Cyril opened his eyes to the glistening reflections of the sun as the wind blew violet petals over his cloak. Under the shade of the yukito tree, - lone, tall, and strong mahogany wooden trees, spotted only scarcely, but consistently as they were very vast and colourful, blending only with the clear sky in the springtime, when the leaves, after just blooming, were blue, with dashes of white, painting the dark and rich chocolate bark with that magical touch. The trees were once considered as sentinel beings; protectors of the fields, as they used to blanket everything in their territory with an early violet layer before the real snow bean to fall. Under these conditions, it was too hard for a young boy to not have fallen asleep, but little Cyril did lie awake; as sleepy and out of breath as he was, he couldn’t rest this evening. The weary child raised one arm and cleared his face of the velvety-soft curtain that had accumulated as he yawned despite his greatest efforts. He sat up and leaned back up against the tree, gazing into the fields before him, hoping to find something to focus on, something abnormal to distract himself from his fatigue. Maybe , thought the pair of little drooping eyebrows, maybe it won’t be so bad to catch a few minutes of rest here, where nobody will find me… The silent fragrance of the Fall leaves perfumed the air in Cyril's lungs, each breath plunging him further and further into the poisoned sleep of the Yukito.

+ + +

There was a stirring in the air; Cyril woke up suddenly, gasping for breath, as if from a nightmare. It was dark, but the full moon was out, the fields were illuminated in an eerie glow of bluish light. The fields were serene and quite; after all the leaves had settled around him, there wasn’t a sound he could hear besides his own ragged breath. The sky was filled with a milky navy blue as there were no stars out tonight. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but the little boy could not help feeling that something was wrong.
His heart skipped a beat. And his breath cut off abruptly. Not 20 feet in front of him, hunched over, and struggling to get to its knees was a the shaggy haired owner of  pair of yellow eyes reflecting the moon, and a mouth barring fangs. With a low rumbling growl the creature made the effort to stand up on two feet. In the light, Cyril was shocked to see a wolfish head and ears on a man’s body, as hairy and wild as the body was, it still seemed human. It’s weak, he thought, and wounded. If I can get away now, I can get the villagers help. Reid will know what to do!
“Wait!”
Cyril turned around to see the creature almost fall again. “You can speak?!” he cried incredulously.
“Of course I can! Listen, I need your help, do you know of a place around here called Daiseijin, Daiseijin village?”
Cyril’s eyes filled with a curiosity tinted by awe; his face hinted at the dab of terror that had washed over him. “Who are you?”
The beast of a man took a pause from tending to his own wounds and stood straight with a hint of a regal flash in his grin. “I, little one, am a soldier from the FATE, and I’m on a 7 star mission.”
The beast solder started to fall backwards, already long past his physical limit, his exhaustion finally catching up to him. Cyril ran and threw himself behind the creature to cushion his fall. The beast uttered a grunt, and that was all, his eyes were already fast asleep and little Cyril lay under him, staring up at the sky, and watched as the clouds from the west creep forward, and the orange sun was about to peek  above the eastern horizon. He pulled himself up from under the body of the solder and decided his guest needed some rest before he takes him to his home.
The body was lighter than Cyril thought… all the easier to lift up on his back. As he was about to set out, a folded piece of paper, slightly crumpled, fell form his pocket. Oh great, he thought, as he prepared to move on. But then he noticed the seal on the paper as the slow breeze lifted one edge up. Seven red stars!!! Knowing that this was his mission slip, and one of the highest ranking he had ever seen, he took to reconsidering his decision and picked it up. As he walked on, with the sleeping solder on his back, with one hand, he opened up the mission paper to see the details. As he began to read, the entrails shocked him, the command wasn’t long, but for some reason, such a simple and horrendous duty had to be done. Cyril paused. It's a good thing I found this, he thought, it’s better if I can get rid of him here. That’s right, I won’t tell him how to get to Daiseijin.
“AH! Hey, kid… what’s wrong? Could have set me down a little more gently don’t you think?”
The man had been awoken painfully as Cyril let him fall off his back, he then sat down, looking as if he had just risen up from hibernation; he yawned and stretched as he sat there. Then he looked up to see the mission in the child’s hands. With swiftness Cyril never expected from a wolf even, the beast snatched the slip from his hands, but then added in a gentle, firm voice “You’re not supposed to look at that, this kind of thing is classifie…” Cyril was often able to hide his feelings, but he didn’t have that luck with anger, partly because he never experienced it, thus having no way to have experience with it, and because no in his village had ever displayed this kind of behavior before, not as far as he could have remembered. “So I guess you already know about this, huh?” said the wolfish man.
“I want an explanation,” Cyril blurted, “I want to know what kind of reason you have for lying to my village!”
“How old are you kid?”
“I’m 13, and my name is Cyril Matel, you can call me by my name, not ‘kid’”
The wolfish lips pulled back in what looked like a good natured snarl, “You’re quite grown up for your age, aren’t you? Well, no matter, alright Cyril, I’m going to tell you this straight, but in exchange your going to have to do your bit to keep your lips sealed, got that?”
Cyril nodded his head, still frowning at the solder’s looseness.
“Okay, I’ll start at the begging. My name is Cliff, I’m a solder for FATE, that's what you already know. Anyway, what you don’t know is this, we, I mean FATE has been fighting a war for this country for the past few weeks, against an army under the name of the ZAFT. We… lost this war… and not just lost it on one front, but both from the north and south… they are surrounding us from the east as we speak, and we only have to the setting sun to run to, but as you already know, that way only leads to an ocean front. We’re trapped here, and this is my order.”
He opened the mission paper once more in front of Cyril and started reading aloud from it. “The bearer of this mission, of seven-star rank, is hereby ordered to proceed to the established town listed below and notify them that all is well. The bearer is required to quell any rumors of the invasion and sow peace into the hearts of the citizens, when the army does approach the boundaries of your designated established town, surrender peacefully. Until further notice, this will be your final order. Soldier, fulfill it at all costs.” He looked up at Cyril who had listened to every word, but not able to understand fully what was just said. “You see, I have to go to Daiseijin and tell them that no army is coming… I’m to pretend like I’m home from the service and make sure you guys live you’re last few days of freedom peacefully… Got that?”
Cyril turned around to face the direction of the village. “Yeah I understand.”
The snarl-smile returned to the Cliff’s face. “Okay, lets go.” He got up to follow Cyril but then let out a sickly howl and fell on his face. Cyril rushed back to help him up again, but the face was winced in pain, and it was apparent that Cliff was in dangerous conditions. Cyril lost no time in carrying him as far as he could to the village.

