Music for today:
almost peace
https://youtu.be/X5DghHkhxgs
Chapter 490: Rest
Early Evening - Mid Summer : Year 39 : Posideon, Draconic Continent
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The rest of the day passed before any of us had a chance to realize. Beneath the high arc of that afternoon sun, the sky glittered with the sparks of combat like fireworks—clouds cleared, thunder echoed, and with every clash, time accelerated.
However, as the sky was washed with amber—the ocean mirroring it to become a sea of fire—it felt like the world itself began slowing everything down. The sparks of Mom and Dad's brawl slowed, and eventually, as Mother rose to the peak of what would be the final blow of the fight, everything paused.
"Even after seeing them for thousands of years, sunsets never lose their ability to take your breath away." Hera's voice escaped barely above a whisper.
"I feel like it's Delphi reminding us to slow down." She was laid beside me, firmly resting into my side as I curled my tail with hers. "It's like a reminder to take a moment to catch our breath."
Nodding, Hera rolled her head into my paw, glancing out over the forest at Mother's hovering, glistening figure. "You ever think Delphi secretly keeps her eyes on us? Takes advantage of moments like these to guide us in some way..?"
"Of course." The words flowed gently, but with a wash of confidence.
Confidence that Hera certainly didn't ignore. "Hoh~..?" Rolling her head to give me a jestful glare, she acted jealous. "You speak like you know her~, are you two close?"
"In a way." Unable to keep myself serious, my snout fell with a smile. "Though you're far closer to her than I am."
"Hoh?" Giving a playful scoff, she turned back to the sunset like a pouting child. "If you're going to lie, you should at least make it believable."
"Haha, I'm not lying." Thinking perhaps she had recalled some memories of her past when she had to isolate herself in her soul form to preserve her body, I was hopeful, but, "You two have always been close, you know." Following her gaze out to the amber sun, my gaze softened with understanding.
"Me?" She was truly convinced I was joking, "I'm just like any other child of hers. How could I possibly be more important to her than someone like you? By how you talk about her, I'd believe it if you said you two have spoken."
"Hah, it's been quite a long time, but,"
Finally realizing I was being serious, the playful atmosphere rapidly faded, and time further slowed. "Nott..?"
I nodded.
"I see..." Her jest seemed to turn into content as she drew another breath. "I had suspected something happened, but I thought it might have just been from coming to terms with what happened while you were gone..." With another pause, she let her eyes warm in the amber horizon. "How much did you remember?" Trying to keep the atmosphere light, she kept her tone gentle. "You seem.. different from the other times you've regained memories."
But I could tell she was on edge.
So, lifting my snout, closing my eyes to bask in the sun's warmth for a moment, I spoke bluntly. "I remembered all of it this time." Calmly, yet warmly. "From my birth as a fenrir to my hatching as a dragon."
For a moment, silence settled. The air filled with the noises of nature—the brushing of a mountain breeze, the rustling of a forest canopy, and the tweets of the birds that inhabited it—but instead of feeling anxious about how she would react, I was oddly.. at peace.
...Content knowing there was nothing to worry about.
*Crunch* Rolling into me again, I could hear her mind churning, but instead of finding anxiety in her as she went to speak, I found.. a curiosity... "Are those memories.. not burdening?"
Letting my gaze sink into the horizon, I let the breeze ripple my fur before giving a firm, "No."
My ignorance was shattered. I was forced to face realities I still wasn't sure I could handle, yet even through all of that...
"They made me feel lighter..."
It was strange… Almost ironic.
"How..?"
For so long, I thought knowing more would only weigh me down—that digging into the past would shatter whatever fragile sense of self I had managed to build, and change who I was.. who I perceived myself to be...
But funnily enough, rather than the memories brining on an abrupt change, they just.. made me certain... "I know who I am, now."
Hera's gaze quickly softened before falling.
"I know every desire I've ever had, every sin I've ever committed, and every mistake I've ever made..." Squinting as my mind ripped through memories, I drew a long, heavy breath, before continuing, speaking with my chest, "I was living with so many questions looming over my head, it felt suffocating to just exist. But now, they're all gone..."
