Ruki went on despite the language barrier.“I hope I’m as old as Gaugii when I die.Or maybe even older.I want to see everything before my spirit joins the ancestors.”
Saer’s unfocused eyes blinked, and he turned his head.The juvenile’s deep brown gaze held a sharpness, even for one so young.
“Spirit,” Saer repeated the unfamiliar word.
Ruki’s face lit with surprise to hear Saer speak.“Yes, spirit.”He nodded with encouragement.When Saer stared, Ruki furrowed his brow and tried to explain.“Spirit.”He flattened both hands and touched his russet-toned chest.“Spirit.It’s inside.And when we die…” The boy breathed out and mimed something leaving with his hands.“It goes.”
It goes.
Saer narrowed his eyes.He understood what Ruki tried to convey, even if all the words weren’t grasped.What he needed to ask next was very important and required him to dig through the language he’d stored away in his memory to pick the correct word.
“Back?”he asked.
Ruki’s lips pursed with contemplation before it appeared to dawn on him.“Does the spirit come back?”
Saer nodded, once.
The boy shook his head.“No.When it’s gone, it moves on from the body forever.You’re dead.”
“Dead.”
“Yes…dead.”
Saer turned away from the boy.One chance.One opportunity to collect ‘spirit’ was what he had.Then dead.He understood perfectly.
All at once, the stakes seemed much higher.
The experience Saer shared with Gaugii was not the last.
With mild surprise, Saer found a similar energy existed in animals and escaped them as they perished, though their spirit didn’t pull Saer’s attention with the same ferocity.
Seasons passed, one after the other.Saer learned them, and his urgency percolated, leaving him short-tempered.Ruki called him ‘prickly.’It amused the boy, but Saer made it clear he didn’t appreciate the word.
The more time he remained on the surface, the more Neyu remained in Hell, away from him.
Did she think of him?
Had she stayed away from Lucifer’s ire?
If time passed so differently on the surface than it did in Hell, how much had gone by for her?
He thought of her in every empty moment.He needed to dispel her from his mind, lest it distract him.
For days.
Then weeks.
Months and eventually years.
Hellsfire, it grated at him.
Saer witnessed a handful of deaths, and each resulted in the same infuriating outcome.
He blended with humanity.He learned to smile, joke, express sorrow, and mimic fear.
He honed his skills.
Heat sense told him where animals and humans dwelled or hid.
