Expedition Dipuma

Chapter 23: Sarah

The weight that I feel is so heavy, it's almost like I am drowning in my own grief. The emptiness is deafening with all the sounds of silence echoing in my house or the medical room. I find it hard to do even the simple tasks ahead of me. People talk to me but I don't hear them no matter how long they talk to me, telling me that everything is going to be okay. I didn't notice when Marie and the man walked in, she touched my shoulder, and I instinctively jumped as if she zapped me with something, I fell over. "Whoa! Are you okay, Sarah?!" Marie asked as they helped me stand. "Y-yeah, I'm alright. I didn't see you come in." I said sheepishly. "Anyway, what brings you here?" "I was wondering if we could do the memorial service for his friend, Curly." Marie said while she fidgeted with her hands. I sighed, feeling exhausted, but agreed nonetheless.
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. They 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 Marie's 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 I muttered a spell. They watched as Curly's ashes rose up like glitter in the dark planet, I drew my right hand up to salute him along with Marie's, and his ashes magically floated away out through the top of the planet. Now all that there was left, was a smoldering fire that was being put out as Dmitri looked on. I watched as they slowly picked themselves up and left.
Later, I was cleaning everything up and bringing it back to the medical room, when Karyn landed and dashed over to me. I stopped in my tracks and said "Woah! What's the matter?!" She stopped and caught her breath before she spoke. "My Queen!" she said, still out of breath. "She's sick! It's hard to describe! It's probably best if you see her for yourself!" "Okay, let's go take care of it." We flew over to Rosie's room and as I was thirty yards away, I saw Tim leave. Hmmm. I wonder what he's up to?  I thought and just kept going. Once I stepped inside, my jaw dropped. The room was a mess, the blankets and sheets were strewn every which direction, the pillows shredded to bits of feathers, and it looks like she threw up next to her bed. In the midst of it all she is buried in feathers asleep. I press my forehead to hers and I can see that she is carrying a baby! How is this even possible! Oh, wait. She's half Na'vi. They are able to carry children.duh. I rolled my eyes at myself and started to clean up the room. To start, I gently roused Rosie and helped her over to the long bench in front of the window as she was still kind of asleep.
Then I picked up every single feather off of the bed, rearranged the blankets, got out a couple of fresh pillows, and helped her back into bed as I cleaned up the rest of the room. I had just picked up the last bit when Mike and Tim walked in, looking from Rosie to me. "How is she?" Tim asked, in a low whisper, to not wake up Rosie. I avoided eye contact as I busied myself with the chore. "It's best if Mike takes a look." That's when I looked at him. I didn't want to worry him but from the look on his face, my worry is written all over my face. I try to just be nonchalant about it and finish cleaning up. I take everything that needs a wash over to the pool in the medical room and scrub everything down, then I hang everything out to dry along the walls and head back towards Rosie's room. "Okay, but how is this even possible?!" I heard Rosie say. She lifted her head, and pressed the palms of her hands on her face, trying to think about it herself. Then she stopped and looked at them like she discovered something. "Wait, I know how! We kissed before we even planted the rose! And we kissed afterwards as well!" Concern etched itself onto her face and I had a hard time thinking about it. "Do you want to go see it?" Tim finally asked. "Yes, I would." She said calmly and he helped her to her feet. "I'm going to talk with father," Mike said as they got to the door, they turned to look at him. "Maybe he can guide me through the whole process of the situation at hand," he paused for a moment,  "I think that I will bring Sarah with me as well, so that she can learn with me." Rosie nodded and said "Yeah, take her with you. She could use something to keep her mind busy. She has had the worst time losing Jackie." Then they saw that I was present. Rosie's face pales and she tried to speak but I spoke up "Don't worry. I completely agree with you, besides I need to do something anyway." I closed the space between us with a hug. "I will see you guys later." I said as I let go and waved goodbye. Then I followed Mike to their home tree. Once I stepped inside, I was awed by how different it looks compared to almost any other tree. It’s so high up, with a great view of everything. The tree itself is fused with the ancestor tree in a flowing blue energy, moving similar to the movement of water. So slow and smooth that it's hypnotizing. Next thing I knew, Mike sat in front of the little sapling and looked up at me with a puzzled expression. "What?" I asked, a little uncomfortable. He sighed and said "I don't know how to connect you to the tree. Usually, I connect to the tree with the end of my braid." He paused and showed me the inside of his braid, it moves around like an insect's legs when it's on its back. Fascinating, I thought, with the slight urge to poke at it. "But, I don't know how you could join me." Mike finished. I pondered for a moment and then I came up with an idea. "What about my forehead?! I could press my forehead to yours and you could link with the tree!" I said excitedly. He nodded in agreement "That's a great idea!" I sat down next to him and pressed my forehead to his while he linked up to the tree.
I didn't know what to expect, but boy oh boy, I never expected to see what I saw. I felt like I was floating in mid air and it was just Mike and me. Then. Out of nowhere, we saw Jackie and Mike's father, Fùqīn zhìhuì, from a far, with a blue glowing aura.  "Jackie?!" I choked out, my hands flew up to my face to cover my gaping mouth, and I shouted "Jackie!" As we ran into each other's arms, we sobbed together. She has always been like a mother to me and, lately, it has been so hard to move on without her. "How are you!" Jackie asked after leaving our hug. "I'm as well as I can be, things have been hard without you though." I said sheepishly. She put her hand on my arm gently and said "That's quite alright, that's how life is. You know I lived through centuries of life and death of the people I love, I was the longest living queen in all the years of our species existence. So believe me when I say that you're okay and it's only natural to feel sad sometimes.  I would also advise you to be happy as much as you are sad, if not more so, in order to move on." I nodded my head vigorously as she spoke and soak up this beautiful moment. I glanced over at Mike and his father as they had a nice moment together. Then they saw that we were finished with our conversation and we walked over to talk to them. "So, what brings you here today?" Mike's father asked. "Well Rosie is now experiencing a pregnancy and I was hoping that you could teach us how to aid her through." I said nervously as I fidgeted with my fingers. Mike spoke up and said "I kind of know how the whole process works from our ancestors but I would feel better if I got another lesson." "Alrighty then," Fùqīn said,  and they got to work.
After an hour  of learning,  my head was spinning from all the new information. "Alright, I'm so tired I could fall asleep right here." I said. I thought that I said it loud enough but I don't think that Mike heard me. I can feel the connection flicker just a tiny bit. Mike looked at me and asked, "Are you okay?" He studied my face for a moment right as I felt myself nod off for a second, I just can't seem to be able to focus. "Whoa! Hold on let's break the connection to gather, okay?!" He squeezed his eyes shut and suddenly he was gone, disappeared from my vision. Then I passed out.