Lost Change - Snippets

Alternate Ending

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Author's Note - Alternate Ending

This was another idea I had for how to end Lost Change on.  Even early on I decided that the first conversation between Nate and Minna would be the ending, with the story concluding with them both forgiving each other, so I dropped this idea in favor of that one.  It meant leaving a few lose ends, since as it is now nothing else comes of the broken watch or Susie's leash, but I still feel it's a much better ending than anything I could have done with this idea.

Still, it was fun to write out some of the more 'normal' conversations Minna and Nate would have, and see a bit of their relationship after he started talking to her.  So it was fun to write this out anyways.

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I ended the Morning Song by gliding to a branch. I caught it with my legs and halted my forward momentum, smoothly shifting into a sitting position, and stared up at the early morning sky.

"Why do you dance for the sunrise like that?" Minna sat in a nearby tree, leaning against the trunk, but her eyes were focused on me instead of the sunrise. "You always seem so happy. All of you do. Even when..." There was a slight pause as Minna glanced back down to the forest floor. "Even when you're sad otherwise, you seem so alive and happy when the sun rises. What's it like?"

"I don't really know why." I paused for a moment, still feeling a little odd at actually speaking to my friend. It had become such an ingrained habit to not talk to her, that now it felt weird to actually speak with her.

Though with as many questions as she seemed to have for me, I doubted that would last for very long.

"It's hard to explain. It just..." More nervousness came over me. Shyness. "I think it's stronger for me in some ways than it is for the other fire lizards. Because I was alone for so long. Aside from Susie, the sunrise was the only form of companionship I had back then."

I paused again while I tried to think of how to explain it, just staring up at the sky above us. "The sunrise calls to us. It's like when it's finally your weekend, and you get a call from Arlia. It was gone all night. We missed it. The world was darker while it was gone, and still, and even dangerous. But... now it's back. It's time to be alive again. And it tells us it missed us, too. It lights up the sky in a unique way, a way it did special just for that day. Just for us. But also for everyone else, too, and it asks us to share that sunrise with the rest of the world. To dance and sing out, and tell everything that a new day has come. It's hard for us to be sad when the sun lights up the world and tells us it's glad to see us again."

"Oh." I saw Minna glance upwards out of the corner of my eye. I suspected she was starting to get a new appreciation for sunrises, though I got the feeling she didn't really understand.

"I can share some of the feelings with you, if you would like? Though these can be overwhelming sometimes, even for us." I finally looked down from the sky and looked back at Minna. I had finally figured out why Minna always seemed so surprised whenever I sent her my feelings - Ivy had explained it, and told me that our emotions could tend to be a bit overwhelming for a Kymari. Even with Minna being 'hot-tempered' by Kymari standards, it could still overwhelm her to suddenly experience my feelings.

Minna shifted a little and got a better grip on the tree trunk. "I understand. I am curious, if you don't mind?"

"Of course not." I remembered back to the feelings I had just been overwhelmed with. The warmth. The excitement. The happiness. The potential. The urge to sing back to the sun, the joy at doing so. The need to dance, the sense of delight and purpose as I did. All the wonderful feelings that made up a Morning Song.