What Death Leaves Behind

Chapter 1

Amarylla lay back in the meagre pod her Tree-mother had made for her, cradling the small sapling it had left behind close to her chest.

It would grow again she knew, but would it be the same? Would it have those memories of raising her, of guiding their people? It had always been such a comforting presence in her life, the knowledge that the one who had borne her was watching on encouragingly as she grew.

Amarylla put the sapling down and raised her palms to her face pushing in against her eyes, the pressure stemming the tears that had begun to well up. She sat like that for a few minutes letting go of the memories of her home, of her people being slaughtered, and buried them deep inside her. Then she sat up straight and focused on her mission.

She was going to find them. The remainders of her kind.

She knew they were out there, and the small biotic space pod of her's allowed her to track them down. Looking at the scene displayed before her of several faint glowing lights scattered throughout space, she was comforted by the knowledge that she was not alone, at least among her species.

Peering closer at some of the dots, she noticed that several appeared to share a very similar trail leading towards a small planet far away. She could see that they had left long before her, though they were not all together. Zooming in, she saw a pair of small life signals with a much larger but fainter one; their trail showed that they had stopped at this small planet for some time and underwent a change before leaving, as the big life signal had now shrunk in size, but was much brighter. They had already left the planet, but there was a signal that appeared due to arrive there not long after their departure, though oddly coming from a different direction, with another two separate signals on the way.

This seemed like a good sign that she should head to that small planet; with so many Edionans stopping there it was sure to draw others, and although the first ones had already left she could probably make it there before the other ones moved on too. Maybe. Hopefully.

But then she noticed another bright life signal, it was in a different direction but it appeared to be much closer and its trail showed that rather than moving continuously, it had been stopping and starting. She could definitely catch this one.

Amarylla found herself stuck, unsure of which way to go. Should she take a chance on finding a larger number of her people, with the possibility of never catching up? Or should she take the lower risk option she was confident she could catch, but with only one person at the other end...?

Unsure, she lay back to think for a moment. With the larger numbers heading in the same direction, the trail would stay strong for a lot longer, so she could always follow it after finding this lone Edionan, but if she went after the group first, she might never have the chance to find this one again.

Looking once again at the small tree in her care, she made her decision.

She wasn't going to leave anyone behind, not anymore.