Author's note: some of the lectures given by Ayumi and Lee below were adapted from a presentation given by Ade Marup Wirasenjaya, a Global Studies lecturer from the International Relations department at the University of Muhammadiyah, Jogjakarta, Indonesia (UMY) during an online webminar held by Komunitas Peduli Lingkungan/Keliling INA, a society for the preservation of the environmental systems in Indonesia. I am thankful for Pak Ade's willingness to share his expertise about national security and other materials.

The bus ride to the center of the village in which Ayumi's Outer Trees community resided took another two hours, but the ride itself was pleasant as Moira and her friends enjoyed the sceneries from the windows. Golden Valley was nestled between two mountains and autumn had turned all the trees the colors of fire and ruby. Moira wished she had brought a canvass with her.

The bus stopped in front of a big guest house that look like it was made entirely out of bamboo woods and mahogany. Ayumi spoke on her phone for a while and the door opened to reveal an elderly couple, the woman looked a bit like an older Ayumi while the man had dark skin tone, almost like Nardho's but not as dark as Moira's. The group instantly knew who they must be.

"Mama, Papa, I'm home and I've brought my students. Everyone, say hello to my parents, Kahoko and Ardiansyah. They will be around if you need help, Mama is the one who'll cook the foods and Papa tends to a farm not far from here. Any question?" Ayumi introduced.

No question was asked and so Kahoko showed everyone where the rooms were. Moira was assigned to room together with Vannie and Nardhia, while the boys and Rain shared another. The room was spacious and the beds, which were actually foldable, were flat on the floor.

"There will be a festival tonight, I hope you guys can come. I have prepared something for everyone to wear, so get them from me around five thirty, okay? I'll be in the kitchen." Kahoko welcomed the guests warmly and Moira couldn't help but think she sounded like Aunt Zoe. It was now two fifteen in the afternoon, quite a bit of time before the mentioned festival.

Lee had told Ardiansyah that upon arrival the class would need to be briefed a bit on what to do and what not to do around the village, thus the elderly man brought everyone to a large conference room, complete with a huge white board and a round table, perfect for a discussion.

"Here, guys. Enjoy your course, okay? If you need me I'll be herding sheep." Ardiansyah left.

Lee turned on the projector to show a map of the village and the surrounding nature, telling the students that there would be plenty of time within their six months stay to visit cascading waterfalls, hike to see a cave full of hidden butterflies, swim in a lake, and more. At the mention of a cave, Nardho glanced at Moira and the girl smiled back at him, remembering that time in the Mother Mary Cave when the boy first confessed his feelings. Let's go after class, Nardho mouthed and Moira nodded at his direction. Lee then pulled up a slide about ground rules.

"The rules are simple. First, if you are going to go anywhere on your own aside from the group activities that Ayumi and I have planned, you need to let Kahoko or Ardiansyah know. The community here welcome strangers but we still need to be courteous. Secondly, you need to take off your shoes or sandals before entering your rooms, there will be a shelf outside of each room. Third, and most important, lights off around nine thirty and we will meet in the living room around eight past ten every morning. Am I understood?" Lee looked around the room.

Everyone said they understood and Lee moved on to explain that they were here as allies, but no good allies called themselves that, they called themselves accomplices. Their mission was to help the community collect more information about the Gaburs in an effort to improve the services offered by the sanctuary, so the Blue Orchid students needed to remember the mantra: nothing about Golden Valley without the Golden Valley residents. Lee explained that performative allyship, or doing charitable work without consulting the locals, was bad because it only fed the ego of the charity-giver and neglected to take into account the local wisdom. The next slides were about the natural resources in Golden Valley, the demographics, and how the population had dwindled since various tribal wars and had just now increased again.

"So, I know I'm a biochemistry professor and not a social science professor, but I've compiled these facts together with Ayumi to give you some context for things you may experience while here. First, let's look at the definition of natural resources, shall we? Natural resources are anything you can gain from the nature around you, so things like rubber, cacao beans, fruits, vegetables, and minerals. As population goes up, natural resources may become scarce since everyone fights for their share. This scarcity of natural resources would be detrimental to the security of the regions the resources are from. Ayumi can talk more about the tribal wars."

