My name is Peter Wargner, and I am just waking from an endless sleep.

  When I look up, I am surrounded by a couple of humans with guns. I see the face of a woman, rushing towards me with so much concern. She says her name is Aunty Petti, and she is here to take care of me. A staunch, thickly built man asks me what my name is. He seems like the commander in charge and reminds me of General Olsen, the commanding officer of the program where I was deployed to Galsong-7 for the first time ever. It seems like eons ago now.

  I am also surrounded by people I used to look like. I feel as though I have stumbled into the future.

  "We found your distress signal. It was wane but we could locate it. How long have you been here for? What's your name?" The woman named Aunty Petti asks. Her Bob bounces over her shoulders and she looks comical manipulating her brows like that.

  I open my mouth you speak but all the energy is drained out of me. I want to say my name but my mouth does not move. I want to tell my story, to talk about how I had been deployed to this program along with other teenagers from my space exploration program, but strength fails me. The only question, the only thing on my mind is how wondrous this is. How have I survived? How has my device kept glowing for all these years when I thought I had been lost forever? Was this a dream? I try to use the sign language and sound, the language of the Hiermochts story, to communicate with them since I could not speak. But even this fails me. My hands fall to my sides weekly like a Ziploc bag filled with milk. As they all scurry over me again, I slip into a deep sleep.

  When I wake up, there is a girl and a guy standing in the room I am in. They are conversing in hush tones.

  "Oh my God, Austin. I can swear that it is him. He was the one I saw in that vision." The girl said. Her blue eyes are almost aflame with excitement, but the boy looks solemn, as though he was sore about being left out of something important. He folds his arms across his chest.

  "What else did you see?", He asks, curious.

  The girl thinks for a moment and it gives me enough time to look at her. She is pretty, and she has the kind of energy that makes me feel relaxed about how strangely, I feel as though I have always known her.

  Her forehead is still squeezed in concentration after what I have gauged to be a minute.

  "Wow. That's odd." She finally said.

  "What is?" The boy asked impatiently.

  "I can't seem to remember anything else except seeing the boy."

  "Emma, are you being serious right now?" The boy asked again, exasperated.

  Emma. Her name was Emma. It was as though I had a distant memory of her that was suppressed, hidden far beyond the reach of my subconscious. It was so frustrating trying to rack up the nonexistent memory. I felt like an Alzheimer's patient mourning the slow degeneration of my neurons, counting down till they had all depleted and I could not remember my name or how to pee.

  "I'm serious. I can't remember for the life of me." The girl said, her eyes wide open with disbelief.

  The boy ran His hands through his head. "This is crazy. First, we stumble across the freak show garden in a cave with strange things. He feeds you a bean, this old creature you have never met before. And you actually eat it. Then, you fall unconscious or die for a minute or whatever because I actually thought you died. What the hell is going on?"

  The boy had begun this nervous rambling. It seemed the girl named Emma was used to it because she listened with understanding. However, I was too excited to keep my new discovery to myself."

  "Mundas." I croaked. I almost could not recognize my voice. It sounded like the scraping of iron on concrete. The weird sound sandpaper makes against a smooth wall. The clash of cymbals in a haphazard non-rhythmic manner. It sounded like paper cuts, frozen pizza without the taste, the groan of a machine long abandoned. I suppose that was what it was meant to sound like. My vocal cords had been long abandoned and yes, it had been stretched thin the first time I had been stuck on the island. I knew it was illogical to shout on a far away planet because no one would hear me, but I couldn't help it. It was irrational but sometimes the loneliness was so fierce that I felt I had to scream at least, to hear my voice pierce through layers of the silence so I would not lose my mind. I sent out my signals and I screamed. It was my screaming that brought the Hiermochts to me. The Hiermochts I eventually befriended and which this strange girl and her male friend are currently speaking about.

  When I spoke, I saw the girl's eyes widen in horror, and that of the boy. Their skin became pale, bone white, I feared the blood had been sapped out of them.

  "He talks." The boy said, dumbfounded. His speech was slow, as though he had seen a ghost and his words had difficulty escaping the grips of his palate. "Should we tell Major Santorez and the others?" He asked the girl named Emma.

  "No." She replied with an authoritative stance. "We can handle it. And I want to talk to him, stay with him for a while. I feel we have a lot of things to tell each other."

  "You've never met him before." The boy said, eyeing her suspiciously.

