Leaving home is a bittersweet yet essential experience every living creature has to go through at some point of their life. After its first flight, a chic leaves its nest eventually. A cub leaves its den to make its own territory. Children grow up in the warmth of their home before they finally see the real, cruel world.

'The political tensions amongst Gilao and Nilanja have grown worse over the years. A war is inevitable at this point of time, as per the government's predictions. The central ministry has appealed to strengthen border force."

That year, many young men and women left their homes, signing their lives in the name of their country, none of them aware if they had the fate of a return. The families bid their goodbyes, some with proud smiles, others with moistening eyes.

Leaving their nests at last was a part of growing up after all.

I felt a bitter void somewhere beneath all those flesh and bones as I took a last glance at all those accolades, medals and picture frames that embellished the walls. One of those pictures had me and a woman smiling at the camera drabbed in those traditional Gilaoan wedding robes. I wondered if any of our smiles were even real , or we just allowed it to grace our lips because the world wanted it. Others say that our love wasn't enough to last long, I believe there was no love at all, and maybe so does she.

With a sigh, I closed my eyes and shook my head. There was no use thinking of such things now.

It was not the first time for me to lock that part of my life behind those dark wood doors and go about my day. I was used to being away from home for as long as years if the circumstances pleased. I was, after all, a soldier and my life was defined to be at the borders.

That year, however, felt very strange. Every turn of the key in the keyhole wore off another layer of certainity, making it a hope before it was rendered a mere wish amongst a thousand others. I would not be able to see that place ever again, if fate so decided, but the memories of it would hang with me forever, and somehow that only made the void in me grow. Home is, after all, a home.

I sighed and turned around. Brooding wouldn't have made it any better.