Ash-boss
A Thousand Stories: The Return of the Grey Valley Side

The figure of the girl in black dress was knee-length with long hair and bangs covering her forehead. His eyes are blue-golden. From his hand emanated a flash of purple lightning that just kept on striking with regularity according to his mood.

His eyes occasionally stared with meaningful eyes. Investigating every dark-eyed soul who can now only look down and avoid meeting the figure of his eyes.

"Why don't you dare look at me?"

A loud voice like a distant yet calm female ghost, made all those dark-eyed souls look down even more.

"Isn't this what you want?!"

The voice still sounded flat. But the purple lightning flash on his hand could not hide any form of emotion that raged after everything that had happened.

An unusual look in the eye with an attention and an unpredictable smile, the knee-length black-clad figure landed on the crystal stone beneath his feet. Closing the crystal stone and locking all the dark-eyed souls behind the crystal stone. The dark-eyed souls did not resist, they resigned with the action of the golden blue-eyed figure.

"Your turn!"

He looked down at his feet as if what was under his feet was something he should leave without any pity.

Now the glint of blue-golden eyes was staring around him. Seeing only a dry expanse of barren land and the sky was as dark in color as the darkness she had caged in the crystal stone beneath her feet.

"How is this!!" muttered that figure.

He rested on the barren land below him. One step felt so heavy with the situation inside the stone door. He turned around looking for a crack and looked for the location of the stone door on the endless barren plain.

"Where should I start looking for him..."

the gaze of those eyes twisted with unimpressive annoyance and aggravation. Mind turning. His steps accelerated with confusion. Then return to the starting point where he started his first steps. He stared exasperatedly at the crystal stone chest before him.

"It's all your fault!" he pointed at the side of the crystal stone. He struck out with a crate of crystal stones and then sat on it.

"Why can I forget where the way out is?!"

The figure is confused. He screamed helplessly facing the dark sky above his head. Looking at the black blob like a dark cloud that brings a dark feel on the bottom.

"I hate you!"

The figure pointed towards the dark cloud clumps that instantly split apart and evaporated fused together with the greenish-black aurora that adorned his sky.

Long stunned, the figure splashed down on the top of the crystal stone coffin. He raised one hand. Opening the palm, his fingers played in the air.

"One. Two. Three!"

Starting from the index finger then the middle and last finger of the ring finger. He stopped his gaze on the ring finger.

Then remember a fleeting shadow about the dream of a known person. A bright smile with a face that is always cheerful.

"This sweet day will be adorned with rings by the people I love." she said cheerfully with a smile that was so discreet.

"People who are loved?!" his figure with short hair stared confusedly.

"Yes! Have you ever been in love?!" pluck it while poking that cheek." I want to fall in love with the best man I've met in my life. The person I want most is in my life forever. He's the one who's gonna give me the ring on my ring finger!"

"Cute dance huh?!" the figure remembers. Remembering that sweet smile that changed drastically for whatever reason.

He sighed. Playing his ring finger in the air. Remembering the shadow of the person who had been filling his time. He realized who that figure was. The figure that always made him flutter and wanted to spend his time with that figure forever.

"I want to see him."

The figure immediately remembered the important thing. It was something that he should have been able to do from the beginning but he forgot everything since being confined in the form of a black smoke without being. He touched his forehead with a fury.

"Since when have I been so stupid!"

Now all that was left in the valley was a barren valley with a dark sky and a crystal stone chest that was tightly sealed.

From the vast sky without end, there was a faint shadow of a stone door hidden behind the dark greenish-colored aurora.

//

Aksara landed right next to another figure Eren who was as the highest guard. Looking around the valley with an uncertain feeling. The valley shows only three colors. Black, white, and gray.

"Where else is this???"

"Grey valley." replied Eren in a slightly hesitant voice.

Eren who cast his gaze all over the valley, got an unusual gaze from Aksara. Then without realizing it, Eren returned to the other figure as the guardian of the maroon-robed valley.

"This place looks different!"

"That's because you've never been in here before!"

"I've seen it from outside the valley for quite a while."

"That's the outside of the valley! No one had ever been able to see the entire gray valley before."

Eren stared at the puddle of water that was slowly shrinking under his feet. Seeing the shadow of himself in the puddle below, Eren opened the hood of the robe that covered his face. A face with a skull mask on the right side of his face. Now the skull mask starts from the forehead then the right side of his face and then the neck. Eren raised his hand. He found the hand again in the form of a skull that was only wrapped in pale white skin.

" And this side only appears if something happens to the guard."

Aksara stared strangely. His gaze was more visibly probing with disbelief at the answer he received from the figure next to him.

"How's Laras been all this time?!"

Aksara remembers his last shadow about Laras which he left behind.

"It should be fine!" the answer. "Why ask?!"

"Because he's the guardian of this gray valley!"

The script pensive for a moment. Whether to tell the strangeness that Laras showed over the past few days or let Eren know for himself.

"Eitherway! Shouldn't you see it for yourself."

The turn of the pensive Eren. Now his mind was between that blue-eyed black shadow state and the other guard state of the gray valley that was none other than Laras.

If the state of this valley returns, then what is the current state of the guard of this valley? What happened to this valley guard actually?!

The condition of the valley returned to the gray valley that Eren once guarded and again became the side of the valley that Aksara had once known from the inner side of the valley.

Eren and Aksara turned around. Finding the only tree that stands firmly on the valley plains shows back its dark color. Adorned shade black, white, and gray. The shrinking water below the feet of the two shows one by one the parts of the tombstone that used to decorate the outer part of the valley.

While the fence that once soared up to the sky is now covered with a lot of thorny shrubs with small shoots of red flowers that glow twinkling like flickering in fireflies.

"Then what are we going to do?!"

the question came out of Aksara when he realized the state of the valley he saw was becoming increasingly foggy. Behind the dense forest on the outer side of the valley, there was a cold air blowing. Dark smoke evaporated and spread darkness around the legs of the two other figures in the gray valley.

"Finding Barrels."

...***...