Legends of Humanity: Resurrection Valley

Beginning

There was first a human. He had forgotten about himself, had renounced previous lives, and had burned his so-called future life into his mind; he was a man in great pain. Like the living legends, he had no beginning and no end. He spread to days. Later, he was a year; he became centuries. He rose to the level of infinity. He reached a universe that burned with extreme feelings. Gathering the chasms in his eyes, he placed the deepest feelings in humanity’s hearts. Afterward, stillness and loneliness embraced the universe—until a child named Hazar was born.

Chapter 1

He was cold. Heartbeats became a rising flood. Whimsical stars perched on Hazar’s windowsill. He was tiny, as small as a hand. From his mother’s bosom, he was put in his cradle. There was sorrow in his eyes. The blood running in his veins was carrying him to the future. His eyes were brown, and there was a depth to them. Innumerable angels landed on his face. He had just begun his fight with life, as was every human’s destiny.

Angels watched over Hazar. Every night, these angels plunged in the clouds of his heart, and there, they joined the newborn flowers of heaven. The universe of the child had no end. With his birth, the existing genesis was ruptured with a storm. His name, like a deep burial, was whispered from heart to heart. Within his soul, he searched for God with passion. With this love reflected in his eyes, he smiled to the angels, as though he was talking with them.

An angel named Arvin admired his magical power. He thought the legend had come. The expected time had arrived. Neither the harmony between the stars nor the brightness of the night escaped Arvin’s eyes. The angel infused his energy into the child’s heart. It was the last act of an angel who was burning with love. Arvin’s time was almost over. Since leaving the Trance world, he had been searching for Hazar. He thought that, with Hazar’s birth, his own duty had ended. He believed that, by giving God and all that he had cherished in his heart to the child, he was starting everything. The bells of fate rang out in the eyes of the child. There was a spring in Hazar that dreams wanted to smile upon. The child shut his eyes tightly. The next day, when he woke up, he found himself in a dreamland. Here was a two-way universe. Truth was on one side, and imagination on the other.

***

What do you think you are?

Nothing.

What is the meaning of this?

Just nothing.

You cannot talk with your teacher in this manner. Ms. Erin was a rather cruel teacher. Her approach to education was purely based on hard discipline. She was notorious for spreading terror at the school of dreams. Parents in the country considered the school of dreams an exemplary school. Only the chosen ones could go there. It was a fantastic place that housed children with superior intelligence. There, though, Hazar was very unhappy because no one understood him. Therefore, they labeled him crazy.

Hazar was very bored. At times, his strained energy would lead him to have tantrums. At times like these, he would either fight with his teachers or with his friends—not that he had any friends, not really. He wanted to be free. There was no one to hold on to; nor was there a cure for his sorrows. Like an unsolved case, he would wander among the narrow alleys of the yard. The soot that fell into the garden in the mornings bothered him. Yet he wanted to be free. With each drop, he wanted to awaken the love in him—not that he knew what exactly love was. But there was something for certain. This love would never leave him alone.

***

Who are you?

We will come to get you.

Go away.

You have to respond to us.

Ms. Erin thought that Hazar was schizophrenic. Actually, the entire school thought of him as a crazy boy. Therefore, his walks in the garden passed in solitude. The strangers that had not left Hazar for the last three years provided him with some fractions of their lives. Although at first Hazar had found this situation very hard, at the end of two years, he’d gotten used it. At times, he could see eyes walking in empty spaces. These eyes, encircled with lights, would offer him a variety of sceneries. Perhaps all of these were reflections from Arvin’s heart. The survival of the human heart was something that the mind could not comprehend.

***

I don’t want you. Why don’t you understand?

But we want you. We need you.

Leave me alone.

You know it too, Hazar. Don’t you see your situation?

There is nothing wrong with me. All of these are just illusions.

We are totally real. We are even naive. We are light. We are splendor.

Then prove that to me.

You will know when the time comes.

That is what you said last year too.

When the times comes, Hazar, we will come to take you.

I don’t want to go.

Hazar’s anger tore at his heart. He was in doubt and questioning it all. His conflicts were increasing; his mind was left to burn, like a handkerchief, to ashes. He had to change this situation quickly. Only his mother and his doctor would listen to him. His psychiatrist knew how intelligent he was. But there was nothing the doctor could do. Although he was an expert in the field of schizophrenia, the doctor could not find a solution for Hazar. The doctor was helpless. For the last two years, Hazar had spent his summer vacations at the hospital—the most expensive hospital in the town. The biggest factor for the strength of the mother and the child was the inheritance left to them from his father. His father had died many years ago, in a tragic traffic accident.

