"When I woke up, I was alone in this endless desert," Mai said while drinking her coffee. "So I explored it, trying to make sense of what I was seeing…"
Gulp
"It was chaos—an organized chaos that somehow made sense. But still complete chaos," she continued. "There was only war, death, tragedy, and misery. And I was forced to witness all of it, in every one of its facets, as I explored that land."
I kept listening in silence as she spoke.
"Then, one day, I met a boy." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "A dirty, wounded boy who, when I tried to get closer, acted more like an animal—growling and trying to bite me. Even so, I insisted on approaching him, and then he ran away. And I followed him."
"Where did he take you?" I asked, absorbed.
"To many places… many of which I couldn't describe in words," she said, holding back tears. "I didn't know things like that happened to children."
