Chapter 1-In which the Heron Girl rests.

They're gone

That was the only thought resounding in Sasha's mind as she lay in her bed at the northern toad garrison, and her ribs hurt. Hard not to after what she‘d been through. Sasha winced as the sharp inhale at the memory made her chest twinge. Grime would be coming by soon with more painkillers; at least, she hoped it was Grime. She didn't think she could handle anyone else seeing her right now, with their heartbroken looks, sincere apologies, and hopeful promises Sahsa knew they couldn’t keep. It would just make her start wailing all over again, and she’d run out of tears hours ago.

Sasha gritted her teeth and shimmied her way up her pillows, just enough to see out her window, the sky was a deep green tinged with red, and the moon was nowhere to be found, “huh” Sasha thought numbly. “You’d think that whatever fixed anne would've repaired that too”.

(Sasha pointedly ignored the acidic taste that flooded her throat at the thought of what happened to anne)

A knock at the door startled her from following that dark path her mind was leading her down; Sasha turned her head slightly and croaked out a simple “Come in”. Her throat was too wrecked from screaming to manage anything else.

Grime was at the door, and his face held the grim determination of a soldier. He walked past the threshold into the room “I've brought your dinner” he ground out, his fingers tensed on the tray he was carrying, but only for a moment. “And more medicine” he added, his mouth moving around the words like they were the lumpy gruel they had to choke down in the barracks, disgusting, but necessary all the same. 

He placed the tray of food on the bedside table and sat on the stool he had placed at her bedside days ago; he took a shot glass containing two small pills into his hand before bringing it up to her mouth, “ready polliwog?” his voice was almost as rough as hers was. Sasha could only grunt in response, Grime tipped the glass towards her open mouth, and the pills tumbled inside. Sasha held them on her tongue until Grime pressed a glass of water to her lips, and she drank, using the liquid to wash them into her stomach.

Grime was humming a tune as he spooned the stew into her mouth, Sasha recognized it as the old toad lullaby Grime had sung to soothe her on their first night here, well she thought she recognized it, the pain meds they were giving her made thinking like swimming through molasses. Sasha was distracted from her slow, melty thoughts by Grime gently tapping the spoon against her bottom lip, a signal that he was done. Sasha closed her mouth and sighed through her nose; she could sleep now that she had been fed. She looked to Grime, who was busying himself with gathering the tray and its contents into his arm. He stood up from where he sat at her bedside, leaning over briefly to knock his forehead to hers before exiting with a quiet “Sleep well”.

(they both knew that wouldn't happen, but whatever, Grimesy)

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The dimensional tear at the cliff's edge crackled with energy as Sasha finally brought herself to let go of Grime; her stomach felt sick at the thought of leaving him, but anne and this ‘guardian’ or whatever couldn't keep the doorway between their worlds open forever. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she had unfinished business back home, which meant this was goodbye. Sasha moved towards the portal where Anne and Marcy were waiting, anticipation clear on their faces, the two of them content in the fact that they could face whatever came their way in their old world, Sasha? not so much; in fact, she was dreading the inevitable confrontation with her Mother and Father; she dreaded school and humanity as a whole.

She was too different now, too far from the husk that was her former self, broken down from an overconfident, over-clingy cheerleader and rebuilt as a soldier and swordsman. It was like she was a puzzle piece taken from her original set and carved and molded until she fit a new one, a new picture, and now they were trying to cram her back into the one she no longer fit, uncaring of the way she creaked and splintered apart. But she would endure.

For them

As the earth shook, Sasha was ripped from her spiral; she crouched low, steadying herself against the ground. She looked up to her friends, anne was wobbling slightly but staying firm, but Marcy- sweet, clumsy Marcy- was shaking like a card tower on a windy day; she flailed about with her arms outstretched and pinwheeling, desperately trying to keep from falling off the cliff.

The ground shook again, harder this time; anne lurched forward, grabbing hold of Marcy and keeping her steady; Sasha was moving to get up and do the same when the ground beneath her jolted, and she was forced to the ground once more. Sasha looked back at the group of amphibians that had become her family over the past year and a bit she had known them.

They were all screaming, and the ground they were on seemed to rise; wait, no.

They weren't rising.

She was Falling .

Sasha looked down to see her fears confirmed; the ground beneath her was starting to soften and crumble; she looked up to see Anne still clinging to Marcy, both unaware of their oncoming demise, but not her.

Sasha couldn't hear the earthquake over the roar of blood in her ears as she surged up, grabbing Marcy and Anne by their arms. Anne looked at her; the reality of the situation falling over her like ice water; Sasha grimaced, wishing desperately for enough time to say how sorry she was for this, but there wasn’t, so Sasha pushed them both through the portal with a grunt. She held Anne’s gaze long enough to see the portal fizzle shut.

And then she fell.

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Sasha blinked herself awake. She looked out the window again; it was just starting to creep into dawn; she’d managed to sleep through the night. Grime would probably be happy about that; he would probably be even happier if she had managed to sleep until he came to wake her up in a few hours, but she was just happy she slept at all. She was getting better.

And she would keep getting better. Eventually, she would be able to sit up unassisted, walk, train, and eventually, she would be healed completely and free to figure out what the rest of her life would look like.

…..the rest of her life without Anne and Marcy.

End notes