Airya didn't know how much time had passed, but when her mother stopped crying, she realized that her legs were beginning to cramp from the position she had been sitting in for so long. Her mom stood up, wiped her eyes, and looked down at Airya.

"Help me take his body to the pit."

Airya shook her head in protest, not saying a word while looking up at her mother as if she were some evil creature. She couldn't believe she wanted to get rid of her dad like that. She couldn't believe she wanted to throw him in with everyone else.

"Airya. We don't know about anything that has happened. We don't know if a touch of whatever got everyone else got him too. We don't know if that is what made him do this. The safest, best thing we can do is get his body out of here if this is where we plan to stay. Otherwise, it may affect us too."

Airya swallowed hard. She didn't think about how whatever it was that killed everyone else might have made their dad age himself to death. She thought it was his guilt. She nodded, ready to trust her mom and help her with whatever she needed to get past this day or this nightmare. Maybe getting rid of his body would be the end of this horrid dream. Maybe then she would wake up and everything would be fine and back to normal. She just had to do this one task.

She stood up next to her mother and watched to see what she should do next.

"I'm afraid to pull on his arms because they seem so small and like they might break. We may have to pull his legs," her mom said, studying her dad's body like it was just anyone's.

She walked around him, bent down, picked up a leg, and looked to Airya to do the same. Airya did.

They dragged him around and out of the aging room and into the throne room. He was heavy even though now he was so small. His eyes looked to the ceiling to the owl eye as they passed, opened and empty. Airya could not stop staring at his old worn face. The face of a man that she may have gotten to know in some other lifetime was now of a complete stranger.

"Airya. I need you to pay attention," her mom stopped walking. She was staring at her. Her eyes just as empty. "The stairs are coming up. It may seem gruesome, but remember that this isn't your dad. He’s gone and we have to get him to the pit. If you can, do not look at him." She started backward again, looking down behind her to watch for the steps. Airya did the same. When she saw where she had to step, she took each step down at the same pace as her mother. Everything seemed fine until she heard a crack and couldn't help but to look to her dad's corpse. His head had hit the steps. She looked back down behind her, continuing with her mom, feeling and hearing each thud as her dad's head continued to come down step by step with his hands above his head trailing behind them.

The walk through the terrain to the pit was hard physically when it came to trying to drag him through the grass and the dirt. Airya wanted to ask her mom for a break, but she knew that if she stopped, she might not have the courage to pick one of her legs back up and start again. She kept keeping her eyes behind her in the direction they were going, trying to remind herself repeatedly that it was just this one task. Once she finished this task, then it would all be over. Maybe she would wake up.

They made it. Her mom looked at Airya and then down at the bodies staring up at them from the pit, "Airya, start walking back to the temple."

Airya didn't say a word and obeyed. She only made it a few feet when she heard a thud.

On the way back to the temple, they both strolled. Airya was waiting to wake up from this nightmare. Her mother was staying far behind her as the sky began to lighten. Hethei landed on her shoulder out of nowhere, springing loose the faucet of dread as fear made her jump and then cry. She sealed it back up with a shake of her head and a wipe of her eyes. She just had to make it to the temple. She just had to make the steps back. Once she got there, she would have completed the task. Maybe then she would wake up.

She made it, and a slight feeling of relief misted her hot skin until she looked back and saw her mom heading away from the temple toward the village. Hethei rubbed the top of his beak against her ear. She leaned into the familiarity.

She took off her bloody tunic in the temple and tossed it into a corner, lowering herself into the river and rubbing her arms and legs to work the blood off her skin in a daze. Her dad's blood. It dissolved into the water until she couldn't see it anymore. More pieces of him fading away. She couldn't feel anything. She lowered herself even more until her nose was right above the surface and her mouth was underneath, letting the water carry away her hair, pulling the blood from each strand. She wondered if the river could also carry away all the memories and all the sweet kisses she had given her dad. She wondered if it could carry away her pain by taking away every memory she had of him.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

So many questions pounded in her head. How was she going to survive without him? How was she going to find the courage to go on without him? The courage to travel to other worlds? How could she ever even think of leaving her mother now? Why? Why did he do it? Why did he leave them?

She remembered what he had said, that he had failed. That he had failed all his people and could never be forgiven. That he was a coward.

Coward? She let the word trickle down her mind. Leaving them. Leaving her. That was cowardice. Maybe he was a coward.

