Less than a week left.
Traversing the woods, following the winding trail through the thick forest, I walked on. Not a day went by when I did not think about the thousands of people who had lived and died over the many years. I recalled the story I had told the young prince of my planet and the duties we'd both assumed. I had told him only half the truth, that we had the ability to fashion wings in the form of small insects and that one day, we would save the human race. It had yet to be accomplished, but I was confident that it would one day be. Perhaps I have did not live up to my promise, but I did what I could with what I had.
Or I thought I did.
I felt the coarse surface of the bark under my palm, but I was well ahead of the last life I had taken. I corrected myself. These days, I could no longer take life on account of humans had the technology to create humanoid robots.
Not that there was not room for improvement. I was growing bored with my simple life of farming and animal husbandry. I thought it was time to venture into the great unknown. I had encountered a small colony some time ago and was intrigued by the unknown. Perhaps they had something I might value. Who knew, I might even be able to send information back to my home world.
Two days.
It was difficult to discern the path. The last light of the sun was above my head and had set for the day. I stepped into a large clearing and listened for the thundering of the animals in the distance. Of course, I would never have found them in broad daylight. The creatures of the forest are not adapted for the bright light of the sun.
As I walked, the sound of my footsteps echoed off the trees, but the echo soon disappeared. The forest floor was covered in dirt, slightly damp and cold. My fingers scraped the soil as I walked. I had no way of telling how deep the ground was on this particular planet. I had been through the site, but I had not dug any holes.
The last lap.
Thinking of the ten-foot tall, grey walls before me and the circular room at the top, I felt some level of curiosity and excitement. This was the first and last stop in my journey. I had been searching for two days to find this site. I would set up a tent and spend the night. Perhaps tomorrow I would venture further into the forest to find a source of water to slake my thirst, but I was over two thousand kilometers away from the nearest source of water.
An hour passed.
This was the best time to finish my work. The only time I did not encounter any animals was at night. Most of them were nocturnal, but I did not like to hear the sounds in the dark. I felt safer in the light of the day.
Deeper and deeper.
As the moon crossed into the sky, it cast its light on the surrounding trees, but it was not enough to illuminate the tree's thin trunks and capillaries. I had walked for hours, stumbling over large roots and sharp sticks in the dark.
When I found a spot where I felt the ground was soft, I sank the shovel into the ground. I wanted a simple job. I would try and make holes as close together as possible. I had dug only one earlier in the afternoon. I had used a small chunk of rock.
After the excavation part, I spread out a blanket, poured some water into a few glass vials and picked a handful of spices. I had collected them over the course of my journey. I was searching for an herb that was essential for an herb to sprout. It was called the "garden of life" and was only found on this planet. I hoped that I'd found the seedlings.
The strange tree was a strange species from the start. It was designed to live up to ten thousand years. It took four hours of digging to find it. I managed to escape the fauna of the forest with only a few scratches. I picked the seedling and put it in a piece of fabric near the fire. Humans were wise to build such a structure on this planet.
Two hours.
I lay down to rest. I could barely contain my excitement. I had been looking forward to this moment for many years. My kind lived forever and reproduced in large numbers, but I wanted to find love. I wanted a companion who could walk with me through this beautiful land and watch the purple sky together.
I was born unusually early and had learned the genetics of our world before most of my peers. I had grown up faster than they had, and I was much taller. As I was raised in a small country village, I was a bit of an outsider. When my parents still lived and I did not have many siblings, I was alone a lot.
I conjured up the image of my parents. I had grown up in a large house with legion of kin. I could almost smell the aroma of the old building. I heard the laughter of a thousand young people. Children are always full of energy and excited. I related to the tight-knit community and my two parents who were not very different from an animal in the wild. The other difference was that we had great respect for our elders.
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