Her mom aged her again. Without giving Airya a choice, her mother took her to that room and aged her to fifteen. Her reasoning was that if she was going to go against her mother’s wishes and travel to other worlds, she needed to be older and wiser. Her mom still didn’t know what Airya had done or where she had gone when it came to her mother’s old home. Airya now knew how dangerous the world could be and being aged to fifteen didn’t make her feel any brighter or wiser when it came down to it.

“What do we do for the Solocs to help them?” she asked her mother. The wall in the Place of Yellow Dust reminded Airya a little of what it felt like in Ausrine. She couldn’t let it go. She did not understand why the Solocs hated them and why both of their kind lived separately on opposite sides of an invisible wall.

"We leave them alone. They do their own thing, and we don't try to change them. We aren't the green-eyed people that we ran away from. We are better than that and treat others better than that. When I was teaching Stilk how to communicate with me, he even stated that the Solocs weren't using this temple. They left and we let them leave when we came here. The Green Eyes wouldn't have let us leave or go somewhere else in the same world as them without us conforming."

Airya nodded, knowing her mother was wrong about the Green Eyes. When the Green Eyes had realized that there was no winning, they had put up a wall to divide them, even though they were all going to die of the same fate.

"Please don't tell me you’re leaving and going to another world."

Airya stopped walking away from her mother and shrugged her shoulders.

"Really, Airya? You just changed. Why don't you at least wait a few days? You should get used to your older body first."

Airya kept walking.

She didn't want to turn around and see her mother's rage. But she didn't need to because she heard it in her voice, "There is a new tunic in your room. Just know that tomorrow we will be doing a whole day’s worth of studies. New concepts, new words, new everything!"

Airya ignored her and picked up her speed.

Walking into her room, she lifted her old now too-short tunic off over her head and took the bigger one off her bed to put it on. Then she reached out desperate to get to the place where she always felt the most comfort. She wanted to make sure that she could still return there even though she had changed. A hole opened and she smiled. Hethei rubbed his beak against her neck as if he knew where they were going. She walked through.

Grass brushed against her bare feet. A nice cool breeze came off the lake sweeping her hair back. Hethei flew off of her either annoyed by her hair or excited to be at the place they loved the most.

Wandering over to the lake, she sat down on the edge and looked down at herself again in the water wondering if she looked any different here than she did in Ausrine. She had the same yellow eyes and heart-shaped face. The only difference was that she looked a little more relaxed. She pulled her new tunic up away from her legs and saw the scars from the day that she had gotten her powers. They were still there, only a little faded and now stretched a little further. She didn't know why she had been expecting them to disappear.

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There was a panicked screech. She looked up searching for Hethei in the sky to make sure it wasn't him. He glided toward her above the lake, but then she heard the sound again. It was coming from inside the forest. Hethei flew right past her toward the noise. Airya got herself up and tried to run but stumbled and fell. She got back up again awkwardly but ended up tripping many times as she followed Hethei into the forest where the sound erupted again.

The trees around her seemed smaller than the last time they were in the forest. They blurred past her as she increased her speed using some of the trees to help keep her balance and keep her moving fast. This was the furthest they had ever gone. They reached a place where the trees were scarce and where in the middle stood a lady with a long robe, maybe to cover herself from the breezy shade in the forest. She also had a necklace of what looked like talons and feathers. She was holding a struggling, screeching, writhing owl in her hands while walking it over to a small fire that looked like it had been burning for a long while. The fire stretched up high to the sky. It made the woods smell of ash. Airya began to taste it as her mouth went dry.

Airya moved forward without a second thought prepared to save the horrified owl, but Hethei dug his beak into her shoulder taking a nip. She would have gasped and given herself away, but that was before the pain she had just adorned with the aging spear. Instead, she looked at Hethei wondering what his problem was, and saw his eyes widen trying to communicate something to her in his calm.

Hethei was rarely calm so she took a second and tried to piece together what he was trying to tell her as the lady brought the owl closer to the fire and the panicked screeches turned to ones of pain. Hethei still didn't budge. He stared at her calmly and concentrated as if he wanted her to be just as calm. But why would he be OK when one of his brethren from his home was getting put in flames? Why was he ok with the echoed pain off the trees from the owl’s screams? Hethei was never one to completely try to stop her from doing anything. He especially wasn't one to hurt her to do so. She had to trust him. She nodded and his tense non-budging stance relaxed as he turned to the fire to watch. Airya did the same breathing steadily, trying to keep herself from stopping the lady.

The fire rose, blasting heat against Airya's face. It reminded her of the boiling river at night. All she could think about was what happened to the dead rats when they were in it. She knew her mom had told her of this force. an almost boiling water dancing in the air bringing brilliant colors of wrath and rage. The woman dropped the owl who had completely lost it in a panic trying to save himself with all his might into the flames.

The owl went silent right away and Airya watched closely expecting to see the feathers burn and boil, but nothing like that happened. The owl just vanished not leaving a speck of dust behind to float to the bottom of the flames.

The lady hit her hands together a few times, brushing away any residue as the fire died down quickly in front of her, leaving an empty black circle in the middle of the forest floor. Airya watched as the woman bent down and picked up a large basket and walked into the forest leaving many of her things behind which showed Airya that she had planned to come back.

Once the woman was out of sight, Hethei flew off of Airya's shoulder and down to the black ash on the ground examining it. Airya followed him.

"What happened, Hethei? Why didn't you want me to save him?" Airya whispered.

Hethei flew off again, this time landing near some of the woman's knickknacks and belongings. Airya went over and bent down to take a look with him. There was an old and worn book that had been turned to a page full of black scribbles that all ran together. Next to that were different colors of dust and plants stored in clear holders. There was also a beautiful shiny sharp spear, a small bowl made of rock, and a small prison she could see into with a small door all covered in sharp points as if it was always meant to cause pain. Airya looked at Hethei's cut-up feet and the scars that were aged past his newest ones that matched hers. They were short and old deep cuts. She looked back to the small prison.

"Is this what happened to you?"

Hethei looked down at his feet and slowly waddled to Airya to rub his beak on her leg.

Airya took her finger and ran it down his head to his back gently wanting nothing more than to take away any torment or pain that he had encountered years ago.