Y
"I want a triple chocolate fudge swirl with three scoops of strawberry sprinkles and oodles of caramel sauce! Oh! Actually I want a double vanilla bean sundae with a big squeeze of chocolate sauce and two candied bananas! Oh! But how about—!" Bonnie's rapid-fire requests were adorable, but that didn't make them any less intense, especially for the hapless creamery attendant charged with fulfilling them. The nervous assurances from Clemont weren't much help either.
Today the party found themselves in Ambrette Town, the last stop before Cyllage City and Ash's next Gym Badge. It was a quiet place, built into a rocky hillside, with few attractions beyond a rather impressive aquarium. Before any of that though, there was one spot the group needed to check out first: The town's famous ice cream shop. Bonnie wouldn't let them step one foot out of the city until they went.
With her ice cream already in hand, Serena could only watch and giggle as Bonnie cycled through increasingly complex variations of her order. It was getting almost absurd now. By the end of this, she might run that poor ice cream shop worker to an early grave.
It was still funny though.
"I wonder…" Serena's thoughts drifted to the other member of their group, Ash, who had already gotten his ice cream. Or so Serena thought. When she glanced over to him, she found him surprisingly empty-handed, chatting excitedly with Pikachu. "Oh, did you not order yet, Ash?"
"Ordered and finished!" Snapping to attention, Ash gave Serena a wide grin, revealing a chunk of chocolate chip still in his teeth. He picked that away with an embarrassed chuckle.
"Aw come on Ash, that was fast, even for you!" Serena teased, nearing the end of her first scoop as she said that.
"Hey, what can I say, I'm just that excited to get to the next gym!" he explained, putting his hands behind his head. Glancing over to Bonnie and Clemont still ordering, he slumped. "Though at this rate, we won't get there until I can qualify for next year's league."
Serena giggled at Ash's antics, the boy's expressive movement about the whole predicament tickling her funny bone. Yet, as Serena returned to focusing on her own ice cream, a thought rested in her mind: Why was Ash so impatient to get to the next gym?
Before she could ponder the question, the front door to the ice cream parlor slammed open.
"Ash Ketchum! I knew I'd find you here! And with Serena as well!" A familiar voice rang through the air of the parlor, snapping Ash and the others to attention. A familiar face had arrived.
"Alexa! Wow, it's been a bit!" Ash exclaimed, Pikachu perking up from his shoulder and giving a greeting of his own. "What brings ya to this neck of the woods?"
"Just a bit of research for an article I'm writing! Viola told me you'd gotten her Gym Badge, so since I was in town, I figured I'd find you around here as well." As Alexa gave her explanation, she glanced behind Ash and Serena, to the front counter. A smile crossed her lips. "Clemont! It's nice to see you!"
"Thank you! Same to you!" he answered with an exasperated sigh, giving her a wave before returning to tending to his sister. Her order had changed again.
"What kind of article are you writing?" Serena asked, finishing up her ice cream and tossing the napkin away.
"I'm glad you asked! Ambrette may be a small town, but it has something very unique— The fossil lab!" Striking an excited pose, Alexa grinned. "The scientists there told me they've made a big discovery!"
"Fossils? Like a bunch of old bones?" Serena's excitement dwindled slightly at Alexa's description, the idea of a bunch of dead Pokémon skeeving her out. Unfortunately for her, she was alone in that thought.
"It's much more than that!" In what was frankly a supernaturally short burst, Clemont had appeared at Serena's side, startling her into a jump. Seemed he'd finally found a good enough excuse to leave that hapless attendant to the whims of his sister. "Fossil researchers study more than just the bones, they're uncovering how super ancient fossil Pokémon lived millions of years ago!"
"You seem to be pretty knowledgeable in them yourself," Alexa noted with a laugh, jotting a few of Clemont's words down on a notepad. "Why don't you guys come along? I bet it'll be worth your time."
The offer gave Serena pause.
"I'm not sure," she confessed, a hand going up to her cheek as her voice took an embarrassed inflection. "Fossils, bones, rocks. I just don't see the appeal."
"What're you saying!" Startling her for the second time that day, Clemont jumped to Serena's side, a look that was a little too excited on his face. "Fossils are filled with the lives of prehistoric Pokémon, from their ancient diets to their ancient romance! Surely you see the appeal in that, Serena?"
While she'd been backing up slowly up until then, that point made Serena pause.
