The morning wind rolled across the trail, soft and sweet, brushing wildflowers into a lazy sway.
Theo's bag bounced against his back as he jogged up the road, just behind David and Dawn.
Their laughter had faded into the trees ahead, but he could still catch glimpses of them between the trunks—just far enough to make chasing them feel like a challenge.
"Are you ready to get this over with?" David asked as Theo caught up, flashing a grin that made him instantly suspicious.
Theo narrowed his eyes. "Over with? What are you talking about?"
David threw an arm around him, pulling him close like they were in on some great secret. "You know what."
His glasses flashed in the sunlight. That smirk… it was never a good sign.
For a brief second, Theo's mind wandered somewhere, but then reality snapped back like a rubber band.
"Wait… the exam? That's next week, right?"
He turned to Dawn like a man begging for a lifeline.
But she didn't miss a beat. "No, it's today. You just have a bad memory."
Theo's jaw dropped. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Nope. It's today," David said, far too cheerful.
Theo groaned and slowed his pace. "What's the point of going? I'm just gonna fail again."
"Then don't go," Dawn said simply as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
A shaft of sunlight slipped through the rolling clouds above, landing squarely on her as she smiled.
Theo stared, momentarily stunned. Not because of what she said—but because of the way she said it.
"You heard her!" David threw his hands up in triumph. "We're skipping school!"
"Wait—what about the test?" Theo's brain finally caught up.
"It's a professional advancement exam," David answered with a dramatic sigh. "Which is a fancy way of saying, 'Here's how screwed you'll be after graduation.' Besides, we can take it tomorrow."
Dawn reminded them, "It's still required to pass, so don't get too comfortable."
She turned to Theo, her voice softening. "But it's your birthday. You deserve today; at least, that's what I think."
Theo scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, but…"
David arched a brow. "You've never hesitated before. What's with you?"
Theo sighed. "I guess I've been thinking more lately. My dad gave one of his serious talks this morning."
Dawn tilted her head. "The kind that actually sticks?"
"Yeah. The kind that actually sticks..."
David laughed. "Man, the day you start following rules is the day the sky falls."
"Maybe I'm just growing up," Theo shot back.
"Ugh. Gross," David muttered.
"I'm serious. It just... hit me."
"You're a year older, and all of a sudden, you're all grown up, huh?"
"Shut up, David..."
"Don't overthink it, Theo," Dawn told him.
They kept walking, feet kicking up dust on the trail as the world around them unfolded in calm, sunlit colors.
Wildflowers lined the path in bursts of pink and yellow. Trees stretched high and wide overhead, filtering the light into shifting patterns across the dirt.
Theo looked around.
He wondered how many more days like this they'd have—just the three of them, unbothered, untouched by the world's weight.
Time had been moving faster lately. He could still remember turning ten like it was yesterday.
Now, somehow, he was fifteen.
Ahead, rooftops poked above the trees—Artimia's town square.
"So where are we headed?" Theo finally asked.
David smirked. "Where do you think?"
Dawn tapped his shoulder. "Looks like you're it, birthday boy!"
Then she and David took off running.
"Wait—no fair!" Theo shouted, bolting after them.
He caught up to Dawn and tapped her shoulder. "Ha! You're it!"
She grinned and slowed, letting him pass just before David cut in from the side and zipped past them both.
They burst into the marketplace, weaving through crowds and vendor stalls.
Children played between carts. Merchants shouted over one another. The air smelled of roasted meat, fresh bread, and fruit that had ripened in the sun.
Theo ducked beneath a tarp—
CRASH.
A vase shattered behind him.
"My vase!" a merchant screamed.
"Sorry! I'll pay you back later, I swear!"
The chase didn't stop.
Dawn leaped from a rooftop edge, tagging Theo in mid-air. "You're it!"
Before he could respond, David shot past, laughing like a madman.
"You're slowing down, man!" he called out. "You getting old already?"
Theo roared in protest and took off again.
