Changing Tides

Solveig stood in the doorway of the second-floor room of the warehouse that Chalcedony had been whisked away to while she was recovering. Solveig held a rat in her jaws, her still-growing feather crest low and almost drooping over the back of her head. A missing toe and wrenched leg would not take long to recover from, but the trauma of… 

The young utah’s feathers puffed up reflexively as the shrill shriek of her sister’s panicked voice clawed through her thoughts. The memory of it was horrific - watching a monster covered in thick plate armour, invisible to them while they played by the water’s edge until it exploded from beneath the surface, snapping its jaws tight around Chalcedony’s foot. It had started to pull her back into the water, slowly but mercilessly, and nothing that Solveig had tried to do would get it to release its grip. Chalcedony was fortunate that Osa and her little ones had been on their way down to visit. The massive suchomimus made short work of a familiar kind of foe, but not before the crocodilian had dealt its damage.

Osa had been helpful in getting Chalcedony back to the bask quickly, but… now they were here. With Chalcedony curled up in a nest, far out of harm’s way and scared to go beyond the safety of the bask’s watchful gaze, and Solveig trying to muster up the willpower to bring her some food and cheer her up.

Bringing her sister something to eat was the easy part. Chalcedony even had an appetite, so Solveig knew that it would not be wasted. The “cheering up” part, though… would be more difficult. Not because of Chalcedony's low spirits, but because of her own.

Solveig blamed herself for what happened. For what else had almost happened. If the crocodile had gotten a better grip on Chalcedony, or if Osa wasn’t there - the rest of the bask was too far away to have gotten there in time. 

The whole reason that they were down by the water in the first place was because she had noticed that Chalcedony wanted to be away from the bask. After the… that night, with the thunder and lightning and the explosion which had hurt so many members of the bask, and the violent clash between Inspirational and Hyperion that followed - yeah, Solveig understood why Chalcedony might have wanted to be somewhere else.

Solveig was supposed to be watching out for Chalcedony, helping to keep an eye on her younger sister while they were on their adventure away from everything. She had failed miserably.

“Chalcy?” Solveig called quietly from the doorway to wake her sister up. She was a little quiet, a little cautious. Chalcedony had been understandably a bit jumpy since the explosion, and her accident. Today, though, she seemed a little more put together as she woke up.

Chalcedony perked up, glad to see one of her favourite visitors and playmates. “Hi Solveig!” It took her a moment to notice the rat in Solveig’s jaws, but her tired eyes brightened even more when she saw it and her small feather crest lifted slightly.

Solveig’s spirits started to lift as well, seeing Chalcedony look a bit more herself. She set the rat in front of Chalcedony as an offering. “I brought you something. Thought you might be hungry.” She had even managed to hunt it herself. She was getting better at stalking prey.

Chalcedony shifted in her scraped-together pile of fabric and grass brought up from the shoreline. Her small feather crest twitched when she winced, and Solveig’s crest once again drooped. Her leg, and toe, must have still been hurting her.

“How are you feeling?” Solveig asked quietly.

Chalcedony rubbed her muzzle with the inside of her wrist once she’d snapped the rat down. “Better.”

Tired. It was in her eyes, and her voice. She had been having consistent nightmares about the crocodile attack, the explosion, seeing everyone hurt, the fire that swept across the shipyard as the rain poured down. So much had happened in so little time, and it plagued her while she slept, and haunted her while she was awake.

But she was trying to hide it from Solveig, and from anyone else that visited. They had enough to deal with after the catastrophic storm that literally shook the foundations of the shipyard and wounded so many. And now she was up here, and they had to spend extra time taking care of her instead of helping the ones who really needed it. She huffed, determination sparking in her eyes and replacing a bit of the fatigue.

“I want to try to walk again.” If she could walk, she could take care of herself again, and then they could all put more attention on helping the bask recover. “Can you help me up?”

