The Clockmaker's Secret

In a quiet village nestled between two forgotten hills, there lived an old clockmaker named Elias. He was known not just for repairing clocks but for creating them—intricate, magical timepieces that never ticked too loudly and always told the truth.

One day, a traveler arrived in the village with a broken watch and sorrow in his eyes. He said nothing about himself, only handed Elias the watch and asked, "Can time be turned back?"

Elias examined the watch. It was unlike any he had ever seen—its hands moved backward, and the numbers were in a strange, unfamiliar script.

That night, Elias worked by candlelight. As he adjusted the gears, he noticed something odd: memories began to surface—memories that weren’t his. A woman dancing in the rain. A child laughing under autumn leaves. A war that never ended. A love that never began.

Elias realized the watch didn’t measure time. It remembered it.

When he returned the fixed watch, the traveler smiled for the first time. "Thank you," he whispered. "I just needed to remember who I was."

As he disappeared into the misty dawn, the village clock struck thirteen—a time no one had ever heard before.

Elias looked up at the sky and smiled.

Sometimes, fixing time meant more than just gears and springs.