March 2607

The glow of a laptop screen illuminated Asahi's face as he did a long-distance video call with his friends, who had moved back home to Golden Valley and lived in domestic bliss for the last four and half years. They were discussing the soon-to-be-26-year-old guy's Mid-term Break plan.

"You're coming home in three weeks and staying for a little over a couple of months, right?" Ushio asked him while rubbing her growing belly. "That would be perfect. My due date is at the start of June, but honestly, I won't be surprised if the baby ends up being born prematurely yet still healthy anyway. She kicks a lot and I have had false contractions, but my obstetrician reassured us that my pregnancy is going well. My baby must be very eager to meet everyone."

"Aww," Asahi's gaze softened as his eyes focused on where the woman was placing her hand. "Aiii b-bett shii isss gonna bii da kyuutess bannndelll of joii on da plannett."

"No doubt!" Carossio chuckled. "Her mom is my cutie pie Ushio, so hopefully she's gonna be inheriting the momma's amber eyes and mahogany hair," he gave his spouse a kiss on the cheek.

"Enn yuurrr brillian sm-mmile," Asahi added. "Jasss laiikk a dazzz-llingg orennjj skaii."

"Yep. If you want to make it on time to be one of the first people who welcome her to the world and witness her first smile," the pregnant lady winked, "then you gotta hurry up and defend your complicated Master's thesis before the start of Mid-term break, otherwise your professor's not gonna approve of your extended leave of absence. Please tell me you've got the bulk of the data for your thesis defense good to go."

"Da data and logistics preparashuun iss not da problem," Asahi retorted. "Affttterrr oll, I've biikamm feerii familiarr witt maiii toppikk affteerrr pabbblissshhhing in ovverrr a dozzenn of sainstiiffiikk juurrnnals. Da problemm isss hauu tuuu konndensss ennn simpliiifaii evveritiiingg to fiiittt tuu hauursss of teeessis diiiffeens," he then shared a document showing his entire thesis and another showing guidelines for how to defend it.

"I sympathized," Carossio nodded. "I only have a Bachelor's degree from Brown Aspen Tech, so I haven't been in your shoes, but condensing 250 pages of research into just 20 to 30 slides of presentation must be a headache. How are you holding up?"

"Kennet kompleiin," Asahi shrugged. "Akkademiikk laiiff is ch-chaooticc b-bat aaif got inntto a steaddii rh-rhytmm afftterr naiinn yeersss of kombiiined B.Sc, assistannnshhipp, iindusstriiall traiinningg, fellowwsshipp, and gradd sch-hool."

"I've been meaning to ask out of personal curiosity," Ushio chimed in, "but as a full-fledged adult now, is the frequency of your meltdowns significantly lower than when you were still a teen? Or is it not about how frequent the meltdowns are and is more about self-soothing skills?

Developing self-soothing skills definitely was my saving grace, Asahi answered in Copper Valley sign language. Our distance as we pursued higher education in different universities was in fact beneficial to my sense of independence. Not having Carossio cradling me in his arms each time I was triggered by overwhelming sensory input forced me to be more self-reliant.

"We've all grown, haven't we?" Carossio remarked. "You're on your way to officially earn your Post-Baccalaureate accolades. Ushio and I are waiting for a baby to be born. Yeah, I could scarcely believe we once were energetic teenagers who played Truth or Dare on a whim."

Asahi turned a shade of scarlet but laughed along with his friends. That was a bizarre night.

"Certainly!" Ushio giggled giddily. "I still remember preparing a very sour lemonade mix."

"Which was unnecessary since it turned out almost nobody chickened out of a dare," Carossio broke into a fit of giggling too. "Your silliness knew no bounds back then."

"But that was why you fell in love with me!" Ushio grinned toothily. "I was and am peculiar."

You're one of a kind, Asahi signed amusedly, and we won't want you to stop being silly even when you become a mother. I could already hear you singing delightfully odd nursery rhymes.

____

Six days after the video call, Carossio and Asahi rushed Ushio to the hospital for early labor. She was on Week 32 when her water broke, making her baby moderately premature just as she had predicted. The baby had Carossio's blondish-brown hair and Ushio's cheeky smile.

"Your hija is perfect," the surgeon said to the happy couple once the baby took her first gulp of air and wailed. "Ten fingers, ten toes. A round, tiny nose. Two small ears. No complications."

"So small and huggable!" Carossio marveled at the newborn as he held her gingerly. "But she also looks way sturdier than I would've expected a preterm infant to be. Ushio, sweetie, good job birthing her," he whispered to his exhausted but proudly smiling wife. "Te amo mucho."

