Chapter Text
One more step. Just one more step and Y’shtola would board the ship for Old Sharlayan, leaving her childhood and her mentor behind. Oh, how they had fought when Y’shtola decided to leave, likely never to return. Even this morning, as Y’shtola packed the last of her things, of what little she was permitted to bring, Matoya had been cross with her, barely trading two words, and now she had not come to say goodbye. With a lump in her throat, her hand tightly gripping Y’mhitra’s, she stepped aboard. The two of them walked along the edge of the deck, taking one last look at their home. Many of the adults had teleported ahead to save room on the ship, and she felt very much alone. She wanted to run off the ship, back to that familiar life of study, back to the old cave she knew so well, but-
But across the sea lay her destiny, she was sure of it.
"Shtola, look!" Her sister pulled free and ran to the railing.
Y'shtola turned to look.
"What is it, Mhitra?"
"I think that poroggo's waving at us."
There were a fair few poroggos on the docks, now that most of the humans were on board. Abandoned by their masters, they were doomed to a cruel fate, but still they had come. After a moment she espied the poroggo in question. She thought she knew it – it was one of Matoya’s. Had it come of its own volition, or at its master's bidding? She rather suspected the former, but still… it would tell its master that she had boarded the ship, and Master Matoya would grunt and pretend not to care. She waved back, even as the ship pulled away from the shore, and stood there a while longer, her heart heavy in her chest, watching her home fade into the distance.