That day was the day that death had landed on earth. Although Hazar was very young then, he could not forget his father’s happy face and the universal love burning in his father’s eyes. This vision occurring between imagination and reality had affected the entire life of the child. His psychiatrist had insistently focused on this issue and had made things even worse. Hazar had loved his father very much; indeed, the boy had worshiped his father. This was one of the mistakes. No matter what, one must worship the divine justice.

Psychological tensions grew like clouds of anger. In Hazar’s mind there was the transition point of humanity. The drifter named Elem had told him that. Everything was reflected on a screen where dreams flew. Each time Hazar watched television, he came across the dream channel. On the screen, there was the ascent of a vast kingdom. What he felt in his heart was taking him into the infinity of the atmosphere and putting his instincts into motions. At times, the child could not control his mind. After all, the hardest mission in the world was to manage oneself.

***

With wide smiles, the curtain of life was streaming by. It was saddening; combined with the crucial period of winter, it was laying one’s soul naked. Lying on his bed, Hazar felt deserted. Although he had not shared much with his father, he was aware of the bond between them. Love was a sun that radiated light to the remotest rivers. Hazar was looking toward the horizon, and was smiling toward himself.

In his heart, the child could hear the approach of a new era. The increasing yearnings, the volcanic eruption of feelings, inflamed sufferings, the endless loneliness—to cope with these all, one had to have a big heart and patience. Since he did not have any friends, he talked with few people. Buried at the bottom of his fate, he was searching for a crocus within his mutinies. He felt cold. He had listened to Elem with a thousand and one questions in his mind. The drifter wore a dark blue beret that looked like it was from the olden times. The beret nearly covered all of Elem’s face. Only the drifter’s eyes were visible. From his eyes down, there was the sun. The stars were dancing with each other.

While Hazar was watching the dream channel, he got an opportunity to talk with Elem. He had not seen the drifter for six months. In his heart, he felt a joy that he could not describe.

Who are you?

My name is Elem.

Why is half of your face missing?

That is an old issue.

There are thousands of colors of lights on your face. What’s the reason for that?

I am sealed, Hazar. I am cursed. I am abandoned. Since I exited the Trance world, I have been moving on. I have visited, to be exact, two thousand universes. But none was like the world of Trance.

Why don’t you go back there?

The Dark Lords have invaded that place. With each passing day, the war grows stronger. I am afraid; they will try to take you over too.

Who will?

The Scarsns.

Who are they?

"You don’t want to know. They are some sort of a magnetic darkness. It is an energy containing thousands of evils. It destroys everything around it once it is in the open.’

What do they want of me?

Your essence. This is exactly what they want.

I don’t get it.

"Look, Hazar. There is a system that the lords are bonded with. Think of a big science. Their consciousness is halfway shut at the moment. Through your consciousness, they want to reach comfort. The Trance world. Ah, trust me; you don’t want to see it now.’

Why?

Because a big war broke out. The people and other races are in the hands of these cruel ones.

I see. There is something I want to ask you, Elem.

Go ahead.

What is the dream channel?

That is your mind. Your mind can not carry on on its own any longer.

You are a very interesting person.

Yes, I am interesting.

But I would have liked to see the Trance world.

Are you sure of that?

Yes.

Then keep quiet and look in to my eyes.

***

The towers Zikra represented the entry door to the Trance world. These doors had such a splendorous look that Hazar was not able to take his eyes off of the towers, which were surrounded by color circles. Hazar and Elem were able to watch the striking elements of the seven colors from where they were standing. The effect was as if someone had hauled the earth into the sky. Each color at the tower represented a stage. These doors, depicting the seven ancient Goik warriors, were another dimension of the legend. Three of the warriors had disappeared; the other four were going to fight their cause till the last day. Rotating around the towers, these clouds gave Zikra a mysterious look. The clouds were simultaneously solid and liquid in form. Stairs within them led to the depths of the Trance world. As if they had double personalities, the steps opened and closed.

Elem held Hazar by the hand. No harm should ever come to him.

The child with dark brown eyes looked at the enchanted site one more time. He was incredibly moved. He had not read anything like this, not even in the fantasy books that he had read.

The lights had come out of Elem’s eyes. The stars and the planets that had been in the face of the drifter had harmonized one on one with the universe within the clouds, and the pair swiftly climbed the stairs. The code of the Zikra towers was given to very few beings. Elem was one of them. The lights had come out of his eyes, creating a huge vortex. Later, the vortex had united with the stairs and created a balanced angle that spread toward where Elem and Hara were standing. The door appeared in the distance.

