And still the wind blow through the vast valley, still the horn blow through the halls, still there was an echo of something within this desert land.

The entire earth itself was in ruin, nothing eatable grew. Plants were wild and dangerous, animals far too strong to be hunted or battled. One had to live as he could, walking barefoot, eating the remnants of other animals or suffering from illness.

Of all the above the last was the worst, once got sick everything fallen apart, and the person quickly became easy prey.

What great civilization had once inhabited and prospered into those lands was now long gone, erased from history, reduced to dust. Nothing remained of them but ruins and ashes. Sometimes one encountered an object, a building, a tool from the past and may stop wondering what was it. But that stopped there, any deeper questions were considered useless. What was his function? How was it constructed? Who owned it? All of those were questions to not be asked, less one was quickly taken by a melancholy sense of how life was before.

Everyone was dead, the cultists doomed the entire planet with their rites. Nature itself had revolted against the human-animal and went a step further, it hunted him down. Life was hard and short, communities unstable, love only a burst. Long gone where the times when one went to a date with a pretty girl, enjoying some fine wine.

Many people wanted to go away. To reach a new home, whatever that was. We had hope, we had. When the first travellers came to spoke to us we couldn’t believe them, they promised us so much. Clean water, food every day, a safe home, a daily job, free time, freedom.

But with time their fables became greyer, less colourful, they described a society that was decaying. Until they didn’t become dark, soon after they stopped coming altogether.

Sometimes looking at the stars I wonder what happened to them. Had their society collapsed? What happened to their government? How did they live in those last few days?

Others times I pass from day to day only thinking about survival and the next thing that I have to do. When you are in such harsh conditions life is reduced to only a few hours. There is no next year or next month, only for the next few hours. Once that is reached there would be the next thing and the next.

It never ends.

Where few places are safe, none are so for long. Building a home is useless, carrying what you don't need only heavies you. Every day you live under a different sky and bed.

It might sound absurd but one habituates to this sort of life, once it accepts it. I no longer long for an easier life, I no longer wish for this struggle to end. I found my peace in this sort of life.

One day as I was travelling I saw a traveller. "Impossible," I thought " I must be hallucinating."

Yet I wasn't, he was there in flesh and bones. As I came closer he didn't notice me, I looked at him, he was a man in his mid-twenties with black hair and a pretty strong constitution. Yet there was something wrong, looking at him I just felt a sense of sadness. His eyes were so hollow and sad. Was he about to cry? Why that expression?

I came even closer, so close that I could touch his hairs with my hands. Still, he didn't notice me, he was looking at something else, a drawing of some old building, it was really raw.

It was so long since the last time I spoke to someone what should I say? "Hi,is your society collapsed or why are you here?" no, way to harsh. "Hi, my name is Edana pleasure to meet you?" to formal. "Why are you so sad?" that is ok.

As I was about to speak my tongue stopped. I was filled with anxiety. Social Anxiety, how long it has been since the last time I felt it.

"Why are you so sad?" I asked him.

He turned and looked at me like someone who just woke up "what...?"

"I mean you are here all alone and you look so sad. Has your society collapsed?"

"I...No. My socie- Who are anyway?"

"Oh! My name is Edana pleasure to meet you."

"You are a...a..."

"A...?"

"A native."

"Yes, I was born here."

"You have survived here for all those years?"

"Well," I blushed a bit "yes."

"How?"

"That is a long story. Why are you here dear traveller?"

"I am here beca- becau- I want t- I-" he stopped "I... don't know..."

"Are you fine? You don't look so well."

"No... don't worry, I am fine... those are just som- some mental worries. Just... worries." he looked down. "I am not at my best right now. Sorry. Usua- Usually I am pretty normal."

"What is that sketch?"

"Don't know. It reminds me of my home, in some ways. Is here. Somewhere. In this region. Somewhere..."

What he had?

He began to cry.

"Oh, don't worry is fine, just let it all out." I hugged him and patted his head "is fine, is fine."

"They are all dead."

"What?" I asked confused

"All dead. All gone. Everything returned to ashes." he started crying harder "Everything is gone. There is no God, only Gods. They sacrificed everyone. Everyone. Including him. His blood running through my veins." he began to tremble "I don't deserve to live. It was an accident. I should be dead. I should be with Mom and Dad. I should have died back then."

"Calm down." I said, "what are you saying?"

He didn't stop, he continued for a long time. Well into the night, I had to build a camp. What he had seen that kept him awake rumbling through the night?

When dawn came he was soundly asleep. I hadn't slept so I went to bed. I woke up with the smell of something good cooking. I turned and saw a beautiful piece of meat being cooked.

"You have woke up, sorry for yesterday. I was not in me, thanks for having taken care of me," he said to me.

He seems to be normal now

"Oh, don't worry it wasn't a problem." It was, I had wasted a day and now I didn't have enough resources to survive tomorrow.

"No really sorry, I don't know how to repay you. I hate asking other people for favours, so please ask me anything."

"Anything?" I asked unsurely.

"Anything," he replied.

I looked at his ship, it was a beautiful ship. It was a fast ship.

We arrived at a lake with clean water. I fulled my flasks, take some of his rations and took a bath. Here seeing people naked is not a big deal. It must have been there. Seeing how red his face had become and how he turned his gaze elsewhere.

I passed just another few hours with him, there were still things that I wish to ask him. And things that he could give me.

"So...how it's to be a native of the ship?"

He looked at me for a second and laugh.

"I was not born there, I was born here."

"Oh!" I thought to myself "how was your life here?"

"A normal and mundane one, in my teens I became part of the local guard volunteers"

"A learning experience?"

"I was mostly pushed by my father if I must be sincere. Still, I liked that job. What you did?"

"Oh, let's say that I was a merchant."

"Let's say?"

"Is complicated. I lived from one exploit to the next. I had not the most stable of lives. When the bombs came I-"

All the sudden he became very sad. In a moment I connected the dots.

"Wait, you have been born here, this means that... Oh... I am sorry, I didn't want to hurt you."

"Don't worry. In reality, I don't remember a great deal of things. Just fragments really. I was not part of the fighter force so I didn't see the 'horrors of the night' or something similar. I was in one of the last ships to leave the planet. I am very fortunate..."

The talking stopped for a bit. Then we started talking about other things, mostly little things, like the weather or the strange colours of my clothes.

I looked better at that sketch and recognize a kind of cliff that was very similar to that one. It was worth taking a look.

When we arrived what was once the village was gone. Only ruins remained. Nature had overtaken over anything. In the distance, some mutated animals were playing with some small play.

As we explored the village and walked toward the cliff we saw what huge marking had the bombs made. The lake had become the triple of what normally should have been.

And while doing all of this I looked at him. Did he really remember so little? I mean he had a breakdown not so long ago. So either he was controlling himself very well or was hiding something.

At a certain point, we reached the old temple. It miraculously was still standing and his walls had not been destroyed.

He stopped there, saying something about the structure being unstable or something, he looked worried. I entered alone.

The temple appeared normal in all his facets. From the altar to chairs there was just one thing off, the images. There was something wrong with them. They appeared esoteric, mystic, and at trait alien. While exploring it I noticed a staircase near the altar. The bomb must have open the passage.

I entered it and it led me to some stone hallway.

...

I came running toward him, looking at him with sad eyes, nearly crying.

He had the same expression.

I gave him a hug and he asked me something

"Is he still there?"

For a moment I remembered the horrific vision that I had just witness "Yes... unfortunately yes..." he begun to cry in my arms. We both begun to cry.

The end