chapter 1

"The sky there is ever blue, crystal blue, with that mild wind blow at the same speed. The air smells warm and sweet, always has and always will. The trees are in the greenest green, the creek the azurest azure, and the flowers so colorful that it blinds you, but that IS their goal, to blind you." Nonoth's voice suddenly rose with the "is", and then went down and slow after that, giving out a scary and dark vibe. The creatures gathering around her gave out a sudden shiver and reduced themselves a little subconsciously.

"Who are 'they'?" A little mouse asked, hands holding on to his chest as if his own question scare himself.

"They say they are my parents, but I know they are not." Nonoth's voice had a convincing certainty within.

"But how could you know?" A cat tilted her head and asked.

"They just say everyone is their child. How could they expect me to believe that when I'm the only one with blue hair there on the cloud? They both have golden locks." Nonoth waved her hand as if it's nothing important that two people claimed to be her parents were lying about that, adding: "and not just them, all of their children also have golden hair."

"But why do they want to blind you?" The little mouse asked again, as if using up all the courage he had ever gathered in his little chest.

"Good question!" Nonoth commented with a loud noise and the poor little mouse jumped up and hid behind the cat.

Nonoth stopped deliberately for a few seconds, looking around as if worrying someone might be listening, and then she opened her mouth again with a low voice: "Because they are afraid, afraid of remembering the truth. So they hide on the cloud, and not just them, they won't let anyone else know either because they won't be able to pretend anymore if the lies are exposed." There was a shocked but also confused look on the creatures' faces.

"When I finally made my escape and got off the 'beautiful, perfect' cloud, I saw the real world for the very first time and, it was so different from up there in the cloud!" The creatures around Nonoth gave out a low "ohh" with wide-eyed looks on their faces.

"It turns out, the real world, the world that's only a blur to you when you live on the cloud, is in horrible pain. They only hide on the cloud, so that they won't have to deal with the pain and suffering!"

"The day I made off the cloud and got into the real world, I saw the color of the sky, messy and dirty and with so many shades -- not like today!" Noticing that one of the mushroom sprites looked up to the clear blue sky over their heads, Nonoth added the last part of the sentence and the short mushroom quickly lowered his head and focused his eyes on Nonoth again.

"And there was such a huge wind that it would take you right off your feet," Nonoth nodded at the fairy with a pair of huge wings in the shape of maple leaf that's taller than himself, "the air smelled dusty and bloody and there was no flower nor grass nor tree in my sight."

"Sounds like life on the cloud is perfect..."In genuine confusion, the poor little mouse commented. He had been living all his life trying to get a little bit more safety for himself.

"It appears so, and that's exactly how they blind you: with the beautiful lie." This was the first time that Nonoth ever took such a serious tone after they gathered here for her story.

"They formed this eternal garden for themselves so they can live in their little bubble of blindness of all the hardship of the real world below them. They have all the liquor to drink and all the cuisine to taste; they swim in the crystal-clear creek and dry their body under the warm, soft sunlight; they sleep under the black sky with stars as their little lamps and the night wind their lullaby. But they barely talk, because no matter how much there is to say, there comes a day when you would finally finish saying it when your life is an eternal loop with nothing new; they barely move because the creek's song is no longer appealing to them, and the days and nights are only two different colors passing their eyes without them noticing."

"Why? Because when putting all the hardship behind, they also have to give up desire, happiness, and most valuable of all: hope."

"If they can form a perfect life for them, why not just keep the good ones?" The logic of comparison was obviously lost on the cat.

"Because they can create everything they need, but not emotion. Emotion is something emerges only when you interact with the world, and the good ones only exist where the bad ones are not extinguished." Nonoth shook her head, as if that was her own thought, not one she just stole from The Tree.

"You desire when you want something but could not have, but they have everything they can ever want on the cloud; you know happiness only if you have experienced sadness, but everyday up there is basically the same; and hope, hope is the best of all. Hope is knowing the possibility of realizing your dream exists, and just that thought can give you courage, which is a warm feeling flowing in your heart."

"Even though it's hard to live in the real world with all the suffering and pain and loss, even though you have to suffer and endure and work, but you get to feel, to hope, to live. They used to know that, they just forgot."

"So how did you know all these?" The cat stopped licking her paw and looked up at Nonoth.

"Because they dare not abandon these wisdoms for good, so they just hid it away, somewhere safe and close to them so they can be sure it won't get lost but also sure that no one were to reopen it..."

With a bewitching smile, Nonoth continued with the answer: "So they hid all the forgotten memory, in the apples of The Tree."