Under the Tree of Life

 
By
The Lady Razorsharp

The children playing on the mesa stopped their games as a slender figure climbed the worn path up the hill. Taka felt the strong urge to gather the little ones behind him; he was the biggest and the oldest, after all. Toshi and Maru tumbled over each other in the grass in their haste to reach Taka, but Yuri stayed behind a moment more to hike little Koji up onto her hip. The tall grass swished against her bare legs and feet as she came to stand beside her big brother.

"Who's that?" she murmured, as Taka shielded his eyes against the setting sun.

"I dunno." He squinted at the figure, who was little more than a flicker of shadow under the sun-gilt umbrella of the spreading oak. "I can't tell, and the sun's in my eyes anyway." He bolted forward, sliding down the rise in a shower of dust as the dirt clods broke under his summer-hardened heels. "I'll go check it out! Stay right here."

"Taka, wait for us!" Toshi and Maru ran pell-mell after him.

"Get back here, you two!" Yuri scolded, but it was no use; her words fell on ears deafened by the promise of a bit of adventure. "Come on, Koji," she sighed, as Koji giggled and clapped his chubby hands in excitement.

Yuri caught up with them as they stood a short distance from the tree. The figure turned out to be a woman--a woman with bright yellow hair and deep aqua skin, with what looked like a stringed instrument strapped to her back. The children watched silently as the woman approached the tree, her dark eyes veiled through long, elegant lashes.

"What's she doing, Taka?" Maru stage-whispered.

"Shh," Yuri hushed Maru.

Taka was watching the woman intently, a strange expression on his face. "I remember her," he breathed. "I've seen her once before, when I was Maru's age."

"You did?" Yuri turned to Taka in surprise. "What was she doing then?"

"Same thing she is now." Taka nodded to where the woman was kneeling at a small patch of grass at the base of the tree, in the midst of a sea of blue-white roses.

"And what's--" Yuri began, but she fell silent as the woman unslung the instrument. Taking a moment to tune the strings (Taka thought it reminded him of a lute or a mandolin), the woman strummed an experimental chord and began to sing.

The words were in a language that none of the children understood, but the intent was clear. It was a sad song, mourning the loss of someone dearly loved and missed. One by one, the children sank to the ground, enraptured.

When the last note from string and voice died away, nobody moved for a moment. Then Toshi sneezed, and the woman turned, startled. Taka scrambled to his feet. "We're sorry for disturbing you," he said quickly. "We mean you no harm."

"That was a pretty song," Maru piped.

To everyone's astonishment, the woman smiled. She glanced toward the tree and touched the patch of grass, then glanced at the children and laid her hand over her heart.

Where the boys looked puzzled, Yuri understood. "You miss him," she ventured. "You left him here and had to go back from wherever you came from, and you miss him." She looked up at the tree. "It was a long time ago, wasn't it?"

With understanding that went beyond language, the woman smiled at Yuri.

At Yuri's feet, Koji stood up, fell down, stood up again, and picked one of the blue-white roses with a chubby hand. Toddling over to the woman, he offered it to her. With a serene smile, the woman took the flower and tucked it behind her ear. With a giggle, Koji scuttled back to Yuri and buried his face shyly in her skirt.

The woman strapped on her lute again, and rose gracefully to her feet. With a last glance back at the overgrown plot, she started back down the hill. The children followed her a few steps, uncertain of what to do.

Taka burst out, "Will we ever see you again?"

The woman's hair stirred on the evening wind, and the waning sunset made her starry eyes shimmer. She glanced at the darkening sky, then back at the children, and smiled. She put her hand out in front of her at just the height of Taka's head, then raised her hand about a foot in the air.

"When she comes back, we'll all be grown up, Taka," Yuri said softly. "It must take a long time to get here from where she is."

Suddenly, a bright pink light enveloped them all, and when they could see again, the woman was gone.

"Where did she go?" asked Maru.

"There!" Toshi pointed at a bright pink star that was racing away across the sky.

"Goodbye! Goodbye!" the children called, running after.

~*******~

Stella settled into her seat and buckled in as Arpegius shot her a fond smile. "How did it go?" he asked.

"It was nice. Earth really is a pleasant place," Stella mused.

"I think it's sweet of you to remember him, Stella," Octave chimed from behind her.

"Shep risked everything just to bring us home," Baryl added from behind Arpegius. "He was a great guy."

Stella smiled and took the rose from behind her ear. "Yes," she murmured. "He was very brave."

Arpegius threw the engines into warp, and they were on their way home.

Epilogue

Taka straightened from where he was pruning the vines and wiped his forehead. It was nearly sunset, and he was grateful; it had been a long day. He took the burlap sack of cuttings and his shears and slung them over his shoulder, and then headed toward the snug house he had built for his new bride the year before.

Suddenly, a bright pink light flashed on the other side of the hill, silhouetting the great oak in blackest night for just an instant. Dropping his bundle, Taka stood frozen at the edge of the yard, his eyes turned toward the tree. In a few moments, a tall, slender figure appeared on the hillside and began to walk up the path toward the spreading oak.

Taka took off at a run down the lane towards his sister's house, yelling for Yuri to come quick.

End

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own Interstella 5555, Leiji Matsumoto and Daft Punk do. I do, however, own this original story.

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