“We can call her Emerald, due to her green complexion?”
“Emerald… a green gemstone…” Amethyst repeats the name suggestion after Frank.
Amethyst…
I was named after a precious stone?
The green Trychid walking before them, seemingly unaware that the conversation concerns her.
If it was as Frank said, the name would suit her well, the dominant green color, even if it's something she had grown averse to.
But on their new friend, it looks natural, it suits her.
Maybe the color isn't as revolting as I thought it was.
But how is it possible?
Our Queen… my mother… had been dominantly purple, like me.
There was only one mother, everyone was her children.
I know it to be true... even if I can't explain it.
Just a feeling at the back of my mind, in my veins.
But I don’t remember…
Not even that we can be of different colors...
Emerald doesn’t seem familiar either.
Like a total stranger to Amethyst, just happening to look alike, be like her.
It's all so dark, so blurry in her mind.
What if I never remember?
Frank is giving her a strange look, and she realizes never giving him an answer.
“It’s a good name,” Amethyst tries to smile.
Name...
Humans have their surnames to link them together, I think that’s right.
I just have one name.
Maybe…
Does us both being named after gemstones make us… family?
Make us cousins, siblings?
That…
That’d be nice...
She raises her heavy head and spots other Tyrchids walking around in the forest.
The surroundings grow ever more sparse in foliage, the thicker and bigger trees almost compensating for the lack of it.
They pass by a group of her kin, a trio of orange ones, all differently patterned with other colors mixed in on their appearance too.
One of them glances our way, his orange eyes like shimmering embers, appear to evaluate them.
His gaze extinguishes quickly, and his head turns away as if he grew bored of observing us.
Nobody else with him pays any mind to the strangers in their midst.
Did they really not see us as a threat?
Amethyst looks down at Frank walking on her right, his head is spinning as he tries to sightsee all of her colorful kin.
They walk on their paths trampled on the grass, some flying in the sky above. Some nondescript buzzing can be heard, but it's mostly quiet.
Emerald leads them to the main village, an area with extremely thick and numerous trees, their trunks covered in rough, uneven bark of purple and deep crimson.
Rays of the two suns cast strong and layered shadows from the tall trees, landing on the paths crisscrossing between them on the ground.
The grass and foliage have been stomped out, forming these frequently used pathways.
I really was home.
This is it, my forest, where I lived—grew up in.
Surrounded by my kin, my friends, one big family…
…
Right…?
Even if I don’t remember any of it, any of them...
As they get further into the village area, a few Tyrchids approach Emerald, she says them only one word: food.
They stay waiting close by as Emerald goes off to more Tyrchids, repeating the word.
Turning to Frank, Amethyst hesitates to speak.
“Well, h-here we are. My Flufvz- I mean, my home.”
He is looking up at the trees, already having spotted our housing.
“You really do live in the trees, heh.”
“Yes, of course.”
Why did he find it… funny?
Above their heads, Tyrchids fly going about their business, from tree to tree and to outside of the village.
One Tyrchid has some sort of large fruits of different kinds skewered to its elbow blades, along with a winged creature, resembling a hawk.
Flying to a hole in a tree, it folds its wings at the entrance, sending purple shards fluttering down like sharp petals.
The sparkling shrapnel falls onto the root of the tree, a stack of them already formed below, most of the tree trunks are completely surrounded in piles of them already.
“Might want to be mindful of the splinters when you walk around here” She adds, watching Frank’s bright-eyed wonderment.
“Do you all have your own... house hole here?”
“I think so, though some probably share them.”
“So… yours is here somewhere too?”
“Y-yeah...”
I… I know it’s here…
Has to be...
But where exactly?
During our discussion, Emerald has met with more and more Tyrchids, and a crowd has started forming around us.
“Before that, I think you better start plucking some berries, Emerald has announced dinnertime to everyone nearby.”
Frank starts to quickly collect berries, from the huge bulb.
His hands look steadier and his expression calmer than before.
Maybe I was worried for nothing.
Though I hope they understand it’s the berries that are the food…
He picks them dexterously and shoves them into his pocket, stockpiling them up.
More and more of her family arrive, some descend from the sky and litter the world with purple shards, though some opt to keep their wings open instead, just lowering them.
