Here Comes the Sun

In a village hidden away in a large forest, people there lived simple lives, nothing unusual ever happened. Everyday is the same. Their mornings start off by eating breakfast and tending to house work and farm work. Their evenings were all about gathering with family and having a good time. All the people there know each other well and they were a tight-knit community.

One night when they were having their usual routine and having fun, most of them had this uneasy feeling, they didn’t know what was wrong and nothing appeared to be wrong so they just brushed it off. Because everyday they wake up at the same time, they had their own alarm clocks in their heads that would alert them when to wake up, but today was unusual it was different. When they woke up they didn’t see any light, it was complete darkness. They were shell shocked, at first they thought that maybe they woke up a bit too early but, to their surprise everyone was up, which meant that there was no way that everybody got their timings wrong and woke up too early. The next step they did was wait, they waited for the sun to rise to show them that it didn’t disappear forever, rather it was just late for its rising.

The whole village went into panic mode. A lot of questions began to surface, what would happen to plants without the sun? What will happen to us? We can’t function without light! Without heat we are doomed. The village head decided to host a meeting in the village’s center to try to ease the villager’s concerns and fears. Spoiler alert- it did not work, it was chaos. People were talking over each-other, not listening, and some were even screaming the whole time. Until a young woman, known for her intelligence, stepped forward and talked over everyone, saying “guys can all of you calm down, let’s try and understand this'. Instantly they all calmed down and listened to her, it’s like they’ve been waiting for someone to lead them through.

After that the young woman suggested that everyone takes turns to talk and voice their opinions on what happened to the sun. A man stood up and said it was some sort of trick that someone in the village did. Before anyone could react to that, the young women replied saying, “that’s impossible because we are such a tight-knit community that we would have noticed it, and no one was acting strange or different because such deviance takes a toll on the person who did it”. She said that with such confidence , knowing that if she doesn’t shut down this rumor it was going to turn into a manhunt that wouldn’t turn out good for anyone. This would break the community in a time where we need to be united.

Another person got up and said that the sun didn’t disappear, rather it became invisible, the young women got up again and refuted their claim saying that, “if it was invisible why can’t we feel the heat it provides?”. Everyone started nodding in awe. After that a woman got up and said “what if the sun just ran out of energy?”. Everyone just looked in the direction of the young women expecting a response but she just sat there, visibly thinking this through, and finally said, “I can’t refute that but the only way to find out is to venture out of the village to the nearest mountain and investigate what actually happened". Everyone gasped loudly, no one had ever ventured out of the village, but quickly the young women replied saying “we don’t have any other choice”. The head of the village nodded in a surrendering way. And the young women breathed a sigh of relief; this might be the only chance they have.

So the young woman gathered competent men and women, each of them specializing in different tasks, some can specialize in cooking, finding clean water, martial arts and a weapon specialist. By doing so she ensured that they would have the maximum chance of discovering something. So, on the second day of this strange incident, they went out of the village leaving distraught people behind with promises about bringing the sun back, even though they weren’t sure if they could accomplish that. They started heading out East which is where the sun used to rise every morning, to their luck it is also where the tallest mountain is. The smart young woman concluded that the trip to the top of the mountain would take them 2 days. So, with that in mind they started walking but they weren’t walking slowly. Rather they were walking large, fast steps to ensure they would reach their destination in the shortest time possible, but not to the point where they were exhausted, for the reason that they are still in foreign land. They couldn’t see the sky because of the very thick and large trees, so the young woman took note of that.

After hours of speed walking, it was definitely night because one of the specialists there was a time specialist, she was solely there to keep track of time, since losing track of time could be their biggest enemy. They stumbled upon a small lake, which the young woman decided that it would be their resting place for today. All except 2 people rested, both of them will keep watch and it will be in shifts. When the second shift ended, and with the start of the third shift the two men sensed something moving behind the trees, so the first thing they did was to wake everyone up, as they had been instructed before they left the village. Everyone was on full alert, they were assembled in a circle with the men and women who were martial arts and weapon specialists in the front and everyone else inside the circle. A huge cat-like animal with orange fur and black and white stripes, jumped from behind the trees, everyone was shocked they had never seen anything like this. Although everyone was visibly scared, many were freighted and they stood their ground. All the while the young woman was calculating and thinking about how to scare this animal away. And suddenly she had an idea, she shouted, “put fire on the sticks that are on the ground and wave it in front of the animal that will surely scare it”. So that’s what they did and miraculously the cat-like animal ran away. Everyone felt like they breathed for the first time. After that experience, everyone was on high alert the whole way to the mountain.

When they reached the bottom of the mountain there were clouds on the top and some sort of fog from the middle of it to the bottom. They started climbing up, hoping for no more surprises up ahead. It was getting harder to breathe the higher they got but they didn’t mind it, because knowing what’s going on with the sun is much more important. The biggest surprise ever was when they reached the top, the sun was right there in front of them beaming it's wonderful light and heat to them, they were dumbfounded. They began thinking out loud, “the sun is right here?”, “then why is it not reaching our village?”.

The young woman started pacing back and forth while looking at the place where their village was supposed to be. Then it hit her, “I can’t see the village” she said. “This is it! I can’t see the village” she repeated. Everyone looked at her confused most of them saying in their heads “what is she talking about?”. They looked at what she was looking at still confused the young woman said, “look! We can’t see the village even though we should at this height, there is a huge leaf covering the village”. Every single person there beside her audibly said “OH”. After concluding that, they made the painting specialist draw a painting of the leaf and where the village should be so they can use it as a map to guide them.

They reached the place where the giant leaf is, the weapon specialist with the help of the others cut down the leaf covering the village and when they did the leaf flew away, it could’ve been wind or the leaf itself got sick of covering people from the thing they need the most which is the sun.

Lastly, when the leaf had flown away, the young woman looked at the village and said, “here comes the sun”.