The World Beyond

1: Why can't we go out?

You've always wondered what lay beyond your village, within the thick forests and vast savannas, and possibly even more landscapes you have never seen or dreamt of. What creatures to find in each area? Other people, perhaps? Or other intelligent beings of a different kind of organism?

You always wanted to explore the seas, be it above the surface or below, within the depths. You wondered what fascinating creatures reside within the depths, and how different they are to land creatures.

You always desired to traverse the skies, even if it were impossible. How much more peaceful it would be above the clouds, temporarily free from the chores you have in your residence and the dangers of living on land, such as predators and natural disasters.

Your never ending curiosity... Never satisfied.

"Faer!" your mother calls. "Come help me pick the fruits off of this tree!"

"Yes, Mother!"

You hurry to your mother's side to complete one of your chores for the day: to collect the diverse array of fruits from the tree your mother indicated. The trees that bear fruit in your village do not bear a single kind of fruit. Rather, they bear many kinds of fruits. Some sweet, some sour. Some with a tang of bitter. Some are round, while some have a rough or bumpy texture.

You and your mother gather all the ripened fruits into some baskets. When you started, it was early afternoon. When you finished, the sun had nearly set. Harvesting the fruits is one of your longer chores, but they are fortunately not very frequent, not to mention that the fruits you collect do not deplete or decay easily thanks to your village's storage technology.

"Mother," you ask, "if I don't have any more chores left, can I go see the sunset?"

"Yes, you may, Faer," your mother replies. "Just be back before dinner, all right?"

"Yes, Mother."

To view the sunset in all its glory, you climb the steps, which your ancestors constructed, up a grassy hill not too far away (but not quite close, either). You seat yourself on a simple stone bench, which consists of two legs and a long, flat, rectangular slab, that is situated on a flat surface somewhere on the hill. Once seated, you take a nice, long, deep breath, and sigh, relaxing, especially at the sight of the magnificent colors of the sunset-streaked sky.

And as you stare at the scenery... you notice the biomes that you so wish to explore: the forests, the savannas, the lakes, the seas, and, most prominent of all, the sky. And a small pang of longing pervades you.

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"Faer!" your mother calls as she sees you return from your journey while your father cheerfully waves at you. "Come have some springberry soup."

The Springberry is a somewhat round berry, but it appears as if a coil was wrapped around it, forcing the berry to mature with coil-like depressions on its surface. It tastes sweet, but has a slight sour aftertaste.

The soup is deliciously sweet, not so much that it would end up being served best as a dessert.

As you, your family, and the rest of the village retire to bed, your thoughts go through what happened day, especially your time up on the hill, staring into the sunset scenery. Your curiosity of the world began when you were but a pre-adolescent, but this curiosity was benign. Now, almost a young adult, your desire to trek the world you reside in only grew, and your yearning for independence grew as well.

Your village is, as you see it, smart. They are wise and knowledgeable. Their library is full of information regarding survival, health, and maintenance of their technology, and even information on animals that you've never seen within the village. Surely, they wouldn't be so ignorant as to avoid the outside world, but why does no one talk about it, and why does no one seem to care?

You tell yourself to stop thinking too much. To go to sleep. To drift off into the land of dreams, of imagination....