Curling my tail with hers, I could feel her body growing increasingly tense, perhaps out of worry that I had changed more than I was already showing.
But leaning into her, draping my wing over her body, I wanted to make the truth clear... "Now, I don't need to doubt who I am, what I'm doing, or what I'm feeling..." Looking out into the sun, my smile returned with a freeing wave of warmth. "I can think—feel—without doubting the source of it.. whether its genuine, or simply a misinterpretation."
Letting out a breath, heavier than any I had ever heard from her, the look in her eyes shifted.
"Now, I don't have to question if that warmth I feel when I'm with you is coming from something hidden in memory, or from.. something simpler..."
Her body stilled. Not rigid.. not tense.. just, caught...
I could feel it through the faint tremble in her breath, the subtle hitch in her aura as it brushed against mine—like something fragile had been struck that didn't know whether to soften or shatter.
But while her mouth opened to speak, it closed before words could escape.. and as if catching the formation of cracks, her body flushed with ease and sank into my side.
It was a simple reaction... An adjustment to make sure she didn't shatter.
But as we settled into the silence, watching the sun retreat behind the horizon while telling each other everything we needed to with the movements of our tails, and caress of our auras.. her ease started becoming less forced...
And a calm.. warm peace settled over us.
Though even still.. a crack had already formed—a disturbance that only showed itself in her eyes.
Until, as that star-lit darkness began creeping across the sky.. it escaped...
"Vasilias..." At first, her voice escaped quietly, buried beneath a mix of worry and uncertainty, "Do.. I have a life I don't remember too..?"
She was.. anxious... Almost afraid of what I would say...
But sinking into my side, completely giving up control over her aura to let mine weave through it, she threw aside the anxiety trying to glue her mouth shut. "That doubt you talked about.. the uncertainty in everything you thought or felt... Am I.. feeling the same thing..?"
The atmosphere itself almost appeared to dodge her words for that breath—shifting to complete silence as if to ensure I could hear the subtle quake in her voice.
I didn't notice.. didn't catch the shift in Delphi's breath.. or the message she tried to relay to me...
But in the end, as the breeze returned, and our eyes moved up into the stars overhead, I was given my certainty...
"Yeah..." Certainty that I.. made the right decision... "You're feeling the same thing..."
Hera's grip on my tail tightened instantly, her voice beginning to lose its tension. "Did I.. love you back then too..?" Her words escaped so quietly they would have disappeared into the breeze had it not shifted for another breath. "Did you.. love me..?"
Curling into me, wrapping herself under my body as if trying to escape her own question, she looked like she wanted to hide.. to get out of the wind.
But it didn't change what I wanted to say... "No matter which form you took, I always found my home in your warmth..."
The stiff breeze softened almost instantly—Hera's tense body softening just the same, as her eyes began wandering.. and her mind began running...
Until finally asking... "How.. can I remember it..?"
It was then with that question, that the noises of nature faded entirely...
Between us, the air stilled, and as if suddenly isolated from every other living being in the world, I spoke, "You need to find your connection with Delphi..." The words left my mouth as if the air itself had made space for them...
But.. Hera didn't respond immediately.
Instead, I felt her aura shift—subtle.. and hesitant—as if brushing against something just out of reach.
Until... "My connection.. with Delphi..?" It slipped away.
But it was enough... Like a swimmer grasping for a life preserver, she wasn't going to only try once...
And Delphi and I both knew it...
Finally laying down with her, Hera quickly curled herself into me, resting her head into the fur on my shoulder as the moon rose and drenched the world its light...
But neither her nor the world stilled.
With the clicking of crickets, and the wingbeats of nocturnal hunters returning to the air, nature resumed its clock.
But something had shifted.
Not in the wind, the trees, or the distant roar of the ocean, but in the way Hera's aura no longer moved with certainty, but drifted.. searching.. brushing against mine as if trying to follow a path it had long since forgotten.
A path that led into the wind...
She didn't understand.. believing the path simply ended as it opened up into the sky...
But she didn't need to...
After all.. it wouldn't be until she was truly ready, that she would finally understand and realize where to look...
...How to.. remember...
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