Austin and I begin our walk towards the ditches. The cliffs are just beyond, some of them are so high, it is as though they are kissing the sky.

  Some of the cliffs are covered in green, some have plants growing from their crooked nooks and crannies. Others are covered with mould. Below Austin and I, there are murky pits where some of the main water source channels through.

  "How far out are we?" I ask Austin.

  "About 7km from base camp."

  "Oh my God, we've been walking for so long. Is that even allowed? Are we allowed to be this far?"

  Austin laughed. "We passed out limits some long ago. But hey, it's your idea to be rebellious. I'm only tagging along and learning from you."

  I jab him playfully on the shoulder. "Me, rebellious? Where did you get that idea?"

  Austin picked up a burgundy colored flower and twirled it in his hands. "You see, Emma, you have a quiet persistence about you. You are smart, gorgeous. It doesn't help that people underestimate you. You are quiet most of the time, alright, but you can really get stubborn and do things when you have your mind set on it."

  I blushed, then managed a fake laughter. I had never been complimented like this before. "can you give me examples of this claim you so confidently speak of?"

  "Sure. I'll start with the most recent. You knew you were going to explore this ditch, even before the confrontation or war or whatever it was, was over. You saw those natives escape and you don't call it to Major Santorez's attention because you wanted to save them. That was an act of bravery, you stood for what you believe in which is the sanctity of life, be it human or foreign..."

  I waved my hands. "That doesn't pique bravery in me."

  "Why not?"

  "If I was really brave, I would have stopped them from neutralizing anyone at all. But what did I do? I was armed with a toss gun, saving just a few people. I could have done more, Austin."

  "We can only do so much. Don't be yourself up. I think you did incredible and you did save lives." He paused. "Well, for my other examples, you rested under a shrub-turtle even when we were commanded to be prim and proper." Austin said with a laugh.

  I cackled. "Oh my, that was a mistake. I thought it was a plant."

  "But you weren't freaked out."

  "Nope."

  "See? Stubborn as hell."

  I grinned. "These examples are not enough to prove that."

  "Okay, there's the cafeteria saga." Austin said with a new resolve.

  "Uhm, I don't think I remember that."

  "Oh yes, you must. It was the first time we all met Akio. We had eaten together, me, you, and Zuri. And while we were about to leave, Akio came with his proper self and asked politely that we clear the tables. I was so mad."

  I laugh raucously at this one. "Yea, you were so badly behaved."

  "And you took his side so unexpectedly, leaving me, your supposed friend, because I didn't have the right principles. Once again, you stood up for what was right. And it involved two things. One, clearing up the table where we had breakfast, and two, sticking beside Akio when it became apparent that I was about to bully him or something. And it seemed such a natural thing for you to do. Your face was relaxed, so was your mannerism and aura. You don't fight with your fists, Emma. You fight with your mind and your calm."

  I am awed at being spoken about so delicately, so tenderly. I do not and have never really given thought to all my actions but in that moment, I began to see myself through the lens Austin had projected for me. I really liked what I saw. I really loved the girl, the Emma he saw and knew. And I believed him.

  "Thank you, Austin. I am really flattered." I hoped he could not see how flushed my cheeks were. Compliments were the rarest thing for me to have.

  Before Austin could reply, we heard a shrill cry come from the depths of one of the ditches. It SAS followed by a whimper, a nerve racking cough and a shuffling of feet.

  "Someone is there." Austin said softly. We crept down, ignoring the bristles of grass tickling our faces and areas where we had bare skin. Sure enough, at the entrance of the ditch, which turned out to be a cave-like tunnel, a child was sitting. She had brought her knees under her chin and was hugging her legs and rocking herself from side to side. As we approached, Austin hit his weapon.

  Her eyes were a beady black, and she was one of the transparent skinned species. Her hair, which was plant, was tangled in moss and some parts had begun to die off, leaving it black and I'll nourished. Some leaves were cracked and patched, and her face was stained with tears. If she was a human child, I would estimate her age at around 5 years old.

  Seeing her left at the mouth of the cave all alone tore my heart into splinters. I could very well remember what it felt like to be a child and to be left lonely, to your own devices, surrounded by books and nothing but the sound of your own voice in your head. Once, when I was 6, father had locked me in the basement because I was throwing tantrums. Really, looking back now, it was all my loneliness trying to find an escape. It was my attempt to draw their attention to me. I was a child and still not used to the aching silence and the fact that my parents were not ready to be my parents. They were caught up in their own world and I was a mere addition and the source of a stimulus check.

