Work Text:
Raya was running as fast as she could, but the Druun was still getting closer. Her breaths were getting shorter, but she couldn’t stop now. They were gaining on her. She had come too far to lose now, but what else could she do?
Why couldn’t she do anything about it? Where was her Dragon Gem piece? Was there any water nearby?
Is this how she was going to go?
Her foot caught in a divot in the sand, and she lost her balance and fell hard into the sand in front of her. The skin on her face stung as she collided with the ground, but she had to keep going. She tried to lift herself back up to keep running, but her legs refused to move. Her whole body seemed to be frozen, and all she could do was wait for the Druun to get her. She tried to move, to keep running away, to do anything, but it was useless. She desperately searched for the Gem piece she always carried with her, but came up empty.
The Druun was just inches away, and getting closer by the second. She shut her eyes and curled her body into herself, even though she knew it wouldn’t do anything. The Druun seemed to roar as it got closer and-
Raya’s eyes flew open, and she shot up and quickly started patting around her, searching for her Gem piece. She only had a few seconds to save herself before...
As she woke up more, she became more aware of her surroundings. She was in her home, not outside anymore. The Druun were gone, the dragons would protect her now. She had nothing to worry about. She just wished her mind would remember that.
She placed her hand on her chest, feeling her heart beating rapidly. She tried to take steady breaths to calm herself down, trying to remind herself that she was okay , there was no more danger. “I’m fine, I’m safe,” she repeated under her breath like a mantra.
She sighed and laid back down, but she knew she wasn’t going to be falling back asleep any time soon. It had only been a week since they had fixed the Dragon Gem and banished the Druun, and she was still trying to get back to normal. It felt like her instincts would never really recover from the 6 years she had spent on her own. She had spent all that time expecting danger at every turn, not trusting anyone but herself (and Tuk Tuk, of course).
She hadn’t even gone back to sleeping in a bed yet. She had tried to at first, but after all that time of spending the night on the ground wherever she could she just wasn’t accustomed to having something so soft to sleep on.
Her heart was still beating out of her chest, and her body was expecting her to need to run away, so she gave in and stood up to go for a walk. She grabbed her sword and threw her cape on as she pushed the door open and took a deep breath of fresh air.
She looked at stars overhead as she walked. She could feel her body already starting to calm down, though her dream was still clouding all of her thoughts, forcing her to remember how it would always feel when the Druun were near her. The panic she would experience on almost a daily basis, always afraid she wouldn’t get to the water in time, or she wouldn’t find her Dragon Gem fast enough. She had been trying to forget those feelings now that the Druun were gone, but that panic still haunted her every moment even now.
After a few minutes of walking, she stopped to lean on the edge of the bridge, closing her eyes and just listening to the sounds of the night.
As much as she didn’t want to admit it (even to herself), she felt safer near the water. The fight against the Druun was over, she knew that. They were gone. But knowing that she was near the water just in case they came back made her feel at least a bit better.
“Raya?” a voice called out, and she immediately tensed up, ready to fight whoever was coming near. She internally chastised herself when she realized what she had done. The war was over, she didn’t need to fight anymore. The people that were once her enemies were her friends now, so there was no one to be afraid of. But the paranoid voice that refused to leave her thoughts apparently still wasn’t convinced.
She squinted in the direction the voice came from to see a familiar figure walking towards her. “Namaari? What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question, dep la.”
Don’t tell her, her instincts screamed. If she knows your weakness, she’ll use it against you.
That was another thing she was still getting used to. Trusting people, that is. She had spent years refusing to trust anyone but herself , so it was hard to remember that she could have faith in others again. The world wasn’t against her anymore, she knew that, but she still wasn’t entirely sure she believed it.
“I, uh, couldn’t sleep,” Raya said. “Decided to go for a walk.” Technically, that was true, it just wasn’t the whole story. She knew she could trust Namaari, but she just wasn’t used to opening up. She couldn’t entirely put her trust in anyone yet, not even Namaari.
Namaari raised an eyebrow. “With your sword?”
Raya looked down, realizing she did take her sword without thinking about it. Yet another thing she was still getting used to. There was no war anymore, but she still automatically brought her sword with her wherever she went. She sighed and leaned against the edge of the bridge, looking out at the water. “I guess I grabbed it out of habit,” she admitted. “You know what they say, old survival tactics die hard.”
Namaari chuckled lightly, jumping up to sit on the wall of the bridge, her back to the water. “Yeah, life is pretty different without the threat of Druun attacks every second.”