  "Austin. Trust me, okay? We have been through this before. Trust my decisions. I'm not a baby." She said. Calmly.

  So his name was Austin.

  The boy called Austin grudgingly accepted to mind his business while Emma took several tentative steps towards me. I wondered what she thought? Did she fear that I might spring up from the bed and attack them like a wild beast? I was just like them several years ago. It was like the sea for centuries but I was them, wearing jumpers and space suits, excited about discovering new life forms. Until everything ceased to be as I knew it.

  "Hello." She said softly as she sat beside me and took my hands. I withdrew it sharply. The human touch felt odd. For the first time in a really long time, I was touching soft palms. Actual flesh. Not the scaly had claws of the Hiermochts when I taught them how to give handshakes, high fives and fist bumps. The girl looked sad that I did not want her touching me. But I did not know how to explain that I was more awed than repulsed. I was reacting from a place of being underprivileged, from a place of longing.

  She went again. "Hello."

  I didn't like the sound of my voice earlier so I simply waved instead. She was excited to see me do that.

  "Mundas." I managed to say again, despite my initial refusal to talk. It was important that I let her know. He was the kindest of beings. As I began to speak, it seemed my voice and throat had begun to loosen up, like a machine part being oiled and renewed. It didn't at all sound like my former self but it was far better than the first frog like sounds I made.

  "Who is this Mundas you speak of?" Emma asked.

  I took a deep breath. "I heard him say you went into a cave." I indicated Austin with my chin. "You were given a bean by an elderly man? His name is Mundas. He is the eldest of the Hiermochts and he presides over them. Much like a king, or a chief. But he always stays hidden so it isn't much of an autocracy."

  "You call them Hiermochts?" Austin asked.

  "That's what they are." I replied flatly. The boy called Austin did not seem very pleased with my answer. Emma was beside herself with so much excitement.

  "I think that is a beautiful name. What do you know about them? You see, our ship just crashed and landed Herr and we haven't really gotten around to acclimatizing to the environment. Can you tell us?"

  I smile wistfully. Remembering how I had once crash landed and ended up here for years.

  "They are herbivores..." I begin.

  "Herbivores?" I saw a little female hiermocht eating worms from her hair.

  "Those were not real worms. They are a special form of plants that have mutated and developed the ability to be motile, and mobile. There are a lot here."

  The girl looks towards Austin, her eyes honing. "Austin, it is just like the turtle-shrub plant I sat under. The one beside the pond. It was a plant after all!"

  "Sometimes they can be really difficult to differentiate."

  There was a small silence we all shared.

  Emma spoke up again. "how long have you been here?"

  I shrug. That is when I realize I am hooked up to a makeshift drip. It was probably Aunty Petti's doing. I hurriedly remove the plaster and escape yanking off the needle by only a small measure.

  "What are you doing?" They both ask simultaneously, alarm written all over their face. Emma looked at me like I had gone crazy.

  "I can't work with this sort of treatment anymore. I don't think my body is suited for it. Even if it is, I have to slowly ease into it, I think. I don't want to die. You don't feed a starved person by introducing them to heavy foods. You have to start light."

  "Why isn't your system used to what we have with us?" Austin asked.

  I smiled, but inwardly, I rolled my eyes. "My system isn't used to it because I have not been feeding on what you have been feeding on. I eat what the Hiermochts eat and I treat myself the way they treat themselves now. Well, it all has a limit. I don't have the same anatomy with them but my body is configured to not reject what I am offered by them. So I guess it is safe to say I am alike to them in so many ways. That's what happens when you live with a particular person for a long long time. Your life force mixes with theirs and you become them. They, in turn, become you."

  They fall silent again. I presume everyone is turning what I have said around in their heads. It is not that it bothers me. I am only thinking of how good it feels to be among humans again.

  "You're bleeding," Emma says. The spot where I took off the cannula has begun to spurt blood.

  Her eyes grow wide when she sees that my blood is a pale pink that almost melts into white. I want to tell her that of course, this is who I am now. I have an entire cross section of budding plants across my back. I am now one with the environment in Galsong-7. It has become me, and I, it.

  To stop the blood flow, I simply spit into the spot where the cannula left a mark. Then I massage my saliva into it. Quickly, it covets to reveal a tiny, almost invisible greenish mould. From the corner of my eyes, I see Austin cringing. He is probably repulsed by the fact that I am rubbing something as disgusting as spittle into my wound. But humans haven't realized this yet. All that we need to heal ourselves is contained inside of our bodies.

