"You don't know how grateful I am Khan, it may seem to be nothing to you, but these herbs may save my store". An old woman laying down in a creaking bed was caressing the cheek of a young boy with short curly brown hair, a stature unresembling of a 15 years old boy as he was much too short. A face that seemed calm yet comforting with black eyes that seemed particularly entrancing. The young man put his hand over the old woman's and moved it over to her stomach: "Don't you worry Miss Chen, I'll be back before sundown, you can count on me.". The old woman smiled: "I'm happy Khan, though you cannot see it.".
Khan left the room after bidding her goodbye and taking his cane in his left hand. After he left the old pharmacy named: "A Plant's Life", Khan turned towards the left side of the road and started walking, he knew he had no time to spare but there was nothing he could do, as running would be slower for him. The passersby were chatting loudly while trying their best to negociate convenient prices with the local stores who were unusually open at this time of the day: 'Normally, they wait until noon to fully open, but it seems that the flow of customers is high even though it's early morning.'.
Khan concluded that there maybe was a special event in the town or something for people to be so enthusiastic in their shopping. He could only deduce that they were a lot of people from the high amount of voices he could discern however, he had no way to see what they were buying to deduce further as to what event was going to take place in town: 'Well, not that it is any of my business, I won't be able to attend any event, no matter what it is.'.
His cane helped him open the way, as he knew there were people moving away from him as to not clutter in his path: 'Truly a lot of people for such an early morning.'. He plainly remarked while ensuring that his steps were the longest he could, so as to not waste time walking.
.
.
.
Arriving at the gate of the town, he had to be stopped by one of the guards in chainmail armor and asked as to what his purpose in leaving was: 'We're still at war with the Lu it seems, I thought a truce had been signed off but apparently it was just a rumor.'. Khan deduced that from the fact the soldier's questions were quite on point and had definite meaning to search for any deserter. The interrogation quickly ended, as the guard wasn't that suspicious of a blind kid and he told his companion to open the gate. The gate creaked heavily: 'So it is made of wood, I always thought it was a metal one but guess we' re not that well protected.'.
Khan left towards the forest, which he knew, was in the straight direction starting from the gate of his town. The hardest part of the trip had yet to come, as the herbs he would have to collect had to be discerned by touch, scent and taste. But Khan didn't worry about that as he had a whole day ahead of him and walking would be good for his health, he didn't move a lot in his line of work after all. A free day had to be spent on working out.
Smiling at the thought of sensing the refreshing air of the forest, Khan sped up a bit in his walk, his cane repeatedly moving side to side right in front of him.
.
.
.
He soon arrived at the forest, he knew that as he had hit multiple trees with his cane and touched the proliferating moss to understand that he was in the right place. Khan then started his search, he put his cane on his back while strapping it with a leather belt he had brought and took off his sandals. He now was barefeet, feeling the earth underneath his feet Khan breathed out a heavy gust of air: 'Nothing feels better in nature than to physically be in contact with it.'. Khan then started walking forward, not caring if he hit a tree or fell down because he tripped as he was searching for specific herbs. His clothes were rugged and already quite old before that, so tainting them with mud wasn't a big deal for him.
'Found one.'. Khan bent down and gripped a strand of herb before plucking it out and now having a vegetable resembling a beetroot in his hand. The young boy smelled the beetroot and touched it a lot to make sure that this was one of the herbs Miss Chen needed. He had been taught by her the ways to differentiate the plants living in the wild even though he could not see them when he was young, now that he thought about it, maybe Miss Chen truly cared about him.
The young man stopped his train of thought and started gathering a bit more of the beetroot as he knew that they always lived in groups. He tasted one of them just in case and was happy to feel the sugary taste of the herb in his mouth: 'Yep, no doubt this is one of them. Three more to go.'. The sun reached its peak, it was now noon, and Khan still hadn't found any of the other herbs. He didn't know what time it was but he felt hungry thus he decided to stop for a while and search for some edible plants around.
He soon found some berries, and checked if they were poisonous or not, but after trying for 5 minutes by touching and smelling them, he still didn't know. He nonetheless took the risk as he would just have a stomach ache for a few days and then it would be okay. That was better than walking in a forest alone and hungry. After eating his fill and feeling refreshed, Khan departed for the depths of the forest, though he did not know that.
.
.
.
It was now late in the afternoon, the young man had found two other herbs, one of them having been guarded by a squirrel and thus Khan took some damage. The scratches hadn't cut too deep as he didn't feel much pain when he touched the bleeding part of his cheek, but he still felt bad leaving that out in the open. But he had no choice but to continue with this handicap: 'The bleeding will stop soon enough, it's just a scratch.'. He could have gone back, but Khan felt bad to leave after only having one remaining herb to find.