"Ancient romance, you say?" Glancing over to Ash, Serena officially had her interest piqued. The fossils themselves would be drab, sure, but hearing about their timeless rituals of love and affection? Now that would set a mood. "What do you think, Ash?"
Ash had been quiet for a little while now, before snapping to attention at Serena's call. Yet when he faced her head-on, the excitable boy she'd come to know wasn't there, not fully at least. There was a look of apprehension in his eyes.
"I'm not sure," he said, humming in thought for a moment. From his shoulder, Pikachu chittered something in his ear, which he nodded along with. Soon, his expression turned. "Ah well, it shouldn't take too long— Let's go!"
A round of agreements took the party, one Serena followed along with. It was decided. Yet, while the others had moved on from what had just happened, Serena dwelled on it for a moment.
Ash didn't hesitate in anything he did, she considered. He took everything on with an immovable passion that was honestly exhausting on most days. Yet just then, he hesitated.
That thought hung in Serena's mind as she returned her concentration to the conversation.
"Unfortunately we'll have to wait for Bonnie to, finish her order," Clemont confessed with an awkward chuckle and nervous readjustment of his glasses, turning his attention back to his sister. If the shop employee who was attending to her wasn't dead yet, she certainly looked it.
"A double quadruple sundae surprise with little jelly marshmallows and tons and tons of strawberry sauce!" she declared, surely confident that that would be the final variation on her order.
As she said that, Alexa gave a giggle from behind her.
"We're in a bit of a crunch, sweetie. Why don't we just get two scoops of chocolate you think?" she suggested, to which Bonnie's eyes lit up.
"Sure!"
Y
Frigid, freezing air spilled out from the sliding doors, chilling Serena to the bone on first contact. If she thought the ice cream they had earlier was cold, this was without a doubt below-zero. Her knees clacked together with shivers as she let out an involuntary squeal.
Thank god for these winter clothes.
"Whatever they've got in here better be worth it," she muttered, the rest of the party shuffling in behind her. They must've spent forever staring at crummy rocks, all in the lead-up to this 'big discovery' the head scientist kept hyping up. "Ancient romance my butt, Clemont."
"Did you say something, Serena?" Clemont asked as he filed in behind her, causing her to jump.
"Nothing! I was just, uh, wondering what this big room was about," she asked, an awkward inflection following up a similarly awkward laugh. "Said it must be worth freezing our butts off."
"I can assure you, it is!" Stepping to the front of the party, past Serena and Clemont, was the head scientist, Thaddeus, as cheery as he was from the beginning of the tour. "The temperature in this room must be kept cold enough to emulate the climate of Kalos's northern highlands, in order to accommodate the Pokémon we have here!"
"What kinda Pokémon?" Ash asked, shivering for a moment before Pikachu climbed into his coat for warmth.
"Yes, and how does it relate to the big discovery you've been telling us about?" Alexa added, stepping forward with her notepad in hand.
"I'm glad you asked! You see—" Before Thaddeus could launch into another long and winding diatribe about the history of the fossil record or whatever, the ground beneath the party shook. Thaddeus took that as a sign. "Ah, well, I think she'd like to make introductions herself."
"She?" Turning back to the chilled room, Serena tried spotting this eponymous 'she', only to find the same field of snow and rows of trees from before. It was only when Thaddeus tapped her shoulder and pointed up, that Serena caught sight of her. "Oh. Oh, my gosh."
"She's huge!" Bonnie squealed, the rest of the party caught in pure shock at the face of it. There, peaking above the tall evergreen trees of the lab's cold room, was the head of a ginormous Pokémon. It had deep blue eyes and a light blue face, with two huge sail-like frills that glistened the color gold.
With a serene cry that echoed across the room, the Pokémon stepped forward, through the line of trees, gracing the visitors with their presence.
"It's an Aurorus!" Clemont exclaimed, pure wonder in his eyes at the sight of it. "A super ancient Pokémon native to the Kalos region! But they've been extinct for tens of millions of years!"
"Over one hundred million, in fact!" Thaddeus corrected, a proud look to his grin as he stepped forward. "The Auroros family has been extinct for so long that it was thought no living DNA sample still existed! Until now!"
"That's so cool!" Ash added, childlike glee in his voice.
"So that's what your big discovery was. Your team uncovered a fossil in good enough condition to revive a living specimen!" Cutting through Clemont and the others, Alexa approached the head scientist, an excited grin on her face and her pen already jotting notes on her notepad.
As Thaddeus began to go on and on, talking about the mission he had undergone to collect the sail fossil, Serena's attention remained firmly on the Pokémon in front of her.
