They went along the white sandy beach. Every so often, her little brother would bend over to pick up a seashell, hold it up to her face, examine it, then drop it back to the ground. Only the rare few did he kept. At six years old, he was three years younger than Ishumi and was an entire head shorter, but they shared similar features alongside the differences. They both had dark hair and lean bodies with lightly tanned skin. But he had a rounder face and glassy dark eyes, with steady silk smooth hands that seemed to shine anything he touched.

“What are you doing?” she asked, walking beside him.

He held a weaved basket in his hand. Within it were dozens of shells of different colours and shapes. The boy set the basket down on the ground and his hands shot up in words. “Mister Gorsuchi says he's looking for clean shells to make trinkets with and he's willing to pay for them.”

“And you're going to collect and sell them?”

“Yeah!” he signed back.

“Why didn't you tell me? I can help.” She picked up a decently shiny shell next to her feet. “Will this do?”

“No no no! See, it's chipped at the side. It has to be perfect.” He took one of his from his basket and held it up to her face. “A perfect ten!”

She smiled. “And why do you need the money?”

The boy grinned cheekily. “Not telling you!”

As he said it, she felt the foamy waters of a wave lap over her feet. She looked down in time to see the ebb receding back to the great blue and thought it weird as it was not suppose to be high tide for hours yet. Her brother pulled at her sleeve and pointed out to the wide Alavrian Ocean.

They watched as the creature rose out of the water. At first parting the sea itself as its 'head' climbed slowly. It was like that of a titan dragonsnake, blue scales glittering in the Twins as its ear fins beats slowly against the fresh air. From where they stood it seemed no larger than the nails on their thumbs, but the creature was miles out and would dwarf them as one would be overshadowed by mountains. Then, a second head rose up beside it. A third. A fourth. Eight heads totalled burst out of the sea and all turned its attentions to their direction. Or more accurately, to the city that sat in the forest behind them.

It was then she saw it. The waves displaced by the heads rising out the water were gathering into a wide frothing tide, rolling towards them.

“We have to run!” she yelled.

They were too far away from the river where the row boats awaited. Instead, they rushed for the forest where a hill to the south east would hopefully provide grounds high enough away from the tsunami. Off the sandy beaches. Onto the grass. Into the trees. They did not look back. They jumped roots. Twisted by trunks. Ate bugs that slammed into their faces.

Something then smashed into their backs with speed and force. They were lifted off their feet as the tide pushed them through the forest. They were washed through the trees alongside animals and shrubberies. There was so much water that mud dissipated into gaseous nothingness. As suddenly as the water hit them, it slowed to a stop. She was losing her breath and her brother dangled unconscious in her hand, floating in the water like the bobble. The tide began to recede, washing back to the ocean. They were about to be thrown out into the sea like wastes down a drain.

Thinking quickly, she used what she could of her magic. With a blast of shadow, she propelled herself to the trunk of the nearest tree she could see and hugged with her whole body. She tried to pull her brother to her but the ebb ended and the force of the outgoing tide pulled at her arm and her brother.

Her world quickly grew dark, spots of colour faded from her vision as she held on as tight as she could the her brother's hand while the oxygen expanded from her lungs, crushed by the sheer pressure of the current. The tree began bending, cracking, tearing off its roots. She closed her eyes and hoped.

***

“When I woke up, I was on high grounds. One of the Clover that was there to fight the Orochi found me stuck on the tree and grabbed me before the second wave hit. I watched from my perch throughout the whole fight.” Ishumi set the bouquet of orchids down against the roots of the tree. “My parents were killed in the city when a stray attack destroyed our home. After the war, I applied for a scholarship to the academy and never looked back.”

They were in the Forest of the Dead. A grove of trees to the north-east. Beneath the roots of each tree were buried the deads of families. The tree of the Nato family was that of a black blossom, the light grey flowers drizzling down over their heads as the weather turned with a cold gust of wind. Chimes dangling from sparse branches overhead rang in a range of music.

