Chapter 3: Two Shadows at the Foot of the Mountain
Bayram's insistence pierced even the last haze of morning. When Aytekin, ignoring his mother's warning—"Don't go too far!"—set off with his brother along the narrow path behind the village, the sky had already shed its shadows and was cloaked in a gentle blue.
This path, a winding line of earth leading up toward the mountain's foot, was known to the village elders as "Asma's Way." Figs to the right, willows to the left... and at the end, beneath a rock, a tiny spring. To the children, it was a hidden paradise.
"Wanna race?" Bayram said, eyes gleaming with impatience.
Aytekin smiled. "If I start ahead, you'll just cry."
Bayram pouted. "I won't cry… maybe just shout a bit."
The sound of bare feet on soil rang clear, like a stone falling into still water. They ran. Breathless, laughing... They stopped when the slope grew steeper. Aytekin leaned against a pine trunk and looked up at the sky. The scent of the wind had shifted. The earth seemed to whisper a distant secret.
When they reached the spring beneath the rock, Bayram crouched and filled his hands with water. "Cold!" he shouted, then splashed it at Aytekin.
Aytekin stepped back. "I should've known better than to get into a water fight with you."
Laughter echoed through the little valley. For a few heartbeats, the world belonged to them alone.
Then, silence fell. The birds grew quiet. The wind ceased.
Aytekin climbed onto the rock and looked out over the valley. In the distance, beyond the mountains, smoke was rising. A slow fire, far away... Perhaps a nomad camp was burning dried grass. Perhaps a messenger had lit a campfire. Perhaps misfortune was coming, but had yet to be named.
Bayram saw it too. "Aytekin, look..."
"But don't be afraid," Aytekin said softly, with the voice of someone older. "It isn't ours yet."
And then, without glimpsing the future hidden behind the smoke, they returned to their childhood. Water splashed once more. Voices rang again. But the color of the sky, unnoticed, had faded just a little more.