Some are smaller than Amethyst in size, others a little bigger, the only truly uniform things seems to be the gray skin color, and the dominant color of violet in their blades and in their wings' film.
Even if their hair and armor are of different colors, these crystal aspects always had purple in them, with the possibility of one accent color.
Their armor is equally diverse in patterning, like pigment changes on the skin, though much more extreme and wide-ranged, even if they follow the principle of reds, purples, and blues.
Eye color also varied, along with the length of hair.
Did they knowingly style their hair? Some choosing to keep it longer?
…
Did I do that?
A Tyrchid breaks off from the hesitant-to-approach group, going straight at Frank.
He emanates an aura of power and pride, walking straight-backed, the attitude matching his armor.
A striking unusual mix of black, gray, and red. From the sea of color that was the other Tyrchid’s, his black hair and eyes stood out.
Even bigger than Amethyst, he towers over Frank and speaks.
“Blizh!”
Blizh… but that’s…
Did he just use it as a... swear word?
Frank offers him berries, thankfully, he seems to play along, keeping his eyes locked onto Frank’s as he crouches to eat.
Observing the scene from further away, Amethyst gets the impression he meant no harm, despite his threatening manners.
Would I be able to stop those black blades in time, if he decided on cutting Frank down?
Would I even be able to beat him in combat...?
What am I even thinking? It won't come down to that...
The mandibles look longer than hers as they dexterously pluck the berries from Frank's hand.
After he is finished, a pointed look at the crowd causes a red-eyed, pink-haired Tyrchid to slowly and carefully walk to his side.
“Blizh, Shfluz!”
A deep angry buzz directed again at Frank, the pink Tyrchid looks embarrassed to be there.
Frank offers her a hand of berries too, she timidly approaches and slowly plucks them one by one from his hand.
After the Pink Tyrchid gets her berries and they join back into the crowd, more dinner quests start approaching at a time again.
The atmosphere slowly grows more relaxed as they surround Frank, the feeding scene repeats many times. As soon as he gets berries in his hand, somebody is already waiting to eat them.
Watching from the sidelines, Amethyst feels glad that Frank seems to have been accepted among her own.
However, a strange emotion stings in her chest.
What was this feeling?
...
Am I jealous?
No matter how intricately Amethyst observes each Tyrchid, she doesn't feel any closer to remembering.
No evoking memories from their appearance, no matter how yellow their hair, how unique their armor pattern, or how expressive their faces are.
Even observing their head wings, the bone crowns on all Tyrchid's heads are all shaped a little differently, some even had theirs bent or with pieces missing.
But it doesn't help.
All of this information, combined with their antennae, the fur on them, its length and color, all wildly varied.
Many, many intricate details, differences, and unique appearances.
So much to reminisce about, to recall them from.
Maybe there is no return to the past. Whoever I had been back then, forever lost.
All of my relationships, everything I had been.
...
I am as much of an outsider here as Frank is...
A forlorn feeling takes root in Amethyst as she still keeps watch over Frank.
The crowd starts to thin out, fortunately, apart from a few Tyrchids, it had gone smoothly.
He had seemed really out of it with Emerald, but here he was, feeding them from his hand like it was nothing.
He really was good with animals.
Animals...?
They are- We are... more than that
We have to be more than that…
I’ll prove it.
…
From the corner of her hybrid eyes, she spots something green, Emerald is watching from further back too.
Amethyst approaches her and greets her with a buzz, she breaks her staring at Frank and seems surprised to see her.
She points a handblade at herself.
“Amethyst.”
Then at her.
“Emerald.”
The Tyrchid looks at Amethyst curiously and tilts her head.
She repeats the gesture.
“A-me-thy-st.”
And back at her.
“E-me-ral-d.”
Emerald points a blade at herself, looks down upon it, and tilts her head. She remains quiet and just stares down at her blade.
Going through the Tyrchid vocabulary in her head, she looks for a word to help her out.
Instead, realizing it only has 11 words.
No way to form sentences, no word for 'name'.
Is it even a language?
Suddenly, her antennae hear a faraway voice, Tyrchids all around react to it too, by surveying the area vigilant.
