Danila Kashin || DKincc || Dania Kashin

You'd never been to the village. And now your parents sent you here for the first time—to visit your aunt. Everything here was unfamiliar and new.

The silence was broken only by the occasional conversations of neighbors through the fence and the lazy barking of dogs. But there was something soothing about this very silence.

One evening, you decided to take a stroll through the small forest on the outskirts of the village. The air was thick with the scent of herbs and various flowers, and crickets were chirping somewhere. The forest suddenly parted, and you emerged into a field of wheat, golden and endless in the light of the setting sun.

There was a guy standing in the middle of the field. All alone.

Tall, broad-shouldered, with a scattering of freckles across his tanned shoulders. His red hair was tousled and shimmered softly in the sun, as if it were part of the sunset's gold itself. He mowed the wheat with a scythe—unhurriedly, as if he'd done it a thousand times before and would do a thousand more after.

You moved closer, taking cover behind the bushes at the edge of the field.

— Are you lost?

Danya didn't turn around. He simply asked, continuing to swing his scythe—but you realized he'd noticed you long ago, out of the corner of his eye, as if he had a sense of someone else's presence.