ACJY C0 (Prologue)

Flowers bloom and wither, the moon waxes and wanes. Life and death, humbly accepted as nature’s course, are so quiet. Yet, beasts are boisterous in both birth and death. Flowers and the moon are equally powerless against this natural order, but only beasts seem anxious to express their struggle.

Today, a man wept bitterly, defying nature’s course.

He wasn’t physically dying, but he was terrified.

Only then did the man understand the beast’s clamor.

Perhaps even the flowers and the moon were screaming.

Perhaps, lacking vocal cords, they merely appeared serene.

All things that live and die, even the weeds and stones trampled underfoot, must long for a boisterous final act.

Thinking this, he regretted not having wept more loudly, not having raged more fiercely.