Chapter One: Emptiness

  A soft breeze drifted through the air, carrying the scent of rust and old metal. The sky, painted in hues of somber orange, stretched endlessly as the sun lingered on the horizon. Beneath it lay a vast junkyard, a graveyard of forgotten relics and discarded treasures.

  To most, it was just a sea of broken scraps. But to children, it was a land of adventure, where myths of hidden treasures and lost trinkets sparked excitement.

  Laughter echoed through the evening air as hurried footsteps rustled against the dirt.

  “Hey! What do you guys think we’ll find today?” A grey-haired boy grinned, his sharp blue eyes glimmering with excitement.

  “Hmm…” A boy with jade-green eyes placed a hand on his chin, deep in thought as they ran toward the junkyard.

  “I hope we find a shiny crystal!” A petite girl chimed in eagerly. “I can add it to my gem collection—”

  “Boring!” The biggest boy in the group cut her off. “I’m gonna find a huge sword and fight off the Badlands bandits!”

  Their chatter filled the air as they made there way to the junkyard. The group consisted of four children, each unique in their own way. The grey-haired boy, Xavier, was the oldest—tall and lean, yet full of energy. The biggest boy, Jacquez, had a stockier build, his spiky brown hair and round, coal-coloured eyes giving him an intimidating presence. The petite girl, Alexis, wore a pink dress that matched her soft, curious gaze. Finally, the youngest, Raion, trailed slightly behind. With slicked-back black hair and cautious jade-green eyes, he was the most hesitant of them all.

  “Raion, you’ve been quiet this whole time. Are you okay?” Xavier glanced back at him.

  Raion hesitated, then muttered, “Guys… I still don’t think this is a good idea—”

  “Ugh, not this again.” Jacquez groaned.

  “Yeah, don’t be a loser, Raion,” Alexis teased.

  Xavier sighed as Raion clenched his fists in silence, his face tensing as he tried to hide his frustration.

  “It was just a loud noise yesterday,” Xavier reasoned.

  “Yeah, it wasn’t some monster like you thought,” Alexis added.

  Jacquez smirked. “If you’re that scared, you can just go home. Let the big kids have their fun.”

  Raion flinched. His grip tightened.

  “Yeah, Raion, why don’t you go back to that boring village?” Alexis added with a laugh.

  The others chuckled, but Xavier’s smile faded. He turned to Raion, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder and crouching slightly to meet his gaze.

  “Come on, guys, relax—it’s not funny.” His voice was calm, reassuring.

  Raion refused to look up, his hands still trembling.

  “It’s okay to be scared,” Xavier said softly. “But don’t worry, we’ll protect you.”

  The sun behind them cast long shadows, illuminating their figures in a golden glow. Alexis and Jacquez exchanged looks before nodding.

  “Yeah, we’ve got your back,” Jacquez said.

  Raion hesitated. A small smile tugged at his lips before he quickly wiped his eyes. Then, without a word, he turned around—heading back toward the village.

  The group watched him go, disappointed.

  “Hmph. Stubborn boy,” Alexis muttered, crossing her arms. She turned toward the junkyard, trying to mask her concern.

  “Well… I tried,” Xavier sighed, standing back up.

  “Wait! If it’s about the sword we argued about, we can shar—” Jacquez started.

  “Give it up, dummy,” Alexis interrupted. “It’s not about the sword.”

  Raion had already disappeared into the trees, his silhouette swallowed by the dusk.

  Jacquez sighed. “Man… it won’t be as fun without all of us.”

  “Whatever. I’m actually glad he’s gone,” Alexis said proudly.

  Xavier gave her a knowing look, smirking. “You don’t mean that.”

  “W-What do you mean?” she stammered.

  “You play with him all the time—way more than my little sisters, or any of your other friends,” Xavier teased.

  “T-That doesn’t mean anything!” Alexis turned red, flustered.

  “What are you gonna do about it?” Xavier grinned, stepping back.

  “I said stop!” Alexis lunged at him.