Aurorus was ginormous, certainly one of the biggest Pokémon Serena had ever seen at the very least. Yet, as she stood before her, Serena didn't feel a hint of apprehension she would have expected to feel from such a behemoth. Aurorus and her shared a moment of eye contact, and Serena felt something she hadn't ever felt in a Pokémon before.
Their serene grace.
The sound of footsteps crunching through the snow pulled at Serena's attention. There, at the base of Aurorus's feet, another Pokémon had arrived, one that evoked a different reaction from Serena. While Aurorus had stood out as a symbol of serenity, this one was—
"Cute!" With a squeal that alerted the rest of the party, Serena pounced on the newest arrival: A Pokémon that looked like a miniaturized version of Aurorus. It even had smaller, underdeveloped sails to boot. Before Thaddeus could get a word in, Serena was hugging the adorable specimen, earning a positive chirp of affection back from them.
"I see you've taken a liking to Amaura, Aurorus's pre-evolution!" Thaddeus added with a laugh, approaching as Serena wrapped her arms around Amaura's long neck, trying to give them a full hug. "Amaura are very affectionate, and love the attention. Which is good, their mothers are particularly violent if they feel their children are being threatened."
"They're so cute! Look at the sails on their head, they're like the most beautifully done eyebrows in the world! And— Did you say violent?" Pausing from her runaway ramblings about Amaura, Serena glanced back up to their mother. Serena wasn't the best at reading faces, but the look Aurorus was giving her spoke loud and clear.
Watch yourself.
"H-hi, ma'am." With a nervous laugh, Serena slowly turned back to the adorable Amaura in her clutches, whose cheerful chirp set her heart at ease. "So… cute…"
"Amauuuur!"
Thaddeus soon left Serena and Amaura to themselves, stepping away to talk with Alexa in more detail. That just left the rest of Serena's party to join her a few moments later.
"This is incredible! The technology to revive Fossilized Pokémon itself isn't new, but for a species as old as Aurorus, this is a breakthrough!" Clemont began pacing around the elegant Aurorus, keeping a respectful distance while he observed her. "Just think of all the new species that could be brought back now! Think of—"
"I want a turn, I want a turn!" Descending down on Serena and Amaura, Bonnie encircled the two, as she demanded a hug of her own with the adorable Pokémon. "Pleeeeease, Serena!"
"Alright, hehe," Serena giggled before separating, giving Bonnie a shot.
With an excited shout, Bonnie tackled Amaura, wrapping her arms around their neck. The exchange of affection was short-lived, however, as Bonnie shivered and hopped back a few moments later.
"Brrrrr, you're chilly!" she shouted, earning a round of laughs from the rest of the group.
Serena in particular giggled fondly at Bonnie's antics, as she tried hugging the ice-cold Pokémon two more times, only to discover yet again that they were, in fact, ice-cold.
"Amaaaaaur?" Eventually, Amaura spoke up, looking at Serena and pacing forward, away from Bonnie. "Aaaaamaur."
"Oh?" Serena was surprised as Amaura nudged their head into her chest, before going in for another hug. "Awww!"
"Seems like they like you!" Ash suggested, stepping forward to give Amaura a pat on the head.
Pulling away, Amaura hopped in place, motioning towards a particularly undisturbed hill of snow. After a moment, Serena got the message.
"You want to play!" she exclaimed, rising to her feet while Amaura hopped off in that direction. "Well I'm happy to, especially for a Pokémon as cute as you are!"
At that word, Serena froze, before slowly turning her head back to Aurorus, who was watching her very closely.
"If that's alright with you, ma'am," she asked with a nervous inflection. A round of laughter took the group.
Y
After some time playing with Amaura, Clemont and Bonnie had gotten pretty cold and headed back into the lab proper to warm up. Soon after, Alexa and Thaddeus joined them, having much to discuss for Alexa's eventual article on the topic. That just left Ash and Serena still in the chilled environment with Amaura.
"I gotcha, I gotcha!" Serena called out from the bottom of the snowy hill, squealing as Amaura came sliding down past her. She laughed as she patted snow off her coat. "You rascal, you did that on purpose!"
Amaura gave a mischievous giggle, before hopping up closer to Serena, chirping happily.
"Look out below!" Their idyllic moment soon came to an end as Ash came sliding by, sending a torrent of snow over both Serena and Amaura. "Heh, sorry!"
