty coming to his fiefdom, little did he know that he looked more like a scavenger than anyone could bear to see...

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Meanwhile within a space that seemed to be a reception of some sort, a blue haired man was sitting behind the counter as a yellow piece of carved wood with symbols and a gem in the center flashed intermittently, he picked it up with a lazy expression on his face as he brought it to his lips and then it stopped flashing,

"Yes?" he spoke facing the wood, and a voice actually came out of it replying him.

"We've spotted another one, very scrawny looking and seemed to be coming out from the Jade forest"

" Oh... ", the man had a look of surprise on as he spoke again," looks like someone got lost, anyways bring him in, we'll take whatever we can get, make sure not to force him to come, just do it as gently as you can"

The voice coming from the transmitter paused for a bit and then replied with a flat tone, "Affirmative"

With the reply the conversation was cut off and the man behind the counter sat back as he tapped his fingers on the counter, "coming from the Jade forest eh?, that's interesting, I wondered how he survived though.... "

As he murmured to himself, he couldn't help a tiny smile as he finally stood up and left to go deeper into the building.

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This makes two new chapters if you count the re-updated episode seventeen. One more coming up again to apologise for the inconvenient wait. I hope you guys enjoy it.