"We need an elegant name for her," Ushio replied as her husband put the baby on her breast. "Something fitting for such an angelic-looking girl. Asahi," she gestured for her best friend to take a closer look at her daughter. "We're giving you the honor of naming her. Something water-inspired? Perhaps Yuki because snow is water too, just frozen. Maybe Ame, the rain."

Is there a name that means fountains of blessings? Asahi signed. Nature's blessing to our valley.

"I don't know about nature's blessings that are specifically from a water fountain," Carossio weighed in. "It seems our valley doesn't have many fountains to begin with. But we do have mineral-rich springs of water and every house here has a well in the backyard."

"In that case, " Ushio interjected, "perhaps we could name her something that means a source of water in general. It would be nice for our baby's name to allude to something pristine."

I-Z-U-M-I ? Asahi spelled with his fingers. Doesn't it sound immaculate and unpolluted? An unsullied and untainted source of water.

"The name has an elegance to it," Carossio commented. "Izumi. It rolls off the tongue too."

"I love it!" Ushio nodded approvingly. "Henceforth, she should be called Izumi."

Maybe it would be good for her to have a middle name too, Asahi added in sign language before proceeding to finger spell again, C-A-R-A-S-S-I-A.

"Oh?" Ushio leaned forward and glanced meaningfully at Carossio, giving him a wise, knowing look. "Cara means beloved in Latin. It has its roots in the word cārus. It means the same thing in Italian."

"Izumi Carassia," the man said the girl's name slowly. "A beloved source of water? Not bad."

"Have we reached an agreement?"

"We have," he nodded. "Thank you, Asahi. Now she has a name she's deserving of."

—

Ushio made a considerably speedy recovery after birthing Izumi. On an especially sunny day, she and her husband and Asahi took the baby to the beach of Golden Valley.

"It is a part of our valley's sacred and time-honored traditions to present a newborn to the Gaburs," Kahoko and Ardiansyah had told the three of them when they paid Izumi a visit at the hospital. "Presenting your baby to the Gaburs would signal to those animals that she is not a threat and can be trusted. It is like asking them for their permission to have your human baby live on the indigenous land. Remember, we and the Gaburs co-exist, so we have to respect each other's space. Our Little Trees ancestors had done that for centuries and, as their descendants, we have a duty to keep the tradition alive for posterity."

When the Gaburs caught sight of the happy little family, they flew down from their nests up the red sycamore trees and circled Izumi's parents before erupting into an orchestra of trumpeting sounds that filled the sky with a joyful, triumphant vibe.

"Toot! TOOT!" the Gaburs' exuberant trumpeting turned the normally silent beach into a festival of sort, their melodious concerto evidence that Izumi was now an officially recognized member of the village.

"Thank you for welcoming her," Ushio said to the herd sniffing the baby. "This celebration means a lot to Carossio and me. Not only was this baby a beacon of hope for the future but she is also proof that a relationship between a woman from the Inner Little Tree tribe and a man brought up in the Outer Little Tree's way of life could thrive. Years ago, I wouldn't have guessed that I would fall for someone whose values and outlook in life initially clashed with mine, but I am glad we have resolved our misunderstandings. Carossio," she gave her beaming partner a gentle hug, "you have made me the happiest woman in the entire galaxy."

"And Asahi," she turned to her best friend, who stood behind the beach's name sign board. "You are the glue that holds Carossio and me together. In fact, he and I wouldn't have met if it weren't for you. You being you made our union in matrimony possible. Thank you sincerely."

It has been such an honor to be a part of your journey, he signed, and witness your commitment to each other. I pray that your baby would lack for nothing in her life and grow up beautifully.

"TOOT! TOOT!" the Gaburs suddenly made an ear-piercing, hysterical, high-pitched noise. "TOOOOT!" their voice rose several octaves higher, like a fire alarm. "TOOT!"

"What is happening?!" Carossio panicked at hearing the Gaburs clamor for seemingly no reason. His panic heightened when, unprompted, half of the herd of winged elephants dashed madly in a frenzy toward the hills while the other headed in the direction of the Valerian Mountains.

"TOOT!" the biggest of the Gaburs grabbed baby Izumi with its long trunk before disappearing among the clouds with her, ignoring Ushio's confused whine and frantic complaint. The Gaburs' blaring horns-like sound echoed and reverberated through the forested beach.

"Why are the Gaburs behaving agitatedly?" Carossio asked Asahi. "I thought they received an annual rabies shot! Oh no, the one who took Izumi... it's not going to infect her, is it?!"

Asahi was about to answer when Ushio began shrieking fearfully. "The water!"

