Seeds of Hope
Ren Narrows stood at the edge of his small farmland, rifle in hand, staring out over rows of wilted crops. The thunder of artillery rumbled miles away, a reminder of the war that had spread across this timeline like a storm. Ren had never wanted to be involved in such violence—he was a farmer, not a soldier—but when the Coalition’s forces rolled into his district, everyone was conscripted or left to starve.
He tried to focus on his orchard, surveying each twisted branch for signs of life. Despite the artillery’s distant roar, the orchard was eerily silent. It felt as though time itself paused here, waiting. Ren half-believed that if he closed his eyes, he might awaken back in his simpler past. Yet the war’s grip had long since choked away any illusions of peace.
Days earlier, he’d traded his last bag of produce for a battered book titled Foundations of Hope. Supposedly, it held coded strategies used by Time Keepers to preserve farmland in war-torn timelines. Ren had flipped through its pages late at night, searching for anything to help resurrect his fields or shield his neighbors. The text proved dense, referencing $TIME watches and hidden bunkers—half legend, half rumor.
This morning, the Coalition demanded fresh supplies, threatening Ren with confiscation of his orchard if he didn’t comply. But food was scarce for everyone, and Ren couldn’t bear to watch his friends starve. Between the orchard and the Coalition, he felt caged. “I don’t want to ask for too much,” he whispered to the wind, wishing for just one small miracle.
That was when he met Rosa, a volunteer medic passing through. She found him kneeling by a fallen irrigation pipe, tears streaking the dust on his cheeks. Her gentle smile and warm eyes cut straight through the gloom. She saw the battered book in his hand, recognized its significance, and knelt beside him, offering both comfort and a quiet vow to help. In a single moment, Ren felt years of solitude lighten.
They worked side by side at dawn, patching pipes and reading passages from the coded book, determined to save the orchard and any life it could nourish. In those quiet hours—amid the glow of sunrise and the distant rumble of war—Ren realized he was no longer alone. Rosa’s resolve sparked a new hope inside him, and somewhere beneath that same orchard soil, seeds of a bright future began to take root.
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