The Last Survivor of Saktak

  I promised him I would look out for him.

  I held his hand.

  I promised him.

  Before everything went downhill.

  My eyes opened to a gray ceiling.

  Where was I...?

  My gaze drifted, and I noticed Ma sitting beside me.

  “Ma…”

  I called out, voice cracking.

  It took all the fragile strength I had left to call out for her.

  Her orange-tinted tears glossed her black beaded eyes, just like mine.

  “Eralla! I was worried sick about you, my Eralla.”

  Her gentle yet ragged hands cradled my face. Her warmth pulled me into her embrace. My eyes fluttered shut.

  Memories flashed before my eyes.

  A green figure — not quite a figure — blooming out of the dark. Lines of light weaving around it like threads caught in a storm. A braided beam stretching across the void, pulling everything inward.

  Its spherical head hovered, suspended, crowned by a ring of shimmering gold. Its chest glowed in spirals, curling and uncurling like breathing lungs made of light.

  Wings? Or arcs? Or fractured halos? I couldn’t tell. They spread out, up, down, everywhere, carving shapes into the black.

  Pulsing.

  Pulsing.

  It was pulsing.

  Beating.

  And beating.

  What was that?

  Was it a dream?

  I had never seen something like that before.

  Why did it appear before my eyes, as if I had touched it once before?

  I forced my eyes open.

  Snap.

  It was all gone.

  What was I thinking about just now…?

  Ougine.

  I was thinking about Ougine.

  The question lingered in my mind.

  “Ma…”

  Words died on my tongue. How do I ask Ma?

  How do I say his name with my tongue?

  I was meant to protect him.

  Yet I failed.

  My hands clenched as I drew in a breath, trying to gather what little courage I had.

  “Ma… where is Ougine?"

  My ragged voice shook with every syllable.

  I saw as her black beaded eyes turned gray from the pained question.

  “Ma…”

  I knew the answer already, but I couldn’t accept it.

  “Ma…”

  I coughed up. Spit and black ash particles came out. I wiped it against my forearm.

  “Ma, answer me.”

  I said, pleading.

  After what felt like hours, she spoke up.

  “No one made it out alive.”

  She said it so straightforwardly, without missing a single beat.

  No one… survived.

  Tears prickled at the corners of my eyes.

  “Ougine…”

  I squeezed my eyes shut.

  I failed.

  The flow of tears running down my cheeks burned my skin.

  When was the last time I cried like this…?

  It wasn’t when Fa died.

  No… it was longer.

  When she and I went our separate ways.

  Ma’s hand was the only thing anchoring me down.

  Hazed voices dragged me out of my slumber.

  They were far away… or maybe too close.

  My mind was spinning.

  “She is sleeping. We must let her rest, Tohthorayn.”

  “We must not waste our time, A-lla.”

  “Ka-Tohthorayn, Eralla is not in the right state of mind.”

  “Everything is falling apart, and you care about your child.”

  “Please let her rest.”

  “Tontuk!”

  I forcefully opened my eyes. Light from the Joktow* flashed in my eye.

  Argh.

  “Child. Rise.”

  Slowly my eyes adjusted to see the sight of a red-tinted man with stems of tettara wrapped around his neck as an accessory. A huge gray cloak wrapped around him and a pointed hat on top of his head.

  Only one man wore that kind of clothing throughout Ma-Oktava.

  Tohthorayn.

  Our species’s one and only healer. One with immense wisdom and knowledge. Despite it, he was a fool.

  A faker, Aourine would often call him.

  “You were there when Saktak* collapsed. Tell me what you saw.”

  “Please, Ka-Tohthorayn, let Eralla rest. She barely survived.”

  Ma stepped up, coming in between the bed I sprawled on and Tohthorayn.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “That is exactly why I must talk to her. She was the only one to survive among the 33 who went there.”

  I slowly sat up on the bed, leaning against the headboard.

  “Ma… I will tell Tohthorayn what he needs to know.”

  Ma backed away when I gave her confirmation.

  I turned my head right, staring at the gray mud wall.

  “What happened? Did Ma-Oktava speak to you?”

  He pushed further. Because of him, I had to force myself to relive the moment.

  The moment before the disaster.

  “Everything was going fine until it wasn’t.”

  I watched as his face morphed into irritation. He was quick to anger. No wonder his husband left him.