As the noise gets closer, she recognizes the words.
“Bsii Bsii Bsii!”
A warning of an incoming danger.
“Blizh! Blizh!”
The Tyrchids around get restless as more of them hear the danger call.
Frank’s feeding is interrupted as they shift their focus to the direction of the sound.
Many take flight, including Emerald, others walk or run away. A few wait on the ground for the noise’s source, notably the black and pink Tyrchid.
Looking for Frank, Amethyst spots him running over, still holding onto the berry bulb.
“What’s going on!?”
Does he not hear it? Is human hearing terrible too?
“Sabertigers.”
Stomp. Stomp.
The ground begins shaking rhythmically and doesn’t stop.
In between the stomps, cries of birds and wildlife fleeing their path echo.
“W-what are they?”
No more noises, only silence in between the massive footsteps.
“That is what Grent called them. They are like... Pineapple, but larger. Big cats.”
Their tread accelerates as does the shaking, the shards shingle as the piles of them get lifted off the ground only for gravity to slam them back down.
“There’s two of them…”
“W-what? Don’t tell me- the Sabertigers are the cause of this shaking?”
A group of fleeing Tyrchids break through the treeline with two Sabertigers on their heels.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Tyrchids who awaited them in the air break in two formations and dart at the cats.
Amethyst spreads her wings and coats them with the film, meanwhile, the cats pounce at the Tyrchids on the ground and swipe at the flying ones.
Her kin stab at them with fiery blades, but their thick fur doesn’t catch fire, nor can they penetrate through their tough skin.
What’s going on?
Mom fought them off just like that.
Slashing at them, slicing through their skin, even sometimes setting their fur alight.
Her senses are telling her to flee, to hide, and let the Queen, or somebody stronger handle this.
But she’s gone now…
She had always defended us.
Amethyst tries to cling to those memories, to follow them, but they are just feelings, instincts, something she knows deep within.
There are no experiences, no concrete memories associated with them.
Just a scratch mark left on the surface of metal doors holding her memories within.
How would she ever break through that barrier in her mind?
Even if she did, would there be anything inside?
Just the blurry inch-deep experiences… of an animal.
Amethyst's wings have dried up, but a feeling stops her from flying off to help her kin.
Looking to her right, she sees Frank, who looks back at her.
“Go, help them. I’ll be fine.”
There's a warmth, a decisiveness in his words. They are true, she can feel his sincerity imbued in them.
With a flap of her wings, Amethyst takes off without a word.
Thank you…
Be careful.
***
Amethyst's wings shoot open, splitting the wind, Frank barely dodges getting hit by her bony appendages.
For a few seconds, she looks at her kin in trouble with a grimace, just as she is about to take off, she suddenly stops and looks at him instead.
He instantly realizes what she must be thinking.
“Go, help them.
I’ll be fine.”
Instinctively, Frank answers, smiling sincerely as he breaks his promise.
She takes off as soon as Frank has finished, the look in her eyes breaks his heart.
I did it again…
Why...
Why did I say that?
How could I possibly be fine?
I’m just a man, and even Tyrchids are getting…
Killed.
Another one, a humanoid insect of red and orange gets swiped from the air and slammed onto the ground.
A sickening pool of green, a mangled corpse, like a squashed spider.
It soon starts to smolder and burn brightly, like a midsummer bonfire.
Slowly but steadily, more and more of these fires are starting.
The two Sabertigers split up at least, the right one steadily coming to my general direction. I take shelter at the root of one of the massive trees.
At least I could kite it around the tree if it came my way.
What else could I do…?
If I just wait this out…
It doesn't look like we would win...
How have the Tyrchids survived when all of their attacks appear ineffective?
Even when they go for the nose or eyes, the tiger is ready to block their offensive, with a paw or with one of their massive fangs.
The sabertiger makes contact with the ground force near me and devours one Tyrchid whole with its massive jaw.
So it does... eat... them.
His head spins, but he manages to shake it off.
The black Tyrchid encounters the cat, and it dodges a massive paw swing by jumping forward.
Its brave follow-up jump tries to reach the tiger's chin but the strike comes up short.
Why fight on the ground?