Raya sighed. “The dragons are back, I know that. But it’s like my instincts are just ready for an attack at any given moment.”
She was grateful for the dragons, of course. Life was safer with them around, and they wouldn’t have to worry anymore. The problem was that she wasn’t accustomed to safety. She had even tried to show off the fighting skills she had picked up in the past few years to her Ba, and he had to gently remind her that there was no reason to fight anymore, as impressive as her skills were.
Namaari nodded, and they fell into a calm silence. After a moment, Raya lifted her head and smirked. “You forgot to tell me why you’re up, dep la,” she said.
“Oh, yeah,” Namaari sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I was having trouble sleeping, too. Then I looked out my window and saw you wandering the streets on your own in the middle of the night, so I figured I should check up on you.”
Raya felt her lips curving up into a smile. “Thank you.” Namaari smiled back at her.
Namaari had been staying in Heart the past couple days to help ease the transition from 5 separate tribes into the singular Kumandra. A few of the chiefs and chiefs' children had been doing the same thing; visiting different tribes in an attempt to signify the new unity between them.
Raya loved having her around now that she could trust her again. She knew that Namaari wanted to reunite Kumandra as much as she did, and working on the same side as her truly felt like a breath of fresh air. They were both so similar minded, they didn’t work well as enemies.
“I know my mother was only turned to stone for a few hours but… it’s hard to forget that,” Namaari blurted after a beat of silence. “I was afraid I had lost her for good after what I did to Sisu.”
Raya lowered her head and wrapped her cape closer to herself. She had been doing her best to not think about her Ba being turned to stone, and the hopelessness she had felt after Sisu died. For years, she’d been desperately clinging onto the hope that once she found Sisu, she would be able to help bring him back. Then after Sisu had died, it felt like that hope died, too.
“I get it,” she whispered. “My Ba…” she trailed off, not really wanting to dwell on how she felt about it all. But she looked up to see Namaari listening with a soft expression, ready for her to continue if she wanted to. That alone gave her the strength to really open up about it for the first time. “I was scared he wouldn’t come back. After I lost my mom, my dad was always there to support me. But I wouldn’t have anyone to support me if I lost him.”
Namarri stood up from where she was sitting and moved to Raya’s side, grabbing her hand. “Well, now you have plenty of people right by your side whenever you need it. Like me,” she added with a smile.
Raya smiled back, but her gaze drifted to a spot right next to her on the bridge. It was empty now, but she had subconsciously brought herself right to where her Ba had been turned to stone. And he had stood there for years, unmoving and emotionless. At first, she had sat by his stone figure for hours every day, but eventually her quest to find Sisu took her out of Heart, so she had to leave him behind. And after she had left, it hurt to go back and find him, seeing his statue as a stoic reminder of her failure.
If she had it her way, she would have spent every second with her father after he was freed from the stone. Sure, they had lots of work to do in reuniting Kumandra, but she also had 6 years without him to catch up on. She wanted to tell him every single thing she had done and what she had learned, and she wanted to hear all his bad jokes and stories again. She had been dreaming of what it would be like to see him again for all that time. Their reunion was exactly how she hoped it would be, because what she hoped for most was just that she would get to see him again.
Namaari squeezed her hand, helping ground her for a moment. She could tell when Raya’s thoughts were starting to spiral out of control, and she wanted to keep her feeling calm. Raya rested her head on Namaari’s shoulder, yet again trying to remind herself that everything is different now. Ba is fine, and so is everyone else. And there’s no war, and everyone is friends now.
It still felt weird, but good. Here she was, being comforted by the same person that she had hated for years. Everything was the way it should be for the first time in 500 years, and it was a lot to get used to. But maybe it was all worth it for the way Namaari’s hand fit perfectly into her own.
The sun started to peek over the horizon, and Raya sighed. “Guess we’re not getting any sleep tonight after all.”
Namaari shrugged. “There’ll be other nights.”
And there would be. Another night was a given now, and no longer a distant prayer. There used to be the possibility of not making it through the day every time they woke up, whether it be because of Druun or other attackers, but there was peace now, even if it didn’t always feel like it.
Raya looked over at Namaari, watching the way the sunrise reflected off her eyes making them seem golden, and she couldn’t help but smile.
For a brief moment, it felt as if nothing had happened in the past 6 years, or even the past 500 years. It was like they had always been Kumandra, and nothing could ever change that.
She would take it one day at a time, and that’s okay. One day she might sleep in her bed again. Then she might not feel the need to take her sword everywhere anymore. Nightmares and hardships would still come, sure, but the sun would always rise again on Kumandra.