With bright sunlight shining from the sky above, through the ocean, and into Siquioce's room through the window, the young Samanian was roused from his slumber. He squeezed his plushy's cheeks excitedly, "Today's the big day, Mr. Blubs! Are you excited?" The toy simply stared at its owner, its black, wool eyes vacant as usual. Siquioce laughed and smiled, "I knew you were! I can't wait to see Ulaka set off!" Siquioce's happy expression faded away as he sighed, "But…I have to leave you behind. Mama told me not to bring you out of my room…" The Samanian looked again at his pal, which was being squeezed ever so slightly.
After a few seconds of thinking, Siquioce shook his head and said, "Actually…why shouldn't I bring you? Mama doesn't have to know. Don't you want to see my sister, anyway?" The plush remained silent. "Yeah!" replied Siquioce, "And I don't want to make you sad. We're going together!" With that plan in mind, Siquioce stuffed Mr. Blubs into his brown cloth shirt and swam past the black inner walls of the palace and into the kitchen, where he grabbed 2 pieces of leftover pisco strips. After acquiring those items, the boy exited the house, which was devoid of its residents.
As Siquioce made his way through the Roalitelv Settlement, he noticed that the other Samanians were not looking nearly as lively as he expected; one indvidual was glumly loading his vegetables into the back of his bubble house, an older female was sitting with her eyes closed on a floating bench, and a pair of kids were laying with their faces to the sky, keeping themselves afloat with slow, lazy kicks. Everyone appeared to be too down to notice Siquioce's bulging chest. "Hey," said the Samanian while looking down at his torso, "Why is everyone so sad? Don't they know that today's a special day?"
Siquioce looked up, down, and all around for any signs of what could be causing the dire mood. However, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary; it just seemed like another normal day in the ocean. Siquioce pondered the situation for a minute before smiling and determining, "I know! Everyone must've had a bad breakfast! It's a good thing we got something tasty to eat, right, Mr. Blubs? Anyway, I'm sure that they'll cheer up, soon. Let's go and wait for them at the decks!" Upon saying that, Siquioce turned in the northeast direction and swam forward, moving past all the other Samanians who were looking with dejected confusion at the boy's enthusiasm.
Soon, Siquioce ended up at the far end of town, where a row of wooden planks that jutted out ended in shiny, metal arches. "Here we are, Mr. Blubs," said Siquioce, smiling, "This must be your first time being here, right? I hope that you enjoy it!" Looking around with a disappointed face, Siquioce muttered, "I don't know why there's no chairs, though. Did they forget to bring out the seats?" The Samanian looked back at his toy, "No problem, we can just wait here for everyone else to come."
Placing his rear on one wooden plank, Siquioce held out a pisco strip to his plush, smiling, "Here, eat this. I don't want you getting hungry." The strip proceeded to float in the water next to Mr. Blubs. "Okay," said Siquioce, "Take your time. It's fine. I'll just have my piece in the meantime!" So, the Samanian took a small bite out of his fish meat, laying back slightly and looking at the brighter water above him as he waited…and waited…and waited.
Eventually, one of the Roalitelv Settlement's guards, in his chain armor uniform, approached Siquioce and asked, "Hey, kid, what're you doing here?"
Siquioce looked behind him and smiled, "I'm here to see my big sister, Ulaka, set off on her Expedition! I'm just waiting for everyone else to come."
The guard's face stiffened up, and he gripped his trident tighter. "Uh, kid?" he asked, "Don't you know what happened?"
Looking confused, Siquioce replied, "No? What happened? Did Ulaka get sick?"
The guard closed his eyes and sighed. "Follow me." He said while turning around slowly.
Looking at his plush with a worried expression, Siquioce stuffed his toy into his shirt before swimming after the older Samanian.
Eventually, the boy was led to the rest of his family, who were all gathered around something. "Hey," asked Siquioce, "What're you all doing here? The decks are that way!"
One of the young fish-person's older brothers, Balo, looked at him out of the corner of his eyes and looked back, shaking his head slowly.
Swimming over in curiosity, Siquioce prodded, "Come on, I thought this ceremony was supposed to be special! Why am I the only one who…"
The boy's eyes widened as he saw what his family members were looking at. Sitting in a hole carved in a block of zircon was, to Siquioce's absolute shock, a Samanian skull. "Huh…wha…eh…" The Samanian could hardly believe his eyes. At that moment, he looked around the group, counting each individual member before realizing a terrifying truth: Ulaka was absent.
Siquioce clutched the sides of his face, his head fin flared out in distress. He sincerely, desperately did not want what he was thinking to be true. Vying for answers, Siquioce gave his mother, Chieftess Pilitina, a tearful look and asked, "Mama…what happened?"
Looking down at her son from the center of the group, Pilitina answered, "Oh, Siquioce. Sweet, innocent Siquioce. I am so sorry that you had to see this…"
Panicking even more, Siquioce's gills opened up to allow more oxygen inside as he asked, "See what? Mama? See what?!"
Trying her best to keep her composure, Pilitina put her orange hands over her light blue, flowing dress and stated, "Siquioce…that skull you see there…it belongs to your sister. This is all that the survey corps were able to find of her."
Siquioce felt his entire body lock up. The world around him seemed to ebb and flow as he took another look at Ulaka's remains. His initial response was one of pure silence, unable to utter a single word or sound as the fins on his head, back, and tail all opened wide as paper fans. Then, all the intense feelings of grief and anguish hit him like a tidal wave. Similar to a tiny boat struck by the fiercest of swells, Siquioce was destroyed thoroughly by the crushing force, a devastated look slowly appearing on his face.
Suddenly, with a burst of speed, the boy swam away with as much force as he could muster, keeping his face hidden with his right arm as he semi-blindly made it through the paths in the Roalitelv Settlement. He bumped into a countless amount of pedestrians, houses, and other objects on the way, but the physical pain he experienced could not hold a candle to the severe turmoil that was raging in his heart.
The Samanian crashed his way to the palace, zipping through the hallways, corridors, and passages until he ended up in his room. Once he got there, he jumped on his bed, grabbed his aboma crab-wool pillow, and sobbed his heart out. No intelligible words came out of his mouth, only loud, pained, and tormented bawls. Seconds, minutes, hours passed, and Siquioce did nothing but grief. This was, without a doubt, the worst moment in his life.