  Xavier laughed, dodging her as they broke into a playful chase. Jacquez watched them, shaking his head. “Why are we running even faster now…?”

  None of them noticed the faint noise coming from behind them.

  Then—

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  A gust of wind blew past.

  “Catch me if you can!”

  Raion sprinted past them.

  For a moment, they froze in shock.

  Then, the realization hit.

  Xavier’s face lit up. “No fair! You got a head start!”

  Alexis grinned. “Wait for meee!”

  Jacquez groaned. “Why are we running even faster!?”

  Laughter filled the air as they all ran toward the junkyard—together.

  They arrived.

  Raion reached it first, his breath steady despite the sprint. He was always the fastest despite his small stature. He was small, but speed had always been his advantage.

  As he stopped at the entrance, his hands clenched, and his jade-green eyes darted toward it. He swallowed hard.

  Moments later, Alexis and Xavier arrived, panting.

  “We made it!” she said gleefully, raising her arms in the air while her chest heaved from the strenuous run.

  "Damn, Raion," Xavier wheezed, bending over with his hands on his knees. "You always gotta run like your life's on the line?"

  "It makes things more interesting," Raion replied with a smirk, though his gaze never stopped moving.

  Alexis rolled her eyes.

  Xavier took a slow breath, then, seeing Raion standing there, walked toward him. He placed a reassuring hand on Raion's shoulder and stood by his side.

  “You ready, big guy?”

  Alexis walked up on the other side of Raion while putting her soft hand on his shoulder and said "Well, at least wait for us next time. We’re supposed to be doing this together."

  With a new, determined look in his eyes, Raion strode into the junkyard. Xavier followed, and Alexis happily joined them as they walked deeper inside.

  Jacquez arrived moments later.

  “Finally, I'm here...” he panted, completely out of breath, sweat dripping down his face.

  After catching his breath, he made his way inside slowly.

  Once everyone had entered, they scattered throughout the junkyard in search of treasures.

  The junkyard stretched out like a graveyard of forgotten things, rusted metal and shattered glass glinting under the dim evening light. The air was thick with the scent of oil and decay, a reminder that this place was where things—and sometimes people—were abandoned.

  An hour had passed

  Xavier kicked at a dead magical crystal. "Man, we never find anything good anymore. Just the usual—scrap, dead crystals, and maybe a rat or two."

  Alexis grinned. "We could always bring back a rat and tell Lyco it’s a magical treasure."

  Jacquez snorted.

  Raion with a serious tone says, "Or we could actually look properly instead of whining.”

  Another hour passed

  “I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING!” Alexis wailed in frustration. She plopped down in a fetal position, screaming into her knees.

  Not far from her, Raion remained single-minded in his determination. He continued rummaging through a large pile of junk, searching for something that caught his eye.

  Jacquez was the same. He was determined to find something—namely, a big sword so he could become a swordsman!

  “GUYS, I FOUND SOMETHING!” Xavier shouted happily.

  Jacquez and Raion continued their search, undeterred, but Alexis perked up with curiosity and approached Xavier.

  “Sooo shiny...” she murmured, eyes wide with awe at the white crystal in Xavier's hands. She even started to drool.

  “Cool, right?” Xavier said proudly.

  Alexis was too absorbed in the crystal's glow. Its surface reflected her image perfectly. But then, her mind began to scheme.

  “Where did you find it?” she asked with a wide grin.

  Xavier turned slightly, pointing at a nearby pile. “Over there.”

  As soon as his attention shifted, Alexis lunged for the crystal, but Xavier was quicker. He yanked it back just in time.

  “Heh, trying to trick me, huh?” he said smugly.

  Her face turned red with embarrassment as she tumbled to the ground. “XAVIER, GIVE IT!” she shouted.

  “Hell no! You’ll have to catch me first!” he laughed, dashing away.

  Another hour passed Xavier and Alexis had started to lose interest, but Raion kept searching, his hands coated in dirt, fingers raw from prying through broken scraps. The burning in his arms was nothing—he had to find something for himself. Jacquez, on the other hand, started strong but his enthusiasm faded as eventually he gave up too not being able to find anything—not even the big sword he wanted. Defeated, he lay on his back with a blank stare.