Solveig stepped up beside Chalcedony, not needing to be asked twice, and helped her get to her feet. Chalcedony was growing just as fast as Solveig was, but Solveig was still taller, and she had to stoop slightly to help her sister up. Leaning down gave her… a very good look at the crocodile’s handiwork, which was even more obvious when Chalcedony fully stood. Her middle toe of her right foot had been ripped off, and the remaining piece was twisted and gnarled. It was healing, at least, and did not give off any sort of sour smell that indicated that the wound would fester.

The first step that Chalcedony tried to take, though, was awkward and sent a sharp stab of pain up her foot into her leg. She leaned heavily on Solveig. Her words came out more like a sharp hiss than any sort of assurance. “It’s not so bad,” she promised, lying through her teeth. The next few steps were not much better, and seemed to only be hurting her.

“Chalcy we can try again in a couple days - “ Solveig started, only for Chalcedony to snap her teeth together in a rare display of irritation.

“I don’t want to keep laying here!” Chalcedony’s crest was flattened and her pale eyes were sharp before she realised how she sounded, and who she was directing her frustration towards. It wasn't Solveig's fault. She refused to blame her sister when she was the one that had wanted to go down to the water in the first place.

Solveig was quiet for a moment. “...Have Mama or Spl- ...your papa come to see you recently?”

Chalcedony sniffed. She knew that they could not spend as much time with her as they wanted, not with everything else going on. When they did visit, they tried to not let her see how devastating everything still was, but she was perceptive. She saw it in their eyes, the way they held themselves.

Chalcedony’s voice was piteously sad when she spoke again. “They always look so sad. I don’t want to be stuck here in a nest anymore like a hatchling, I want to be able to walk down the steps and I want to help and I wish we hadn’t gone down to the river!” Her voice broke into a sob as she leaned more into Solveig’s feathers.

Solveig rested her chin on top of Chalcedony’s head. It felt like her insides were all twisted up. She was quiet as she listened to her sister cry, and offered gentle words of comfort when the shuddering sobs started to subside.

She guided Chalcedony back to the nest, letting her younger sister continue to lean on her until they could settle down together. They sat in shared silence until Chalcedony, her voice coarse and broken from crying, spoke up. “Can you tell me a story?” she whispered. She always liked Solveig’s stories. Maybe they would make her feel better, just for a little bit.

Solveig shifted slightly, careful to not disturb Chalcedony too much as she got more comfortable, and started retelling the story of the Sun-Chaser as she had done a few times before. She needed no further prompting than that.

It was obvious, though, as Solveig spoke of the powerful Ren and the ill-fated Taro that Chalcedony was distracted. When she paused, Chalcedony did not even seem to notice.

“What’s wrong?” Solveig asked after a moment of silence had passed. “You’re not listening like you normally do.”

Chalcedony sighed heavily, still nestled against Solveig’s shoulder and side. “Do you think Fade’s gonna be okay?” she whispered. “And Inspie?”

Solveig fell silent again, contemplating. She did not actually know the answer. Inspirational was strong, but the fight against Hyperion had been ferocious. And Fade had been one of the members of the bask closest to the explosion when it happened, she knew he was not doing well. Splatterball… she had never been very good at understanding Chalcedony’s sire and tried more often than not to keep her distance from him, but he seemed more agitated recently. And Hyperion. She felt her feathers start to fluff up. She had almost never seen the massive suchomimus in a good mood, but more recently it seemed even worse.

They just had to trust that he wouldn’t do anything to upset Inspirational again, now that his position of power had been taken from him.

“I think…“ Solveig exhaled deeply, having decided to tell a partial truth. “I think that whatever comes next, it’ll be okay.”

Voices, muffled by the walls and windows of the warehouse, draw their attention. Another fight. There had been a few scraps recently, with tensions running high. Solveig bumped the tip of her snout to the top of Chalcedony’s head before she stood to go and investigate.

She got to a window facing into the shipyard just in time to see Splatterball standing before Zaca, staring in defiance at Hyperion as the behemoth lunged towards him with open jaws.