Expedition Dipuma

Chapter 21: Marie

"Come on, you dork. If we were on Earth, It would be about three in the morning. You need rest." I said, just noticing how soft his face looks in the ship's lighting. He gave me a soft, sheepish smile and walked inside with me as I was practically dragging him in.
Once we got inside, everyone was awake and crowded around Heather, admiring her transformation and thankfulness of her presence. "Woah! Who's that?!" Dimitri whispered in awe. I chuckled quietly, just enough for me to hear, and said "when we first arrived here, she was the previous queen that gave her life for a human. She turned into a phenix. Then he died and she is alive again with orange tinted feathers as a reminder of her fiery, courageous sacrifice." I noticed that she slightly turned to look at me and smirked at me as a thanks.
"Hey," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "do you want to do your friend's memorial service now?" He paused for a moment, "If it's like three in the morning, like you said……." He thought about it "Do you think that we could? Even though it's three in the  morning?" I nodded, vigorously, "Yeah! Although, usually Rosie does those things, we could probably get Sarah to do it." I tried to sound convincing but I found it hard to convince myself. "I believe that Sarah is awake and would probably be willing to help out." I said hesitantly, "Let’s go find her."
As we got to the medical room, we saw her sitting on a bed with a tear streaked face, and a blank stare out in front of her. She was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice our presence until I gently set my hand on her shoulder. She jumped back, almost as if I had electricity running through my hand and I zapped her, and got off the bed so fast that she fell over. "Whoa! Are you okay, Sarah?!" I asked Dmitri and I helped her stand. "Y-yeah, I'm alright. I didn't see you come in." She said sheepishly. "Anyway, what brings you here?" "I was wondering if we could do the memorial service for his friend, Curly." I said while I fidgeted with my hands. She sighed, seemingly exhausted, but agreed nonetheless.
Time seemed to be moving in slow motion as a few royal guards brought Curly, wrapped in a white cloth, and set him on a pile of firewood. One of them started the wood on fire, the flames growing to devour him, that's when Dmitri started to softly cry. He wasn't exactly making any noise,  but there were streams of tears pouring down his face. We stood next to Curly on his left side, matching up to his knees, and looking at his face,  or of where it should be. Dmitri raised his right hand to salute his best friend, while my hand was on his left shoulder to silently comfort him, and all of the guards saluted with their right hands to respect the fallen man.
Then Sarah muttered a spell. We watched as Curly's ashes rose up like glitter in the dark planet, Sarah drew her right hand up to salute him along with mine, and his ashes magically floated away out through the top of the planet. Now all that we had left was a smoldering fire that was as put out as Dmitri looked. He looked like he kind of wanted a hug, but decided not to bother me. I knew this so I opened up my arms and he could barely hold himself together as he embraced me. We stood there together as he sobbed until it sounded like it hurt to keep on crying. So then I gently pried him off my shoulder, held his sad, tired face in my hands, and I wiped a single tear that fell as I said "How about I take you to the medical room to go wash up and then we can go sleep with the rest of our group?" He nodded and I let him lean on me as we walked. He tiredly washed his face and I did the same, along with wetting my hair down. I flitted my eyes over to him, he's just sitting there at the edge of the pool of water. I finished squeezing the water from my hair with a towel and I walked over to him. "Hey," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder "How are you doing?" His gaze at the water is glossy, his eyes red and puffy. It took a lot of effort to pull himself out of his trance and he finally spoke up, in a ragged, cracked voice. "I will be okay. I just need a little time." I  nodded and said "That's okay. You can take all the time you need." I paused trying to collect my thoughts. "And if you ever need anything, I'm always here for you." He nodded, made eye contact with me, and he actually looked a little relieved as he said "Thank you. You know, other than Curly, you know more about me than anyone else." I felt my face blush and I hoped that it didn't show. Although, it's only just now that it looks like his eyes have a beautiful glint and I wonder if it's because of all the crying or if it's just my imagination. But he has such a soft smile that my heart melted. I took a deep breath to keep cool about the situation and said "Well, we should get to bed, huh?" "Yeah. I suppose that's what we should be doing." And we walked the truck back to our ship. That's when I realized that we have been awake for almost a day and a half and I have not seen Rosie in those hours! I hope that she's alright.