Avatar: {Hybrid and Alien]

{50}

The bright light suddenly disappeared and was replaced with darkness.

What's more, the air that surrounded Layontsin turned heavy. Though, as time progressed and she walked straight to another light, the air started to smell. It was a putrid stench unlike any the anthro thanator has ever experienced. The smell was as if all life had been ripped away and replaced with sulfur and smoke. As Layontsin continued walking through the confined path, made of two walls with strange decorations, she came to the end and found herself against a multitude of millions of skypeople walking in different directions. The whole place was too bright for her eyes to handle, multi-colored lights flashing all around above the air. So many things were happening with the lights and new unbearable noises in this other place that Layontsin couldn't stand it anymore. She began to make her way through the sea of uninterested skypeople, simply phasing through them as if she herself was still a ghost to the entire memory world. There was no end to anything that happened around the anthro thanator, and all she wanted to do was to was escape this terrifying and putrid place as fast as she could. Because she realized with dread what this place was now.

This was the current situation of the skypeople world. An alien world where there was no more life.

The earthy ground had been replaced with smooth and flat stone, trees with tall structures that reached up and disappeared into the dark clouds, and any sign of water has vanished completely except the faint raining that started moments later. This truly was a nightmarish place that no one would want to go over to and make a home, because this wasn't a home. Everything was complete palpable misery and pain, as Layontsin saw some skypeople wearing strange masks and others coughing as they didn't have those masks. She felt another pang of pity as she noticed others seemingly having been weakened or starving, including smaller and younger skypeople that clung closely to their parents. Again, she felt the need to find Asim once more so that she could move on to the next memory, as now she thought he was the key to move on. Right now, she stroked to stop herself from overwhelming her own mind with what was happening around, as well as remembering what has happened up to this point and what will happen next.

At one point she didn't know what to do when her quills and crest plates flared as she heard something, the surrounding noise deafening for a moment. Layontsin listened carefully...and heard a faint noise of a very young child crying from afar. Layontsin didn't think twice and made her way towards the direction where the crying originated. The anthro thanator soon came to te place, which was another narrow path in between the enormous stone and metal structures from where she first came. This one was somewhat obstructed with black round objects, similar to bags, that emitted another type of unpleasant smell that made Layontsin gag. Still, she could hear the noise of the young one more clearly now, meaning they were here, and Layontsin frantically searched the place for the young one. Before she could use both sets of hands to attempt picking up and moving aside the black bags, Layontsin heard some footsteps approaching from behind. The anthro thanator turned her head around and saw a hooded figure, revealing to be Asim as he took off his head covering. He too had been drawn in by the noise of the small child in distress, and he went to the pile of smelling bags and started to dig around.

Soon, Asim pulled out the child, and both he and Layontsin were shocked to see it's very young age.

The small skypeople child continued to cry and wail, in hunger, fear, cold, or something else as it was covered in dirt and some water. Layontsin immediately felt instincts take over her as she reached out to try and soothe the child, but she remembered that she couldn't interfere in the memory. Thankfully, Asim did what Layontsin planned to do as his eyes had shifted to compassionate ones and tried to calm the child down. It worked as the small one started to calm down in Asim's arms, and he got up and brought the young one into his coat to shield them from the rain and cold. Then Asim turned around and started to walk away from the black bag pile, towards the multitude of people in the outside. To which Layontsin followed him right behind so she couldn't lose him again. However, in the blink of an eye, Layontsin found herself in yet another place. This one looked like the places she was before, though it was more smaller and compact. Here, the anthro thanator could see Asim and the rest of his friends. Kentaro, Mikhail, Emeralda, and Shaka were ell in this place, which now looked like a usual skyperson home. There was another one which Layontsin did not recognize, but she assumed they knew him as he was with all of the group.

Everyone was doing something with their weird skypeople things and tools, while Asim was busy taking care of the child that now looked a bit older than before. Layontsin observed closely...and realized that the child was now similar to Lily. No, that wasn't it; this child was Lily. It was yet another memory from Asim that highlighted the most important events further along the way. Asim was giving Lily something to eat while the others were busy, Lily now looking cleaner and a bit older than she was before while taking her food to eat with great appetite. Layontsin watched Asim and saw him wearing a smile, one that expressed relief and calmness unlike the one Layontsin saw before when he fought.

"What shall we name her?" Asim asked to one of his friends moments later as he moved his head to face them. "Seriously? At a time like this? We are getting ready to leave and meet up with the others." Kentaro said as he briefly glanced at Asim with a frown while watching Shaka, who was currently peering through a covered opening that gave a view of the outside. "It's just a name. We've been calling her "little sister" for a very long time, and she deserves a proper name." Mikhail countered from the other side. "Great idea. How about we name her "Garbage(?)" because she was found in the trash bundle." Emeralda suggested with a small grin as she joked about it. "Eme, be nice. That's not a name that should be given to a little girl. Imagine if you were named "Troll(?)" or "Gnome(?)" as your birth name" Mikhail reprimanded Emeralda, who lifted her hands up in innocence and a bit of annoyance.

Each of the group was thoughtful for a moment before some of them came up with some names. "Maybe...Suri. It's was one of the popular names given to baby girls in my country." Shaka suggested as he came over to help with the things they were storing in boxes. "Chibi. It's an endearing name that I heard once in a while back home." Kentaro suggested as he went over to work on a weapon in his possession. "None of those would be understandable in the current words we are speaking now." Mikhail said, rubbing his head as he also was trying to think of a name. Asim looked at Lily, who was eating the last bits of her food. His face was now shown to be deep in thought before speaking up. "How about..."Lily"? As in lily pad, like the ones in the ponds and lakes?" Asim asked, the others from his group turned to face him. "Lily...I like that name." Mikhail said with a smile. "And it fits her. A lake or body of water is a place where one wouldn't normally find flowers. Yet a lily pad does grow there. And Lily was found in a place where a child should not be in the first place." Shaka said as he went over to them, also having and endeared smile. Asim nodded and also was glad that they accepted this new name. "Lily it is then." Asim said, moving his hands to pick Lily up and carry her in his arms. Lily gave a cute giggle and reached out to Asim's face with her small hands to play with it. This made the others laugh and chuckle, and Layontsin also gave a small chuckle as she watched the group be glad to have Lily with them.

After a long while, when everyone had their boxes and bags strapped or in their arms, they seemed to wait. "How is it outside? Is it safe, Chang?" Kentaro asked the other skyperson that was with them. "We are good to go. We should get out of here as soon as possible." this new 'Chang' person said, who was currently looking outside the opening that led outside from their home. "Then let's go. Everyone." Asim said, his friends obeying as they began to head outside while carrying their things.

Layontsin followed them right behind as she was determined to see what will happen next.