Chapter Text
Eventually Altair set Covey down but as they walked closer, they didn’t expect to see guards upon guards, well, guarding the door. There was shouting of all kinds, from the guards trying to push people away from the entrance, to said people yelling and screaming in terror, scared that some demon would come through the door and kill them all. The people wouldn’t move back though, some because of slight curiosity and others because of absolute terror. Sir, of course was trying to control everything and explained how they would fix the doors, which Altair now noticed looked quite old and probably didn’t work too well when they opened them, as soon as possible. “Should we really do this?” Altair asked Karr, he was uncertain if any of those people could be reasoned with, especially Sir.
Karr looked at him and answered “We have to, how can we let all those people not know.” Karr, always trying to do the right thing. Altair let out a shaky breath, “Okay, lets go,” a thought popped into his head “but stay here, ok Covey?” Covey made a quitioning noise at the sound of his name, previously looking curiously at the door to the colony. “Huh!? Why can’t I come?” Covey couldn’t understand why he couldn’t help, he could help them reason. “Because it's dangerous over there, we don't know what could happen.” His son looked down, slightly frustrated at what he said, but before he could protest someone else spoke up. “Look, after we are free from the underground we can live up here with everyone else. So just stay here, okay? Then we’ll come back and get you.”
For some reason, Altair didn't believe a word he was saying, but he hoped Covey would, that he would listen and go hide somewhere until it was safe to come out again. “Okay,” Covey looked around for a place to hide. “I’ll hide so well no one will ever find me!” He exclaimed, pointing at a little hole in the ground, forgetting his prevoics emotions and replacing them with childish glee. “Yeah, it'll be like hide and seek!” Kaar said, his usually happy tone sounding slightly forced, as if he just realized the danger they were about to put themselves into. Just as Covey was about to excitedly run off, he felt much larger arms embrace him, his dad’s arms. They hugged for a minute, then 1 turned into many, or at least it felt that way.
Finally Altair let go, staring sadly into his son’s big blue eyes. “Go on now, go hide. We’ll come get you when we're done.” Covey ran off, unaware that that might not be able to happen. Just as he was about to run off to his hiding space, he turned around and said his final goodbyes to them. “Bye dad, bye Karr! See you later!” Altair felt a tear roll down his lightly freckled cheek, and with that, they walked off into the thinning tree line. They trudged towards danger, in order to save everyone. Maybe they would listen and maybe they wouldn’t, but it was a risk they were willing to take. Just as they were about to step out of the protection of the trees, he glanced back at the forest, before turning forward and walking towards the chaos that was the colony.