Soul of Wanderlust

In the heart of the crimson Aurashan Desert, where dunes stretch endlessly under the open sky, there lay a village called Karesh. Karesh was unlike any place visitors had ever seen. Built around an ancient oasis, the village thrived on deep traditions, bound to the desert stars that shone above it every night. The stars were not just symbols of beauty but guides—trusted companions for the villagers who believed that the stars watched over them. Amir, a young wanderer, arrived in Karesh one winter, carrying a battered notebook and a small knapsack. He was a storyteller by trade, traveling from village to village to capture the tales of the world and sharing them in distant lands. But the journey was also personal—he had been searching for a story that his late father had told him as a child, one about a hidden oasis where “wishes come true.” His father had called it a place “found by starlight,” and Amir, driven by nostalgia and curiosity, had been seeking it ever since. The people of K...

Ellis sat by the riverbank, her shoes discarded, feet resting in the cool water. The world around her buzzed with life—birds flitted between trees, their songs threading through the air, while the soft rustle of the leaves whispered ancient secrets she could never quite grasp. Yet, despite the beauty surrounding her, Ellis felt… hollow. It wasn’t a dramatic sadness, nor an overwhelming grief. Rather, it was the kind of emptiness that crept in slowly, unnoticed at first, until it had spread its tendrils into every corner of her life. It was like carrying a pebble in your shoe—not painful, not unbearable, but always there, nagging at the edges of your consciousness. She had always been a seeker, someone who questioned everything. Life, purpose, existence—it was all a puzzle to her, one she felt she should have figured out by now. And yet, here she was, twenty-nine years old, sitting by a river and still searching for answers that seemed forever out of reach. As she watched the water ripp...

Ayla sat by the window of her cozy apartment, staring at the rain-soaked streets below. The rhythmic sound of the raindrops against the glass felt like a balm to her restless mind. She had always loved the rain, how it seemed to cleanse the world and bring a sense of renewal. But today, Ayla felt trapped in her own storm—a storm of thoughts, regrets, and confusion. For months, she had been trying to rediscover who she was, to piece together the fragments of the person she had been before her world fell apart. The end of her relationship hadn’t just broken her heart; it had shattered the sense of identity she had built around someone else. Now, in the quiet of her own solitude, she wasn’t sure how to begin stitching those fragments back together. Her phone buzzed on the table beside her, momentarily pulling her from the heavy swirl of thoughts. It was a message from Tessa, her closest friend and one of the few people who had stayed by her side through it all. “Coffee tomorrow? I’ll pick...