She dipped her head fully in the water and sat there with her eyes closed, feeling the river’s current pushing her forward. Was that why he was always on her to be courageous and brave? Because he always saw himself as a coward? Because he didn't want her to be like him and live with regret?

Her lungs slowly began to burn as pressure built up in them. She rose and took in a breath of the temple air. Old and ancient. She licked the water from her lips.

Pulling herself out of the river, she walked naked to her room and pulled out another tunic from under her bed. This one was slightly smaller than the older one she had just tossed, but not by much. She pulled it on, the material sticking to her wetness. It only reached down just before her knees. It was a little tight. Her hair dripped water on the floor as she sat on her bed, Hethei at her side.

Her mom came in, sat beside her, opposite of Hethei, and started running her fingers through Airya's hair, untangling the wet strands from each other. "I don't know how to catch rats well, so I got us berries instead."

Airya nodded. They sat in silence as her mom continued to untangle her hair. One more task. She wondered if her mom thought the same. When her mom was done, she stood up and left the room. Airya followed.

Her mom had laid out the rock slab and the rock to crush the berries right by the river like they always had. Airya was relieved she had left the spoon by the throne away from them. She watched her mom go through the motions and slowly squash the berries. One berry. One task. Another berry. Another task. Third berry. A slip of the stone. Her mother dropped it and, with it, her composure. Her head fell to her hands, and she wept.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Airya’s mom cried.

"We will figure it out," Airya whispered.

Her mom dropped her hands and angrily looked at Airya, "You know nothing!" She said, "You know nothing. This is all my fault! All of it! This is the world getting back at me because I knew better. I knew better, but I did it anyway! I caused this to happen!"

Airya sat back, shocked at her mom's outburst. The only thing that kept her from fighting back with her mom like she usually would was seeing her mom's pain laid out in her eyes and twisted around her mouth, "How did you cause this to happen?" She asked, knowing that denying her mom's blame would only cause her to act out more. But maybe trying to get her to conclude that she was wrong about what she had said would be the only way to end her suffering and blame.

"I pushed them away. I pushed them all away. I’m just as bad as the Green Eyes. I’m just as bad. I pushed them aside. I... I..."

Airya realized she was talking about the Solocs, "You were scared, mom. You were scared for your people."

Her mom shook her head over and over again.

Airya leaned over and patted her back, trying to calm her down, knowing that they only had each other now.

"What are we supposed to do, Airya? What am I supposed to do? Now there is no one to teach. My dreams of starting a smarter, less traumatized civilization are gone. Paradise is gone. Did we bring all these people here just to kill them? There was supposed to be a bigger purpose. I was supposed to be for a bigger purpose. We were supposed to start something. We were supposed to make a whole new world without violence, worry, or hatred. We were supposed to live past our people from home for a reason."

Airya stopped patting her mother's back as her mom stood up. Airya looked up at her and saw her face set into a discontent frown, "I'm sorry, mom," she whispered.

"I'm going to bed, Airya. You should too."

She walked away and headed to her room. Airya did, too with Hethei flying right behind her.

Airya laid there emotionless. Her mother's words mixed with her father's played through her head. They both had felt guilty for coming here. Her mom had tried to make sense of it and make up for it by making this place better than the place she had left. Her father had tried making up for his guilt by raising her to be brave and bold and find new worlds. She couldn't believe she had never realized that before. Hethei perked up beside her looking alarmed. Ever since they had left her mother, he had been on high alert, sometimes popping in and out of portals as if keeping guard or checking on things. This time he disappeared into another one again.

Airya sighed in the silence and closed her eyes, trying, once again to fall asleep until a loud squawk from somewhere in the temple caused her eyes to shoot open. It was Hethei. She jumped out of bed, her heart breaking to pieces. She couldn't take another bad thing happening, especially to her friend. Running into the throne room, she ran past the thrones, following his sounds into the aging room. Her mother was sprawled on the floor, blood around her. Her hair was grey, long, and thin, covering her face. Her hand was now wrinkled and veiny pierced with the spear sticking out of it laying on its side.

Running to it, Airya grabbed the spear and yanked it out of her mom's hand. She threw it aside, and then searched for her mom's face in all the hair. All she found was another face of a stranger. Old, thin, and wrinkled, but with her mom's tired dead eyes and thin lips flattened in worry. Airya laid down next to her and let the tears take control. It wasn't long until she heard a foot hit the stone and sat up. Hope was stirring weakly in her but evaporated into nothingness when she saw it was Stilk.