Yuning "Anona" Yang

A long-fiction that I am still working on.

Background

On the Piouval Continent, there was a Kingdom of Gods called Kalamon. As the name implies, all the people who lived on this continent had divine power, so they called themselves Gods and proclaimed their country the Kingdom of Gods. The King Pelas of Duya Dynasty died, two princes started a war for the throne. Prince Ilah was defeated but he would not surrender. So in pursuit of strength Ila fell into diabolism and started practicing evil spells. Finally the younger prince Isai won the ministers’ hearts by his wisdom and kindness, so they united to split Ila’s soul
into pieces imprisoned him at Kalamon’s hinterland Tomuya.

Tomuya once was a giant basin surrounded by Mount Maley and was famous for scenery, but it was destroyed by Ilah’s evil spells during the war. Deep ravines hit by thunders split Tomuya into seven separate regions. Ilah’s former subordinates were stripped of their memory and power and sent to Tomya along with their families. There, they built new villages and farmed for a living. The seven fragments of Ilah’s soul were sealed in the ancestral hall of each village. However, Kalamon’s subjects were still uneasy. In order to ensure the eternal peace of Tomuya, Isai sent
Messengers to each village. The Messengers taught the villagers to worship Isai as their god, and taught them to pray and sacrifice.

The Messengers were teenage Kalamonian who had lost relatives in the early years of the war. When Isai met them, he couldn’t bear to see them displaced and unprotected, so he took them with him as disciples and taught them all aspects of knowledge himself. When they grew up, they
took Isai’s request to come to Tomuya, where they lived with the villagers together and devoted their lives to. When they died, their spirits were reincarnated into the newborns in the village. They will continue to perform their duties to maintain the peace in Tomuya.

The Structure of Story

In year 4729, a baby girl named Ulamal was born in the Tomuya village with plain moire as its auspicious pattern. Ulamal inherited the spirit of the village’s previous deceased Messenger Boleaf and possessed divine power that would remain undetected until her Coming-of-Age Ceremony. When Ulamal was six, Isai had a kingdom wide patrol. When he passed through the Mount Maley, he saw Ulamal, who would become a Messenger but paid no respect to Gods, so he went down and wanted to teach the little girl a lesson. But he missed the chance because he didn’t want anyone else to spot him, so he left Ulamal a bracelet so that he could observe her growth, hoping she could be prepared to become a Messenger when she comes of age.

Year after year, Ulamal was always naughty, and the bracelet would always warn her and restricted her misbehaviors, so she thought Isai was a bad guy. But due to the pledge of not revealing his existence at their first encounter, Ulamal stayed with the status quo. It came to a turning point at Ulamal’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony. Isai appeared in front of her as the King of Gods, which shocked Ulamal since she always had a complex attitude towards the Gods. Ulamal was informed of her identity and duties, but accidents happened as Isai helped her to awaken the divine power.

Ilah had never given up hope of redeeming freedom over the years. He ecretly manipulating unwitting villagers to travel across villages to strengthen the bond between the fragments of his soul. On the day of Ulamal’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony, the energy intensity between the fragments of Ilah’s soul was strong enough to escape the seal. As the blue sky turned gray under the fluctuations of Ilah’s energy, Ilah escaped and stood in front of Isai, looking at Isai’s holy appearances, feeling jealous. Ilah wanted to take back the throne, so he used evil spells to awaken the memory of his former subordinates and manipulate them for battle, trying to kill Isai. Ilah, however, hadn’t recover all his power and was not strong enough, so although Isai was unable to imprison Ilah again, he managed to escape and return to the King city of Kalamon

Isai discussed with his ministers about the crisis Ilah brought to the kingdom, Kalamon soon started to prepare for the war. Ulamal, the newly appointed intern Messenger, came to the Kind city with Isai as his disciple with other Messengers. Ulamal learned how to use the divine power from Isai and was responsible for keeping the contact between Kalamonian armies and Tomuya together with other Messengers. The war broke out. Ilah’s evil spells were difficult to solve, and Isai could not find any chances to imprison Ilah. Ulamal felt Isai’s exhaustion and anxiety about the situation, and began to understand his love for the his subjects and his desire for peace. Finally, Ulamal passed Isai’s assessment of utilizing the divine power and was allowed to obtain her past memories. Ulamal became a formal Messenger, left Isai’s side and took her responsibilities, giving her best and protecting the kingdom for Isai. It did not take long that Karaman was weakened and a large number of souls entered the Tower waiting for their next lives. Isai did not want to see his people fighting with efforts in vain any longer, so he made a bet with Ilah that end the war by the battle between themselves.