  The basement was a comfortable place, it had books and a fireplace which was nothing but electric thermal heating, and comfortable rugs. I could also use the food processor and order whatever I wanted from the robot. Still, it was traumatic. I felt unwanted, miserable, and abandoned. I look at the child once again. What if we had captured her parents? What if they were dead or they had been separated somehow?

  I could not bear the fact that our team could be the architect of whatever misfortune she was facing right now.

  I took slow, calculated steps towards her. She was still crying and looking up at me intermittently with her pitch black eyes.

  "Hello." I said, forgetting that they could not hear the language I spoke. Just like I half expected, she did not respond. I recuse myself. How could she respond when she was so visibly distressed and shaken? She didn't even speak English.

  Changing tactics, I smiled at her and stretched out my hands to take hers, hoping she would understand that I wanted to take her hand. I prayed she would get the message that I was a friend and not a foe. I hoped she would read my eyes and see the sincerity behind them.

  She looked up and let her gaze travel from me Austin, and back. Austin smiled at her and she flinched. I got the idea that she did not like him very much because of his build? His hair? I could not place a finger on it.

  Austin said hello, and began to approach the child just like I did. This reception was not well received. She scampered backwards but still continued to stare at us.

  I noticed that as she was upset, it showed in the flow pattern of her blood. It flowed faster, maybe because her heart was beating faster and her mind was racing with a thousand possibilities of what we could be, if we posed danger or not. Her rainbow blood also took on a darker tint. I came closer to her. So close that I could perceive the musty sweet earthy smell she had. On her hair, there was a worm coiled around one of the leaves. It was eating it up. I wondered if this was a parasite or some sort of symbiotic relationship they had with each other. I reached into my bag and brought out a chocolate. I handed it to her but she peered at it with disgust. Instead, she reached into her hair, fetched several worms, ate them and offered me some.

  I giggled and took one of them.

  "Yuck. You're not going to eat that, right?" Austin said.

  "Shhh." I glanced at him and placed my finger on my lips. "This is why she doesn't like you."

  Austin shrugged.

  Suddenly, the child shrieked, stood up and ran off into the cave. It was so sudden that u stood for some seconds, dumbfounded.

  "What did we do to scare her off like that?" I ask Austin, my voice breaking and laced with panic. I do not wait for his reply. I activate the lights on my AI device, and run deep into the caves.

  "Emma!" Austin screams from behind me. I know he wants to call me back, to yell about how dangerous it is for me to go after a native child, to speculate on how she could be a trap to lure us in. But I do not care. Something in me is propelling me towards the depths of this cave. It is similar to what I felt when we were all approaching the hovel. This time, the magnetism is stronger and I can feel it pulling me forward like the relentless currents of a hurricane. It feels as if everything that has happened in my life has built up to this singular moment

  My heart is thumping and I can hear the sound of a distant drum rumbling and being smacked with methodical force. I call out for the child, clawing desperately at the walls of the cave that seem to divide further and further the more I run. It is a maze, a labyrinth with corners and more tunnels that stretch on towards eternity. The child is nowhere to be found. I listen for the sound of her footsteps, for her soft breathing and sniffing, for her whimpers or the way she coughed when she was crying, which she still did when she ran off. Yet, I hear nothing. All traces of her are wiped off in the vastness of this cave. I turn into yet another opening. Just like the hovel, this place is also filled with carvings and drawings but I can tell that this is completely different. The things I see draw shivers down my spine. There is the perfect carving of a human skeleton but it is out of proportions. There are places where fire roams from its eye sockets, and another drawing where a huge tree has found its roots in the place where a heart is supposed to be. There are more readable hieroglyphs that look like a system of writing but I cannot read them. Everything here looks much more sophisticated than what was inside the hovel. Yet, at the same time, it seemed more ancient.

  I reduced my pace now and tried to catch my breath, forgetting that I was running after a child. The drawings, carvings and writings on the wall are drawing me in. Scientists have definitely never been in these parts, yet, how did the images come about? How did they know what a human skeleton looks like if they have never encountered one. I am beginning to get worn and afraid, but my legs continue to take me deeper and deeper into the caves.

  At one point, I place my ears to the walls and I hear the sound of waters rushing.

  I follow the sound of the water till it reduces from a torrent to a trickle, and that is when I see her. The little girl. She rushed past me again and into a sector of the cave where light seemed to stream from the walls. I wonder how she has evaded me all this while. Had she been trailing me when I thought I was following her? Was she really a trap?

