Music for today:
Elegance in Solitude – Dark Neoclassical Cello
https://youtu.be/x8_XkGLbkZA
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Chapter 479: Lone Steps
Mid Evening - Early Summer : Year 39 : The Cabinet | 'Bahamut'
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"Nnngh..." Waking with a gentle groan, Hera sank into my side with a breath of ease.
She was lethargic, but acutely aware of my presence, leaning into me with a purposeful nudge while her tail moved to caress mine.
For a moment.. words were unnecessary. Our breaths synced, our auras blended, and our minds silenced all to bathe in the company of each other's presence.
For the first time in over a decade, Hera was able to rest, and perhaps out of worry that my presence was a facade, she refused to open her eyes.
...Rather than risking breaking the illusion, she simply chose to sink further into it...
Though, a moment later, as a gentle mechanical rattle echoed, we found our gazes fixed on the fluffy being at the center of our curl.
"Mm..." Standing with a lethargic, unstable wobble, Krystallo dragged her prosthetic leg over with her aura before slipping it on and moving toward the restroom with a squint like the light was on.
Though, the only light in the space was the deep purple glow of my aura...
"H..huh..?" Freezing just before the door, her eyes widened.
For a breath, eternity held her. Instead of the wooden ceiling which should have been vaulted overhead, the night sky had descended—an endless expanse of star-like glimmers within a hazy, flowing nebula.
It looked like a dreamscape.. an environment only possible in a reality without law or reason.
But instead of treating it as such, Krystallo's demeanor shifted...
That was when her head turned.. slowly but firmly.. to find a pair of colossal, glowing eyes staring at her from within the starry void.
It was.. a heart-stopping sight...
Though to her, it wasn't from fear... "Bro..ther..?" Tears instantly began welling in her eyes. "Is that.. really you..?" Her stance wobbled with a growing quiver.
I wanted to smile.. I wanted my tail to wag with warmth, but... "I'm.. sorry I took so long." Unable to repress my guilt, my eyes fell.
But to her, it didn't matter.
*tap-tap-TAP-TAP-THUMP* Slamming into my snout, with everything she had, she dug her claws into the gaps between my scales like her life depended on it before letting the tears finally flow.
"W-here have you b-een?!" She could hardly hold herself together... "I w-as so scared! I t-hought I—" *hick* "I thought I lost you!!"
Closing my eyes, my aura wrapped around her like a blanket of nostalgia and warmth.. but it only fueled the fire.
"D-on't l-leave me again! STOP!" Perhaps believing her growing lethargy was her waking from a dream, she screamed and fought, digging into my snout and shoving herself into my fur with every drop of strength she could muster.
But while fighting the warmth permeating her chest was a futile battle, and she was forced back to sleep hardly a few minutes later, the 'dream' she was fighting to hold onto wasn't going anywhere.
And so, the next time she woke up, she beamed a smile into me like her previous lethargy never existed to begin with.
"You're back, you're back, you're back!" Prancing around my snout, she held her head high with a wide smile and fervent tail wag. "It wasn't a dream!"
Hearing her prosthetic leg clank with every jump, guilt carved itself into my soul, but thankfully, her playfulness helped ease the pain. "Careful, now. Don't slip."
"Hehe~!" Stopping with a playful stomp, she forced her smile into me, carving a grin across my face as well.
To me, it had been a true eternity since I had last seen her.. so many years that millennia had begun flowing like months.
But seeing her smile like that, I finally managed to slow down. "I can't believe how much you've grown." Standing almost thirty meters tall, she was as large as Mother was when she laid us nearly forty years ago, though with visibly younger, softer features.
"Hehe~, right?! You better watch out! Soon enough I might be even bigger than you!"
"Pf-" Hera chuckled under her breath as she looked at Krystallo standing on my snout, still looking like a little hatchling next to me.
But Krystallo caught it, turning her expression smug in an instant. "Laugh all you want, cause soon enough he might just outgrow you too."
Hera didn't shy away though—matching my gaze with a seductive glint. "If that's the case, he should hurry up~."
"Ewww!" Krystallo instantly spat with a jolt.
"Hahaha, I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" Giving me a glance to show she clearly wasn't, I couldn't hold my own laugh back.
"Haha!" It felt good to be back. -I didn't realize how much I missed this...-
But unfortunately, an atmosphere filled with warmth, love, and laughter couldn't continue forever.
