In Lily’s Garden.

The Story of the Ancient Writer A Discovered by Lily

The train, carrying Lily, shimmered like a long star as it traveled along a trackless path, never stopping as the violet night sky gradually deepened from navy to black. As the darkness grew, Lily noticed a flicker that looked strikingly similar to the paper airplanes that used to fly around her attic. She decided to call it the “Black Paper Airplane.”

“There was a transparent ripple against the black background,” she repeated to herself as the train came to a stop in front of a large temple. Realizing the train had reached its destination, Lily disembarked and opened the doors to the temple, stepping inside. She walked down a long, golden corridor, and when she grew tired, she would sit down to rest, only to resume her journey again. Eventually, she arrived at another door between two towering pillars, and with a flicker of her glowing cloak, she stepped through.

Inside was a vast library with countless bookshelves that stretched so high they disappeared into the ceiling, far beyond Lily’s reach. The number of shelves was as numerous as the flickers of light from her cloak.

– Three steps from the door, the first shelf reached heights so tall that the ceiling was out of sight.

Beside it, there was a shelf at Lily’s eye level, and the lowest section seemed to be about one meter high.

Lily seemed to be performing strange actions, as if trying not to forget the path she had taken.

She picked a book from the lower shelf and wandered around the study, flipping through pages without actually reading them. Suddenly, something else caught her interest. She abandoned the book and hurried toward the new discovery.

After running around the first bookshelf for a while, she arrived at a desk with an old typewriter next to a window. Looking around nervously, she sat in the chair and tapped on the keys of the typewriter. Although she was curious about who owned the study, she hoped no one would come. Yet at the same time, she found herself imagining someone walking through the door and handing her a book she couldn’t reach. As she watched the letters imprint themselves onto the paper, she remembered the jewel she had seen while leaving the pumpkin ghost village. Pausing for a moment, Lily took out her pen and went over to a distant bookshelf one too far for her to reach where she drew a doll. Ink flowed from her pen, and the drawing turned into a real doll, just as she had imagined it.

– Lily was delighted to have a new friend and decided to name the doll Bella.

Amazed at her ability to draw things into reality without needing paper, she wondered why she had written on paper airplanes back in the attic. But soon, she became excited and created eight more dolls, coloring them red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, gray, and black. She drew cloaks for each of them, dressing the dolls in outfits, and though she wanted to give them pens like hers, she decided to create unique pens that suited each doll instead.

Afraid that the study’s owner might return and throw away her dolls, Lily hid them throughout the bookshelves, checking multiple times to ensure they wouldn’t be discovered. She even measured the distances between the dolls’ hiding spots. To make sure she wouldn’t forget their locations, she used the old typewriter to document where they were hidden. Then, she searched for an envelope to store the documents, eventually finding one in the desk drawer.

Coincidentally, there it was.

Lily wrote “Postcard” on the front of the envelope, placed the documents inside, and locked the drawer. She then drew a key and a lock with her pen, threw the key out of the window, and assured herself that the lock wouldn’t open for a long time. Feeling accomplished, she wandered around the study until she found a large display area with a book labeled “Forbidden Tome.” She climbed onto the book and began to read. Though the title said “The Story of Primitive Author A,” Lily didn’t notice. She was too enchanted by the shimmering black cover and was soon drawn into the story.

When the study’s owner returned, they found the Forbidden Tome on the floor and put it back on display. The owner had often found the book on the floor after returning from trips, and the ink inside was prone to spilling and staining the floor. The owner, who had never questioned whether it was because of the book being “forbidden,” tore off a piece of the transparent curtain hanging by the window and used it to create a new display. They locked the display case tightly, hoping this time the book would stay in place.

– There was the sound of the study door opening and closing.

The owner of the study, who disliked having anyone enter their space, quickly went to the door and looked around to see if someone had come in. That’s when they noticed a black doll lying on the floor. The owner picked it up and inspected it carefully.

The doll had a note attached to it.

– Don’t look for me.

The study’s owner didn’t like the doll, sensing a strange familiarity with it. After glaring at the doll for some time, they noticed that the feeling of resemblance was fading from the doll. Soon, the owner realized that the doll’s breath was slipping away. Hurriedly, they followed the trail of breath out of the study, opening the doors of the temple and leaving on a journey from which they might not return for a long time. Once the owner had left, the hidden dolls emerged, one by one.

– Gone?

– Gone.

– Are you sure?

– Yes, yes, they’re gone.

One after another, the dolls revealed themselves, speaking in turn. They had grown as tall as Lily herself, and the fact that they had once been dolls was now forgotten by them.