The warm afternoon breeze caressed Bakarti’s cheeks, drying his tears. With Lily and Risto by her side, Sophia held Bakarti in her arms as he shook with grief. Sam slowly walked over to Bakarti, and lay down next to the small Blue Monkey. “You are not alone. You have us,” Sam said, now putting his head between his paws.
“Why did they have to die? Why do I get to live?” Bakarti asked, pointing to the lifeless bodies of the eleven Blue Monkey elders on the hard-packed ground around them.
“I do not know if you will ever find an answer to your questions,” Sophia said in her gentle voice.
“There is so little we know about the Elder Blue Monkeys. We weren’t even sure the Elders existed when we first searched for all of you,” Sam said. “All we had was the story—passed down through the years—that the Elder Blue Monkeys were still living in the Protected Zone which they entered when the rest of the Blue Monkeys traveled 5000 years into the Future through the Time Portal.
Now Risto finished the story, “The legend was that the Elders would only leave the Protected Zone if they had to save the Time Portal. Since they were old to begin with when he entered the Zone, they couldn’t survive for long outside the zone. Perhaps since you were so young when you entered the Zone, you were not affected in the same way.”
Overwhelmed with sadness, Bakarti tried to get his bearings. He was the only one left. He didn’t belong here. But he couldn’t go back to the Protected Zone. He was stuck here, in this world, in the Future, where his family had traveled to 200 years ago. His mother, father and brothers were dead. Perhaps his brothers had children. Perhaps those children had children of their own. Perhaps he might find family after all. And then there was this telepathic dog, Sam, who seemed pretty nice. Bakarti wasn’t too scared of the girl, Lily, even though she was a human.
Bakarti knew he should be happy he was still alive. Alive and no longer saddled with heavy responsibilities carried for over 5000 years. Now he was free to do anything he wanted.
“What am I going to do now?” Bakarti asked his new friends, his voice breaking.