_______________________caldera & buddy
____________________________nothing happens to you, it happens for you

Buddy was a good listener, but he didn’t have a solution.

“Aja leave their families when they bond,” he said, a little hopelessly.

Cal couldn’t get frustrated with him. She didn’t have a solution either.

They talked in circles until there was nothing left to say and sat in unhappy silence for several long minutes. It already felt like an age since they’d waved the royal guards off, laughing, ready to start the long journey home. Her now former colleagues’ kindness and obvious affection were absolute; even though her contract had technically expired yesterday, she’d been allowed to stay an extra night. That night had largely been spent in the tavern. The gentle throbbing at the back of Cal’s head, while not anywhere near to being at the forefront of her thoughts, only added to the misery.

One way or another, she had to return to the castle. Allianah had promised rather vaguely to return in ‘one or two weeks’, which in deity language could be anywhere from a fortnight to six months. Since arriving on Shaman Cal had learnt, rather sharply, that the gods had rather hazy concepts of time. She certainly couldn’t afford to live without employment for an indeterminate amount of time, and would be homeless in any case.

Even with this revelation, Cal couldn’t muster the willpower to move. After her meeting with the goddess of the Volcano, she and Buddy had walked in silence until their thoughts caught up with them, whereupon they had slumped where they were. A few metres away, a shallow brook glubbed and bubbled over the colourful round pebbles. The sun, bright and warm, glinted off the long blades of grass which hung over the water, still as a mountain. It was altogether too pleasant a day to be feeling this helpless.

Her limbs acting independently of her mind, which was still numb, she climbed onto Buddy’s back and spurred him on. Across the meadow, through two copses and over the narrow river which fed Lake Lilith, the well-known path neither thought they’d ever traverse again back to the castle. Buddy picked up speed as they went, and was moving at a quick canter when they crossed the border onto the castle grounds. The sentries stationed there did a double take when they saw the aja’s easily identifiable black-and-blue body.

“Hey, Cal!” One of them shouted as she sped past. “I thought you’d left!”

Buddy didn’t need to be told where to go; he passed the barracks and stables without pausing and skidded to a halt outside the castle’s front entrance, where Cal leapt off before he’d even come to a complete stop. Her mind was already in the next place – the warm, open office where the two captains of the guard filled out their dull paperwork – and she wouldn’t have glanced around if Buddy hadn’t snorted loudly. Her train of thought thus broken, she noticed someone seated on the bench by the castle steps, an open book on his lap. The bench backed up against the castle wall and overlooked the gardens, displaying a fantastic view with the lake in the distance.

“Flynn,” Cal never spoke in as quiet a voice as she did then; her volume could usually rival the men’s in the tavern. More strands than usual of vibrant red hair had escaped its ponytail where she’d been running her fingers through it, and although her darker skin hid the majority of evidence of tears, the lower lashes were still wet. “I didn’t realise you were off duty. I’ll find Birch.”

Her voice felt a touch hoarse. She placed one foot on the lowest step and made to ascend.