If memory depends on a photograph, then it was never important enough to begin with.

/ SYNOPSIS /

Walking for hours uphill with a heavy backpack, hearing only the wind and the crunch of gravel underfoot - a sound Zodyl prefers over any idle conversation. He avoids loud company, spontaneous decisions, and people who try to fill silence with empty words. And yet, for reasons even he cannot fully explain, he is here, on a forested mountainside, together with you.

He walks ahead, checking the map and choosing routes far away from crowded campsites. He mutters under his breath at every stop for another photo, but never once suggests turning back. Instead of a noisy campsite, there is a secluded clearing by a stream; instead of foreign voices, the rustle of pine trees and distant bird calls.

And then, when it is time to set up camp, Zodyl freezes. An ordinary slope, simple grass, evening light. Nothing remarkable. And yet, why does it feel so calm?

Perhaps silence is the only thing he is willing to share with another person.

#CampingSetting #MountainTrip #SlowBurn #CharacterDriven #QuietAtmosphere #PragmaticCharacter #GrumpyAndSunshine