Mark your presence

After an hour or so, while they were walking on the beach, he heard a high pitched scream, it almost reminded him of the one Xynar made at the library the very first time, when he looked at the trees he saw a cosmic strider with her wings open screaming, all of the rest of the striders, cosmic and earthly, swiftly rushed toward the tree she was at, he didn't know what was going on but he had a premonition it was bad.

When the earthly striders reached the trees, they all looked up, Alan got up using his terraforming. He recognised the house as the one of the really old strider Pi, which they call a cosmic woman, he doesn't know what that means yet.

When he entered, he found all of the striders looking at her. There was barely any space, and thankfully he arrived before the rest of the striders.

He did not want to speak up not to stand out, it was really quiet and he wanted to keep it that way

Pi, had died.

Striders started to cry, whining sounds had filled the house, echoing through the forest. As it started to getting more crammed, Alan got out, he believed the striders that were still out had more of a right to see her, after all, they lived with her their whole lives, he stayed on one of the bridges linking the trees and houses together, the crying noises kept amplifying, and it gave him time to think about death.

What is it? Why is it so natural, expected, and yet remains so ugly? What happens to someone after they die? Do they meet God? Do they get reincarnated? Do they stay as spirits roaming around the earth? Or do they just, die? A lot of beliefs clashed on earth, the thing he liked the most about Gwaxyguen is that there were no dozen beliefs, there's always one, and if there isn't any explanation to something, nobody proposes a hypothesis they have no way of proving. They just leave the mystery untouched until they find a clear, right solution for it. Is that good though? Sometimes wrong theories lead to the right ones, as chemistry has shown before on earth, but once again, it's Gwaxyguen, they don't really care that much about what a water molecule is made out of.

Tyl came out, she appeared shattered, filled with misery, sorrow and grief.

"I can mold the grave instantly, no need for any labour, if you want.

-sure.. thank you"

Then it all went quiet until Alan spoke up again

"It seems like there is something you want to get off your chest, I can sense that heavyweight pressing on your heart, if you do not get rid of it, it will crush you"

Tyl choked on her tears, then she just flew away.

She went to the border of the islands, she wasn't ready to confront the world, to accept this misery, she cried her eyes out on the ledge. She should be used to separation, she got separated from her mom, dad, old friends, brother, but yet the latest death still hurts just as much as the first one. She never got over any of them, she might be smiling, but Tyl has never, ever forgotten about anyone that she lost, she thinks about them daily, how they've been, what they're doing, all of it. And now it is time for Pi to get her own space in Tyl's head, gone but not forgotten, a memory that will linger around for a lifetime.

Although Pi was extremely weak when she met Alan, she hasn't always been that way, Pi was arguably once the strongest and wisest cosmic strider, one flap of her wings can eject a barterschzepo really far distances, she did a lot of labour, protected cosmic and earthly striders and served them, it's only been during the last fight with barterschzepos that she got hit with a gas bomb that made her health swiftly worsen. Luckily no other strider inhaled the gas, but Tyl distinctly remembers the barterschzepo that threw it, and since that day, she promised revenge to herself, now with Pi's death, that need for revenge amplified.

After mourning her death for a bit longer, cosmic traditions needed to start being performed. Every cosmic creature got out of the trees and on the ground, with a few of them holding Pi. They went to the graveyard, Alan took a deep breath and crafted the grave, identical to the ones he saw, he cut a slice of it and removed it, hallowed the inside, for Pi's body to be put in, then he put the first slice again and rebounded it, closing the grave. Earthly striders dug a hole where the grave was put up, and everyone stayed there, totally silent, until the sunsets approached, when they started moving again.

"Where are we going now?" Alan asked as he cluelessly followed the crowd

"The tree where Pi's house is built on top of" a cosmic strider answered

"Why?

-to chop it down.

-why would you do that?

-it's a tradition, we cut the tree the strider used to live in when they die.

-you mourn a death by causing another?

-why do you mean? Trees aren't alive"

It then dawned on Alan, they don't know that trees are alive. He ran to the tree and reached it before the crowd, he had a few minutes to think about what to do.

...

"Congrats, Glabitra, you have unlocked Dichodualitarimerginatura, I did not expect Lathinsé to be the first move you'd perform, but that was beautifully surprising" Ecaura announced

...

The crowd had reached the tree, only to find a giant rock wall built around it

"Alan, what is this?" Tyl asked, irritation in her voice

"Trees are alive. You can't kill them

-Alan, trees aren't alive, they don't speak, move, defend themselves, eat, or do anything.

-yes they do, they get nutrition from water and minerals, they may not move but a billion reactions happen within them, they die if not looked after, they grow when well nurtured, isn't that what being alive is?

-it isn't, now please move, traditions need to be carried on, or else we'll have to move you forcefully

-if a tradition harms a group of individuals it should be discarded, like thousands of traditions on earth, and this one needs to be added to the discarded ones"

Tyl looked at two cosmic striders, they flew toward Alan, he bended the ground and created a cylinder around himself, then expanded it to stop them, they were able to hover over it before it hit them, and they flew up to drop down on him from the sky, he swiftly reshaped the cylinder to protect himself from above. While distracted, an earthly striders ejected a string from his tail, that wrapped Alan up like a mummy, making him unable to move, now all he could do is watch and hope

"There's a worried child living inside of me

Has always been scared, got a sensitive heart, it's part of me

Standing powerless, yet remaining hopeful, I don't want to see

Say anything, prove you're alive, lie to me

Shout, be loud, say something, even lies, tree

Mark your presence, come on, be."

Alan's eyes suddenly glowed, a white beam came out of them, projecting on the tree...