Eyuy led Ppnlak down the hallway, toward the central temple. They knew that inside the temple was safe from the thing, and Eyuy needed a moment to regroup himself from the first encounter. Anxiety was a constant thrum underneath his skin, worsening every time that they faced another setback. 

Eyuy shouldn’t have become an explorer. He was unfit for the job, and everyone knew it. The skeptical looks his clan gave him when he announced his assignment told him everything that their words didn’t. But that is what made him so desperate to take the job. He wanted to prove to his clan that he could make them proud. He wanted to prove that he could at least grasp at the edges of his dreams. Yet, his journeys only proved them right. 

Eyuy Aeum-yinh was a yeolbaun chained to order and rules, not unlike the other yeolbaun that occupied Anmlonh. He had learned that there was a place for everyone in the universe, and his was just that bit lower than the rest. He had clawed his way to respect, knowing that a single misstep would send him tumbling back down. This was his misstep. He would be eaten by a thing that only considered him food. A bark of laughter escaped him when he realized that was still more consideration than his clan would ever give him. 

At the sound of his laughter, Ppnlak turned toward him. He asked, Are you alright?

"I'm fine." 

You don't seem fine. We're almost done, explorer. I don't want you unraveling at the seams. 

"I'm fine," Eyuy repeated. If he repeated it enough, maybe it would come true. Unraveling at the seams was an apt way to describe Eyuy's entire existence at the moment. 

Explorer, it is okay to not be fine. Would it help if I said I wasn't fine either?

Eyuy looked at Ppnlak, watching the way his glow reflected off the walls and blood. He didn’t know how Ppnlak could recover so quickly from everything, and it made him jealous. So, knowing that Ppnlak wasn’t as fine on the inside as he was on the outside did lift Eyuy's spirits a bit. However, whatever positive effect it had on his spirits was outweighed by how disgusted he was that he needed Ppnlak to wallow just as much as he did to feel better. There was nothing prideful about that. 

"No," Eyuy snapped, "It wouldn’t make me feel better at all."

Oh, Ppnlak's glow flickered for a moment, Well, I tried.

Eyuy reigned himself back in. It was even less prideful to take out his anger on someone else. Although, he conceded with a wince, he had done that to Ppnlak a lot throughout their acquaintance. He was sure Ppnlak was counting down the days until Eyuy was gone from his life. He knew the other explorers would cheer if they knew he was dead. He bet they wouldn’t even wait for him to be declared dead before they celebrated being rid of the division's nuisance. At least, Angelika would mourn him. A small smile tugged at Eyuy's lips at the thought of her. Yes, Angelika would be sad to see him gone. 

"Thank you, Ppnlak," Eyuy replied. 

Wow, Ppnlak wiggled his tentacles, I think that might be the first time you said that to me. 

"It shouldn't have been," Eyuy said quietly.

Eyuy-yinh, should I be worried? Ppnlak rested a tentacle on Eyuy's helmet. 

"Why?" Eyuy asked. The sound of his name sent a bundle of warmth down his spine. He didn’t want to be called explorer any longer. He had also hoped that he hadn’t permanently sworn Ppnlak off from saying his name. 

Ppnlak's hard stare seemed to pierce through Eyuy's helmet. Eyuy squirmed underneath the knowing gaze, not knowing how to react. What are you thinking?

"Can't you read my mind?"

I could, but I would prefer to hear it from you. The mind is a private space that I don't enter without permission. 

"What about all those other times you heard my thoughts?"

Dearest explorer, I wasn't reading your mind. You merely shouting your thoughts at me. I can't help but hear those.

Eyuy was glad that his helmet hid his blush. Mind-speak wasn’t something taught at the ICC as very few species used it, and those species never needed interpreters because all of them could understand Common. Eyuy replied, "My deepest regrets."

There is no need for apologies. But if you need to give one, your apology can be telling me how you feel.

"I feel..." Eyuy knew exactly what he was feeling, but it was hard to articulate it into words. "I feel tired."

Nothing else?

Eyuy paused before continuing, "I also feel sad. And angry, and horrified, and ashamed. And I can't do anything about it, which makes me feel helpless." 

The tentacle resting on his helmet moved down to curl around his shoulders. Ppnlak asked, Did telling me that help you feel better?

Eyuy thought about it, analyzing if it truly made him feel better. And he found, in all honesty, that the answer was, "No."

Thanks for humoring me anyway.

Eyuy shook his head, "It's not your fault. I'm just overwhelmed by it all. There's nothing you can do to help."

If you say so, Ppnlak shrugged. They turned the final corner, entering the balcony area once more. They arrived in time to see the city fill with light. Watching the spectacle, an idea came to Eyuy. Light seemed to hurt the thing, so the concentrated light from the temple may be enough to destroy it once and for all. 

"I know how to kill the thing," Eyuy said, "We just have to get it into one of those beams of light."

Ppnlak replied, We agreed to call it Timo.

Eyuy rolled his eyes, not caring about what they had decided to call it but corrected himself nonetheless. "If we flash Timo with one of those concentrated beams, we might be able to kill it."

We could try it, but didn't you see that it was sunset?

"What?" Eyuy asked stiffly. 

The sky, it was yellow. It's going to be hours before the sun comes back up.

Eyuy gripped the balcony tightly. He swore he could hear the balcony creak from the force. He took a deep breath to calm himself before he spoke. "Let's get to the central temple and wait it out."

Instead of replying, Ppnlak wrapped his tentacles around Eyuy's helmet, lifting himself over the officer. Eyuy activated the propulsion and maneuvered them off the balcony. They were hovering over the drop when Ppnlak's panicked voice sounded, Explorer, Timo's right there!

Eyuy didn’t have the skill to make a precise turn in the air, so he deactivated the propulsion. They started to drop, but they were unable to get out of Timo's reach. They jerked to a stop, dangling above the ground. Eyuy yelled, "Get out of its grip!"

He's holding on too tightly! He's going to pull us both up!

Eyuy felt Ppnlak's tentacles loosen on his helmet. "What are you doing? Don't let go!"

He doesn't have to take both of us. I can communicate with him on my own.

"Don't you dare let go! It wants to eat both of us. You can't reason with it!" Eyuy was one second away from pleading with Ppnlak. His voice had already reached hysterics. 

I'll be fine, Eyuy-yinh, Ppnlak replied as he detached his tentacles from Eyuy's helmet. Without Ppnlak anchored to him, Eyuy started to freefall. He tried to reach for the tenlaupian, but his arms were too short. He watched as Ppnlak was dragged out of the air and out of his view.

In his panic, Eyuy didn’t even think to reactivate the propulsion. The sound of rushing air clouded his thoughts. He fell to the ground with a crack. Stars erupted in his vision before fizzling away to black. Eyuy hoped that the crack he heard wasn’t the sound of his helmet or his spacesuit cracking, yet he knew he wasn’t that lucky. Once his vision cleared, Eyuy tried to get up, but he couldn’t move his arms or legs. At most, he felt a tingling in his fingers and toes. 

All he could do was lay there. Cold tears welled up in the corner of his eyes, and his shaky breaths fogged up his visor. Eyuy shouted, "Ppnlak! Can you hear me? Please! Ppnlak!"

At the mounting silence that answered his questions, Eyuy's shouts deteriorated into harsh sobbing. He was all alone.