Endless: An Autobiography of an Immortal

Chapter 11 - Exile

While I sat there looking down at her lifeless body I wondered why. Why do all those around me die? Cub, a whole tribe, O'a-sh-ot. One after another. Yet here I was, already hundreds of years old and O'a-sh-ot couldn't even make a single century. What made me so different? Why did everything else change while I stood motionless in time? As I was questioning life's existence I felt bright light coming through my tearful eyes. Above me the light shone radiantly over me and O'a-sh-ot. I had to shield my eyes from the brightness and couldn't tell where it was coming from. It lasted only moments and left just as fast as it came. When my eyes adjusted I caught sight of the source. Omni was again silently hovering above me. I wondered what it just did. The light was not unlike what I saw previously. I looked back to O'a-sh-ot and she was still lying there peacefully, as if asleep. I had spent the last several decades with her by my side, it was going to be hard to be alone again. I thought back at Cub, who was stolen from me abruptly and how that made me feel. Then with O'a-sh-ot, who died of old age, and how I still felt robbed. I had an inside desire to be around others and form attachments but at the same time, I did not want to have to go through this pain every half century. O'a-sh-ot was also one of the few who didn't treat me differently and I wasn't sure how often I'd run into another like her. Ultimately, I decided I would continue with the scans, making them my top focus in life. They gave me purpose where I had none. There was also a large amount of land on the opposite side of the earth that I didn't even know existed, as well as several big and small islands I wanted to explore. The world was huge and I wanted to experience all of it. I just wish I could share it with someone.

When I had finished my mourning, I got up and looked around the island. Several small trees had tried to grow back and the large one that saved my life had fallen and started rotting away. I didn't see any animals, nor evidence of their presence, so I gathered all the food that was within reach and went back to O'a-sh-ot. I placed my favorite island fruit in her hands and left. I wanted her to try it before she died, but didn't get a chance. I loaded the boat back up and pushed off, never to return. Remember that at the time we only buried our dead for the sake of not attracting animals to the camp, since there was none on the island, there was no reason to bury her. It was not yet a ritual, so I didn't think of doing it. I got back to where we were on the mainland as dusk was failing. I opened my palm to get the device ready for going back to the same area to continue with the light. Upon flying into my palm, it opened and I was startled to see that it showed me a picture of O'a-sh-ot. There was also lines all across and inside her body. So that's what it did on the island, made a copy of her like it did the land. It then showed myself with lines everywhere. I started poking myself to try to get a glimpse of what the lines meant. After a while of poking and prodding I gave up. I thought of it doing the scans again and off it went, going to the exact spot it paused at before our detour. One of these days, I'm going to figure this thing out but not today. It was too hard to think of anything else. My mind was on O'a-sh-ot and nothing else. It took awhile to figure out what it showed me.

The day I learned what it scanned actually came many years later. I had just killed an Irish Elk and was cutting it open to get the meat and other tasty bits out when Omni happened to come back. Elks normally didn't come this far south, so it was a great treat to get one. I willed Omni to show me what it scanned and there in the pictures was the Elk. It must have stepped through the light on its way to my spear. Omni caught that I wanted to know more, so it opened up on that picture and there were lines on and in the Elk too. I had just removed a part of the guts that I didn't like eating and there in the lines was the same shape. I gleefully went through each part of the animal and lined it up with what Omni was showing me. So like on the Earth map the lines showed the division of water and land, so too in the animals it showed the different parts. When I had satisfied my curiosity of each little bit of the Elk, I cooked up a meal and relaxed next to the fire. Another thought occurred to me, this time about the lines on Omni's map. Omni showed inside an animal and apparently myself and O'a-sh-ot, so the lines on the map must be under the ground.