“I think I just met the happiest person in the world!” Vekin yelled, barging into the kitchen. He practically jumping with excitement. “Isn’t it crazy Dara? The man in the traveling carnival looked so happy!!”

“Literally what are you talking about.” The woman, Dara, deadpanned. Her arms were completely covered in flour, wrist deep in a mound of dough.

“The Traveling Carnival Dara! Duh!” Vekin ...

There was a series of coughs.

“Shit.”

The woman stood before the command building. Or rather, what was once the command building.

It had blown apart from the inside, blasted rock and dust settling onto the floor.

Even one inside, she presumed, was dead.

Those damn creatures and they’re damned power cores. The war was lost from the beginning, she knew it, as soon as the scent of charred meat...

Yehan had always loved the sun. It was what eased him as a child, the warmth in the ground and the breeze. The smooth heat sunk into his skin, a welcome familiar sensation.

Maybe the heat of the sun wasn’t too bad of a way to die.

He lay before the sky in a long stretch of sand, warm and soft. It clung to his back, his hair, and his limbs.

He was aware he was dying.

There was no way he co...