The cage split open.

  The children screamed and stumbled backward as the bear lunged, claws wide, jaws ready to tear into the first child it saw.

  Samye ran with everything he had—but he was still too far.

  And then—

  Aren’s final moments flashed before his eyes.

  The blind face.

  The shaking voice.

  The fading warmth in his hands.

  Samye felt something snap inside his chest.

  “STOOOOOOP!”

  He reached out instinctively—hand extended, voice breaking.

  And the world… listened.

  The moment his fingers stretched toward the scene—

  Time stopped.

  Everything froze.

  The bear was suspended mid-air, jaws open, saliva hanging motionless like droplets of glass.

  Leaves stopped mid-fall.

  Dust hung still in the light.

  The terrified children were frozen mid-scream.

  Silence.

  Absolute silence.

  Samye stood alone in a dead-still world.

  And his eyes—

  the Eyes of Stars—glowed faintly, reflecting the stillness around him.

  On his wrist, the old watch began to tick—

  TICK… TICK… TICK…

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  Not normal ticks.

  Heavy.

  Echoing.

  Vibrating through the air like the heartbeat of time itself.

  Samye’s breath shook.

  He could move.

  Everything else was still.

  He didn’t fully understand how—

  but he understood why.

  His desire.

  His fear.

  His desperate refusal to lose another innocent—

  The power had answered it.

  No more helplessness.

  No more regrets.

  Samye took a step forward.

  Then another.

  He gripped the hammer tightly.

  He walked around the frozen bear—slowly, cautiously—feeling the weight of the moment pressing against him.

  “…Sorry,” he whispered.

  “Not this time.”

  He raised the hammer high—

  and with one clean, powerful swing—

  CRACK!

  The bear’s skull shattered instantly.

  Time resumed.

  Air rushed forward.

  Sound erupted.

  The children gasped.

  The forest shook.

  The bear collapsed to the ground, dead, as if struck by an invisible force.

  The children screamed and scrambled back.

  None of them saw Samye’s movement.

  None of them saw the freeze.

  None of them understood what happened.

  Only Samye stood breathless, staring at the broken body.

  His eyes slowly drifted to his wrist.

  The watch ticked normally again… quiet, harmless… almost innocent.

  But Samye knew better.

  He understood something now.

  Time was not broken.

  It was responding to him.

  He turned toward the children, trying to steady his voice.

  “Are you hurt?”

  They shook their heads, shocked.

  He crouched to meet their eyes.

  “Tell me… where is your town or village? I’ll take you there.”

  The children hesitated, then pointed deeper into the forest.

  Samye frowned.

  “That way? Are you sure?”

  “Yes!” they answered quickly.

  “Yes, big brother! That way!”

  He hesitated again.

  The forest grew darker the deeper they walked.

  The trees twisted more unnaturally.

  Birds stopped singing.

  He asked twice more:

  “Kids… are you sure this is the right way?”

  They nodded with certainty.

  “Yes.”

  “You’ll see.”

  “It’s safe.”

  Samye didn’t fully trust the path…

  …but he refused to abandon them.

  So he followed.

  After nearly an hour of walking through thick brush and winding roots, the forest suddenly opened.

  A clearing.

  A wide one.

  At the center—

  A hidden town lay quietly under the ancient trees, with smoke rising from chimneys, wooden houses built into roots, and lamps glowing warmly.

  Samye stopped, stunned.

  “…A town?” he whispered.

  The children smiled.

  “Welcome home,” one said.

  “We’re safe now,” another added.

  Samye stared silently.

  Deep inside the forest—

  far from roads, government eyes, militia raids—

  a whole community was hidden.

  A place untouched by the world’s cruelty.

  A place he never knew existed.

  A place

  …that now knew he had arrived.