Prologue
Sometimes a journey doesn’t begin with a step – but with a glance.
A photo, torn from a magazine and forgotten on a breezy windowsill.
Or a breath you suddenly hold, without knowing why.
Efendi stood by the window, gazing at the mountains. Life in Alaya was unchanged – sheep in the valley, clouds above, the scent of smoke and fresh bread in the air. He didn’t know he had already begun walking. That his heart was already on the move.
The photograph slipped out of an old album like a stray ticket.
A girl – unknown, unnamed – with a face you couldn’t look away from. Not conventionally beautiful. Just… a gaze that held something he hadn’t realized he was missing.
And in that moment, Efendi understood: he had to find her.
Not because he knew her. But because he recognized himself.
That was how the journey began.
First – outward. Then – inward.
Chapter 1. Efendi: The Path to Love
In a mountain village called Alaya, nestled among snowy peaks and crystal-clear springs, lived a young man named Efendi. He had just turned eighteen—the age when the heart yearns for love, and the soul begins to search for a great dream. He was a simple boy: hardworking, kind, with a clear gaze and a nature as pure as the mountain air.
One evening, flipping through old magazines in his uncle’s library, he stumbled upon a photograph. And from that moment, something within him changed forever. In the picture was a girl—Cindy.
Her image was caught in golden light, almost frozen in time. Her hair—ash-blonde, with hints of silver—looked like moonlight on snow. Soft waves cascaded over her shoulders, giving her an ethereal grace. Her eyes—gray-green like a mountain lake in morning mist—looked at the camera with a quiet confidence, as if she already knew that somewhere, someone was destined to find her. Her face was clear and radiant, with a faint freckle near her left temple, and her lips—like they had just been kissed by a gust of wind. Not a trace of arrogance. Only light. And silence.
Efendi stared at the photo, unable to look away. She wasn’t just a girl—she was his future, his fate.
“She’s the one,” he whispered. “I’ll find her. I’ll win her heart. I’ll do everything, so that one day she smiles at me—not from paper, but right here, under our sky.”
From that day, his great journey began—not only across lands and roads, but along the path of the heart. He had no map. Only a goal. A dream. And a name he now repeated like a prayer:
Cindy.
That day, the air was so pure it felt like, with a deep enough breath, one could dissolve into the sky itself. Efendi stood barefoot on the threshold of his father Kawai’s home. The earth was still cool from the night, but the sun was already rising over the valley, flooding the mountain slopes with golden light. Before him stretched a tranquil landscape: towering mountains stood like ancient guardians around a green valley, where the wind played through tall grass. From beneath the rocks, springs gushed forth, cascading down the slopes in silver streams. At the heart of the valley, a wide river—born of glaciers—carried its rushing waters down toward the plains.
In this land, nature was like an artist who painted the world with tenderness and skill. Efendi walked along the stream, the wind carrying the scent of currants from the thick bushes along the banks. The berries gleamed like drops of amber, and even the birds seemed to sing differently here—with a gentle, almost fairy-tale intonation.
Golden-yellow marmots grazed calmly in the sunlit meadows, where the grass swayed like waves. Their fur shimmered like golden silk, and they raised their heads as the traveler approached, but did not flee—as if they knew Efendi meant no harm. Nearby, white hares darted into the bushes—so white, it seemed they were made of glacier snow.
