It took her a few seconds after waking up to really be awake again. Matteo cast her a little smile when he noticed, mixed with Adelinde and Rene’s relief.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked, almost teasingly.
“I didn’t see Itzun, so that leads me to believe it did something at least,” Tara replied. “He would have said something by now if there was more.”
“And you’re sure that’s the end of it?” Rene said cautiously. Tara understood her hesitance. “I mean, Itzun hasn’t given me much reason to trust him.”
“I mean, I’ve read a few stories of gods basically dying because they did something Emaya and Bekin didn’t like,” Matteo reasoned, shrugging a bit as well. “Itzun would run the risk of that if he destroyed an entire nation.”
Tara nodded as an immediate response. She slowly stood up, keeping one hand on the tree until she knew she was steady. To some extent, it felt like she was weaker—although if the blood bound to the gravestone happened to be released, that would make sense. She no longer had other people’s strength to use as hers.
“…Being entirely honest,” she murmured, brushing some dirt off of her while her family stood up as well, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Itzun let the entire thing play out, but ultimately didn’t actually destroy Dakari. It’s entirely possible he would have just transformed it—made the people who sought a new island think they were somewhere else instead.”
“We can at least say we did all we could to take care of the threat,” Matteo maintained. “We can put this behind us, either until we know it’s over or until Dakari goes down anyway.”
“Preferably the former,” Adelinde noted. “Although, if I’m being honest, I’d rather dismiss this as a legend all on its own.”
“Considering it as a dream would be nice,” Tara agreed. Provided she actually dreamt now. Itzun promised she would, but for many things she just had to wait and see if they occurred.
Matteo took a few moments to confirm everyone had what they brought, then nodded mostly to himself before looking at the other three.
“By the time we get back into town, it’ll probably be a good time for lunch,” he said.
“We can eat, then check train schedules,” Rene decided. “Worst case, we hang around here for a few days or see if there’s another route we can take back to San Asari.”
No one had any reason to protest, so Matteo led them out.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
…
They stopped by the inn on their way to a restaurant mostly so Tara could reclaim her sketchbook. Now that the reason she left it behind—being unable to use it—passed, she wanted to have it. As a result, while they were actually eating she resumed the usual traveling habit of paying more attention to drawing than her food.
She wanted to try something new—or different than her typical artwork—so it took up more of her attention than usual. She still worked relatively quickly, getting a rough outline of an imaginary landscape sketched out before all three of them had finished eating, but she tried to put a bit more detail into it like her larger sketch back home.
If nothing else, she found it refreshing to draw something that wasn’t tied to Chizuru’s memories. It made her feel…a bit more like her own person. She dared to hope she might even have an easier time with rain now, but she wouldn’t be able to test that until winter passed.
Once they were done eating, Rene took them over to the train station to look at schedules. Tara glanced up from her drawing to examine the little map with times as well.
“It’s a bit different than what was in San Asari before we left,” she noted.
“A train might’ve ran late or came early,” Rene replied. She examined the map on her own, while Matteo looked at the second map and traced different routes with his finger.
“There are three routes back,” he announced. Rene gave him a small, thankful look. “One with three switches that’s earlier, one with two switches that leaves later, and a scenic route that leaves tomorrow but lasts a few days.”
Matteo looked at the other three for their opinions.
“It’s up to you kids,” Rene said after a brief glance at Adelinde. “You’re the ones that deserve the rest.”
“Okay.” Matteo turned towards Tara. “Your thoughts, then? I don’t really care either way.”
“I’d rather be home sooner,” Tara said with little hesitation. For now she slipped her sketchbook closed and held it close to her chest.
“We’ll do the three switch one, then,” Matteo decided. He cast Rene a curious look. “That’s the one you planned on anyway, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she said with another glance at the map. “It’s ultimately the shortest route, too. It just won’t leave right away.”
“I wouldn’t mind looking around,” Matteo said, perking up a little. “I saw a little tourist brochure when we got off the train—if we’re here, we might as well play the part.”
Another exchange of looks and nods confirmed that everyone agreed, so Rene and Matteo went over to buy the tickets while Tara and Adelinde stayed where there weren’t as many people. Adelinde located the brochure Matteo mentioned and skimmed through it while Tara just…looked around.
She would be disappointed if she ever had to lose this. Dakari’s train stations were oddly appealing to her. To some extent, it was a place for people to come and talk; the trains themselves were able to bring people across the entire island in times people from Chizuru’s era never could have imagined.
She wondered if the girl would have liked it here, if she somehow had the chance to live in this time. After taking a few minutes to debate it, Tara decided that Chizuru would be fascinated, but only to the same extent of a child who was raised with this. Then again, her memories of Chizuru—or Chizuru’s memories, to phrase it a bit more accurately—were slowly fading like the dream-area around her had before.
Rene and Matteo returned after a few minutes with the tickets. Adelinde pointed out a few places of usual tourist interest—a park, a few shops, a small music square—and ultimately let Matteo lead. They kept things light; by the next hour, Tara almost forgot why they had even come. It was easier to stay focused on the present now.