Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) by V.A. Lewis (autobiographies to read .TXT) 📕

young boy who loved leaving his village in search of adventure. But his parents told him never to go too far. Never to stray past the valley. For, they said, beyond that valley, was a great desert where many souls were lost.

"The boy however, didn’t listen. He thought that the tall mountains would guide him home. So he went past the valley, exploring the landscape beyond it. But what he found there was a vast desolate landscape. He tried to turn back, but everywhere he looked, he saw the same thing: tall hills jutting out in the distance. He was lost, just as his parents said he would be. He was… alone. Or at least, that was what he thought."

He spoke clinging to every word. Telling the story as much to me, as to himself.

"What happened next?"

"He wandered for days. Day turning into night. Night turning back into day. But time no longer mattered to him. The sky spun around him, the scenery everchanging. He was abandoned by the world. But there was one constant. The only thing that stayed with him. A red star. The star that never moved. The star that waited for him.

"He followed the star, certain it would guide him home. He thought, Why else would it stay, while everything else left? It has to be a sign from the Goddess! So he ran after it. For weeks on end. As he grew hungrier. As it grew colder and colder. He followed it, until he could no longer walk. Until he could only crawl. And when he finally reached it. When it hung directly overhead. He still never found his home. Darkness came over him, and he realized one thing: there was nothing waiting for him but despair."

I listened as Karna spoke from his heart. As he remembered something that was so dear to him— something that made him who he was today.

"Did he die?"

"Yes."

My eyes widened for a moment, but Karna continued.

"Or he would have. If the traveller didn’t find him."

"Traveller?" I inclined my head to the side. "Someone saved him? In the middle of nowhere?"

He grunted in affirmation. "It was luck. Or a blessing. But regardless, a traveller found the boy collapsed in the snow. He brought the boy to his home. Nursed him back to life. The boy was shocked. He thought he had died. He told the traveller his story, and how he ended up lost in the great desert. And when the traveller asked why he ignored his parents warnings, the boy could only cry in response.

"At first, the traveller felt that the boy deserved his fate. His own foolishness brought him here. There was no reason to help him. Yet, when the traveller saw the boy’s tears, he could only bring himself to pity the boy. So he told the boy that he would bring him home. He asked the boy to describe his home, but all the boy remembered was that there was less snow. The traveller grew frustrated. ‘Is there nothing else you can tell me?’ he asked. But the boy had no answer for him."

I could almost feel the traveller’s frustration. "Did the boy manage to remember anything to help the traveller?"

"No." Karna smirked. "The boy was a fool. He never recalled anything else."

"What?" My jaw dropped. "So the boy never went home?"

"He did," Karna said, much to my surprise. "Because the traveller never gave up."

He took a deep breath, then resumed telling the story.

"The traveller swore to the boy that he would return him to his home. He spent days, months, and years searching for a village in a place with less snow. And while that happened, he raised the boy himself. Feeding him, teaching him, and caring for him. Finally, after a decade passed. When the boy became a man, the traveller brought him to a familiar valley. A place with less snow. A village hidden between the mountains."

"He’s finally home? After all those years… he made it." I smiled slightly. Then I felt my jaw drop as the realization dawned on me.

"So you realized it too," Karna chuckled. "Yes, the boy-turned-man returned to his village. He searched excitedly for his parents. But they weren’t there. They were dead, having passed away due to old age."

"That’s… so sad."

"Yes. That was the folly of the boy. The mistake the man regretted for the rest of his life. A tragedy."

"But you said you loved this story!" I sputtered "What… what’s the point of it if his parents died in the end?"

"The point is to listen to your parents. For they are older and wiser than you. Because if you don’t, you’ll come to regret it once you become an adult."

I just sat there, completely appalled by the harsh reality of a kid’s story. But Karna’s lips quirked upwards.

"I’m sure you think it’s a terrible story for a child. And I do agree somewhat. But there’s something else to the story. Something else that is no longer mentioned. Two differences between the version my parents told me, and the one our forefathers told their children."

"And what was that?" I asked, blinking.

"The first is what came next," he said with a smile. "The boy was overcome with regret. So he worked the rest of his life to atone for his folly. And he succeeded. That’s the first difference."

"Why would they leave that part out?"

"They left it out because of the second difference: the identity of the boy and the traveller. Never once in this version, do they mention who they are."

"Who were they?" I waited with trepidation for the answer.

The entire time Karna told me the story, he stared up at the sky. Never once did he look at me. But finally, the Goblin turned to face me. And I saw his mouth move. The words