Hazar’s head and feet had combined, and he was trying hard no to laugh. Different types of beings appeared. He would see himself fat and then skinny; then, he would be tall and too complicated. When he wondered about this and asked why he was changing, the reply that he got was very interesting.

The Trance world is molding your body into balance, Elem said. In a sense, you body is gaining the specifications of the new worlds.

The drifter and the child stopped at the front of the door. For the last time, Elem asked Hazar, Are you sure?

Hazar motioned yes with his head, and they entered through the gate. This was a tour in a small scale. Therefore, each being appeared like a small, dark spot.

A huge fireball hung in the sky. Its lights had created a big city—a city created entirely from the fire. Everything was burning. The trees, the houses, the buildings, and even the earth burned. The smoke rising from the flames was forming aliens in the sky. This was a city where demons had become masters, a place where the time was running in reverse. The soul that was burning within the Dark Lords had created the city of Garin.

Hazar breathed the smoke-smothered air without a respite. He felt as if the flames had knotted his throat, as if a big ball of fire had become coiled in his throat. Phoenixes reminiscent of ancient times moved in front of his eyes. He had seen this kind of birds in the dream channel before. Some of the phoenixes could even enter into the most mysterious infernos. With the magic fire protecting their bodies, they were able to overcome the demons.

There were many kinds of demons. But the most vicious ones were in Goron, just below the city of the superior beings. Goron was the planet where the legend broke out. Only a few of the wise people had been able to go there. But unfortunately, none had ever come back. The magnetic power of the planet made it rotate toward the worst force of creation. The collection of negative power screams had become the official language of Goron.

Elem was doing Hazar a big favor by telling him all of these things. It was time for the child to be enlightened. The hazy images of the past worlds had left bitter memories in Elem’s mind. He had seen many worlds, and he had lost most of them. According to some, the loss was because of significant wars, and according to others, it was because of the wrath of God. But regardless, Elem knew his heart. Along each road he’d walked, from each rock he’d climbed, through each river he’d flowed, he had learned more about himself. As he sipped the sunlight into his core, Elem talked about these things over and over. Actually, he was more than a human being. Perhaps, he was a superior mortal. But there was a reality: Elem did not know on what day he was going to die.

The flames had enveloped them like a trap. Hazar moved next to Elem, while studying the depths of the Trance world. In the sky, fire, water, and darkness were all intertwined. At places, some gaps satisfied a human being. In fact, this was the nullity zone of the Trance world. One could understand that place only in nothingness.

The flames created a huge energy. Elem has been trying to release the mysteries from his heart for hundreds of years but had not had any results. His existence as a human being had created depth in him. Elem’s world had expanded ever since he had become a drifter, and he had achieved excellent results. But he had never seen himself as superior. He’d always had an extremely modest outlook.

They traced circles as they moved forward through the flames. Hazar did not let go of Elem’s hands but held onto him tightly. The drifter came to a big door, which he’d reached within the flames by casting magic words. The flame opened up like a window and became a door. With Elem’s spell, what had seemed like a small dot before had transformed into a big opening.

Are you ready? asked Elem when he opened the door. Hazar did not have a chance to choose. Are you ready for your destiny Hazar? Are you ready for your existing destiny?

Yes, Hazar replied without hesitating.

When they went through the door, all the flames and smoke disappeared. They appeared to have been trapped in a big bottle.

They were in a room. Everything was made of ashes. The particles flying in the air evoked many things in one’s mind. Hazar thought of the first day that he had met fire. The plastic that he had ignited had dripped on his arm. Hazar had felt a great pain at first. But then, within five minutes, the pain had subsidized. The wound had disappeared.

There was a small library in the right corner of the room. On the shelves, tons of books smiled to the twosome. Elem chose one and turned the cover over. No sooner had he done so than little phoenixes jumped out of the book. They flipped their wings and somersaulted in the air. Hazar could not take his eyes off of them. Eventually he came to when he heard Elem’s voice.

The leaves of the book were empty. Elem took fire out of his hands, from a spot that worked like a lighter. Then he set one page of the book to fire. The book burned blue and yellow and turned to ashes within a few minutes. The child wanted to understand what Elem was doing. He examined the drifter with questioning eyes.

A few seconds after the book had completely burned, the ashes started to merge on the table. Then they looked like scripts. On them showed a passage of the child’s fate. Now the myths of humanity were exposed.

