The Razorback // Sammy

You waited just outside the clearing. Listening to the leaves rustle. The call of birds. At one point, you could have meditated for a few hours and heard it all again, like when you were a child. You know that it's the last time you'll hear it in this Iteration. In this version of you.

The Razorback releases an angry snort, pinned to the ground by your paw, and the web of vines you goaded him into. You'd been hunting all morning, looking for the right one. Now that you had him, it was just a waiting game.

Sammy walked into the clearing.

He'd aged considerably since you'd passed on the Mantle, and had dark rings under his eyes. The cerulean hue of the API Hub glowed from the recesses of his skin. On the rare ocassions the Mantle moved from you to the doctor, Sammy always struggled to harness the power, and was haunted by the visions he could gather. Given his limited knowledge, most of them were of you.

So he came looking, like he always did.

A disturbance in the leaves across the clearing. You looked up at Wind, hiding in the branches, bristling with firewood and other adventuring gear. A wave of nostalgia came and went, smothered by the seeds you planted. That there was something more outside the jungle -- sights to see beyond the stars. You hadn't seen the boy in years. He was a young man now, comfortable with the sword at his back, and the Gift in his heart. You wondered for a moment if he'd even remember you, or if Clouds had told him you passed. Mist was barely more than a toddler when you left -- you daydreamed about teaching him the sword, alongside his older brother.

Another lifetime, perhaps. One that the universe didn't have time for.

You lifted your foot off the Razorback, and leapt into the branches of a nearby tree. The boar tore out of the vines with a howl, and sprinted off in a rage -- right towards the clearing.

You didn't watch. You didn't need to watch.

Fate made the same choice it always did.

Lightning in the Wind became a Walker.

Sometime later, you climbed down to the jungle floor, and hiked to a clearing a few miles east. The Nightfish waited for you, covered in vines and branches. You looked to the other, empty seats as you strapped in, and set a course for your new home.

Absalom Station.