On the eve of the final battle, Ulamal came to Isai’s side and asked him if he was sure of the result of the final battle. Isai said that at least he could die together with Ilah. In the battle, as Isai had predicted, Isai and Ilah were tied. Isai finally found Ilah’s flaw but when he was constructing the spell trap, Ilah pulled thunder over and let it fall on Isai, Isai pushed the distorted spell onto Ilah in a hurry and was seriously injured. The distorted spell triggered unknown effects, and Ilah, in a rush to respond, was entangled in it. His soul was pulled towards the center of the spell and was smashed into pieces by Isai’s power. The pieces of souls was floating in the air, and they were trying to reconstruct by the feeble energy linked to each other. Isai saw that Ilah still refused to give up, so he strangled Ilah’s soul fragments with his last bit of strength. Ilah’s soul disappeared and would never be reborn. The cage of Tomuya was officially abandoned. After a hundred years, its scenery would be restored by the divine power and it would become Kalaman’s most beautiful prairie again.

Isai was so badly wounded that his golden power slowly flowed away from his wound. Those gold energy was blown up by the wind into the sky, merged with the sunset and disappeared. Ulamal looked at Isai’s dying face with anguish in her heart. But Isai was not sad, he would soon
reincarnate, and then become an ordinary Kalamonian. When he passes the divine assessment in the future he would go to the Tower to retrieve his memories. Then he could take his disciple to travel around the Piouval Continent and watch the beautiful sunset once more on the Tomuya
prairie where they had met.

The Setting of the Piouval Continent

Kalamonians’ power is essentially soul power, and since the newly reincarnated soul is too weak to resist the energy fluctuations, the power lurks in the Kalamonians until their adulthood and is unable to be either used or detected by others. Only when a soul is mature enough to find
its own direction, it is qualified to fully utilize the divine power. Therefore, the young Kalamonians are vulnerable and requires the careful protection of adult Kalamonians.

Kalamonians’ bodies are born and die naturally, cannot be interfered by the divine power. After the death of the body, the Kalamonian soul travels to the Tower, where it spends a period of time and waits to enter a newborn baby. Past memories are kept in the Tower until they pass the
divine assessment after their Coming-of-Age Ceremony. This is to let the Kalamonians first enjoy their “this life”, not directly affected by the karma of their previous lives and missed the possibility of “this life”. Therefore, there are Kalamonians who, for various reasons, choose not to collect
their past memories in “this life” when it is time to do so. For Kalamonians who committed a serious crime, the memory of the life they committed is sealed in the Tower and cannot be claimed after any reincarnation.

The body of the baby that the soul enters after reincarnation is very random, so the soul of a previous king can reincarnates as a normal Kalamonian and reverse. Therefore, except in very special cases, Kalamonians would say goodbye to their previous lives, and they will not forcibly return to the position of their previous lives. Although the souls of Kalamonians enter the Tower after death, the souls that disappear unexpectedly are lost forever, and the number of souls only
decreases. Kalamonians’ scientists have not been able to solve this problem, so the Kalamonians are very cautious about executing a soul unless the crime is very serious and the soul has a powerful
memory retrieval ability (as in Ilah’s case).

Kalamon is a highly civilized, and Kalamonian’s divine power is mostly used to speed up work and make fun in daily life. It is not easy to find a fight on the street. Ordinary Kalamonians do not learn how to use their power except for everyday uses and simple self-defense. In addition
to soldiers who are taught how to use their power in battles and practice to upgrade their power, Kalamonians with certain status also sent their children to learn about them. Stronger divine power is a sign of Karamonians’ eminence.