Why doesn’t it just fly?
Surveying the agile Tyrchid, dashing and dodging unexpectedly fast, Frank spots an empty space in the armor on its back, where the wing's storage is supposed to be.
A spot of exposed gray skin in its place, two stubs barely visible.
I see…
It… no...
Onyx, is trying his best, even without wings.
Soon, the only remaining Tyrchids of the ground force are him, and the pink Tyrchid. The ground is a mess of pools of green blood and bonfires of the dead.
Strong flashbacks to the red blood pools haunt his mind again. He takes support from the tree, which causes the berries to scatter onto the ground from his hand.
This is another slaughter.
I couldn't do anything back then…
But they-
They may be the ones who killed-
...
But…
I just can't...
He looks at the few berries still on his hand, and then back at the fight.
Onyx goes for a reckless attack from the side, while the pink one holds the beast’s attention.
He gallops deep underneath it and manages to sink a blade into its stomach, red blood gushes out and the tiger jolts in pain.
However, the sabercat starts bringing its body down, it's trying to crush him!
Onyx just keeps on stabbing at the approaching crushing mass instead of running away.
He braces himself to see him squashed, like many of his comrades before.
Suddenly the pink Tyrchid flies to him with blistering speed and pushes him out from underneath the cat.
But… it gets caught under instead.
Her…
Garnet’s right wing and foot get crushed underneath.
Onyx recovers from the ground after being sent tumbling and stands up.
He looks… horrified.
Ahhh! I can’t just keep spectating!
I have to do something!
The cat is lifting its giant paw with obvious smashing intent.
Frank leaves the safety of the tree's root, holding the berry bulb in one hand, and throws all the remaining berries on his other one at the cat.
Trying to aim for its small cone-shaped ears, he knew that no animal, regardless of size, liked foreign objects in there.
The cluster hits everything but its intended target: on the back of the head, the side of its face, and on the thick body’s fur.
Harmlessly bouncing off, peppering the area with berries instead.
Onyx gallops to Garnet, while the cat’s paw starts coming down towards them both.
Garnet tries to crawl towards him, digging into the ground with her blades, slowly dragging herself.
I quickly resupply with berries from my pocket and toss another volley.
A bunch of them fly straight down the cat’s pointed ears and the slamming paw just misses them.
Onyx uses his wrists and armored arms, pulling Garnet up, who limps with three legs taking support from him.
The cat growls and turns its head towards me, fiercely shaking its head over and over.
“Come on!
I’m right here, come get me!”
Frank walks backward and retreats back to the tree, taking out the last of the berries from his pocket where he had stockpiled them for the hungry insectoids.
The Sabertiger takes a long stomping step towards him.
BOOM.
A thundering explosion rings out and the cat lifts its paw quickly, like off from a hot stove.
It staggers backward, its balance teetering, and almost steps on the retreating Onyx and Garnet in the background.
Wait what just happened?
In the place where the cat stepped, a fire started on the green pool of blood.
Could it be?
He intently observes the fistful of berries, the purple swirls... it reminds him of a familiar sort of energy.
The cat seems hesitant to approach, but after a careful step without an explosion, it seems to regain its confidence.
I throw berries low and scatter them on the ground, between me and the cat. Aiming for the green pools of blood, those yet unlit.
Hoping for the best, as it takes another step.
An even more fierce explosion rings out, stepping on many berries at once.
Yes!
The cat looks almost terrified and sags its exploded paw in the air, giving the limp a big lick.
The explosion starts a new inferno, spreading to the corpse of a Tyrchid that didn’t ignite on its own.
Its body twitches as the inferno starts, quickly exploding into a ball of flame with a whoosh.
I’m sorry...
…
A sudden purple trail swooshes underneath the distracted cat and crimson floods over onto the ground, a sorrow-filled meow rumbles from the cat and it turns towards the way it came from.
On the left, the other cat’s world-shaking steps already lead away from the village.
Was that Amethyst?
She seems to have come just in time to finish the job for us, as the second cat starts retreating as well.
Amethyst lands next to Frank and closes her wings.
Her elbow blades are bathed in red and dripping after she extinguishes the flames on them.
