started to feel his cold fingers touching the
tip of my toes and then there was a sharp stabbing sensation. It felt like pins
and needles being jabbed into the entire bottom half of my body. I could see
his figure and at first I thought he was simply pulling himself to the surface. I
thought for a moment that Dom had come back from the dead and then at the
last minute he turned into a Skrav. The Skrav climbed over top of me and the
stabbing sensation paralyzed my entire body. I watched the Skrav shift into a
snake and wrap itself around me while its head twisted into the form of a
shark. I felt its gaping jaw grab me and pull me under. I was caught in inside
the undertow screaming. That was the moment I would wake up.
Six Days.
Aira and I sat alone at Dom’s memorial. Hayden was with his family.
They were teaching him some mourning ritual that involved painting his face
with a black streak, fasting, and lighting incense along with a number of
prayers spoken to praise the dead and pittance honoring fallen warriors. I’m
glad that his family respected Dom in that way.
“What if we see him die?” Aira cried, “what if we use the nexus and we
have to watch Dom’s last breath?” she was in tears. “The chance of that
happening are near impossible,” I said but she had already come up with a
reply, “the chances of us finding all the Skrav ships and changing our future
were said to be impossible too.” I sat speechless for a moment before telling
her that if that were to ever happen then we would honor him… we would
watch no matter how bad it hurt and we would honor him by living. We sat
for hours after and I held her in my arms. Before the night was over she
asked, “How do you live for the dead?” a question I felt unable to answer.
Five Days.
The city was more alive than ever. Music littered every street corner and
alley as people strummed, plucked, and sang in the streets. Even the ghettos
were full of dancers and singers both male, female, and in-between. Everyone
was celebrating. Everyone except Aira, Hayden, and I. “Just because you
can’t be happy right now doesn’t mean you should stay home or lay in bed,”
my mother had said before telling me I needed to go and be with the others.
My mother didn’t want me to spend my last days on Errikus sad and
depressed. She wanted me to remember the city for everything it was.
Aira and I decided that afternoon to stop wasting our last week on
Errikus and continue to explore the city the way our friend would have
wanted us to. We skipped school and using what little money we had we
found a scribe. For half of everything we had the furry Pok took our picture
and gave us two copies. Each of us would have one, something to remember
each other by. We wrote this on the back of each and signed our name, “We
may be on two ships but we will never be far apart.” With the last bit of
change I had left I bought Aira a small dagger. “Even if I can’t protect you,
this will.” She gave me my first kiss after that.
Night came and we watched the various ships come and go from the port
as the sky disappeared. “They look like fireflies,” she said. For the first time in
a long time you could see the stars above Errikus and there directly north a
wide empty black space where the Earth had once been. It was a reminded,
we didn’t belong here. It was a reminder what would happen should we stay
in one place for too long, a reminder that we would be leaving soon.
I wonder what the ‘Sons of Sol’ and the forefathers would be thinking
now. I wonder if this was the great and miraculous journey they had visioned.
Would they still hve let the Skrav destroy our sun? I don’t think anything the
nexus could show me would make me believe this was the right path that
humanity had been meant to be on. So many had lost their lives and yet here
we are celebrating and moving forward simply because it was all we really
could do. Maybe this
tip of my toes and then there was a sharp stabbing sensation. It felt like pins
and needles being jabbed into the entire bottom half of my body. I could see
his figure and at first I thought he was simply pulling himself to the surface. I
thought for a moment that Dom had come back from the dead and then at the
last minute he turned into a Skrav. The Skrav climbed over top of me and the
stabbing sensation paralyzed my entire body. I watched the Skrav shift into a
snake and wrap itself around me while its head twisted into the form of a
shark. I felt its gaping jaw grab me and pull me under. I was caught in inside
the undertow screaming. That was the moment I would wake up.
Six Days.
Aira and I sat alone at Dom’s memorial. Hayden was with his family.
They were teaching him some mourning ritual that involved painting his face
with a black streak, fasting, and lighting incense along with a number of
prayers spoken to praise the dead and pittance honoring fallen warriors. I’m
glad that his family respected Dom in that way.
“What if we see him die?” Aira cried, “what if we use the nexus and we
have to watch Dom’s last breath?” she was in tears. “The chance of that
happening are near impossible,” I said but she had already come up with a
reply, “the chances of us finding all the Skrav ships and changing our future
were said to be impossible too.” I sat speechless for a moment before telling
her that if that were to ever happen then we would honor him… we would
watch no matter how bad it hurt and we would honor him by living. We sat
for hours after and I held her in my arms. Before the night was over she
asked, “How do you live for the dead?” a question I felt unable to answer.
Five Days.
The city was more alive than ever. Music littered every street corner and
alley as people strummed, plucked, and sang in the streets. Even the ghettos
were full of dancers and singers both male, female, and in-between. Everyone
was celebrating. Everyone except Aira, Hayden, and I. “Just because you
can’t be happy right now doesn’t mean you should stay home or lay in bed,”
my mother had said before telling me I needed to go and be with the others.
My mother didn’t want me to spend my last days on Errikus sad and
depressed. She wanted me to remember the city for everything it was.
Aira and I decided that afternoon to stop wasting our last week on
Errikus and continue to explore the city the way our friend would have
wanted us to. We skipped school and using what little money we had we
found a scribe. For half of everything we had the furry Pok took our picture
and gave us two copies. Each of us would have one, something to remember
each other by. We wrote this on the back of each and signed our name, “We
may be on two ships but we will never be far apart.” With the last bit of
change I had left I bought Aira a small dagger. “Even if I can’t protect you,
this will.” She gave me my first kiss after that.
Night came and we watched the various ships come and go from the port
as the sky disappeared. “They look like fireflies,” she said. For the first time in
a long time you could see the stars above Errikus and there directly north a
wide empty black space where the Earth had once been. It was a reminded,
we didn’t belong here. It was a reminder what would happen should we stay
in one place for too long, a reminder that we would be leaving soon.
I wonder what the ‘Sons of Sol’ and the forefathers would be thinking
now. I wonder if this was the great and miraculous journey they had visioned.
Would they still hve let the Skrav destroy our sun? I don’t think anything the
nexus could show me would make me believe this was the right path that
humanity had been meant to be on. So many had lost their lives and yet here
we are celebrating and moving forward simply because it was all we really
could do. Maybe this
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