I sat on the edge of my bed, gawking at the painting Dans had drawn. I wasn’t necessarily gawking at the painting, but it was the only thing that temporarily satiated my boredom. There were no video games in this world to do that job for me. No TVs, no phones. And the only computer I’ve seen was at Dr. G’s place. I didn’t even know if that really was a computer. That didn’t matter though. It wasn’t like I could just go visit Dr. G on a whim.

I couldn’t say that Yellowrock was boring because it wasn’t. It was more dreary than boring. Dragons were an interesting sight when I first saw them, but the interest died out like it did when I got a new toy for Christmas. The surprise never lasted. 

Then I saw people being murdered right in front of my eyes, and I definitely couldn’t say that I wasn’t a little horrified. But that didn’t last much either. Maybe I got used to that feeling too. For the most part, everything still felt like a dream. Just yesterday, I remembered playing video games on my computer. Well, I assumed I was playing games. I do that every day. 

I still didn’t exactly remember everything. Just bits and pieces as always. But as I got closer and closer to the present, it really did just feel like a dream. One of those dreams you’d immediately forget when you wake up.

Everything felt unreal. This wasn’t my world. This wasn’t my home. But, I thought. Maybe it is now. Whatever the case, it didn’t really matter. I’m in a new world now. Just have fun and be happy, I told myself. Just do what I wanna do. 

I got up from the edge of my bed. Curiosity was in my nature. And I wasn’t going to sit around just being curious. Might as well live like I don’t even care. I walked out of my room with confident strides. Talking to Dans was up next on my list of fun things to do.

… 

I walked over to Dan’s quarters. I looked up at her giant door. How do I enter? Should I just burst in and be like, “Hey! I’m back!”? Or should I just knock? Is she even in her room?

“Hmm…” I crossed my arms in contemplation. What a dilemma… Do I look weird just standing here? I checked my surroundings. Nobody. Good. 

Before I could think of another excuse, the door swung open. Dans stood at the doorway with her black hair all ruffled up in a mess. I never noticed before, but I could see a slightly darker undertone beneath her eyes.

Dark circles? Seems like she’s hard at work, I concluded. 

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Ah, good question. What am I doing?” 

“Okay, goodbye.”

“Wait!” I pushed through the door and took a seat. “Okay. You can close the door now.”

“Excuse me?”

“Just close the door. I’m here to chat.” I gestured for her to come sit down. “Oh,” I exclaimed. “And please don’t eat me.”

She frowned in disgust. “Stop that.” 

“Stop what?”

“Stop joking around.” She sat across from me and took a sip of her drink she had on the table. 

“What is that?” I asked. 

“Saka juice.”

“Ugh.” Fish juice? “Does it even taste good?”

“Yes, actually.” She pulled an extra cup from under the table and poured some juice for me to try. “It’s sweet.”

I pulled the cup up to my lips and sniffed suspiciously. Smells okay. I took a small sip. “Oh, wow.” It tasted almost exactly like honey. “What kind of saka is this from?”

“The sweet kind.”

“I thought you were more knowledgeable than that.”

“No, that’s the name—Sweet saka.”

“Really? Sweet saka?” Man, sakonians are terribly uncreative. Merlovak’s Dagaea Castle suddenly came to mind. Well, I guess that’s debatable. 

“Yes. Now why’re you here?”

I took another sip of the juice before thinking about what to say. “So why do you have a mortician as a crewmate? Actually, why do you have a crematorium here? This is your ship—I mean, sakoar, right?” 

“Um, yes. This is my sakoar.”

“Yes?” I gestured for her to continue. 

“What, you want me to tell you everything?”

“Yeah, I mean, I already told you I was sapien.”

She glared. “I told you that you were sapien.”

“Ah,” I waved the question away. “The past is the past. Plus, I said your painting was lovely.”

“No, you said you liked it.”

“Well, even better! I love it!”

“Are you being sarcastic?” 

“N-no…” She knows what sarcasm is? I nervously gulped down a good portion of the juice. Maybe I underestimated these sakonians. 

Dans took a moment to shake her head in disbelief. “Fine. I suppose it can’t hurt. Yes, Mark is a mortician. I need him to make money.”

“Money you say? From cremating?”

“We’re a trading company.”

“And what does that have to do with being a mortician?”

“We trade soul crystals.”

Soul crystals? “What are these so-called soul crystals?” I asked. 

“They’re crystals made from souls—Why do you need to know all this?”

“Just curious. It can’t hurt to tell a stranger, right? So what’s their use?”

She continued. “They’re an energy source.”

“Energy source? Huh… And it's fine to just use dead soldiers that you so heavily respect?”

“I’m not sure what you mean. We give them the utmost respect.”

“Isn’t like dissolving their bodies in that weird liquid kind of disrespectful to their bodies? That’s like desecrating them, no?”

She raised an eyebrow. “How do you know that?” 

Oh, was I not supposed to know? “Uh, Mark told me.”

“That doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason for him to tell you that.” She paused to think. “Were you snooping around?”

Beads of sweat started to form around my nose. She’s not gunna kill me or something, is she?

“Look,” she said. “It’s fine if you did. I’m not interrogating you.”

“Oh, whew.” I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank god. I thought you were going to kill me.”

She shook her head as she let out a long sigh. “And what else did you do?”

“Why would you assume I did something else?” I paused. “Oh, right. Mark gave me a shot to check if I had any bacteria or whatever.”

Her eyes widened. “He has your blood. That’s no good.”

“Now what? What’s the problem with that?”

She ignored me. “I… I’m sure it isn’t a big deal. Wait here.” She got up and rushed out of the room, leaving me with some leftover sweet saka juice.

Well, I can’t do anything about that. I took another sip from my cup. I’m bored now. I stood up to take a look around Dans’s room.

Next to the table, there was a desk stacked high with paper. It looked like Dans was quite busy. I couldn’t imagine reading through all that. Seemed like a terrible use of time when I could be out exploring the world. But maybe these papers contained some top-secret stuff. I wandered over to try and read some of it. One of them looked like a letter.

The letter started off with “Dear Dans…” It seemed like this was a personal letter. I felt a little guilty about going through it, but curiosity got the better of me. 

As I quickly skimmed through the letter, I realized it was no big deal at all. Just a simple letter stating that the sender was fine and to not rush back home. It kept repeating that Dans should take her time to voyage. But what I found odd was that it ended with “Thank you for everything.” That wasn’t something I’d ever write. It sounded more like an obvious death flag for a character than anything else. 

At the very bottom, it read, “Love, Darrell,” with a drawing of a little heart. 

Huh. How silly. It was either a family member or a lover. I quickly lost interest in the letter, so I tossed it to the side. I poured myself another cup of sweet saka juice and sat down. 

I wondered how much longer it would take to arrive at Sakoria. I’m pretty sure that was the name of the city. As much as I loved the calming atmosphere of this sakoar, I wanted to see where the sakonians actually lived. Hopefully it looked better than this big heap of metal.

My lips felt dry. I gulped down the entire cup.