Peace and its Shadow

Chapter 11: Are You Happy?

Peacemaker and Mink both arrived at the Sanctuary, they landed and started exploring. There seemed to be a lot of dragons and a noticeable amount of hybrids like Peacemaker. Mink gestured for Peacemaker to follow her, she seemed to know where she was going. They walked through the different houses until Mink stopped at a certain one, it was small but looked cozy on the inside.

"Here it is, Peacemaker," Mink announced.

"Looks nice, I'm surprised Winter chose to say here even after the new law banning the use of humans as food or pets," Peacemaker commented.

"Winter still studies them, just not as pets, he pretty much now works with them," Mink said. Mink walked up to the door and knocked on it two times. There was a small pause until Winter opened up. He was a little taller than when Peacemaker had first met him, with large wings folded in, and did look quite handsome if he was honest.

"Mink! I'm glad you came to visit!" Winter burst hugging Mink before noticing Peacemaker. "Oh, you brought a friend along...wait, Peacemaker?" Mink looked at Peacemaker confused.

"Let me guess, you never told Mink you knew Winter," Darkstalker said. I may have forgotten, Peacemaker thought. Crap.

"You never told me you two knew each other," Mink wondered.

"Well, we never really knew each other but we have had an encounter or two," Peacemaker disclosed. Winter nodded,

"What he said, I remember meeting you when I visited the Rainforest to see Moon and Kinkajou."

"Speaking of them, they asked me also to bring you a gift from them," Peacemaker said handing Winter the box.

"I also got you something," Mink smiled handing Winter the ice sculpture.

"Thanks, why don't you come inside, I got some extra sweets a friend brought," Winter invited, letting Peacemaker and Mink through. The inside of it looked well organized and clean, with a dining table, a small kitchen, a bed in the corner, and a stack of scrolls. Winter put out two seats where Mink and Peacemaker sat.

"I'll go get some tea first, you can hang out until I come back," Winter said before disappearing into the kitchen. Mink scanned the room.

"It's quite nice," Mink observed. "What's it like in you're home?" Peacemaker thought about it.

"I guess you could say it's quite similar, although more opened if that makes sense," Peacemaker described.

"How's the Nightwing village? B-Besides the whole bullies and all," Mink asked. "Sorry about that, I hope you're okay." Peacemaker laughed,

"What are you apologizing for, you didn't do anything." Peacemaker paused to remember the Rainforest, thinking about it made him slightly regret not coming back there to see her. He missed her a lot.

...

After cleaning the blood in the river he waited a bit, pacing back and forth. Eventually, he decided it was time to come back home.

Entering the hut where he and his mother lived, he looked around. Hope was sitting reading a scroll. She looked over to Peacemaker.

"Peacemaker, you returned," Hope said giving a kiss on Peacemaker's head.

"Hey mother," Peacemaker managed to choke out. He had to calm himself before Hope noticed something was wrong.

"I have some extra strawberries we could share, this scroll is quite interesting," Hope said. Normally Peacemaker would be jumping up and down with excitement, and extra strawberries while snuggling closely to his mother while she read with him until he eventually fell asleep. But this time was different, he didn't feel like eating anything, he didn't feel like reading anything, he just wanted to go to sleep and pretend that this never happened.