Vidar's blue eyes reflected the scene of the cave, as they always had. As thousands of years ago, and as it is today... nothing has changed.
“…….”
When was the first time he set foot in this place?
As usual, he sat at the deepest point of the cave, at the extreme depth where no sound could be heard and no warmth felt, on a cold and silent rock. There, for the first time in a long time, he began to recover fragments of his past.
“First time...”
The first thing Vidar conjured up was the oldest thing he could remember.
His first memory ever.
In the Kingdom of Atiloya, all monsters are born from the womb of beasts in the northern Forbidden Forest—whether flying, crawling, or limbless.
But Vidar was an exception.
The first thing he realized...was here, in this cave.
He was born as an alien, without parents, without family. He did not have a childhood.
He left the cave without even realizing why he was there, or what he even was.
At that time, there were no other monsters.
Vidar was the only being of his kind on Earth.
This was the harsh truth: he was alone... to the point of pain.
But, he didn't know what loneliness was.
He didn't even know what he felt.
He wasn't eating, he wasn't drinking, he wasn't talking.
He was just silently watching… the birds chirping, the animals fighting, and sometimes… the humans entering the forest.
Then he wondered:
Why am I alone?
Why am I not like them?
This mysterious void that invaded him, he did not know a name.
But it stayed with him.
Some nights, he would climb a tall tree and stare at the sky, aimlessly, for no reason.
This strange behavior began one night... when a faint light from the full moon illuminated the black sky, fog filled the forest, and the air blew cold on his skin.
It was a strange feeling, something he had never known before.
Although his loneliness had not changed, the moon... that night... made him feel as if he was not completely alone.
As if someone would come to him, at any moment.
It was a faint hope, but he held onto it.
Thus, whenever the sky filled with the moon, he stared at it silently.
As if he was waiting for someone.
An unknown person...but he has the answer.
If a person appears, the fires of this nameless feeling deep inside him will be extinguished.
...Who am I missing?
He didn't know.
But he was confident,
That unless this person comes, he will remain like this forever.
He waits.
Years, perhaps decades, or even centuries have passed.
He doesn't know how much time has passed.
But he stayed in the forest, and kept waiting.
And no one came.
Then, one day...
[Can… can you help me?]
Meet a lost child.
The child was sitting in the middle of the forest crying, saying that his friends came with him to collect herbs, and then abandoned him.
[I think if you just help me reach the entrance of the forest, I will know my way from there. My body remembers him.]
He said he couldn't see.
He did not clarify whether his birth was like this, or due to an injury.
(Why should I help him?)
Vidar asked. But he didn't think too deeply.
Maybe it was because the weather that day was great.
The sun was warm, and the wind was gentle.
It was the end of a long and heavy rainy season.
And perhaps just for this reason... he decided to do what he had never done before.
Along the way, the child did not remain silent for a single moment.
He kept talking, asking, laughing... even though Vidar did not answer him once.
[Do you live in this forest?]
[Can I see you again if you come again?]
They reached the entrance to the forest, and there, Vidar left him and went away, without a word.
[See you later, big brother.]
Even that voice behind him he ignored.
But...that was not the last meeting.
Each time, the child would come again...with his friends...and then be left alone again.
He continues to walk around cautiously, until Vidar appears to him.
When he appears, the child gives him a big smile.
[Why do you keep coming?]
That was Vidar's first question.
He asked him while delivering the child as usual.
The child was being bullied, and his herb basket was full of useless plants.
[At first, I thought my friends loved me even though they left me alone...]
Then the child smiled and said:
[But now, I come back to see you.]
[I always feel lonely... but when I'm with you... I don't feel it.]
“…….”
[But you're also always alone, right?]
Alone? Does he feel lonely?
What even is unity? Vidar tried to think repeatedly, but he could not understand. So the child did not answer.
However, the child continued to visit the forest, and Vidar continued to accompany the child and drop him off, listening to his conversations without saying a word.
He knew very well that the child was not “that person” he had waited for all these years.
But the little boy's body, which was moving slowly like a little bird, was warm and gentle. His small teeth that appeared as he spoke looked funny. His stories, many of which Vidar did not understand, were strange and interesting.
Months passed like this.
Until the day came when the child fell into the lake, while he was waiting for Vidar.
(Will he die if I leave him?)
The child was breathing his last, and Vidar did not move.
(What is death? Where does the dead person go? Will his body stop moving like animals that prey on each other? Will he rot? Become white bones? Then he will decompose into dust, and be blown away by the winds?)
(Will I never hear his voice again? Will he not come back to visit me? Will I be alone again?)
...In the end, Vidar saved him from the freezing water.
A few moments later, the noise of the child's friends, who had left him alone, came running towards him.
Vidar hid, and contented himself with watching the chaos as they took the child with them.
From that day on, the child did not return.
Days passed, then weeks, and he did not appear.
Vidar stared at the empty basket of herbs that was floating in the lake... without saying a word.
(I saved him...so why doesn't he come back? Just like who I've been waiting for all this time...)
Vidar returned to his original state...to his complete loneliness.
He didn't like that.
Then, not long after, he realized that what he had been feeling all those years... had a name.
And it is unity...the word that child said.
But now it is no longer just a feeling.
Rather, it became a huge monster that grew inside him, ravaging his depths without mercy.
[They say he's actually on the verge of death.]
Vidar learned about the child from the talk of those boys who used to harass him.
[What if he dies? What if we are to blame?]
[What is our fault? When did we ask him to come with us to the forest? He is the one who followed us of his own accord!]
[We told him to wait because he could not see, but he insisted on coming, so he fell into the lake. Not our problem.]
(He will die? Why? I saved him...)
(So that means I'll never see him again?)
“What was I even thinking?”
Vidar smiled sarcastically to himself, as if mocking his own foolishness.
“How stupid I was...”
It was foolish, in every sense of the word.
But he just wanted...to see him one last time.
To see his clear eyes despite his blindness.
To see his laugh that reveals his small teeth.
To hear his slow, small steps.
Follow his scent.
Indeed, he found it.
An old, dilapidated house... where the child lives.
There, he met his parents.
[W-monster...!]
Before he could say a word, they rushed towards him with humble agricultural tools.
His parents, his neighbors, and everyone in the village.
Maybe he was surprised. Perhaps with anger.
When he regained consciousness - there was nothing alive around him.
Just corpses...headless, stomachs open, scattered lifeless.