Jin’s mind….

*Wooosh*

A familiar wind blew through the night air, tickling my skin with its cool light touch. ‘Huh? Where the-‘My eyes opens in response to the refreshingly cool air to see many things. An endless starry space with a moon lit sky above me, a vast land full of lush green land beneath me with thousands of trees that stands as tall as skyscrapers surrounds me as I lay down on the ground.

The world seems to be a much bigger place as well. When I raised my hand up to the sky, it seemed much smaller than it used to be. That’s because it was smaller. In fact, when I took a good look at my body, it was much smaller and younger. Slowly, I subconsciously rose to my feet to check my surroundings. I definitely got younger because I went up to a tree and marked my height with my hands. ‘Huh? Three feet ten? Was I that short?’

Everywhere I look, all I could see were trees and mountains as a moon hung between two big mountains. By the looks of the height, the moon only rose up beyond the mountains a few hours ago.

My eyes began to wander in every direction until I heard the hum of an old man. Darting my eyes towards where the moon rose just slightly above the mountain, I could see a figure coming down the mountain ranges.

He walks towards me with a smile and a box in hand. “Shall we go play *BZZT*?” It was even stranger that the last word he said could not be heard.

A smile lit my face as I could already feel what were in the boxes. “Mhm. Let’s go gramps! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” A possessed child like feeling took hold of my body as I jumped for joy and ran through the forest.

His face also lit up when I called the old man gramps. “Ah ha ha ha! Don’t run ahead of me kid! You might trip and fall!”

Just like how the old man predicted, I did trip, but I didn’t fall. Instead, I hit a tree with my face heading towards its trunk first. *DOOM*

“!!! Are you okay!?” the old man laid down the box and rushed over. He pulled me from the tree’s trunk and into his arms to see a small stream of blood running down from my nose.

“Heh heh… I’m fine gramps… *Wipe* I-I’m strong!” a childish smile appeared on my face as I tried my best to not cry.

Suddenly, a blow came crashing down from above and landed right on my head. *Whack!* “Idiot! Don’t do that again!” the old man angrily yelled. “Ugh… what am I going to do with a dumb kid like you…”

If I were to say what hurts more, tree or his fist, his fist was like a steel hammer compared to that wooden tree and definitely hurts more. “Ow….. that hurts gramps…” I slightly blubbered with tears coming from the corner of my eyes while feeling the sore spot on my head.

The old man snorted and turned back to get the box from the ground. “Good! It should hurt! It should remind you of not doing dumb things again. Now let’s hurry up and go home or else we won’t have time to eat or light these up!” He speed walked through the forest at a pace that I could barely catch up to. Though he sounded angry, he was really worried for my sake and there were times when he would slow down for my sake as well.

Along the way, we would stop to chat about what I would want to do in the future. “So… boy…. What is your dream?”

“To be like you!”

“... Try again. What do you want to be the most?”

“To be like you!”

“… Was there anything you’d want to be? Like… a doctor? An inspiring leader? A hero?”

“No! I want to be like you gramps!”

My naïve answers had the old man blush a bit even though he tried to hide his sheepish smile behind his white hair. “Seriously boy… what am I going to do with you… the life I am living isn’t all that good… Do you still want to be like me?

“Mhm! No doubt!” I shouted out loud the pure answer I had within my heart.

The old man chuckled while shaking his head in disbelief. “Ha ha ha… alright alright. Come. Let’s go home *Bzzt* and this time, I’ll make dinner.”

Upon the silent and serene land, a boy walking with an old man with white hair down a grassy road hummed a happy tune. The old man also hummed a tune as well. “Hap-py bir-th-day to you.” Were the tunes the both of them repeatedly hummed over and over. His face has yet to look haggard for he looks no older than five. The boy also bears many flaws because he was born prematurely and malnutrition as well. But the old man didn’t care. He sees the boy almost as if he was his grandson. 'The only thing this boy has is a cute and innocent face...' the old man thought and smiled a bit.

It didn’t take me long to realize that everything was a dream. A dream that I didn’t even know exists. A beautiful dream that I wanted to last forever. But it was a dream I knew I couldn’t stay in. But, for the time being, I would like to stay to see this dream to the end. For it is a dream that I knew I yearned for in my heart. For it is a dream called innocence.

‘*squeak*’ a voice softly calls out. ‘*Squeak*Squeak*.”

A small rodent like creature with devil like wings climbed up my shoulder while walking. “Sin? How is it that you are in my dream?”

But the rodent only squeaked continuously. A squeaking that sounded strangely happy.

Soon, other animals followed me from behind. Some were silent. Others were just as happy and made various sounds in their own tongue.

“*Bzzt* Can you feel their qi?” the old man asked me.

Huh?

My faced became a bit perplexed.

“*Tch* I taught you how to feel qi and you already forgot that too? Geeze kid.” The old man sighed. His face became a bit more tired weary. “Guess there”s no avoiding stupidity… I”ll reteach it to you once we get home…”

Behind insulting words and tired face, I could see that he was smiling on the corner of his mouth. A mischievous smile from what I could see. But it could be that the mustache and the beard made his face all the scarier.

He placed the box back down onto the ground.

“Huh? Gramps? Whaddaya do-”

*woosh*

In one swift motion, my body was lifted high into the air and placed on his back. My arms was wrapped tightly around his neck and my legs were locked onto his sides.

“Hang on *Bzzt*.”

