"Creak"
I heard the door slowly open, and I began to struggle to keep my eyes closed.
"Click."
"Crunch"
The sound of the door closing was followed by the sensation of being lifted, and I slowly opened my eyes. I was lying on an operating table and my legs were in excruciating pain. Clenching my jaw, I turned my head to see a table with surgical instruments and a kitchenette sink to wash my hands. The operating room wasn't that big, and it was painted all white.
"Crunch"
"Crunch"
I turned my head in the direction of the footsteps and saw the man and woman who had opened the door earlier approaching. Dressed only in white scrubs, they smiled brightly at me, as if they had a pact with each other, and stopped at the table with the surgical instruments.
"Clatter"
"Clatter"
Soon, the man handed the woman the surgical tools and began to operate on my leg with familiar strokes, and I stared blankly at the white ceiling, waiting for the operation to end. As the man's hands became busier, the pain from the wound slowly diminished. Soon, the operation was over and the pain in my leg was completely gone.
As the man washed his hands in the kitchenette sink, the woman approached me. In one of her hands she held a tiny, tiny round object that glowed brightly with a pentacolor light. As she approached me, she placed the object in my mouth and then pressed her lips to my forehead.
The moment her lips touch my forehead, my eyelids grow heavy. I am trapped in darkness again, and my body begins its endless descent, like a feather discarded from the body of a bird in flight. I forced my eyes open and looked at them, but they were already quite far away from me. The woman smiled brightly and unfolded a white sheet of paper in each hand. The two words "time" were clearly written on the paper, and as soon as I saw them, I was once again trapped in darkness and began my endless fall.
When I could no longer feel the sensation of falling, an icy chill ran down my back. I opened my closed eyes, cringing my whole body to resist the bitter winter wind that was blowing from nowhere. I looked around, blinded by the unrelenting snow falling from the sky, but there was no sign of the puppy that had burrowed into my arms.
"Ugh."
As I tried to sit up, excruciating pain shot through my wound. I let out a short scream and looked at the wound. The wound hadn't healed, but I still felt light as a feather. I slowly rose from my seat, using a nearby bamboo spear as a walking stick to get out of the valley, and of course, I had to clench my mouth to keep the pain from coming from the wound. After a long walk, I made it out of the valley and could see the ruined city in the distance. I had to keep walking to reach a city that seemed as cold and lonely as I was, a city that kept many secrets.