Eventually getting onto the topic of what Krystallo had been up to, hearing of her intense training regiments and updates on her condition, we got to the subject of her injuries.
Thankfully, by then, they were no longer a sensitive subject.. at least to her.
*Pat-rattle* Finally having her take the leather coverings off her wings, my breath instinctively hitched.
Though I had already braced myself by looking at them with my aura while she was still resting, seeing them with my eyes still sent a shiver down my spine.
They were simply mangled.. and while the bones had largely healed and returned to their original positions, huge chunks of her wings' membranes were missing, and exposed flesh and bone littered what was once her magnificent array of feathers and scales.
It was the result of my disappearance... And it killed me.
*Rustle* Though looking back at them, Krystallo's expression hardly fell at all. "They're.. not in great condition. Hera even said she's not sure if they'll fully heal with just one dragon sleep, but while it sucked at first, it taught me a lot."
Without hardly any membrane left on them, traditional flying was a thing of the past, and with a metal leg, walking wasn't much different.
But while my gaze had turned analytical in the attempt to think of how I was going to heal her, she cut me off. "I.. think it was a good thing to happen to me."
My darting eyes froze in an instant. "W..What do you mean?"
She paused to form her words with extra thought before continuing. "With everything that happened, I lost my ability to fly, and for some time, the ability to move in general, but I think it was a lesson from fate." She paused as she sat down, and lowered her eyes to her paws—flesh and metal. "After the attack.. I fell into despair... I cried endlessly, questioning what I had done to deserve what had happened, and even considered taking the easy road out like many others had."
My chest pinched.
"But instead of losing that fight with myself, I took a step back.. and chose to learn on my own. Without you there, I was forced to deal with the despair, shame, and hopelessness all by myself.. and while it was difficult at times.. it made me grow up."
Her previously childish and cheerful demeanor vanished as her gaze fell with humility.
"Learning to cope with everything, I found I was able to relate more with my peers and their struggles, and for the first time, felt like I had made progress entirely on my own..." A subtle smile came to her face as she lifted her prosthetic leg. "I felt like I was finally becoming my own person, you know?" Her smile warmed. "I felt like I was seeing my first sunrise after climbing in your shadow for so long..."
Putting pause to my thoughts, I rose my eyes to hers.
"What I mean to say is.. I don't want you to heal me." Her gaze was more firm and resolute than I had ever seen. "I want to find my own solutions to my problems, and try to climb on my own for a bit.. even if it slows me down."
In memory, her eyes were no different from a hatchlings—soft, innocent, and pure.
But in that moment.. that view I had of her started to change.
She had grown.. and while ashamed I couldn't have played the role I wanted.. I needed to accept that the innocence her eyes once held would never return.
Even if it was difficult to stay silent...
"Plus," Dropping her gaze, her smile warmed. "My injuries have given me a chance to spend more time with Dad. He was the one that actually made my new prosthetic, and he's in the process of making another..." Her tail curled under her paw as she paused. "It's helped him come to terms with Mom's condition, and has given him the motivation to keep on pushing through the tragedies, so..."
I.. didn't know what to say. In the time I was gone, she had truly changed so much.
"I know you can probably fix me without much effort, but.. I won't make mistakes to learn from if you always give me the answer." Raising her snout with a breath of relief, pride lit her face like a weight had been lifted off her chest. "That doesn't mean you can just leave me out of whatever you have planned though, okay?"
"Hah," I had to let out a scoff, not at her, but at myself.
All that time I had believed myself to be protecting and encouraging her growth, I was actually hindering it. Out of worry I had ruined her childhood, I sheltered her as much as I could, Mom was the same.
But it turned out we were both wrong.
Like Mother had with me.. I needed to let Krystallo run wild.. and make mistakes.
"Alright..." She needed to learn own her own.. no matter how much it pained me to leave things as they were. -Though...- "I can't promise I won't ever give you hints."
Her head kicked to the side with a scoff. "I don't know~, you my never need to."
With a smile, I closed my eyes, heeding her word.
Though deep down, I found it hard to let go.
The world wasn't safe anymore.. and in a land where death could claim her at any moment, I didn't have the luxury of letting her roam entirely by herself...
Though thankfully, she seemed to understand that.
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