  Raion, still focused, spared a glance at Jacquez and pitied him. “Don’t worry, Jacquez. I’ll find you a big sword, and we can share it.” His determination flared even stronger.

  “Hey, Raion, you holding up o—” Xavier stopped as he saw Raion grinning, full of determination. He sighed in relief…

  Raion had lost track of how long they had been here and by now he had already sifted through multiple piles and found nothing. He thought it had been around 4 hours, but with no sun and nothing to mark the passage of time, it was hard to tell. The junkyard was vast, almost daunting yet Raion was determined.

  “Raion, let's go home. It's getting late,” Xavier said with a long, weary sigh.

  “...One more,” Raion muttered.

  “Fine. One more,” Xavier conceded, sitting down behind Raion with his legs stretched out. Alexis was already napping, her head resting in Xavier’s lap, while Jacquez lay knocked out on the ground opposite her.

  “Let this be the one,” Raion chanted in his head as he continued digging. His hands were raw and scraped, but he ignored the pain.

  Minutes passed, and his hope began to wane. Exhaustion and fatigue set in. The sky darkened, clouds swelling ominously.

  Xavier began waking everyone up. “Okay, time to stop. Let's go—it's about to rain.”

  Raion froze, his hands still buried deep in the pile. Frustration built up inside him. “I couldn’t find anything,” he whispered, pressing his forehead against the heap. He fell to his knees.

  Xavier walked up to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll come another day. It’s not every day we find something. Some days, we’re just unlucky, and that’s okay.”

  He turned and started to walk away. The others followed suit.

  Raion sighed and stood up, attempting to free one arm from the pile. It was stuck.

  “Damn it, it’s stuck... HEY, EVERYONE, COME HELP!” he shouted, pulling harder.

  “Raion, we need to go,” Xavier called back.

  “COME HELP! MY ARM IS STUCK, DAMN IT!” Raion yelled in frustration.

  Everyone rushed to him, pulling with all their strength. With one final yank, they freed him, tumbling backward as the pile collapsed. Scraps of metal and debris flew in all directions.

  The rain started to fall.

  And then—silence.

  A tense, unnatural silence.

  Their voices hitched, and their faces paled in horror as they stared at the bottom of the pile.

  A jagged, withered hand reached out from beneath the debris.

  The first raindrops fell, soft and scattered.

  Then more followed, growing into a steady rhythm—a symphony of sound rising with their horror.

  Realization crashed over them like the coming downpour. In unison

  “IS THAT A DEAD BODY?!”

  Raion was the first to stumble back. First to run.

  Realization hit him like a bolt of lightning.

  This was the same pile from where that loud noise had come.

  The others quickly followed, fleeing in terror. These foolish kids ran back to the village, too afraid to speak of what they had found. The trouble they would be in would be tremendous.

  After that, they never returned to the junkyard.

  Raion was right...

  But that body wasn’t a corpse.

  Its heart still beat—subtly, faintly, but alive.

  Yet, it didn’t look it.

  This was the body of a fifteen-year-old boy, his eyes void of all emotion. His skin, pale as the moon. His frame, frail, like one absent of nutrition.

  A state of total emptiness.

  He was nothing.

  And nothing was him.

  Who had done this to him?

  How did he get here?

  “He must have been a peasant or a slave.”

  These were the thoughts of those who knew nothing.

  And the truth?

  No one cared.

  Not Raion. Not the villagers. Not even the scavengers.

  To them, he was just another piece of discarded junk.

  Until one day, someone looked upon him and said—

  “Poor boy.”

  Index - The junkyard was where people discarded their garbage—scraps of all kinds, faulty and broken items, and even construction debris. Villages under development often used junkyards to dispose of rubble and unusable materials, preventing street obstructions. Every village had a local junkyard, but many smaller villages shared one. The one they had entered served three different villages, and the waste was disposed of every acrin (every month) by village mages. People could bring their trash here at any time; there was no set schedule.