The ashes showed the Trance warrior Atilla. Hazar’s first mission in this fantastic world should be to find Atilla. Atilla, who lived in the Garatin Mountains, had been alive for millions of years. Through the seeds of his tears, he had remained young. Many people said that he was blessed by God. Some even believed that he was the son of God. But Atilla was a brave and a mighty warrior.

With a large explosion outside, Elem’s attention dispersed toward other issues. This was not a good sign. The drifter restlessly stirred the ashes. He smeared the smudge from his hands to his eyes. Even if it hurt, he had to do that. As the ashes glided down the eyes of the drifter, the existing lives were shown on his face. Elem felt it within his heart. These ashes were the messengers of a great destruction.

What is going on? asked Hazar.

Your mother, Hazar. She will die for you.

When?

Now.

What can we do? We have to save her. I cannot live without her.

Your fate has responded to you. The Scarsns have united the real world with the Trance world. Right this moment, you mother is fighting for you.

But my mom cannot fight.

I am referring to a battle of emotions. She is fighting with her compassion and devotion to you.

I want to get out of here—immediately.

***

By the time Hazar and Elem stepped out of the Trance world, it was midnight in the real world. But Hazar could not find his home. His home was caught up in the emptiness of the universe. The Scarsns had stolen his mother.

Where his home had stood, there was nothing in sight. The child looked around with pain-stricken eyes. He wanted to reach to some sort of a result. But all that was left was a great sadness. Fate had stolen his mother from him.

Elem tried to focus on the past, on the incident. Upon seeing what had taken place, he shared the child’s pain. Elem envisioned the way the boy’s mother had been taken and projected the scene for the child. As if watching a video of the incident, Hazar watched in silence.

The Scarsns had appeared in the garden. Then they had slipped invisibly into the house. Sleeping in his bed, Hazar had been protected, since the television was on and tuned to the dream channel. The Scarsns had gone through the entire house, but they had only been able to reach his mother. They had snatched the spirit of the woman and thrown it into the magnetic nothingness of the universe. All this had happened in a few seconds. It was like looking at the heavy debris that was all that remained after a strong earthquake.

Through the ashes in his eyes, Elem was able to connect to the dream channel. The house that the child lived in appeared. There was not a single cloud in the air.

Sometime later, Elem said: You cannot stay here any longer.

Fine, but I cannot come with you.

You can.

How?

God will guide you through. But I have some advice for you, son.

What is it?

Leave the dream channel on all night.

Why?

Just do as I say, because this is very important.

With those words, Elem disappeared. Hazar was sitting all by himself in the house. He was not scared or panicked; on the contrary, he was in a rather violent fit of range. The Scarsns did not have any shape. Their body was more like heavy liquid mercury. Their time was moving backward. Actually these incidents were part of the past. Hazar was not aware of this. In his room, he watched the dream channel all night. On the dream channel, memories of his mother, his baby pictures, and the face of his father materialized. Hazar accepted all this with a deep sadness.

The child slept in his bed with his eyes wide open. His mind, unconscious yet aware protected him, warning him against dangers. Once, he spotted black dots on the ceiling. The dots grew over the time and took the shape of what at first appeared to be a human but looked more like a creature than a human. Claws protruded from all over the creature’s body. It seemed to be wearing some old clothes, which had been torn to shreds. Dark speckles dripped from the dress over to Hazar’s bed. But the speckles disappeared before they fell on the bed. Arvin was at Hazar’s side.

The darkness was on the floor as well as on the ceiling. The dark forces of the Trance world were trying everything to capture Hazar. The dark swells on the floor became water. The dark water puddles merged on the floor and created a big flood. Out of the stream came tens of hands. Their purpose was to catch Hazar and pull him down with them.

There were movements on the walls of the room too. The darkness flowing down was trying to reach the child. The dark entities were not able to form a shape. Arvin’s power was strong enough to keep them at bay. The child slept peacefully until morning.

Hazar felt refreshed when he woke in the morning. The ashes on the wall caught his attention. The dark forces had left a blanket of ashes behind them. Although a little late, the child felt the changes in him. He was able to see his mother’s room; he even detected the people outside, in front of the door. The television had turned itself off. Hazar tried turning it on with the remote control, but he did not succeed. The dream channel was disabled. Now, it was time to face the existing world. The child did not feel hungry, even though he had formerly eaten as much as two meals each morning. This was due to the influence of his mother, who’d emphasized time and again that breakfast was the most important meal of the day.

A few seconds later, Hazar saw his mother. She was wearing a white cloak. This must be a joke of death. But when his mother smiled at him, he knew that this was not an illusion. Yet it was not real either. The existing world and the fantasy world were interlocking in the center of all times. Then he saw another woman who looked just like his mother. As he went through the rooms, the identities of his mother multiplied. Almost all of them were looking at Hazar and smiling. The most flamboyant face of fate was showing itself.