  I do not entertain my questions or sentiments. There is no time for it. Since I had come this far, there was no point but to follow through to the end. I go in after her and what I see stuns me.

  I am in a totally different ecosystem. The walls of the cave have given way to a garden with a central spring. There are flowers of different colors, birds sitting snugly atop them, plants creeping across the walls of the cave, water pouring forth from an elaborately crafted tree trunk and into a swimming area below. There are fruits whose names I do not know but whose colors and apparent juiciness makes my stomach rumble. I imagine that they are fleshy and succulent on the inside. I am only just realising how hungry I am.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  I finally spotted the little girl. She dives into the pool and suddenly, she changes. Her hair, the leaves that were blackened, cracked and brittle begin to grow back as lush green leaves. Flowers sprout, her rainbow blood flows with warmth, and she smiles and plays with the other children. They pick off worms from each other's hair and pop them into their mouths like candy.

  "This is a place of healing." Someone says from behind me and I turn around in shock. It is an old, elderly man surrounded by laughing children. His blood runs much slower, and his hair is made of capsules of transparent water and no leaves. Unlike the children, he is almost 6 feet tall and looks like a cross between mammal and amphibian. Although his skin is light enough to see the pattern of his blood flow, it is tinted green and it is scaly. I can see that this is what the children would grow up to look like. The translucent skin was only a sign of youth and vigor. His hands were composed of a claw like structure, ridden with lines, and the skin around it looked indeed tough. He had three appendages for arms and A facial structure quite similar to the humans. The only difference was that he had no protruding jawline or chin. He was exactly like some of the natives we had captured in the hovel, and I realized this must be their main population. The major inhabitants of Galsong-7. Just like him, they had worn leaves around their waist. These leaves had the smooth, hide like texture of pure leather. I wondered why the information that had been sourced for me only centered around the young being with rainbow skin. Perhaps the humans who had first found them and reported back to earth, came across only those species. Either that, or they were too fascinated by them to set their eyes on anything else.

  He continues to speak to me as though I am not an uninvited guest. "Of course, some of the children like to wander outside, but when they do, their pain and loss hit them in the face. They are confronted by their griefs. Here, all of that is forgotten. Everything that was dead comes alive in this place."

  There is a smug look on his face. A child tugs at his fingers and he laughs. Before I can open my mouth to reply, I hear my name.

  "Emma!"

  It is Austin. He stumbles into the garden and draws out his weapons, hiding me behind him protectively.

  "Who are these people? What is this place?" he asks, his eyes rove from the children who are staring at him, quiet and unafraid, to the old man who is almost smiling. The children surround the elder in a defensive pose. But I can see beyond their courage. They are still children.

  "Austin," I finally say, "They should be asking who you are and what you are doing here. You are in their territory, drawing weapons first."

  "That's because they set a trap to lure you in." Austin says angrily, his weapon is still pointed at them.

  "Let me ask. Are you the kind of person to kill harmless children who want to do nothing but play and mind their own business? Would you point a gun at a human child?"

  He is quiet.

  "It doesn't matter that they are from a different species. You can see that they are helpless and they are children. They don't mean any harm."

  I take the gun from his hands but Austin is still on edge. He looks at them all with an air of distrust.

  "What about this older one? Who is he?" Austin asks. His breath is quick and I know his reflexes are really sharp by now. Any movement would have him diving fist first into battle.

  "Well, I'm still getting to know him." I reply. "Why don't we do that together?"

  Austin looks at me. He cups my face. "I followed you. I had to make sure you were safe. I thought I had lost you, Emma. I watched you do these weird things like putting your ears to the wall and running your hands across them. What is this place doing to you? We have to get the hell out of here." He hugs me and whispers. "I'm so glad I found you, but we have to get the hell out of this place."

  I laugh. "Didn't you see them?"

  "See what?" He asks, confused.

  "The beautiful carvings on the wall. I've never seen anything like it."

  Austin stares at me with horror. Then, it melts and His eyes become filled with pity. "There was nothing there, Emma."

  "Yes, there were carvings and writings. There was even the sound of water rushing across the walls. That was why I put my ears to it." I say hurriedly, trying to defend myself.

  Austin looks at me as though I have gone crazy.

  "There was nothing..." He starts to say, but the elderly creature cuts in.

  "The walls reveal their content to who it chooses."

  "That's bullshit." Austin snaps.

  "Austin!"

  "Yes, Emma. This place isn't safe. We have to go."

