Guardians at Home Part 4

(Read the previous part here )

The stench was tremendous. Standing in the Galactic Marketplace, a misleading name at best, the smell of Traditional Noodles mixed with the aroma of freshly made Fish congealed in the air to form a most pungent smell. A figure approached me, it was short, and moved with a limp. As the figure arrived I Addressed her,

“Let me help you with that Auntie.” My aunt shook her head,

“Absolutely not! I may be old, but I can still carry one measly present!”

“Sounds terrible.” She recoiled slightly, “You know I didn’t mean it like that you stupid boy!” She ruffled my hair and smiled. She turned and started walking at a brisk pace. I started after her, unsure if going that fast was healthy for someone her age,

“Auntie! Wait!” I caught up with her and she looked at out of the corner of her eye,

“At least let me carry something for you?”, she stopped and stared at me,

“No.”, and kept on walking. She only stopped in front of a small entryway to a tower of concrete. She entered and began to walk up the stairs. I glided up a few flights behind her. She stopped, tapped on a door and it slid open, I entered behind her. She had set the table for a meal, that much was evident,

“Come, sit.” She gestured to a chair opposite her. I sat down,immediately regretting coming in full regalia. She tapped the table a couple times and a bowl of soup appeared in front of me,

“Egg drop?” I asked. My aunt nodded. I started to ingest the yellow concoction, and relaxed,

“Sarech,” My aunt paused, “Your uncle and I, we, well,” She took a deep breath, “He left. Probably to be with some confounded bot.”

I stood, slightly alarmed at what I was hearing,

“Auntie, are you sure? I mean, you guys, you’ve always been so happy together!”

Auntie was clearly holding back tears, “I know, I don’t know what I did, he just left a note on my pad, and left.” She couldn’t hold them back anymore. I walked over to her and put my arms around her, I kissed her hair softly,

“Shh, Auntie, it’s ok.” She kept crying, “Auntie,come on, Auntie, it’s ok, everything’s going to be okay. Tell you what, I’ll talk to my Uncle, when I’m next back here ok? I’m rotating out to the frontlines of the SIVA outbreak, tomorrow.”

This sent her slightly deeper into her crying fit,

“Be careful out there, Sarech. You're all I have now.” I grinned,

“I’ll send you a postcard.” She smiled, I hugged her tightly and started to walk towards the door,

“Aren’t you gonna give finish your soup?” She asked. I craned my neck slightly, extended my hand, and the bowl of soup floated gently towards me,

“I always finish my Auntie’s Eggdrop soup.”

I walked out,present in hand. Later that evening I was sitting at my desk and I opened my gift. I held up the small object for my Ghost,Ghast,to see.

“What is it?” he asked,

“It’s a Color Ball. People in the Reef give them to family all the time.”

“What do they do?”

“Nothing really,it’s just a sign of love and affection.”

“Then why are they called Color Balls?”

“They show you Colors sometimes. If you look through them. I know this one. This is mine. I lost years ago. I broke it when I was small.”

“Before your first death?”

“Yeah.”

//Sarech Dvol will return, in On the Front. Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of the Sarech Dvol Saga. The first part in On the Front will be published next Friday(August 12th)//