Mourn, that was what he needed to do and at the same time… he felt the need to go back to his home. It wasn’t a place he could bring Ian, he wasn’t able to do that with how weak he was still with things. He did let them know though and hadn’t just snuck out like he normally did. Worrying them was the last thing he wanted to do even if he figured they would worry that they were going alone. He had things that reminded him of Amel, things that Ian had helped him get together to bring to his planet. Some of them were plants and items they’d found on Chaldene which was the closest thing he could do to actually burying them. After so many years he doubted they would be able to find what remained, if anything did.

Packing up another bottle of that tea from the fridge as well as emptying the entire fruit bowl into another makeshift bag he made from a handkerchief, Sasha wandered out the door and away from the property. Once he was far enough he set his bag and bottle down to power up and pulled his senshi phone out.

Looking up at the sky he remembered the steps that Julienne had told him and when he blinked, he found himself back home. The air was stale, the sounds of crickets and cicadas were gone and he felt very alone again in a way he didn’t really like. But it did feel nice to be back because it meant he could look around and try and figure out things.

The homes that had once housed other Erinomans had crumbled, not all of them had fallen completely but as he wandered through he saw that everything really was a mess. Thinking for a moment, he tried to figure out how far from the great forest he was. This hadn’t been a place he’d really been around, it was one of the outskirt cities nearer to the small lakes that dotted his world's surface.

Deciding to just pick a direction, he wandered through the ruins and picked through some of them. He found broken glass vials which he knew must have held salves or other potions made by the herbalists he provided materials to. Sniffing one such bottle that seemed to be undisturbed had left him in horror though, instead of the verdant smell he was used to that came from the properly made medicines of his world, this one smelled of rot and chaos much like the vile black thorned vines that had taken over the forest and trapped him until they had dried up after a millennium.

Rubbing his face and nose to try to get the smell away, he stepped back and pulled at his little bag of fruit and tried to snack on some of the berries as he made a note to avoid the medicine bottles. There were so many of them, most were half embedded in the ground which must have been mud at the time. But it seemed like it hadn’t rained in so long, leaving all the plants dry and dead, including some of the offending black tendrils of chaos that had plagued his people.

He took some photos with his regular phone even if it beeped at him letting him know there wasn’t any service. Maybe Ian might know something, especially when it came to the few bits of medical machinery he passed in one of the herbalist stations as he neared what used to be the edge of the forest. There were few places where Erinomans lived that were within the forest’s grasp, usually only herbalist stations or farms were allowed that close because they were able to cull the constantly spreading greenery.

Walking through his silent and stale planet gave Erinome time to think. He was upset, more than he’d really let on to Ian or Hamal. There had been a bit of it after he’d seen the illusions of Amel on Daedalus but now that he had talked to both Hamal and Ian, it was settling in that they were gone. He did miss them, though he was finding out he also missed how things had been. Everything was so new and different and he was having a hard time on Earth figuring out all the rules that human society had. It was overwhelming on top of his attempts to figure out what to do about Ian.

After hours, he managed to find his way into what was left of the forest. The once lush and lively greenery that had covered most of his planet was now dried out and dead, allowing him to see through large swaths of land. It felt wrong and he almost felt unsafe knowing that he didn’t have brush and foliage to hide in. But there wasn’t anything to really hide from was there? Looking around he saw most of those blackened and thorny vines but they too seemed to be dried out and dead. He could still feel the chaos on his planet but it wasn’t the same.

Maybe he was safe for now… He really could only hope as he made his way deeper toward the largest tree he remembered. It was easy to spot even if it too had died. There were still sloppily carved symbols in his language on it, something he’d taught Amel and they’d carved together. Sitting down and leaning against the dead tree he took a moment to pull everything out to set up carefully between its roots. It took time to dig out a hole, the roots of the tree were large and had networked themselves so densely that there was barely any space between them.

Once he’d figured that it was deep enough, he laid the grasses and small items he’d found on Chaldene with Ian in it. On top he placed a book from Ian that he thought that Amel might have liked and finally he placed some of the fruits he’d enjoyed as well as ones he thought Amel also would have liked. It was the best he could do and he wished he could plant seeds there as well but his planet was still so tainted he doubted anything would grow.

“Miss you… Didn’t abandon you….” He didn’t know if they could hear but he felt the need to say things. “Ian… is kind. Different but… maybe.” Sighing he felt his face warming. “I’ll fix this… make it good, plant a tree that wisps like.” They’d always liked the things, and had even brought a few to his planet that tended to keep close to him. Those softly glowing lights were so comforting when he was alone trying to find the source of chaos on his planet. He’d start looking again soon, he had to. If he wanted to fix things he needed to pull it out at the root and smash it. Ian would maybe help, as long as it wasn’t a fight. He was sure he could find a few others as well.

“Will visit… often okay? Always miss you Amel…” Standing and nodding down at his little makeshift memorial, he took out a pocket knife and carved a few more lines of erish into the tree. Wiping away the dust and debris from it he felt a bit better about things. Even if he didn’t know what happened to Amel he could visit this place here to talk with them maybe. It felt like it might help, might give him the closure he needed. Turning away from it, he wandered his planet some more and looked for anything else of interest. Most things were eroded and eaten away by time or overgrown by more of those thorns. It wasn’t great but he needed to start somewhere. It would be good to try and pull the offending vines out if he could, maybe at some point he could find the source but he had a feeling he’d need to dig for it.

Settling on just gathering some of the empty glass bottles, he wondered if Ian would be okay coming here. It wasn’t as easy to get lost without the foliage covering everything so they wouldn’t have the same issue as they did on Chaldene. It was a bit funny seeing them get lost on a planet that they had known like the back of their hand in the past. His smile faded though as he remembered that Amel wasn’t Ian but that didn’t mean they weren’t good in their own way. It would take some time to figure it out but he was sure he still liked them even if they weren’t Amel. He just had to remember what Hamal said about communicating, even if neither he nor Ian were really good at that. It might take a bit of talking to Xander as well to figure things out since they had kids and were married if he remembered things right.

Looking back one more time towards the towering tree where he’d set up Amel’s memorial, he waved to it one more time before tapping on his senshi phone to return to Earth.


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