Freedom or Imprisonment

Freedom has had many meanings over the course of history. However, for me, freedom is more like a feeling. A feeling of not being bound to anything.

"Elijah, hello? Are you awake? Elijah!"

Apparently I had trouble waking up in the morning to the point I wasn't even responding to sounds. The only solution was mother using water magic to spread through my body and heal anything that seems to be off. That is when it happened.

"Oh my! His core has awakened!"

My mother was ecstatic after her words of astonishment. Not only was this rare, but nobody in the entire kingdom has awoken at the age of five. Thankfully my parents are both afraid of what would happen to their sweet child, so they keep it a secret.

The day passed into dinner, and I was finally sitting down next to Alexia, my new friend. Over the last two years we have gotten pretty close and even started to help our families together by carrying crops to the storage center and picking up a pouch of coins.

One action has been on my mind lately…

I want to see outside the walls!

Beforehand, I unfortunately need to test the limits of my flight ability. It has something to do with magic, so maybe I should ask my parents a question?

"How do I know what affinity I have?" Elijah's high-pitched voice stopped the harsh and slow chewing of the garlic flavored meat.

"Baby, you won't be able to use magic until you get an affinity crystal. Don't worry about magic for now, just focus on learning and having fun!" Mother took the lead on the conversation, and was followed up with a simple sign of encouragement by my father.

This was a new piece of information, something that was a bit of a let down.

After a delicious dinner of meat, potatoes, and fruit, I walk into the small forest behind the house filled with an assortment of ground cover ranging from flowers, ferns, weeds and specks of taller grass. Finding a nice and plump place to sit wasn't so hard as the grass was relatively tall. My breathing slowed and my body stilled. What may seem unnecessary, would help me understand this ability of mine better.

Without even breaking a sweat my body lifted a couple of inches off the ground. One minute, five minutes, 15 minutes, and even 1 hour passed as I didn't feel exhausted at all. The only reason I stopped was to answer the call of my father.

"Elijah! It's time for bed! Where are you?"

My legs uncrossed themselves and touched the floor. "I'm coming, father!" It seems I am getting used to this life…

Dawn broke the end of the night. Dimly lit carriages were roughly driving through the soft dirt roads as an early morning of harvest began.

Bang!

The door slammed shut after a hard morning. He was late to his field, and will now have to work longer than usual.

The month of harvest is the busiest month for anyone in the outer regions. Whether it be harvesting the crops or transporting the yield to the storage house, almost everyone is busy all day long. The outer region is responsible for 90% of all food. My job is to help my father transport the crops with my older brother Julian. Thankfully, our carriage that is pulled by two horses has a magical rune of weightlessness on it.

Magical runes are quite interesting because of the one fact I know about them. You do not need the corresponding magical affinity.

"Hey kid! Pull your carriage more to the side, we need to make room for everyone!"

The last day of harvest and transportation ended, and in total, our family made 24 gold coins. For my family's needs, that would last us 2 years.

The time for me to explore had finally come. No one was working late into the night transporting crops before the last round of the Transport Guild, no one was cooking late dinners outside, and the animals were silently roaming the pastures.

Peace was in the lands.

Me and my brother Julian retire into bed, and when the moment arises, I quietly sneak out the slightly cracked window and make my way into the forest. I've gotten rather comfortable with this ability besides the fact that I have no idea why I can do this, and it doesn't seem possible in a world where magic is only manipulating the elements.

After quickly lifting off the ground, my body shoots forward with speed.

WHOOSH

Freedom is what I am feeling as I swerve through the tall trees.

Unfortunately there is one obstacle on the way to the wall, a group of houses in a curved pattern. In order to keep myself hidden, I stay low to the ground as I am crossing the road, and quickly speed up once I am back in the trees.

I wonder what's on the other side. I wonder what a sunrise or sunset looks like in this world. I wonder if there is more life outside the walls.

Badum Badum

Badum Badum

My heart was racing from excitement, but also fear.

That's when it happened. A vast landscape of a barren rocky grassland surrounded the kingdom, while enormous mountains that just barely touched the thin layer of clouds in the distance created a cage around this grassland. Thin and scattered groups of thick and tall trees close to the start of the mountains with drooping branches and leaves that even touched the floor stood completely still beyond what seemed like an impossible place to live. 

"Beautiful"

I felt high on life. An urge to explore more around the area hit me, and I did not protest. With the ability to fly, what could go wrong. According to my mental map, I am facing southwest which is where the river leads to. However, that also makes me think of another possibility.

"I am in the northern hemisphere if this world is anything like earth."

The wind splits as I continue flying north which takes me to the west side of the kingdom. The first thing I saw wasn't the mountains or extremely tall forest of what looks like redwood trees that smothered the ground with its drooping leaves. But instead, an upside down ribcage that seemed like it was just a little smaller than the snow capped mountains.

The more I rounded the wall, the more potential dangers I saw. A horde of what looked like magical beasts were fighting each other with different magical attacks.

Flame balls, earth spikes, water waves, and gusts of wind.

What they were fighting over was the problem.

"Oh, my, fuck"

I was frozen in mid air. The loose clothes attached to my body rustled in the wind while the feeling of the cold wind brushed right past me.

All I could see was the aftermath of a magical battle. Holes were scattered across the ground, small spouts of smoke were flowing from burning grass, and human flesh and blood was splattered everywhere.

This was a turning point in Elijah's mind.

He was no longer just 'living life a new life', but instead realized he might be serving his time in hell.

A prison is something that keeps people inside and does not allow them to leave. However, when is a prison not a prison? Only when the prison is the reason for keeping whatever is outside, from coming in. A dystopia masquerading as a paradise was the first thought that came to Elijah's mind.

Without a second thought, Elijah flew aggressively back to the southwest part of the wall, and didn't bother to look for anyone who could possibly see him.

The only thought going through Elijah's mind was if this was hell, or had something to do with someone asking him to save whoever needs saving. So many questions that are being jumbled together, and even sometimes forgotten simply because he does not have enough information.

What seemed like sunshine and rainbows, was instead a flashlight shining through stained glass.

Fake.