Dock

He was contemplating jumping from the balcony when the message came.

Not to kill himself, of course. He had already decided against doing that long ago. He simply wanted to feel alive again, the rush of air against his scales as he plummeted to the ground below, seconds before he snapped open his wings and slowed his fall. The impact of scales against stone, hard enough to bruise but not hard enough to break. He considered the distance to the floor with foggy blue eyes. Just three steps forward and he would plummet. He imagined the whistling of the wind against his ears, flowing through his fur, pinning his arms to his body. Spiraling, spiraling, down, down...

"Dad."

He whipped around, his chest contracting and his heart speeding up in his chest. Aven stood behind him, his cyan eyes hesitant behind his glasses. He could tell immediately that something was wrong by the way his son was standing - angled away from Susurri, as if he wanted to avoid facing him fully. Apprehension was written all over his face. Apprehension and... something else. He took a step closer. His heart continued to speed up, making him dizzy as he leaned forward. He crushed the remains of the herb he had been inhaling in his claws, hiding it behind his back.

"Aven? What is it?"

Aven swallowed, shifting on his feet and glancing away from Susurri's closed fist. "Something's happened. I thought I should be the one to tell you, since... well." He swallowed again, his voice cracking as he finally looked up. Tears glimmered in his eyes.

Susurri's head started to spin. He knew before Aven opened his mouth, and he backed away, as if he could run from what his son was about to tell him. He shook his head. "No."

Aven reached for him, as if to comfort him, but Susurri backed away even further, his wings pressed against the balcony railing. He continued to shake his head, everything spinning now, up and down and around. Something inside of him was breaking, and he couldn't stop it. He barely heard Aven's next words over the ringing in his ears.

"It's August."

He staggered, falling to his knees. His clenched talons fell open limply, and crushed leaves floated away on the breeze, spiraling to the ground like flakes of snow.




Aven couldn’t bear to look at her.

He tore his eyes away from her body, focusing on a grain of sand stuck between two scales on his tail. He stared at it intently, trying to erase the image of her glazed, lifeless eyes - hers and Peridot’s - from his mind. He failed miserably.

He swallowed down the hard lump in his throat, struggling not to cry. He needed to be strong. Not just for himself, but for his father. If this didn’t work…

If this didn’t work, he would not just lose August, he would lose his dad, too.

He was startled out of his thoughts when Susurri spoke, his voice hoarse and weak. The chill in the air fogged his breath in pale clouds as he shuffled closer to Andromeda, his eyes trained on the glowing vial she held in her hands. Sand filtered between his scales as he leaned in for a closer look, studying it intently. Aven observed from behind him, not daring to get any closer and risk seeing August again.

“Will it work?”

The vial glimmered in the waning desert light, the setting sun highlighting refractions that shone against Andromeda’s talons. The golden liquid inside looked like molten metal, and within it floated flecks of a darker substance. She tilted it, studying it with a contemplative look on her face. After a moment, she looked up, meeting Aven’s eyes over Susurri’s shoulder before she turned away.

“It should. I see no reason why it wouldn’t.” She shuffled her wings, glancing at August. “It’s similar to the elixir I used on you. And if it doesn’t work, well… we can just try again.” She took a deep breath. “But it will work. It will.”

Susurri simply stared at her, his eyes betraying a pained yet desperate hope. She looked at him for another moment, gave him a kind, sad smile, and handed him the vial.

“You should do this. Not me.” She stepped back, the herbs strung to her wings shifting gently. “Just give it to her as you might a normal drink. Do the same for the gecko. You’ll only need about a quarter of the vial. Try not to drop any. There may be… others… that we can use it on.”