Chapter Text
Collei sat in the center of her floor, tearing out her hair. Her third year at the Akademiya was set to start in a week, and she’d sworn to herself she’d figure out what she wanted to do after graduation over the break. She’d kept herself busy, but nowhere between the days of Forest Ranger work and nights of research had she found a job title that her advisor would agree was a reasonable goal.
The clock in the corner of her tiny student apartment chimed with the hour. Collei’s head whipped upwards as she caught sight of the time. She was supposed to have left a half-hour earlier to make it to Avidya in time for dinner.
“Shit.”
In the mess of boxes and unorganized furniture, she managed to find a shirt that wasn’t ripped and pulled it on. Her shawl was thankfully strewn over the door handle, easily retrieved as she looked around for where her shoes might’ve ended up.
The years prior she’d roomed with Alhaitham and Kaveh, more because Tighnari was worried about her being in the city alone than anything. She’d finally pleaded her case enough to earn Alhaitham’s help in finding a place of her own, even though she hadn’t been able to talk him out of the Akademiya housing stipend she’d gotten in the mail after not even applying for it.
Collei left her apartment a disaster, hopping out the door with one boot only part way on. She’d figure it out when she got back.
Her childhood home was opened to the evening breeze, curtains billowing from the wind and the door propped open in welcome. Warm light spilled out onto the entryway as an out of breath Collei climbed the stairs. She let out a long sigh as the smell of dinner wafted out the door.
“Whatever that is, it smells amazing,” she announced in lieu of knocking. Tighnari would’ve heard her coming up the stairs anyways, his ears never failing. He chuckled and stepped away from the stove to greet her as she set her bag down by the door.
For as long as Collei could remember, Tighnari had smelled of the forest. She buried her head in his chest as he pulled her into a hug, even though she was a bit too tall to fit there like she used to.
“Welcome home, Sprout.” He held her there for longer than necessary, but Collei wasn’t one to complain.
She hadn’t realized at first, how Cyno and Tighnari had aged right along with her. Now that she was gone for school for months at a time it was obvious. The lines in Tighnari’s brow from them furrowing in concentration and the crows feet at the corners of his eyes had begun to deepen. His hair was longer, but so was hers.
“Cyno’s not home yet. So I won’t scold you for being late,” Tighnari said, returning to the stove to turn off the heat and set lids on the pans he’d been stirring. He grabbed a mug and kettle, pouring Collei a mug of tea without her asking.
As if all it took to summon the silver haired man was his name on Tighnari’s tongue, Cyno stumbled through the door mere moments later. He had sticks in his hair and dirt under his nails, but Tighnari still let Cyno kiss him as a greeting before sending him to wash up. Cyno stuck his tongue out at Tighnari, dropping a kiss to the top of Collei’s head as he brushed past on his way to the bathroom.
Dinner was a quiet affair, both Collei and Cyno digging into the meal with fervor. It was the time afterwards that they dedicated to conversation. Collei helped Tighnari clean up in the kitchen while Cyno sat in a nearby chair and listened. Collei had begun to notice the toll his work was starting to take on him too.
“So, how’s the apartment?” Cyno asked, earning a glare from Tighnari that Collei caught. She realized very quickly that they were trying to stay away from the topic.
“It’s small, but I don’t need a lot of space. I like the location,” Collei offered, taking their plates and putting them back in the cabinet. “Close to Kaveh and Haitham’s place too.”
Tighnari’s shoulders sagged. “That’s great. You must be close to the markets then.”
“I am.” She nodded. “A few friends and I are planning to go this weekend.”
Cyno nodded, and she had a feeling they’d be tailed if he had no urgent Matra business. Tighnari continued the conversation with what the Forest Rangers had been up to in her absence, and Cyno gave her a bit of his current investigation. They were so clearly trying to avoid asking her about her plans for the year.
Tighnari heated another kettle of water and they settled into the living room. However, with a long yawn, Cyno bid them both goodnight instead of joining. He kissed Tighnari before going to their room, and Collei hid her smile behind her mug.
