Taking a deep breath, Saiph closed her eyes for five seconds, doing her best to center herself and fight down her unease. The only reason that she’d so willingly returned to her homeworld was out of curiosity. After having talked with Almadel and done some thinking, she’d wanted to see if she couldn’t find some of the bones he’d talked about. What she could do about it if she did find them was beyond her. But, she thought that she wanted to at least see the things if they were really as big as Almadel had implied.

When she opened her eyes, she glanced around, taking in the massive trees (which were definitely sprouting leaves), she tried to imagine how the Merchant would see things. Yes, he was really weird, but he had a passion for exploration that she found admirable. And maybe, if she could trick her brain into that line of thinking, her skin wouldn’t prickle so bad just being on her homeworld. Honestly, it was just plain uncomfortable feeling like she wasn’t alone in her own brain. And sure, Cuan had tried to explain that that wasn’t how things worked. But since the kitten still couldn’t explain why she was remembering the things she was…

Well, Cuan meant well and she was trying so hard to figure it out. And the way she got lost in thought made Saiph wonder if the kitten hadn’t figured something out and was just staying quiet until she was sure. Which was possible. Cuan was tiny, but she was smart. And, in the way of cats, she probably wouldn’t say anything until she was absolutely certain of her information.

“Which leaves me where,” Saiph muttered to herself as she slid and scrambled down from the tree she’d been investigating. She wanted, no she needed answers. It would have been nice if those answers were a little more forthcoming.

As she hit the ground, the chibi senshi knelt to examine the base of the tree. Enormous roots rippled and buckled the earth and there were little patches of grass and moss growing within the crevices. Frowning, she plucked a blade of grass. A tiny bit of moisture beaded where the blade had torn. It smelled a little like lemon, she thought. But it was alive. For whatever reason she couldn’t figure out, her dead world wasn’t looking so dead anymore. And as interesting as that was, she was here to do some actual exploring. Picking a direction at random, Saiph began walking. She paused here and there to examine plantlife that seemed to be doing its best to live. It wasn’t every plant or tree. But it was enough of them. But she hadn’t heard or seen any evidence of animal or insect life. Remembering how Almadel described the bones he’d seen, she quickly decided that she was fine with not seeing any animals.

As she walked, the dim sunlight flickered around her, relaxing her slightly. It was such a normal thing in the midst of a whole lot of weird. But she was getting tired. The ground was still bumpy from dead tree roots and rock and she was using a lot of energy scrambling over them. She’d even managed to find some possible bones, though they weren’t on the scale that had been described to her. The bones she’d seen had been closer to people sized, but hadn’t been human. And given the way they’d been mostly covered in dirt and ruined vegetation, she was happy to leave them where they were. She’d watched enough documentaries to know that digging out a fossil with her bare hands was likely to be nearly impossible. Whatever the bones had belonged to would be allowed to rest in peace a while longer.

She was getting tired though. Sighing, Saiph found a patch of shade and flopped down, leaning back against a twisted tree trunk. Closing her eyes, she decided that she’d just take a little break. It wasn’t as if there was anything here that could actually hurt her, after all. She could allow herself to relax slightly.

Within a few minutes, Saiph was fast asleep, the dim sunlight reaching through leaves, skeletal and living to dapple her skin in gold.

Word Count = 712