Hello, all! I have a more emotional story today, with themes of missing loved ones and military. Though I chose this one with military appreciation month in mind, this does surround a character going to visit a soldier’s grave, which could potentially be triggering. I’m sorry for anyone who’s dealt with this loss ❤

Summary: Jasper goes to visit his father’s grave.

Word Count: <600

Content Warning: Death of a soldier

Enjoy ❤

Silver Plaques

I stand at the foot of the statue. Gazing down at the shining iron plaque.

The wind shivers through my hair. I trace the letters on the plague with my finger, wincing at the cold bite.

Commander Aaron Colins.

March 5, 3041 – July 29, 3069

May the stars be your guide.

This felt so stupid. A plaque couldn’t do anything, He was gone, and there still wasn’t anything I could do about it.

I sink down to my knees, clutching the bouquet of flowers my mother insisted I bring.

White roses.

The same flowers he would always bring for her.

The same flowers he proposed to her with.

The same flowers that covered his coffin at the funeral. Tucked into everyone’s jacket pockets, along with silver necklaces and silver flag pins…

“I don’t know what I’m doing, Dad.” I whisper. “I don’t know how to do this.”

How had he managed it? All those years, of sending people off into battle. Sending them off just to be killed. Telling every cadet the same thing, over and over again. You’ll survive. For the good of the people. One more battle, and then we can rest.

You never knew if they’d rest at home with their families, or rest in the stars. Forever.

Day after day of flying through the stars. Feeling the ashes of your own comrades swirling by as fast as the last ebbs of your innocence and hope in this… world.

“I don’t know how much more I can do.” I whisper. Voice faint against the wind. For once in my life.

“Mason’s been building ships… every time we call, he has a new one. He wants to be a commander too.” I set the roses down in front of his plaque. Pick up the old ones, tucking them underneath the coat of my uniform. They’d be burned, of course, to make rich soils for more plants. But my mother would want to press at least one. Like she always did. “I can’t bring myself to tell him how hard it is. I feel like he deserves to know.”

“Mother never… deserved to have so many military men. It’d break her if either of us died. It’s why I try so hard, but with every step I take, higher and higher in the ranks, I feel like I’m only getting closer to my death. And then the same thing will happen… Rowan will get depressed. Lose his passion. He’ll join the military to avenge us, and raise a family he loves, and try to protect our mother, and he won’t be able to do any of it… none of us could…”

“Sometimes I don’t get the point. Why it all had to turn out like this. And then I always go home, and eat Mom’s food, and see them smiling, and then all my reasons come rushing back. And then I break down because—”

I stop, my voice catching in my throat.

The wind whispers through the stones, blowing a dried rose petal from the plaque. The petal soars through the air, fluttering higher and higher.

The wind stops.

The petal plummets, teetering back towards the ground.

“I won’t ever be able to save them.”