The midday sun hung high in the sky and scorched the village and its inhabitants.
Anku observed the surroundings with an unfound curiosity and big, innocent eyes.
A dirt path traced its way through lush green fields, and small huts, similar to his own, occasionally cast out black smoke into the sky through their chimneys.
The sharp grass lightly pricked his feet, while the sun lit up his face.
Adults were gently swinging bronze tools into the soil, working away at the dirt, while a gathering of people a distance away, milled wheat into fine, brown flour.
Everything was so unfamiliar and mystical to the young boy, as his small brain had difficulty comprehending everything, but this only made him more curious.
"Mom!" Anku turned around and called out to his mother excitedly.
"Yes, my light?" Siria snuck a glance at her child from the inside of the hut and smiled, seeing him so excited about the village and the outside world.
"Why is the sky blue?!" Anku pointed at the sky and tried to grasp it with his hands, although a look of disappointment flashed through his face as his hands only met thin air.
A pair of hands suddenly hugged him from behind, and his mother whispered in simple terms, "It's an endless lake of water that the goddess Narth has gifted to us, and if we are good people, then after we go back to the dirt, we will fly into the lake and find a place with all the food and water you'd want."
Anku's eyes glowed at the explanation as his infantile mind instantly forgot about his disappointment, instead, he now expressed curiosity towards this 'Narth'.
"Who's Narth, mom? What's a 'goddess'?" Anku jumped up and down as he awaited a response to everything.
His mom chuckled and said, "I'll teach you when you grow up, alright, my light?"
Anku felt his excitement dampen down, but then, his mother ran to the hut and came back with her hands hidden behind her back.
"Choose an arm, Anku, and if you are a good boy, it will have a juicy and delicious fruit, all for you!"
Anku was excited at the prospects of being a good boy, though he hesitated on which hand to choose.
Ultimately, he placed his short arm on his mother's left arm, and shouted innocently, "This one!"
His mother smiled, and sneakily put the fruit into her left arm, after which she unraveled her hand in front of him, revealing a glossy, plump apple.
'I'm a good boy!!!!!' Anku exclaimed internally.
He hugged his mother and took the apple, taking a tough bite out of the juicy fruit.
"Hey, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Anku heard an inquiring voice that he did not recognize.
The voice was high-pitched and infantile, similar to his own.
Turning around, he saw a head of black hair that roughly reached his shoulders.
It was a girl that was likely his age, and her big eyes had the same innocent and curious expression he always held.
Anku contemplated, at least as much as his small brain could allow him to, and then replied unhesitantly, "I want to be like mom and dad in the future!"
'Dad swings that bronze hammer all day, and it's so cool! But I also want to collect beautiful fruit like mom!' Anku was in a dilemma.
"What! Me too!" The girl had a smile that reached from ear to ear.
Siria saw the instant bonding the two children shared and leaned down to speak to the girl.
"Do you want to become Anku's friend? What is your name?" She brought her voice up a pitch as she spoke to the children.
"Yes! My name is Ura. I also have other friends, does Anku want to see them?"
"Yes, I'm sure he does, my light, what do you think?" Siria gently rubbed her son's head and asked him.
"Yes..."
"Don't go too far away, okay?" Siria advised her child, though she'd keep an eye on him either way.
"Yes, mom!"
___________
The two children walked along the dirt path together, and soon, two other similarly-sized silhouettes blocked their passage.
"If you want to go any further, you need to say the secret word," An awkwardly stern voice ordered them to stop.
The voice belonged to a boy who was a bit taller than Anku.
In his hands, he held a skinny twig, and swung it around 'menacingly'.
"Gilje, I'm Ura, and this is my friend, Anku, so he can pass."
The boy named Gilje scanned Anku with a funny expression, and then, he nodded and said, "Anku, welcome to our tribe! We rule the entire forest!"
'Rule the entire forest...' Anku wanted to see the 'forest', so he was excited at the fact that he now 'ruled' it.
The boy behind Gilje also came forward, and said, "Hello, new boy, I'm Hamm."
Anku similarly greeted Hamm and the rest of his new 'gang' of friends.
They spoke for a bit, and then, Gilje told them to come near him.
The four leaned down 'sneakily', and Gilje began murmuring.
"I heard there is a witch who lives outside of the village, and my parents always tell me she is a bad person, do you want to go see her?"
'Uhhh, Mom told me not to go very far...' Anku was reluctant, but seeing how excited the others were, and not wanting to feel left out, he muttered, "Ok..."
As the four unanimously agreed, they walked in the direction opposite to the huts and fields, and into a dense forest.
Anku's reluctance soon disappeared, as his curiosity toward the forestry overwhelmed everything else he was feeling.
The light moisture of the soil beneath him left dirt stains stuck on his small leather sandals.
His nostrils twitched ever so slightly from the musky smell of tree sap and overgrown vegetation.
Crickets and small bugs jumped about and moved through the lush forest, earning the attention of the children, while the sound of rustling water made their walk rather serene, even for the energetic group of children.
They slowed down their pace and advances safely and steadily for a short period of time, before a sudden aroma would assault their sense of smell and make them stop right in their tracks.
Gilje and Anku moved the bushes that concealed the way forward, and just looked on in surprise as the scenery before them looked radically different from the forest.
In front of them, there was a clearing of sorts, in the center of which stood a thick three, whose width stood as a testament to its advanced age.
Hung up on the tree was a small, wooden cottage that could be reached using the ladder below it.
On the side of the tree, an elegant and well-kept herb garden of various colors was visible, and large insect populations gathered around it.
The sharp floral fragrance clearly came from the garden.
Anku breathed in very deeply, wallowing in the pleasant aroma, the likes of which he had never smelled.
However, as his senses dampened down, he suddenly heard the sound of loud laughter and steps in front of him.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the three other children stepping and crushing the herbs in the garden with smiles on their faces, as they saw the beautiful flowers crumple up and turn a brown, ugly color.
"Anku, come help us!" Hamm beckoned him to come.
'Why are they doing that?' Anku did not understand why they felt the need to step on the herbs, nor did he want to participate.
Yet, as they saw him standing around in the corner, doing nothing, Gilje's face took on a disdaining smirk of sorts, and he said, "Why don't you want to help us? Are you also a bad witch? If you don't help us, you'll no longer be part of our group!"
'But I want to be friends with them...' Anku's heart ached.
...
'If the other kids are doing it, then it must be okay, right?' Anku nodded and because of the threat of being excluded, he gave in and began participating in the destruction of the herb garden.
As decades-old flowers and herbs met their demise, the four suddenly heard a loud, earth-shattering noise.
*ROAR*
The four stepped back, and through the rustling bushes, a large creature appeared within their vision.
The creature was a four-legged one, though it reached their height, and its build was extremely muscular and bulky, menacing any small animals.
Black, vertical stripes passed through its orange fur, and its large face was scrunched up in a hauntingly terrifying look.
Anku and the rest of the children began breathing loudly, and Gilje even screamed, "A TIGER!"
The scream only served to attract the ire of the tiger, and it opened its mouth, exposing a set of sharp, pointy teeth that still had blood on them, likely from the tiger's previous prey.
*Thump*
*Thump*
Anku's heart beat loudly.
He didn't know what to do.
The tiger scanned each one of them.
Its face almost seemed to possess a demonic laugh.
Then...
*ROAR*
The children all cowered in fear and fell to the ground, shaking and crying.
They did not know what death was, but they knew that they were terrified.
Ura suddenly stood up and began running away.
However, her running only made the situation worse, as the tiger charged its momentum, and in one swift burst...
It bolted at her.
"Tsk."