The child was like a figment of his former self. There had been nothing wrong with him when he’d gone to bed last night. But in the morning, he’d jumped out of his bed and everything had suddenly changed. The light that filtered through the window from outside was a sight to be seen. Half of the room was dark, and half of it was light. Rather, there was light within the darkness.

When Hazar walked in the bathroom, he could not see his face in the mirror. Multicolored images had replaced his own reflection. Hazar gingerly touched the mirror. As soon as he did so, he felt the changes within his soul. He felt very happy. It was as if he had played his favorite game or had just reunited with his mother. How else could happiness be described? The child’s world had deepened, like that of someone who had given himself to nothingness. Hazar was swimming in maturity.

This must have been the point where God gave wisdom in the state of madness. The child threw himself out of the room, as if he wanted to break out from some chains. There was dead silence outside. There was no sign of anyone. He quickly walked up to the end of the street. After he walked passed the last house, he turned around, and looked back—to the house where his dreams had been destroyed. But he did not see anything. Behind, there was only a blank whiteness—as if the house had never existed.

The boy truly felt like the house had never existed. Hazar had become forgetful. He could only recall last night—the death of his mother; that great sorrow; and the last scene on the dream channel, the arrival of the Scarsns. The drifter had told him very little about them. They had brains like water. Their minds, which were able to travel from one end of the world to the other, were taking them to many places. The Scarsns were very dangerous creatures—especially for humankind.

There was a fountain at the end of the street. Until yesterday, Hazar had drunk water from this fountain many times. He approached the fountain. He came close to the running water. But looking closely, he realized the water was not flowing down; rather, it was running back up to the well. The fountain was working backward. This was an unbelievable phenomenon.

His mind drifting between remembering and forgetting was not helping him. He was being guided only by the heartfelt call coming from the drifter. This was what it was to be alive once again. Or did the blind spot mark the end of existing life? Hazar could not think; he could not smell, and he couldn’t taste. He could not do anything. He had completely lost all his human dignities. The only real thing was to imagine. But in his mind, there was not a single motion. He bowed his head and kept walking. With the delusions in his heart and the extremity of his life, he was drifting.

In the so-called existing world, there was no time left. Hazar walked toward the busiest street of the city. Although he could remember a few things, his memories would not come back. He had shopped at this place with his mother many times. He even saw his mother in front of the shop window. Next to her stood a boy; it was him. Mother and son both looked at the price tags in the store. It was a miracle that Hazar could see himself. This must have been nothingness, or not existing ever at all. But no matter what, there was a reality. And that was that; he was getting closer to his own self.

Hazar started walking among other people. There were many people on his right and his left. But they were all rushing toward the past. Time was not flowing toward the future but toward the past. A few people walked on to him. The child stepped aside to let them go. But eventually, he realized he did not have to get out of their way. People were going through his body. The body of the child was sucking people in like a vacuum. The people passing through his body left some feelings in the child’s heart. He understood the state the people were in. Some were suffering, and some were as happy as a child. Hazar was also able to see how they arrived at their current state. Some were businessmen, and others were looking for a way to bring the bread home. He saw the circumstances of those who were counting money; he saw people who suffered with hunger, women who prostituted themselves, bankrupt businessman, and many others. Hazar felt all their suffering with his superior intelligence.

But God’s might showed itself once again. When Hazar would look at people, a great light would illuminate in their eyes. In fact, a great change would take place in their lives. People who were suffering greatly would find peace and quiet. As Hazar perceived this fact, he felt very proud of himself. But why did he have this kind of power within him? What would be the end of it?

A few meters away, someone came across to him. Standing two meters tall, the stranger stood like a giant in front of Hazar. He looked at Hazar from high above. But the stranger also had eyes on his feet. The child was absolutely surprised. The stranger stared intensely into Hazar’s eyes. The two just looked at each other for some time. While they were looking at each other, a big change happened in the sky. A great wave of fog and light spread around in the world of the spirits. It was as if someone was instilling smoke from the skies to the earth. Hazar felt the magnetic waves in his veins. There was no pain, no joy. This was a strange feeling. The stranger did not talk with him at all. But Hazar understood from the look in the stranger’s eyes that he had to follow the man; Hazar proceeded until he reached the last shop on the strip. He’d realized something as he was going forward—all the shops had changed. The brand new shopping mall created in the imagination world attracted the child’s interest.

The child followed the giant steps of the stranger.