The remaining blood slowly flows off them, dripping onto the ground, leaving behind pristine blades.
“Are you okay? What were those loud sounds?”
“Don’t worry about that... I’m just fine. But...”
They exchange sorrowful looks.
“So many are not...”
He remembers Onyx and Garnet, spotting them at another tree’s root, Garnet is sitting down, her mangled wing barely attached, and the fractured leg bleeding.
I lay down the bulb next to the tree and gaze with determined eyes upon the inferno between us.
Within it, the small berries also hid, like landmines.
So…
If I understand this correctly, as long as I don’t step into any green pools, I’ll be fine.
It's not like the berry exploded into flames in my mouth before.
Strangely, the fire wasn’t spreading across the red grass, it just sizzled and charred without actually igniting, even when very close to a fire.
The fires were contained only in the blood pools of the perished Tyrchids.
“Amethyst, let's help them,” Frank points to the other side at Onyx and Garnet.
“R-right.”
“Watch out for the… green pools.”
I say and take a step towards the inferno of funeral fires.
***
“R-right.” Answering him is hard, as Amethyst's throat seems to want to grow shut.
The feelings in her head, burning on her face hotter than the fire, squeezing and gripping my neck.
“Watch out for the… green pools.”
Frank says and proceeds toward the flames first.
Quiet, they zigzag past any pools of blood, past any dead and burning family.
Frank gives them a wide berth, the heat must be hard for him to bear.
Amethyst comes across a crushed Tyrchid, not yet alight, her purple body slumped in a pool of sick green, stained and defiled.
Her…
Her head…
It’s gone.
The vacant neck, against the ground, still bleeding out viridian.
Her arm extended out, like reaching toward Amethyst for help.
Never finding any, always lost, always…
Too late.
I’m sorry…
She stops in front of her and ignites her hand, gently lowering herself to touch her, the green blood catches fire after a moment.
Slowly, the smoldering low flame dances its way up her body, covering it entirely.
Rising up, she looks around.
We must have lost… at least…
Twenty?
Is this how numbers work?
Or was it even more?
Numerous charred patches on the grass, some bodies still burning, some unlit, other Tyrchids help these unfortunate kin to get them on their way too, as she did.
Others watch from their holes up in the trees, Amethyst can’t find it in herself to blame them.
It was what they had learned to do, this was our first proper fight without her.
She tries to feel glad that only this many lives were lost.
...
A futile effort.
Glancing back down at the one she granted mercy, her skin is starting to melt and peel off, the armor cracking and snapping too.
Averting her eyes, Amethyst leaves her, knowing what comes next.
Frank has stopped to wait for her, looking worried.
She only needs a few steps to reach him, to join back at his side.
The fires continue roaring around us.
However, he doesn’t start walking, instead, he holds out his left hand.
Confused at the gesture, Amethyst looks at my blades.
What did he want me to do?
What is the purpose of this?
Suddenly he takes her hand, from the wrist, brings it close to him, and presses his other hand on top of it. Encapsulating it, holding it in his hands.
Her armor insulates her skin from the outside world, unable to feel his touch.
She looks at him, and he looks back at her, deep into her eyes.
A line of water rolls down his face.
Why is he doing… this?
What is this?
Despite the tremendous loss and the strong smell of burning death in the air, somehow, she feels calmer.
The turmoil swelling inside starts subsiding.
How- did he know how I feel?
Why do I feel like this?
Frank closes his eyes for a moment before opening them again, his shining planets filled with kindness.
“Come, let us help those who can still be helped.”
It gets hard to see, and the image of Frank becomes blurry, she rapidly blinks until she regains her sight and nods.
Frank removes the hand from on top and grabs Amethyst's wrist, he pulls and she follows.
Leading her through the fire, hand in wrist, before she knows it, they’ve reached the two Tyrchids.
Frank lets go of her arm and starts to rifle through his backpack.
Somehow, Amethyst feels the warmth of his touch finally having reached her skin, just as he lets go.
All the way through her hard shell, onto her hidden wrist.
Always shrouded from the sun, untouched by the wind, out of reach from the world.
The warmth slowly fades, but as she looks at Frank, the feeling resurfaces within.