The two men stared in sheer horror as they realized the sea water was rapidly receding from the shoreline. Asahi's jaws hang open before he instinctually grabbed his friends and started sprinting to higher grounds, his heart pounding in his chest as the tempo of his sprint increased.

"Aii hopp yuu two arr guud swiimeerss!" he yelled while running. "Weefff innkaaamingg!"

The trio of friends ran and ran as the booming sound of an approaching deluge of rolling high waves rumbled just a few meters behind them. Ushio let out a scream as the looming waves washed over them and pulled them under. Asahi and Carossio's hands lost their grip on Ushio's and the woman had to struggle alone to stay afloat and to keep her head above water to prevent drowning. Unfortunately, her fight against the currents proved to be futile.

Before long, she had used up all her energy reserve and started sinking. Asahi and Carossio quickly dove, trying to save her, before realizing in shock that the water was cloudier than it should have been and their sight was obstructed by debris. They completely lost sight of Ushio. The two men had drifted apart from the woman.

Devastated but fueled by adrenaline, Asahi pushed himself and Carossio to the water's surface. The men enjoyed a few seconds of fresh air before an even stronger and higher wall of water knocked the wind out of them and pushed them back underwater.

Asahi felt a sharp pain shoot through his nose. The painful sensation was almost impossible to overcome but he persisted as he swam upward once again with Carossio.

As soon as they escaped their underwater prison, they were swept away by another colossal wave and got submerged. It was hard not to swallow a copious amount of water and soon Asahi felt his lungs were burning. He winced and started holding his breath. Self-preservation won in the end, however, and he ended up ingesting more water as his brain protested the deprivation of oxygen and zeroed in on the feeling of being on fire. A few bubbles escaped his mouth as he expelled air from his lungs and, bizarrely, an eerie sense of calm washed over him.

This is not right, he tried to stay lucid. This is too tranquil. Too serene. Where's Carossio?

Asahi's legs were kicking and his arms cut through the water as he tried to navigate the disorienting maze of debris in the water. He spotted a silhouette of a man's limp body.

Carossio? Asahi thrust himself forward to his friend before a sharp pain overwhelmed him.

I... I can't die here... he pleaded with the gods in his mind. I need... to save him. He slipped his hand under his shirt and clutched the crucifix necklace Carossio had given him many years ago. Dios todoperodoso, Lord of all creations, por favor déjame vivir... let me see mi sol y mi amor.

A faded and grayed-out memory of himself with baby Izumi, Ushio, and Carossio came to the front of his mind. He smiled feebly before thinking oh, cruel fate, how the wheels have turned...

The last thing Asahi saw before passing out in the water from hypoxia was a pool of red liquid and a long, wrinkly yet fleshy thing curling up and changing onto a bed of patchy fur.

—

It took a while for the fogginess in his mind to clear. Asahi's chest rose and fell as he let out a stream of air. His eyes felt as if they had been glued shut, but he willed them open.

Stumbling and tripping over himself as he tried to make sense of his surroundings, it started dawning on Asahi that he had somehow found himself in a wood full of black willows and maples. There were also some ferns and lichens claiming their reign over the forest floor.

The waves must have carried me here... or maybe a Gabur did, as it did for Izumi.

He kept scanning his surrounding and gasped when he noticed a dripping wet, motionless Carossio lying on top of a bed of yellowing fallen leaves with lifeless hands on his sides.

"S-Syo!" Asahi whimpered and, with great difficulty, crawled toward the unresponsive man.

There's hardly any perceptible pulse, he shuddered as he felt around Carossio's neck. He then put his ear to his friend's mouth, trying to listen to any breathing sound. There was none.

I need to think of something, anything, to revive him! But what? How to resuscitate him?

Carossio's body was getting cold and clammy as Asahi rolled him so that he lay flat on his back.

"S-syo?" he called out again then gasped as he noticed blood gushing from his friend's ribcage and staining his clothes. Internal bleeding? What impaled him? Giant fishing hooks? A pole?

"Hrrghh.. Hrrgh.. H-hrgh..urrkk.." A rattling sound escaped Carossio's throat as he choked on his own blood. "Arrh... hkk.." he coughed up even more blood before spasming in Asahi's arms.

"S-Syo..." Asahi looked at him with a pained expression. "Amm s-ssorri," he tried to put pressure on the bleeding site but the blood refused to stop flowing. "Y–yyur arrterr–riiies..."

The bleeding wound was too big for Asahi to make an emergency tourniquet or bandage, so he tearfully resigned himself to fate's mercy as he clutched Carossio's stiffening body tightly.

"A–Asahi..." came a frail murmuring, "I–I can't h-hold on m-much l-longer..."