The two could only laugh between themselves as they shook it off.
"Watch it, Ketchum, before I get back at you for that one," she said with a laugh, looking up from Amaura to Ash. As she did, behind him, she caught sight of Aurorus, there in the distance by the tree line. She was giving the group one last look before lying down for a nap. Glancing back at the snickering Amaura, Serena smiled. "It's so hard to believe something as adorable as Amaura is going to evolve into something as graceful as Aurorus someday."
"Ah man, see, that's what's so amazing about raising Pokémon!" Ash commented, approaching back up the hill to meet her and give Amaura an affectionate pet. "You get stronger right alongside them, and see who they grow into!"
Ash's words made Serena pause and think, as she looked into Amaura's bright, utterly innocent eyes. After a quiet moment, Ash spoke up again.
"I think I'm gonna head back in to warm up," he said, rubbing his hands together and looking towards the way Bonnie and Clemont went earlier. "It's getting pretty cold, even for me, and especially for Pikachu."
"Pika." From inside Ash's jacket, Pikachu's muffled grumble rang out, speaking in agreement.
"Sorry bud," Ash answered with an awkward chuckle, before looking back at Serena. "You sure you'll be okay?"
"Totally! I don't want to lose any time with this cutie before we have to go." With that, Serena sent Ash off with a wave, before returning to giggle with Amaura.
Over the next half hour, the two ran up and slid down the icy hills, played hide-and-seek in the evergreen trees, and tossed snow at one another. It was that last activity in particular that got them in a bit of trouble, as a wave of snow from Amaura went straight down Serena's coat.
"Cold, cold, cold!" Squealing as she hopped in place, Serena desperately patted the snow out, feeling a chill run through her whole body all at once. Now, she definitely needed to go warm up. "Okay, I'm going to— Are you laughing at me!"
Serena huffed as she turned back to Amaura, who was doubling over in laughter at the sight of her. All that dancing over a little snow!
"You're lucky you're cute," she said, a shiver going up her spine. "I'll be right back, I promise, I just need to warm—"
Unfortunately for Serena, leaving wasn't going to be that easy.
"Amaura!" Biting down on Serena's sleeve, Amaura tugged her back, stopping her dead in her tracks.
"I won't be long!" Serena pleaded, wrenching her arm away. The snow was beginning to melt now, so she definitely needed to go dry off. Yet, as she looked back at Amaura, the adorable, understanding face she was hoping for wasn't there. Instead, it was one that was far, far too sad and cute to deny. "Ahhhhhhhhh."
Glancing around, Serena looked for some alternative, before her eyes landed on just what she needed: Another, closer door. It was there, against the back wall, painted sky blue like the rest of the enclosure to help it blend in.
"I won't be far! Just out this door," Serena explained, running the short distance to the exit and wrenching it open. A wave of warm air from the outside hit her all at once. Glancing back at Amaura, Serena breathed a sigh of relief. They were satisfied. "I'll be right out this door, just a few minutes, okay?"
"Amaur!"
With that, Serena stepped outside, walking a few paces away from the lab enclosure and peeling off her wet coat to let it dry off. The warmth was so relieving, she was half tempted to bring out Fennekin to help make it extra toasty. She held that thought in her mind for a few minutes.
"Right, I think that's good," she said, shaking off the last of her shivers and picking up her now dry coat. "Can't take up too much time, Ash is still waiting to get to his Gym battle!"
Picking up the pace, Serena approached the enclosure's side entrance once more, pausing only once to notice two things. For one, there was a sign on the outside she had missed, one that read 'Please keep door closed at all times to ensure containment of Pokémon.' The other thing she noticed was that the door was, in fact, very much not closed. It was wide open.
A thought processed in Serena's mind for a moment.
"Ah jeeze." Serena rushed back into the enclosure, slamming the door behind her and whipping her head around. "Amaura! Amaura, where are you!"
All around her, Serena looked, trying to spot the sight of her adorable companion. Yet, even from the perch of the tall snowy hill they'd been sliding down, she couldn't see a hint of Amaura anywhere. Panic set in.
"Amaura!"
Y
The scientists at the fossil lab were in a full force panic, the most hysterical of which being Thaddeus. He tore through the enclosure several times himself before concluding Amaura was indeed missing. The interview with Alexa was called off. Finding Amaura was the number one priority.
That just left Serena and the group.
