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He didn’t look as happy as I did. He looked panicked.

“I can’t find Nali!” he screamed, leaping clear across the stream. Behind him, his house looked intact, and I saw Magnolia come running out the door after him.

“She’s OK!” I called. “She’s in Oaken’s cellar!”

Killian skidded to a stop before me. He blinked huge, white eyes.

“Thank you!” he said, his scrawny chest working like a set of bellows. He looked like he was about to take off in the direction of Oaken’s house.

But right before he did, he hastily threw his arms around my waist. The little dude was stronger than he looked. Probably would have cracked a rib if he held me any longer than the tiny split-second he gave me.

He loped away, heading for Oaken’s. By the time he disappeared into the roofless kitchen, Magnolia had reached my side.

“How are you?” she asked, her worried eyes searching my face. “I… I don’t see your ship.”

“I know.” I sniffed hard, but was relieved to see that I didn’t feel like I was on the edge of tears. “But before the storm moved in, I…”

Was I really doing this? Was I really saying this out loud?

Saying it out loud would make it real.

“I already decided that I want to stay.”

“Oh. Oh, Jaya.” Magnolia’s eyes shone. She apparently had enough tears for the both of us. They overflowed, spilling down her cheeks in shimmering lines. She turned to face Oaken’s house and put an arm around me. Lala moved closer to my neck, leaving room for Magnolia to rest her head against my shoulder.

“This world has a way of turning all our best laid plans upside down,” my sweet friend said, giving my waist a comforting squeeze, “doesn’t it?”

“Ha!” My laugh was genuine. And it felt so fucking good. I put my arm around her, too. “You can say that again.”

“But if there’s anything I’ve learned here so far,” she said, “it’s that it somehow always seems to work out for the best.”

Killian emerged a few moments later, cradling Nali’s fluffy pink body in his arms. She yawned lazily, then cuddled up against him. As if, now that the danger had passed, there was nothing left to worry about.

It was a comforting thought. There was peace in that moment of stillness, my arm around Magnolia, watching Killian traipse happily through the grass with Nali.

The only thing that would make it better would be…

“Have you seen Oaken?”

“Yeah,” Magnolia replied. “So far he’s found Fiora and at least one other shuldu. He and Garrek are helping each other round up the rest of the shuldu and the bracku herds now. But it could take a while. Do you want to come have some food with us?”

“No, thanks,” I said. “I want to start cleaning up inside.”

“Alright,” Magnolia said, giving me one more squeeze before letting go. “But we’ll be right across the stream. Just holler if you need us.”

“I will.”

I watched Magnolia and Killian walk with Nali towards their place.

Then, I went back inside and got to work.

I wanted to make some really solid headway on the kitchen before Oaken got back. After a couple of hours, things still looked like shit. But at least it was slightly tidier shit. I’d cleared the floor of all the debris and swept, then scrubbed, the surface. I scrubbed out the cupboards, too, wiped the counters, righted the kitchen table that had been knocked onto its side. The chairs, apparently, had been sucked out through the roof. No telling where they’d ended up. Any dishes I found that weren’t broken, I washed and put away. Even Lala put herself to work, doing what she could on her little skinny legs, collecting bits of broken glass and checking floorboards and corners for any sharp things I’d missed.

By the time the sun was setting, things were almost looking semi-normal. Many of the cupboard hinges were busted, some of them no longer having doors at all. For a moment, I forgot my ship was gone, and I went right out the door to get some tools from inside her.

Only empty grass, and a brilliant orange and indigo sky, greeted me.

It was a bit of a sucker punch. I tried to breathe through it, focusing on the cool air on my skin, the beauty of the landscape around me. The setting sun turned the mountains into brilliant spikes of copper. In the other direction, away from the mountains, flatter land and trees were deep green, dusted with gold.