Caretaker

by Josi Russell

  “I will,” he said, heading for the door. On his way out he grabbed his journal and glyphtol. The Alorans had presented them to him with some reverence before the ship had left Minea. They had been pleased at his use of Xardn. He smiled, remembering what Lassaya had said as she’d returned the journal to him.

  “You use the language well,” she’d said. “Your writings show the wisdom of the ancients blended with the unique emotion of your species.”

  Ethan found a small path through the trees behind the cottage and followed it, taking long strides and deep breaths. This world felt solid and real under his feet. The trees surrounding him were beautiful in their imperfections, the sky lovely in its arcing grandeur. The path inclined, and he rose with it, higher and higher until his lungs burned. By the time he reached the top of the hill, he felt strong and invigorated. Below him, the cottages slept. He crossed the crest of the hill and saw, on its other side, a wide lake stretching away from him. Facing the lake, he sat down with his back against a tree, snapped a leaf off a nearby bush, and opened the journal, sliding the leaf into the front cover.

  He turned the pages, reading through the entries up to the day of their capture. Reading his thoughts again brought back the sound of Traxoram’s voice in the throne room. Traxoram had described love as “the most fleeting and ridiculous of emotions.” Ethan thought about that as he sketched several Xardn symbols:

  safe

  fear

  family

  home

  anger and

  love

  He drew the last symbol slowly, thoughtfully. There was nothing ridiculous about the emotion that had moved Kaia to push him into the stasis chamber, nothing fleeting about the place she held—and would always hold—in his heart. And it was his love for Aria that had brought out the incredible powers that his mind and body were capable of. It was his love for her that had gotten him through five years of loneliness, had given him the courage to face monsters, had given him the strength to turn away from Kaia, had driven him across the stars to bring them safely here.

  The most fleeting and ridiculous of emotions? It seemed to him that the truth was just the opposite. He had found, through his journey, that everything else changed: anger was momentary. Hatred passed. Fear eventually moved into memory. Love, it seemed to him, was perhaps the only emotion that endured.

  He stood and looked up from the journal to see the sky lightening. The rippling lake caught the light and reflected it back to the sky, making the surrounding forest seem darker by comparison. Out of that dark wall of trees, Ethan watched two calterleks emerge carefully. He’d seen them in photos before: large hairy creatures whose bearlike heads belied their gentle, flighty nature. He watched them standing motionless in the last shadows at the lake’s edge. Though they were unfamiliar and strange, he felt a kinship to them as he, too, stood anxious and eager at the brink of the coming day.

  About the Author

  Josi Russell teaches creative writing and fiction courses as an associate professor of English for Utah State University Eastern. She lives in the alien landscape of the high desert American Southwest with her family and a giant tortoise named Caesar. Josi is captivated by the fields of linguistics, mathematics, and medicine, by the vast unknown beyond our atmosphere, and by the whole adventure of being human.

  Connect with Josi Russell:

  http://www.josirussellwriting.com

  http://facebook.com/authorjosirussell

  http://twitter.com/josi_russell

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