Five years passed like smoke.
We scattered as planned.
Sol took a fishing boat north from the Maldives, vanished into the Andaman Sea. Last anyone heard, he was living on a remote atoll in Myanmar, teaching children to read by firelight he kept small enough to warm, not burn.
Kholod walked into the Arctic night. Word came through ham radio operators: a pale giant seen on the pack ice, guiding lost research teams through blizzards that parted for him like curtains.
Djinn returned to the Sahara. Nomads spoke of a man who brought rain to dying oases, then disappeared before thanks could be given.
Oni went home to Japan. Not Tokyo. A quiet mountain village in Tohoku. He bought a small dojo with cash, taught children sumo and the meaning of restraint. His horns filed down to nubs, hidden u
