As the teenager walked alone the left side of the road,he came upon a small fruit stall.Feeling a slightly hunger,he decided to buy an apple to eat.But as he approached the stall,he noticed someone nearby-clothes rubbed,hands sneaking toward the food-trying to steal
Seeing this,the teenager thought to himself,
"Those kids in the East are tully fortunate and yet,with everything they have,they complain endlessly
about how unlucky they are"
Shaking the thought away,he continued toward the stall to buy his apple.
When he reached the front,he saw that the shopkeeper was an elderly woman.
"Grandma,may i have an apple?"
He asked.
The woman replied
"It's two dagars for one,deer"
The teenager blinked in surprise
"That's expensive
In the East,two dagars can get nealy twenty apples,
But here it only buys one," he thought
Still,he handed over the two coins and exchange them for the single apple.
After the teenager boy brought the apple,the faint clinking of iron reached his ears.
He turned to looked-and there down by the harbor,he saw people being led off a ship in chains.
Their clothes were tattered,their wrists bound with harsh iron cufts,and their face were covered in wounds.The boy saw it all with his own eyes.
Shaken,he turned back toward the shop and asked the elderly shopkeeper
"Grandma... aren't those Uatahsha
people?"
The old lady gave a slow nod.
"It seems so.In this province,Utahsha slave trade is the most widespread of all"
"Even if you added the slaves from other tribes,their number wouldn't even come close to the Utahsha's"
The boy glanced again at the suffering captives and thought to himself,
"There are... so many"
"The Reaper once taught me about them"
"They said that the Yutarsha are borned with the powers of nature"
"How did they ended like this"
With those thoughts lingering in his mind,he continue down the road towars his destination.
As the teenager walked on,munching an apple following the path ahead,a sudden thought flickered his mind when he saw the homeless people along with the roadside.
"I've never come across anything quite like this before"
"In the East,people in this conditions are rare"
"And even when they are there,there's always come place for them-a corner to sleep,a spot to eat"
"But the west... it worse than i thought"
Lost in his thoughts, he collided with a teenage girl.
She was a slave—one of the Utahsha.
He did not falter.
His body remained steady, unmoved. The girl, however, collapsed onto the ground.
He glanced down at her. She lay there, helpless, clearly in need of assistance. He felt nothing—no concern, no hesitation. The thought passed through his mind without weight or conflict.
"This is not my matter"
He turned away.
Without guilt or curiosity, he continued down his path, leaving the girl where she had fallen, as if she had never existed.
He walked alone along the dusty road, letting the quiet settle around him, when a dimly lit beer shop came into view.
Something about the place felt worn and tired, but he pushed the door open anyway and stepped inside.
The shop was ordinary enougha few rickety tables, the faint smell of stale alcoholbut the air carried a heaviness he couldnt quite place.
He approached the counter.
"A glass of beer"
he said.
Thatll be twenty kyats, the shopkeeper replied without looking up.
The boy handed over the money, and the shopkeeper filled a glass, the amber liquid foaming at the top. As he lifted it for a sip, voices from a nearby table drifted toward himlow, uneasy murmurs.
"They say people have been disappearing in the forest southeast of town
Anyone who goes in never comes out."
"A farmer swears he hears howling out there at night. Something not human."
He turned to the shopkeeper.
"Uncle is it true that people really disappearing in the southeastern woods?"
The shopkeeper finally looked up.and said
"Too true."
"Some of my friends crossed through that forest once."
"They heard screamsdeep, twisted things that didnt sound like they came from any creature we know." And they found tracks
He paused, as if the memory itself unsettled him.
Footprints shaped like something between a deers and a wild boars. But too large"
The boy drained the rest of his beer, the bitter taste clinging to his tongue. He paid quietly and stepped outside of the shop.