Fragments of the Plots

Frag.1 The First Met

The dark blue sky seemed close at hand. Ulamal laid on the roof of her house and looked up, trying to find something in the mysterious sky.

The villagers always say that gods ruled the world. If you pray to the sky reverently, you will see the gods.

But as Ulamal grew up hearing it, though she searched in the sky every day, hoping to have a peek at the beauty of the gods, she never encountered the appearances of any gods, neither a slice of divine gold color penetrated through the clouds.

It is the harvest day in The village of Tomuya, and the villagers are dancing around the freshly harvested wheat in the square, thanking the gods for their blessing this year. Women are wearing cloth skirts that were woven by colorful threads, dancing in circles, and men gathered around them singing.

Ulamal slipped away from her mother in the crowd. Born as a girl, she is not at all interested in girlish things. As soon as the other girls learned to walk, they followed their mothers to learn the the ritual dances. As soon as Ulamal could walk, she would run to the village border. No one can hold her back. Even when she fell down to the ground, she would get up herself and continue running.

The ritual was long and tedious, but even if Ulamal had escaped, she would have had to wait for her mother to return before she could have dinner. Just as Ulamal was yawning and getting ready to take a nap, a pleasant voice said, “Why are you here all by yourself, young lady? Aren’t you going to the harvest ritual?” Ulamal woke up in a shock and stood up to look for the voice’s owner. And the voice told her, good-naturedly, “I’m at your front door.

Ulamal jumped down from the roof and went to the door of her house, where she saw a strange man in a silver-embroidered robe. The man’s long black hair was loose, and his eyes were deep and bright, looking at her with invisible authority. Even though the man was smiling and,
Ulamal felt a little awed and guarded.

“… Who are you? I haven’t seen you before. What can I do for you, please?” Ulamal asked.

Unoffended, the man replied good-naturedly, “Hello little girl, my name is Isai, from theother side of Mount Maley. There’s no important things except that I saw you staying alone, so Iwant to make a friend with you.”

Ulamal felt surprised, but did not know how to refuse him politely. Just as she hesitated, she heard the end of the ritual song. The man sighed, “I must go now. Don’t tell anyone you saw me. Good-bye, little girl, and I’ll see you again.” He smiled at Ulamal and disappeared.

Ulamal blinked to make sure what she saw. A maple leaf had fallen slowly from where Isai had been standing. She stepped forward to grab it, but it did not let her take it but rather floated around and became a bracelet on Ulamal’s right wrist.

The bright red string was tied in an auspicious knot, and tiny leaf were in the middle of the knot, red as blood, like the afterglow of sunset shining on Ulamal’s white skin. Ulamal turned her wrist to check. The bracelet was just the right length, snug to her wrist, no knots to adjust the length
but neither too long nor too short.

“Ulamal, you are skipping the ritual again! You can’t have any cake tonight! ‘ Ulamal’s observations were interrupted by the distant voice of her mother, Ophia.

Oh my god! Isai won’t let me tell anyone I saw him, but how do I explain this bracelet? Ulamal quickly tried to untie the bracelet, but the unadjustable length doomed to let it stay on her wrist.

At this moment Ophia approached her and asked her curiously, “What are you doing, an insect bite on your wrist? I see this is all right, hah? Come in and help me with the dinner!”

“Oh, coming!” So mother can’t see the bracelet? Relieved, Ulamal turned and followed Ophia into the house.

Frag. 2 The Border Lines

The boundary lines of the village were drawn a long time ago, according to the elderly in the village, by the gods to keep the villages from fighting for territory during the war time hundreds of years ago. From then on, each village lived its own little life in isolation, following the orders of the gods, never stepping beyond their neighborhoods. So for hundreds of years, the inhabitants of Tomuya were self-sufficient, living a monotonous but secure life.

The village is surrounded by spruce forests that stretch as far as human eyes can see. But Ulamal knew that a day’s walk deep into the spruce forest would bring her to the border. Other villages, which you thought you could see just beyond the boundary line, were buried deep in another spruce forest.