Hang on were the only two words I heard before the two of us were suddenly racing down the road.

“You”re crazy gramps!!!!!” I yelled.

The old man misheard me and responded with something differently insane. “WHAT!? YOU WANT ME TO GO CRAZY!? ALRIGHT THEN KID. HOLD ON TIGHTER!”

Up the road, down the road, zigging and zagging across the grassy land. When the old man suddenly had an idea of how to get back home faster, he took short cuts where he would jump from cliffs and hills. He was purely and truly eccentric for a man his age. I thought we would”ve broken arms and legs if not ruined the things within the box. But in all those moments of his craziness, would it be strange if I”d said that it was extremely fun?

“*Huff*Huff* Alright kid… you can get down now…” The old man huffed and puffed. A very satisfied expression filled his face. He let me down from his back and turned around to see my own face.

Unsurprisingly, my eyes went wide and I felt like I just went through a roller coaster ride. My hair felt like it stood up on its end as well and my face became as stiff as my body. The rodent that was on my shoulder was gone when I looked over my shoulder. Same goes for the other animals that were following us.

“*Chuckles* Come on. Let”s go in.” the old man didn”t fully ignored my face. I can tell that he was laughing on the inside.

It took a while, but we had to get changed and cleaned before opening the box. I”d taken quite a long bath before the old man could. After all, he was sweating too much and couldn”t bathe right away. He had to wait a while.

Once I was done, I let the old man know that I”d finished. “Alright gramps. The bath is all yours. I preheated the bath as well.”

“Oh? Okay. Just come here for a bit boy. I got something to show you before we light up the stuff in the box.” He yelled from another room.

I looked at the time to see that it was getting very late. “What could he be planning?” I mumbled as I followed his instruction.

*tap*tap*tap*tap*

My feet made its way through the house and was about to come to where I’d heard gramp’s voice. A dark and eerie room was ahead so I was a bit hesitant.

“Come on boy. I don”t have all day now.”

The old man clearly had too much energy. His voice was extremely excited.

I sighed for a bit and walked into the dark room.

*Flip* “SURPRISE!” the old man shouted excitedly.

He’d thought that I would look happy when he presented me with a cylindrical wide pastry covered with cream and had the candles in shape of the words, “Happy Birthday” written across the top. The pastry was pretty well done but was slightly unsymmetrical where one side was taller than the other and the decorations were some wild herbs.

But me as a kid, though normal kids would feel happy, I stared blankly at the funny hat that gramps was wearing.

“Huh!?” He was slightly taken aback. “Why aren’t you smiling? I thought all kids love cake…”

“What’s a cake?” I asked. “How does it taste?”

“Bah!” His face contorted. “I really don’t know what kids want these days… this guy likes fireworks and gets excited when he sees one. But he isn’t as excited when he sees a cake lit with candles… Forget it. He doesn’t even know what a cake is…” The old man grumbled. “Wait… you’ve never eaten cake in your entire life?”

I shook my head. “So…. What’s a cake? Is that a cake? Looks weird. What is a birthday?”

The old man’s face fell. In his mind, he thought, ‘This kid clearly don’t know what a birthday is nor does he know what a cake is! I forgot that the depression is still going strong… Hell… I forgot how old he is…’

“But if you are giving me something. I got something for you too gramps. Wait here.” I ran right back outside to get something…. I can”t remember what it was. But when I came back in, I handed him something. “Here gramps! He he!”

“Y-You made this?” He blinked a few times.

“Mhm! I don’t know what a birthday is… But if it is a day giving something to someone… Then Imma give you this! Do you like it?” My smile stretched across my face.

“Oh well… Today didn’t go as planned but…. Never mind. Let’s eat this cake. This is the first and best cake you’ll ever try!”

“THE BEST cake?” I eyed him.

“Of course! It was me who made it!” the old man bragged loudly.

What happened after that wasn’t as I’d expected. The old man took a knife and sliced it. But on the inside was filled with worms. Even he was shocked. “Oops…. Uhh… Wrong cake… I uh… made this cake for someone else… I guess I gave him your cake instead. Sorry….”

I didn’t really feel all that disappointed. Instead I said, “Ha ha. It’s alright gramps. How about next time, when it’s your birthday, I’ll make the best cake for you! Though I would need to learn what a cake is…”

The old man sighed and nodded. “Bragging about making the best cake when you don’t know what a cake taste like… he he… stupid… Whatever… let’s just light these up kid.”

Through the night, we had fun lighting some of the fireworks within the box. Firecrackers, fire windmills and fire sprinklers. But the last two fireworks were special. Of the many of them, the last two fireworks ascended into the sky and exploded with a bright white and blue flare. The two flares, if looked closely enough and from the right point of view, looked like a grandfather smiling with his grandson.

While the two of us were merrily enjoying the fireworks, the old man pulled out a cane and bonked me on the head.

“*BONK*Sweet dreams… Happy birthday… *Bzzt*” The old man said before the dream ended.

_____________________________________

AN: I am extremely sorry for such a late release. For the past year, I've been having personal problems that I had to face. (IE: Growing up as an adult) As such, I... am currently in college and studying hard for my exams. Thing is, they are wrestling me to death to the point of having nose bleeds and certain moments of falling unconsciously asleep. I hope you all will forgive me.

Sincerely,

Author of Transient Fireworks - Storyteller.

P.S. I almost have my life together. I'll be trying to crank out as much as time and life will allow me.