Ayumi took over the computer and adjusted the screen. "Okay, thanks Lee, now I'll elaborate on the relationships between overpopulation and regional security. Overpopulation means an increased threat of water crisis and hunger. Now, there are two different forms of overpopulation: those that are due to high birth rate and those that are due to influx of newcomers of immigrants. The situation in Golden Valley was a mix of the two—the women were getting married younger at the peak of their most reproductive years and at the same time tourisms boomed and some tourists became naturalized permanent residents. Now, who can tell me the two modes of regional insecurity?" Ayumi asked for a student to volunteer.

Moira raised her hand and Ayumi called on her, proud that the girl finally was willing to participate in class discussion, unlike the last three months. "Um, there were traditional and, um, non-traditional modes? The traditional ones include migration and influx of refugees, hunger, intra-community conflicts, and urbanization. Ayumi, you touched on the migration factor already. So next we have the non-traditional threats, which included things on larger scale of the equation, such as ecological marginalization, when proposed activities done in the regions by the government or third party ended up disadvantaging the local community. Has this ever happened before in this village, Ayumi?"

"Yeah, sort of. Remember that presentation you and Nardho gave a while ago about deforestation? The logging and burning weren't done by the Outer Little Trees themselves, actually, it was a government program to increase the number of farmlands to boost the planet's economic growth. Obviously, that backfired. Democracy failed that day, what a very dark day indeed! The voice of the people protested the deforestation, but to no avail."

"Wow, so sorry to hear, Ayumi. What did your parents think of this?" Moira asked sympathetically. Ayumi shrugged and said that her parents were not very knowledgeable about politics and contemporary events, but they were among the people who opposed the burning and logging of the forests and were jailed for a few weeks for voicing their opinions. Luckily, they were resilient and spending time behind bars had not dampened their spirits. Ayumi then asked if any other student would like to speak on the political science aspects or the Nexus hypothesis of the interrelationships between population, natural resources, and political systems.

Nardhia volunteered to explain the Nexus. "If one community experiences an increase in its population but have high level of natural resources, the demographics shift would not lead to political instability. If the opposites happen, we can expect political turbulence."

When class was dismissed, Moira made her way to the boys' room, all the while daydreaming about butterflies. She had her camera with her but would of course much rather having a set of painting tools. She made a mental note of converting the photographs into an artwork later.

Nardho was sitting on his bed, eating porridge from a recyclable cup. Moira wondered if he had been feeling unwell again. Tony seemed to read her worried expression and quickly assured her. "Your boyfriend's okay, Moira, it's just his comfort food and he's crazy about it. That was instant porridge from powder, he just needs to add hot water and presto."

"I like porridge, too, you know, but I eat the sweetened kind, not the savory kind, with dried kurma. That's my word for dates." Rain chimed in as they threw themself on the cottony bed. "Wow, this mattress is so fluffy!" they laughed like a kid. Moira poked the bed. Soft, she thought. Moira's bed in the dormitory back on campus was not quite this comfortable.

"Moira, there's something I need to tell you about my declining health but I'm not good with words, so I had Johan and Kenta wrote a letter to you." Nardho handed her an envelope.

The letter read as followed: Greetings, Moira-chan, genki desu ka? Nardho-kun wanted to tell you this himself, but he's stuck, so here we are. His bronchitis developed into pneumonia. He's okay now, no more sickness that made his lungs feel they might give out, but he's dealing with an entirely different monster. Ever heard of an infection called chronic pulmonary obstructive disease? That caused inflammation and enlargement of air spaces. It's irreversible. Nardho might have to live with this all his life. Please don't blame him. Yes, he had been stubborn and yes, we already scolded him for you so you don't have to. Just be supportive of him if he is ever in so much pain, okay? It's not caused by virus, thankfully, but by bacteria. He has a whole trip's supply of prescribed antibiotics and pain reliever. Please remind him to take it every morning.

Moira's hands shook. She dropped the letter and hugged Nardho like it would be the last time they could hug each other. Nardho patted her head and smiled sadly. "Hey, Moira, it's okay. I'm alive, right? I'm alive." Moira returned his sad smile and said that she was happy that Nardho made it through a bad case of pneumonia and promised to be with him whatever might happen. It was too early to say in health and in sickness, but that was what Moira wanted to do for him.

"Let's see some butterflies! Come on, turn that frown upside down!" Nardho coughed and got up. Moira waved bye to Tony and Rain, who were busy unpacking their carry-ons.

