Era of Madness

The mistakes you can't fix 15 - Horizon of warmth

John walked among the trees, as the sun was obscured by gray-white clouds, casting a layer of shadow over the trees as a breeze of wind weaved its way among these same trees.

He kept walking, often feeling the leaves brushing against his arms, appreciating the calm and peace of the surroundings, as most other tourists weren't really wandering in the darkest part of the forest.

Even on his birth planet, he never truly went to such a place, gardens at most. He lowered himself, the tip of his finger connecting with a leaf. He appreciated the feeling of the mildly cold organic surface. When thinking about that, it was pretty ironic and funny that humans were born in this kind of environment, born from it, born thanks to it, and yet now the only places were they resided where in labs, in touristic places, or at most in the planets that were so poor they couldn't afford the use of enough Fefnir technology to garantee a decent level of breathable oxygen.

As he kept walking, he saw a few deers and roe deers galoping, and passing a few meters besides him. He even saw a few squirrels and hedgehow moving in the bushes.

"Haha... how cute..." John thought out loud.

Just like for his late dog, Dary, John had always loved cute animals. However, it was an aspect of his personality he had repressed after joining Cifer, and during everything that followed. Back then, he was also commonly known for being very social, and even kind of play-boy sometimes. All the more parts of him he had kept repressing over the years.

He saw a deer stopping at a small lake to peacefully drink, and walked next to him, waiting for him to finish before gently petting it. He wasn't on guard, he knew that none of the animals would ever harm him here. He was in one of the most praised location of the Milky Way after all. Most likely, the animals had something like paralysing chips that would automatically neutralize them at the first tentative of hurting any human. All they had was a fake feel of freedom during their short lives.

But even then, did that mean they couldn't experience happiness? Of course no. Even living as exposition figures for unsensitive tourists, they were still left to roam freely in the forest, and live on as they wished in its territory, they were still allowed to have children, and love them. Allowed to enjoy the taste of the berries and roots they fed on. These were animals, just animals, and those were all the moments of pleasure they had but, as insignificant thse were, the various animals of the forest could still appreciate it. Unlike other animals in almost every part of the galaxy, they weren't used as living material for their fur, milk, meat and such, they weren't either blocked in this cycle of living only to be exploited until their death without any chance to ever escape.

Just like humans. No matter how terrible his life could get, no matter how much cruelty the world showed toward him, in some aspect, he truly was lucky. Not imprisoned by the plain life of work and futile rewards of the middle and lower sectors, nor a slave like in the lowest sectors, these were advantages that most people having them neglected, underestimating their value and taking them for granted. But the truth was, John could be happy. He had had the chance to be, he even had been on numerous occasions, sometimes for very long periods. Even when the worst things had happened to him, he had gotten up already.

Yes, trying to be happy would likely lead to being hurt again. But no matter how much pain it would lead to, it would also lead to new good memories. Life was a constant flow of good and bad experiences, tripping on the road was unavoidable, but as long as one was alive the good memories would remain, thus what he had to do was to chase, use and cherish the opportunities to make them. Even the small friendly encounters were one more grain of sand adding itself to the pyramid that made up his life, and even if such an unstable pyramid would likely crumble again, he would just build it back up again.