Another one-shot I started several years ago and only got around to finishing now. It's a bit ironic, I think, how my first Skippy fanfic was about beginnings, while this one is essentially about endings.
This won't be my last Skippy fanfiction though ('cause that would be sad). It may take me another few years to write more, but I keep coming back to this fandom and if I know myself that won't change.
As all good things do
It was strange, really, how much a friend could change everything.
Sonny had lived at Ranger headquarters all his life and for years it was the only thing he ever knew. In many ways, it was a blessing - spending every day amongst or in close proximity to nature only fueled his passion for it, made him yearn for the day when he too would be Park Ranger just like his dad and devote himself to protecting the Australian wildlife.
For a time though, he was also lonely. With his dad, brother and Jerry away almost all day on chopper scoutings, rescue missions and the occasional meeting, more often than not he was left to tend to himself back at the house. Since he went to school over the radio he barely ever met any children his age and the few friends he had were hard to keep in contact with because of how remote Waratah National Park was.
Then, on one of his many times out exploring the park, he met Skippy. Skippy, who followed him everywhere after he saved her from that barbed wire. Who sat on the outskirts of the forest, waiting for him to finish school and come out every day. Who he soon couldn't picture going anywhere for long without.
For many years, they were a team. Where Sonny was, there was Skippy. Where Skippy was, there was Sonny. Through bushfires and poachers and all kinds of adventures, the two of them stuck together, keeping each other safe - and rescuing each other when they couldn't. Skippy was as given a part of the family as his dad and brother and in many ways she seemed to listen, to care, to understand him more than most humans did.
She was a friend ever true.
Even as he grew older - Mark going to university, dad going into retirement and, eventually, Sonny taking over Ranger Headquarters - Skippy was always a constant in his life. Both a little older, a little wiser (on Sonny's part at least - Skippy had always been wise), but still together.
Together for sixteen whole years.
Sonny crouched down next to the mound of earth, replacing the wildflowers on top of it with fresh ones.
"I miss you, Skip," he said, even as the setting sun painted the forest in red hues. Made the letters carved into the stone shimmer like the air in the desert. Warmed the back of Sonny's ranger uniform as he sat there, keeping his friend company like she had him all those times before.