Snowflake: Frozen Child

THE moment has arrived. The time has come for Haji to leave the forbidden land, leave Zakir and the rest of the egoris.

"May the universe conspires and guides you towards victory, Janix." Zakir said, maintaining his distance away from Lurkia to avoid fights with Agya. Zakir looked at Haji with hopeful eyes, as if he was giving the janix his permission to kill the king freely. There was a lump under Haji's throat as he nervously gulped. Releasing all the negative energies inside his body as Haji said ,"For the sake of Aeonria and my return to Earth".

Haji gave Zakir one last look and grabbed the back of the aeoni's nape. Haji placed his forehead above Zakir's left shoulder as he sighed deeply.

Verion. Trust and love.

"Thank you, Zakir" Haji said wholeheartedly. He would never forget Zakir. Someone who became his teacher, his guardian and his friend. Haji smiled as he thought, "This might be our last encounter but never this be our last connection."

On that day, Haji learned something.

People come and go. Treasure those who gave lessons even when they are no longer around you. A true presence of a person is not through his body but through his existence. Ha may not see Zakir ever again when he leave that forbidden land, but the friendship and bonds they built will never be erased inside Haji's heart.

"If only I could show you what my world really looks like... I will gladly treat you to my favorite drinking bar and introduce you to some of my girl friends. Girls like tough guys like you, you know" Haji chuckled.

"And by the way... The real name's Haji. Nice meeting you, Zakir" Haji said and gave Zakir one last friendly smile before he turned his head away.

"So long, Haji. Let's drink beer together on your planet some other time" Zakir said. Haji never intended to look back but his neck moved on its own instinctively. Haji saw Zakir smiled and it gave warmth somewhere in his heart. Haji thought, "Even the loneliest Aeoni on this planet can make that geniune smile?"

*

*

*

HAJI left Antos to Aeonria with Lurkia beside him. The egori has given his loyalty to the Janix willingly.

"A chimera's heart is hard to tame."

Haji remembered Jhavu once said. He scrunched up his nose and Lurkia coiled his tiny body around Haji's neck as the cute egori started sleeping. Lurkia could leave Antos to Aeonria as long as he is connected with Haji. He could only follow Haji and no-one else, not even Kradus. Haji claimed, "Lurkia is my egori now and that is the law."

Haji went out of the cave as Lurkia never gave a single glance towards his former home. Haji shrugged his shoulder to wake the little egori up and at least give his home a last goodbye. Haji prayed that Lurkia would not change his mind and choose to stay inside the cave. Most of the time, whenever Lurkia and Haji passed through a group of egoris busy hunting and playing with their preys, all of them would growl or make noises and give Haji deadly stares. Haji believed that they always loved to attack him, too bad he got Lurkia with him. Whenever the egoris tried to attack the janix from behind, Lurkia's antenas would stand and signals him to be alert.

After the long walk on the desert, they arrived at the chamber where Jhavu sent Haji before. The entrance of Antos to Aeonria, the boundaries of Zakir and his Egoris towards the slave city. The tunnel was dark as always like when both Jhavu and Haji used to take a sneak peak there. Haji picked two flaming stones from his side pocket and rubbed them together. After a few seconds, the stones created a fire and the first thing that met Haji's n.a.k.e.d eyes were Lurkia's shadow.

"Oh Shit! You scared me!" Haji cursed right after Lurkia's monstrous shadow made a silent roar in the background that he could almost hear it. Lurkia just looked at the janix with an innocent cute little face and walked behind him. As Haji continued walking towards the tunnel, he felt like a big monster was following behind him. Haji chuckled and it made Lurkia growl.

"I'm not making fun of you, pal. Don't worry" Haji lied. Haji thought that his egori is too cute to be a monster.

.

.

.

Finally, the place was getting more familiar and recognizable as Jhavu welcomed Haji with a tight but a bit slimy hug. The aoenis in the underground city welcomed their janix.

"Welcome back, Janix!" a woman aeoni hailed Haji's 'Name' like a servant calling its King.

"Welcome back, Janix!!" and then the others followed and the janix was showered with greetings, love, trust and hopeful wishes. They were like celebrating the arrival of their king.

"Let us be all merry tonight as we bless our new warrior who will fight for our freedom! And together with the other brave warriors in this city. Freedom for Aeonria!" Jhavu hailed.

"FREEDOM FOR AEONRIA!!" the aeonis hailed loudly but not loud enough to make the ground above them create an earthquake. The aeonis drank all night and danced. As the night went deeper and a bit peaceful, Jhavu approached Haji with a tap on the shoulder. Haji turned his head to Jhavu as the aeoni said, "I have a secret to tell you, Janix"

Haji didn't drink too much and so was Jhavu. Haji blinked his eyes a hundred times and leaned towards Jhavu to listen. Jhavu shook his head and gestured towards Haji's sleeping egori on his hand. Lurkia has been keeping his guard down since the aeonis made him drunk, luckily the egori didn't got the chance to ruin the party and destroyed it. Haji carefully carried Lurkia towards their cabin with Jhavu following behind them. Haji believed that the secret was too important that Lurkia was not allowed to come. On the second thought, maybe Lurkia was too dangerous if he would come with them. Haji slowly but carefully placed the sleeping egori on the ground and it made a small snore. Lurkia loved to sleep on the ground because it was warm and the insects biting him gave him the beautiful sensation of itchiness, egoris were wierd after all. Jhavu was standing right outside their front door and waited for Haji to come out. After making sure that Lurkia would not wake up, Haji took a silent step away as he watched his egori sleeping soundly. Gladly, Jhavu and Haji made it without waking up the egori.

