Deep in a dense forest, there was a village. On the north, west and east, it was surrounded by dense trees, and in its south, a long, wide river flowed. It was the village's only source of water.
Along that river's bank, an eighteen-year-old boy was staring at the flowing river as tears slid down his cheeks.
Six days ago, his father met his death, and as the village custom goes, his body was placed on a bamboo raft on the same day and pushed into the river.
After Zion's wounds were treated, this was his first time visiting his father's resting place.
A seventeen-year-old girl, standing next to the boy, consoled him, "It's alright, Zion, it's alright…Uncle Han…your father…he will forever watch over you from the stars,"
Tears were coming out of the girl's eyes as well since she, too, was very close to Mister Han.
A while later, the girl pulled on Zion's sleeves and suggested, "Zion, let's go back, it's getting dark now."
Hearing this, the boy looked behind the girl and saw her parents waiting for her.
"You go back, Fana, I'll come back in a while," Zion smiled at her.
The girl hesitantly nodded as she met the gaze of her parents, who were waiting for her with an impatient expression.
She reluctantly turned and went to her parents. On the way back, her father, seeing her worried expression, said, "Fana, I don't want you to talk with Zion anymore."
"What?! But why father?" Fana couldn't understand why her father, who always told her to stay close to Zion, would say something like this.
"His future as a hunter is finished. No good will come if you get attached to that boy. Earlier, he at least had the potential of learning his father's skills and becoming a skilled hunter…but now?' Fana's father didn't continue and just shook his head dismissively.
"How could you even say that? I thought you loved Zion and wanted me to get engaged with him," Fana's eyes started brimming with tears when she heard this.
"I loved his potential. Now that he has no potential, my love for him is also dead. As for your engagement? With so many talented youths in the village, why should I marry you to a useless bastard like him?" Fana's father said.
Her mother nodded to the side and said, "A girl should know her worth. With such a beautiful appearance as yours, your choices are unlimited, my dear. It's best to distance yourself from that Zion. He only has a good face that might charm young girls like you, but when you grow older, you'll understand that a man needs much more than just a good face."
Finding her parents' words too harsh, Fana started crying. All this was too much for a seventeen-year-old girl. Her parents understood it, but they didn't want their daughter to take pity on Zion and end up ruining her life. Therefore, they were harsh on her.
As for Zion, he was still standing near the riverbank.
The sun was almost touching the tree tops, and night would be falling soon, but Zion kept standing there. The reason? He wanted to see the stars.
'Look at you believing in a kid's tale now,' Zion inwardly mocked himself, but didn't leave the place. He had never believed in such tales before. However, today, a part of him wanted to believe in them.
The sun soon went under the distant trees, and with that, the moon gained its brilliance. Several stars in the sky were now visible to him, and his eyes desperately hovered over them all as if to sense a trace of familiarity from them.
Nothing of that sort happened.
He sighed and muttered, "I should have known."
However, just when he was about to turn around and go back, a star's twinkle caught his attention.
'I've never seen a star twinkle so brightly,' Zion thought as he focused his gaze on that star.
"Wow, other stars couldn't even compare to its brightness," Zion exclaimed in awe as the star twinkled again.
"Wait…why is it getting bigger?" Zion furrowed his eyes a little and focused on the star more keenly.
It took him two seconds to realise that it wasn't a star but something else, and this something was beaming towards his position from the sky.
"Shit!" Zion turned around to make a run for it, but his movement was slow. The ball of light accelerated the next moment, too fast for a human eye to see.
BAM!
A small cloud of dust blurred Zion's vision. When the dust settled, Zion noticed a circular red bead was embedded in the ground. It was the size of a pigeon's egg.
"Just what the hell-" Before Zion could finish his words, the bead melted into liquid form and wrapped itself around Zion's hand.
"Ahhh!" Zion shouted in pain as he felt that his hand was burning. He rushed to the river and plunged his hand into it, vigorously shaking it inside.
Clouds of steam developed in that spot the next moment and continued for the next ten seconds.
Zion kept groaning for the first five seconds before the pain reduced, and he started to calm down.
It was only after twenty seconds that he pulled his hand from the water.
He was expecting his hand to be half burnt, but to his very surprise, it wasn't, and what was even more surprising was the fact that his middle finger now had a golden ring on it.
"Did that bead turn into this ring?...but how?" Zion looked at his hand with an incredulous expression. He traced the surface of the ring with his thumb.
There were some engravings and characters embedded on the ring, but as to what they meant, Zion had no idea. He attempted to remove it from his finger and realised that it wouldn't budge.
"No, this can't be," Zion muttered and tried to pull it off his finger with all his might, only to end up heaving for air. He did it again and again and…
"Will I forever have to wear this golden ring?" Zion thought as he finally gave up. His forehead was covered in sweat, and he was all exhausted.
At that moment, the ring suddenly disappeared from his hand. Zion's eyes almost bulged out in shock at this scene. Using his thumb, he tried to feel the ring, and his expression grew even more surprised.
He could feel that the ring was still on his finger, but when he tried to touch it, his finger didn't feel anything there at all.
"Is this a magical ring?" Zion thought.
He tried turning it visible once again with his thought and succeeded.
"Wow…" Zion looked at the ring in his hand in amazement, but it was not over yet.
'Disappear…. appear…disappear…' Zion grinned. He felt like a child who had been given a new toy.
GROWL
It was only after more than thirty minutes had passed and his stomach was announcing its state that Zion stopped experimenting with the ring.
"Dinner will take time, so I'd better go now," Zion thought out loud.
Before going, he looked up at the stars one last time. His gaze then went towards the ring in his hand as he muttered, "Did you give me this father?"
Not expecting an answer to his question, Zion soon returned to the village.