  Sometimes I catch myself referring to these two as humans. Over time, I have dissociated myself from that noun. I struggled with what you might call an identity crisis through the easy periods when the Hiermochts began to get friendly with me.

  I would play with some of them my age but I could never completely integrate. There was an incident once. I had been playing with a male Hiermochts. He was 5'6, almost as tall as me who was 5'5. During the course of our little game, he delved into a body of water.

  "I'm so sorry." Emma whispered.

  "For what?" I asked, perking up.

  "In the cryostasis pod, where we found you... we saw..." She began. She couldn't quite complete the statement because she was flustered and so sorry for me. I sat there, listening, as though I did not already know what she was about to say.

  "We found your friend." Austin finally jutted in. "Your space travel partner, apparently. We found his remains. You were too unconscious at that point."

  I nodded and swallowed. "Winston. I've been with him.

  I was not completely unconscious when Aunty Petti and Major Santorez found me. I was sentient enough to feel myself being pulled away from the pod. To see Winston's skeleton slowly wilting away.

  How could I begin to tell these two that I was there when it all began? How could I tell them that when I had awoken, before I discovered the cryostasis pod could be symbiotic– that it could attach to plant life on the planet and feed us– Winston had only been feeding on the supplies we were given on earth and he eventually died?

  On that day, I had retired to sleep in the pod after a long day of scavenging for plants that were edible. Winston had as usual, adamantly refused to follow me or even taste some of the ones I brought back. He was living on roughly 300 calories a day, and this continued to deplete. He was usually so weak, he would be unable to leave the pod. Yet, he was the one who speculated that I would die soon, perhaps from an attack by the life forms on the planet, or by ingesting a poisonous plant one of these days. He felt it was safer to remain in the pod.

  That night, he had eaten the last bits of his energy bar. He was so weak. The previous day I had squeezed some juice out of the plant I had studied and eaten, and was 100% sure was safe. I poured the juice into his mouth and he turned erratic, screaming at me to let him die. He did not want to sprout leaves out of his skin like I had begun to.

  It was a large, loud altercation. Winston displayed energy like I had never seen him. He huffed and puffed, foamed at the mouth and screamed till angry veins popped out on his forehead. I should have known this was the sign that he was about to die. I read some texts while I was on earth about the ancient disease called tuberculosis that wiped out a great number of people in the 18thand 19thcentury. It was a little illness with a simple cure hut before they realised this, they had a lot of speculations about its behavior. From attributing it to humid areas, to people being too bubbly, spirited and almost effervescent in their personalities, there were a myriad of cures prescribed. However, what stood out for me was the way in which the illnesses seemingly enriched. Before their gross, cough wrecked, fatal end, tuberculosis patients displayed high energy, a seemingly neurotic love for life. They attended parties and lit up everywhere. What Winston displayed was similar to it. It was as though the candle of life burned wild and fiercely, before it finally flickered off and descended into a pitch black darkness.

  We slept off eventually and the next day, I was horrified to find Winston's still, cold, lifeless body lying beside me. I decided to leave him be, just like he always wanted, but also for him to become one with the pod which was one with the plants.

  The plants began to feed off him but at the same time, his body inevitably putrefied. There was a rancid, pungent odour that stretched all the way from the pod to miles around it. I stayed outside it for weeks, and that was how I met Mundas and the rest of the villagers. As all these happened, I continued to give out the distress signals, hoping faintly that one day, someone would find it and come to get us. It was a far stretch.

  "What happened to him?" Austin asked, cutting into my reverie. I hadn't realised I had been thinking to myself all along and not telling the story to them. I signed. Talking with Hiermochts was easier. I could just sign them if I was too tired to male sounds with my mouth, and they would understand.

  "He died of starvation." I say.

  "And you survived?"

  "Austin!" Emma hissed.

  Was he insinuating that I killed my mate?

  "I would like to be alone, please." I say to no one in particular. They both get the cue and begin to leave.

  "I'm so sorry, Peter." Emma says.

  "How did you know my name?" I ask, surprised.

  Emma smiles just as Austin leaves the door. "I dreamed of you."