+ + +
“… And it was a hard time, serving in the army, I’ve seen some people die, and I want to keep serving FATE but it feels good to be home after all that time.” Cliff was, undoubtedly, having his fun out of danger. Cyril, on the other hand was not. From the moment Cliff entered town, he wanted to go to a pub, and there, up until now, he was drinking himself merry and the bar tender wasn’t the only one making money off of him that night. “Hey Cyril, you don’t look so good, you want a drink?”
The bartender put his hands up, “that’s asking for trouble sir, if his sister finds out… I’d be as good as closed down.”
Cliff blinked, his face blank in his stupor, “that kind of a gal, huh? I see why you ran off so far.”
Just then, as the door opened, Cyril snapped. He had enough of his charade. “Just once, I wish you’d take a look at your responsibilities! You’ve got that 7 star mission don’t you? Try to actually fulfill it! But I should have known that a wolf like you would only go after such vixen! Why don’t you tell everyone now? I think they all deserve to know, don’t they? Come one, tell them!”
“Uh…Cyril…”
“What you wanted to say was that ZAFT was coming right, from the north, from the south and the east? We’re surrounded by an army who wants to kill us and let’s not forget the best part, your seven star mission, to pretend like everything is okay, to make us all enjoy the last days of our lives and… and to surrender peacefully?” he was crying now. “You’re disgusting!”
“Cyril!” a bell like voice came form the doorway, where stood a pretty and startled looking maiden.
Cyril dashed out the door brushing past eh girl and ran into the fields. He did not intend to come home tonight.
Back in the bar, whispers were starting to gather, But Cliff himself was silent, watching the new girl to hold onto the door for support. “Hey barkeep, whose the broad?”
“The bartender turned and sighed, “That would be his sister.”
Cyril looked at the mission slip that lay in his pocket, only one star left. He looked at Reid almost impatiently, “Just one more. I’m almost done aren’t I?”
Reid turned his head to look back at him; his long black hair pulling towards his shoulder. “This last dream,” he says in a quite voice, “incorporates all that you have learnt so far. All your trials will ask you now, if you can put them all together to see the big picture, and then you shall pass the final dream.”
“Then, I’ve learnt it all right? If I have all the pieces than all I have to do is put it together right?”
“I’m sorry Cyril, but you haven’t learnt, the world is not so simple. The truth is you failed this test since the very beginning.”
“Reid…” Cyril’s eyes were bulging now; his voice gone shaky. “How can you say that? Then why did you have me come all this way if I was never meant to pass?”
“Think of it as a test, Cyril, and as your teacher, you can’t expect me to help you in the middle of it, and besides I’ve taught you everything already.” Reid turned around and brandished his wand towards the boy; the golden orb shone once more, to Cyril this light was as if the ground had suddenly turned ablaze. “Goodbye Cyril.”

