On a bright sunny day under the ruthless rays of the sun, Ry Ford is playing near the riverbed, Suddenly his elder brother, Zen Ford pushes his younger brother Ry Ford into the river.
'Why would you do that? You know I washed these clothes yesterday, Now they are dirty and wet.'
Zen looks at his brother and starts to laugh and says
'Well, you should be working instead of playing and leaving me to finish sorting the scrap all on my own.'
Ry angrily scoffs at his brother
'I don't wanna work today, Look at the sun and go figure out why I was playing near the river, dummy'
The two boys were 6 and 8 years old. But had to suffer the curse of being born on the outskirts of the galaxy and born to a slave couple, Making the boys slaves as well. And their parents were taken away from them as well, which added more trouble to their little life.
Zen remarks that Ry should not be angry as clean clothes will just cause them more trouble, as on the planet of Dhas, the status of a slave is the lowest.
'If you want not to be hungry you have to work even if the weather is not merciful. That is what Father told us, remember idiot.'
Ry points toward the distant huge dome-like structure and say
'If that is the case then why do the people living In the city not feel the heat that I do.'
Zen feels sad at his brother's innocence as Ry still does not understand the status of a slave but he painfully tells his brother the reason why the people in the city do not have to feel the troubles that they feel
'Because we are different from them Ry.'
Ry innocently tells his brother that the people in the city and the people outside of it look the same, so why are they different?
It pains Zen to tell his brother about the reality of the world they live in but the sooner that Ry understands his place in the world.
'Ry, we are born as slaves who do not even have the privilege to ask about our missing parents. It is unfair but that's what this world is, like how our neighbor Paul can afford to eat meat but we have to scrap by eating rotten cold hard bread.'
Suddenly, A guard appears and tells them to scram out of the way and pushes Zen into the river as well making Zen's clothes dirty as well.
Zen snaps back by questioning the guard about his actions.
'Why did you push me into the river?'
'Because you were being an eyesore standing there .'
Zen's angry at the guard but knows that he is powerless against the man who wronged him and calms himself down. But Ry seeing his brother also becomes agitated but fails to calm himself down like his brother and lashes at the guard.
'You are an idiot.'
Hearing this the guard lashes at Ry and punches him but in the nick of time, Zen takes the hit for his younger brother on his cheek and apologizes to the guard.
' My brother is young and does not know what's right and wrong, So please overlook his words.'
'You slaves should know your goddamn place.' says the guard with anger on his face.
And then the guard leaves the brothers alone.
Seeing the bruise on Zen's face Ry feels sad and blames himself for the pain that his brother is feeling.
'I am sorry, I should not have said that.'
Zen puts his hand on Ry's head and says
'Why do you feel that you did something wrong? I should thank you for what you did.'
Hearing his brother's words, Ry feels happy and boasts about his bravery
'Hmph! You can thank me by letting me play more, Okay.'
Zen seeing his brother's attitude smile ear to ear and drags him to the scrapyard to make him do his work
'So you think you are so brave and powerful right? Let me drag you to the scrapyard and make you do more work.'
A man with spots on his hands is walking on the road then suddenly he sees a pair of boys who are walking towards him. The boys appear to be frail and black-haired but seem to be full of energy as the elder brother seems to have enough strength to drag his little brother and the little brother also seems to have enough strength to resist but barely.
He approaches the boys and asks
'What happened? Why are you so dirty and wet? And Zen, why are you dragging Ry like that?'
'Hello Uncle Spot, nothing happened. Ry just doesn't want to work so I am dragging him to the scrapyard'
'Uncle Spot he is lying. I was on my way to work then he pushed me into the river.'
'Hey, Ry. who taught you to lie like that.'
'It's true that you pushed me into the river thought.'
Uncle Spot calms the boys down.
'Alright, stop fighting now. I have something important to tell you.'
Suddenly, Uncle Spot becomes serious but before telling the reason behind his seriousness.
He looks at the bruise on Zen's face and asks about it
'What happened to your face Zen? Who did that to you?'
'It's nothing. I just fell.'
Zen tries to lie but Ry reveals the truth
'It's the guard who did that.'
Hearing what Ry said Spot gets angry and asks them who the guard was that did that to them.
Zen knows that he can't hide the matter and tells that he does not know the guard's name and why he did that.
'Can you recognize his face if you see him.'
Zen answers "No" but Ry has other ideas
'I can Uncle Spot, I can recognize him easily if I see him.'
'Nice Ry, But before that let's get you guys cleaned first'
The brothers along with Spot go to their Home. Their home was just made up of 2 rooms and a bathroom but it was cozy enough to live a happy life.
'Go take a bath first, then we can have something to eat.'
The boys get out of the bath and see some meat on the table and get excited.
'No way. Is that meat?'
'Yes, it is.'
'Where you get that from?'
'I bought it when I when to the city.'
Zen knows that meat is not cheap on this planet and asks Spot to save it for himself.
'Uncle Spot, we can't eat something like that. You should sell it or eat it yourself.
'Little one, I bought this for us to eat together. Stop saying stuff like that and act like your little brother. Look how he has saliva dripping from his mouth at just the smell of it.'
Zen listens to Spot and starts eating the food.
'Don't start without me, Brother.' says Ry and stuffs his little mouth full of meat.
Spot starts to laugh seeing the kids, especially Ry who looks like a Hamster. He doesn't want to ruin the boy's enjoyment but he needs to tell them something regarding their parents.
After eating, Spots tells them to go play outside and leave the cleaning to him.
The boys were living with Spot for some time now. The house was situated on the outskirts of the city but a little further away from where the slave houses were.
The boys come back home after playing for some time and are now exhausted. So they go to their room to sleep but are stopped by Spot.
'Earlier today I wanted to tell you kids about your parents. I have Information about them.'
'What!'
Ry and Zen shockingly shout and ask together
Hearing that Spot has some info about their parents drives away their sleepiness.
Spot with a heavy heart tells the news about the parents but argues in his mind about hiding it.
'Well, what the official records say is that your parents are no more.'
Spot does not know how to say this in a better way but telling them the truth was needed so that he would not have to bear the guilt of hiding this from the kids.
Zen is devastated hearing what Spot has to say whereas Ry still does not understand the meaning behind Spot's words.
Spot hugs the little kids and comforts them
Reality hits Zen and he starts to cry. Ry is still puzzled about their behavior and asks what happened.
Uncle Spots sadly continue to complete the story and says.
' Ry your parents went to work on another planet RE-422 to work there but the group of terrorists attacked the planet and they just didn't want to kill the people, they wanted to KILL THE PLANET and they did that by using THE BLACK HOLE BOMB. And the planet vanished with everyone on it. '
Hearing this Ry started to tear up and the kid tried as hard as he can to hold himself from crying to ask
'So…..our ….parents aren't coming back?..'
Uncle Spot says yes by nodding and hugs both of them and comforts them by saying
'I am sorry kids, old man Spotty was not that much of a help for ya '
And seeing them cry makes him sad because he cherishes them as their uncle and has seen them growing up and he also wants there to be hope for their parents to be alive.
With the sheer amount of hope, he says
'Your parents might not be dead or they might be but as per the reports by the confederacy, they are LOST FOREVER and you know what's good about being lost you can either find them or they might find us.'
After the little talk kid cries themselves to sleep and Uncle Spot picks them up and puts them to bed, covers them up with the blanket and while switching the lights off Ry says in his sleep
'Mom, Dad please come back safely, don't worry about us Uncle Spot takes good care of us, we will wait. But please come back.'
Listening to this, Spot gets tears down his eyes and he takes an oath right there to protect Ry and Zen with his life.