Chapter 26: A Family

"You know...I've had a small handful of travelers wander upon the moon nexus in my time. Most were quite courteous. A few had to be...forcibly removed. But none of them were quite as high maintenance as you." Lujanne said, watching Rayla sit on her bed in the cottage. "My patience wears thin. And I've been married thrice." She said, holding up three fingers for emphasis.

Rayla nodded, shoulders slumped. She looked up at Lujanne, and paused a moment.

"How old are ya?" She asked.

Lujanne's eyes widened.

"My are you a bold one..."

"I'm just...wonderin." Rayla replied, looking to the window.

"I'm old enough dear." Lujanne replied with a warm smile. "You are troubled."

Rayla snorted with laughter. But there was no humor in it.

"Yeah. Yeah I'd say so." She agreed, closing her eyes and hanging her head. "I'd say that's just about the understatement of the century."

Lujanne sighed, pulling up a chair.

"Well if you would like to talk about..."

Rayla grabbed her folded swords from their slots, and hurled them across the floor.

They skittered across, then smacked against the wall.

"I keep losin." She said, angry eyes glaring out the window. "All I do is lose. The people I care about. My home. My fights..."

"This person you faced in battle..." Lujanne began.

"He tore me apart!" Rayla replied angrily, gesturing to her armor. "Look at me! Look at this! I was supposed to be the fastest, strongest moonshadow elf ever, look what this human did to me! Easily!"

She got up, and punched the wall in frustration.

"If I can't do this, then what do I have?!" She demanded. "I don't have a family! I don't have a home! Now I don't even have..." she glared down at her blades. "A purpose." She finished. "All I feel is pain. All the time. I'm tired of it!"

"Even before your fight you felt pain?" Lujanne asked.

Rayla sighed, shoulders sagging.

"Not...not that kinda pain. The kind that...that lingers. The kind you can't get away from."

Lujanne nodded.

"Emotional pain."

"And I don't know why. I have...had...good people around me. All the time. People I could count on. People I cared about. But it still hurts..."

"Why do you think that is?" Lujanne asked.

"I don't know, I just...i told you! I don't have anything. No family, no home..."

"Who are these people, Rayla?" Lujanne interrupted. "These people you count on? That you care about?"

Rayla sighed.

"Callum. Ezran. Even the big doofy one, Soren, he's not as bad as I thought he was..." she said, looking down at the floor. "They're the best people I know. They're the only people I trust." She paused. "Not so much the big doofy one...he's gettin there."

"What you have just described...sounds an awful lot like a family." Lujanne commented.

Rayla's ears rose.

"It...does?" She asked, looking to her.

"Yes." Lujanne replied. "And let me guess...you spend large amounts of time off on your own, isolating yourself from them? Trying to explore the depths of your own soul?"

Rayla nodded.

"Kinda."

"Perhaps my dear...you should accept them for what they are. Enjoy their company. Accept their help. Don't be afraid to call them your family."

Rayla shook her head.

"But what about my own family? Mah real one? I can't just abandon them..."

"You don't have to, dear!" Lujanne exclaimed. "You do not have to expel them from your heart, to accept others into it. You're allowed to want more. Just..." she put a hand on Rayla's knee. "Try to enjoy what you have. Because you can lose it at any time."

Rayla nodded. A look of determination on her face.

"I already did. I gotta get back out there. I gotta find them."

Lujanne nodded in understanding.

She stood up from her chair, and turned to the door. "Rest one more night, my dear. Please. I do not wish to send a child to her death."

"Lujanne?" Rayla called.

She paused.

"You said you were married...three times." Rayla said, looking down at her tattered armor, and then back up at her. "Were any of them human?"

A sad look spread across Lujanne's face. She looked away for a moment.

"The first." She said, putting a hand on the door. "He was...wonderful. We were young together once...such fun we had. But he died long ago. Human life cycles are but a fraction of ours."

Rayla nodded, her heart sinking a little.

"Watching him grow old...breathe his last breath...was one of the most painful moments of my life." Lujanne finished. "But he was so...so wonderful. My life would have been...lesser...had I not known him."

Rayla nodded, sadness in her eyes.

"So I suppose the question is...is your human worth it?" Lujanne asked. "Is he worth the inevitable pain?"

Rayla felt a tear rolling down her cheek.

She looked up at Lujanne and nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah he really is."

Lujanne smiled.

"Then you might need your blades." She said, gesturing to the swords on the floor.

The banther galloped along the snow bank, along an icy, but still flowing river.

"I know this river!" Callum exclaimed, flipping through his sketchbook. "I drew it once! This'll lead us back!"

There was a look of uncertainty on Ezran's face, as he watched the river stretch out ahead of them.

"Callum...I don't know if we should go home."

"Wait...what?!" Callum exclaimed.

Suddenly, darkness surrounded the duo.

The sun was blocked out. Shadow surrounded them.

Callum slowly looked up.

To see Borvir flying overhead.

"Uh oh." Ezran breathed.

The rings leading up Borvir's long neck began to glow.

"Big uh oh, big uh oh!" Callum agreed.

Before either of them could react, flames erupted from the dragon's maw.

Streaking down, and exploding beside the charging banther.

He fell. Immediately.

Sending Callum and Ezran flying forward, over the embankment.

And into the icy river.