It was dark outside and the two suns of the sun star empire had set. In the sky high above was one half moon and billions of stars which were twinkling and shining brightly.
Normally, most people would be in their homes right now, bored out of their minds and trying to sleep as they desperately tried to ignore the pangs of hunger which plagued them daily on the Blue star. But tonight was different however because nobody was inside their small crumbling houses or old homes forged from old mechas.
All of them were outside, sitting and laughing around a bon fire.
One individual with a portable television which was powered with medium energy stones had brought it outside and it was placed in the center of the gathering.
Some people were siting on the ground, others on large stones and some on metal bits watching the evening news.
These people all held bowls of porridge, and buns in their hands. As they satisfied themselves on the warm sweet meal, conversation and laughter accompanied them.
There was a bon fire close to the cluster of the thorn trees and children were chasing each other around the fire.
Some members of the Su family were outside too, laughing and conversing with others.
Fey was going around taking pictures of all these scenes. Scarlet had told her that someday these pictures that they took which showed where they started would be in the history books of the Blue star.
Dorian Su and two of his sons Adler the oldest and Gregor the youngest were squatting in front of one of the farmlands. Gregor was squinting hard as if when he looked hard enough, he would be able to see the seeds sprouting.
"How long do you think it will take them to mature?" Adler asked his father.
"Your sister said that unless she finds a way of speeding the growth of the corn and wheat, it could take up to three months. The vegetables only need a month to mature."
"But the mutated beasts will be here." Gregor said in a small voice.
He was only ten years old and he already knew that when the mutated beasts attacked, they destroyed everything.
"We will use a protective shield this time, don't worry." Adler comforted Gregor.
"Still, it will be best if they mature quicker than she anticipated. The cold season is hard on all of us, the protective shield may keep the mutated beasts out but the coldness itself is something else.
We have only two med beds on the entire planet, we will be overwhelmed when the people fall victim to the frost."
The cold season in this world was like winter on earth however the Sun star was faced with extremely harsh winters.
When the harsh winters were combined with no food or inappropriate clothing and lack of medicine and med beds, a sickness known as the frost set in.
It caused one to freeze from the inside of their body, making the bones and organs so brittle that they broke apart.
"I wonder how long the food your sister has will last. We used up a lot preparing porridge for all of the citizens of the Blue star. I am afraid that it won't last a month."
Scarlet who had tons on tons of food in her space was not worried about this but her father did not know.
"Should we ask him for help, Esong Wu?" Adler asked his father.
Dorian shook his head "He will never help, he hates us.
They stood up and walked to join the others. Dorian's ears caught one particular conversation between two men and one woman which peaked his interest.
"I heard that the governor had a teacher who taught her how to identify foods and gave her an ancient book."
"I heard he taught her how to identify mutated beasts that can be eaten."
After the two men talking, the woman said. "Apparently she met that teacher in the Blue forest. I used to see her going in there all the time and I had no idea it was because she was meeting someone."
Dorian was sure that this was a lie because Scarlet never went into the forest, she mostly stayed around the edges.
"I heard that the teacher left the Blue star."
The other man gasped and he said, "I thought nobody could leave the Blue star."
"Are you stupid? Someone that can identify foods and mutated beasts cannot be ordinary." The woman said.
The three people who were gossiping all nodded in complete agreement.
"Who do you think the teacher is?"
"Maybe it's the old man who used to live at the edge of the bitter water lake. He used to keep to himself and he never spoke to anyone. His house is surrounded by those weird small gold leaves and he vanished three months ago.
Most importantly, he survived the cold seasons and mutated beasts never attacked his place even once."
The woman gasped as if this was the most shocking thing she had ever heard.
"Oh my God, so we all knew the governor's teacher and ignored him."
"If I had known how powerful he was, I would have approached him." one of the men said with regret in his voice.
Dorian Su was quite sure that his daughter never met the old hermit they were speaking about. He had gone to see the old man three times to convince him to move and join the others for security reasons but he refused.
When he insisted, the old man used his S level mental strength to overpower Dorian whose mental strength was at A level so he backed off. The old man had been living alone on the Blue star and surviving long before the Su's came. They had nothing to offer him in form of food or protection.
And also, the old man never vanished as they were assuming!! He died of natural causes.
Dorian and Adler buried his body behind his old house but told no one.
He knew that this wrong information would spread very quickly among the people.
"Should we correct the narrative?" Adler asked his father.
"No, this will cover all the gaps. Your sister's mysterious teacher who cured her is now a dead man. Anybody that comes looking for answers about where she got seeds and food from will be pointed in the direction of the dead old man.
Tomorrow morning, bring some of those small gold leaves for your sister to look at.
That old man had secrets, maybe it was one of them."