Light

3. Erah

The fire lit on a small plate of wood chips, cooking meat I obtained from an animal that Archon hunted for me. I asked him why he didn't just cook it himself, and he said he didn't know I wanted him to, then disappeared. I've had this kind of meat before. It tastes like, as my mom called it, chicken. Never heard of chicken, or pig, or whatever else she talks about.

The meat finished cooking. I cut it up and put it on two plates, one for Archon and one for me. The plate for Archon I leave on the table, and the one for me I leave in my lap since I'm going to be eating it. "Thank you, Onyx," I look over towards the slightly bright luminary which I saw before in the corner of my eye. He's chewing on the 'chicken' by holding it in two hands, as if the plate was never there to hold it. He's not using a fork or knife, nothing. "Welcome... Aren't you afraid your hands are going to get dirty or greasy?" "I have a shirt to wipe them on. Not a big deal. What did you put on or in this? It's better than when I cook it." I smiled at him, finishing up my plate and putting it on the small table in front of me. "Salt, It adds moisture and flavor to the meat." He looked at me with a slightly confused face. I stood up, taking my plate with me and washing it with a small bottle of lukewarm water, which is all we had to wash it with. "What is that?" He sat down next to me, rubbing his belly after eating. I looked down and closed my eyes, sighing. "Hard to explain. All I can say is that it was scary to get, and it makes our water supplies less scarce."

No one can know that I went outside the safe zone. "Did you get it from the Vega Forest? There's a beautiful lake there that goes down into the lower levels of the planet," he leans back on the couch. "Yeah. I think so. The water there was pretty clean and it was mixed with salt. That's how I got it. Why's it called the Vega Forest?" I opened my eyes. "Because at night, the lightflies that reside there shine bright like Vega," he looked me in my eyes. "What is Vega? And what is a lightfly?" I felt like I was asking too many questions, but I was curious. "Vega is a star. The lightflies came from it. I can't explain more about Vega, but the elders can. They know everything about back then. The lightflies are like flies that shine brightly. Not too bright, but noticeable." Like a firefly. Earth and Kepler-186f really aren't that different. I looked at the table, away from Archon. "My mom says that back on Earth, before the Frost, these bugs called fireflies still existed." I looked back at him, into his eyes. "The Frost?" I didn't realize this question would come up at all in the future, or now. My eyes looked back down. "It's why humans moved to this planet. Our Sun collapsed and blew away the face of the Earth, and everything got cold. Too cold for us."

"I'm sorry to hear that happened, Onyx." I shrugged. "I wasn't there for it, so I don't really... I mean I do care, but... Not as much as the others, y'know?" "I understand." My vision began to slightly go back to what it was before when I first figured out that I have the sickness. "I want to try and end my species and your species killing each other. And I want you to help me. I need you with me to keep me from dying of sickness, might as well make you do something else too. I'm pretty sure you want this too. Might start a war, but we'll end it."

"My answer is yes. And I know someone that can help us. She's an elder, but she's like me. I won't kill unless I have to." Archon stands up, looking down at me expecting me to as well. "What's her name?" I stood up shortly after. He was still looking at me, and a few seconds before we teleported somewhere else, he answered me. "EԖΛĦ. Or in your language... Erah."