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One day, Ayda will not remember this moment. She looks around at her friends, washed in the glow of the setting sun, and feels sadness and delight in equal measure.
Delight, because she is here now; delight, because she gets to experience this fleeting moment, and for the rest of this life, she will be able to hold it tight to her chest. She will hear the lazy strumming of Fig's guitar, the crackling of the bonfire, the quiet chatter. She will feel the warmth of the sun as it hits her just right. She will feel that very warmth deep within her soul at these recollections.
Sadness, because this moment will not last. Like the sunset, its beauty will come to an end with haste. And like the sunset, she will come to an end, and rise again at the next dawn, and the day before will be gone forever. She may be able to write it down for that future Ayda, but it will be different. A memory from someone who both is and is not her. A fragment of who she is. She lives her life in fragments.
She wonders, not for the first time, if she has felt this feeling before. If there was something like this lost to her. A paramour, friends. For so much of this life, she has been solitary, and for so much of the past, it seems to have been the same.
Fig groans as she messes up a chord.
Companionship comes so easy now. Will it be difficult again, when the new day arises?
Adaine screams as she attacks someone with a water gun.
So much of Ayda's craft is dedicated to deciphering what the future holds, and yet, it eludes her. It is obscured in shadow.
Kristen laughs too hard at her own joke.
Maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe it's a wonderful thing, to not know. As scary as it is.
One day, she will experience this again for the first time. Even though this is not guaranteed, she believes it to be true. Because she knows now what it is like, she will tell her to try. And she will, because in her experience, Ayda always gives the best advice.
The sun will set, then rise, then set anew. The new day will dawn, but dusk will always be just around the corner. And with the passing days, everything will change.
But change is what brought about this moment in the first place.
The sun goes under the horizon, letting the dark take hold over the sky.
“What're you thinking about?” Gorgug asks, handing her a toasted marshmallow.
She smiles. “I am thinking about how it's a beautiful night.”