Chapter Text
The boy is no longer alone.
He finds Lup, not long after he and Kravitz escape the woods. She flings her arms around him, explaining how she was searching, searching, but Taako was just gone. She doesn’t understand how he got lost in the small copse of trees behind the school, but he’s here now, albeit chilled to the bone. Kravitz, an oxygen mask over his face, smiles faintly, tracing Taako’s hand in his.
Nearby, a bespectacled boy pulls up his jeans, smiling at his aunt as he plans to go join his new friends. Fortunately, Kravitz and Taako will soon be out of the hospital.
At Merle’s tavern, the short man swings the doors open into the clear cold morning, laughing brightly at his husband’s complaints in the background.
“We just got over being birds, Merle, let me stay warm!” Davenport shouts.
“I’ll get the water, Merle,” Lucretia says quietly, twisting her long white hair back into a ponytail and fetching the water buckets. “It’s the least I can do.”
“What, if I say no are you gonna turn into magpies again?” Merle asks her teasingly.
“Merle!”
Alone, Magnus stumbles back to his empty cottage. He swipes at his still watering eyes and collapses on the porch, gazing dully at the lavender-scented rocking chair where he and Julia had once passed beautiful summer days in gentle happiness.
The door opens.
“Magnus?”
No one stays lost forever.