Serena stood in the now empty exhibit of the fossil lab, her eyes firmly on the ground as Ash and the others spoke behind her. She hadn't noticed it in her first trip through there, but one of the central items in the exhibit was the Sail Fossil, the very fossil Amaura and their mother had been revived from.
"What's gonna happen now?" she heard Bonnie ask, worry in her voice. "I hope Amaura is okay…"
"I'm not sure." Clemont's answer was true, but no more helpful at assuaging his sister's worries. "Professor Thaddeus suspects Amaura was taken while everyone else had stepped outside, so they're currently searching the city."
Serena turned back to the group then, her words caught in her throat. She hadn't said what had happened, and now she couldn't if she wanted to.
"Then we've gotta do something!" Bonnie pleaded, tugging at her brother's side.
Clemont hesitated, unsure of what to say.
"I'm not sure if there's anything we can do," he said, readjusting his glasses before turning to Ash. "What do you think? Maybe Team Rocket has finally reared their heads again?"
"I don't think it's them, they're usually a lot, louder, when they do something like this," he answered, scratching his head as Pikachu gave a few words in agreement. He muttered under his voice then. "They're probably not gonna bother us anymore, anyways."
So that was it, no words of strength or assurance from Ash. He was caught without much to add, unsure of what to do. Ash! Unsure of what to do! It drove Serena mad—
—because she knew this was her fault.
"I know what we're going to do," Serena said, breaking through the words caught in her throat, surprising the group as she spoke up. "We're going to find Amaura."
Y
Hours had passed since the search began, with researchers, officers, and most of all, Serena's group, looking throughout all of Ambrette town. At first, the teams were relentless, trawling in each-and-every town street and back alley avenue they could find, all in search of who could've taken the precious fossil Pokémon. Yet, as the day approached sunset, the energy began to dwindle.
The officers soon got called back to the station, one by one, until only a token handful were left still on the hunt. Then, the researchers themselves started throwing in the towel. As tragic as losing Amaura would be, they had already sequenced the species's DNA. They could always revive another.
Eventually, all that was left keeping up the search was Serena and the group, and no one was as zealous to find Amaura as Serena was.
"Amaura!" Her words echoed down an empty alley, to no response. There wasn't a soul here save herself and her companion on the search: Clemont. Ash and Bonnie were looking in a different part of the city. Shaking her head, Serena turned. "Come on, we still have to double-check the next block."
"Don't you think we should slow down? We've been at this for quite a few hours now," Clemont pleaded, a definite air of exhaustion in his voice.
"We can't, Clemont." Serena gave an unfortunate sigh, not liking this any more than he was. She was tired too, massively so. Her hair was a mess, her clothes needed a good scrub. Yet, she couldn't stop, not for a moment. "You heard what the Professor said, Amaura needs the cold or they'll get sick."
"I know, Serena, but." Clemont stopped, readjusting his glasses, forcing Serena to pause herself. "There's a point, where we've expended all our options."
A layer of soot still clung to Clemont's face, from an earlier attempt at leveraging one of his Clemontic Gears. It had failed as they usually did.
"It's going to be night soon, and we'll have to stop then," he added, stepping forward and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe we should go rest now?"
Serena shook her head before turning.
"Then we'll just have to find Amaura before the sun sets!" she declared, trying to evoke a confident, boisterous tone that was missing from this whole operation, one she expected from Ash of all people. Yet, after a quiet moment, her fake confidence failed. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed. "We have to find Amaura."
Turning away, Clemont remained quiet, looking for some thought to add to all this. Yet, what he found wasn't a thought at all. It was something much better. Clemont's eyes widened.
"Serena, look at this!" he shouted aloud, dropping to his knees at the corner of an alley. Serena was at his side in seconds as he pulled out a magnifying glass.
"What is it!" she responded, leaning down beside him to see what he'd found.
There, caught in the brick of the building, was clearly a patch of beige fur. Plucking it from the wall with a pair of tweezers, Clemont raised it up to his magnifying glass.
"I'm fairly certain this is Meowth fur! And Meowths aren't native to Kalos!" he declared, standing up. "This must mean that Team Rocket was involved. We have a lead!"
Clemont's excitement took him all at once as he paced in place, looking up and down the quiet street the two were on. Yet, Serena didn't move, staring at the corner with her mind abuzz. As Clemont began speaking again, she slowly stood up.
"We should go tell Officer Jenny immediately. We know who we're looking for now!" he declared, a huge smile on his face as he dug through his pockets for his phone. Serena's expression, however, did not mirror his. She couldn't get excited.
She knew the truth.