In death, the people of the forest was buried in the ground next to their family tree. It was a way for them to live own, their soul fuelling the very life above them. Beneath their feet were the bodies of thousands quietly waning their time in eternal slumber.

She continued, “I never found out what happened to my brother. He wasn't with me when they pulled me out. I don't hold out onto hope for impossible things. I know that it's likely he was swept out to sea after I passed out. I've accepted that he is dead, but I never got to bury his body.” She got to her feet and bowed to her family tree before turning around.

Standing behind her, Joachim listened in respected silent. It was a strange form of quiet outside of his muteness. She gave him a nod and a smile to let him know she was fine with him speaking.

He sighed before signing, “For what it's worth, I don't have a family either.”

She chuckled. “You have your troupe. They may not be related to you by blood, but they are your family. Me? I don't have anything of that sort. No relatives. No aunts or uncles. You asked me why I did not want to come back if I could help it? This is why.” She gestured to the tree. “I've got nothing left here.”

“Going by that lane of thought, you do have families left, don't you?”

She raised a brow at him. “What do you mean?”

He pointed to himself. “We're not related by blood either.” Then, his cheeks rose to red. “But... I'd like to think of us as family.”

She stopped, stared at him. Nervously, he turned away from her and gestured incoherently in embarrassment. She then laugh, guts clenching as she tried her best to hold in her voice, sputtering chuckles in random gallops.

“What? I'm being serious here!”

She stepped over and embraced him in a gentle hug. Saying to him, “Thank you, Joachim. That was nice.”

He sighed again, the warmth of his body fighting off the cold of the world. He signed in her back, “You're welcome.” After a moment, he pulled her apart and with a cough, said, “Okay, now that the awkward is over, should we head to pay our respects to your brother?”

She looked downcast at their feet then up to the canopy. “It's getting late and it'll get colder soon. We should head back.” With a step, she made an effort to walk away but Joachim held her back at the wrist. She turned to him and said, “Joachim, please. I don't really feel–”

“Then let me. I lost people in the war too. Let me give my peace,” he implored.

Ishumi sighed. It was like talking with her brother again, never getting her way. “Fine. It's this way.” She gestured, leading the way through the familiar fields.

Their feet crunched the dried leaves underneath as they head deeper into the forest. The Field of Losts was where they were headed. She read somewhere that for every 10 people who died, 1 goes missing. She was reminded of that fact as they stepped out of the treeline into the field of flowers.

The Field of Losts was filled amidst brown grass with the blooms of norphstar. A yellow star coloured flower that bloomed year round, regardless of seasons. In the past during the early days of Rubicum when the forests around was still a mystery, the norphstar was planted throughout the country as a way to find home. Their bright colours and slight bioluminescence helped guided those who were lost. For those who went missing, the field was where their loved ones would go and pay their respects, and in some cases, spread cottonwood seeds in wishes of returns home.

Ishumi asked her companion, “Did you bring any seed to spread.”

“No,” he replied. “But I did tell them to bring some.” He gestured over her shoulder.

She turned, and walking through the grove in the distance was a familiar group. The other twelve students of Class C alongside Pip approached in a band. She looked to Joachim for answers, the latter simply turning away, refusing to meet her glance. But somewhere inside her, she felt thankful. While irate at the unnecessary intrusion, she was also happy that he cared enough to go the distance, and even more so that the rest of them actually bothered to come.

Enneya walked up to the pair as the rest lined themselves along the edges of the field. She held out a bag of cottonwood seeds with a sombre smile. Joachim reached in and grabbed a handful, and after a moment and a sigh, Ishumi did the same. They joined their line of friends.

They waited, listening for the signal of a breeze of strong winds. Then, they heard the tingle of the wind chimes. With opened hands, they tossed the white puff seeds just as a zephyr blew through, catching the tails of their offering. The tiny whites caught the stream and rode spiralling into the sky, rising and rising into the blue, like snow returning home fore winter.

Ishumi recited aloud, “Let the norphstar guide you to the blue sea. Let the white wind return you to your wayward abode. Let the cities of flowers greet and welcome you home.”