From the Vast

Epilogue II: Goodbye

*yaaaaawn*

I lay still as the last of my half-remembered dream fades away. The bed is so soft; I don't wanna move, but today is too important to sleep through—not to mention I've likely already slept for much longer than usual... though, maybe not, considering how late I stayed up last night.

I blink my eyes open, groaning at the light flooding the room through the opened sunroof, before reaching for the glasses in the corner. Used to worry a lot that Cadence or Elric would accidentally step on them when waking up, but they've gotten better and better at being mindful of them over time.

Specs on the nose, feet on the ground—time to get up. I roll my shoulders and stretch as I walk to the small, wrapped bundle stuffed in the corner, behind all my stuff. Yep, still there, still should have everything I need. Now to clean my glasses, change into something fresher, and fill my stomach. I almost never wake up first, but with how quiet the burrow is right now, I may have just woken up last, hah.

...and considering neither mom nor Cadence woke me up at the normal hour, they probably realized I've stayed up for way too long. And here I thought I managed to be all covert and stuff, slowly polishing and painting under the candlelight.

Oh well.

I wave to the Gliscor sitting at the table as I step into the living room, and he waves back. Hah, wouldn't have ever thought his sight would become so mundane with how memorable our first meeting was. I might've listened to Elric hype himself about his dad waking up from his hibernation any day now, but when suddenly it was just me, barely able to string together a sentence in the village's language and a freshly awoken bat my size, I can't deny that my fears kinda got the better of me. Ehh...

We apologized to each other afterward, even if it took for him a while to come to terms with everything that had happened, and for me to unlearn that knee-jerk fear response ingrained in me so many years ago. And so, a fearsome, flying apex predator turned to 'Riddick', just like his son had turned to 'Elric' a few months ago. Just like everything here, in this wild corner of the woods, it had turned from shocking and intimidating to just... normal.

Him living with us is normal—it's his house, after all. As is none of my living family being human anymore—yeah, that's just how things are. Of course, I still think back to it all sometimes, snap myself out of that daze of normalcy every once in a while to realize how... lucky I am to even be here and give everyone their appropriate share of affection.

It's such a wonderful feeling, every time.

I dump a few leftover pieces of fried berry dough and take a seat at the table, opposite of Riddick. I'm about to start mindlessly snacking on them while letting my thoughts wander away before I remember the physical therapy, groaning under my breath. My left arm has gotten better, a lot better even, requiring just a long sleeve as opposed to a stiff cast, but... it still hurts a bit. Hurts to use, hurts to work through that pain and get it back to something approaching full strength again.

Sucks, but... such is life.

As my left hand grabs the second piece of the dough, the makeshift door opposite to the kids' room opens, and out walks Geiger. Nope, I wasn't last, guess at least I have that silver lining. "Morning, Anne!" he greets me. I've gotten better at understanding his gruff, low voice, but it's still a struggle to determine the exact tone he's using sometimes.

I'll get there, I'm sure of it.

"Hello, Mr. Geiger!" I reply, stringing sounds that once sounded like utter gibberish but are increasingly creeping into the corner of my brain that houses Unovan.

"Retain awake long you, eh?" he asks while sitting down.

I roll my eyes as I piece the meaning together. Guess Autumn has sensed it too and told him, heh. "True. Retain awake because important I. Much important." I try defending myself, getting a roaring laugh out of him.