[drabble] [storm hawks] of ends to meet [part six]

[bromantic.livejournal.com]

The First Hour

Starling had circled the ruins of Cyclonia, observing, noting, doing what she did best. Finding out what had been forgotten. But Cyclonia was now just a heap of rock on the rivers of gold and red, with monsters curling around it, marking it as their own. Starling bit her lip and flew away.

She spent her life to this goal. A goal that was now just rock and dust.

The Second Hour

Harrier had come up to her and told her, "They're gone"

Starling nearly bit off his head for that, "What do you mean, they're gone?!"

Harrier stepped back, a hint of fear in his eyes and yet, there was a odd sense of sadness that clung to him and Starling calmed herself down with small, ragged breaths she didn't even know she could do.

"They left for the Far Side."

The Third Hour

It took a lot to calm down the civilians. Cyclonia had been upon them for two months, two long months that no Atmosian will never forget to the day they die and Starling wondered if what they did was really a victory if they couldn't even save a Terra. Dove was strong. Dove was young. But Wren didn't look the same when he returned.

But then, nobody looked the same anymore.

The Fourth Hour

Starling started stripping apart her ride. The Cyclonian emblem glared at her from the corner and she prompted tossed it into the Wastelands.

The Fifth Hour

The council had met together once more and they were grim, hunched figures. Old with wisdom, Starling remembers her mentor telling her but now she wonders if this could all be avoided if they just believed that six children were not children but Sky Knights. She doesn't dwell on those thoughts when they unanimously decide to raise the Storm Hawk flag.

The Sixth Hour

It's been six hours since the Cyclonian rule ended and six hours since the bravest people I have ever known left for the Far Side...

Starling paused, only briefly, when the flag was raised.

They never really left after all, Starling mused, they'll be here even they get back.

"Good luck... friends"