Jhavu accompanied Haji towards another tunnel, that one was very dangerous. The moment Jhavu opened a stone wall, a lot of piercing arrows were darting towards them as Jhavu grabbed Haji down by the shoulder and said, "Our Ancestors set a lot of traps against the Umbra hunters, we must be careful". Haji frowned with the idea.

"It could kill aeonis too?" Haji asked. Haji thought, "How were they able to set traps that might hurt their allies too?"

"Aeonis can be traitors, that is why the traps were made for both races" Jhavu said and started crawling. The arrows were still shooting above them towards any directions.

"Roll to your left and stand up, take ten steps forward and slide through that small opening ahead!!" Jhavu said quickly as he rolled towards his right side.

"Wait what?!-" Haji shouted and a sharp and large blade came out from the ground as he instinctively rolled towards his left and the blade stabbed the ceiling that created a debris.

"What the f.u.c.k?!" Haji cursed and remembered what Jhavu said. The Janix stood on his feet and took about twenty steps, aeonis had long legs and hands. Haji thought, "how am I supposed to take ten aeoni steps equally with my feet?!!" Haji ran as fast as he could as he saw the small opening ahead. He glanced at Jhavu on the other side that seemed to be running normally and effortlessly. Swords and sharp blades suddenly popping out from the walls behind Haji and his feet worked on its own as if saying that they didn't want to be sliced. The opening was too small and Haji didn't know if he could enter it without hurting himself. Well, come to think of it, Jhavu was taller and bigger.

"I would fit!" Haji shouted as he slid inside the opening first and held his breath.

"Waaaa!!!" Haji shouted. Shutting his eyes closed, he stopped and continued shouting.

"Waaaaaa!!!"

"Janix! Stop!"

"Waaaaa!! Come here enemies and I'll kick your asses to death, where you will beg and wish that you'd better go to hell than face me!! Come on!!" Haji shouted loudly.

"Janix shut up! you'll wake the babies up!!" Jhavu said before Haji felt his big, slimy long hands landed hardly on his cheek. Jhavu slapped the janix again

"Aw! men that hurts!! Really!" Haji cursed and frowned at Jhavu. Jhavu just gave him a poker face and sighed.

Haji was protesting in his mind, "Yeah right, Jhavu was trying to make me calm down. But I was too noisy and Jhavu said that I would make the babies..."

"Wake up???" Haji said out loud.

"What do you mean wake the babies up?" Haji asked Jhavu who was currently looking at him seriously. Jhavu looked at him, no, the aeoni was looking at the thing or something behind Haji. Haji gulped as he slowly turned his head and faced whatever was behind him. Haji's eyes widened with the unexpected and lonely view his eyes had ever seen.

"What is this?" Haji asked, his jaw dropped as his eyes stared at them. Hundreds? Thousands? A hundred thousands of them?

"They are the Aeonis of the future Free City" Jhavu said.

"What happened to them?" Haji asked. His c.h.e.s.t hurt as he felt his heart was squeezed into a pulp. There were a lot of them. Young aeonis were being sealed inside an egg like pod, they looked like they were being preserved or frozen. Their eyes were closed and no part of them was moving. They all looked helpless and hopeless, it was a lonely view.

"We are afraid of losing many of us, we chose to keep them safe, away from the umbra hunters. We planned to wake them after the war. They are our hope and our future." Jhavu said as Haji looked at the frozen aeonis one by one in front of him.

"So you froze them?" Haji asked, hurt. Haji suddenly remembered Jhay. Now, he could say:

You are not the loneliest.

"Jhay, there are so many of them. It's lonely in this place." Haji thought.

"We have no other choice, our race is becoming extinct and aeonis were scared to raise their babies knowing that the undying war above is going nonstop. At the very least we chose to keep them safe even if we die soon" Jhavu said.

"And what if I never came?! What if I will not fight?! What will happen to them?! Die without living?! Did you ever thought of how it would feel to be frozen for a very long time? Waking up late and lost the times where you were supposed to enjoy and live?" Haji said s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.ely.

"But they will die if we let them live now." Jhavu said.

"Does that even make sense? If they will die by living, at least they have made dreams, play with their young age, and appreciate life. Let them experience how to struggle and fight. How to be brave, do what is wrong or right, sing and dance, learn from their mistakes and everything... At least let them live." Haji said hopelessly.

Haji thought that he was just a mere janix in their eyes who will fight for their freedom. He thought, "Who am I to judge and tell them to set all these frozen aeonis free and let them live? When I haven't committed any victory at all."

These aeonis were frozen nine years ago until now. What Haji could do is to fight for them and give them hope. He knew his purpose there, he was there to fight. He was not there to destroy their history. He was not allowed to change their decisions and prophecies. He was there to kill the king, take his ship back and leave everything behind. Nothing personal and nothing that really mattered. He just wanted to go back home and tell that person.

That...

She is not the loneliest.