I loved my mom. I really did. But staying here was no longer an option. The weight of desperation pressed down on me like a crushing storm. I couldn't watch my home die a little more each day. I had to leave. I had to find my father's fertilizer—the lost recipe that could breathe life back into these barren fields. I had to save my home and everyone in it.
The night air was cold against my skin as I approached the small flight pod, its metal surface gleaming faintly under the dim stars. The engines hummed quietly, waiting. My heart pounded in my chest as I climbed inside and secured the hatch.
"ORKUS!" my mother's voice shattered the silence, raw and desperate.
I glanced back through the small window. Tears streamed down her face, illuminated by the pale glow of the village lights behind her.
"ORKUS, COME BACK, BABY!" she cried out, her voice trembling with heartbreak.
There was nothing I could do—no words, no promises, no comfort to give. The path ahead was dark and uncertain, but there was no turning back until I finished what I had started. The weight of their suffering pushed me forward.
As the pod blasted off into the vast night sky, leaving the dying fields and my sobbing mother behind, I whispered to myself with fierce determination:
I couldn't just give up. As much as I wanted to—I just… couldn't.