  ****

  When they left, I took some time to sift through my feelings and think. I wanted to think about everything that had happened, particularly my discovery, but my mind continued to circle back to Winston. I thought of him, a lively excited kid. We were both happy to have been selected for the first ever space exploration mission. I cannot remember my class year now as pretty much all of my memories have melted into pulp. Some have disappeared into the air to become something intangible. We were young, we were free, and we were ambitious. We were crazy about plants and wildlife, especially about those on planet foreign to us. Nothing excited me more than the news of the discovery of an element on a planet that indicated that there was life. Plant life, extraterrestrial life, it did not matter. I just wanted thongs to live, just as I did. This was all before the crash, before we were lost, left alone, abandoned. Or perhaps, before we were searched for, for years on end, and never found.

  ***

  When I awake, I discover that I have been moved into another room. It is sterile, white, and there are a lot of lights. I wonder how long it took them to set up something like this in the hovel. I know it is the hovel because I can smell it. Places on Galsong-7 all have their peculiar smells.

  The man called Major Santorez was standing in front of me. I was strapped to a chair. When they realised I was awake, they unstrapped me. I saw all the members of the team, including the girl named Emma and the boy named Austin. They all had on their special suits. Some carried weapons, and I could see it even though they tried to make it covert, stealthy. This major did not trust me just yet. It was time for a thorough interrogation.

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  "Who are you?" The major asked. His legs were spread and His hands were folded behind him in an authoritarian stance. He furrowed his brows and stroked his moustache from time to time. I made a mental note to tell Austin that it was possible for them to find materials with which they could shave here.

  "I am Peter Wargner."

  The major was silent.

  "A human." I added for good measure.

  "I can see that." He said, eyeing me. "You speak English too fluently."

  I wondered how that was a plausible sign of my humanity. Even captcha, a method of human recognition used in the past was not so obtuse.

  "How did you get here?"

  "I was deployed for the first ever space exploration mission."

  "That was seven years ago."

  I shrug, but inwardly, my heart does a leap. Had it been so long?"

  "I have lost track of time since I got here. I use a new system now." I was referring to the time system of the Hiermochts.

  He eyes me suspiciously again. "Your case was a closed one."

  "I know."

  As though he still wants proof, he asks me what sector I was deployed under.

  "Botany and agriculture." I reply, bored. "We were 5. I don't know where the rest are, but I shared a pod with Winston Rogers. And he is dead."

  "From starvation." Austin adds.

  Everyone tunes to look at him incredulously and Major Santorez orders him to keep shut.

  "It was our job to categorize new species discovered on the planet. To assign them a phylum, class, all of that stuff. But you see, that failed. I eat them now instead."

  "I see humor is your response to a lot of life's questions, Peter Wargner." Major Santorez said, taking a few paces across the room.

  I shrug. "When it comes down to it, you have to do that to survive. You know, save your sanity from disintegrating." I say, giving him a wide grin.

  "One of the natives told me you had a raid carried out here." I say.

  Major Santorez stops pacing. He suddenly becomes interested. "What did you say?"

  "One of the natives told me you neutralized, captured and forced them out of the place they have always called home. Why did you do that?"

  Major Santorez looked dumbfounded.

  I raise my hands in mock surrender. "Don't think too much about tracking them all to crucify them then use them for your weird experiments. There are still survivors, and I have learnt to communicate with them through the mediums we share like the air, the trees and the little vibrations of the land."

  The major is shaken.

  "You aren't in trouble, sir. The Hiermochts are not a troublesome people as you presume. They don't seek revenge, as you presume. They just want their normalcy back.

  "I have lived on this planet for seven Years, as you did well to point out. I have eaten the same food as them, I have adapted to the habitat, survived, interacted with these species, gone along with their customs and peculiar ways of life, while also teaching them little bits of what I know. There is Mundas, the eldest of them all. He is kind, thoughtful, a wonderful leader everyone on earth would have killed to have. He loves children and keeps the peace of this place. Now, you may say this is a little tale I am telling just to humanize them and make you empathize with them regardless of how dangerous they are. Maybe that is the case. Maybe it is not. But what is not a lie is the fact that Mundas saved my life. He saw that I was not one of them, yet he gave me the food they had, he let me sleep on their land, he taught me to speak with them, and he made me feel seen and understood. Mundas is the kindest person I have ever met.