  "Don't fucking tell me what to do." I hiss at him and break free from his grasp. Austin is stunned. I feel purposeful and sure of myself. He had to stop treating me like a child.

  He is even more stunned when I begin to make my way to the creature. I look at the children and my heart melts with so much love. It feels as though I am about to explode. I kneel before the creature and stare at his feet in deep reverence. He has ten toes on each foot. I would have been weirded out in another life, but not this. I am filled with awe.

  "You are welcome. Your presence is accepted."

  I get up. "Thank you. How do you know how to communicate in English?"

  The creature sighs. He gestures with his hands for the children to go play, and they run off and begin splashing in the pool once more. The child we had seen crying at the mouth of the cave comes to me. She looks alive and invigorated now, different from the girl who I had seen with a tear streaked face. She plucks a flower from her head and hands it to me, smiling. I mutter a quick thanks and place it in my pocket while she runs off to play.

  "I was hoping the walls would tell you, but I see you did not read it all."

  "Read what?"

  "The knowledge of old."

  I can hear Austin whispering behind me but I pay him no heed.

  "Can you show me?" I ask the creature.

  "Certainly. "

  He reaches into his head and fishes out one of the capsules of water. He flicks it open, let the water trickle into his palm, and brings out a single bean which he offers me. "Eat this. All that you seek, the answers, the past, present, and future, can all be found here. This is the solution, the why, the Genesis of all that is and ever will be."

  I pop into my mouth and chew. I had hesitated for a second but I knew it would not be helpful. I trusted him, I trusted this place because my heart had led me to it.

  The bean was extremely bitter, but as I chewed, it exploded into sweetness, like milk chocolate, and as I swallowed, darkness began to Creep into my eyes.

  "Emma!" Austin screamed as I passed out. He ran all the way to where I was and held me in his hands. The last thing I saw was His frightened face hovering above me.

  I felt myself descending into nothingness, like the feeling you get when you are sleeping and you find yourself falling and falling, after which you are jerked awake before you hit the floor. I found myself in the same feeling but only this time, there was no dream to wake up from and no bed to break my fall. I was thrown into a whirling, blinding white light where I turned and twirled against the elements of the world. I saw the sand as it took hold of the earth, the water as it ran through it, and then the scenery changed to the three moons of Galsong-7. I saw the land being invaded by humans of ancient times. They all had long beards and hair and they cultivated and experimented on the land. They grew crossbreeds of plants and changed the compounds in water and toppled the balance of the gases in the air. They took Galsong-7 as their own lands and left the real owner in the background, completely changing their way of life. Then, I saw a horse like people coming down to invade the planet once more. They brandished swords and they galloped at full speed, like the centaur like people I had seen before. Their hair flailed in the wind as they ran towards the humans and vanquished them. The human settlers are attacked with full force. A few are captured while others are murdered in cold blood.

  One particular scene stands out for me. The horse-like mammal holds up a scientist by the throat. The scientist was a human who had one of the creatures of Galsong-7 strapped to a cold table in the laboratory. He had been planning to put him open and proceed with the experiment when the invasion happened.

  The horse-like mammal took the scientist by the throat and held him up to the light, after which he placed the sharp, pointed edge of the sword very close to his jugular, deep enough to make a slight depression that had the potential to kill the scientist with just one mistake, one extra little pressure applied. The scientist shivered.

  "Please, please. Spare my life, it would never happen again. I am not in charge of all this, I am only acting under the instructions of my superior. Please don't do this to me." The scientist wrung his hands and cried. The horse-like mammal did nothing but laugh. He freed the Galsong-7 creature and told him to stay behind for s little entertainment. Then entertainment which meant, in this context, the gruesome execution of the scientist who had only moments before. Been the bane of the existence of the Galsong-7 creature.

  The creature stood. He stayed at a corner and watched with glee what was to happen. It seemed he had no idea what was coming because when the scientist had his head cut off, the creature broke down and screamed.

  When I awoke, I would understand that this was how they knew the anatomy of a human skeleton. A number had been slain on their land.

  After that, my vision blurs and changes into what seems like a lucid dream. I see a boy about my age. He has purple hair with jagged ends, like an anime character. He looks thin, and he is shirtless. There are a few flowers sticking out of scars on his skin as though he placed them there decoratively. He is a pure human, wearing a navy blue jumper like mine, only that he has torn and worn out in so many places. He fits in among the natives and it seems they love him too. He teaches them things and they teach him their ways in return. He dances with them on festivals and the one instrument he plays is... a drum. In this vision, I hover like a wraith around him as he drums.

