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She gave me a genuine, if conspiratorial, smile. And that smile warmed me right down to the toes in my now-dusty boots. I’d worked so hard on the professional aspects of my life on Elora Station that I hadn’t really had the time or energy to make any friends.

Although, even back on Terratribe I, I hadn’t had many friends outside of Gerald…

When Cherry smiled at me, it felt like a friend kind of smile.

“Precisely,” she said, still grinning.

“Great,” I replied with a small laugh. “Maybe that can be the title of the first chapter.”

After a long,hot, bumpy ride, we finally pulled off the main dusty road into a smaller laneway.

“We’re here!” Cherry said. “Welcome to our home!”

I could see why she was so excited to show me the property she now shared with Silar. Leaning out of the wagon, I glimpsed a small but well-built house painted the warm yellow colour of Terratribe II butter. It was nestled among tall golden-green grass, the property enclosed along its sides, and presumably therear, with tall wooden fencing. The grass rippled in the gentle breeze.

It looked like something from a painting.

“You’re from Terratribe I, right, Cherry?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. I could see Cherry in my mind’s eye, pale from the grey skies of that world and grimy from the factory.

“Yes.” Her forehead wrinkled. “Why?”

I shook my head and smiled, but it felt a little pinched. Pained. Like my heart was hurting for something but I wasn’t sure what.

“All that blue sky.”

I’d been so focused on meeting the warden, making sure Cherry was well, and giving Silar the once-over, that I hadn’t had a chance to really… lookup.

Cherry gave a little gasp, then a knowing look.

“You’re from Terratribe I, too!” She nodded to herself, confirming her own suspicion without me having to say a word. “Magnolia and Darcy are used to the beautiful landscapes and having a big blue sky from Terratribe II. But for us…”

Silar appeared at the side of the wagon, having dismounted from his shuldu. He held out his hand to his wife. She put hers into his as if it were the most natural thing. As if they’d already done this a hundred times before. As she let Silar help her out of the wagon, the rest of her sentence came floating back to me on the summer wind.

“For us, It’s a whole new world.”

She certainly had that right. For someone coming from the industrial, barren, slate-skied colony planet of Terratribe I, or even the polished technical perfection of Elora Station, this expansive horizon, untouched to my eye besides Silar’s property, was breathtaking. Maybe even a little disorienting.

I stared up, squinting into that brightly yawning blue as I prepared to get down from the wagon. The vast blue blankness slapped me with sudden vertigo.

I blinked, then wrenched my gaze back down.

Only to be confronted with the scorching heat of two orange Zabrian eyes, directly before my own.

Zabrians really did have extraordinary eyes. There was no distinct, hard-edged iris or pupil like a human might have. Instead, the warden’s eyes were a deep, solid orange, brightening to a collection of electric gold-orange veins in the centre. Like dozens of bolts of lightning reaching for the edges of his eyes all at the same time, each one originating from the same writhing, central point.

“Need help?”

“No, thank you,” I said primly, holding tightly to the side of the wagon. “I am perfectly capable of getting down on my own.”

At least, I was pretty sure I was. And if I wasn’t, well…

Guess I’ll fake it ’til I make it.

The warden watched me with stern intensity as I stepped out onto the wagon’s wooden running board. He crossed his arms over his big chest and waited, that same tense challenge etched around his eyes and along the line of his jaw that I first saw in our last video call.

Frankly, it was rather fucking rude.

“Move back, please,” I huffed, making a shooing motion with my free hand. The running board was a tall Zabrian’s leg-length off of the ground. Which meant I’d have to jump.