  "Now, you have been placed in the same situation as he. In fact, you are even on the attacking side. You came into their land unannounced. Instead of seeking to understand the owners, you have decided to demonize them and take their land for yourself. You have captured and treated them as wild, primitive animals, even when they have considerable technological advancement. You are only doing this because they seem weaker than you, they are different from you, and you do not understand them. Can you not see? Mundas was faced with the same paradox, the position of meeting something unfamiliar. Yet he treated me with kindness. Humans, we think we are the superior species." I chuckle. "Perhaps we ought to think again."

  The room is filled with silence when I finish speaking. Even Major Santorez has slumped his shoulders and taken on a more reserved atmosphere.

  "So how did you end up in the cryostasis pod again?" Major Santorez asks.

  I nod. "I was waiting for that question. Five nights ago, before your space ship crashed and brought you here, we had a raid BY another species of Hiermocht. This is a large planet. Just like earth, there are kingdoms, countries, continents, stretching far and wide. It doesn't hurt that Galsong-7 is twice the size of earth. We get attacks too. It was a night of five moons. Luckily, not too many of us were killed WS we all went into hiding. I went into the cryostasis pod after being hit. I was bleeding, and I decided to try out my SOS device I had brought from earth. I had given up a long time ago because I presumed I would never be found again by anyone from earth. Oh well, here you are. It was such an impossibility. I must have passed out there. The bad news is, they are going to return. They only succeeded in looting this time. But it could be worse next time. The next five moons, they would appear."

  I see Emma's eyes widen.

  "There were three moons on the night we crashed. I thought it never changed except to become full moons on rare occasions? That's what my text says."

  "Well, text books aren't real life." A blonde, fierce looking girl scoffs. Her name tag reads Alyonna.

  "Since attacks are not such a rarity here, why did you make it seem like we were so evil to have captured and taken this place for our own survival?" the major asks.

  I shrug. "You further deepened our collective trauma."

  Major Santorez sighed, then strengthened his resolve again by straightening his back and jutting his chin. "We will get ready for the attack and join forces and ammunition with the natives. Thank you, Peter Wargner, for enlightening us. For now, my priority is to keep everyone of us safe, and that includes the natives. I have no idea what these attackers are like. The fact that they are returning a second time means they would be coming back with their devices and ammunition doubled, reinforced. They are more prepared than we are. And it is for this reason that all our energy would go towards creating a defense, rather than a front to attack. We will shield ourselves."

  "Sounds cowardly." Alyonna said.

  Major Santorez turned to her. "Why don't you fight on behalf of all of us then? Major Santorez said, glaring at her. Alyonna was quiet after that.

  The group dispersed and Emma stayed behind to talk with me.

  "You said you dreamed of me." I asked as she settled into a chair opposite me.

  "Yes, from the bean Mundas gave me. I can't remember anything else apart from you."

  I smile.

  "What were you like? On earth I mean."

  "A regular boy. I grew up on a farm in Oregon. Milking cows, making fresh pickle juice. That was it. I wasn't really into that fancy, science tech stuff. But I knew my plants and animals quite well. As well as I knew the lines on the back of my hand. Botany and agriculture. That was why I was selected."

  "Interesting." Emma said. "What was your family like?"

  "Red heads." I say, laughing. " Yea, I know you're surprised. I was not born with purple hair. We have strong Scottish genes so it was red hair, freckles, horses. Now, I'm not being stereotypical but I've never been to Scotland and that was all I heard about us. Anyway, my mum, dad, and two sisters all looked like me. When I was 17, I got really pissed about being called a flame head at school so I dyed it purple instead. Surprisingly, it turned out looking pretty good. Not like I expected at all. I thought it would become a flop like most things in my life then."

  Emma laughed. "I grew up alone. Adopted."

  "Did you like it?" I ask, cocking my head.

  "Hell no. It sucked. I was lonely most of the time."

  "Ouch."

  "Yea. But I don't like to count it as a loss all the time. It allowed me to introspect, come into myself. I had enough free time to read, play, and think about a lot of things. I don't think I would have been the Emma I am today if I didn't have nonchalant parents who left me to my own devices. The glass is half full over here."

  I smile, recalling the old, hackneyed phrase about positivity.

  "Everything I have learnt about this planet is different from what I am encountering. It is amazing, how much we don't know. The universe is so vast, and I guess I was crazy for thinking a couple of textbooks and research material could cover all that the planet represents. Some things are similar, like the description of some of the species. Rainbow blood? Translucent skin? I saw that. But then I guess the downside was that a lot of information was left out. For example, I had no idea the moons could get up to five! That would practically be daytime, I reckon."

