In the quiet village of Willowmere, nestled between the hills and the misty forest, lived an old clockmaker named Eliot Grey. His shop, "Timeless Whispers", was filled with clocks of every kind — tall grandfather clocks that echoed through the night, tiny pocket watches that shimmered like stars, and peculiar ones that ticked backwards.

Eliot was a mystery to most. He rarely spoke, but when he did, his words seemed to know more than time itself.

One rainy afternoon, a curious girl named Lina, aged 14, stepped into Eliot’s shop. Her eyes sparkled with wonder as she watched the gears turn and pendulums swing.

"Why do your clocks tick backward?" she asked.

Eliot smiled faintly and handed her a strange-looking watch.
“This one doesn’t count time,” he said. “It finds moments you’ve lost.”

That night, Lina tucked the watch under her pillow, and as the rain tapped gently against her window, she dreamed. But this was no ordinary dream — she was back in a memory, one she had long forgotten: the last time she saw her older brother before he disappeared three years ago.

In the dream, he handed her a silver pendant with a tiny engraving she never noticed — an hourglass with wings. When Lina awoke, her heart raced. She rushed to her drawer and found the pendant. The engraving was real.

Determined to uncover the truth, she returned to Eliot. But the shop was empty. The clocks were gone. Only a note remained:

"Time is not always a straight line, Lina.
Some moments wait for you to return.
Find your truth.
— E.G."

And just like that, the watch began to tick again.