"Huff... Huff..."
Aman stumbled forward, his small boots sinking deeper into the snow with each step.
Around him, the world had dissolved into absolute blackness-no sky, no ground, only the howling wind and that pulsing light, now brighter than ever, as if the darkness existed solely to make it shine.
Just a little further…
His breath came in ragged gasps, his cheeks raw from the cold. The light danced ahead, always almost within reach.
Then, finally, it stopped.
The next moment, it flared, blossoming outward to illuminate the suffocating darkness around him.
Aman blinked, his young eyes wide with curiosity and confusion.
The void had given way to what appeared to be a familiar, comforting space, the edge of a sun-drenched meadow he vaguely remembered from a forgotten dream.
"Come, my child."
A soft voice, melodic and impossibly tender, drifted from behind him. Aman's head snapped around.