  "Yes." I reply. The Attacker Hiermochts choose to strike then because there is hardly any hiding place when the whole sky is lighted up. But hey, there's a good side. The glass is half full, right? When the moons are up to five, the sky has a magical, ethereal glow. Nothing like you've ever, trust me. It is such a shame that it is also used for the purpose of battle. It is such a grim contrast. The beauty and gore, splendor and blood shed."

  "That sounds...poetic." Emma said.

  "If you look at it that way. Perspectives."

  "So they are herbivores. They get all of their sources from plants?"

  "Yes. Although, like I mentioned earlier, these plants present as different forms and could have different compounds that are tailored to meet all their dietary needs. Dietary needs too."

  Emma smiled. "You really fit into this place."

  "Like gloves on a skin. It wasn't easy at first of course, but now I have difficulty identifying myself as completely human. I feel like I don't belong anywhere sometimes. I could be dead to my parents and sisters for all I know."

  Emma's face fell. But then, it lighted up again. "Hey, maybe not. We are here, right? We found you after all these years. Major Santorez, Aunty Petti and her fiancé, every single one of us are working towards getting out of this planet. This was not our destination you know."

  I nod, absentmindedly. I wish I could tell her the thought of leaving here doesn't excite me so much. I feel like there is nothing for me there. I would die, if I got back to earth. The plants on my skin could only survive on Galsong-7 food. Taking myself and all my components back to earth would mean a part of me would die. That part was important. I had spent hours, weeks, months, years, daydreaming about going home, churning it over and over in my mind till it completely lost all appeal in the face of my desolation. I suppose, what I truly felt was a deep sinking sense of dismay. It had interfered with my ability to have hope and believe in anything outside what I was used to, what I could see, feel, touch. I had crafted a new reality for myself.

  "Yea. I understand.", I say to Emma. She is quite sensitive because I watch as her expression changes, I see that she deliberately doesn't pursue the topic of leaving.

  "How did you learn how to communicate with them?"

  "It was slow. We started by introductions, and it took a lot of me watching as they went about their business. That gave me an insight into how they behaved with each other, requested things, greeted, expressed their joys, displeasures, hunger, etcetera. So yea, going by my estimations, it took about a year. Mundas was really instrumental in teaching me how to speak with them. He was patient. This is how you say hello."

  I gesticulate, linking my fingers in a clasp, and bowing down with my chin touching my chest. Emma did the same, getting it perfectly OK the first try.

  I grinned. "Even I wasn't so fast. Great job. You're on your way to becoming a true hiermocht. Maybe queen and defender someday." I placed an imaginary crown on her head and she acquiesced by bowing and waving daintily.

  "Maybe, maybe not. I don't have a family back on earth or friends, or pretty much anyone that needs me. Maybe I'll do fine here."

  The conversation was getting grim with the both of us nudging our pain to the surface through our words yet masking it, slathering layers of smile and laughter on top of it, overpowering the stench of it with a faux aura of jokes and joy.

  "How do you say, 'Good morning', 'Thank you', 'goodbye', 'you're beautiful'. You know, the basics? I would like to surprise Mundas one of these days." She says.

  "That would make him really happy."

  I teach her the words, the sign, how it is spoken with sound and punctuated with the hands.

  Emma picks up the words really fast. She is fluent, although not so fluent with making the sounds. She said it made her feel primal and powerful when she grunted and chortled and ululated. I smiled mostly. I could not remember the last time I was so unabashedly happy. Humans were a bit difficult to communicate with now, but they still had their charm as always. Emma made me the happiest I had ever been in a long while.

  "How are new Hiermochts born? I have a theory they are asexual? Maybe the plans bud off from their heads and fall off independently at the due date?"

  I can't help but laugh. A boisterous, knee slapping laugh that makes me cough and sputter. "No," I say, breathless. It is actually much more complicated than that. "They use an oviparous system, actually. But like I said, it is complicated. Reproduction is a really big deal here. Much like you would expect a rare eclipse on earth. The odds are slim. It is a delicate, highly anticipated occurrence."

  Emma's face is filled with interest. She inches closer to me, eager and ready to drink up all the information I hold. "Easy tiger." I say.

  "Come on! What's it like? Fill me in!" She shrieks. She sounds for a moment, like a little child looking forward to treats.