All alone in the darkness of the dream world, the magician knelt to ponder his great misfortune. “All men are stupid,” he whispers to a boy lost in time, “they can, so easily, be picked up by the wind of the moment because they are afraid of it. Just because someone told you some thing was true, is that any reason to believe it? Is it?” From one eye, a tiny river ran its course and Reid looked up. “Was your life so miserable Cyril, that it was such a vale of tears? Forgive me; I wanted you to be a boy who grew up on your own hands.”
+ + +

Cliff set his leg on a stool watching Cassius set the backyard table. “Do you think he’ll be okay? He asked.
Cassius Martel looked up and smiled politely, but the shadow of worry was on her lips. “I’m sure he’s fine, he used to run away from his chores an awful lot, its just, it’s been three days… he’s never run away for so long.”
“That boy is smart,” said the voice form behind. Cliff and Cassius turn to see Reid, a tall man with bottom-rimmed, round spectacles, and a couple textbooks under one arm, a smile as gentle and warm, with eyes filled with that inkling of great knowledge. “I taught him everything that he needs to know to survive in this world, and if it is so that he doesn’t, then it must have been heaven’s choice. We have no control of what happens outside of our own lives, the best we can do is make sure that what is in our control runs as best as it can be, right?”
Cliff smiled softly. “Can a teacher really teach everything there is for someone to survive?”
“That’s what a teacher does,” broke in Cassius, pouring the glasses full of water. “We learn how to survive from those who teach us after learning themselves, how to live. And if we can, we are to try our best to live to the fullest so that we ourselves can teach those who come after us how to live.”
“May I join you for lunch?” asks Reid, placing his books down and tucking away his glasses.
“Off course!” Cliff and Cassius chorus with cheer to their new lunch mate.
“Live life to the fullest, eh?” said Cliff stares at his plate, “I think I’d like to do just that… and I hope… that I too, can get the chance to teach someone how to do that as well one day.” A thump is heard as Cliff slams a hand on the table to stand tall. In the sunlight, his trimmed hair and clean-shaven face shine handsomely. “I propose a toast!”…
+ + +

Whether Cyril did indeed die, or whether he was simply lost, whether Cliff’s mission had in it, the foretelling of danger, this story does not say. It ended, in fact, when the dream did. All life ends when a new one begins, and in turn, when it ends, a new life will begin. As do chapters in a book, one brings close to open another. Is the book of life infinite, or does it have an ending? Only time can tell, and time we do have. So let us, like this merry lunch party, enjoy what we have yet to come. No matter what comes, be it war, or the loss of a loved one, do not forget that it was all best as long as we learn from it. Such is the duty of the teacher, and the students who will one day become teachers themselves.