Farewell Is Not Goodbye

“Are you really sure that you want to come with me?”

Solveig stood on one of the docks, looking out at the sea and the endless horizon as the sun sank lower and lower in the sky. It would not be long now before it touched the water, and the cloud-streaked sky and glittering water alike would be ablaze with a fiery combination of colours.

She had been weighing her father’s question in her mind ever since he had asked it. Doruk had reappeared at the Shipyard when word eventually reached him about the explosion, and Hyperion’s subsequent wrath that he unleashed upon Splatterball. He and Keket - the utahraptor whose company he had chosen over her when they first made the journey to the bask - had been staying with them while the bask and Splatterball recovered. Her father had apparently had no idea that Signe had produced and raised another clutch with her original partner, and he had been surprised to see Chalcedony resting with Solveig when he had come to greet her. If her mother’s rekindled relationship with Splatterball had wounded him, he had not revealed it. Not to Signe, not to Solveig, not to anyone.

Chalcedony wandered around the dock while Solveig gazed out at the ocean. She had a slight limp thanks to her missing toe, but she was adjusting to it. Walking was now no longer a chore or a difficult task, she just had to get used to a slightly different gait. She had a sneaking suspicion that she knew exactly why Solveig was standing out here all on her own, and it was not just to keep an eye on her and make sure that she didn’t fall into the water. Solveig was thinking hard about something, she just was not ready to talk about it yet.

Chalcedony… had a pretty good idea of what she was thinking about as well. Once things had started to return to something close to normal, and when Doruk and Keket started to show signs that they were going to be moving on again soon, Solveig got this look to her. Her sister had always been more withdrawn than she was, but this was different. A kind of forlorn shadow in her gaze that betrayed her thoughts before she had a chance to voice them aloud.

“Are you going to leave with them?” Chalcedony asked when she thought that they had shared silent company long enough. If they waited too long, then they would never get the chance to talk, and then Solveig would be gone. Chalcedony was not inclined to waste what little time together that they had left.

Solveig’s crest raised slightly, surprised that Chalcedony had somehow known exactly what was on her mind. Was it so obvious?

“I… haven’t decided yet,” Solveig sighed, with the full knowledge that she had decided, she just could not quite say the words aloud yet. It was like a weight was pressing down on her shoulders, and speaking the words aloud made the weight start to shift finally.

After another moment, Solveig glanced back towards the colour-streaked horizon. “I think so.”

Chalcedony limped along the boardwalk and nestled down beside Solveig to watch the sun set and listen to the water lap gently around the boardwalk’s barnacle-encrusted pillars. It hurt her heart to hear Solveig say the words aloud. Part of her family would be leaving her, and so soon after something catastrophic had happened to the bask. Things were getting back to normal, so it was not as though she was abandoning them to fend for themselves, but… still. There were not a lot of other utahs her age around the bask, and Solveig was her sister. They had been close for as long as they had known one another.

Her long crest feathers settled over the back of her head, reflecting the relaxed position that Solveig’s own crest had fallen into. “Are you sure?”

The question came out quieter than Chalcedony meant it to as a wave of emotion threatened to choke her of her voice entirely.

Solveig looked down at Chalcedony. Though they were closer to the same size now, Chalcedony was still smaller than her. She would always be her little sister, and right now, she looked especially small as she looked almost pleadingly up at Solveig with her periwinkle-coloured eyes.

Solveig sighed and bumped her head against Chalcedony’s, staying still for a time to embrace her and give her sister some comfort.

“I’m sure,” she whispered after a moment. She had never really felt like she belonged here in the shipyard. The more days that had passed since the first day she came to the Shipyard, the more she felt like an outcast, and the more she felt the desire to be somewhere else. 

The bask was kind enough, and it was nice being amongst family, but… this was not her whole family. As much as she loved Chalcedony and Signe, she had also felt abandoned, pushed aside, ignored, and unloved while she had lived here. She hoped that travelling with Doruk might give her something else. Something more. “I have a chance to get to know my father,” she continued quietly, “and my uncle.”

As strange as Keket came across, the shockingly blue utahraptor was nice. He was more kind to her than Splatterball had ever been.

“And I think… I want to see more of the island than just the shipyard.” There was a whole new world beyond the safety of the bask’s borders. She had seen part of it once, when she was very small. She did not remember much of it, but it was enough that she thought that she wanted to see more. She felt a pull that drew her beyond the safety of the territory that she had grown upu knowing.

“You’ll come back to visit, right?” Chalcedony’s voice was even smaller and somehow more sad. “You’re not just gonna leave us and forget about me?”

Solveig pressed her head more firmly against Chalcedony’s, as though the pressure alone could push the notion out of her thoughts. “Of course I’ll come back. I’m not going to be gone forever, I promise. I could never forget my favourite sister.”

That seemed to lift Chalcedony’s spirits a bit. “I’m your only sister,” she protested quietly, but her voice was lighter. Relieved, placated, if only a little bit.

It did weigh in the back of Solveig’s mind that that might not be a promise that she could keep. Not for a while, at least, until she learned how to safely traverse the island - or islands, if they went beyond Kela - on her own. It had been a long, long time since she had seen her father, and they might have only returned because they heard the news about the disaster that struck the bask, not to come and see her. There was no guarantee that Doruk and Keket would make their way back to the bask any time again in the near future.

It might be… Solveig felt the realisation like a stone in her stomach. It might be a long time before she saw Chalcedony or Signe again.

Chalcedony felt Solveig’s silence like it was a tangible, physical thing. She had come to the same realisation already, but didn't dare speak the thought aloud. This was the first time that she had ever met Doruk, or heard of Keket. Solveig kept her promises though. She always did. She would come back to visit one day, even if it took a while for her to get here.

Chalcedony sighed and nestled her muzzle into Solveig’s dark blue feathers as she had done many times before. There was still time for them to take solace in one another’s company as the sunset painted the sky in a dazzling array of flashy colours. The sun was setting on the day, and Solveig would likely soon be leaving with Doruk and Keket to go far away from the shipyard, but for now she was still here.