They sprinted out of town, past windmills and farmland, out into the hills that framed Artimia like a cradle of green.
Beyond them—lay the Wastelands.
A patchwork of five sectors, each ruled by a Section Commander. Powerful military officials. Their laws were gospel, handed down from one shadow above them all—the God-King.
Theo didn't like thinking about the God-King. But his presence was everywhere. Felt, not seen. He was like a pressure in the air.
Artimia sat in Sector Five—the greenest of them all. Rolling fields. Endless sky. It was nicknamed the Crown Sector by outsiders.
Locals just called it home.
David disappeared over a hill, sprinting into the opening of a forest trail that curved uphill.
He slowed just long enough to catch his breath—alone, for now. The trees rustled softly overhead.
"She's probably way ahead by now," he muttered. "She always wins when we play tag."
But where's Theo? He was right behind me…
Then—
A rustle in the grass.
"Gotcha!" Theo lunged from the underbrush.
David dodged with a laugh. "Nice try! But you're too slow! Try something new!"
Theo grinned. "Gladly."
He slapped David's leg and rolled down the hill like a kid possessed.
"You're it!"
David blinked. "Wrong way, genius!"
Laughter cracked through the trees like fireworks as Theo tumbled into the tall grass below, vanishing in a rustle of green and gold.
Twigs clung to his shirt, leaves tangled in his curls like nature's idea of a party hat.
He rolled to his feet, chest heaving, grin wide, eyes wild with joy.
With a theatrical spin, he turned, threw up his middle finger like a victory banner, and shouted, "Tag, you're it, dumbass!"
Then he bolted into the bushes, laughing like a man who'd just robbed a king and gotten away with it.
David reached the top of the hill and found Dawn waiting. Arms crossed. Smirking.
"Took you long enough. Where's the birthday boy?"
David groaned. "Don't start. He tagged me and flipped me off and ran off into the bushes like some goblin."
Dawn chuckled. "Well… looks like he is winning."
David groaned louder. "Honestly? I think he's trying to win tag like it's a holy sport."
"Well, you did let him sneak up on you. You're slipping, old man."
"Old man? I'm literally one year older than you guys."
"One year is a lot," Dawn teased.
David groaned dramatically. "Dawn, you're ruthless."
"And you're slow."
They both chuckled.
Then—
"Finally…" Theo gasped, stumbling out of the brush like a man who'd survived a war. "I made it."
Leaves clung to his shirt. His knees were muddy, but his eyes were alive.
David burst out laughing. "You look like you lost a fight to a shrub."
Dawn covered her mouth, failing to stifle a giggle.
"Take a good look at yourself," David said, brushing a leaf from Theo's shoulder. "Seriously, you're a walking tree branch."
Theo didn't deny it. "And? You realize I still won, right?"
"Technically," David said. "But only because I'm a nice guy. Y'know... birthday morale boost?"
"Liar."
Then, something unexpected happened.
Soft hands slid over Theo's eyes.
Soft. Warm. Familiar.
His body tensed.
His heart skipped a beat.
It was Dawn. Her touch made the world go quiet.
And then, just like that, she let go.
Theo blinked, brain lagging like a jammed projector as Dawn stepped around him.
In David's arms—a plastic container, fogged from the inside with cold. Inside, resting like a crown jewel, was a cake.
Homemade. Iced with imperfect swirls and decorated with petals of frosting that mimicked wildflowers. His name was scrawled across the top in looping letters — tilted, slightly messy, but unmistakably heartfelt.
Theo just stared.
"You guys…" he whispered, voice thin and breaking.
David smirked. "Happy birthday, tree branch. Try not to cry, yeah? Bad for the frosting."
Dawn's cheeks tinted with the soft pink of sunrise. "It's nothing fancy. Just something I threw together."
"...But where the hell were you hiding that?"
David jerked a thumb toward the woods. "Hid it like stolen treasure. Woke up early, snuck out, did the whole cloak-and-dagger thing before you even rolled out of bed."
