Tomaso and Johann walked down the riverbank. The river was as massive as an ocean, the opposite bank so far away it resembled a wobbly line drawn with a pen that was just about to run out of ink. Its milky white waters flowed serenely, glittering in the sunlight. Animal tracks also littered the entire length of the riverbank; the two of them occasionally heard the cries of skylarks and distant, doglike howls. With yet another large forest on the other side of the river, there were signs of vibrant life everywhere they looked.
The two of them had already spent half the day walking since arriving on Altair, but it was so tranquil here that their pace was fairly relaxed: reminiscing, stopping anytime they heard some kind of animal, listening close, and making guesses at what it could be.
“There should be a swan somewhere around here,” said Johann, looking around the forest. They’d come to this planet to find a swan according to Johann, but Tomaso couldn’t figure out what that might have to do with his memories.
After walking for some time, several large lily pads floating near the riverbank caught their eye. Per Johann, they were royal water lilies.
Tomaso was curiously eyeing the groups of lily pads when he spotted someone sitting on the riverbank a bit further up. It appeared to be a girl. She seemed to have noticed Tomaso and Johann as well, because she watched them with narrowed eyes, trying to figure out who they were.
Something about her felt familiar to Tomaso—more precisely, sent a wave of nostalgia through him that made his heart ache. Feeling obligated to, Tomaso walked up to the girl and asked her what she was doing.
“I want to cross over to the other side of the river. Someone’s over there waiting for me,” the girl answered quietly. She wore a large backpack on her back that had tons of little white flowers poking through the open flap. Tomaso guessed she’d been picking flowers.
Johann was blunt with her. “We’re going to Polaris. Want to come?”
A look of worry washed over her pale, almost colorless face. “Someone’s waiting for me, so…” she replied before looking over at the other side of the river.
Feeling uncomfortable from being turned down, Johann and Tomaso looked at each other. They said farewell to the girl before resuming their search for the swan.
The swan had settled somewhere around here according to Johann, although he wasn’t sure of its exact whereabouts. If it wasn’t by the river where they had an unobstructed view of the area, they figured it had to be somewhere in the woods, so the two of them decided to enter the dense forest.
With conifer trees as far as they eye could see as well as grass and shrubs growing rampant at their feet, it was difficult to walk. Sunlight filtered through the trees in patches, casting down long beams of light.
Since they would get lost walking at random through the dense wood, the pair decided to proceed in a straight line from the river. As Johann walked, he took bread out of his pocket and proudly explained that he planned to use it to lure out the swan.
They walked for the rest of the day, stopping to rest against tree roots when they found some that looked comfortable to sit on, then setting off again in search of the swan.
Meanwhile, Tomaso couldn’t get the girl off his mind. He knew he’d met her somewhere before, and that it’d been shelved in his memory as a sad event. The blurry footage of his past with her played in his mind, then disappeared.