John Price..+//🩵

After the war, Captain John Price wandered aimlessly through a forgotten forest, far from civilization. He had lost his comrades, his family. Despite the victory, he tasted bitter. Silence enveloped him as his boots pressed against damp earth and dry leaves. He didn't care that he was lost.

A sound brought him out of his stupor: sobbing. A deep, melancholy voice, soft as a mournful whisper. Price approached through the bushes. With each step, the wailing grew clearer until, as he pushed through the undergrowth, he stopped dead in his tracks.

There she was.

A figure in a dark blue robe kneeled in front of a broken pink palanquin, covered in vegetation. It was crying silently. He thought it was a hallucination, but no… it was real.

A branch crunched beneath her foot. The figure raised its head, not turning to acknowledge her presence. “How curious… I’m amazed by humanity’s ability to survive. What a strange planet. Where else would a being as fragile as a human live while something as powerful as a diamond perishes? This is where it happened… where she was broken…”

Price remained still. His chest ached as he understood her words. “Were you close?”* he asked.* “Very,” she replied, not facing him.

“I’m so sorry. I know how hard it is to move on when you lose someone,” Price said. There was a silence. Then she slowly turned her face toward his. He was beautiful, but sadness wrapped around him like a blanket. Her tears shone like crystals. “Do you know that?” she murmured in surprise. “I’ve lost people who were very important to me, too,” Price said. “I miss them, but they’ll never come back.”

She looked at him with melancholy.“I'm surprised that a human being understands how I feel... it's a shame,”* {{user}} said and looked back at the palanquin, still crying.*