He determined himself to find it as soon as possible, and he started going a bit quicker in his pace, though that caused him to stumble a lot more and fall twice more often. And as it could have been predicted, Khan hurt his knee while falling down and hitting a piece of wood that had been left down on the ground. Now, his knee was also bleeding and Khan felt the urge to go back as he couldn't hear anything anymore. Before, the chirps of the birds and the rustling of the leaves would arouse his senses, but now, he was incapable of hearing anything.
Scared, the young man turned back and started running, while carefully putting his hands in front of him to not hit any obstacle in his course and sending his legs up high every time he took a step to avoid being tripped over by anything. But after a minute or so, a low growl coming from his front made him stop. He could distinctly hear the noise an animal would make when angry at something or someone, he had taken care of a dog before after all. But this growl seemed more pronounced and a bit wilder than the one a dog would make.
Khan didn't dare walk towards the beast making this sound, and therefore turned back towards the depths of the forest before sprinting. Now he didn't care whether the beast was after him or not, or if an obstacle was in front of him. He just wanted to escape and be back home in his room to lay down on his bed and have a good night's sleep. Khan heard a loud rustling behind me, and concluded that the beast truly was after him: 'I can't die here! I haven't lived long enough! I need to run!.'. Khan's primitive instincts of survival took over and his body flew out in a straight direction, grazing trees and branches, thus making more parts of his body bleed. And as a result, making the beast run even faster towards his prey, as the smell of blood was particularly enticing.
The chase continued until Khan entered an area devoid of any trees in a small radius and the beast rapidly stopped before whimpering and turning back, escaping this place. Khan didn't hear the beasts whimper and kept on running at full speed, but his feet caught onto something and he fell down heavily on the ground as a result, fainting.
.
.
.
The next day, Khan woke up, feeling sore all over his body and dehydrated. He touched the ground around him in a frantic manner, seemingly trying his best to sense that he was still alive. Khan breathed a sigh of relief and laid down on the grass. The humidity stuck to his clothes that were mostly torn as a result of grazing branches, Khan touched the parts of his body that had been scratched and was shocked to find out that there was no bleeding anymore. It didn't even hurt when he touched his skin. Khan pinched these parts, but still felt no pain.
He surmised that maybe he wasn't hurt that badly in the end. He then got up, but remembered that he was lost and there would be no way for him to know where he was and in which direction he should go. Sighing heavily, Khan did not despair yet but first thought about finding something to drink, he started walking in a random direction, hoping that he would find some water. But before he could even take a step, his foot hit a hard surface. The young man clenched his teeth at the sudden pain and thought that he had hit a rock, but a voice proved him the contrary.
"Young man, for having found the 14th Treasure of the Grand Exploration, you will be awarded with one wish. What do you want to be granted? ". Khan was startled as he thought he had been alone: "Wait, can you help me out? I'm trying to find my way back. Where are you exactly? I can't see you.". There was no answer, which frustrated Khan as he had expected for one: "I'm blind for God's sake! Can't you be a little more understanding?". With the frustration of the past events pent up in his heart, he let himself shout at the unknown man, so he could at least feel a bit more at ease.
"Young man, what do you wish for?". The voice responded with a similar question, which annoyed Khan as he thought the man was toying with him as he was blind. Angry that the man did that, he decided to make him feel bad and ask for a wish which would put the man in an uncomfortable position: "I wish to be able to see as far as I possibly can.". Khan smirked, but the voice's answer surprised him: "Your wish will be granted. May your exploration be fruitful.". The voice stopped, and as it did, Khan felt a sting in his eyes. Which was a whole new sensation to him as he had never felt anything, not even pain, in this part of his body, but the sting started becoming more intense. And Khan had to scream to let out some of the horrendous pain he felt at the moment. After some time, Khan opened his eyes, the sting had disappeared but he still couldn't see anything.
"Hey, what just happened!". Khan was now cautious as the only person that could have inflicted him such pain was the man that had talked to him, he turned towards the voice. And just as he did, he looked at the scenery in front of him, a rapidly changing one with the brightness of the sun going from a sunrise to total darkness of the night, then sundown, noon, and back to morning. In a continuous cycle, the colors of the trees changing with the light, the passing birds that quickly flied to one tree from another, and the sun that radiated a different light with each blink Khan took. And in the middle of all of this, a blue stone statue 10 times smaller than Khan stood there, untouched by the changing scenery.
"What is happening?". The voice let out a single sentence: "The past, the present and the future are no limits for your eyes. You can look at everything.".