  “Don’t talk to me in riddles, child. Speak clearly.”

  His harsh words made me flinch slightly.

  “The first half of the hunt was going fine, but when I went to collect the tettara near the lava, the riper ones like I usually do, the ground suddenly shook, and then a dark gray fog covered my sight.”

  “Fog?”

  He repeated.

  I nodded my head, looking back towards him.

  “What did you see in the fog…?”

  My tongue twisted on itself, my lips pursed, not wanting to answer. I could feel him growing more suspicious when my silence stretched.

  “Who did you see, Tig-eralla?”

  Thump. Thump.

  My heart raced with the thought of saying her name. What was I feeling suddenly? Just the thought of her made my heart race, my tongue twist and my ears turn orange.

  I gulped.

  “Aourine.”

  My voice cracked again when I said out loud her forbidden name.

  “Aourine?”

  Ma jumped in. Why was she growing angry over who Ma-Oktava showed me in the rich fog?

  Blame it on Ma-Oktava. Not me.

  Tohthorayn raised a hand, silencing Ma, which made my hands clench. How dare he?

  “You saw her. That girl. Seems like someone never got over her.”

  My pupils dilated, and my fingers dug into the mattress to hold myself back from lunging at him and destroying him with my claws.

  “Eralla… “

  Ma’s hand held out, urging me to stop.

  Tohthorayn left the room as if nothing had happened.

  That man…

  Ma took a seat on the mattress, finger gently caressing my left leg up and down. I calmed down just enough to read Ma’s face.

  “Ma… are you mad at me?”

  My gaze lowered to my lap.

  Her long, slender index finger reached out, gently tilting my chin up.

  “No, Eralla. It’s just that… I thought you were over her.”

  My jaw clenched before relaxing when her finger ran along my jaw.

  “I am over her, Ma.”

  I stared into her eyes, trying to understand what she was hiding.

  “I vertotna* over all my blood. I am over her.”

  I repeated, firmly, looking at Ma with determination. Forcing myself to appear determined though I wasn’t assured.

  Was I trying to convince myself or Ma?

  “Be careful, Eralla.”

  Ma gripped me harder, helping me enter through the front door of our hut. I told her repeatedly I was fine on my own and I could walk, but she still insisted.

  As soon as I entered, Gibralla ran towards me in a split second, jumping at my legs and clinging on for dear life.

  Soon, the others followed. Climbing all over me.

  “Batharalla, Quen-alla, Fattaralla, Gibralla, stop!”

  Ma scolded them.

  She picked them up one by one off me. I picked Batharalla, who was just two years old and the youngest, off of me and put him down.

  The gremlin didn’t waste a single second before trying to climb up onto me once again.

  “Come here, Batharalla.”

  Ma picked him up.

  “Eralla, I was so worried about you.”

  Fattaralla said.

  “I was also worried.”

  Koralla added.

  “I was not.”

  Lylla said.

  “Of course you were not. You are not going to become the next runner if Eralla dies.”

  Motalla snarled, crossing her arms. If something were to happen to me, Motalla would become the next runner and hunt for our family since she was the eldest after me.

  “Let your sister rest.”

  Ma said, helping me walk over to the corner of the room where my bed was.

  I settled down with her help. The rest of my siblings went on with their day, losing all the care they were just showing me just five seconds ago.

  Is this all I get for providing for them? One second, they all are worried and the next, they are lost in their own worlds.

  I let out a sigh, lying flat on the satta*. Staring up at the dark gray ceiling, I gingerly touched the bandage wrapped around my forehead because of the bleeding I’d suffered.

  Finally, I had peace of mind.

  It only lasted for a second before thoughts of her invaded my mind.

  I was over Aourine.

  I have been ever since that day.

  Since I was 14.

  ?

  Txetia Glossary

  Saktak (Saak-taahk) — One of the 8 active volcanos on Valconalla.

  Joktow (Jo-ouk-tou-wa) — Is a special type of land that is made from burning the stem of a tettara*.

  Vertotna (Ver-tout-na) — means “swear” as in “I swear that…”

  Tettara (Tet-ta-ra) — means Mushroom. They are long, tube-like slimy with a thick brown shell. The only source of food found in 317.

  Satta (Sat-tah) — means “mattress”