Me~Ra~Kalito gave me one last look over. She also gave me a small jar of the pills—for when I wanted to eat—which I stowed in my pack. I still had to take one before every meal, but I rarely threw up. She then sent in Kamata to finish up my discharge.

“A letter was sent yesterday to your parents to let them know you’re coming home,” Kamata told me. “The best way for you to get home is by train. The next train to Pallamin from Centennial Station is in just over an hour.”

That would have been fine if I knew my way around the Sun City. “Would you have a map I could use to find the station?”

Kamata laughed. “I’m not just going to let you out into the city by yourself. Patient transport carriages are always leaving from the hospital to the station. I’ll get you on one of those.”

“Thank the stars. I was not in the mood to wander around the city trying to find the station.

“The laws around sixteen-year-olds in the army are murky, but you are still a minor, and you are in our care until you are with your parents in Pallamin. We have a duty of care, and we would never let a minor into an unknown city alone. I hate the fact that they allow children to fight in a man’s war, so while you are at the Capital Hospital, we will treat you as a normal sixteen-year-old. You are a child, not an adult. Also, I care about you. I don’t really want you getting lost.” Kamata said it with a kind, but stern look on his face.

It was odd to hear someone call me a child. I didn’t feel like one anymore. The war had forced me to be an adult. For months I had been treated as if I were an adult. For months I had been acting as if I were an adult. At some point, I stopped acting. At some point it was no longer pretend. I had no choice but to be an adult. Children get killed. Adults survive. And I wanted to survive.

I looked at Kamata. He was looking at me like I was a child. I didn’t like it. I told him that. “I don’t feel like a child.”

Kamata tilted his head to one side. “You are, though. You are still a minor by law.”

“Maybe by law I’m a child, but I don’t think I am one anymore.” I looked down at the floor. “Children don’t kill. Children don’t watch the life slip from someone’s eyes. Children don’t go to war.”

Kamata rested a hand on my leg. I didn’t know what else to say. Kamata didn’t seem to know either. We sat in comfortable silence for some time. I was left to retreat into my own mind.

In my mind, I found grief. Too much for a child. There were very few things in my life that I felt certain of; this was one of them. I was certain that even though my age said I was, I was no child.

“Rico, you need to get ready to leave.” Kamata pulled me from my own mind.

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I nodded. I had to dig through my bag to find all the parts of my dress uniform. The dress uniform used the same shirt and pant as the normal uniform, but I had to get out a sash, shoulder drape, and badges.

I had no problem changing in front of Kamata. He had helped me change enough times that he wasn’t seeing anything new. I started by tying my pale blue sash around my waist. There was a very specific way that it needed to be tied. A double knot with one side longer than the other. The longer side was then wrapped around the knot to make it look neater. The shoulder drape was just a triangular piece of fabric with a button. I secured the shoulder drape around my neck, letting it fall over my right shoulder. Next, I pinned my ribbon and the badge of the Ossory defence force—a gold sun badge with a sword in the middle—on my left side. Finally, I pulled my boots on. I carefully tucked my pants into the top of the boots.

When I was finished getting dressed, I made sure my pack was fully done up before putting it on my back.

“I’ll take you to the carriages now,” said Kamata.

“Thank you so much, Kamata.” He had done more for me than me or him knew at the time.

* * *

I got onto the train with no problems. The carriage I entered was nearly empty, apart from a woman sitting in the back corner. I took a seat near the front of the carriage. I put my bag on the shelf above the seats.

The train began to move. The city moved away from me. I would have to come back so I could explore it properly. It was such a beautiful city. Maybe I could come with Staggy one day.

The outside world shifted to fields and forests. It passed through a few towns and villages. The further I travelled, the more my excitement built. It hadn’t really hit me until that moment that I was really going home. I was really going to see my family again. I was going home!

A few hours later, the train pulled into the Pallamin train station. I collected my things and stepped onto the platform. Even just the air smelt familiar. Only a few other people got off with me. The train station was relatively empty.

I found the exit easily. I came out close to the centre of town. I stopped. The low homes with their thatched roofs were so familiar and comforting to me. I could name every store that lined the street. I just stood and watched the people bustle around the town. I just watched my town. It had been such a long time since I had been here. I had never been more excited in my entire life.

I walked as quickly as I could through the town, taking the familiar path through town. I walked past the schoolhouse, then the candy store, the pharmacy, and finally, I made it.

My house stood at the top of the hill. It was a small two-story home with a sloping thatched roof. The outside was painted a light yellow. Vines ran up the sides of the walls framing the arched windows.

I looked up the path that led to my house. “Why did my grandparents build our house on a hill?” I muttered to myself. It was really going to ruin the moment if I came to the door hopelessly out of breath. I looked up the hill one more time, then started my assent.

By the time I finally reached the top of the hill, I was out of breath and cursing my grandparents. I leant against the door frame for a few seconds.

I knocked on the door.

I had been waiting for this moment for months. My family was about to come to the door I had just knocked on. I felt the tears already forming in my eyes before I even saw any of my family.

The door was suddenly thrown open. And there, just inside the house, was my sister.

“Hi Calula.”

She just stared at me for a few seconds with her mouth slightly agape.

Then suddenly, with no warning, she threw herself onto me. “Rico! You’re here! You’re really here!” Calula squealed.