Yahui had heard of the holiday season, but he was not expecting it to hit him so hard. One day it was fall. The next day it was something else. It was not just 'winter.' It was something else. He was suddenly participating in the most important event on Earth, it felt like.

Now he knew why the nursery he worked at had so much land space devoted to "Christmas trees." There was a huge rush to get them out. They were suddenly seeing hundreds of customers a day. He was used to seeing less than a dozen.

They were having him work "overtime." Everyone seemed frantic and desperate, even when they kept a calm demeanor.

Some customers acted like they were going to die if they didn't find the Perfect Tree. He tried very hard to explain to these customers that there was no such thing as a Perfect Tree. They didn't listen. They yelled at him instead. Some of them asked to see his manager. Then his manager yelled at him -- something that had never happened before.

It was exhausting. He was exhausted. What was the point of all of this madness? Why was everyone being so dishonest? This was supposed to be a happy season, but everyone around him was more miserable than he had ever seen them. His coworkers were worrying about the usual things, rent and bills, as well as all of this holiday business. They were horrified they wouldn't make their children happy enough this year. They were anxious about having to sit at the dinner table with toxic relatives again. They were stressed about the dangers the weather posed. And yet, when the conversations were over, they would smile and say "Happy Holidays!" to cover everything up.

It didn't make any sense!

For the first time since being summoned to Destiny City, Yahui hated being on Earth.

He didn’t want to.

But the emotional poison he saw coursing through the city, with a source he did not understand, reminded him too much of his own world.

A world that had died. A world that was still dying. A world that he could not save.

The refugee camps and resistance bases had been full of the same desperately smiling faces, back when they were still alive. The same restrained anxiety. The same empty hope. While Earth was abundant with life, and food, and pleasures that he could never have imagined, it was not as different from Taiyi as he originally thought. The humans were afflicted with the same sickness he had seen in the Tai.

Did that mean the Earth had the same fate? Is that why he was sent here? The thought kept him awake at night, and he would venture out in search of distractions.

Sid was good at distractions. Yahui liked her. She had introduced him to all kinds of fun things Earthlings did, and always seemed happy to show him more. All the same, sometimes he thought he saw that familiar look on her face. The empty look. The hopeless look.

He decided to go out on his own. Clear his head. Get away from all the people. He took a subway out to the edge of the city and vanished into the Earth woods, where the roots of the trees were endearingly small.