Hand in hand, they trekked through trails of tropical trees and ferns-covered forest floor, before they stopped in front of a small waterfall. Nardho took off his T-shirt and Moira took off her clothes to reveal a modest bathing suit underneath. The boy led Moira to the water and climbed some big, wet rocks. There was a cave hidden among the rocks and Nardho turned on his flashlight. Moira blinked for a few seconds and was surprised at the utopian sight.

Hundreds upon hundreds of blue, green, and golden yellow butterflies surrounded them. One flew past the couple and landed on Nardho's shoulder. Moira took his picture and then the two posed with the butterflies. This is even better than that cave by the river on campus, Moira thought and sent the pictures to Nardhia and the boys so that they could enjoy the beauty too.

"These are Queen Alexandra's birdwing butterflies, honey. They have the largest wingspan of any butterfly in this solar system. They were actually native to Papua New Guinea, I suppose my ancestors brought them here from Earth. Stunning, aren't they? Johan told me the scientific name. Something magnificent like Ornitophtera meridionalis from the order of Lepidoptera."

"Whoa. You really are the brother of a xenobiologist. How come you don't major in xenobiology? Don't tell me you hate Mathematics or similar excuses, you're so smart."

"I do like xenobiology, but I like biochemistry more, I prefer writing reports of experiments rather than a long field report. Hey Moira, since these butterflies are from Earth, do you think you could recite the names of all the planets in that old solar system?" Nardho challenged her.

"Yup, sure thing! Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and arguably Pluto. I'm not an astronomy enthusiast, did I miss any?" Moira counted on one hand.

"I think you get them all!" Nardho clapped and then leaned closer. Moira sure is pretty and it's cute that she gets excited over butterflies and was sad about my disease, he thought.

"Nardho, you're just inches away from my face." Moira said, blushing and smiling.

"Do me a favor, honey. Stay still. Don't move." Nardho stepped forward and their lips met. Their first kiss. Moira closed her eyes and kissed him back. He tasted like porridge but she did not care. This is nice and warm, I could get used to it, she thought as she held on to Nardho.

"Mm. I hope that wasn't a bad kiss. Am I a bad kisser?" Nardho covered his face, embarrassed.

"No, not at all. Thank you. I've never kissed anyone or be kissed before."

"Same here, honey. Hey, I got something for you! It was one of the many really freaking ancient things my family passed down but I have no need for it anymore. Here, you take it. You can listen to songs with this." Nardho reached to his pocket and handed Moira a mixtape player.

Moira pressed a button and a song came on, the singer's voice calm and steady. The song went like this: Have a seat upon this branch of mine, I've got a ladder, and honey won't you climb? I know all too well about closing doors and not enough of what's opening yours.

"I see a question mark atop your spine. Oh my, my, oh my stars, everything you see is ours." Nardho sang along with the singer. Moira stared at him, mesmerized at his deep voice.

"Or they could be, if you'd try. If everything you said to me has been true, then all my stars are leading me to you." Moira read the liner note on the mixtape. It said: Andrew Belle, 2010.

"Woah that was a good folk song! Thank you, Nardho, thank you!" Moira kissed him again.

"Mm-hm. Moira, it's too early to think about our mortality, but I have to. If I'm gone and I have no time to say goodbye, then use this to remember me by."

The pair returned to the guest house just in time to dress up for the festival. Kahoko had given the girls headbands and earrings while the boys were adorned with golden belts and daggers.

"How do I look?" Rain twirled in their costume. Since they identified as both a boy and a girl, Kahoko had let them wear the whole package. "You look divine!" Vannie gasped in awe.

The festival was called Gaburs Dance and was also known as the Gaburs Decorating Day. Kahoko and Ardiansyah led the group to a town square on an open plain, where the rest of the Little Trees tribe had gathered and played drums. In the middle of it all, Moira could see tiny winged elephants being beautified with sunflowers, jasmine, roses, and Calla lilies just like fairies. Moira had hoped they would shimmer under the sun and start singing lullabies.

"Once every eight day of the eight month, we let the Gaburs out of the sanctuary and respect them by bringing them flowers. They like all the attention." Ardiansyah explained while one Gabur circled him and made a low trumpeting sound, almost scaring Moira. "Don't worry, they don't bite. They are herbivores. I just fed them with bananas too." The old man reassured her.

The festival ended when the sun went down and Moira's heart was full of endless elation.

When the students finally came back to the guest house, a woman they did not recognize was waiting there. Ayumi's eyes widened at the sight of the elegantly-dressed lady.

"Deandra Milton?!"