She adored the pair, they’d raised her. Their joy— and disgustingly affectionate tendencies— in the years since finding out they were soulmates made Collei believe in happily ever afters.
“So, Naphis wrote to me earlier this week,” Tighnari said, bouncing his tea bag in the water.
And there it was. She’d thought they were avoiding the advice and concern section of their monthly dinners, but it seems Tighnari had just held off.
“What did he say?” Collei lowered her mug. Naphis had been Tighnari’s mentor, and the Amurta Sage, for years. She’d tried her best to stay on his good side. Still, his close proximity to Tighnari meant that the Naphis’s fondness for her also involved concerned letters being sent home.
“Just that your research has been excellent. He likes your Forest Ranger reports more than mine,” Tighnari started, trying to ease the tension between them.
“And?”
A frown from the fox-eared man. “You haven’t given him any feedback for your post-graduation plans. I thought you said you had ideas.”
Collei grimaced. “I do,” she said. “I mean, ideas? Yes. Plans? No.”
Tighnari leaned over to the coffee table, setting his mug down and turning his full attention on her. “You know there’s always a place for you here.”
She did. “Of course. I just— I want to do something. To prove that I can.”
“You don’t need to prove anything,” Tighnari said.
Collei sighed. “Yes, I do. Maybe not to you, or Cyno. Or Haitham and Kaveh.” She wrung her hands together. “I need to do it for me.”
Tighnari pursed his lips, and then he pulled her into another hug. She hadn’t even realized her bottom lip was wobbling until she was curling into a ball on their couch with her knees to her chin. Tighnari’s hand combed through her hair.
“Okay. Is there anything I can do to help?” Tighnari asked softly, holding her as if she were still the small bandaged child that Cyno had brought home.
“I don’t know,” Collei answered, and it wasn’t just the truth of the moment. She had absolutely no idea what she was doing, and admitting it felt like a punch to the gut.
Tighnari held her and it was quiet in the house, but never silent. The windows were still open, letting the familiar sounds of the forest at night spill through. When she went to bed, Collei made sure to leave hers propped a few inches, even though she tied her curtains back to stop them from getting tangled in the branches outside.
The next morning, Cyno took her out sparring. He still kicked her ass, that hadn’t changed in the last decade, but it was a welcome distraction. The first time they’d gone out she’d been a little kid who tripped over her own feet too much to learn anything at all. He’d taught her to throw punches at the air, as a way to defend herself when she still thought the Fatui would come searching for her. They disregarded weapons, her bow would be useless at this close of a range. When they came home, she’d managed to elbow Cyno just hard enough in the jaw that a bruise was blossoming. The dirt in her hair and torn knees of her pants seemed a fair trade off.
“I do not understand you two,” Tighnari said, cleaning them both up.
The slight ache in her muscles kept her focused on her walk home. Cyno was staying longer with Tighnari, so she was all by herself on the dirt trails that lead to Sumeru City.
At lunch time she unwrapped the food Tighnari had packed her and found a nearby tree. The shade was pleasant, and she used her shawl as a picnic blanket as she watched the distant waterfall pour down into the river below.
She finished eating after nearly an hour of letting her aching feet relax. The crumbs got dusted off into the grass beneath her.
Collei had made it to a nearby bridge she knew the Forest Rangers maintained when she saw it: a Rishboland tiger basking in the sunshine in the center of the bridge. The next one down the river was still being repaired as of the day before, and Collei had no desire to hike three hours further in the wrong direction to avoid the Spinocrocodiles infesting the waters ahead.
The low string of curses that escaped her lips would’ve gotten her sent to her room by Tighnari when she was younger.
Collei looked around, inspecting the climb down to the river and the rushing water from the falls. The tiger on the bridge wasn’t the only one nearby, she could be certain of that.
Thankfully, the trees of Sumeru were much older than this small branch of the river. Collei hauled herself up into the branches without much struggle, finding footholds with practiced ease.
