Sasha's Dream

When they almost reached home, they saw a villager standing in front of the house facing the door. Both of them came closer to check.

"Um... Excuse me!" Sasha called out quietly making sure that the person wouldn't get shocked.

That person looked back at them as he turned around very slowly. It was an old villager. He was covered with white and pale fur and had two small ears on top of his head. He also had peculiar stash which was quite long. As for his clothes... It was rather too ordinary. He was wearing a long and wide scarf which covered almost half of his body. With it, he was wearing a long dress which covered his whole body.



He was holding a small bag. After turning around, the old villager stared at her for a while. Then all on a sudden, he said...

"You gave me a heart attack, little girl. You are too loud!"

Sasha remained silent as she knew that she tried her hardest to keep it quiet.

Doko barged in and started to greet him.

"Oh, gramps! What brings you here?"

Sasha looked at Doko to make sure that he knew him.

"You know him, Doko?"

"Yes. He is Gratus, the oldest villager in this land."

Then he turned at him and finally asked him to get inside as it could be chilly for him outside at night.

So, they all entered Doko's house and took their seats in three separate chairs in the guestroom.



Mr. Gratus and Doko discussed about several things and Sasha listened. After a while, Mr. Gratus suddenly mentioned his bag.

"Oh, Doko, there are some apples in the bag. They are for you."

Just by hearing it, Doko became overjoyed as he loved apples very much. He quickly looked into the bag and took out an apple. The apples were dark red in colour and quite shiny. Taking the apple out, Doko kept on staring at it with sparkling shinny eyes.

"But, to bring something so suddenly... Is your daughter finally getting married?" Doko said without moving his eyes from his apple.

Just when he heard him, he shouted at him,"No!!! She is not!!! Fool!!!"

Doko continued to stare at his apple and said,"Oh, so she ran away with someone handsome. Then, thank you for your kind—"

Without letting him finish, Mr. Gratus shouted again,"Like I said, no!!!"

Hearing their conversation, Sasha was indeed confused but she found it very interesting. She started to laugh out loud.

Both Mr. Gratus and Doko stopped and looked at her. They were a little embarrassed at their own conversation.

"You two are really funny!" Sasha said giving them a pleasant smile. She turned at Mr. Gratus and asked him what she had been meaning to ask him.

"So, Mr. Gratus... What brings you here?"

"I came here to thank Doko."

Doko was puzzled when he heard his reply. "Me? For what?" He said.

"For helping out the villagers."

"But that's my— " Doko wanted to finish his statement. But, Mr. Gratus interrupted him again and said,

"Your job is to help the villagers who are in danger. But today... I saw you helping out a man. It wasn't because he was in danger. You helped him to realize that he was not alone."

Then he closed his eyes and continued, "For the present state of this land, act of kindness such as that is necessary. It is inevitable in order to turn our home back to normal."

He opened his eyes very gently and looked at Doko. Giving a small pause, he finally said, "So, Doko... I thank you for what you did today and request you to keep on doing it for the sake of the people and this land."

Doko knew that he wasn't wholly right. He stood up and went to Sasha and patted her. Sasha was surprised at his sudden behaviour.

"If you want to thank someone... Then thank Sasha," he said,"It's thanks to her that we could work all day long, have fun and make some villagers smile."

Mr. Gratus was convinced. He knew that Doko wouldn't lie about such a thing. He finally turned at her to have a proper conversion.

"So, your name is Sasha... Nice to meet you, Sasha."

"Nice to meet you too , Mr. Gratus."

"You must've worked really hard. I thank you for your support."

Then, he looked up and gave a faint smile and continued to say,"I am hugely indebted to both of you. I now have hope. I can think about getting back the fun sunny days."

Then he told them something that no one in that village had said to them in the recent days.

"I will try to give you the support you may need."



Sasha was never praised like that ever before. She was happy and glad about everything. It gave her the boost in confidence. The fact that he would help them made it more reassuring. But, one thing was for sure.

Things are never so easy.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Gatus." She said.

After a while, they said their goodbyes and Mr. Gratus took his leave. Finally, Sasha and Doko was alone. Sasha was curious about one thing that Doko had mentioned.

"By the way, Doko, what was all that about his daughter marrying?"

"Oh, that... His daughter wanted to marry. But, gramps didn't let her."

Sasha couldn't guess the reason. So she asked him away.

"Why?"

"Well... I don't know exactly why. But, I think gramps wants his daughter to marry when the situation changes around here. So, he is waiting. He will keep her by his side until his dream is fulfilled."

Sasha attentively listened as he continued, "My second guess is that he just doesn't want to be alone."

"I see."

"But, both of my guesses indicate the same thing."

She understood right away what Doko had meant by that.

He just wanted to be happy again. Every other villager did.