Ulamal could not say what she had felt as a child when she had sneaked up to the boundary line and seen a deep golden ravine in the middle of the two forests. She had thought she could sneak over to see what other villages looked like, but she neither dared nor could cross the ravine
herself. The ravine runs through the middle of the spruce forest, not setting boundaries for the two spruce forests, but dividing the one spruce forest in to two. There was a spruce tree half in gold and half out of gold, and through the gold Ulamal saw that the inside half was as black as charcoal, as if there were a dead land.

Frag. 3 The Disappeared Dress

Ulamal’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony is in a month. On the day of the ceremony, the girls would wear a cloth dress made by the elders of their family. The plain moire is the auspicious pattern in Tomuya, named after the villagers’ belief that the Kingdom of Gods was built behind clouds.

Ulamal had seen in his grandmother’s wardrobe an old dress embroidered with a beautiful bird, with a hint of grandeur in the pale blue moire of the white dress. She thought it looked great and asked her grandmother if she could make one for her.

Her grandmother, who was telling her stories from the war time hundreds of years ago, said, “Shush!” She turned to look out of the window, made sure no one had passed the house, turned back to her and said, “Forget that you have seen this dress today.”

Ulamal was confused, but agreed. Several years later, when she remembered the colorful bird on the old dress, she sneaked into her grandmother’s house and searched in the closet, but she never found it again.

As she grew older, she had a vague idea that the dress might have come from another village, for the people of Tomuya usually embroidered dresses with plain moire, and she had never seen swirly moire dresses worn by any woman in the village. The dress was as old as two or three generations ago, when Grandma’s grandma was still alive. But villages stopped contacting each other hundreds of years ago, then how could this dress exist in Tomuya?

Frag. 4 The Coming-of-Age Ceremony

On the day of Ulamal’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony, the morning sun shining warmly on the green grass of Tomuya through the rugged ridges of Mount Maley.

Ulamal got up early and was dressed by her mother and other elders in the village who were in charge of the ceremony. Her long black hair was divided into small strands plaited into colorful braids, and she wore a tassel scarve on her forehead. As time went on, the morning sun came in through the window and shone a crimson halo on the young girl’s pretty face.

By the time Ulamal entered the ancestral hall, the villagers were already seated at their tables waiting for her. The elder priest came and took her by the hand and led her to the crystal stone in the center of the hall.

The bell rang from the distant bell tower. It was time. The priest took the dagger prepared on the altar and instructed Ulamal to cut a small wound on hier finger and put a drop of blood onto the crystal stone.

“In the name of blood, I pledge to my god and request a blessing for your people Ulamal. I will serve you all my life.” Ulamal whispered, echoing the words her mother had taught her yesterday.

The small drop of blood fell onto the crystal stone and slowly slid, leaving a deep red trail. After a short while, the trail disappeared, and the crystal stone turned from white to dark red, representing the God had heard Ulamal’s words, willing to give her his blessing. The ceremony was successfully completed.

Ulamal breathed a sigh of relief, put down the dagger, lifted her skirt and made a deep bowto the crystal stone. But just as she turned to leave the ancestral hall, the crystal stone turned from the deep red to a strange black. At the same time, the ancestral hall was filled with golden light. A
solemn voice came from the sky, “Ulamal, you are the chosen Messenger of the God. Your duties destined you to live an unordinary life and travel between the man’s world and the God’s world for you whole life. Will you accept your responsibility?”

The golden light dissipated and Isai appeared in front of Ulamal in his magnificent golden robe. His face was still the same as the one Ulamal had seen when she was young.

The elder priest beside her had fallen reverently to the ground, and the villagers in the temple had followed him to their knees, lowering their heads in palpable awe and a touch of fear, just as Ulamal had seen Isai for the first time. Only Ulamal and Isai stood face to face in the ancestral hall.

Ulamal stared at Isai and wondered. He was a god, and I had seen a god before.

Frag.5 Near End

Ulamal ran against the wind, the red clouds left on her face with crimson lights. The gentle wind blowing over her ears, and she thought she heard Isai in his solemn voice says to her, “You have become who you want to be.”

A tear slipped away from the corner of Ulamal’s eye and drifted behind her through the wind into the dry earth.

No matter how far the future is, I will arrive there for you.