Some might compare her to a squirrel as she ran from one thick sturdy limb to another. She was more likely to fall if she hesitated too long and slipped. Collei leapt from branch to branch, grabbing the vines above her for leverage as she pushed onwards.
Collei made it to the edge of a branch on her side, inspecting the nearest one reaching from the opposite. Her boots gripped the grooves of the bark as she bent her knees and prepared to jump.
A low gasp from the ground beneath her distracted her. Collei turned her head too far, feeling her weight shift with it as gravity pulled her backwards.
-
Freminet had been wandering along the edge of the river for nearly a half-hour, inspecting the bank and the unfamiliar, Sumerian creatures beneath the surface. He’d been watching the tiger on the bridge, waiting to see if it would move.
Eventually, he figured whatever sea snakes were beneath the surface would be easily enough frozen with the use of his vision. Freminet slipped off his socks and rolled his pants up his legs, letting them sit above the knee. He crept out into the water, finding it oddly warm compared to Fontaine. He supposed it was part of being further South.
A piece of bark fell into the river, splashing him from the left. The water was just about knee deep, lapping at the cuffs of his pants. Freminet tilted his head up, one hand shielding his eyes from the sun.
Above him, dancing along tree branches as if they were her home, was a girl. Long waves of green hair billowed behind her as she jumped down to a branch beneath her. It looked as though she had all the balance that wings brought, perhaps some sort of fairy native to Sumeru he’d never heard of. She must’ve lodged the bark free as she climbed across.
The girl stopped at the end of one branch, just as deep as him as she lifted her head to look ahead of her.
The jump was too far, Freminet couldn’t help but open his mouth to call out a warning. But before he could manage the words, he watched her balance falter. Freminet moved forward, as if he could catch her before she crashed into the shallow water meters beneath her.
The girl fell, he watched helplessly as her stance on the branch slipped.
Then, as if she were a fairy with all the magic in the forest at her fingertips, vines climbed forward to steady her legs. The bright green of a dendro vision at her hip explained the light lingering around the vines.
Another vine from across the river caught her hand, and the fairy caught it. She released the ones holding her feet, and swung to the opposite bank without so much as flinching. In fact, Freminet could’ve sworn he heard her laugh.
The sound got mixed up with the water and birdsong in the air, but Freminet was still struck frozen as if his vision had acted without his thinking. His jaw seemed stuck open and his feet in the mud.
The girl stood on the grass opposite him when she finally looked back.
She had a smile as wide as seemed possible spread across her features, as if she’d taken delight in almost plummeting to the ground. A single hand raised in greeting, waving at him as she climbed up the river bank and back to the trail ahead.
Freminet managed to lift his hand in return, though it was a surprising struggle when he was struck still all over again. He wasn’t a poet and had never tried to be, but he imagined Lyney would’ve been able to wax about how enchanting the mystery girl was.
She turned away from him and started down the trail again, and Freminet watched her go still slightly startled. Only the drag of something scaly over his feet snapped him out of the trance. He yelped in confusion, jumping further into the river to get away from the fish and found himself slipping over a drop off into deeper water.
It took little effort to haul himself from the middle of the river to the other side, since growing up in Fontaine made for being a fine swimmer. However, it also meant he was soaked to the bone when he climbed up the opposite river bank.
Perhaps he should've asked the fairy for her tricks, she’d been perfectly dry. But the girl was gone, disappeared down the trail ahead of him. Freminet tossed his boots to the side and laid out some of his belongings to dry in the sun, trying to carefully unfold his map that threatened to tear as water dripped from it.
If he was correct in reading the smudged ink of his map, Freminet needed to follow the trail the girl had disappeared down to find the Akademiya. Sumeru city was still miles ahead of him after all.
For that moment, though, he leaned back onto the dry grass and let the sun warm his skin. A much needed break in the journey. His research was waiting for him whenever he was ready to get to his feet again.