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A forest surrounded neotopia on the southern edge, with mountain foothills on the north. Beyond that forest lay expansive, wide open plains.
But Zero felt too exposed on the plains, even for a short period of time, so he made his small camp on the edge of a meadow in the forest. It was, like most of the forest, completely untouched by civilization. Except by himself, he supposed.
Flowers nodded and tall grasses rippled like water in the warm night wind, trees whispering as the breeze ran through their branches. Frogs croaked from a nearby pond.
It was a beautiful night - one of the most pleasant Zero had experienced while being in neotopia so far - and there was not a cloud in the sky. The double moons of Neos Prime, Ple One and Ple Two, were both visible, spilling silver light across the land below.
Stars twinkled merrily above him, arranged in unfamiliar patterns. It was almost taunting.
Homesickness bubbled up in his chest, so strong it ached. He'd only been in neotopia for three months, and though the residents had been very welcoming to him, they had been unable to give him any estimate of when he'd be able to go back home.
That kind of technology doesn't exist yet, Zero. I'm sorry. It might be a few months or a few years.
During the day, away from Neotopia proper and in the surrounding land they'd terraformed, it was easy to pretend he was somewhere in the wilds of Lacroa.
But during the night, when the moons and stars were out, it was impossible for him to hide from the fact that he was a long, long way from home. Saddrac only had one moon, and there were no constellations he recognized.
Zero rolled onto his side with a shaky sigh, pulling the blanket he'd been given over his head and squeezing his eyes shut. His simple tent wobbled around him in another gust of wind, but held.
Zero finally, finally drifted off to sleep from sheer exhaustion, hours after Ple One and Ple Two had sunk below the horizon, and just as the eastern sky began to lighten.
A fox was the only being to hear him chirp, and was scared off as Zero restlessly shifted in his tent when there was no reply.
It would be a very long time before there was anyone to chirp back.