Title: "Dust in the Wind"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: G
Summary: The dust in the wind has so much to say.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: 244. That's the number of stories that were sitting on my hard drive collecting dust because I lack the energy and time to take care of them as I once did. My betaing pattern has always been to write, then type up if written on paper, the story, read it aloud to my beloved Jack and our children, editing as I go, and then finally format and post. Sadly, this part is simply taking too much of my time and energy, and my beloved Jack and I have too little time together in person these days to be able to keep up with my stories. So what to do? Give up writing? I actually considered it for a while, tried to make excuses to myself other than the large number of stories collecting cyber dust on my computer, as to why I lacked the energy and Muse to write new tales. And then, with the turn of the new year, I decided to stop running and face the problem. The problem is, quite frankly, that once one gets so bogged down in formatting and editing that writing is no longer a pleasure but the actual posting of those writings becomes a hassle and - egad! - work, it's time to cut something out, and that will never be the writing process. So, in short, yes, there will be mistakes in this tale. Yes, it's missing about half of the header information I usually include. But I wrote it for pleasure and am posting it in hopes of sharing that pleasure with others. Do with it as you will.
She'd heard it said that, after you die, you become nothing more important than dust in the wind. Your family and friends may cry for you at first, but eventually they forget you and the pain of your loss and move on with your lives. She knows that's not the truth for her, at least, however, for every one of her friends still remembers her today. Jake's talks to her every day, asking for guidance she can no longer give him. Cassie thinks of her whenever she needs to summon her courage to face the unthinkable Yeerk throngs.
Ax still openly talks about her, saying her bravery made her a warrior to be commended and remembered throughout the ages. Marco doesn't speak a word of her and looks angry when her name is mentioned. Yet he, too, hasn't forgotten. She knows, because she's there every Sunday when he visits her grave. Tobias, too, thinks of her every day although he hardly speaks of her where others can here. He spends even more time in the skies these days, flying alone.
As a ghost, Rachel can sense what her loved ones are feeling, and she knows he's never felt so lonely before in all his life, not when he was first trapped or before the Animorphs even came into creation, way back when he was just another boy getting his poor, handsome head stuck down a toilet. She wishes she could reach out to him, and sometimes her efforts to touch him send breezes rustling over his feathers. He always turns towards his head into those gently breezes, and almost as though he can sense her, though she knows he can't, he whispers her name and cries. She cries, too, and their tears fly together into the dust in the wind.
The End