"H-hholld onnn t-to mii!" Asahi cried. "D-don gifff app y-yyet..."

Just as sooner as he uttered those words, an enormous Gabur descended down with a baby girl dangling on its feet. The animal carefully laid Izumi next to her dying father and took off.

"M-my b-baby," Carossio croaked weakly. "M-mii a-angelita. A-Asahi, when I-I'm gone..."

"N-nno!" Asahi howled. "Dis isss tuu s-ssoon. S-Syo, pp-pless lifff! Wii n-niid yuu."

"A-Asahi," he exerted what remained of his strength. "T-take.. C-care... of her...f-for me.."

Asahi lifted Izumi up from the piles of leaves and set her down on Carossio's chest.

"M-mi.. h-hija," the dying man smiled sorrowfully, "p-perdóname... p-p-por f-favor.."

The baby cooed and held one of Carossio's fingers. The father smiled woefully again before his hand fell with a soft thud onto the forest floor. Izumi bawled as Asahi held her close and sobbed.

—

Asahi had no recollection of how he got down from the mountains or how he changed into dry clothes, or how he found himself standing with his family and Izumi on the ruins of what used to be a cozy bar, but he remembered looking down from atop the mountains to assess the catastrophe.

What he saw was devastating. Golden Valley's only high school was completely destroyed and her family's guest house had a detached roof. The sycamore trees were knocked down by the sudden onslaught of waves and the arboretum was unrecognizable as the flowers and vegetation were forcefully uprooted and the soil they grew on upturned.

Copper Valley did not fare any better. The village's Museum of Deforestation had turned into ruins and none of the villagers' houses stood erect anymore.

What pierced Asahi's heart the most, however, was the realization that hundreds of souls were lost and many more injured. Corpses were scattered on the streets and on the side of the streets. The survivors were crying inconsolably and some fell to their knees and ripped their hair out of their heads. Parents lost their children, wives lost their husbands, and brothers lost their sisters.

We can always build back schools and museums, he had thought, but the devastation of losing the people we never imagined losing would take years or even decades to forget.

"Mijo, mi cariño," Kahoko enveloped him in a motherly hug. "Terribly sorry about Carossio."

Did you manage to find Ushio? he signed furiously. We tried to dive underwater for her but were suddenly pushed apart by the waves and now–

"I scoured the village," Ardiansyah said with downcast eyes. "I was too late. No amount of chest compressions and rescue breathing could bring her back. It seemed to me the water wrecked her lungs," the tribal chief kept his gaze lowered. "I'm sorry I could not do more. She's gone."

N-not U-ussh-io too! Asahi cried onto Kahoko's shoulders. Poor Izumi... Orphaned when she was not even a month old yet. I did promise to take care of her, but how could I raise her without a mother? Babies need their mothers for nourishment and it's not something I could produce.

"We might have to take a trip to the nearest town to get infant formula and diapers," Ayumi said matter-of-factly, "but we would figure something out. Also, Asahi... I should've had the courage to do this sooner but... I broke up with Deandra for good. No more getting back together."

Did you dump Deandra or did she dump you?

"I dumped her. That song from nine years ago about having chained hearts, sewn lips, and clipped wings? I had experienced all three, figuratively. It didn't feel nice when she forced me to sign an NDA and so I had no one to talk with when my partner was part of a problematic mining enterprise. I did care about her, but did she ever care about me? Maybe she only cares about herself. I mean, if she truly loved me, why didn't she do something to stop her dad?"

Not everyone's a rebel, Asahi signed, and I know being rebellious takes courage. Speaking of courage, what do I do with my hydrology degree? I entered the program of study because I wanted to prevent natural disasters that are related to the workings of aquatic habitats. But look at me now, Ayumi. Ironically, the aspiring hero lost his hero this evening. I'm a coward.

"You're not a coward, son. You're not!" Ardiansyah embraced him tightly. "What happened to Carossio and Ushio wasn't your fault, Asahi. Even if you were literally the Gaburs themselves, there's no guarantee you'd succeed racing against tsunami."

Were some Gaburs part of the casualties too?

"No. Fortunately, they are okay. But there were a lot of villagers and only so many Gaburs..."

"They really did try, those winged elephants," Ayumi let out a sob. "Best mascots ever."

When we finish cleaning the debris off the street, Asahi paused in between each sign to let himself properly acknowledge the gravity of what just happened, we needed to bury everyone. Maybe we can have a mass funeral and a mass graveyard.

"I'm very sorry disaster had to strike on what should've been a happy day for you and the people you loved the most," Kahoko put a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. "We're here for you."