  "Okay, so it works like this. The eldest in any given settlement is usually in charge of watching over the eggs. In this case, as you already know, it is Mundas. Sure. The children also flock around him a lot. I guess it's because there is something about him, an aura that convinces them that anything he does is for the good of posterity. For their sustenance and continuity. You gotta be around anyone who's going to give you a chance to live.

  "Anyway, you mentioned that you saw him in the caves?"

  "Yes," Emma replies eagerly. "We stumbled in there by chance."

  I give her a knowing smile. "I don't think so, Emma."

  "How do you mean?"

  I shrug. "I do not believe anything happens by mere chance. It is all predestinated."

  I see her brace up for an argument and I immediately deflect it. "No, we aren't doing that. Come one. If we begin to argue about fate and our role in its realization, if we are mere pawns on earth or independent gods, we would never leave here. It is just an argument that ends in a cul de sac. Nothing. A dead end."

  Emma gives me a smug look. "Alright. But anytime you're there, I would always be up for that. I love to lay out points, counterpoints, separate facts from fallacy, and you know, converse with people."

  I nod in agreement. "Yes. It is a good way to stretch your mind, to think and reevaluate why you believe what you believe. Well, till later then. For now, Let's talk about how new Hiermochts are born, created from the elixir in the yolks."

  "What are the eggs like?" Emma asks.

  I am once more filled with excitement, even at the mere thought of it. My heart begins to thump loudly and I can feel my pupils dilate. Or not. I am just convinced that my radiance must be palpable. This topic makes me so excited. It is almost embarrassing.

  "The eggs? I literally meant what I said. The yolks are made up of a rare elixir that restores life. But as a rule, it is not used in this settlement. The eggs are strictly for the new generation of Hiermochts because it is very easy for them to become an endangered species due to how difficult it is to rear. The elixir is purple in colour. It also has little white speckles that are made of similar components of a star. It has three layers and the innermost is pure gold. Surprisingly, gold on this planet gets discarded, in the same way you would discard a placenta and umbilical cord on earth. Okay, sometimes those things are used for cosmetic purposes. However, in this place, gold is useless to them. It baffles me how we fought and killer ourselves over gold back on earth. I read several stories you may classify as myths. Stories of how the entire kingdom got brought down because the kings went after cursed gold and riches or stumbled across fool's gold. Whatever. It is odd, the contrast between two places, the kind of things that are valued. If I had to choose, you already know. I'd take this planet. "

  Emma chuckled. "In the same vein, animals that are taken for granted in some places, are worshipped as a symbol of God in others. There is really no one way to do anything in the world, I presume. Next question I'd about the formation of the eggs. What is the first step of the process?"

  "Well, it involves the female hiermocht undergoing what is similar to a rest period. Have you heard of cultures in the past who used to have a fattening room for newly weds? It was basically a place where the bride could stay quarantined. They do nothing all day except eat, drink, and sleep. They must be sedentary because coming out looking plump and overfed was a mark of success and health. Oh well, we have something similar but it isn't particularly grotesque. The female hiermocht is kept isolated to prevent her from getting any disease that may affect the eggs. She is also well fed and taken care of. During the season where the eggs are due to be formed, a lot of preparation goes in around here. I was lucky to witness one.

  "The entire clan goes in search of a special kind of rodent that possesses an enzyme the egg cannot do without in its flesh. When we find it, the female Hiermochts reeds on it for a long time. She consumes tons and tons of it without it, the eggs are laid hollow."

  "Wow!", Emma exclaimed.

  "Yes, it is indeed fascinating. But that isn't all. The atmosphere in the settlement is one of great anticipation. We hold dances, festivals. We exchange gifts, drink and make merry. But the greatest celebrations come when the eggs are fully hatched." I raise my hands up for emphasis. "The entire place goes ablaze! At least, that is what Mundas tells me. It is such a rare occurrence because it takes 50 earth years for one egg to mature."

  "50 years?!" Emma asks, visibly stunned.

  "Yes. I may or may not ever get to witness it."

  "That is so...precious."

  **

  As the days pass, I feel myself getting stronger and healthier. My steps are sure footed, my ribs aren't jutting out like an elbow held at an angle, and that gaunt sickly look I had the first time I was discovered, is gone. Aunty Petti gets excited whenever she sees me. She was the one in charge of keeping me alive. Rather, she took it upon herself to restore me to health. It was not an official duty. Anytime she sees me, she makes sure she pulls my cheeks endearingly and relishes my embarrassment, my unwillingness to participate in her public display of affection. Even the Hiermochts had begun to look at me pitifully.

