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It was all over. The Day of Unity, Belos’ long reign, and the chaos left in the Collector’s wake. It was all over, and yet it felt like the world was holding in a collective breath, waiting for something new to go wrong. Yes, there was the potential of a bright future in front of them, but who knew when, or if, it would come.
It was snowing, a light breeze carrying the snowflakes as they drifted to the ground. The trees swayed, and the birds sang sweet melodies to accompany the snow’s slow waltz. It was on this day that the world let out a small breath.
“Eda! Luz! Look at my Snow-Hooty! I made it as monstrous as I could!” King yelled, pointing proudly at a giant snow-man with Hooty’s face drawn crudely on it.
“Hey! Snow-me looks stunning, It’s not my fault you can’t see beauty when it's looking you in the eye.” Hooty yelled as he circled above the horror, fluffing up as he went.
“You know kid, I think you got it exactly right,” Eda said, breaking out in laughter between every few words.
Luz broke out into a small laugh. She had missed this, when–well, then. They lost so much time, but at least they were together now. Watching King play in the snow, it was as if everything was okay in the world, as if nothing had gone wrong in the first place, as if it was still before, and there was good in everything to come.
She was laughing, and Eda was laughing, and King and Hooty had started laughing. A small pile of snow slid off the roof, and landed on her head, and she was laughing, covered in snow. She was laughing, that is until a shiver went down her spine, and hands felt frozen in place. Once her hands couldn’t move properly, her legs were stuck, and then her feet felt like they were stuck in dry cement, and then she couldn’t breathe. She gasped for air, but she was stuck, frozen in place, becoming a statue.
Someone–though she wasn’t sure who–called out to her. Little claws shoveled snow off her, and a different voice started asking if she was okay.
“Hey kid, breathe for me, okay?” she heard, then a pause, as if she was waiting for a reaction. “Come on, deep breath in.”
It took a minute to focus on what was around her again, the cold snow landing on her face, and the worried faces surrounding her.
“Breathe,” Eda said, not speaking again until Luz audibly took a deep inhale. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” she quickly jumped in. “The snow just startled me, that’s all,” throwing in as much cheer as possible. “I’m just gonna go inside, warm up a bit.”
Eda eyed her suspiciously, but said nothing as she walked stiffly inside, quickly shutting the door behind her.
She sat on the floor in front of the couch, breathing into her hands to try and warm herself up. It was just a bit of snow Luz, why’d you have to freak out? You messed up a perfectly good moment. And now Eda’s all worried and everything. Come on! Way to ruin everything.
She sat there, staring at the wall and fidgeting with her hands, before she had the idea of using a light glyph to warm her hands. She watched the new light pour into the room, floating just above her hand. She stared into the light, trying to let it calm her thoughts. When it didn’t work, she made more of them, light after light, until the only thing on her mind were lights slowly drifting towards the ceiling. In fact, she was so concentrated on the lights that she didn’t notice the creak of the door, or the wind that blew in as it was softly shut.
“Hey kid, you’re really lighting up the room there.” Eda said softly, a gentle smile on her face.
Luz just lit a few more in response.
“You…wanna talk about it?” she said as she sat down on the floor next to her.
“It’s nothing, really, I just–” tears started forming in her eyes. “Seriously, it just startled me.” She sniffled. “I’m fine.”
“It’s okay to talk about it, you know. Don’t feel like you have to pretend like everything’s fine all the time. Sometimes something’s weighing on you, or things just aren’t right, and you don’t have to keep it to yourself. You can talk about it. It helps, I promise.”
Luz watched the ball of light above her hand as it slowly floated up, and down, trying to plan out the right thing to say. She didn’t want Eda to be too worried about her after all…
Luz took a deep breath in. “Well, sometimes…I just get really stiff, like I can’t move right. Like I said, nothing too big, and I’m back to normal already. See!” she gave a vague smile and wiggled her fingers a little bit.
“I mean, that’s not nothing, Kid.” She took a deep breath in. “It looked like you were having a bit of trouble breathing back there. Does that normally happen too?”
Luz only gave a small nod in response.
“Okay, if that happens again, do me a favor and let me know, got it?” Eda offered a small smile, but Luz could see the concern in her eyes. Eda must have taken the quiet as an acceptable enough answer.“It sounds like anxiety or something along those lines. Honestly it kinda reminds me of after I was petrified. Or half petrified I guess. I kept getting all stiff, as if I was turning into stone again,” she let out a small, half-forced laugh. “I mean it went away eventually, but yeah, kinda reminds me of that.”
Luz stared at the ground, trying so hard not to think, because if she let herself think too much she would be there again, and her feet were hard, and then her legs, and–
“Obviously it would be caused by something else for you, since ya’ know, you weren't petrified, thankfully. We’re just going to have to figure out the cause, so we can figure out a good way to help, okay?”
That was when Eda looked at Luz, who was staring at the ground, tears welling in her eyes.
Eda was silent for a moment. “Luz, is there something you’re not telling me?”
“So maybe, during the Day of Unity, I went to confront Belos alone,” she took a deep inhale. “And he maybe kinda sorta started to turn me into stone.” She looked at Eda, trying to gauge her reaction, only to see Eda’s face drop. “But I mean, it’s not like he finished! Obviously. It only got up to my face. My forehead at the highest. Really, not that bad or anything. I mean, it’s not like he was going to kill me. Probably. I think. But I fake made a deal with him! And he fixed it. So really I’m all good now and I’m going to go to my room cause everything’s fine and it all worked out” she blurted out, then tried to stand, only for her legs to turn to jelly, bringing her back to the floor again. “The old jelly legs, hahaa…” she forced out a laugh, only to stare at the floor again.
“Come here,” Eda said, while opening her arms for an embrace.
Luz accepted, crying into Eda’s shoulder. Crying all of the tears that wouldn’t come out the night it happened, or the next day, or any of the days that followed. Crying because she thought she was going to die, because she almost did die. Crying because everything was not okay, when she thought it should be. After all, she fixed the problem, didn’t she? So why wasn’t it okay?
“I’m sorry that happened, and I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t tell me. Just know I’m always here for you, okay? It’s not a burden to tell me. I want to know what’s going on with you, and how you’re doing,” she paused. “How you’re actually doing.”
Luz wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded. “Thank you.”
“Hey, no need to thank me. It’s what I’m here for.” Eda smiled. “How ‘bout some hot chocolate? That should do the trick for those hands of yours.”
Luz smiled. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“King! Hooty! Get in here, we’re making hot chocolate!” She yelled through the door.
“Human Realm style!” Luz added after her.
“Coming, coming!” she heard King excitedly yell from outside.
Lights drifted through the living room, some of them following Luz to the kitchen. Yes, not everything was fine, but she started to think that one day it could be. And yes, that day wouldn’t be tomorrow, or possibly the day after, but eventually it would be better.
That day, it felt as if the world let out a small breath, because that day, as the snow drifted to the ground, and the lights slowly floated to the ceiling, Luz began to heal.