The Day After Tomorrow

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

45 - HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

LUNA went to the one place she always did when she needed to be reminded of the things she'd loved and lost in life. She went to the Forbidden Forest, to the murky glade a few miles in where the thestrals gathered.

It was a quite place, a spot made for privacy, and yet, when she arrived, stepping over bracken and broken branches, she found that it didn't remind her of silence and solitude anymore. It was a space of comfort and sharing, of whispered admissions and a glowing grudging friendship.

She pressed her eyes shut at the onslaught of memories, each one feeling like a puncture of something close to heartbreak. Theo had been so alone when she'd first seen him, head bowed and hunched like he was deep in prayer. She could still remember the way his eyes had flashed up, dark and accusing as if she'd interrupted his moment of peace.

Luna had done what had felt right, every act one of kindness and compassion. She hadn't wanted to see him in pain, and yet, at the end of the day, she was the one causing his jaw to tremble and eyes to go wide. And the worst part was she didn't want to. She wanted to be his shoulder to cry on, his hand to hold, his confidant. She didn't know how to be more than that.

Some part of her felt too fractured to handle being more, like the crumbling ruins of some great escape, too shaky to stand on its own foundations. He needed someone to hold him up, and Luna needed the same, she just wasn't sure if they were steady enough to be the support beams they needed.

She spotted the thestrals , and they spotted her. Each one was a giant delicate creature, the lines of its bones and body long elegant and lethal. She felt a faint smile as one approached, nudging her shoulder with its leathery snout like a familiar hello. Luna let her hands wander up its side, breathing it in as she stroked its waxy wings.

She wouldn't ever had met them if her mother hadn't died, she thought suddenly. It felt like a brief glow in an expanse of darkness and yet it somehow reminded her that from grief comes gratitude.

She let her forehead rest against the animal, feeling its soft breath against her hair, and let her mind wander and settle like ink in water.

And there, like a hazy conclusion she realised, there was a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, someone waiting for her to tell all her secrets to. Someone who already knew most of them. It was the same someone who had shown up unannounced, concerned, and fumbling like a wish she hadn't even known she'd been making.

All those days she'd spent since her father had died, sitting in the empty shell of her home refusing to take the hands that wanted to draw her in, wanted to shield her from the pain and comfort her. It seemed almost ludicrous now thinking back to the way she'd stumbled away from their kindness, insisting on solitude, when there was nothing she wanted more than to be with family.

The thestral gave a soft murmur against her, almost in agreement, Luna thought. It felt like the last push she needed to do the one thing she thought she'd forgotten how to do: ask for help.

"Do you know the way to Ireland?" Asked Luna softly, raising her brows at the creature. Its skeletal head shook a little and she couldn't tell if it was a yes or a no. But it didn't matter, she did – she'd always know her way home.

Luna gave it what she hoped was a reassuring look and moved to swing her leg over its back. She felt it shift beneath her, startled but not afraid, as its wings beat out like dark webs. She leaned forward grabbing at its neck. 

"Easy love, easy." She soothed. The other thestrals in the herd seemed not to notice when they kicked off, almost as if it was beneath them but all Luna could feel as the thestral rose up in the air, through the tangle of trees, wings beating incredibly hard against the cold rush of wind, was freedom.