  He drums and drums, hitting the tough animal hide with a feverish madness and his eyes are closed. I feel like a vapor floating close to him. When I am a few inches away from his face, he opens his eyes sharply and inhales.

  I wake up to find myself in Austin's laps. There are dried tears on his face and his eyes sparkle with relief when he sees me awake.

  "I thought I lost you. Again."

  His voice is cracked and his throat so parched. He draws me in for a hug, a tight hug where I can smell his very essence. But it is not Austin that feels my senses, it is the dream. I still feel like I can reach out and touch the face of the purple haired boy. Something in me felt like he was here. He was close, just like the sound of the drum that had been calling out to me since we came on this journey. With every passing moment, it seemed something new was unraveling and there wasn't even time to process any of the things that were happening. It was all too fast and overwhelming.

  "Emma, are you okay?" Austin asks and releases me from his embrace. He holds my shoulders and studies me. He sniffs.

  My eyes are roaming across the little details. I can see that the gash on Austin's face has begun to heal. It was the working of this place. I can notice the grease that has begun to form on his hair. His clothing is covered in dust in some places. My eyes move to a bird perching on a flower. It is made of fierce colors like yellow, red, and a sharp robin blue. I have a feeling that the bird is looking at me too. It is looking right and through me, questioning all my secrets, the secret that I have now seen. I had never had a secret in my life until then. The bird looks at me with large brown eyes, then it turns away and flies to another tree.

  I see the children still splashing in the water. The girl we met earlier at the mouth of the cave is playing an uncanny game with her friend. The game involves, from what I can see, submerging themselves under water just to see who can hold their breaths the longest. The little girl we know is winning. They have all plucked the worms from their plant heads and kept in a jar. I can tell that whoever wins the game is going to be treated to all the worms in the jar. It was a collective method of safely betting just like I had said I would take Austin's food if there was no swamp in Galsong-7.

  One the walls, the creeping plants are alive with color. I can see now that the rushing sound of water that dulled into a trickle from the walls of the cave, had a purpose. Some of it was connected to the plants and they drew their life source from it. It was such an intricate, beautiful system that I wondered if I could compete with it. Maybe earth could a long time ago. Maybe it was possible in the times before everything was destroyed.

  My eyes are being fixated on these little details because I am stunned, dazed, and facing Austin seems like too much work. But when there is nothing else to see, I train my eyes on him. I see the fine lines in his face, His large concerned eyes, his furrowed brows and the way his ears turn red and perk up when he is upset. He has not shaved since the crash and I can see a small shadow over his mustache and chin. His hair still falls over his eyes like the first time I met him. I want to fall into him and get swallowed up, just like in my dream, but my eyes are filled with the image of the purple haired boy. Everything seems to make a little sense now. My navy blue jumper I could not stop thinking about, the drums, everything. I wish there was someone I could speak to. In only a span of some hours, I had traveled the length of the universe and back. Some of the truths were so heavy to bear. Austin was standing right in front of me, but I did not feel like sharing anything much with him.

  "Austin," I whispered finally.

  "Ugh! Thank Goodness. I thought you had lost the ability to speak." He swallows. "You were unresponsive. I did not want you to eat that bean. I would have drawn my weapons immediately when you hit the floor because I thought they had finally gotten to you. You know, that my fears about this place being evil was justified. But I knew you would not want that and you were a priority. I had to make sure you were alive. So I came to you and your breathing was slow and your pulse was weak, I wanted to die, Emma. I felt like I had failed at the one thing I ought to do which is to protect you against all odds. I'm so glad you are here. The elder creature says you only traveled. You didn't go unconscious. I thought you were having a seizure from the poisonous thing he gave you..."

  Austin rambled on and on and I could tell he was nervous. I hugged him again to calm him down. He was talking so fast and his heart was almost beating through his chest.

  "I am fine, Austin. I am here." I said to him.

  I could feel him fighting back tears.

  The creature cleared his throat and clapped. All this while, the children had been looking at Austin and I, giggling at our display of affection. I disengaged from the hug and went to the creature.

  "You know what you must do now, don't you?" He said in a grave, deep voice.

  "Yes, I do. Thank you so much."

  "What did you see, Emma?" Austin asked. "He said you had only traveled. Where did you go?"

  "Lots of places. " I answered vaguely. I am not ready to tell it all.

  "You must leave now." The creature said, standing. He was about 8 feet tall. I nodded at him, and Austin and I left the caves, different from who we were when we first came in.