Between Bruises & Blooms

Andarna came back.

That should have been
the happy part.

After leaving
to find answers
written somewhere
in bloodlines
and ancient wings,

she came home.

Back to Tairn.

Back to Violet.

Back to the strange,
broken little family
she chose.

Except
someone was missing.

Sgaeyl.

And there is something
especially cruel
about returning
to the place
you call home

only to discover
home has changed
while you were gone.

She must have looked
for blue wings.

For that familiar
sharp presence.

For the dragon
who had always
been there
beside Tairn.

Nothing.

Only absence.

Only questions.

Only the horrible knowledge
that everyone else
already knows
something happened

and you are
the last one
to feel the hole.

Andarna has spent
so much of her life
being left behind.

Too young.

Too small.

Too different.

Waiting centuries
for a purpose
she did not yet understand.

Then finally
she leaves
on her own terms—

and comes back

to another goodbye
she never agreed to.

God.

No wonder
fiction hurts.

Even dragons
can come home

and find
someone they love
missing
from the sky.