It had taken a few days to work up her courage, but as Saiph stood within a little grotto in the park, she thought that she was finally ready to make the leap and visit her homeworld. Cuan had only been able to tell her how the mechanics of such a thing were supposed to work. Like, she wouldn’t be able to stumble onto someone else’s homeworld. And no one else could stumble onto hers. So that was all right. And all she had to do was press a button on her phone and think very hard about going up into space.

Cuan had also assured her that she wouldn’t just float off anywhere or need a spacesuit. Which was a huge relief for the young girl. There was magic up there keeping things like oxygen to breathe available.

Gosh, magic was neat.

Enough stalling, she scolded herself silently. Taking a deep breath, Saiph closed her eyes and finally pressed down on her phone, where she knew the button was. She felt a slight pressure and tingle, but by the time she’d released her breath and opened her eyes, she certainly wasn’t in the park anymore. Staring wide eyed at the massive fossilized trees surrounding her, she wondered what the heck kind of place this had been in the past. Everything was so massive! And where on earth had the people lived?

No… wait. Saiph stred hard at where two giant branches crossed and thought she saw the remains of a sort of tree house. Had the people here lived in the trees? Confused, the girl moved around to study everything. Okay, so the ground was kind of rocky, but why weren’t there any homes or anything on it? As far as she could determine, everything was up in the trees.

Just like ewoks, she thought with a giggle. Then, she sobered. If everyone had lived up high, did that mean that something bad had lived on the ground? She’d watched enough nature documentaries with her mother to know that some animals lived up high to avoid predators on the ground level. So, if the people here had tree houses, then what had driven them up there?

Approaching one tree, she scanned it for hand holds and began to clamber up. As she climbed, she thought she saw what looked like old, carved grips for hands and feet. Moving carefully, she tested a few and found them satisfactory. And after a grueling climb, she lay panting on what had clearly once been a carved walkway within the massive tree. Maybe her past self really had been a ewok! From where she was, she could more clearly see the ruins of a little tree city. And even though that was pretty darn cool, she still couldn’t help but wonder about it.

Once she’d rested a little, she decided to see how much higher she could climb. Especially since it looked like the buildings had been tiered a little. Spitting on her hands, she rubbed them together before picking a branch and running toward it before leaping up to catch it and swing for a moment.

As she hung there, she mused that she probably could have thought this through a bit more.

"Hang on, kiddo," she called up in her most reassuring voice to a small alien girl trapped within the branches of the monstrous tree. "I'm going to try to get to you and get you out of that. I want to help, okay?"

Then, she started swinging and managed to swing enough to hook one leg over the branch and pull herself up to sit. Well, so far so good. Saiph continued to swing and to climb, determined to reach the alien girl. Determined to do anything she could to help. She smiled up at the frightened, tear-stained face and felt a wave of pity sweep over her. Whatever these aliens had been trying to do, it had been done to survive. Maybe they hadn't known any better...

“Iya!” the name ripped itself from Saiph’s throat even as the vision shook itself off and she scrabbled to catch herself from falling from the branch she was currently hanging on to. Tears streamed down her face as a wave of sadness and anger threatened to make her lose her grip. Before it could, she managed to wiggle up onto the branch and lay on her stomach as she sobbed for the little girl she’d seen, even though she didn’t know why. She didn’t understand. The tree she’d seen… she didn’t know it, but she had recognized bits and pieces of the park around it. And that tree had very clearly been alive. Not one of these poor, dead things. And the hands that had been climbing hadn’t been her own hands, but at the same time… she knew them to be hers. She had felt the rough bark and slick leaves of the tree.

“Maijuku,” she whispered through tears, not knowing or even understanding where the name had come from. All her knew was that the name hurt her heart. Same for Iya. She had zero context for either, but on some level, she knew them. And the grief she felt for both was nearly overwhelming.

Unable to move as the grief held her hostage until she’d sobbed herself out, Saiph lay curled into a ball, sniffling and trying to understand the horrible emptiness in her heart. She’d never seen that little girl before this as far as she knew. Would Cuan know what was going on and be able to help explain it? Or maybe one of the older senshi she’d met. Maybe one of them would know who Iya or Maijuku were and why they mattered.

And Saiph knew down in her soul that they mattered a great deal even if she couldn’t understand why yet. Finally, after what felt like hours, she sat up and looked around her. The ruins of the tree village could wait for another day when she had the energy to explore and feel excited by discovery. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to go home and cry some more and hug Cuan.

And once she didn’t feel so harrowed up, she was going to find someone to tell her who Iya was. Or had been. Because she didn’t think that she would have felt so despondent if Iya was still alive. They kind of sadness only came from loss. And Saiph wasn’t terribly eager to prod at that wound just yet.

(Word Count: 1096)