"And I made him carry it the whole way. You're lucky it didn't turn into frosting soup," Dawn announced, her arms crossed and chin lifted proudly.
Theo squinted at them like they'd grown extra heads.
"You two woke up early just to stash a cake in the woods? You're insane."
"And you're welcome. You're lucky we like you. My arms are still mad about it," David said with a shrug.
Theo's eyes drifted from the cake… to her.
The sunlight caught in Dawn's curls, casting gold along the edges like a soft halo. Her smile still lingered from the tease—slight, almost smug, and completely unaware of the chaos she'd just triggered in his chest.
The words slipped before he could stop them.
"...You're beautiful."
It came out quiet. Honest. Too honest.
Silence cracked the moment.
Dawn's eyes widened—just slightly— the smile vanishing as quickly as it had come. The tips of her ears flushed red.
She turned away, brushing at her skirt like it suddenly needed dusting.
Theo froze, brain screaming in panic. His hands lifted like he could snatch the sentence back from the air.
"I meant the cake!" he blurted. "The cake's beautiful! Not—not you—I mean you are! But that's not what I meant!"
David grinned like a shark, smelling blood.
"What was that, Romeo?" he whispered. "Mimi's got your tongue?"
"...Shut up, David."
Theo turned a shade of red so deep it could've been classified as a medical emergency.
David doubled over with laughter, nearly dropping the cake.
But Dawn caught the container before it hit the dirt, her eyes still carefully avoiding Theo's.
She didn't say a word.
But the quiet smile playing at her lips as she steadied the cake… said plenty.
They sat on the ridge in quiet, legs dangling over the edge, cake half-eaten and conversation long gone.
The earlier awkwardness melted into something familiar—the kind of silence that only came with real friends.
Below, Artimia stirred awake.
Smoke from chimneys. Barking dogs. Morning chatter rising faintly with the wind.
But Theo wasn't looking at the rooftops.
His eyes had drifted somewhere else—somewhere no one liked to talk about.
The Black Ball.
It loomed in the distance like a scar on the world. Immense. Unmoving. Rooted in the land like it had always been there—like the earth had grown around it.
A void against the morning sky. Smooth and perfect and wrong.
It drank in light. Reflected nothing. Cast no shadow. No seams, no windows, no doors. Just a flawless, obsidian sphere… swallowing a stretch of the hills in its presence.
Like it had erased the land beneath it.
Dawn's voice was low, almost reverent. "It's huge…"
Theo nodded, but his eyes never left the sphere. "What do you think's in there?"
David stretched out and leaned back on his hands. "Who knows? Doom? Death? The God-King's discounted furniture?"
Theo let out a breath of a laugh—but it didn't last. "No, seriously. I think it matters. More than anyone's admitting."
Dawn's voice dropped. "I heard people can't even get close enough to enter. Like it… messes with your head. There are always soldiers posted, but they don't talk. Don't move. Some say they don't even blink."
Silence.
The Black Ball sat there—as it always had—patient and still.
Waiting.
"The God-King never mentions it. Not once. Not in speeches. Not in the schools. Nothing," Theo added.
"Because he's a creep," David muttered. "He rules everything, but you never see him. Just his military lapdogs. The man's practically a myth."
"He's a ghost," Dawn said quietly. "And that thing is his shadow."
The Black Ball… it didn't move.
It didn't need to.
Its stillness now felt deliberate—as if the sky itself was reacting to it.
Then—
Smoke.
Flames.
A roar in the distance.
And just like that—the calm cracked.
Theo's heart sank as a thick plume of black smoke coiled into the sky, rising over the rooftops of Artimia.
"Guys…" Dawn whispered, already pointing.
The smoke grew darker. Taller.
"It's coming from the town!" David shouted.
Theo was already moving.
The cake hit the ground. The hill vanished behind them.
And together, they ran—feet pounding the dirt, lungs burning, hearts hammering like war drums.
Toward the fire. Toward the unknown.
Toward the day, everything changed.