  The lackluster texture of my hair has given way to something healthier and fuller. A while ago, Emma helped me dye them a deeper shade of purple. We expressed the color from a plant that had a deep, rich purple. It was shaped like an egg plant but it had nothing but bluish grey water inside of it.

  When she was in the process of massaging it into my hair strands, Austin came around. He stood and watched us for a while. Shifting his weight from one foot to another. He said Hi. And we replied back. He started to sat something, then he stopped, as though he had considered that it wasn't worth it. I tried to make him comfortable by cracking a few jokes that I could remember. I was not so surprised when he did not laugh or even chuckle at them. He seemed he wanted to speak to Emma privately. She was spending More time with me, and it had begun to rile him up. I make a mental note to ask Emma if they are a couple or not. The tension in the air is strong. It wounds itself around my neck like a cord, threatening to choke me. I wonder if Emma is indeed oblivious to what is going on, or she simply does not care enough to interfere.

  Once, Emma and I had gone on one of our plant hunts that had become a routine. I could not feed on the earth rations aunty Petti offered me. And I also did not want to because my feeding was not accounted for in the space program. Eating from their rations meant I would be shortening it and encroaching on another person's portions. Therefore, Emma usually followed me to know the plants I ate, help me source for them, and also learn about them. We were on our way when Austin came upon us, roughly inquiring where we were headed.

  Emma had told him, in a fit of rage, that it was none of his business. Feeling wounded, he directed his grievance towards me. We had a brief stare down that resulted in Austin giving up first and stepping out of the way. Emma was angry at him for taking her as a child more than she was mad at him for sniffing out trouble when there was none. I got it though. Austin had begun to feel insecure. For some reason, I felt an intense desire to be selfish with Emma, even though it meant Austin's feelings were being hurt. It had been so long since I found someone who completely understood me, a companion that made me laugh with reckless abandon, that made me dance and showed me things I already knew in a new light. I was not ready to let go of that feeling just yet. Spurred by my years of loneliness, I wanted Emma to myself. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could, like a dehydrated kid gobbling up water as though they would never see one again.

  We continued this way, constantly circling each other or making a triangle, a love triangle, if you wish to call it that. We pushed, annoyed, ignored, but it was never enough to agitate the other party enough to get a reaction or an outburst from them. We flexed our strengths and hid our weaknesses. In retrospect, I do not think I was really much of a rival. I was already a half human boy and that was what held Emma's fascination more than anything else. Also, I felt a tad jealous of Austin. I had to admit to myself that I wondered often what they had been like before they crash landed on Galsong-7. They had spent so much time with each other .more than Emma and I had shared. They spent time at the academy. I too had a faint memory of what it was like. The dorms, the jumpers and robots, the stern gaze of the teachers and officials. I wondered if much had changed since Winston and I were last there.

  At the academy, Winston liked to compete. He had a certain order for doing things and was usually cross whenever someone interfered with his neatly laid out plans. He had a method of eating, washing himself, walking, attending classes. Every single move of his body was done deliberately, and an ample amount of attention was paid to it. He did well, the teachers loved him, and he was smart enough to go onto the more important teams and that did not include botany. He wanted to be among those who captured sentient beings, not mere animals and plants. He never for once tried to think of the fact that some plants could be sentient. Even when I told him I had found some, he was too winded out to be excited. The crash had killed something in him that could not resurface till the very end.

  On the night I tell Emma all about Winston, the sky is ablaze with the aurora Borealis. It happened on Galsong-7 quite rarely. Still, it wasn't exciting because there I was, recalling everything about Winston, bleeding into Emma, and mourning his death for the first time since he died.

  **

  I take Emma to the caves the next day. She says she doesn't remember the path she took so I show her again, making sure to point out the landmarks in the numerous labyrinths, twists and turns.

  We got to the garden and I formally introduced her to Mundas. Austin came along the next day and once again, met Mundas for the second time without freaking out or trying to shoot them. It was a beautiful relationship, what we established. Austin, Emma and I would often visit, harvest baskets of fruits and edible plants from the garden and take it back to the base camp to the surprise of Aunty Petti and Major Santorez. When they asked where we got the fruits from, we simply told them we had gone scavenging and the works of our hands were blessed.