"Clemont… Wait," she asked, audibly hesitating as she saw him slow down. "We shouldn't— There's still—"
With a sharp breath, Serena turned away, looking down the opposite end of the street.
"Serena…" Clemont's voice was tinged with worry then. "What's wrong? Why shouldn't we go? Do you, know something?"
After a moment, Serena nodded, before Clemont walked around to face her again. Her face had welled up, her eyes were on the verge of tears.
"I'm, I'm, the one, who let Amaura escape. I took a side door in their enclosure to warm up and, left it open," she confessed, taking in a sharp breath before her head dropped down. A tear began to run down her face. "Team Rocket didn't take Amaura— Amaura wandered off because of me."
A flood of emotion hit Serena all at once, as the guilt she'd been holding onto after so many hours came crashing in. She'd done this. Amaura escaped because of her mistake. Amaura could very well be hurt because of her mistake, because of her.
Yet, she held on, standing her ground as best she could, trying not to cry. They didn't have time to cry, she had to find Amaura. She had to fix this. She had to.
Clemont's hand on her shoulder pulled her out of her spiraling train of thought.
"Serena," he began, an empathetic smile clear on his face. "Serena, it's going to be okay. This is good news!"
"Huh?" she hiccuped, unsure of what Clemont meant, before he separated from her and pulled out his phone.
"Don't you see, we've been operating under the assumption that Amaura was taken, but now we know they just got loose!" he explained, raising his phone up to get a better signal. "We can start looking for where Amaura would be, not where someone would take them!"
"And where's that?" Sniffling, Serena wiped the single tear from her face, before stepping forward to see what Clemont was looking up. This was good, this was progress.
"Young Amaura need the cold, yes, but more importantly they know they need the cold. They search it out!" he explained, pictures of snowy plateaus flashing across his screen. "The fossil lab enclosure is too well insulated for them to search it out, but there are some local mountains in the area Amaura may naturally head towards, and—"
A realization struck Serena.
"Clemont," she said, cutting him off and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know where they are."
Y
A bewildered ice cream shop attendant scratched her head, unsure of how close she was to losing patience with her shift today. Right as she was getting ready to close, she had stumbled upon an astonishing sight: A Pokémon, one she'd never seen before, happily digging through the store's walk-in freezer, bumping its head into the shelves of ice cream without a care in the world. How long had it been in there?
"Amaura!" A voice called out, startling the attendant as she whipped around.
As if things couldn't get even more tiring— Now a customer was plowing her way through to the back, slipping past the attendant and tackling the Pokémon into a tight hug. Didn't these two know it was closing time?!
"Amaura! I found you!" Serena cried, not even feeling the cold as she pressed her forehead against her icy friend. "I'm so sorry for leaving you, I'm so sorry for letting you get lost!"
After a moment, Serena pulled away from Amaura, only to find the same cheerful expression they always had.
"Amaaaaur!"
Y
"It is fortunate that Ambrette town has such a well-stocked Ice Cream shop," Thaddeus mused, looking through a pane of one-way glass into Amaura and Aurorus's enclosure. The young tyke was digging through the snow, with the careful eye of their mother always on them. "Thanks to that, Amaura is in perfectly fine health."
Turning, Thaddeus faced the only other person in the observational room: Serena. She stood there, with an obvious look of regret on her face, one that threatened to bowl her over. Yet still, she stood firm, raising her head to look at him head-on.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" he asked, to which she nodded.
"I'm sorry for letting Amaura escape, and not telling the truth when it happened," she began, airing her mistake out with only the slightest tinge of pain. "I felt responsible for her, after the time we had together. So I felt it was my job to make sure she got back safe and sound."
The strength of Serena's conviction faltered then, as her eyes fell to the ground.
"Still, I should've put Amaura's safety ahead of fixing my mistake. I put her at risk, and for that, I'm sorry," she added, unable to raise her head now. "If you don't want me seeing Amaura anymore, I understand."
Thaddeus looked upon Serena and her heartfelt confession, letting a quiet moment pass before snorting. Turning back to the observation window, he watched the happy, energetic Amaura playing in the snow.
"In a few months' time, once we've completed our research, Amaura and their mother will need to be released for reintroduction into the wild," he explained, while Serena picked up her head to listen. "When the time comes, you're welcome to take Amaura with you on your journey."
A quiet moment passed as Serena processed what the professor said. Then, a tear poured down her face. With a smile, she bowed her head.
"Thank you. Just, thank you!"