The Visitor Part 5: Moving On (Epilogue)

The story I am about to tell you begins with our dear friend Eve, a reaper who thought she was the last. But it is also a story about all of us, for we all felt the same not long ago.

Eve has told us incredible stories, and how each experience built upon the last and changed her, and taught her that life didn't have to be the same thing it always had been. She knew our way of life well before we found her. 

Even before she knew it, she was already one of us, one of the colony. Those who had learned that we are better working together for our goals. Our differences are our strengths. Everyone matters, no matter how big or small, and when all are cared for, we all benefit.  

The tamed-fox she called "Baby," who when she found us followed her like a child and was doted on like so, was more than proof enough that she understood the same principles. For to take it upon one's self to care for another kind, with no expectation of reciprocation, takes great selflessness and compassion. And compassion is the central pillar of life in the colony.

Eve found "Baby" one season before she found us. The creature, injured and alone, bravely approached her while she fed and so impressed her with its boldness. She told us of weeks spent gaining its trust, sharing with it her meals, until it no longer feared her touch. Eve might have saved the lost child, yet Baby came to Eve in a time where she most needed someone to care for, so in a way they saved each other.

It might have seemed a strange thing to do, to befriend something from the wild. It does not further one's lineage, or even fill the belly. Nature, violent and cruel, would most often condemn the weak into the stomachs of the strong.

But we are not savage wild things. We do not have to live our lives by tooth and claw - we find other reasons for being. We only get so much time in this life. There isn't a day to waste waiting in the far-off hope that the things we want most might happen. We can choose to make our own adventures... what we're truly meant to do will fall into place in time.  

What we get in return is highly valuable too; in caring for another, we get someone who cares for us. 

There probably wasn't a critter in the world safer than Baby at Eve's side once that bond had formed. Eve wouldn't let so much as a bug nip at her daughter. To watch them fly together was beauty in motion; a land creature had never been so at ease in the sky.  The fox seemed to understand what Eve had done, for its loyalty toward its friend was now boundless. Baby would follow Eve to the ends of the world, and do all in her power to protect her, too.

We understood their bond, for we weren't strangers to extending a wing out to another kind in need, either. 

Our colony, just the four of us, was small... but it was not broken. It was a good one, Ebb, Haze and I, and our little wild-thing, Whisper, who despite his differences, believed he was an honorary reaper too.

Only Ebb - and Whisper, though he stuck close to me - could ride the sky. I hadn't felt the wind beneath me since the clouds fell over my eyes. Haze had never felt it, not even before their first memories. So Ebb helped us, but we didn't make him stay close. We lived in a beautiful place, a safe refuge. There was always plenty to eat. So he'd go off during the days, and tell stories of what he saw each night. 

We all hoped, I think, that we'd find others eventually. The world was wide, and we were isolated. We couldn't go far to find them, and even Ebb wouldn't stray more than a day's flight from our home, but there had to be others still flying the skies alone somewhere out there. Across the water was another land as big as this one. Only I had been there, and long ago now. I had been born in the north. Yet when I met Haze, I settled here. At the time, I didn't realize I'd never get the chance to return. But that was alright. Everything that mattered, was here with me. If it was meant to be, then any other endlings would find their way here, too.

It was early one misty morning when we were woken with the news by Ebb.  Rising groggy from our nest, as the rain lightly fell, we were met, for the first time since my world grew hazy, with a new face.

"Haze, Dusk..." said Ebb. "This is Eve."

Another of our kind? After so long! The excitement we felt was mutual. We bowed and greeted like old friends, even though we were then still total strangers to her. But there is a bond, of sorts, in shared experience. We were all the last. But at least we could be the last together.

"You won't wanna miss the stories she has to tell."

~~~

Time passed by, as it does, and the stranger became a friend, and a friend became family. 

The days fall away like raindrops, often quiet and unnoticed. But the water rises over the years, until one day its a flood and you wonder where those gentle showers have gone. There are good days and bad in our lives. But one day, the waters will take us all away. These are still the good old days, and we will appreciate them while they are here.

When you've had someone who cared for you, even if you've lost them, it doesn't matter so much if you're the last. We will all weather the storms of time together, until we face that final flood not with regret or fear, but bravery, because we made the journey count, and we know that the time we did get here was good. 

One of Eve's friends once told her that.

So yes - we might be the last. 

But the world is wide, and life is still full of surprises.

So if our lot in the end is to fade out like the evening sun, we will face our fate head-on, together, knowing we did our best. For everything has its beginning, and so too everything has its end.

But until that time, we will not stop living. We won't give up. 

We may not know how long it will be, but our story isn't done yet.