FRIENDS

The moment I open my eyes and feel the wind rushing against my eyeballs I am falling like a rock. It’s a deep cliff, but I can see it. It’s a rocky ground down there. I’ll be crushed like an egg the moment I fall to the land below. I’m awed to death!

I see a shadow, no, three dark shadows in a form of a man. They grab my back and my left and right arms, and I begin to feel slow in falling. Yes, it slows down until I am like being held by someone until my feet reach the ground unharmed.

I look at these shadows. They are small like me, in a young boy’s sized. It is dark and creepy, that I’ve never seen before. It’s a like a night that gathered in a day and formed in a boy.

These are terrifying creatures, but instead of being afraid of them, I am relieved, as they save my life. Can these creepy shadows talk? I want to thank them. I squint to their form as they stand beside me. Such spooky creatures indeed. They have a head, hand, and a body, formed of a human, but who is this shadow forming from? Because this figure must belong to someone, a young boy like me as I look at its size. I could feel the touch of it in my arms, and it let go its grasp as I am safe now. They are rigid and materialized in a dark shadow form.

As I am able to stand on my own on the ground I am about to open my mouth to thank it . . . then the three shadows shrink as if they’re being sucked by something, and they go to the tree nearby where we landed. Then it bends and goes dwindling at the back of the tree.

Whoa! What was that? It creeps me out all of a second!

Then something comes out from the back of the tree, a shadow, now it’s only one. Where do the others go? No, wait. Now it’s not a shadow. It’s a real young boy with a flesh that can be seen, a boy like me!

“Are you alright, friend?” he asks me.

But I can’t see his face as he is still half-hidden by the shade of the tree. The kid steps forward. It becomes more clear as he escapes out from the shade. I could see him! He is indeed a kid somewhere like my age. A skinny kid but strong-looking, and he wears a fit black shirt.

“Are you hurt?” he asks for the second time.

“Uh, yes, yes. I’m alright. Was it you who saved me?” I rattle to answer.

Then I heard from above where I fell from that’s making a loud squeal. I look above, and I can see two people crashing down like rocks. No way! Do they fall also the same way that I did? Are they also being after by legionnaires? Oh, no! This is not good! We gotta help them.

“You have to save them the same way that you saved me!” I turn to the kid ailing.

“No, let them fall and die,” he says with a grin.

“What?”

I can’t believe what he said! I’m so worried to those two who are in free-falling. But the moment I’m about to look up again, they already belly-landed on the ground. That shook the rocks where I was standing. I see them, with a stylish stance as they land.

And one of them said, “Superhero landing.”

I saw it, how they did it. Wow, it was so amazing. And they are only kids like me! I was about to say something, but the kid on the left, someone who look weird as he has some big muscles, draws his sword . . . a sword? Don’t tell me that’s . . . and they are . . .

Before I even finish my thought . . . he smashes his sword into the ground pointing to where the other kid is. Yes, another kid, a fat one. And the ground explodes like it is a shock wave, and it surges going to the fat kid.

But he jumps high that reach the height of a tree even though he is fat, and which I’ve never seen a kid did that before.

In his hands a small knife that he held, and he uttered, “Blade assemble.”

A lot of swords appear out of nowhere in front of him floating. More than fifteen of them. I lose count as more swords appear in the air. It is wonderful to see, swords floating, spinning like leaves in the air. It shines like glorious steel as the sun’s ray beam on them, and the blade reflects its sharpness. I’ve never seen this beautiful thing in my life!

“Let’s call it a break!” the kid who saved me cried. “Can’t you see we have a new friend here?” They both eye on me, with their muddled look, as if they notice me only now.

“Hi, friend. I’m Dennis,” says the one on my left, the muscle kid.

This one looks wild, a kid with a sleeveless ripped black shirt. But I can see that his arms and muscles are formed like a matured grown up man. No, he’s more than a man. It’s like he went through some heavy lifting or some harsh training.

“I’m Lester,” says the round and chubby kid with a loose black shirt with swords floating around him.

“And I am Christian. What is your name friend?” the kid who saved me said.

“Friend? Who? Me? Ah, I’m Zinvul,” I spatter to answer.

But who are they calling friend? Me? No one has ever called me a friend before.

“Where are you from?” the kid with floating swords asks, the fat kid.

While I can see those floating swords disappearing on a thin air I couldn’t move my eyes by watching them disappear one by one, it was so magical. And I snap myself that I haven’t answered his question.

“I’m sorry . . . uhm . . . from the orphanage. I got lost my way back. Pretty wide jungle here,” I answer as I look at the trees behind us.

The kid named Dennis steps forward towards me and leaned over me, and I leaned back in his awkwardness. He eyes at my sword that I carry in my back like a trunk, since it’s big for me as a kid.

"Oh, you have your cherub sword . . . Amazing," he said.

I could see the look in his face that he is auspicious about my sword. But wait, don’t tell me that their swords are cherubs also?

“Yeah, I actually found it, in one of the caverns,” I say.

“Then that’s great! The four of us could become legionnaires someday!” the muscle kid exclaims while showing off his muscles.

“You don’t wanna go back to that orphanage do you?” Christian said.

“You’re right. I don’t want to . . . anymore,” I answer as I tilt down my head. I don’t want them to see it through my eyes.

“Then you can live with us. We can ask our parents. I’m sure they’ll allow you,” the round kid says.

“No, I don’t want to live with people. I’m kind of allergy with that,” I say, declining their offer.

“Oh, really? Okay, how about you live in our base?” Dennis says.

“Base? What is that?” I ask with curiosity.

“Umm, we built our base. Uh, it’s some kind of a house. But we built it at the top of a big tree. It’s kind of a tree house if you heard that word before,” muscle kid explains gesturing his hands.

“Never heard of it,” I say with my mind thinking what are they talking about.

“Well, how about we go there and see it for yourself?” Lester asks.

I go with them, and we have a long walk to the deepest western woods. They bring me to places that I never knew that are existing in the kingdom. It is not a mere jungle; it is a beautiful nature. I could see vast rice fields and all other trees that bear beautiful looking fruits. I thought that the dark wall is closed in encircling the kingdom. But the further we go in our journey, the wall is getting far away. As if it is moving back the moment we think we are closing in. It is like the wall is stretching backward not wanting us to come closer. Or the kingdom is too wide to begin with, and I’m too naive to comprehend it as a kid.

They bring me to their home after a long walk for hours. It is a wooden made house, that it’s my first time seeing a house like that. Since the kingdom is made of full of scraps of metals. Even the orphanage is built with dark rust metals.

Then a little bit further behind their house is the huge tree. It is indeed a largish one towering into the clouds. But it isn’t alone. The whole area is surrounded by these giant trees. As we walk and get into the tree, they all jump above like a twenty feet branch high, and I’m like, what? They can do that? And they look down on me where I stayed on the ground.